Rogue Insight

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sat, 29 Jun 2013 21:11:00 -0400

Post M14 decklist:
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Ogre Battledriver
4 Molten Birth
4 Lingering Souls
4 Cartel Aristocrat
4 Hive Stirrings
4 Blood Artist
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Midnight Haunting

Rough Draft. Thoughts?

Best card in Dragon's Maze found?

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:58:00 -0400

I think I've found the best card in the set.
Aetherling is amazing. The only bad thing I can say about this card is that I suspect we'll all be sick of seeing it in almost everything for the next year.
Seriously.
They tried to make the next Morphling, and might have made one better.
A 6 mana 4/5 is respectable on the vanilla scale although certainly nothing amazing, but then you get to it's sexy sexy text box... Let me also say that 6 CC is the only thing keeping this from other formats like legacy. If this cost 3 or 4, we'd all be calling for bannings.
I'll take each ability separately.
U: Exile Aetherling. Return it to the battlefield under it's owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.
Wow. I mean once he's on the board with blue mana up, this guy is going to be almost impossible to kill! You almost have to hope to two for one yourself by hitting it with an instant like devour flesh or something, have them respond by blinking it and in response to the trigger devour flesh AGAIN! Not fun, but how else are you going to kill this guy?
In the hands of a smart player, sorcery speed mass removal will pretty much never kill this. Instant speed removal will have an extremely hard time doing the job as well.
Next ability -
U: Aetherling is unblockable this turn.
Well. When you REALLY want to get your opponent down to 0 from 20, unblockable is the way to go. Luckily it's only a 4 power guy. Wait...
1: Aetherling gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
Nevermind. He's absurd. For the low cost of 4U you can make him an unblockable 8/1. AND you left U up to bounce him if they have a trick, since you had the 4UU the turn before to cast him. 8 unblockable damage a turn ends games VERY quickly.
But sometimes you'll want to block and lowering toughness isn't going to help with blocking. I mean it does already have 5 toughness, which is respectable, but it could easily die if I block and they have a searing spear. Oh and I didn't have up a U to bounce.
What?
You say there is one last ability?
I tell you it can't be.
It is? Is it something useless, like saccing a creature to give +1/+1? I mean that would be horrible in a blue deck.
No?
Ok, let's see it.
1: Aetherling gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
Ok, so this guy is a nigh unstoppable attacker, AND a seriously good blocker?
Sigh.
Thank god he's 6 mana. That's all I have to say.

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=141530&d=1366344195

GPT Sealed Pool

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 20:15:00 -0400

My pool from the Sealed GPT today. How would you build it?
Lands:
2 Dimir Guildgate
2 Gruul Guildgate
Artifacts:
1 Armored Transport
1 Millennial Gargoyle
Hybrid:
1 Arrows of Justice
1 Biomass Mutation
1 Bioshift
1 Boros Reckoner (foil)
1 Coerced Confession
1 Pit Fight
1 Shattering Blow
Gold - Multicolor:
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Boros Charm
1 Duskmantle Guildmage
1 Fortress Cyclops
1 Ghor-Clan Rampager
1 Ground Assault
1 Hydroform
1 Kingpin's Pet
1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
1 Psychic Strike
1 Purge the Profane
1 Rubblehulk
1 Vizkopa Guildmage
2 Wojek Halberdiers
1 Zhur-Ta Swine
Green:
1 Adaptive Snapjaw
2 Crocanura
1 Disciple of the Old Ways
1 Experiment One
1 Hindervines
2 Naturalize
1 Spire Tracer
1 Verdant Haven
2 Wild Rebirth
Red:
2 Act of Treason
2 Bomber Corps
1 Cinder Elemental
1 Ember Beast
1 Firefist Striker
1 Five-Alarm Fire
1 Foundry Street Denizen
1 Massive Raid
1 Mugging
1 Scorchwalker
1 Skinbrand Goblin
1 Tin Street Market
1 Towering Thunderfist
1 Warmind Infantry
Black:
1 Corpse Blockade
1 Devour Flesh
2 Grisly Spectacle
1 Killing Glare
1 Midnight Recovery
1 Shadow Alley Denizen
1 Smog Elemental
1 Thrull Parasite
Blue:
1 Cloudfin Raptor
1 Diluvian Primordial
1 Hands of Binding
2 Last Thoughts
1 Leyline Phantom
1 Metropolis Sprite
1 Sage's Row Denizen
White:
1 Aerial Maneuver
2 Court Street Denizen
1 Daring Skyjek
2 Guardian of the Gateless
1 Knight of Obligation
1 Syndic of Tithes
1 Urbis Protector
1 Zarichi Tiger

How would you build it and what record would you expect from a 5 round tournament?

A Return to (Ravnica) Drafting

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sat, 6 Oct 2012 13:27:00 -0400

Hello my loyal readers!
Do I still have any loyal readers after months of silence?
I don't know!

Let me give you some thoughts on Return to Ravnica Drafting that I have picked up from playing in three different prerelease tournaments each with 30+ attendance, (Yes, I know that it's not quite drafting, but there are certainly corollaries.) and one FNM Draft with 37 people. My record so far for RtR limited is 13-2-3, going 3-0-1(Selesnya pack), 3-1(Selesnya pack), 3-0-1(Selesnya pack), and 4-2(Drafted Selesnya).

First, I'll mostly be talking about drafting GW, as you can see from my record. I've won 19 total prize packs so far in four tournaments.

Before we go any further, let's debunk a myth about RtR limited. It is NOT a slow format. I killed someone on turn 5 with a mediocre draw. I just went turn 1 guy, turn 2 guy, turn 3 wild beast master. Then on turn 4 hit my beast master with a giant growth and swung for lethal with all my dudes getting +3/+3 or +4/+4. I admit one of these cards was a rare, but it was an obviously-undervalued 5th pick rare. In another game I was swinging with 2 7/7's on turn 6. This does not mean that your 7 or 8 mana bombs are unplayable. They are not. In fact, Angel of Serenity is one of the biggest limited bombs in the set despite costing 7. It is not uncommon for players to reach 7 mana. This means that the format is neither as fast as Zendikar limited nor as slow as Rise of the Eldrazi limited. Similarly, a lot of players I knew complained about how swingy games of AVR limited could be when one bomb in an otherwise unremarkable deck just took over games. Although RtR bombs are quite good, capable of taking over games by themselves, this not nearly so pronounced as it was in AVR. I think Wizards may have hit the sweet spot here. I was able to play with strong commons and uncommons with the occasional rare thrown in and deal with every bomb my opponents threw my way. Cards that I beat despite having them cast against me in ways that put me in difficult situations: Trostani, Collective Blessing, Angel of Serenity, Carnival Steed, Cyclonic Rift (overloaded), among many others. The bombs can be beaten, with the right deck. So which cards helped me do that?

Well, the absolute all star was Selesnya Charm.

This card was hands down the best card in my deck every time I was lucky enough to open or get passed one. People are already realizing how good this is in Standard as well. You'll be seeing a lot of this charming little instant. The +2/+2 and trample is relevant, the 2/2 vigilant knight is cheap for the cost at instant speed, and the exile a 5 power or higher creature function deals with almost all of the best threats in the set. This card is a bucket full of utility for a 2 cost instant.

Centaur Healer is also the real deal in limited, and I've been hearing rumblings of playing it in standard as well. It does curve rather nicely into Restoration Angel. In limited, the card frequently allows you to completely invalidate their first two turns. Their 1/1's and 2/2's look at this beefy three drop and decide to stay home on D more often than not. You have, almost incidentally, put your life total back to 20 in the process of stopping their assault in it's tracks. At worst the card draws out a removal spell from Rakdos, Azorius, or Izzet, or a pump/removal spell from Golgari. Selesnya is the guild against whom this 3/3 for 3 is the least effective, trading with a centaur token more often than not. Getting a trick or removal spell out of their hands in the early game is a good thing for you and your hopes of winning the late game.

From the perspective of a Selesnya player, RtR is about 2 things: Having a lot of 3 power or higher dudes starting turn 2, and being able to deal with opposing fliers. The magic number 3 deals with most early drops in the set, and can battle favorably with many of the late drops as well. Having a defense against fliers (or fliers of your own) is the best way to deal with the fliers strategies, which are the ones that have the best chance of beating you.

Giant Spider, I mean Towering Indrik, as a result is a surprisingly useful attacker and blocker. The four toughness is exceptionally relevant, and it is a perfect target for Knightly Valor and other P/T boosting spells and enchantments.

Centaur Herald is a great 1 drop that plays well with both Golgari and Selesnya, makes a token for populate purposes, and fogs an attacker while still advancing your board. It is a very easy card to pick up in multiples late in a draft. It also follows the 3 P/T rule. The centaur tokens are quite useful.

Keening Apparition is a strong card despite losing out on the 3 P/T rule because there are multiple game breaking enchantments in the format at every rarity. Apparition is an early attacker and a late removal spell for their bomb enchantment: Collective Blessing, Growing Ranks, Martial Law, Death's Presence, Knightly Valor, Stab Wound, Pyroconvergence, etc. All these cards can completely change the course of a game. To a lesser extent, Sundering Growth is also quite powerful, allowing for fun instant speed populate tricks while removing one of their enchants or artifacts. The difference between the two is that Apparition advances your board state even if there is no target to destroy, while Sundering Growth sits useless in hand without a target.

Slime Molding is another strong spell. I won one game where I was stuck at 4 lands by casting back to back 3/3 slimes. Remember that Slime, being an X spell, will grow in utility from early to late game. However, I would almost never cast this for less than a 3/3 in this format, unless you just don't want to die. Making a 4/4 or 5/5 slime is really hard for some decks to deal with.

These are just some of the cards I think are the backbones of the Selesnya deck in RtR limited. Overall, I feel that the commons and uncommons in GW are more universally strong than in the other color combinations.

For me, I intend to be drafting this format every chance I get. It's one of the most fun limited environments I've ever had the pleasure of playing.

Thanks for reading!

Return to Ravnica Spoiler discussion Vlog

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Fri, 7 Sep 2012 23:20:00 -0400

Ravnica Spoilers Discussion from Rogue Insight on Vimeo.

Draft T4 split - Avacyn Restored

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 15:27:00 -0400

Summer is here, and I have some time to blog again.

If you just want to read about the actual draft, and not my explanation for people who don't know how this works, skip down.

A few weeks ago I drafted, since I wasn't happy with my standard deck and I have no interest in pushing through five rounds of standard if I'm not having fun. I ended up with a GW deck with two Blessing of Nature and a Silverblade Paladin. The deck definitely had some "I win" moments, like miracling a Blessing onto anything then casting Silverblade Paladin and smashing for insane amounts of damage. However, overall I wasn't thrilled with the deck. It was good but not spectacular. I made it to top four and since it was almost two am we split the prize packs and all walked out with six packs of MTG for our troubles. Not a bad night. I like this particular prize strategy since it means that it's possible (though unlikely, as the caliber of draft players at our store is fairly high overall) to go infinite and never have to pay for your drafts, by using your winnings to buy your entry into future drafts. Our drafts cost four packs, three for the draft - one for the prize pool, and if you win more than the four pack entry fee you come out ahead by a good deal.

I had won six pack in my first draft, making this one free and leaving me with two packs left over even if I lost. Score! Free draft!

I always start out in standard, and I played Solar Flare. I lost to Human four color Angel of Glories Rise - Unburial Rites. It was a fun list, and I really enjoyed the swingy plays that happened. I knew I was dropping, so I was going to scoop to my opponent either way, but he got there regardless. His end game was simply bigger than the Solar Flare Sun Titan plan. If I could resolve an Elesh Norn or Karn, I could probably pull out a game, but it felt like a bad matchup.

DRAFT

We had an awkward number of players for our draft: 19. That meant we had the choice of having two pods of ten and nine players or three pods with seven, six and six players respectively. We chose the three pod situation and I ended up in a pod with six players in total. We sit down and start cracking our first pack. Below I'll list my picks in order (as best as I can remember) and the relevant choices I had to make.
Pack 1 Pick 1 - This pack was white-a-licious. Rare - Angel of Jubilation, Uncommon - Nearheath Pilgrim, Common - Defang. I take the Angel of Jubilation and pray my opponent on my left does not move into white. (Spoiler - I wheel ALL of these cards, getting the Nearheath Pilgrim pick 7 and the Defang pick 13)
Pack 1 Pick 2 - Cavern of Souls. I'll be honest, I don't have a huge ego about my drafting, and so I rate picking cards on sheer monetary value slightly higher than most good players probably would. I took the 25$ card and smiled. Worst case scenario is that I don't play it and payed for another draft in trade value, plus some. Best case scenario makes my mana better and guys uncounterable, there being at least one draft playable counter in the set.
Other notable picks in Pack 1 are Wingcrafter, Amass the Components, Fettergeist, Gryff Vanguard and a Scrapskin Drake.

Pack 2 Pick 1 - Nearheath Pilgrim #2 - There was not much else of note in this pack except another Wingcrafter. I love me a Wingcrafter, but I think that the Pilgrim is slightly better, and being uncommon, harder to get.

Pack 2 Pick 2 - Divine Deflection - O.o ? Really? This is one of the best cards in one of the best colors (if not the flat out best) in the set. It is splash-able in any deck, and easily first pick-able. If this wasn't a sign that my opponent to my left was not in white, I don't know signals at all. I can't think of almost any non-mythic rare (and foil, given that the deflection wasn't foil) that I'd take above the Deflection. Oh and the foil was still in the pack, foil Builders Blessing. I was happy enough that I neglected to try and figure out what the rarity of the card my opponent took was. Windmill slam my white instant speed Fireball and pass the pack.

I pick up some more tricks and a few regular soulbond guys this pack including a Galvanic Alchemist and another Gryff Vanguard.

Pack 3 Pick 1 - Righteous Blow vs Mist Raven I took the Righteous Blow, thinking that Mist Raven wouldn't do enough for me and hoping it would wheel, but not really thinking it would realistically do so. I also felt like I wanted to be casting guys in the early game, but still wanted to have removal up. Righteous Blow filled that slot better than a four drop tempo play. Given that my final list had a Nephalia Smuggler in it, I suspect it may have been the wrong choice, but Righteous Blow was amazing for me all night, so I'm not too sad.

Pack 3 Pick 2 - Silverblade Paladin! YES! Thank god my opponent on my right didn't hate draft this. It's a bomb by itself, but even more amazing in a deck with a ton of fliers, like mine. Windmill slam again - bonus points for me as I know a good friend of me was looking to fill out his set of them, and I'd have an almost 100% sure trade partner for it. Value! With this card, my wonderful opponent on my right passed me 31$ (at current prices) of cardboard. Thanks Tom!

I round out the silliness with a Nephalia Smuggler, another Wingcrafter and two Peel from Reality.

My final card pool looked like this:
Main deck:

White
Angel of Jubilation
Silverblade Paladin
Divine Deflection
Nearheath Pilgrim
Nearheath Pilgrim
Righteous Blow
Voice of the Provinces
Cathedral Sanctifier

Blue:
Nephalia Smuggler
Mass Appeal (this drew me something on the order of 14 cards in 2-5 card chunks)
Wingcrafter
Wingcrafter
Gryff Vanguard
Gryff Vanguard
Peel from Reality
Peel from Reality
Amass the Components
Ghostly Flicker
Scrapskin Drake
Spectral Prison
Alchemist's Apprentice
Galvanic Alchemist
Geist Snatch

Land:
Cavern of Souls (I basically have two creature type; Angel and Human)
8 Plains
8 Island
(although in retrospect I probably would have switched out one island and put in one plains)

Sideboard:
White:
Defang
Leap of Faith
Leap of Faith
Commander's Authority (which I almost played for the synergy with Galvanic Alchemist)
Holy Justicar
Builder's Blessing
Cursebreak

Blue:
Fettergeist (I didn't play this because of all my little guys. Seemed like anti-syngergy.)
Galvanic Alchemist
Dreadwaters
Dreadwaters
Havengul Skaab
Rotcrown Ghoul

Artifacts and off-color cards:
Vanguard's Shield
Borderland Ranger
Grounded
Undead Executioner

Round 1 - Chris with UW Fliers
Game 1 he never hits me. He scoops to Angel of Jubilation with Gryff Vanguard and Nephalia Smuggler active.
Game two he gets some early hits in with small fliers, but I stabilize quickly and start smashing through. He dies to my overwhelming board presence with no way to clear the way.
2-0 in games, 1-0 in matches

Round 2 - Damien with UG
Game 1 I go turn 1 Cathedral Sanctifiers, gain 3. Turn 2 Nearheath Pilgrim, soulbond. Swing with Sanctifiers and gain 1. Eventually my Sanctifiers die and I repair the Nearheath Pilgrim with a Wingcrafter. My life total at the end of that game was 40.
Game 2 he smashes me pretty hard and I am only able to hit him for 3 points the entire game.
Game 3 is an amazing race that goes right to time in the round, but I am able to kill him in turns.
2-1 in games, 2-0 in matches

Round 3 - Eric with UB
Game 1 on the play I Wingcrafter into Nearheath Pilgrim and never look back. My life total at the end of the game was 31. He was also color screwed, not finding a source of blue until very late game.
Game 2 He and I trade haymakers and I am able to start repeatedly gaining life with Smuggler and Cathedral Sanctifiers, but he takes the game when I fail to find a way to push through the last 3 damage.
Game 3 I again end the game on 31 life, showing just how brutal my early aggressive/life gain starts can be.
2-1 in games, 3-0 in matches

Round 4 - Bill with UW
Bill was the only other UW player in our pod, but his deck is just a worse version of mine, despite the Tamiyo he had. (Sorry, Bill, but it was true.)
Game 1 he gets some early hits in, but I land Angel of Jubilation and I have his life total going from 22 to dead. (He scooped to my board presence complaining about not drawing his rare when I drew mine.)
Game 2 He gets a much better start and even draws and resolves his Tamiyo. My life total goes steadily lower as he gets a Latch Seeker online, but I am able to cobble together the eternal fog of Nephalia Smuggler and Cathedral Sanctifiers. I sculpt a turn where I tap out my board to kill his Tamiyo and he has MORE than lethal in creatures on the table. He kills off those small creatures he can with blocks and then on his turn moves to just attack with his Latch Seeker while I'm on 6 life and he has about 5 other creatures on the table representing far more than lethal damage. I remark on his lack of an alpha strike and he obliges by tapping the rest of his team. I Divine Deflection for 11 and he scoops to my lethal damage on the strike back. He went from 19 life to dead in two attack steps, his and mine. I had 4 life at the end of that turn.
2-0 in games, 4-0 in matches

Round 4 - Randy with UR
Randy and I are the only 4-0 players and could have drawn into the T8, but we played it out for fun and information.
Game 1 went to Randy rather decisively, as his Falkenrath Exterminator just took over the game. None of my Peel from Reality showed up to allow me to stabilize once he'd gotten some counters on the Exterminator, and the Exterminator masqueraded as a permanent one-sided Day of Judgment.

This is when I realize that Defang is probably better than my Geist Snatch and I switch them and never look back.

Game 2 I am able to keep Randy's board fairly clear while gaining board presence and I am able to barely squeak through the last few points.
Game 3 I never hit Randy as I never draw a white source with a hand full of white cards.
He scoops up his cards and says, "See you in top 8, or more likely see you in the finals." It was nice to get the nod of respect from one of the better players in the store. Good games, Randy.
1-2 in game, 4-1 in matches

Top 8 - Mike with Jund
Game 1 he gets some early hits in but I stabilize with Angel of Jubilation and start swinging for huge chunks of life. Definitely feels bad to be chumping Alchemist's Apprentice.
Game 2 we have a weird situation in the late game where he had an active Dark Imposter and had eaten most of my bombs with it, but he was at 3 and had to find a way to kill me without dying to my Divine Reflection. He is able to blank my Divine Deflection with his Terrifying Presence and kill me from 31. I misplayed a Peel from Reality and the Divine Reflection to punt away this almost certain win.
Game 3 I get early fliers and kill him rather quickly.

Top 4 starts at 1:30 am so the four remaining players split the prize packs and head home with 5 packs each.
My deck was just bonkers all night, and a blast to play. I always felt like I had outs, and never felt 100% outclassed. Overall a really fun night.
Hoped you liked the article.

How would you have built this pool?

Human Frites Combo

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:32:00 -0400

I almost always want to be doing the most powerful thing in any format. I really like the feeling of going big and trumping my opponents play. This has been rewarded in the recent design past as Wizards has been moving towards a more swingy environment, with big splashy spells and effects. After watching Pro Tour Avacyn Restored, I fell in love with the concept of Angel of Glory's Rise as a reanimation effect. Some of the most powerful plays of the Pro Tour came from someone casting this and bringing back a huge number of humans, regardless of the number of zombies on the field. So I started brewing and came up with this:

Human Frites - Combo.
Creatures - 28
4 Borderland Ranger
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Fiend Hunter
2 Restoration Angel
2 Geist-Honored Monk
2 Sun Titan
3 Angel of Glory's Rise
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Kessig Malcontents

Sorceries - 8
4 Faithless Looting
2 Unburial Rites
2 Reforge the Soul

Lands: 24
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Clifftop Retreat
2 Copperline Gorge
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Gavony Township
2 Mountain
4 Plains
3 Forest
1 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Day of Judgment
4 Wolfir Silverheart
4 Wolfir Avenger
2 Elesh Norn
1 Angel of Glory's Rise

The deck works like this: Stall the early game with humans and chump blocks. Occasionally you'll get some free wins off cards like Huntmaster or early Malcontents with a Restoration Angel backup, but mostly you'll trade with their guys and dig with Faithless Looting or Reforge the Souls while building your yard and making land drops. When you either hit 7 mana or hit both an Unburial Rites and either Angel of Glory's Rise or Sun Titan in the yard, things get fun. Sun Titan brings back a mana dude or a fiend hunter, but really you want to be recurring your Kessig Malcontents. They will burn your opponent out in very short order. However, hitting an Angel of Glory's Rise will almost always end the game on the spot if there are any Kessig Malcontents in the yard at all. Even if the opponent has been gaining life, the Malcontents in multiples will give you ridiculous reach.

The deck plays out a lot like a normal Naya Humans list except you block and trade far more often than you would otherwise do because in almost all match ups your end game is far superior to theirs, and therefore you have inevitability. In match ups where either you think they will bring in graveyard hate against you, or where they have a better end game than yours (Wolf Run, which can go over the top of you with their Inkmoths is a good example of this) you side out the Unburial Rites package and Angels and side in your Wolfir and go aggro.
I think this is a great deck for your local FNM and could possibly put up some results. It'll certainly be off the radar of the tournament scene and could easily pull off some surprise wins.
Until next time, may you always have multiple Kessig Malcontents in your yard and an Angel of Glory's Rise in hand.
Mike

As always:
I'd love to hear what you think about the deck!
Leave comments below!

Naya Humans

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sun, 6 May 2012 14:47:00 -0400

Naya Humans

Creatures
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
2 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Kruin Striker
4 Blade Splicer
1 Kessig Malcontents
2 Borderland Ranger
1 Silverblade Paladin
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Restoration Angel

Sorceries
2 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Gather the Townsfolk

Instants
1 Cloudshift

Land
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Gavony Township
1 Slayer's Stronghold
2 Forest
2 Plains
2 Mountain

Plan of attack, if it's not obvious from the inclusion of 31 creatures (27 of which are humans), is to play out value guys, then attack. I really want to go turn 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim, turn 2 Champion of the Parish + Kruin Striker, turn 3 Gather the Townsfolk + Gather the Townsfolk and swing for 12. Turn 4 Kessig Malcontents + Cloudshift = 16 damage before attacks in that scenario. I know this is strictly magical Christmasland, but the normal draws are pretty strong. I like going turn 1 Pilgrim, turn 2 Blade Splicer, turn 3 Huntmaster, turn 4 nothing but swing, let Huntmaster flip, then Restoration Angel either the Huntmaster or the Blade Splicer. This scenario is not hard at all.
Yes the deck is a bit soft to Day of Judgment. However, since you're creature base is so full of value creatures, it's pretty easy to put down a significant clock, while still sandbagging cards for after a wrath.
There are so many ways to change the math of combat in this deck. Cloudshift a splicer during their EoT and suddenly you're attacking with 2 golems instead of one. Do the same in combat for an instant speed 3 power first striking blocker. Doing this with Huntmaster gains 2 life and a wolf token. Restoration Angel has already been described as a "Delver Killer" and although I certainly don't think it kills the entire UW aggro control strategy, it certainly does a fair job at killing flipped Insectile Abberations.
Overall the deck is fun to play, and puts out a lot of pressure in the early turns of a game, putting most decks on the back foot early and hard. If I were going to try giving the deck just a slight bit more reach I would run 2 Brimstone Volley instead of the Mayors, allowing you to hold your mana open, flip a hunt master and punish them for having an answer to your threats.
Sideboarding, as always, is up to your meta, but being naya, you have some of the best options available to you in the game. If you take this to FNM, tell me how it goes in the comments!
Cheers,
Mike

New FNM brew - Standard off the radar

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Wed, 2 May 2012 21:33:00 -0400

Want to play something fun and off the radar at FNM this week, since I'll only be getting one round in before drafting. Think I'll run this:
Junk Walker/Tokens/Ramp
4 Lingering Souls
4 Rampant Growth
4 Sphere of the Suns
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Garruk Relentless
2 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Primeval Titan
2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Karn Liberated
2 Gideon Jura
1 Batterskull
4 Day of Judgment
2 Grave Titan
1 Elspeth Tirel
2 Gavony Township
2 Vault of the Archangel
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Isolated Chapel
4 Sunpetal Grove
5 Forest
4 Plains
2 Swamp
2 Woodland Cemetery

SB
3 Corrosive Gale
3 Autumn's Veil
3 Righteous Blow
3 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Grave Titan

Preview Discussions

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:29:00 -0400

For those of you interested in preview discussions, check out my Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rogue-Insight/165281873493615
and come join the discussion!

UWb Spirit Control

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Tue, 3 Apr 2012 10:25:00 -0400

UWb Spirit Control by Mike Beckwith (@RogueInsight on twitter, and rogueinsight.blogspot.com)
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Drogskol Captain
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sun Titan
1 Batterskull
3 Geist of St. Traft
1 Drogskol Reaver
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Dead Weight
3 Pristine Talisman
2 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Gideon Jura
3 Mortarpod
3 Day of Judgment
1 Karn Liberated
5 plains
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Drowned Catacomb
1 Isolated Chapel
4 Island
2 Swamp
1 Haunted Fengraf
3 Evolving Wilds
2 Vault of the Archangel

Ratchet Bomb and Lingering Souls to stall out the Delver decks, Day of Judgments and dead weight to help shore up the other aggro matches. Quick kills through lingering souls drogskol captains and lots of flyers. Geist of St Traft to help fight other Geist decks, and because it gets pumped by your captains, making your Geists almost always better than their blocker. Late game card draw with pristine talisman and Drogskol Reaver which will hopefully have hexproof and draw you a ton of cards. I felt like Sun Titan was better in this build than Consecrated Sphinx as it'll usually draw you the card you want as opposed to two random cards off the top. Sun Titan is almost as good as a tutor here, getting you lands, life gain, targeted creature removal, targeted permanent removal, sweeper effects, and kill conditions.
Against most of standard currently, this is the control deck, hoping to stall the board and live until the late game cards and mana come online. However it also has the ability to turn the corner into an aggressive deck VERY quickly, and can kill out of nowhere. As Jon Finkel and his compatriots proved at PTDKA, the combo of Drogskol Captain and Lingering Souls is a really powerful and fast kill.
Venser is a utility walker for the control matches and a surprise kill when you've stabilized in the aggro match ups. The list doesn't have any of the Stonehorn Dignitary shenanigans, but does have the ability to make Karn into Spine of Ish Sah, allow Gideon to reset himself when he gets low, and get Drogskol Reaver through for double strike lifegainy goodness.
Being Esper colors, we have access to some of the best sideboard cards in the format. I'm not going to post a Sideboard as it'll depend on your meta, but you'd probably want some Nihil Spellbombs, more Dead Weights, Mana Leaks or other permission, and Jace.

Hope you like the list!

Naya Pod

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:22:00 -0500

Possible Naya Tokens Pod list for standard.

Thoughts?

4 Copperline Gorge
6 Forest
2 Gavony Township
1 Kessig Wolf Run1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
2 Rootbound Crag
3 Sunpetal Grove
1 Acidic Slime
3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Blade Splicer
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Geist-Honored Monk
2 Hellrider
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Inferno Titan
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Strangleroot Geist
2 Viridian Emissary
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Birthing Pod
2 Pyreheart Wolf
2 Oblivion Ring
Sideboard
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Autumn's Veil
2 Hero of Bladehold
3 Mental Misstep
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Tormentor Exarch

Grand Prix Baltimore - Day 2!

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:56:00 -0500

The title is slightly misleading, as I didn't actually go to Day 2, despite qualifying to do so. Instead I very happily became a Godfather again. My nephew, Benjamin, happened to have his baptism on the same weekend, meaning I was going to be near Baltimore anyway, have a place to stay for free, and have Saturday completely free. Thanks Ben!

Enough about baptisms, let's talk Magic!

I had never been to a GP before this one. Traveling to events is almost impossible for me, making GP's pretty much out of the question. But I decided to take advantage of the serendipity and attend day 1 of GP Baltimore.
Want to know how it was?

It.

Was.

Awesome!

The convention center was a very clean space. (although the bathrooms weren't amazing, more I suspect due to the sketchy cleanliness habits of many Magic players, than to the convention center itself). The ceilings were REALLY high up, so despite there being close to two thousand people in the room for most of the day, it didn't get overly loud, or feel claustrophobic. Two whole walls were taken up by dealers selling most major cards in Magic's illustrious history. Another wall had three awesome artists signing cards and showing off their amazing work. One of the artists was Steve Argyle who has drawn some of my favorite cards of all time, including the art on my playmat: Arrow Volley Trap. Go look it up. That little goblin hiding behind the shield cracks me up every time. I can't help but imagine him going, "Did I make it? Is it done?"

I spent most of the morning getting registered and making sure my deck list was complete and accurate. I knew that some people had byes from having a fairly high rating (ok, not actually THAT high, but I didn't know that) but I figured since I play nothing but FNM that I wasn't going to be even close to a bye. I actually marked off the "0 byes" section on my deck list sheet, thinking I had none. (Cue foreshadowing)

I spent the next hour or so finding the other local players I knew who were going to be attending the GP and playing some practice matches. I lost most of those matches, but was having a lot of fun anyway just reveling in the entire day of Magic I had spread before me. After what seemed like two hours, but what was actually more like forty five minutes, the standings were posted. I walked over to the A-B standings and found my name. Next to my name was 1B, but I had no clue what this meant. I did see that there were 1546 people in the tournament. HUGE field. That was probably three times bigger than any other event I'd ever attended. I wandered off to wait until they posted round one pairings.

Pairings went up a few minutes later, and I fought the hoard of backpack-toting magic players to the white sheet of 8 1/2" x 11" with tiny grayish writing on it. I ran my finger down the sheet looking for my name and table number. I found my name, but next to it, where the table number should have been, was the symbol " --- ". I had to ask someone next to me what that meant. I got a funny look from the dude and the reply, "It means you have a bye." HAH! Who knew? My rating was actually high enough to get a bye. Now I knew what the 1B next to my name in the standings meant. So knowing I'd not have a chance like this again for the rest of the day, I shoved off in search of a good meal, a clean bathroom, and maybe, if I was lucky, some amazing deals on cards from the dealers. What can I say? I'm an optimist.

While scanning the dealers, I met Omar Hernandez ( @ITOmarHernandez on Twitter, definitely follow him!) who I'd never had the pleasure of meeting in person before, but had been talking to on Twitter and Facebook for a while. He introduced me to a few other EDH aficionado's and I got to watch a very interesting four player game while eating a turkey sandwich with mustard. Omar, Andrew (@A_Magrini), Chris (@Deathofnation), and David Kolakowski (@DKolakowski) all were having a ton of fun and ignoring the main event entirely. None of them played in the main event, nor wanted to. Just goes to show that GP's really are for every kind of Magic player. After finishing my quite good sandwich I made my way to the artists table hoping to get to Steve Argyle, but he already had a significantly long line, so I found some of my local players who had finished round 1 and played a few practice games again.

Here is the list I played:

Red Green Ramp by Mike Beckwith

Main Deck:
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
5 Forest
6 Mountain
4 Primeval Titan
2 Inferno Titan
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Phyrexian Metamorph (My only major contribution to the deck to differentiate it from Kibler's PT DKA list)
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Slagstorm
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Rampant Growth
4 Sphere of the Sun
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Acidic Slime
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Whipflare

Sideboard:
2 Karn Liberated
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Beast Within
2 Autumn's Veil
1 Corrosive Gale
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Combust
1 Ancient Grudge

I felt the deck was perfect in the main, and wouldn't change a card. Sideboard, I would remove the combust which didn't come in once all day for another ancient grudge. Otherwise the side board was amazing all day. I didn't need all three Nihil Spellbombs, but seeing how many UB decks there were in the top tables, I think they would have been good in Day 2 had I been able to stay.

Round 1: Bye

Round 1 down and I'm 1-0. I could get used to this "having byes" thing. Slightly ironic that I played a lot of magic in order to play less magic, but there you have it.

Round 2: HyppoBlade (RWControl) Jacob C

Round 2 pairings finally posted and I made my way to my table and sat down across from Jacob C. He went turn one plains, turn 2 mountain, Glint Hawk Idol, turn 3, Ghost Quarter, Glint Hawk Idol. I complimented him on his Ghost Quarter tech for his WR Tempered Steel deck. He sort of chuckled and nodded and kept beating me down with his glint hawks. I realized too late that I wasn't playing Steel, but instead playing against Hyppoblade, the deck that Caleb Durward played at the last Pro Tour. The two decks are pretty different. We laugh about my misrepresentation of his deck as he beats me handily in game one. In games two and three my board cards (Ancient Grudge) and being able to execute my plan A (a turn 4 titan) means that he dies to poison in game two and damage in the third.

Round 2: 2-0

Round 3: GB Ramp - Michael

Michael had brought the deck to the table that I was hoping to avoid all tournament. To say that my match-up is bad against this deck is to understate the situation rather dramatically. I settled in for a rough fight, and although I put up strong resistance, I lost in two rather quick games. Michael was a really nice guy and we talked a bit about being an Actor in NYC. He currently is pursuing acting, while I had been an actor professionally for six years before becoming a teacher. Our conversation was wide ranging and interesting. I mean how does one actually balance wanting to have a family and be an actor? The answer is that I have no idea.

Round 3: 2-1

Round 4: Tempered Township - Mace

This round was such a roller coaster. I misread my table number and showed up at table 493 instead of 463, figured this out when two guys came over to the table and tried to sit in the same seat and neither was Mace. At that point I figured that I was the one who was wrong and went back to the sheet to figure out I was actually supposed to be at table 463. I barely show up in time, as I had unpacked all my stuff and set up for the match at table 493 and had to pack everything up in a hurry to change tables. I admit this threw me a bit. I wasn't on tilt, but I don't think I was thinking clearly either. I lose the roll and am instantly in trouble with a turn one mox opal, memnite, inkmoth, and signal pest. This explosive opening was backed up by dispatch and gavony township with enough mana to use it. When Tempered Steel made an appearance, I was well and truly done.
Game two was epic. I sided in all my artifact removal but realized that my Green Sun Zenith's were too slow for what I was hoping to do, and removed them as well for two Garruk, Primal Hunter. This became relevant when I was able to cast the green walker on turn four. Not quite as strong as a turn four Inferno titan, but still pretty good. However, my opponent stuck not one, not two, but three tempered steels. Ouch. That made his vault skirge a 7/7 flying lifelinker. Sigh. I'm at 9 poison, and 6 or so life and facing an inkmoth nexus (7/7), a vault skirge (7/7), and a metalcrafted Etched Champion (8/8, pro colors). I had landed a Primeval Titan the turn before last and had 3 Inkmoth Nexus of my own on the board so I could block all three creatures, any one of which would kill me. Not only that but even if I blocked all three and survived the turn, the life link off the skirge would put my opponent out of range for my attack back. He was at 16 and would have been on 23 and more than able to survive my alpha strike. I however see the out. He attacks with all three. I animate my three inkmoth and block, but before damage I galvanic blast the inkmoth blocking the vault skirge, preventing the lifelink. I'm then able to swing back and kill him with wolf run activations. I was SO excited that I actually pulled out that game. Mace was shocked that he lost that game saying that he'd never lost a game where he'd resolved three tempered steel.
I was ecstatic that I'd pulled that one out of nowhere and was boarding for game three when I noticed that I'd lost my blue Sigg water bottle. Now you have to understand, I take this bottle with me everywhere. Literally, everywhere. I have it in hand or on my desk at work all day long, every day. Since I basically talk all day, having water when I need it is really important. So I love this bottle, and I was really worried it'd wandered off. I called a judge over and she told me my best chance was to check the lost and found. She offered to stay and watch the board state if I wanted to go check now. I declined the offer and played out the match, but was distracted the entire time. I even asked Mace's friend to go and check table 493, where I'd incorrectly gone at the beginning of the round to see if it was there, but he wasn't able to find it. So I play game three and lose spectacularly. I quickly congratulate Mace on his win, collect my stuff, and head over to table 493 where I am relieved to find my Sigg bottle underneath the table. Feeling much better, despite now being on the bubble at 2-2, I head off to the restroom again.

Side note on bathroom breaks. I really feel that, to perform well at a tournament that lasts over 12 hours as this one did, you have to stay hydrated and fed. This can be rather difficult when you have very little time in between rounds, but with a little advance planning, can be done. It does mean finding the bathroom almost every round, but the upside is huge. I felt good going into every round all day. My Sigg was instrumental is keeping me at the top of my game.

Round 4: 2-2 (If I lose any more matches I'll be out of contention for Day 2)

Round 5: Tempered Township - Tommy

Tommy was a very nice young kid. I have no idea how old he actually was, but if forced to put an age to him I'd have said 14-15. If he was any older, he looked REALLY young for his age. He had a strong turns 1-2-3 where he played Vault Skirge, Signal Pest and Etched Champion, after which I went and slag stormed everything away, and he tilted like he was on a teeter-totter. Seriously, I haven't seen someone look so defeated in ages. I felt bad for him as I then proceeded to rather easily beat him in two games and knock him out of contention for Day 2. Dream crush #1 on the day.

I told myself that Tommy, although very nice, was not really going to be making Day 2 anyway even if I decided to give him the win, so I kept my win and gave Tommy his third loss. I'm able to win fast enough to go and buy a yogurt parfait continuing my streak of good food that kept my energy high and mind sharp all day.

Round 5: 3-2 Dream Crush #1

Round 6: Carlos R with GR Ramp
So I am very aware that the mirror match is all about the first Titan. If you hit a Titan before the other guy your chances of winning are almost 100%. However I didn't know that this was a mirror when I lost the roll and kept a hand with no Titan but did have a slagstorm and a Huntmaster. I guess in my defense I had just seen two matches in a row where an early slag storm won me the game if I had it, so I kept a hand that was horrible in the mirror. Oh well. He lands a Titan WAY before I can, and my notes say that I went to 8 poison then 10. I remember killing his Primeval Titan, but lost to his inkmoths. Hence the reason why the first guy to a Titan wins.
We move on to game two and I remember during boarding that Carlos didn't actually have the full set of inkmoth nexus. He only had 2, despite having multiple Primeval Titans that game, so I bring in Ancient Grudge and Beast Within. I play a turn 2 Sphere, which he grudges. He plays a turn 3 Sphere, which I grudge. Then on my turn I play Green Sun's Zenith for 1 hoping to find my Birds and get to four mana next turn, as I didn't have a fourth land drop and I was stuck at 3 with a lot of four and six drops in hand. What I had failed to remember was that about 3 minutes before, during side boarding, I had removed my birds from the deck because it died to galvanic blast. I was forced to fail to find. I actually said this when I cast the GSZ, "Good thing I didn't side out my Birds of Paradise". I kid you not. I laughed so hard at my own stupidity, shuffled the GSZ back in the deck, and passed the turn back. Luckily for me Carlos was also mana screwed thanks to my Ancient Grudge, just like I was due to his, so he went draw, go. I draw the land and cast my solemn simulacrum getting me to 5 mana. He draws a rampant growth getting him to four. I rip a land off the top and slam Primeval Titan fetching Inkmoth and Kessig Wolf Run (Duh), and it's all academic from there. He never even hits me and dies to my Inferno Titan that followed the Primeval Titan.
Game three Carlos keeps a fairly slow hand with no turn two ramp, hitting me for 1 poison instead. I'm really happy to see this since my hand is the nuts, and I turn 4 Titan him out.

Round 6: 4-2 Dream Crush #2 (and I told myself that it's unlikely either of us would have made Day 2 anyway and that I didn't want to spend money on side events, and poor Carlos didn't even have the full set of Inkmoths)

Round 7: Gu (Mono-green splashing mana leak off birds and some Hinterland Harbors) Peter L

This match-up is horrendously in my favor and is one of the main reasons I chose to play Ramp. I just destroy the mono green decks. He taps a green early on in game one and plays a Mana Leak from his hand instead of the birds he meant to drop. Since I know he has the mana leak and I saw no other blue source other than the birds, I slag storm away the birds, slowing myself one turn but rather severely setting back his mana, and making his leak in hand a dead card. It's fairly easy for me to turn 5 a Titan and win from there.
Game two Peter mulligans a one land seven card hand away, then a no land six card hand away, and keeps a no land five card hand on the play. He draws for his turn and says go with no land and no play. I again have an amazing hand against him with a Garruk, Beast Within and a Slagstorm, plus land and ramp. Turn 3 he finds a land and I let him untap with it but Beast within it on his upkeep. He casts another birds in a valiant attempt to get back into the game and I slag storm both the birds and the beast away on my turn. I cast Garruk the turn after that, then Primeval titan and draw 6. He scoops after that.
He asks me after the match what I think he could do to make his deck better vs ramp and all I can think is "Don't play mono-green" but I don't say that, instead just acknowledging that it is indeed a horrific match-up for him.

Round 7: 5-2 Dream Crush #3 (I wondered idly how he had gotten to 4-2 with that list, as it seemed pretty bad with a full set of dungrove elders and four Hinterland Harbors with some mana leaks instead of more threats or swords. He wasn't a bad player, but I doubted he'd make Day 2, so I kept going.)

Round 8: Chris with ... something that had Grixis lands...

Now I guess Chris had done fairly well for himself to make it to 5-2 with his list, but his deck definitely seemed to let him down in our match.
Game one Chris landed a Pristine Talisman and starts gaining life. I go turn 3 Huntmaster, leaked. Turn 4 Acidic Slime, Leaked. Turn 5 Titan which resolves and I get inkmoth and Kessig Wolf Run before he Doom Blades away my Titan. His poison count goes to 6 then dead after that. I never see a spell or card that could actually win a game for him.
Game two I am able to turn four titan him out. He Forbidden Alchemy'd this game and dumped a Grave Titan into the yard, and that is the only card I saw in the entire match that had the possibility of killing me. I still have no clue what he was running. He mentions as we're packing up that he'd been hoping to avoid my deck all day. I didn't say much but thought to myself that it was pretty optimistic of him to think that directly after a Pro Tour won by the deck I'm playing that there wouldn't be any GR Ramp.

Round 8: 6-2 (I still think that it was unlikely that either of us would make Day two even with only one round left to go, and take my wins) Dream Crush #4

Round 9: Trent with GRw Ramp
I never do find out what the white in his deck is for until after the match although I assumed that he had Day of Judgement and probably Elesh Norns. Turns out I was half right, Elesh Norn never makes an appearance though.
Game one I am able to turn 5 Titan after matching his turn three hunt master with him on the play while he is stuck on a Huntmaster but no lands or ramp.
Game two is a really strong game where he gets to the first titan, but I am right behind and am able to stabilize a bit, but through really good management of his inkmoth nexus and never tapping down for Kessig Wolf pumps, making my Beast Within in hand not nearly as good, he takes it poison style.
Game three he lands an early huntmaster, but I landed an early Titan which trumped his play. It was pretty easy to close out the game from there.
Trent talks a bit about how he's never gotten this far in a tournament before and that it's ok if he doesn't make Day 2 because he's going to go drinking with his friends for the evening. I tell him it sounds like a fun plan and congratulate him on the very strong game 2. I did feel bad because he'd be 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2, then 6-3 and out of contention. Those last three rounds must have been rough for him. He signed the slip, congratulated me and wished me luck in Day 2. I told him thanks signed the slip and walked off to find my friends. I knew I wasn't able to play in Day 2 no matter what, so I checked the box marked DROP and turned my slip in. Dream Crush #5.

I was in 198th place out of 1546 going into round 10. I ended the day at 202nd place out of 1546. Not bad for playing 7 rounds less than everyone else who made Day 2.

I know a lot of people are going to be a bit mad that I would do that to someone, but I don't have to drop to my opponent if I don't want to. The wins are mine to do with as I please, given that I earned them. I also knew that 7-2 in a GP would seriously increase my rating, but mostly I wanted to say that I had made Day 2 at a GP. I admit I feel a bit bad for Trent, who was the only player who would have 100% made Day 2 had I scooped to him. However, I looked at the standings for Day 2 Round 10 on Wizards site the next day and I noticed all the way down at the bottom a player with 19 points who had a bye. That's right. Since I won, but dropped, the math was all messed up and a player who would not have otherwise made it, as previously you needed 21 points to make day 2 (7-2 cut-off), with a record of 6-2-1, made Day 2. To this person, I salute you for your optimism by staying in till the end and not giving up hope. Because you didn't drop, despite being told you were 100% out of the running for Day 2, you actually DID make Day 2. Not only that but you got a round 10 Bye! This put you at 22 points before you'd even played a land on Day 2, and put you higher in the standings than myself who ended the day with 21 points total. Congratulations to you, Justin Stevens. You didn't win one match in Day 2, but you got to play.

And I got to say I made Day 2 of a GP, then dropped to become a Godfather, again.

Awesome.

RW Tokens - Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 19:50:00 -0500

Want to win the infinite tokens mirrors we're about to be subjected to in standard? Try out this list.

RW Tokens (Standard)

CREATURES
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Hellrider
3 Instigator Gang
4 Stormblood Berserker

NONCREATURES
3 Brimstone Volley
2 Incinerate
4 Midnight Haunting
4 Shock
4 Gather the Townsfolk

LANDS
8 Mountain
12 Plains
4 Clifftop Retreat

Spirits in Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:55:00 -0500

So I was reading through Kyle Boggemes' article about cards for standard, and in the comments (found here) was a deck list by Isaac Birnbaum (Thanks Isaac!) that I really enjoyed, and am going to tweak today.

Isaacs idea is that Drogskul Captain is pretty good. So good in fact that he'd like to run 4 of them.
I agree with him, but here's his list for reference -

4 Doomed Traveler.
4 Drogskol Captain.
3 Geist of Saint Traft.
2 Phantasmal Image.

3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

2 Angelic Destiny.
4 Honor the Pure.
4 Lingering Souls.
4 Mana Leak.
3 Midnight Haunting.
3 Oblivion Ring.

4 Darkslick Shores.
1 Island
1 Isolated Chapel.
3 Moorland Haunt.
8 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast.
1 Swamp
2 Vault of the Archangel.

Now although I do like this list rather a lot, I'm not sold on everything here.

I think midnight haunting needs to be a 4x, and I think that angelic destiny is overkill. So I'll drop one destiny for one haunting.

I also think the deck needs some kind of main deck late game, so I'll drop the last destiny for one Sun Titan. The titan plays really well with your captains and geists. And of course the interaction between Sun Titan and Phantasmal Image is well documented, not to mention oblivion rings, honor of the purrs, and doomed travelers. This does make Moorland Haunt a bit less effective, but I was thinking that 5 colorless lands was a bit many anyway and I'll be dropping one moorland haunt to add one more isolated chapel.

My end list looks like this:

4 Doomed Traveler.
4 Drogskol Captain.
3 Geist of Saint Traft.
2 Phantasmal Image.

1 Sun Titan.
3 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

4 Honor the Pure.
4 Lingering Souls.
4 Mana Leak.
4 Midnight Haunting.
3 Oblivion Ring.

4 Darkslick Shores.
1 Island.
2 Isolated Chapel.
2 Moorland Haunt.
8 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast.
1 Swamp
2 Vault of the Archangel.

This deck is a real contender in the new standard. I really like the problems that having both hex proof threats and lots of tokens makes for an opponent. Do I blow my ratchet bomb on the tokens or pump it to three to get their captains and geists?

Those are the kinds of questions I want my opponents asking.

And the captains give all other spirits hex proof and +1/+1. Wait isn't there a card in standard that also does that but for less important tribe? Oh yeah! Lord of Illusions! But think about this, Lord of Illusions is not an Illusion itself. Drogskol Captain IS a spirit AND it flies for one more mana total. Seems good. Play image copying your Captain and everything you play (except the Sorin Vamps, Sun Titan, and the doomed traveler before it dies) have Hexproof.

You've played against Hexproof right? It's really annoying. Gesit alone is worthy of inclusion in tournament winning legacy decks, based mostly on the power of hexproof. Okay, it also hits like a truck, but that wouldn't matter in a field of Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolts without the Hexproof part. Now imagine a fleet of flying hexproof spirits. How many ways of dealing with them are in standard? Day of Judgment, Black Sun's Zenith, Slagstorm (if they aren't too big), Blasphemous Act, Ratchet Bombs (but only for some of them), Life's Finale. Not a lot of answers really, especially for a deck that can run Mana Leaks when most of those answers START around 3-4 mana.

Now... Anyone have Sorin for trade?

Spotlight on Modern with guest deck designer Tom Ellis

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:41:00 -0500

Spotlight on Modern with guest deck designer Tom Ellis

Today we have a deck designed by Tom for the upcoming Modern format PTQ season. It is a Jund list featuring serious beats with Tarmogoyf, Kitchen Finks, Bloodbraid Elf, and Dark Confidants.

Tom: Modern Constructed is the format for the next PTQ season, so of course I am up to my old brewing ways. I’ve been coming up with some pretty whacky ideas, and some more conservative ones. One of the more conservative ones decks I have built recently is Jund. This list is very aggressive while still able to combat the control lists floating around. So far, this is my list:

Jund - Modern Decklist designed by Tom Ellis - 12/16/11

Lands
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
4 [RAV] Overgrown Tomb
1 [8E] Forest (3)
1 [ZEN] Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
4 [GP] Stomping Ground
1 [RAV] Watery Grave
1 [M11] Swamp (2)
2 [WWK] Lavaclaw Reaches
4 [WWK] Raging Ravine
2 [ISD] Kessig Wolf Run

Creatures
4 [ARB] Bloodbraid Elf
4 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [ZEN] Goblin Guide
4 [RAV] Dark Confidant

Spells
4 [B] Lightning Bolt
3 [ALA] Blightning
2 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [ISD] Garruk Relentless
4 [LRW] Thoughtseize

SB: 1 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 2 [NPH] Dismember
SB: 3 [WWK] Abyssal Persecutor
SB: 4 [DIS] Rise/Fall
SB: 2 [ARB] Terminate
SB: 3 [MR] Molten Rain

Rogue Insight: So, Tom, Let's talk about the deck. I have a few questions. Why do you think that Jund colors, RGB, are the colors to be in?

Tom: Right now the format kind of needs you to do it all. There are so many variations of decks and various choices posed during any given game that you need to have a wide variety of weapons at your disposal. I think that Jund has a very nice mix of speed, disruption, and power. Jund is one of the more disruptive decks out there, and it backs it up with a very strong, aggressive plan.

Rogue Insight: How does the deck work?

Tom: You usually want to play a Goblin Guide or Thoughtseize on turn 1. Either one sets the pace of your game nicely. If you have both, I think that Thoughtseize is a better turn 1 play, just because it gives you a lot of information and makes them start without the best card in their hand. From there you are going to play a mixture of disruption spells and creatures until either they are dead or they stabilize. Then you drop Garruk or Bloodbraid Elf to refuel or finish them off. I think that many times it is a big mistake to drop these guys on turn 4, unless you absolutely have to or your start is just that good. They are extremely good at turning a questionable situation into a good one for you. Raging Ravine, Lavaclaw Reaches, and Kessig also help you close out the game. It is a fairly straightforward strategy that still allows you to outplay your opponent.

Rogue Insight: What is your plan to deal with the Dark Confidant life loss?

Tom: Dark Confidant Life-Loss is counteracted nicely by Kitchen Finks. It's also why the deck has such a low curve. You're hoping to kill them before it becomes too much of an issue. It's also possible to terminate your own Confidant when needed.

Rogue Insight: What match-up are the Abyssal Persecutors in the board for?

Tom: Abyssal Persecutor is to help fight against aggro matchups. I am boarding in extra removal anyway, so I figured, “Why not have a giant flying 6/6 that they can’t kill?” They have to remove that guy, since he is way bigger than any of the creatures in most aggro decks. If they don’t, you at least have inevitability. Garruk can also act as a way to get rid of Persecutor because when he is flipped his -1 ability involves sacrificing a creature.

Rogueinsight: Explain the board choices and side boarding plans.

Tom: My sideboards are always in constant flux, it is a skill that I am still working on as a player. It is possible that, by the time this is posted, my sideboard might be a little bit different.

1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Dismember
2 Terminate: Sometimes you just need to kill more things. I wanted to include a mixture of spells to be able to adapt to various situations. I think that the Dismembers might become Go For the Throats simply because it allows me to kill my own Abyssal Persecutors if necessary.

4 Rise//Fall: I like this card as a way to fight control decks. Fall is a really good discard spell against combo/control. I also included a Watery Grave as a way to play the Rise portion of the spell. It can be really good if you bounce their guy and get back a Bloodbraid Elf.

3 Molten Rain: This is definitely a nod to the fact that there are so many important non-basics in the format. This card is for against decks that use the Urza lands or need 4 or 5 colors to operate. Taking away a land plus dealing damage is also a welcome combination of abilities in those matchups.

3 Abyssal Persecutor: See above. Also, four mana flying 6/6 creatures sometimes just get there.

So I suppose that is my Jund deck. It will be difficult to tell how strong this list will be for PTQ’s until we get a little bit closer to the season, and until Dark Ascension comes out.

Oran-Rief, the Vastwood: This is one of those small things that can really help a deck out. Oran-Rief allows me to keep my Kitchen Finks on constant refresh while also giving me the ability to pump my other creatures. This can really make the difference when playing against another aggro deck.

Thoughtseize: Thoughtseize was the only choice of one mana discard for a while, but now we have Inquisition of Kozilek to compete with it. I have thought about using Inquisition, but there are too many times when I’ll want to take a Cryptic Command, a planeswalker, or Bloodbraid Elf to justify Inquisition in the main deck.
Garruk Relentless: This guy is just spectacular. He can be removal, a continuous source of creatures, and a search engine once his is flipped. He is a good top of the curve at 4 and gives amazing reach.

Rogue Insight: Thanks for talking with me today!

Tom: My pleasure.

So if you're interested in a strong aggressive choice for the upcoming Modern PTQ season, I think this list is a very strong starting point.

Bant Aggro-Control in Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sat, 3 Dec 2011 11:52:00 -0500

So I've been playing around with stand deck lists and came up with this list, which is a version of a deck a friend of mine plays at FNM every so often. It is capable of some seriously strong starts. What do you think?

Bant
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Hero of Bladehold
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
3 Fiend Hunter
4 Mana Leak
2 Think Twice2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Silver-Inlaid Dagger
2 Mirran Crusader
1 Angelic Destiny
2 Moorland Haunt
2 Gavony Township
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Hinterland Harbor
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
3 Forest

Some things I noticed when playing it. This deck is extremely hard to block. Either the creatures are unblockable, have protection from the colors you are playing, thanks to the swords, or have evasion like flying.
Invisible stalker is a clock that is really hard to stop. Just one Mayor on board, or the Silver-Inlaid Dagger, or one of the swords, and this guy is almost impossible to race, by all except the fastest of decks in the format.
Mayor of Avabruck is a really strong support player, giving all your relevant dudes +1/+1, and when you've established a board, and can sit back on counters and beat down, he even helps to put on MORE pressure by flipping and providing more attackers. I'm not really sure if you actually want your Mayor to flip to the Howlpack side or not, but either way, he's a beating and a half.
Phyrexian Metamorph is everything you want it to be when you want it to be so. A new sword? Check. Another Invisible Stalker? Check. Extra Mayors for more pumpage? Check. The swiss army knife of the format, and he's so good.

Want a fun competitive FNM deck? I totally recommend taking this one for a spin.

Stadard Metagame Musings

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 13:45:00 -0500

I love Standard right now. It's the most fun, diverse, and interesting format in ages.

I am lucky enough to be able to build almost any standard deck I want, and have been having a blast playing many of the lists I posted in the previous Standard Gauntlet article. I tried Solar Flare recently, but tweaked it a bit to be more like the lists running around on MTGO which have far more threats than most of the controlish lists I've seen running around, like AJ Sacher's top 8 deck. So I added a lot of creatures and put the counter spells in the board. I figured I could have a transformative board plan and morph into a true control list in games 2 or 3 if I needed.

The deck was fun, but it got me thinking about playing huge fatties, which is one of my favorite things to do (being a Timmy, deep down inside my spike facade) in magic.

I realized that I wasn't really playing a control list, I was playing Reanimator. Once I made this mental leap, I started really thinking in terms of reanimator instead of control. The first thing I thought about changing was the mana base. Green doesn't really offer anything strong as a color for reanimation strategies, unless it's in a Pod deck, which I wasn't thinking this would be. Red on the other hand had some really interesting options. I made a quick list of cards that might work well in a 4 color reanimator list.

Desperate Ravings
Charmbreaker Devils
Inferno Titan
Urabrask, the Hidden
Sphere of the Suns

Sphere of the Suns is a necessary evil in a 4 color deck. Despite the new enemy duals, there is not enough land fixing to warrant running four colors without some added color fixing. It is also some nice ramp, allowing for rather broken opening sequences.

So here's a preliminary list:

4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Desperate Ravings
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Sheoldred
1 Urabrask, the Hidden
1 Grave Titan
1 Charmbreaker Devils
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Unburial Rites
1 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Bloodline Keeper
4 Merfolk Looter
2 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Liliana of the Veil

4 Sulfur Falls
4 Drowned Catacombs
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Glacial Fortress
6 Island
6 Swamp
2 Nephalia Drownyard

Let's look at how a deck like this could play out:
Turn 1: Land, tapped - probably a blue or black making land.
Turn 2: Land, hopefully untapped, probably a island or swamp. Merfolk Looter.
Turn 3: Sphere of the Suns, land, Loot discarding Charmbreaker Devils.
Turn 4: Land, loot discard Sheoldred, Unburial Rites returning Shoeldred.
Turn 5: Upkeep, loot discard Forbidden Alchemy, Sheoldred returns Charmbreaker Devils, Main Phase cast Urabrask, attack for 14.
Turn 6: Loot in Upkeep, discard Elesh Norn, Sheoldred returns Elesh Norn, Charmbreaker Devils returns Unburial Rites or Forbidden Alchemy, Main Phase - attack for well over 20.

Seems ok. It needs to hit it's land, but it can almost ignore the other players board, unless they are threatening the kill faster than we get Elesh Norn online.

With a Charmbreakers on the field and a full yard, you'll be returning either Unburial Rites or on of the two instant speed yard fillers/ card draw, either of which makes your strategy far faster. Bloodline Keeper is a legitimate threat on turn 3 or 4, and really helps deal with weenie rush archetypes.
Black Sun's Zenith will only be returned by the Devils if the Zenith was countered and ended up in the yard. If you cast it, the shuffle back in effect will prevent you from returning the card to hand. The deck plays like it has 8-10 Reanimation effects and with all the card draw and digging the deck has, you almost always find the pieces you need.

So that's my Reanimator list. Hope you like it.

I'd love to hear your comments below.

Innistrad Standard - Gauntlet

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Mon, 7 Nov 2011 16:55:00 -0500

So this is a list of decks that are interesting to me in this environment. I'll be updating this list as deck tech comes out and posting my thoughts. Check back regularly!

Solar Flare - AJ Sacher
26 LANDS

4 Island

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Glacial Fortress

4 Seachrome Coast

3 Isolated Chapel

2 Drowned Catacomb

2 Swamp

2 Plains

1 Ghost Quarter

9 CREATURES

4 Snapcaster Mage

2 Wurmcoil Engine

2 Sun Titan

1 Phantasmal Image

21 INSTANTS and SORCERIES

4 Think Twice

4 Mana Leak

4 Forbidden Alchemy

2 Dissipate

2 Doom Blade

2 Day of Judgment

1 Go for the Throat

1 Dismember

1 Unburial Rites

4 OTHER SPELLS

2 Liliana of the Veil

2 Oblivion Ring

SIDEBOARD

1 Oblivion Ring

1 Day of Judgment

1 Ghost Quarter

1 Phantasmal Image

1 Revoke Existence

3 Purify the Grave

1 Negate

1 Flashfreeze

2 Celestial Purge

1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

2 Timely Reinforcemen

UR Control - Mike Flores
Artifacts
1 Batterskull
3 Druidic Satchel

Creatures
4 Snapcaster Mage

Instants
1 Ancient Grudge
4 Brimstone Volley
4 Desperate Ravings
3 Dissipate
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Mana Leak
4 Think Twice

Sorceries
3 Slagstorm

Basic Lands
10 Island
7 Mountain

Lands
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Sulfur Falls
Sideboard:

1 Batterskull
1 Druidic Satchel
3 Frost Titan
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Dismember
1 Dissipate
2 Shock
1 Slagstorm
but he said there should be phantasmla images in the board of either as well
since thrun and geist are a problem

Township Tokens by Mikael Conrow
Finished 1st Place at 2011 States - Virginia
Main Deck
2 Blade Splicer
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Elspeth Tirel
4 Hero of Bladehold
Creatures [14]
1 Beast Within
3 Day of Judgment
3 Dismember
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Shrine of Loyal Legions
2 Timely Reinforcements
Spells [22]
3 Forest
4 Gavony Township
9 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove

Sideboard
2 Beast Within
2 Celestial Purge
1 Day of Judgment
1 Garruk Relentless
3 Naturalize
3 Purify the Grave
1 Shrine of Loyal Legions
2 Timely Reinforcements

Wolf Run Ramp by Sean Handy
Finished 1st Place at 2011 States - South Carolina
Main Deck
1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Primeval Titan
3 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Viridian Emissary
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Creatures [18]
2 Batterskull
3 Beast Within
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
3 Slagstorm
Spells [16]
4 Copperline Gorge
8 Forest
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Mountain
4 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard
1 Acidic Slime
4 Ancient Grudge
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Wurmcoil Engine

RUG by Joe Price
Finished 3rd - 4th Place at 2011 States - Arkansas

2 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Frost Titan
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Inferno Titan
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Viridian Emissary
Creatures [18]
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Arc Trail
4 Brimstone Volley
1 Caravan Vigil
4 Mana Leak
3 Rampant Growth
1 Slagstorm
1 Sword of War and Peace
Spells [17]
4 Copperline Gorge
6 Forest
3 Hinterland Harbor
3 Island
3 Mountain
3 Rootbound Crag
3 Sulfur Falls

Sideboard
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Arc Trail
1 Batterskull
3 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Naturalize
2 Negate
1 Slagstorm
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Sword of Feast and Famine

UR Control

Creatures - 7
1 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Spellskite
4 Snapcaster Mage

Artifacts - 7
3 Druidic Satchel
1 Batterskull
3 Shrine of Burning Rage

Instants - 19
4 Brimstone Volley
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Mana Leak
2 Dissipate
1 Shock
4 Think Twice

Sorceries - 3
3 Slagstorm

Land - 24
4 Sulfur Falls
6 Mountain
6 Islands
4 Ghost Quarter
4 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard - 15
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Ancient Grudge
2 Dissipate
1 Druidic Satchel
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Frost Titan
1 Inferno Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx

Desperate Flare - Edgar Flores
Mainboard
3 Grave Titan
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Sun Titan
Creatures [9]
4 Desperate Ravings
3 Doom Blade
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
4 Oblivion Ring
3 Think Twice
3 Unburial Rites
Spells [25]
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Darkslick Shores
4 Glacial Fortress
5 Island
3 Seachrome Coast
3 Shimmering Grotto
4 Sulfur Falls

Sideboard

2 Flashfreeze
4 Geistflame
3 Mental Misstep
3 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Timely Reinforcements

GW Wolf Run by Batutinha (4-0)

1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Primeval Titan
4 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Viridian Emissary
Creatures [20]
3 Beast Within
3 Day of Judgment
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
2 White Sun's Zenith
Spells [15]
8 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
Lands [25]
Deck Total [60]

1 Acidic Slime
2 Creeping Corrosion
1 Day of Judgment
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Timely Reinforcements
2 Wurmcoil Engine
Sideboard [15]

Township Tokens by Martin Juza
Finished 1st Place at 2011 GP Hiroshima - 10/29

4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Blade Splicer
3 Elspeth Tirel
3 Garruk Relentless
2 Geist-Honored Monk
4 Hero of Bladehold
2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
4 Mirran Crusader
Creatures [28]
2 Mortarpod
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Overrun
Spells [8]
8 Forest
4 Gavony Township
4 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Sunpetal Grove
Lands [24]
Deck Total [60]

2 Celestial Purge
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Garruk Relentless
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
2 Naturalize
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Sword of War and Peace
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
Sideboard [15]

Haunted Humans by Takahiro Shiraki
Finished 2nd Place at 2011 GP Hiroshima - 10/29

4 Champion of the Parish
2 Doomed Traveler
3 Elite Vanguard
2 Fiend Hunter
3 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Grand Abolisher
4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Mirran Crusader
Creatures [26]
3 Angelic Destiny
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Oblivion Ring
Spells [10]
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Island
3 Moorland Haunt
12 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
Lands [24]
Deck Total [60]
2 Batterskull
3 Dismember
4 Leonin Arbiter
3 Shrine of Loyal Legions
3 Timely Reinforcements
Sideboard [15]

Solar Flare by Akira Asahara
Finished 3rd - 4th Place at 2011 GP Hiroshima - 10/29
Main Deck
Sideboard
3 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sun Titan
Creatures [9]
3 Day of Judgment
4 Dissipate
3 Doom Blade
4 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Mana Leak
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Think Twice
1 Unburial Rites
Spells [25]
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Drowned Catacomb
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Swamp
Lands [27]
Deck Total [61]

1 Day of Judgment
1 Gideon Jura
2 Jace, Memory Adept
3 Mirran Crusader
1 Negate
2 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Sideboard [15]

Bant Pod by Kouichi Tanaka
Finished 5th - 8th Place at 2011 GP Hiroshima - 10/29
Main Deck
Sideboard
3 Acidic Slime
1 Archon of Justice
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 Birds of Paradise
2 Blade Splicer
1 Brindle Boar
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Frost Titan
3 Phantasmal Image
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Skaab Ruinator
2 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Sun Titan
3 Viridian Emissary
1 Wing Splicer
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Creatures [31]
4 Birthing Pod
2 Mimic Vat
Spells [6]
7 Forest
4 Hinterland Harbor
1 Island
2 Plains
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Sunpetal Grove
Lands [23]
Deck Total [60]

2 Brindle Boar
2 Day of Judgment
1 Fiend Hunter
2 Flashfreeze
2 Garruk Relentless
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Sylvok Replica
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
Sideboard [15]

Haunted Humans by Hiroshi Onizuka
Finished 5th - 8th Place at 2011 GP Hiroshima - 10/29

4 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
4 Gideon's Lawkeeper
4 Grand Abolisher
4 Mirran Crusader
Creatures [20]
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Mana Leak
4 Midnight Haunting
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Sword of War and Peace
Spells [17]
4 Glacial Fortress
1 Island
4 Moorland Haunt
10 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
Lands [23]
Deck Total [60]

2 Celestial Purge
2 Fiend Hunter
2 Flashfreeze
1 Mana Leak
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Sword of War and Peace
4 Timely Reinforcements
Sideboard [15]

UW Aggro by Craig Wescoe
Main Deck
Sideboard
1 Alabaster Mage
3 Doomed Traveler
2 Fiend Hunter
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Grand Abolisher
4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Mirran Crusader
Creatures [22]
1 Angelic Destiny
1 Dismember
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Honor of the Pure
4 Mana Leak
2 Oblivion Ring
Spells [15]
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
3 Moorland Haunt
9 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
Lands [23]
Deck Total [60]

2 Angelic Destiny
1 Celestial Purge
2 Dismember
1 Divine Offering
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Gut Shot
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Revoke Existence
4 Timely Reinforcements
Sideboard [15]

Darwin Castle Bant Pod

Creatures (28)
1 Acidic Slime
1 Archon of Justice
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Azure Mage
1 Blade Splicer
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Frost Titan
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Razor Hippogriff
1 Skaab Ruinator
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Sun Titan
2 Viridian Emissary
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Merfolk Looter
1 Myr Superion
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Spells (8)
2 Unburial Rites
2 Mimic Vat
4 Birthing Pod
Lands (24)
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
8 Forest
1 Darkslick Shores
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Seachrome Coast
Sideboard (15)
1 Acidic Slime
1 Brindle Boar
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Hollowhenge Scavenger
1 Tree of Redemption
1 Trinket Mage
1 Viridian Corrupter
1 Spellskite
1 Sylvok Replica
2 Day of Judgment
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Nihil Spellbomb

Bant Destiny - Meringolo's FNM list

4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Invisible Stalker
4 Mirran Crusader
3 Skinshifter
2 Thrun, the Last Troll 3 Angelic Destiny
2 Mana Leak
2 Negate
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Sword of War and Peace 4 Razorverge Thicket
4 Seachrome Coast
2 Sunpetal Grove
2 island
7 forest
4 Hinterland Harbor
1 glacial fortress

Creatures (17)

Spells (17)

Land (26)

4 Inkmoth Nexus
22 Swamp

Sideboard (15)

By: Smitty of www.60cards.com

The Deck currently considered the only Tier 1 deck in the format.

Wolf Run Ramp A Standard Magic deck, by Brian Sondag 1st place at a StarCityGames.com Standard Open tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, United States on 2011-10-09
Maindeck: Artifact Creatures 3 Solemn Simulacrum 3 Wurmcoil Engine Creatures 1 Acidic Slime 1 Birds of Paradise 3 Primeval Titan 4 Viridian Emissary Instants 4 Beast Within Planeswalkers 4 Garruk, Primal Hunter Sorceries 4 Green Sun's Zenith 4 Rampant Growth 3 Slagstorm Basic Lands 9 Forest 3 Mountain Lands 4 Copperline Gorge 4 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Kessig Wolf Run 4 Rootbound Crag Sideboard: 1 Ratchet Bomb 3 Sword of Feast and Famine 2 Tree of Redemption 1 Viridian Corrupter 4 Ancient Grudge 3 Thrun, the Last Troll 1 Slagstorm Mono Green Wolf Run - Conley Woods www.Channelfireball.com

Innistrad Draft - First Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sat, 1 Oct 2011 12:35:00 -0400

So I drafted Innistrad for the first time last night. Despite my vocal dislike for the set, I entered the draft at TOGIT last night.

I did this for two reasons. I still need cards from the new set, although I have almost everything I need for my current standard deck of choice, Bant Pod; and I knew that the standard tournament was going to be pretty weak overall as no one has enough of the set to field a fully tricked out deck, unless they were playing almost 100% scars block cards pre-rotation. True to my prediction, the entries into standard were anemic. I did want to test out my new mostly tricked out Bant Pod list, though so I signed up for one round then dropped to draft.

Standard FNM

I was paired against a dad, Ned, who was learning to play Magic so that he and his son could play together. This was his first FNM, and his son's second. Will, the son, was also in the tournament and I had helped both of them build decks and prepare for some of the rules interaction and procedural stuff that doesn't matter over a kitchen table but does matter in a tournament setting. We had a 10 minute extension because I had just finished helping another brand new player, Mike, put his deck together for standard as well; taking his forty card deck and upgrading it to a standard sixty card list.

Side Note - I've mentioned this before but cultivating new players is absolutely essential to keeping the game healthy and active. If you see new players in your store, please welcome them, help them build decks, learn rules, etc. Being a jerk only makes it worse for the entire community in the long run. - End Note

So Ned and I battle it out. Ned is rocking a UB list with Zombie Infestation, some blue tricks, and some black removal. Given his understandably small card pool for having just started this exceptionally complex little hobby, it wasn't a bad deck. It was not, however, in any way prepared for the normal competitive lists that frequent our little corner of FNM. My Bant Pod list just ran him over, doing some of the Magical Christmasland stuff I talked about in the primer from earlier this week. He had no real way to interact with my lines of play, and couldn't profitably attack through my team, so he got run over in short order. So even though I had an extension for 5-10 minutes or so I didn't need them, and we finished our two games before time was called.

I always feel bad about smashing new players. I mean I get that this is a competitive environment, which is a big reason I like it, and that he knew this going into it, but I can't help but feel that if a person doesn't get some sense of their own success, either through winning or some other way, then they are less likely to come back and try again. I am very invested in making sure that as many people keep coming out to FNM as possible, for a whole host of reasons, so I always feel like I am jeopardizing that when I take my tournament tuned deck and experience level and just stomp on a newer player. I don't want to give them a false sense of success, but neither do I want to remove any feeling of competitiveness they might have which would help get them to return next time. I make up for it by being, to a certain extent, a host and emcee for them, addressing rules questions they have, and generally making them feel welcome in our community, and not lost in a sea of unhelpful or unfriendly sharks. So, feeling a bit bad for winning, I reported and dropped to enter the draft.

No to get to what you're really here for: Innistrad.
Innistrad is a pretty varied limited environment. There are a lot of different types of decks you can make, even some corner cases, like the deck I ended up drafting.

I do not in any way suggest that you attempt in draft what I attempted if you intend to win a draft. I did not win, but my deck could easily have done so. This does not mean it is a good draft archetype. Be warned.

I don't even remember what my first pick first pack was although I remember I didn't play it, but I know what my second pick was: Parallel Lives. I know there are quite a few token producing card in this set and that Parallel Lives was pretty sought after by the commander crowd as a secondary doubling season, so I grabbed it. I also can't deny the thoughts of a G/W/b/u or whatever color token deck in standard... I then got passed double Intangible Virtue and thought if I could get enough token producing cards, I could possibly draft token.dec. This seemed very fun and had the possibility for rather strong shenanigans, so I started picking token producers very high. I drafted double Doomed Traveler, Mausoleum Guards, Midnight Haunting, two Intangible Virture, the Parallel Lives, and a number of other weenie rush support cards, like Travel Preparatons or Selfless Cathar. My deck ended up with a pretty low curve, a lot of weenies, a bit of removal, and the potential for token producing nuttiness.

Nuttiness was the correct description. When my deck was firing with all cylinders, it killed by turn 4-5 rather consistently. At one point I had out 2 Intangible Virtue, Parallel Lives and my opponent had to block and kill my Mausoleum Guards to stay alive. I made four spirit tokens that were 3/3 vigilant flyers. I attacked for almost 20 the next turn.

I also had the nut draw of human 1 drop, Hamlet Captain 2 drop and Silver-Inlaid Dagger three drop swing for 7.

The deck was a blast to play, had some seriously powerful lines of play, but was not what you'd call consistent. It could draw the Intangible Virtues, then never draw token producers. It could draw token producers and not the enchantments, or it could have both but no way of killing off your own guys in order to capitalize on the enchantments.

If you were crazy enough to try and draft this deck, here are some things I think my deck needed. Draft the new pacifism, Bonds of Faith, very high, as we need removal. Ghostly Possession is very bad both in our deck and against our deck, don't play it in the deck and have outs for an opposing one. You don't have to be white, but I'd recommend it. White has the most common token producers by far. Have a sac outlet. I personally suggest Demonmail Hauberk, as we generally don't have a shortage of little weenies just dying to help us suit up a Hauberk. This allows us to REALLY put on the pressure with our token flyers, otherwise we have to wait for our opponents to be under enough pressure to have to kill our 1/1's or not have any way past them but to attack in.

Updating Bant Pod for Innistrad Standard

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:38:00 -0400

Thoughts on Updating Bant Pod for Innistrad Standard

Old Pod lists
Cards rotating marked in ~~strikethrough~~

24 Lands
4 ~~Misty Rainforest~~
2 ~~Tectonic Edge~~
1 Plains
2 Island
7 Forest
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Razorverge Thicket

26 Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
3 ~~Llanowar Elves~~
2 Viridian Emissary
2 Phantasmal Image
3 ~~Sea Gate Oracle~~
1 Blade Splicer
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Acidic Slime
1 Razor Hippogriff
1 Archon of Justice
1 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine (I used Sunblast Angel in this slot as my meta is pretty strong Aggro)
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

8 Spells
4 ~~Preordain~~
4 Birthing Pod

2 Planeswalkers
2 Venser, the Sojourner

Now these numbers are variable, which is one of the strengths of Pod as an archetype; it is infinitely adaptable.
Some of the plays this deck can pull off are game breaking against a wide variety of opponents, from combo to control to aggro.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
What do we lose?

Card draw is the biggest loss. We no longer have Sea Gate Oracle and Preordain to dig us into pods, threats or lands as needed. This is a huge problem. If a player is able to either remove our pods or stunt our mana then the deck has HUGE problems. The cantrip cards really helped us push through this problem.
In the Preordain slot I am going to try a 2 pack of Think Twice, and a 2 pack of Ponder. No, ponder is nowhere near as good as Preordain in this slot, especially with the loss of the fetch lands, but it's a 1 mana cantrip. Think Twice is a little more pricy but has the potential to draw just as many cards as the 4 pack of Preordain used to, just without the card selection stapled onto it. I considered running Forbidden Alchemy, but the 3 mana cost is pretty bad for us. It's possible for this to end up in the deck anyway, but for now it's on the sidelines.

If Ponder is not working for us, I will be seriously considering running Visions of Beyond. It's not impossible that we'll get to the "threshold" on this. If we do, then it's bonus, but the fact that it is an instant speed cantrip is still really strong.

The real loss is Sea Gate Oracle as a ETB cantrip creature searchable by the pod. Azure Mage might fill the slot, but it's fragile and the card draw costs mana. I'm not sure yet, but it's definitely a contender. Neurok Commando might also have to fit in here, but Shroud is a huge problem, making it useless in the Pod chain.

Another option in the slot of the Sea Gate Oracle, that won't have the immediate effect that the Oracle did, but which might have a much stronger effect over the long game is Mentor of the Meek.

This guy is a very strong player in the new standard and has the potential for major card advantage over the long game if he's not dealt with. For the low cost of 1 mana you draw a card for every creature with power of 2 or less. That's a lot of cards in a Bant Pod list. It is also relevant that it doesn't give an opponent a window to react to it before you get a chance to Pod something, if you play it while Pod is on the board. I've come across many situations where an opponent will dismember a creature of mine with the ETB trigger on the stack, before I have the option of podding it away into something else. This might actually prove to be a stronger card in the long run. Time will tell.

Llanowar Elves can be directly replaced with Avacyn's Pilgrim.

We lose also 6 Lands, 4 Misty Rainforest and 2 Tectonic Edge. These are fairly easily replaced with 4 Hinterland Harbor and 1 Gavony Township and 1 Moorland Haunt.

We also have Ghost Quarter if we really need it against Inkmoths or other annoying lands, like opposing Moorland Haunts or Stensia Bloodhalls.
I really like Gavony Township here, as it makes every single creature into a threat pretty fast.

We'll have to replace some forests with plains, but the land base stays remarkably similar.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Now what cards do we gain?

Boneyard Wurm is a possible finisher in the 2 drop slot.
Gets big fast and hits pretty hard. He is a nombo with some of the cards below, so I'm not sure he makes it yet, as the other cards are stronger. I really like having a strong finisher at each mana cost though, so we'll have to test him.
Skinshifter is also another possibility for this slot.
I REALLY want to run Snapcaster Mage and Mana Leak, but the deck just can't fit it well. There aren't enough non-creature slots to go around to fit this package into the deck too.

Skaab Ruinator seems tailor made for this deck as a 3 drop finisher that can be rebought without the help of a Sun Titan, or even better, WITH the help of a Sun Titan.
It does work against the Boneyard Wurm though... If it comes down to a fight, we need 3 drops more than 2 drops and Skaab is just better all around. He is pretty much an auto inclusion

Roc Egg is just worse. Yes, I thought about it, for a minute. Just a minute, I swear.

So there are a lot of new options in the 3 drop slot now. Skaab Ruinator being one of the strongest, but Geist of Saint Traft is amazing enough to play that I know players trying to stuff four of them in a deck despite the legendary status of our little spirit here. He pairs exceptionally well with swords or other equipment. Too bad for us there isn't really any space to fit those into this deck. Hexproof is relevant for us as he can't be killed by our opponents before we pod him away. They have to target the pod instead of the creature. He also hits pretty hard for 3 mana into an open board. This guy is an amazing late game play.

Fiend Hunter is amazing here as well. This little gem is a functional (minus color and cost) reprinting of an amazing Torment card called Faceless Butcher, which made waves in standard back in the day. This card has the potential to do equally as well. It's relevant that it's a human (not in this deck, per se, but in others) It is really good at slowing a fast aggro deck, removing the best flyer or beater and blocking the second best with that wonderfully big 3 toughness. Have I mentioned that Lightning Bolt is not in the format anymore? Another really strong play is getting multiple ETB triggers of your guys, playing Fiend Hunter removing Geist-Honored Monk, podding away Fiend Hunter, returning Geist-Honored Monk, making two more tokens, and getting Phyrexian Metamorph from the Pod to copy Geist-Honored Monk and make even more tokens. It can do the same thing with Sun Titan, Acidic Slime, or Stonehorn Dignitary.

Another card I absolutely love, and am trying to make work in a bunch of different deck shells, is Geist-Honored Monk. This card is playable on turn three in this deck, and in that case would make 7 additional power on the table. That is a significant clock. Having vigilance is also really good for us as we want to be able to block frequently. Not sure she takes over a slot of Razor Hippogriff or Acidic Slime or Archon of Justice, but it's definitely in the running for a slot. It's good against aggro and against control as a fairly fast fairly hard hitting threat that also happens to be amazing wrath recovery all on it's own.
Magical Christmasland? Phantasmal Image the Monk, Pod away the Image, getting Sun Titan and bringing back the Image again. How much power did that dump onto the board? How big did the original monk get? Yeah. Not bad.

Woodland Sleuth is another possible inclusion. The random part of the gravedigger clause is annoying, but fairly easy to work around with cards like Skaab Ruinator in the deck. I really like being able to pod into the sleuth and bring back a Sun Titan or Elesh Norn on the off chance they got hit by a Despise, or Mind Rot. This is another card that is on the fringe of playability and requires some testing. It has the potential to be really strong, but we'll have to test it and see. The Morbid part of the card barely seems a problem with how easily this deck puts creatures into the grave. 100% morbidity rate with Pod, 70-80% morbidity rate without Pod seems like ok odds to me. (Note - I made up the 70-80% but it seems like a good guess) It is also possible to manipulate which cards we return by exiling the other cards from our grave by playing Skaab Ruinator, and smartly managing our graveyard.

Hollowhenge Scavenger seems like a perfect addition in the Obstinate Baloth Sideboard slot, gaining us life when it's really needed. Again the morbid clause barely seems to ever be an issue. The only problem is that it's a 5 drop instead of a 4 drop, which is relevant in those fast aggro matches.

Other notable inclusions are Mirran Crusader, Gideon Jura (which pods into Sun Titan if you need it to), Traveler's Amulet, Nim Deathmantle, Divine Reckoning, or Creeping Renaissance.

So to wrap up, here's the list I would bring to FNM this Friday if I wanted to play Bant Pod:

23 Lands
4 Hinterland Harbor
1 Gavony Township
1 Moorland Haunt
2 Plains
2 Island
5 Forest
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Razorverge Thicket

28 Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Viridian Emissary
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Spellskite
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Skaab Ruinator
3 Mentor of the Meek
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Hero of Bladehold
1 Stonehorn Dignitary
1 Acidic Slime
1 Geist-Honored Monk
1 Razor Hippogriff
1 Sun Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx or Sunblast Angel, depending on your meta.
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

8 Spells
2 Ponder
2 Think Twice
4 Birthing Pod

1 Planeswalkers
1 Venser, the Sojourner

Sideboard Options
Divine Reckoning
Hollowhenge Scavenger
Mirran Crusader
Creeping Corrosion
Nevermore
Beast Within
Oblivion Ring
Woodland Sleuth
Primeval Titan

So that's the thought process. What do you think?
I'd love to hear your comments.
Mike

Innistrad Prerelease Fun!

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:45:00 -0400

Hello all and welcome to Innistrad.

Among our little store community I have been fairly vocal about my dislike for Innistrad as a set. This is mostly due to my distaste for the transform mechanic and my absolutely unalterable hatred for horror as a genre. Despite all this, and a schedule that made it practically impossible for me to attend a prerelease, I dragged myself out to the Friday night Midnight prerelease event at my local store: TOGIT. I was a zombie (pun intended) all of Saturday and most of Sunday as a result of getting home Saturday morning at around 6am not sleeping all night and staying up watching my daughter all day, but I admit, I had fun. I'm still not sold on the set, but I do like a lot of cards for constructed and playing it in limited wasn't horrible.

Side note - I was sitting across from Emmett who had shown up to crack some packs early, then go home and get some sleep without playing. His pool was just all out insane and it was physically painful for me to watch him drop after having pulled the best sealed deck I have seen in a long time. Some highlights from his WB crazy were: Lilliana of the Veil, Isolated Chapel, the 4/4 flying black demon with the Phyrexian Arena effect stapled on for 5 mana, double intimidate white 2/2, Screeching Bat, a bunch of white removal, some good black removal, the town crier flash 1/4 untap your dudes guy, good beaters in both colors and Unburial Rites. (Emmett, correct me if I am misremembering any of these, but I think I got them all right from my one look through your deck.) I would have payed good money to switch pools with him. Sigh.

We sit down with our packs a little after midnight Saturday morning and start cracking our six sealed boosters. My pool was not the busted constructed money card pool that I was hoping for, by any means, but had some strong limited cards. I quickly eliminated blue as not having enough flying (I know! Blue has a ton of flying in this set, I just didn't get any...sigh) or other good utility cards. Green was just overall poor with nothing strong to speak of, and White had some good removal plus two of the 2/2 intimidate for WW, but not enough other creatures to make it worth more than a splash. I certainly wasn't going to be splashing a card I want to play turn 2 with a WW cost as my third color, so that was out. That left black and red.

Now, I'm not a fan of red or green in this set. Not in limited. Not that they can't be played or that they aren't good, just that the largest concentration of transform cards are found in those two colors, being the werewolf colors and all, so I wasn't too happy to be forced into red. My red however was the nuts in limited: early aggressive creatures, amazing removal, and a mid/late game bomb that will win games all by itself. My black was pretty strong as well giving me some late game card advantage, removal and some needed beaters.

Here's the list I sleeved up:

8 Swamp
9 Mountain
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Graveyard Shovel
1 Cobbled Wings
1 Galvanic Juggernaut (So many people left this in the SB... WHY?!?)
1 Demonmail Hauberk
1 Geistflame
2 Bloodcrazed Neonate
1 Nightbird's Clutches (with a second in the board for the stalling or dinosaur match up)
1 Rakish Heir
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Brimstone Volley (So good)
1 Tormented Pariah
2 Night Revelers (that got switched out for the black 4/3 vamps that get counters against players without humans)
1 Falkenrath Marauders (the bomb of bombs all night)
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Victim of Night (which got boarded for the Nightbird's Clutches in the matches where it was mostly dead, although this was surprisingly a rare occurrence)
2 Walking Corpse
1 Screeching Bat (Which annoyingly is NOT a vampire until it transforms. Have I mentioned I don't like transform cards despite this one being amazing in limited?)
1 Corpse Lunge
1 Moan of the Unhallowed (Is this card constructed playable? Probably not but it felt that way all night)

I went 4-1 on the night.
I won so many games by just curving out with a Neonate turn 2, a Crossway Vampire turn 3, a Walking Corpse and a Nightbird's Clutches turn 4 and a Falkenrath Marauders turn 5. Yes this happened. A lot. I really felt like even if they had removal it wouldn't matter in those cases the opening plays were so strong. I only lost one match all night to another player who went 4-1, and I lost due to my own play mistake, and a stupid second keep, although his deck was really strong and he played it well. Since I made top 8, it was 6am when the top 8 was announced, and pretty much everyone wanted to go home; we all split the packs and the eight of us left with nine packs each. I probably would have played one less swamp and one more mountain in hindsight.

A couple of things I learned about Innistrad Sealed:

It's a faster format than people initially give it credit for.
People trade critters a LOT to turn on Morbid, making the right play to NOT BLOCK AND TRADE many more times than you'd think, also speeding up the format.
Galvanic Juggernaut is the nuts. Play with it and see for yourself, but it's really really good.
Brimstone Volley is constructed playable in standard.
MD ways to break through blockers, and there are a lot of good ones in the format.
You want to play a sac outlet, as you can't always rely on your opponent to kill off your creatures when you want them to die. I played Demonmail Hauberk and did not regret it ever.
Even without the zombie clause a 1 mana gravedigger (without the dude attached) is really strong allowing you to advance your board AND get a guy back in the same turn, sometimes playing the guy you just returned. Flashback on your best guy for 1 more black mana as the flashback cost? Yes please! Playing UB zombies? Then this card is just the all out nuts.
Walking corpse is a good guy! No, really!
Rakish Heir might just make Vampires a deck again all by itself. Wish it had more good one drops than just the Noble, but still.
Moan of the Unhallowed is excellent.
Graveyard Shovel is surprisingly useful. Keeping your opponents graveyard clear of cards is pretty good, and sometimes gaining life from your own or their creatures is just bonus. This gets rid of a LOT of things that would be really annoying otherwise.

Ok, that's all for me today. Hope you enjoyed it. See you next time, probably talking about the new Standard format.
Mike

New Stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:02:00 -0400

Modern is a format now. This is pretty cool. I really like eternal formats like legacy, but as I have noted before I am slightly short on the cards for that format. Modern is great for me because it is all the sets I played in a LOT. With the notable exception of the shock lands, I have a lot of the important cards for the format already. I'm brewing up a list with Melira and persist dudes to go infinite with a sac outlet and either kitchen finks for infinite life, or Murderous Redcap for infinite damage. The deck is pretty fun, but so far in testing has difficulty with an even BETTER infinite combo of Emrakul and Emrakul. Yes I know he's legendary. Cloudpost decks are now running two Emrakuls and one Eye of Ugin. With enough mana, 18 or more, they search up an Emrakul and play it. Then they take their extra turn, attack with Emrakul, and then search up the second Emrakul, play it, shuffle both back into the library and take another turn. They will never deck out, and never run out of turns. They will be able to attack and annihilator 6 each OTHER turn for as long as they like. Oh and they can do this consistently on turn 4-6 or so. It's pretty scary.

My deck, on the other hand gains infinite life turn 3 and can do infinite damage turn 4-6 or so, which means that it has the ability to race if it needs. And if I SB in an Emrakul of my own, I'll never deck out, which means even if I have 0 permanents for the rest of the game, but I have 892 billion life, 1 or 2 Emrakuls are not getting there. If I want to be a jerk, I can force the draw. The problem on my side is that once I get hit by any Eldrazi and have to sac permanents, I don't have enough land left in play to win. All is Dust is very good at slowing me down, usually, if it comes when needed, the turn before I go infinite.

A rough outline of the Melira deck looks like this:
4 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4 Viscera Seer
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Murderous Redcap and some search spells.
There are a bunch of different ways to build this once you have the base combo set up, but I like the Jund option.

Zoo is fairly strong as well, but pretty much requires a land base that costs around 800$ and a playsets of Dark Confidant and Tarmogoyfs, none of which I have.

I have to admit I like a format that has so many cards that almost anything is possible. I like infinite combos and I like seriously fast aggro decks. Once the format settles a bit the control decks will appear and I'll probably like those too, knowing me. So overall I am extremely happy with the state of Modern.

Now for something completely different.

I've started altering Magic cards and, since I don't paint, I've been cutting up a lot of cards to make 3D versions. I've done two so far, Skywinder Drake and Act of Treason.

What do you think?

And on a third, completely unrelated note, I started organizing my rather massive collection of Magic cards. I, with the help of some rather generous friends (Thanks Rob, Justin, and Jess!), have been taking every single card I own, sorting them by color and set, and archiving them. I've done all the expansion sets (read: I haven't done the core sets yet) from Beta all the way through Shards block.

At one point my table looked like this:

And this wasn't even close to all of them.
I still have a lot to do. Wish me luck!

Drafted twice! OMG! Won the second time as well.

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Mon, 8 Aug 2011 13:16:00 -0400

I started out the last article by saying I never draft. Then I went and described how I won the first draft I played in in months. Let me tell you, winning is really good incentive to play again. So is playing for free. I won 5 pack at the end of the night on Friday night, after spending 4 packs to get into the draft. Yay on making more money than I spent! So I had 5 packs on store credit. Since I had some time to myself (for once) on Sunday afternoon, I went to TOGIT and drafted, spending 4 of my 5 store credit packs for the entry fee. WHEE I could get used to this!

We had eight players this time, versus the 18 we had on Friday night. Drafting starts, and I open skinshifter as my rare. No way in hell do I want to be green in this format, so I look at the other cards in the pack. I see some good black, and white, neither of which I'm really interested in, and an incinerate, which I take. Next pack I get passed a fireball... wait someone passed me a fireball?!? Really? Yup, I'm in red no matter what now. After that I take an alabaster mage in a very unremarkable pack, a peregrine griffin, thinking I'd go WR, and a skywinder drake from a pack with almost no red or white at all. Then I get passed an aether adept, then another skywinder drake, pick 10 or so. At this point I'm thinking blue is wide open, or people are wildly misvaluing their cards, either of which I'm happy about so I move into blue. I round out the pack with a very late shock and some goblin tunnelers to go with my fiery hellhound. Other than the incinerate and the shock I am very low on tricks, especially ones that can deal with high toughness blockers like spiders so I go into pack 2 looking for those.

Pack two starts and again I am looking at a horrible rare, worldslayer.

Gah that's a bad card. I mean really? How is this ever good? You'd have to have something like 5 different cards assembled to make this thing more than 100% even. It is not balance, or smallpox or anything close to that. Yuck.

So I take the foil Greatsword and ship the pack. Second pick, foil Skywinder drake, which for those of you counting along at home makes 3. Third pick azure mage in a really rough choice between chandra's outrage azure mage and chasm drake. However I think azure mage is really important for this kind of deck. Most of the draw spells in the format are sorcery speed (the non-rare ones at least) and I don't really want to be spending my main phase mana on something other than a guy, or leaving mana open during their turn for one of my few tricks. Azure mage helps me draw cards and lets me use my mana in the way that makes the most sense for my deck. I did see an act of treason floating around, but wanted to make sure my creature curve was on track before picking that up. Then I see fling. It was in a pack without much else going for it, so it was an easy choice, and I start looking for crumbling colossus, act of treason, or fiery hellhounds to make that nice little fling game breaking.

Now I know that the guy to my right is almost mono green as he keeps talking about the AWESOME GARRUK he opened, and the guy to my left is at least partially in black for the Sorin Markov that he showed the table in order to stay at parity with the Garruk guy, so I'm feeling pretty good about my colors.

Side Note: Don't talk about your draft like that. It's bad form. End Note.

I pick up a late goblin fireslinger and a gift of a Stormblood Berserker (OMG!!) pick 8 or 9 and I'm feeling pretty good.

Then red and blue dry up for the rest of the pack. I start getting really late white cards like another peregrine griffin. My last three cards in pack 2 were, in order, stave off, divine favor, and stave off... Yes, I got a stave off as my force pick. Someone in white must be really bad or the ONLY white drafter at the table.

Looking through my list before opening pack three, I see I am a bit short on 1 drops and could use a finisher or two.

Pack three I open up flip through the commons, to the uncommons, to the rare, and see Chandra. On color planes walker pack three? Twist my arm why don't you...

YAY! I draft for free AND get 35$ out of it! Not to mention two people had asked me before the draft if I had any Chandra's for trade, so YAY TRADING! I mean I like Chandra, but I think Garruk is the best of the new planeswalkers for constructed, and I don't have plans to build Chandra.dec, so yeah I'll trade her away. Other notable cards in the first pack were a very nice chasm drake which I really want, but can't take above chandra, and another shock.

Pick two I am happy to see a phantasmal dragon staring back at me going "Psst, I'm a finisher! Five power flyers for four are good!" So I listen to the dragon and take it. Another skywinder drake makes its way into my pile (4 and counting). I pick another fling, but fail to find anymore act of treason. I do find two goblin arsonists, which really over performed. Seriously, this card is the nuts in draft, trading up for 2 drops on the block or their really good 1 toughness guy while chumping a big dude. He's a 1/1 unblockable a lot of the time, and is frequently a 2 for 1, or turning on your bloodthirst dudes.

The chasm drake tabled, really? Wow... Ok, thanks!

Third to last pick, pack three? Skywinder drake again, but I pick the goblin arsonist to have a better 1 drop slot (was totally the right call), but I could have had five sky winder drakes. Wow.

I pick a late bone breaker giant, ice cage, and frost breath, to round out my deck. My force pick pack three? Stave off... again. Happy. White. Drafter... Sheesh.

So I build my deck and it has a top end of 5cc for the one chasm drake (bonebreaker didn't make the cut, but got sided in against anyone with spiders). So I run 16 lands with an even split of 8 mountains and 8 islands.

The deck played out like this:
Turn 1 - Fireslinger or arsonist.
Turn 2 - Goblin piker, or azure mage, or goblin tunneler, or, in the best case scenario, stormblood berserker with bloodthirst.
Turn 3 - Skywinder drake, or fiery hellhound, or aether mage
Turn 4 - Skywinder drake, or phantasmal dragon, or draw a card or burn something
Turn 5 - Skywinder drake, chasm drake, act of treason something and fling it, fireball
Turn 6 - Win

Round 1 I play Nick and just stomp him games 1 and 3, but he has an amazing draw in game 2 while I can't block or race. Act of treason and fling made an appearance here when he played his sphinx of uthuun (which I passed), so I took it, swung with it, then flung it at his face. God that felt good.
1-0

Round 2 playing one of the two mono green players at the table, Scott (not Garruk guy), who has like infinite dudes, a few spiders, and generally was a really tough match. Ok, Scott did have a black splash but he was mostly green. Scott had also won against the only white drafter at the table, Mike, in round one, whose deck was insane. I guess having the card that gives your guys intimidate, and being able to cast that and overrun on the same turn wins games. Game one he wins rather easily as he gets an early spider, and I get a bunch of skywinder drakes that can't attack past his spider, and can't block his guys, so I die. Games 2 and three I am able to win very close races thanks to having incinerate for his 4/3 regenerating dude, frost breath for his spiders, and lots of 3/1 flyers. Oh and the act of treason plus fling showed up again.
2-0

Round 3 I'm undefeated, as is my opponent, Sergey, yes same Sergey as from Friday night. So we draw into Top 4, and I go get food.
2-0-1

Top 4 I play Ken, who is also red blue, but doesn't have the tricks to force through damage or the faster curve that I have, so I am able to race him games 1 and 3, while he takes game 2 due to my slow start.

Top 2 Draw with Sergey again.
3-0-2 and 4 packs to replace the 4 packs I used to get into the draft in the first place.

Did I mention that Sergey had 4 shocks in his deck? Four. Shocks. In. His. Deck.

Yikes. Those would have been pretty good versus like... everything in my deck? Glad we split dude. Thanks!

So that was my draft. It was a lot of fun. Hoped you enjoyed reading it.
Mike

Drafting a win.

noreply@blogger.com (Rogue Insight) — Sat, 6 Aug 2011 15:30:00 -0400

So I don't draft much. I mean it. I draft about 3 - 4 times a year. However I have this nice arrangement with a friend of mine, Larry, who likes to play Magic, but doesn't want the cards and only plays limited. He buys a box of the current set, whenever he's in town. We play sealed deck with the packs, and I keep the cards afterwards. It's a pretty sweet deal for me, I admit! Thanks, Larry!
So Larry was staying with us for about a week while he was in the USA, and we played Magic ... a lot. So I've got a much better feel for the M12 format than I have had for most other limited formats, since I've now played a LOT of M12 sealed. I know, I know, draft and sealed can play out pretty differently. But they do have some similarities. Here are some of the things I've learned about sealed, and by extension, draft.

1. This is a fast aggressive format. No, really, it's FAST. One mana 2/2 commons are in the set people... One mana 1/1 unblockable with almost no drawback. Oh and a one mana player pinger (might as well be a 1/1 unblockable) all at common. Fast.

2. Bomb rares are still good, but there are a LOT of ways to push through damage in uncommon and common. Good drafters know this already, but you have to build your deck with your commons. Go in with a plan for dealing with fast aggression, or you'll die to it very quickly.

3. Play guys, and lots of them. No creatures = quick death. I opened six packs and three planeswalkers, Gideon, Garruk, and Chandra. All bomb mythics and a huge pool of removal. I totally killed with that deck right? Wrong. There were no creatures. My largest creature pool was in green (which is bad in M12) and it had eight. Seriously? Eight creatures? In GREEN!?!? Sigh. Even with Garruk and a lot of removal in red and black, making the choice of secondary color interesting, I got run over by a deck with almost no removal at all. Larry played eighteen creatures in his deck that match. I was dead on board by turn 4 or 5 almost every game, despite two or three removal spells. It was brutal. My walkers never really got into it because I couldn't slow the initial onslaught of guys. The few times I did win, it was because Garruk took over the game and Larry's lack of spells to deal with it let me stall until the ultimate just won me the game. In that time I was still BARELY able to hold off Larry from killing me or Garruk even with making a 3/3 every turn. Moral of the story: play creatures at every CC on your curve, with an emphasis on turns 2 and 3 (even turn one if you get them).

4. Crumbling Colossus is really good. Really really good. Try playing with him, and you'll see what I mean.

5. If you don't have an aggressive deck, get yourself some Peregrine Falcons, because the first strike is a really good tool when trying to win combat. It's an underrated card and can put the brakes on aggressive decks pretty fast.

6. Lightning Elemental is better in M12 than it was in other sets.

So here's the deck I played to a 6-1-1 record on the night.

1 Unsummon
2 Phantasmal Bear
1 Goblin Fireslinger
1 Fling
1 Incinerate
2 Azure Mage
1 Crimson Mage
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Goblin Piker
2 Fiery Hellhound
1 Skywinder Drake
1 Greatsword
1 Lightning Elemental
2 Gorehorn Minotaurs
2 Crumbling Colossus
2 Chasm Drake
1 Volcanic Dragon
9 Mountains
8 Islands

19 Creatures, 1 Equipment, 3 Tricks, 17 land.
3 1CC Creatures
5 2CC Creatures
3 3CC Creatures
3 4CC Creatures
4 5CC Creatures
1 6CC Creatures

During the draft I passed a Sphinx of Uthuun for a Chasm Drake, and I stand by that choice.

Let's look at some of the synergies here:
Chasm Drake + Crumbling Colossus or Fiery Hellhound = a lot of damage.
Goblin Tunneler + Fiery Hellhound = unblockable Fireball
Fling + Fiery Hellhound or Crumbling Colossus = dead opponent, especially if you fling the colossus with the sac trigger on the stack (or unsummon it at the same time).
Greatsword + the entire deck (minus the illusions) = must block threats of every 1/1 and 2/1 in the deck (bonus points if you make your azure mage unblockable with Goblin Tunneler and THEN equip the greatsword).
Crimson Mage + every creature except the bears, the dragon and the elemental = an entire hasty deck.

Let's talk about the matches for a minute.

Most of the games played out like this:
Turn 1 Bear, or Land Pass.
Turn 2 Attack with Bear, play land cast a Mage.
Turn 3 Play a high power threat, like Sky Winder Drake or Fiery Hellhound
Turn 4 play a 5/5 for four, or a hasty 4/1
Turn 5 play a Colossus or Chasm Drake
Turn 6 Win.
At some point along that path the opponent would kill one of my guys or bounce one, but I'd just keep swinging for the face.

Match 1 I played Will, who had some mana issues in our three games. He was able to stabilize in one of our three games, and win, but in games one and three he mulled to five and I won in the fashion described above.
1-0
Match 2 I am paired up against Larry and his untargetable Dungrove Elder, who with the help of a
trollhide, was able to grind me out Game 1, but I proceed to win games two and three rather handily.
2-0
Match 3 I lose to George with his double Jace's Erasure, Merfolk Mesmerist, Belltower Sphinx, Peregrine Falcon, Foil Timely Reinforcements, Alabaster Mage, Pacifism, Merfolk Looter, double Divination, double Ponder monstrosity. I did win game 1, but lost games two and three rather horribly. Game two I lost to getting decked, game three to damage. He played Timely Reinforcements against me for full value both games. It sucked. Yeesh, that card is a beating.
2-1
Match 4 I get paired up and play Shawn who is 3-0 with his four color double manalith all the removal you can wish for deck, that decides to give him a lot of land and not very many spells. I kill him on turn 5 in game 1 after which he asks me how I'm not 3-0. Then I kill him on turn 7 or 8 in the next game. It wasn't pretty.
3-1
Match 5 Versus Josh who is also 3-1, and we ID into top 8. Josh and I play it out and he wins 2-1. His deck was pretty good, and better at playing the tempo game than mine, with aether adepts, islandwalking crocs and Sphinx of Uthuun to draw him into five lands, no joke. Sorry you lost in Top 8, bro, but I'm glad I didn't have to play you again, heh.
3-1-1
Top 8 pairings go up and I'm paired with George again... CRAP!
Game one he wins the die roll and chooses to play first. I proceed to curve out, Bear, Mage, Drake, Elemental, Colossus, Dragon. I'm swinging for serious damage each turn, but he's racing with alabaster mage. He does the math wrong on his last attack taps out and swings for 8 lifelink while he's at three life to put him at 11 and I have exactly 11 points of power on the table for the swing back (my guys are all tapped out from swinging for his face every turn) and I go to 5, killing him on the return swing. He was pretty mad about the mistake, but I would have had him next turn no matter what with another colossus and a fling in my hand, with Crimson mage and exactly enough to play the colossus, give it haste, swing and then fling it after damage.
Game two is an epic battle where he gets repeatedly low on life and repeatedly finds the life gain answers in alabaster mage and timely reinforcements (GOD is that card good!) and I lose.
Game three I get him very low on life (16) despite alabaster and timely reinforcements AGAIN, and I set up Goblin Tunneler and Fiery Hellhound with a LOT of mountains, putting him on a two turn clock, during which he does not find another answer, and I win with fling in hand again, just in case.
4-1-1
Top 4 I play Mike. Mike was playing green and blue, but I honestly didn't see much of his deck. Our games went like this:
Turn two azure mage. Turn three azure mage. Turn four Fiery Hellhound. Turn five Chasm Drake. Turn six colossus, turn 7 win with another colossus in hand.
5-1-1
Top 2 I play Shawn again and destroy him again rather handily. Sorry Shawn.
6-1-1

Not bad for the guy who never drafts. Maybe I'll draft again...