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Mercadian Masques

The last few blocks of Magic sets we’ve examined have had a distinctly high fantasy kind of style to them. I tend to associate Guay’s inherent style with this high fantasy feel, but I also enjoy seeing how she approaches magic expansions that have artificially or externally imposed stylistic guidelines. Not since the Mirage expansion have we seen a set with as unique and distinctive a style, as Mercadian Masques has. As was the case in part 1 of this series, when we looked at Guay’s Mirage cards, her Masques block cards rise to the stylistic occasion, and her cards help shape the overall feel of these sets. They are the execution of the stylistic vision for this setting.

Crackdown

Crackdown is such a suspenseful image, it definitely puts me in a adventurous mood. Surrounded! Oh snap! I’m not sure how well the scene really represents the effect of the card, though I suppose the suppression of creatures part makes sense. I guess I just don’t intuitively see why small creatures are exempted from this ambush being portrayed. It’s a minor point about how the overall effect of the card hangs together, but the artwork is great. The wardrobe of the surrounded chaps in the foreground is a great example of the distinctively Masques style to which I referred above.

Reverent Mantra

This is a personal favorite, a piece I’ve copied onto the lid of one of my box lids for practice and added decoration. Dork customization, right? Plain white cardboard lids are so boring.

There is some disconnect, again, when I think of the card as a whole, mainly due to the name here. I’m not sure whether I get a reverent, respectful vibe here, or more of a love / cherish tone. Maybe it’s merely the mantra which is reverent, and the broad shouldered man is expressing his love for this woman through this formal, almost monastic act. Or maybe his averted gaze suggests that his mantra is the only thing keeping his love in check… is this woman off limits to the man? Perhaps he is her escort? Her arms are folded which does signify being closed off. It’s a posture of rejection, not embrace. Maybe I can dig the name after all. Either way, the flowing robes, the interplay of the two subjects’ postures, it’s all very beautiful, and my eyes just want to wander around, taking it in. These are both beautiful people to look at.

Diplomatic Escort

The hair here always makes me think “merfolk,” which is to say “underwater.” The shell-like shield doesn’t help either. But I guess if static electricity can play with one’s hair, then who am I to say that a little spellshaping can’t do likewise? Cool dresses here, on both the escort and her diplomat in the background.

Dark Ritual

Ah, Dark Ritual. This is among the most sought after Guay cards. It’s a common, but as the first and for a long time only foil printing of Dark Ritual available (which has been printed in twelve normal sets and a handful of promotional products), the common commonly sold for $20 USD. The artwork is trippier that most of the Guay pieces we’ve seen thus far. We’ve seen some dreamy images, but this is Sgt. Pepper territory, I think. The ritual doesn’t seem extremely dark to me, however, which kind of adds to the charm of this card, I think. I mean, consider some of the other printings…

Tom Fleming, from Urza’s Saga:

Ken Meyers, Tempest:

Clint Langley, 5th Edition:

My previous favorite, the hilarious Justin Hampton version from Ice Age:

(more awesome D&D notes artwork, that…)

And of course, the original Alpha version by Sandra Everingham:

Coming full circle, let’s see Guay’s once more.

I think Guay’s version of Dark Ritual offers a nice tribute to the prior versions, with its cloaked figures, while still being a Guay piece through and through. The druidic circle, the blue earthlike sphere they stand upon, and the tye dye cloud and pencil line 1960s swirly eye lashes, all contribute to the psychedelia. This is a cool, sought after, iconic, and trippy card and a highlight for many a Guay collector.

Strongarm Thug

Once more we see a card that really expresses the feel of Mercadian Masques, with marauding pirates, swashbucklers, rebels and mercenaries. Puffy shirts everywhere. Dig the patterns on the choke-slammed guy’s MC Hammer pants. So cool. And the similar tailoring on his Alladin vest? Very cool details. This has a jarring feeling, obviously, of the dude being slammed into the wall, his scimitar falling useless to the ground. I dig it.

Hammer Mage

This set features several of the few non-gorgeous subjects in Guay’s Magic portfolio. Most of her characters tend to be stunningly gorgeous babes or valiant looking Princes with some Legolas elf types for good measure. But here we actually see a rotund old timer smacking some sparkling, presumably magic hammers together. His flowing cape rocks, with its detailed moon and stars print and blowing folds. Stunned merchants in the background are a nice touch, setting us in the typical crowded streets and bazaars of the Mercadian Masques setting. Another spellshaper, this, he’s got a sweet beard and some rocking puffy capri pants… aka pantaloons. Any SCA enthusiasts out there reading this who want to make me this outfit?

Tectonic Break

Yeah, this is the terrible Roland Emmerich movie 2012 in Magic form in a lot of ways. A tectonic plate falls into the sea, bringing with it a large manor in the foreground. More waves! I still think “The Ship Struck a Rock,” by Edmund Dulac from his Arabian Nights, has influenced Guay’s rendering of a crashing wave. What do you think?:

Volcanic Wind

What you see here are some Wumpi… at least I’m guessing that’s the plural of the make-believe creature, the Wumpus, which inhabits the Mercadian realm. I know that if you try to google “wumpus” looking for a description of the beast, you’ll find a neat computer game called Hunt the Wumpus, and it seems that someone at Wizards of the Coast must have played the game, cause there’s even a card in MM called Hunted Wumpus. But I digress.

You see some Wumpi engulfed in a pillar of fire. I imagine Mrs. Guay may have seen just such a description when she was tasked with this piece, and can imagine it wasn’t among her most enjoyable projects. Coming from the desert southwest as I do, I actually like the mesas and the fiery sunset sky in this one. Even the weird fire tornado would be okay, I think, if the Wumpi weren’t like comical caricatures of the beasts seen in other pieces. They look like gingerbread cookies or plastic toys… you even see one being blasted into the air. Am I reading too much into this to see it as a subtle commentary from the artist on how she feels about portraying the noble Wumpus? Either way, when I pass this card in my collection, I mostly smirk at its oddity… see the burning circus animal cookies, and move on. This isn’t hate, it’s just not a piece with a lot of intrinsic Guay-ness.

Briar Patch

Briar Patch is another beast piece I’m not terribly fond of. It’s a briar patch hiding a pack of hyenas, who are, it seems, hindered by the briar patch, though in a lame, minimal way (which is appropriate for the card’s effect, honestly). I think I see a little bleeding scratch on one hyena’s shoulder. Don’t get me wrong, again… this is passable beast illustration, by all means, but I doubt many Guay fans will name Briar Patch as her crowning achievement.

Sacred Prey

Okay, Sacred Prey is a cool example of a card whose elements don’t hang together well, causing dissonance, confusion and bewilderment. A third beast illustration, this one once more has a passable beast image which might nonetheless fail to be picked out of a police lineup of Magic cards as a Guay piece, even by some moderate fans. A large feline of some kind (likely a “Jhovall,” another contrived beast type like “Wumpus”) in the foreground is growling, perhaps in the moment of springing into attack, as a frightened horse comes running around the bend. The card, however, is a Creature – Beast. But wait, isn’t this the Prey? Is this card the horse, and it’s a weird beast horse? Doesn’t “beast” suggest this is the cat? The flavor text reads “To see one is a good omen…” That might seem to suggest the horse. The ability gives you life when this creature is blocked… does that mean when it’s eaten, or feasting?

These mysteries are unsolved, and the case has run cold. Alas, we may never know what is going on with this card, mechanically.

Vernal Equinox

This organic, almost abstract feeling piece is somewhat out of the ordinary in subject. It’s got an endearing feeling of mysticism and magic to it. The mysterious runes complement the card’s name, the equinox being significant in all sorts of astrological mysticism. It also has a neat effect, letting everything go instant speed, but for both players… a cool “global” enchantment. When cards affect both players equally, they’re known as “symmetrical” in Magic parlance, and this is one such card, fittingly so for its themes. Elegant, nifty, and peculiar. I’ve always liked it.

Saprazzan Cove

There aren’t a whole lot of distant landscape kind of cards in Guay’s work, but this one has an interesting vantage point. Maybe this is the view from one of the dirigibles in Mercadia? Anyhow, it’s the kind of card that makes me want to play D&D. That gets me thinking about this place… where’s the ship headed? Who lives here? I want to explore the place. I guess, in short, it’s a compelling place painting. I love the towers, or minarets or what have you in the foreground. There are cool little details here and there.

Battle Royale Box Set

Battle Royale had two cards we’ve seen before:

Angelic Page

This remains one of the all time cutest angels in Magic. Aw, shucks.

Elvish Lyrist

The posture still seems ever so slightly off to me.

Nemesis
Released in February 2000, Nemesis continues the story with the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria on the verge of beginning.

Animate Land

Wicked! I can imagine this tattooed on someone’s arm in a biker bar. “Nice ink, man!”

Animate Land is one of a wonderful subset of experimental pieces from Guay, featuring acid-trippy, melty, shifting, or otherwise phantasmagoric beings of illusion that are just plain cool to examine. Here a patchwork of flora, fungi, and growth resembling coral and underwater worms are pulled and polymorphed into a dragonlike composite creature. It’s an inspired representation of the effect of the card, which literally animates the land momentarily. The pithy flavor text is a fun garnishment.

Fog Patch

Elves lost in the fog. It’s a cool piece. It would have to be a dense magical fog to stop a group of elves, I’d think. But then, perhaps the elves have summoned the fog? This piece features beautiful garments adorning our elven subjects, though they seem more panicked than the passive flavor text and foggy mood might suggest. These are minor criticisms though, and overall I enjoy this piece for its fair elves and flowing garments, all with the hallmark misty depth.

Prophecy
Aura Fracture

Striking, this piece catches your eye. The pretty woman is hidden, curled up in her egg like force bubble. Spikes or shards of rock protrude sharply upward, and they seem to be the actual phenomenon being portrayed, given the nature of the ability… this woman’s shield is being burst. If anything, she seems a bit calm, given that, but her odd pose is pulled off well I think, and there’s electricity and energy to this one. I’m reminded of Glendra, the good witch, as she floats down in a bubble to Dorothy’s aid in the Wizard of Oz.

Calming Verse

This piece is just gorgeous. It doesn’t hurt that the subject is an incredibly attractive, tall slender woman in sheer and translucent gowns. This piece is tantalizing and sexy. Alluring. And I suppose, after a hard day’s work, sure, it’s calming! I certainly feel no angst or expectancy when I consider this piece. The word “verse” in the title, and the performance-like pose of this woman’s arm, make me imagine her having just finished a lovely stanza of a poem, or a soft lullaby. Ahhh. Very pretty.

Okay, that’s all for this installment. Join me again next time when we explore the Invasion block and beyond.

Cheers,

Zak

M11 Draft #1

Among the other 5 new artworks announced was a new Mishras Factory:

Not my favorite, really, but the coolness factor of the card counts for something. Alas, I find both the new planeswalkers’ artwork to be lacking and sub-par:

Yeah… I’m not a fan of either one… they seem quite amateurish.

Lastly, in Mike Flores’ article, “Great Looks at Great Decks” we see a neat new image with a link to the old announcement of the From the Vault: Relics release (releases tomorrow at the time of this writing!) that is presumably the new artwork for Sol Ring:

Interesting artistic developments. I can’t wait to get my hands on some of those swords!

Contest ends September 24.

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3rd Prize: 1 large pack of N-Dexers and a free entry to any of our or live online pro workshops

10 Runner Up Prizes:

Each will receive 1 small pack of N-Dexers

Rules:

Become a fan of the Power 9 Pro Facebook page any time between August 13 and September 24, 2010.

Becoming a fan qualifies you for one entry in a drawing to win one of the prizes listed above.

The drawing will be held on September 25, 2010.

A total of 13 entrants will receive prizes (listed above).

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Prizes will be shipped within one week of Scars of Mirrodin official release. Free online workshop entry may be redeemed at any time (winners will receive coupon code).

I was excited to run green/black and started pulling out cards that interested me.  I dug deep into my card collection trying to come up with combos and never seen before interactions.  What I ended up with was a giant stack of cards and only 99 (!) open slots.  *sigh* 

 It seemed like an impossible task; how do I choose between Strip Mine and Wasteland?  How can I fit all of the most broken cards ever printed in Black/Green in to one little 100 card deck?  I can debate card choices with myself all day long.  I feel it is much easier just to stuff the cards in and replace what doesn’t work later (for EDH). 

Since I had access to green I felt that 36 land slots would be perfect due to land search effects.

Lands (36)

Verdant Catacombs Gilt-Leaf Palace Jund Panorama Golgari Rot Farm Twilight Mire Tainted Wood Llanowar Wastes Overgrown Tomb Temple of the False God Barren Moor Volraths Stronghold Tranquil Thicket Bojuka Bog Svogthos, the Restless Tomb Wasteland Mosswort Bridge Strip Mine Cabal Pit 8 Swamp 10 Forest

The next step was thinning down the creatures I had marked for the deck.  With so many options in both black and green, not to mention multi-colored, the choices were tough.  After some quick assessing, I ended up with this:

Creatures (27)

Bala Ged Scorpion Birds of Paradise Cuombajj Witches Desecrator Hag Genesis Gleancrawler Hag Hedge-Mage Heartwood Storyteller Krosan Tusker Krovikan Horror Loaming Shaman Lord of Extinction Masked Admirers Mycoloth Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Nezumi Graverobber Ohran Viper Oracle of Mul Daya Plagued Rusalka Primordial Sage Scute Mob Silklash Spider Skullmulcher Solemn Simulacrum Spiritmonger Viridian Zealot Woodfall Primus

Some strange choices and some no-brainers.   For me, part of the fun with EDH is using cards that rarely see play.  My favorite choice here is Cuombajj Witches, not only for the “what?” factor, but also because of the synergy with Vhati.  Krovikan Horror serves the same purpose, reusable creature kill.  I like the devour creatures in the deck, since I have put many recursion effects in; Mycoloth is way too good combined with Skullclamp.  Gleancrawler, Solemn Simulacrum and Woodfall Primus all combo nicely with devour as well.  Maybe I should up the count of devour creatures, Marrow Chomper perhaps?  Maybe not.  The critters that don’t seem to fit too well are Heartwood Storyteller, Birds of Paradise and Ohran Viper.

It was time for some back up.  Green/black has a great selection of enchantments for EDH.  I feel that every deck running green should run Sylvan Library.  Being able to stack your draws is really important in a Highlander format.

Enchantments/Planeswalkers (10)

Abundance Concordant Crossroads Garruk Wildspeaker Necrogenesis Oversold Cemetery Pernicious Deed Phyrexian Arena Sorin Markov Sylvan Library Wild Pair

Wild Pair is one of my all time favorite enchantments.  Some thought needs to go into your deck construction to thoroughly abuse its power.  Let’s check the synergy with Wild Pair so far; seven creatures have a combined power/toughness of four, four have a combined eight, and three have a combined twelve.  I like the idea of playing Monger and bringing Primus along for the ride. 

Now I needed the utility spells; removal, tutors, card drawing, etc.

Card Drawing/Tutors (11)

Crystal Ball Demonic Tutor Expedition Map Harmonize Insidious Dreams Journeyers Kite Primal Command Senseis Divining Top Skullclamp Souls Majesty Tooth and Nail

EDH is all about tutor effects.  The easier it is to find your answer/threat the better.  It is important to have some degree of deck manipulation.  Crystal Ball is perfect for EDH.  The format tends to be slower (now that Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary has been banned again) allowing incremental development a chance to pay off.  I play the Journeyer’s Kite in my other EDH deck and really like it.

In EDH you need to be able to answer multiple and various things.  Having a broad removal package is very important.

Removal (10)

Dead Reckoning Death Mutation Drain the Well Maelstrom Pulse Morbid Bloom Profane Command Putrefy Nevinyrrals Disk Rancid Earth Sickening Shoal

Rancid Earth has great synergy with our General once we have threshold.  Morbid Bloom is definitely the odd man out, I added it to give myself more devour targets.  I know Maelstrom Pulse seems like a poor choice in EDH, but it is almost a Vindicate and it wrecks tokens.

Extra Bits(5)

Berserk Imps Mischief Restock Sword of Vengeance Worm Harvest

The extra stuff can all be dumped, except for Restock.  The Sword is in because its new. Imp’s Mischief, as the name suggests, can create plenty of ways to mess with the other players, fitting nicely with the political nature of Vhati il-Dal.  Berserk can be a great finisher.

As I look over this list I can see a bunch of holes and cross purpose selections.  Why don’t I have Crucible of Worlds in here?  Why Worm Harvest without Life from the Loam?  Keep in mind this is a casual, multi-player deck.  That being said, I would love any Feedback the readers could give.  Until next time.

Today we begin with the Tempest block, and continue through the 1999 Starter series. So, without further ado, let’s consider some cards!

Tempest

The story that began in Weatherlight would continue through the Tempest block, and on through four years worth of sets, ending finally with the Apocalypse expansion. Thus, the entirety of this period of Guay’s work would be wrapped into the same story arc, were it not for several smaller sets released, such as core sets and starter products. Still, the style we saw in Weatherlight (as seen on Angelic Renewal, Gaeas Blessing, and Serras Blessing) was the aesthetic basis or benchmark for this epic series of Magic expansions, and we’ll see some stylistic continuity during this period because of that.

Heartwood Dryad

Another subtle use of the Edmund Dulac -esque misty snow effect gives this dryad a dreamy quality. Shadow was a central new card mechanic in Tempest, allowing creatures with shadow to have a superb form of evasion. The ability of this dryad to block such creatures puts her in a righteous kind of force-of-good light. The pale magical light emanating from her outstretched hand, and her somber but confident composure make the card’s mood feel no-nonsense. I like the piece, particularly the folds in the Dryad’s cloak. We see the pulled-back hair here, which is a bit of a Guay hallmark as well… floating out of scene in a way that almost makes the scene seem underwater… Guay does this with long hair at times, and while I wouldn’t quite describe it as a “peeve” because it’s endearing, I still notice it often, and it makes me smirk. Many of these images are dramatic poses, and you can almost imagine a stage hand off stage to the right pointing a big fan at the Dryad for the photo shoot. But let’s face it, hair and cloth look more interesting when they’re flowing in a breeze. I can’t complain.

Respite

Ah, the Skyship Weatherlight. Guay renders it well, a distinctive vessel central to the long story arc. This reminds me of the card Mobilize, a scene going down in the woods that we see from afar, framed by trees. I like the card. Guay has done several fog variants, including one of the most popular in terms of tournament play, as we’ll see when we get to Moments Peace in Oddyssey.

Root Maze

Presumably a picture of Crovax Windgrace, root maze is a simple piece showing the hero crouching to contemplate an intimidating snarl of roots. Root Maze is a pretty useful Magic card, but the image is somewhat underwhelming. The saving grace is the interesting attire worn by the crouched figure, but the tangled roots and the background seem blasé somehow.

Pine Barrens

Lands are a sad sticking point with me for Rebecca Guay. Wizards of the Coast, if any of your employees are reading this, please, I beseech thee! The problem is that Guay has done so few lands. She’s only done Mountain and Plains from among the basic lands, and a couple other nonbasics. This is a real hurdle for a Guay purist who wants to make an all-Guay art theme deck. You’re constrained to white / red, splashing green, blue, and black. I think a savvy art director would commission Guay to do an Island, Swamp, and Forest for an upcoming set, maintaining the value of the two APAC lands she’s done. That Rebecca Guay, among the game’s preeminent Green Artists, has never done a basic Forest, is a bit of a travesty to this fan. But I digress.

Pine Barrens is such a neat and simple card. Lands have special appeal as anyone who plays the game can attest… they are the primary resource you’re managing in this resource management game… they’re so basic and essential, and the beauty of them is that they represent places. It is Landscapes from which the energy of Magic’s wizardy is drawn. This cycle of lands was a failed attempt to “fix” what wasn’t broken, in this case, Ice Age’s cycle of “pain” lands. By making the lands come into play tapped in the Tempest block, they relegated the cards to the dustbin of Magic history in terms of playability. However, this hardly matters for such flavorful pursuits as an all-Guay (or all-single-artist) themed deck, and for that reason Pine Barrens is kind of a fun card to run. Again, a pure Guay-only deck has to run these if it ever wants to run black or green.

The artwork itself is quite simple and elegant. A copse of trees growing in some eroded or mulchy soil, perhaps a primordial compost heap. It feels like a place from which black and green mana might emanate.

Still, I can’t help feeling like Guay may have wanted to paint a figure in the foreground of this setting. It seems like a backdrop to any number of typical Guay subjects, minus the subject. There’s a slightly lonely feeling here.

Sky Spirit

Sky Spirit is iconic, beautiful, and resonant. It’s also conceivably a reference to several other works. Edmund Dulac illustrated “The Rubaiyat” in 1909, and it includes an image titled “Hidden by the Sleeve of Night” seen below:

I can at least see some influence here. There are other Dulac images which portray floating feminine spirits in flowing gowns, so while this may not be a direct reference, clearly Guay’s use of these themes is influenced by this Golden Age artist.

I’ve always loved this card’s illustration, with the relaxed spirit in repose among the evening clouds, perhaps even sleeping gently adrift high above the town nestled in the hills below. It’s dreamy and magical, with lots of high fantasy archetypal imagery happening. A strong image on a card that, while never doing much in constructed formats, certainly had its day in the sun for limited formats as an aggressively-costed first striking flier.

Stronghold

Stronghold was the first expansion in the Tempest block and was released in March, 1998.

Bandage

Bandage is another very straight forward piece, with feminine hands off-scene finishing the bandage around the injured man’s head. However, the flavor text here alludes that this is Starke of Rath, and the female hands doing the bandaging are those of his daughter Takara. However, it turns out that, in the story, “Takara” is actually Volrath, master of the Mercadians, who is a shapeshifter and merely adopted Takara’s appearance. So there’s a little bit of a disconnect on this card, but it’s still a pretty fitting image, even removed from the odd magic storyline.

Youthful Knight

Youthful Knight is some classic high fantasy Guay again, with the mounted rider passing through the mist. Pretty sweet.

Wall of Tears

I like Wall of Tears a lot. A strange architectural framing of what appears to be a man-made waterfall, seemingly serving as a curtain drawn across the opening to some cave or tunnel. The serpent and various skulls and masks give us a certain foreboding, while the mist of the waterfall adds to this eerie warning. As a wall that “bounces” creatures it blocks, to use the Magic parlance, this veil of water takes on a very cool symbolism… as if creatures encountering this mysterious wall, pass through this veil and end up in non-existence, wiped from reality, but returned to their state of pre-birth rather than being killed and ending up on the other side of life. A very neat flavor is going on in this card, and it’s always just seemed cool to me.

Mulch

Mulch! This is a hippy, tree-hugger kind of card. We see a hippy babe raking the woods, filling up a cool wheelbarrow, and revealing a nice midriff. Are those dreadlocks? I think I’m in love!

This card saw a decent amount of play, and has a potentially powerful card advantage effect. The muted, earth tone colors and scene are very “green,” hanging together well with the card’s name and mechanics.

Samite Blessing

Samite blessing is a sweeping scene that reappears in other forms later in Guay’s career. We have a healer or attendant caring for a sleeping damsel. The scene is draped with smoke from two braziers and has an apothecary feel to the setting. It’s a calm, but anxious mood, in which a healer is trying to overcome some ailment.

Exodus

Exodus is the final expansion of the Tempest block, and was released in June of 1998.

Mana Breach

Mana Breach has excellent artwork with themes familiar to us by now. A beautiful woman under some kind of duress in the woods, with flowing hair and cloak framing her fancy dress and attractive figure, with a mystical kind of snow or pollen permeating the air, giving the scene tranquil depth.

But Mana Breach stands out among cards illustrated by Rebecca Guay for another reason: there is an exceedingly rare version of this card which is the most expensive card illustrated by Guay that a collector can buy. Before Exodus was released, Wizards of the Coast began experimenting with making Foil cards. Until this time, Magic cards never had foil versions, but for a handful of Exodus cards, various foil techniques were tried out. There are something like twenty “test foil” Mana Breach cards out there, and they can fetch prices up to a thousand dollars US. This is also one of the few holes in my own Guay collection, so if anyone out there happens to own one of these, by all means, send a comment!

Resuscitate

Maidens held by or holding men half submerged in ponds is actually a very common scene in Golden Age illustration, from my favorite example, Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs (seen below), to Rackham’s several illustrations for The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie or his image in The Little Mermaid.

In Resuscitate, a heroic and serious healer works anxiously to revive the apparently drowned elven maiden. His cloak and ears make him appear elven as well. It’s a beautiful, touching embrace, and the subtle distortion effects of the limbs and cloth dipping below the surface of the stream are quite lovely. This scene seems at once serene and full of impatient angst as the healer tries to resuscitate his patient.

Wood Elves

As I said in part 1, when we saw the original Portal version, Wood Elves is one of the more useful cards Guay has done, able to fetch any forest, including Revised dual lands (though alas, not pine barrens!).

Perched in a tree, these elves appear to be lookouts. Given the choice, I usually run the portal version, with the more heavily armed and mist shrouded elves. For reference:

Portal Second Age

In June of 1998, Portal Second Age was released, and with it Guay’s work takes a brief aside from the realm of the Tempest Saga’s grand plot arc. Stylistically unique, the obscure and fanciful cards of Portal Second Age have always had an endearing quality of nostalgia to me as a collector of Guay’s work. The set remains among my favorites of Guay’s sets.

Moaning Spirit

We’ve seen this subject before, and we’ll see it again. Guay is known for somber but beautiful images of gorgeous, elfish women, tall and slender, with long flowing hair and windswept trails of cloth blowing in the breeze. Among the many such images, Moaning Spirit ranks high in my mind, as this is a haunting expression of the theme. It’s the translucence of the trailing cloth, and the cold wintry mist that makes this a convincing image of a phantom or ghost. My only complaint here is that this is another example of an old style guideline, or lack thereof, in which older Magic cards weren’t careful with the use of the Flying ability. On modern Magic cards, if the card is a creature with flying, chances are the creature will be in-flight, or will involve wings displayed prominently. This issue is akin to the Noble Steeds-is-an-Enchantment issue we saw in part 1, and again it grants a bit of nostalgia to we Magic historians and collectors. There’s an innocence, which has been lost, to a creature like this who has flying, but which has art that doesn’t imply the ability in any way, really.

Sea Drake

Sea Drake was, at one time, the most expensive and sought after card illustrated by Guay, that was printed in a normal print run. The primary reason for this is that Sea Drake is a huge monster at a very discounted price. 2U is very little for a 4/3 flying drake. The drawback, returning two lands to your hand, can be mitigated in several ways. The most obvious and oft-employed means was to simply avoid this requirement by having fewer than two lands in play at the time Sea Drake came into play. This can be accomplished in several ways, the most common being the use of a land that produces several mana, such as Ancient Tomb in conjunction with artifact mana, like Chrome Mox. The “Sea Stompy” Legacy deck featured this very iconic opening. That it was a rare printed only in Portal 2 meant it was scarce as well, driving up the price. I recall paying close to $50 USD for the final japanese copies of my own playset, around the peak of their popularity, though at the time of this writing, the price has dropped to between $35 and $45.

The drake itself has always seemed a bit amateurish to me, frankly, and appears to be a Pterodactyl or other similar dinosaur. But the waves below the drake are interesting and bring up another recurring theme we saw in part 1 with Sea Sprite. Guay’s waves bear a resemblance to Dulac and Rackham, and I still contend that Hokusai may also be channeled here. Consider the following pieces.

“The Ship Struck a Rock” from Arabian Nights, Edmund Dulac

“The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” by Katsushika Hokusai

Arthur Rackham’s illustration in “Undine”

Gosh, wavy illustrations are cool, aren’t they? Seems to me that once again Dulac is the primary influence, but that the others have clearly colored Guay’s aesthetic sensibility as well. It’s fun to compare and contrast her work to the many pieces done by the great artists she admires.

Barbtooth Wurm

Snakelike, rather than the typical Dune / Arrakis type of wurms with the round maws (Roar of the Wurm), Guay’s Portal 2 wurms have dragon heads. This one is all coiled up, as though resting after a nice meal. The flaming mouth is a little out-of-character for a wurm, further blurring the two monster paradigms, but it’s an interesting take on the wurm. I like the coloration of this beast.

Deathcoil Wurm

Deathcoil Wurm is a quirky, odd little card. A beast that was one of the “Timmy, Power Gamer” big monsters in Portal Second Age, this rare is typically somewhat elusive to collectors. You’ll likely need to just buy stuff like this online, because seldom will you ever see this in a trade binder.

The art here is another snakelike, dragon-headed wurm chasing some kind of sprites? It’s inexplicable. It’s a pretty cool monster image, but there are other Guay monsters to come that surpass Deathcoil Wurm in my estimation. If I had to choose, I think I’d take the coiled, resting pose of Barbtooth wurm above.

Lynx

Lynx is a very cool piece of beast art. The lines of the tree keep your eyes moving around the frame, and I like the slight feeling that we’re looking up into this tree. Serenity is granted again by the floating snowflakes. The cat is well done, and has clearly inspired a number of D&D sorcerer’s familiars over the years. Very cool.

Norwood Riders

Norwood Riders is one of my favorite Guay oddities. A patrol of mooseback (say what?) elven riders slowly traversing a misty glen is head-turning subject matter. I love the tall, grasslands tribal shield strapped behind the rider in the foreground. We have the obligatory sweeping cloth and breeze-blown hair on an effeminate figure of possibly sylvan origins that are the Guay hallmarks. Definitely a fan favorite.

Norwood Warrior

Norwood Warrior is pretty damn fabulous. Norwood seems to be a fashionable place, doesn’t it?! This elven warrior is posed in iconic heroism, armed with classic weaponry, the longsword and long bow, lightly armored, wearing a long dress gown despite this, draped by a luxurious cape. This is portrait style depth, with mist or clouds as a hazy background, bringing the heroine into sharp focus in the foreground. Your eyes stay put on this one, basking in the glory. I love this piece.

Angelic Wall

This is one that didn’t receive angel errata, and remains simply a wall in its most recent printing. While I’m usually a fan of John Avon’s work, his art for the later versions of Angelic Wall doesn’t do much for me. These ghostly wings would almost seem spooky to me if I wasn’t prompted to think ‘angelic’, as they almost seem to be haunting this wood. Altogether a haunting king of card.

APAC Lands

The APAC lands were released in 1998 in three color coded sets. These were promotional cards given away to players in the Asian-Pacific region, as a kind of marketing tool to appeal to global markets. Unlike the vast majority of other basic land cards in Magic, these portray real world locations in the region.

APAC lands are somewhat rare collectors items, fetching around four dollars apiece, which isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, except that these are basic lands, the basic building blocks of Magic. Any Magic player is going to have hundreds if not thousands of basic lands. They are ubiquitous, with functionally identical cards costing players essentially nothing. Buying a promotional basic land, even for a few dollars, is a pretty extreme act of collectorship.

However, these are the only two basic lands illustrated by Rebecca Guay, and when you’re constrained to two colors like that, you typically need around ten of each basic land to complete a deck. Thus, those of us who enjoy building artist themed decks and who love Guay’s work are in the difficult spot of ponying up around eighty dollars for the twenty (times four dollars) copies, or else sacrificing the purity of our deck’s theme. At any rate, this is a sticking point for many Guay aficionados, I’m sure. Wizards? Throw us a bone here? Just three more. What’s an Island, a Swamp, and a Forest between friends, eh?

Mountain

The mountains here are from Taiwan, though I’m not certain which ones, precisely. It’s certainly a place I’d like to visit, and an image I’m very familiar with as a result of the phenomenon described above. The immensity and steepness of the rock faces are rendered well by the view, low to the ancient river which winds between them.

Plains

This beautiful land obviously portrays the Great Wall of China, and is well done. I’m quite fond of the Guay plains. It’s quirky and among the most recognizable and sought after APAC lands here in the states. I’ll be the first to tell you that it just feels kind of cool to play Magic with a bunch of Great Wall of Chinas laid out in front of you.

Urza’s Saga

Urza’s Saga, released in late 1998 was a very powerful and epic set.

Angelic Page

Angelic Page is among my favorite angels (thanks to errata that changed her creature type). She’s also one of the smallest angels out there. She’s cute, and perched aloof, holding a sword that’s gargantuan for her. The reddish clouds and her dainty posture just really do it for me on this card.

Serras Hymn

This is one of the more pious feeling Guay cards, with the stained glass angel and the serious, reverent looking women. The faces are beautiful, and the curves of the neck of woman in the foreground are so lifelike and well painted. The shadows suggest a light high above. All in all, I feel like I’m in church looking at this image, and these women are walking back to their pews after receiving communion or something, a mood which serves the card quite well.

Silent Attendant

Silent attendant is superb. It reminds me of cloak of feathers the way you have an interior / exterior vibe happening, and it’s fairly dreamlike. Where is the mist coming from? We see stars filling the doorway, like this room is floating in the night sky. The cleric in the threshold is draped and feminine, and holds an orb of light. Its a graceful pose she’s in, it all feels delicate somehow. I can’t explain how some of these images just get my imagination going. I can’t help but be drawn in to this scene… this mystic arrival, this intriguing figure. It’s just compelling somehow. We fantasy dorks love this stuff.

I don’t mean to snub these other artists, and I like that Magic has a place for them too, but I love the compelling, subtler images in Magic. Sure, fantasy has room for violence (Gloomlance) and monsters (Hypnox) and the macabre (Treacherous Urge) and we dorks even like to include some imagery that seems to hail from some D&D notes somewhere (Weakstone, Rapid Fire, staff of zegon). But I’ve always had a thing for these golden age types of illustration. High fantasy book cover kind of stuff.

Silent Attendant is also noteworthy as a collectors item, because the Chinese version of the card has a misprinted casting cost. Even at one white mana, the card doesn’t strike me as overpowered:

Abundance

Abundance is a powerful card with a fairly decent illustration of another gorgeous woman who I suspect is sylan in origin. Her golden hair waves gently in a breeze, as she crouches among an abundant garden, or forest. It’s not a particularly striking piece, but it’s still lovely.

Carpet of Flowers

Carpet of Flowers is atypical subject matter for Guay. The image is reminiscent of Monet’s water lilly paintings, and there are references to black lotus here as well, which are a nice touch given what the card does. It’s a neat image, but I see it as kind of a referential piece mostly, and while it’s beautiful and painterly, it’s like a way to cleanse the palette between rounds of the seven course elf maiden banquet feast.

Elvish Lyrist

Elvish Lyrist is gorgeous and alluring, with the sheer skirt of the maiden, and her dainty woodsy harp. For some reason she doesn’t appear completely comfortable to me, something about her posture.

Fecundity

Fecundity is what’s known as an “engine” card in Magic, one which can enable degenerate cyclical card combinations that can be iterated an arbitrary number of times. In this case, you will usually use Fecundity to draw an absurdly large number of cards, quite possibly your entire deck.

This image is quite striking, and I can’t think of another Guay piece that features skeletal remains. Here, the wordplay of the card’s name, fecundity, is contrasted with the image. It brings you a step back from the normal meaning of the word, and lets us see the cycle of life, of which death is a part. The flowers growing up through the ribcage are a nice touch, and the flavor text really seals it. This is a card in which all the elements hang together well… the name, the effect, the artwork, and the flavor text.

Hush

A figure similar to the Lyrist above, the look and attire of the subjects are similar. I like the sneaking movement of the piece. I definitely feel like this person is creeping down the misty terrain as silently as possible. How this destroys enchantments is a mystery.

This is also another collectors item due to another Chinese misprint:

Priest of Titania

Remember when I said that Urza’s block was powerful? Well, if the cards you’ve seen so far from Guay haven’t convinced you, behold one of the most powerful elf cards in the game. Priest of Titania is a card which I guarantee has won over many a heart to Guay’s artwork. Here, the priest leads a group of her followers with flowers in her hair, and classical high fantasy attire. It’s not particularly stunning compared to many other of Guay’s pieces, but here we see the phenomenon of how a card’s intrinsic value in the game can make it, and by extension its artwork, tremendously popular.

Urza’s Legacy
Devout Harpist

Ah, devout harpist. She’s always been the Veruca Salt of Rebecca Guay cards to me. She has kind of a bitchy look on her face, like she’s frustrated that we keep interrupting her harp practice. Her garments look good though. The snakes print cloth fits her demeanor well I think. I just can’t keep eye contact with her without thinking about the goose who lays gold eggs for easter. “I want it NOW, daddy!”

Thornwind Faeries

Hooray for more faeries! Long before Lorwyn and the fairy tidal wave it brought to Magic, Guay was one of the few artists painting the obscure creatures. Thornwind Faeries are pretty excellent, really. They’re essentially flying prodigal sorcerers, making them quite superb. For paying blue as one of the colorless of the original, you gain flying. That’s quite a bargain, and a variant of the original this good hasn’t seen print since, goblin sharpshooter notwithstanding.

Keep these long flowing green sashes (wings of flowing cloth?) in mind, as well as the setting and the pose of the fairies because they’ll all reappear later on one of the most iconic and archetype-defining fae in Lorwyn, which Guay illustrated.

Defense of the Heart

When Defense of the Heart first came out, I didn’t really care for the artwork. I was confused about the beast (it’s a Maro, a creature unique to Magic that was created by head designer MArk ROsewater) and about the scene. Later I learned a bit about the back story that’s going on behind so many of the cards in the Urza / Mishra story arc in Magic, and things became clearer. This is a scene depicting the powerful planeswalker Urza, discussing something with Multani, a Maro sorcerer and de facto leader of Yavimaya. Readers who are interested in Magic dork lore can check out this wiki on Urza, which briefly describes Urza’s relationship with Multani.

Anyway, I had learned what the card depicted, and seeing that the scene was actually relevant to the illustration, since in the story Multani eventually delivers aid and reinforcements to Urza precisely because he is otherwise outnumbered by the evil Phyrexians. All of this helped me appreciate the card a bit more, but I still disliked the legs on Multani, the way they bend backward like reptile or bird legs… Still, there’s nothing really wrong with the artistic quality, I guess it’s more like the vision of the piece that I’ve struggled with over time.

Classic Sixth Edition
This core set was released in April of 1999.

Perish

Ah, Perish is so excellent. This is another Guay card that feels very Golden Age of Illustration to me. This is an archetypal kind of image, which could have several historical references behind it. For me, this primarily evokes John William Waterhouse’s painting “Ophelia”, have a look:

Next, we’ll see a number of reprinted cards from earlier sets.

Elven Cache

This is a reprint of the portal version of this card which we saw earlier in this series. I am including reprints for for the sake of documenting chronology.

Starter 1999
Barbtooth Wurm

Deja Vu? Yeah, we saw this beauty above in its original black bordered printing as well. Here, it’s got a white border and the little star expansion symbol of Starter. I still like this kind of wurm better than, for example, crush of wurms style wurms.

Lynx

Lynx was also featured in Portal, Second Age above, and still reminds me of D&D wizard and sorcerer familiars.

Natures Cloak

We saw Nature’s Cloak in part 1 of this series, in the Portal expansion.

Norwood Archers

Norwood Archers and Renewing Touch are both reprints from Portal Second Age.

Renewing Touch

That wraps up part two of the series. I have some exciting news to share before I bid you adieu today. It turns out that Mrs. Guay saw my Facebook announcement for part one, dug what she saw, and agreed to do a video interview with me over Skype. The footage is in the can, and I’m doing post production work presently. I hope to have the video ready with part three in a week or two. Join me then and I’ll have a link to the interview, and we’ll continue with Guay’s cards from the stylish Mercadian Masques block.

This last weekend I had the privilege to draft Magic 2011 three times, including 2 Launch Parties. On Friday I drafted a white-green deck with Day of Judgment and a fair few other removal spells for the launch party during the day. In the evening at FNM, I drafted a near mono black deck with a slight blue splash for Mind Control, Foresee and Diminish. Both of these drafts went rather well, but today I’m going to examine the one draft I did which contained some very interesting moments, and which was one of my worst days of Magic in a while. However, it is through the analysis and understanding of mistakes that we get better, and it is a weak player who will ignore unfavorable results.

Let’s go to the draft, shall we?

Pack 1
In the first pack we see Black Knight, Pyroclasm, Doom Blade and Angelic Arbiter. I opted to take the white bomb and send some solid black to my left.

The second pack is very weak, with the only solid cards being a Corrupt and a Condemn. Remembering that I shipped some good black earlier, I decided to keep up the signal and take the on-colour removal spell in Condemn.

The third pick shows us Foresee, Cultivate, Nantuko Shade and Ice Cage as the relevant cards. I take the Foresee, as white-blue is a colour combination that is perfectly fine, and Foresee is the best blue common in the set, in my opinion.

For the fourth pick, we have a choice between two blue cards of note: Water Servant and Augury Owl. I take the Owl, as it’s one of the best 2-drops in the set, setting up your 3rd and 4th turns very nicely, and it provides a lot of insight as to the direction that your game plane will take.

I’m not sure what was correct in this pack. The only playable card was a Quag Sickness, and the rare was a Dragonskull Summit, and there was nothing in either blue or white. I took the Quag Sickness, but it may have been correct to simply take the rare for the few dollars it’s worth, and continue to send the strong mono black signal to the left.

The next picks are very similar to each other, with each pack containing an on-colour card, as well as a playable black card. I take Ice Cage over Child of Night, another one over Necrotic Plague, Cloud Crusader and Siege Mastodon over Nightwing Shades. When I get passed a 10th pick Corrupt I take it. Again, I have my doubts about this pick, and I’m wondering if sending such a late pick Corrupt was safe, considering that the player on my left should already be in heavy black.

My last 4 picks are a foil Plains, Nightwing Shade, Incite and a Canyon Minotaur.

Pack 2
After Pack 1, we’re looking to make a white-blue deck, although we’re looking for some more solid creatures, and better removal if we can upgrade our Ice cages to Pacifisms. The cards of note in the pack I opened were an off-colour Hoarding Dragon, a Squadron Hawk, an Inspired Charge as well as no blue cards that I’d be happy to play. The charge may look similar to Overrun, but I can’t get behind that comparison. Because the white spell only boost half as much as the green bomb, it will be used more often than not as a combat trick. Trying to use it as a way to punch through extra damage makes it more similar to a Trumpet Blast, which wasn’t exactly a great card in M10. Having not played with the new Welkin Hawk, I decided to go for it, and draft another one if it came by. Note that I would not normally pick a hawk this early in a given pack without others to back it up, but the charge seems like an inferior card, and I have to play with Squadron Hawk at some point.

Pick 2 gets me a Serra Angel, just the sort of card my deck needed. I follow that pick up with a White Knight, Pacifism and Jaces Ingenuity.

Pick 6 gives me a decision between Celestial Purge and Preordain. I haven’t played with Preordain, but when I’ve seen it cast it’s seemed like a worse Augury Owl. When you’re scrying, you’re creating virtual card advantage through the putting of dead draws on the bottom of your library. This factor is diminished because of the low scry number found on preordain, so I opted for the purge.

The seventh pick gives me a nice Armored Ascension, and I pick up a Roc Egg shortly after. The egg is an interesting card that shines against green decks that need to break through on the ground and also lack many ways to defend against a flying assault.

My last picks of this pack are Deathmark, Ajanis Pridemate, Greater Basilisk, Sylvan Ranger and Demons Horn.

Pack 3
Here we’re looking to round out our deck with more creatures, as our spells seem to be alright so far. We’re especially looking for another Squadron Hawk to hope that our early pick last pack was not in vain. The opening pack gives us a choice between Scroll Thief and Warlords Axe I don’t like picking the Axe so early because it does require such a mana investment. The thief also gets better if I can Ice Cage a blocker and regain a card worth of advantage in cage the cage gets melted, so I take the watered-down Shadowmage Infiltrator.

The second pack is a sight for sore eyes, as we pick up our second Squadron Hawk over a Diminish. I love Diminish, but I can’t run the risk of not wheeling the hawk or getting another one.

The next pack shows us a Wild Griffin, Cloud Elemental and a Mighty Leap. I take the elemental, as it provides some decent offense as well as blocking many crucial early fliers like Stormfront Pegasus and Wild Griffin.

The next pack shows me a Diminish, a Jinxed Idol and a Wild Griffin. I opt for the combat trick, thinking that I might be able to wheel the idol to combine with my Roc Egg and Squadron Hawks.

In the next pack I nab a Crystal Ball over a Cloud Crusader. Every time i’ve played this card i’ve been impressed, so I see no reason to go against the tried and true.

I get a Knight Exemplar in the next pack which goes well with my White Knight and Cloud Crusader. At worst, it’s a 2/2 with first strike for 3, which while not amazing, is still fine.

My next picks are as follows: Unsummon, Palace guard, Solemn Offering, Jinxed Idol, Alluring Siren, Blood Tithe, and a Sorcerers Strongbox.

The draft went okay for us, but we might have been able to do better. We may have been able to jump in on mono-black in pack 1 and things may have been different, but we have to play the cards we’re dealt.

Here’s the deck I built:

Jinxed Idol Armored Ascension Siege Mastodon Angelic Arbiter Serra Angel Roc Egg Condemn White Knight Crystal Ball Solemn Offering 2 Squadron Hawk Cloud Crusader Jaces Ingenuity Augury Owl Scroll Thief Foresee Knight Exemplar Pacifism 2 Ice Cage Cloud Elemental Diminish 9 Plains 8 Island

In building this deck, I had 21 cards with which I had no reservations about running. The 22nd and 23rd cards were, respectively Jinxed Idol and Solemn Offering. I decided to try the idol because of the aforementioned synergies with Roc Egg and Squadron Hawk. The offering also is a good answer to some of the high-power artifacts and enchantments in this set such as Warlords Axe, Whispersilk Cloak and Pacifism. I don’t advocate running such a card maindeck, I like it better than my other options.

The cards that didn’t make the cut were: Unsummon, Palace Guard, Ajanis Pridemate and Alluring Siren. I’ve never been impressed with Unsummon, espesially in a slower deck like this. However, it does have some synergy with the Jinxed Idol, but I simply don’t like it when they’ll most likely simply suffer a minor tempo setback. While could play another creature, I’m much more worried about my opponent having some relevant enchantment or artifact which I can’t deal with than having a random early guy. If either of them was a knight, to take advantage of my exemplar, it would be a different story.

Here’s how the matches went:

Round 1: vs Mike

Mike starts off aggressively with a Merfolk Spy and Goblin Piker. I play out my Jinxed Idol on turn 2, which is not normally a great idea. However, I have a Roc Egg in my hand for the next turn. He brings out anArc Runner, and smacks me down to 11. I drop my Egg and trade off my idol for a bird token, and he swings in again. I block his Piker and then he Thunder Strikes his goblin. He sacrifices his spy to return my idol. My next play is a Crystal Ball and I promptly die to the Idol.

In this game, playing a turn 2 idol after he played 2 guys was definitely wrong. If I had just played out my Egg and lost it to his trick I would have been in much better shape with my ball.

For game 2 I board out my Solemn Offering (Red-blue usually plays few enchantments, and I saw not artifacts) and my Crystal Ball (which is too slow compared to his aggressive deck). I bring in Unsummon and Celestia Purge, but in retrospect, the Unsummon should’ve been a Palace Guard.

I keep a hand with 3 islands and 4 blue spells, and I resolve a Augury Owl on turn 2. It’s awkward when I see 3 white cards, which I promptly ship to the bottom. I get a turn 3 Cloud Elemental, followed up by a turn 4 Roc Egg. He puts Volcanic Strength onto his Maritime Guard. I happily chump the guard with my Egg and get a bird out of the deal. Over the next few turns he puts out a Manic Vandal, Water Servant and Goblin Piker. However, these are no match for my flying force and I beat him into submission.

In game 3 I mulligan into 5 lands and a Serra Angel. Foolishly, I keep this hand, when against such an aggressive deck going to 5 on the draw was definitely correct. He plays out Maritime guard followed by a Goblin Piker. Things are looking up when he is stuck on 2 land for a few turns, but he is able to Diminish my angel when I block, and his plethora of 2-drops overwhelm me as I continue to draw lands.

0 – 1

Round 2: vs Shane

I start off strong with an Augury Owl and a Scroll Theif. Shane casts a combination of Diminish and Stabbing Pain to kill my thief and I bring out a Crystal Ball. He brings out an Alluring Siren on turn 4 and enchants it with an Unholy Strength. I cast my Jinxed Idol and Squadron Hawk, trading my Hawk for 2 points of damage. Shane gets stuck on 3 lands, and ends up sacrificing his siren to give me back my idol, which goes back again courtesy of my second hawk. We end up continuously trading creatures, and I’m able to gain a combat advantage by having more creatures so that he takes a few damage each turn form my team, and another 2 damage from the idol.

We both mulligan in game 2 and Shane brings out an Augury Owl. I play my own bird in the form of a Squadron Hawk. I bring out the Jinxed Idol, and he starts taking 2 points a turn. He suits his owl up with a Warlords Axe, and my attempt to cast Serra Angel is stifled by his Mana Leak. Without anyway to defend myself from the flyer, I roll over and die.

In game 3 we both have slow starts with my first play being a Roc Egg followed by a Scroll Thief which gets promptly Mana Leaked. I bring out a Cloud Crusader and Cloud Elemental. He casts a Jace Beleren which dies to my fliers in one fell swoop. He Diminishs his Ice Caged Nightwing Shade, which then gets hit by my Celestial Purge. I eventually resolve Angelic Arbiter, which decisively ends the game in my favour.

1 – 1

Round 3: vs Liam

My opponent starts off on the play, with a first-turn Birds of Paradise. I bring out a pair of Squadron Hawks and start to beat in. He attempts to race me by casting an Ornithopter and enchanting it with Unholy Strength. After taking one hit from the thopter I kill it with my Solemn Offering.

Before I continue with the match description, I’d like to say a few words about Ornithopter. When one is new to Magic, Ornithopter seems just awesome, as it’s a flying blocker that is free, and can go in any deck. However, t is virtually impossible to get value out of Ornithopter, whether it be in terms of life or card advantage. In either Limited or Constructed, your opponent’s creatures will simply get bigger than the 0/2 flier, and you’ll wish that you had played something different in it’s place that would have a greater effect on the game. In this game, my opponent opened himself up to major card disadvantage by enchanting the thopter with a pump aura, in an attempt to get value out of it. However, he would have been much better off if he had had a card whose impact would be felt by itself, without the need for an aura. Even had I not had a removal spell, all it would take would be a reasonably powerful flier to blank 2 of his cards, and he’s in the same conundrum as before: unable to gain value out of his Ornithopter. In short: don’t play Ornithopter.

My opponent casts Sign in Blood to refuel his hand and then wastes his Assassinate on one of my hawks. I bring out the JInxed Idol and trade off the last of my hawks to give it to Liam. I play out Scroll Thief and Cloud Elemental to keep up the pressure, and Liam simply doesn’t draw any gas and quickly dies to a combination of my fliers and the idol.

Liam starts game 2 by taking a mulligan to 6, and plays out a turn 1 Elixir of Immortality. This is a card that i’m unsure about, as it does not affect the board in any way, but in the late game it can make your deck more threat-dense, recouping removal spells and creatures that have died. What are your guys experiences with this card? Is it a table-turner or a dud? Let me know what you think in the comments!

I start to assemble my flying armada with Augury Owl and a pair of Squadron Hawks. The Hawks are taken down with a Doom Blade and a Stabbing Pain. I cast Celestial Purge on his Child of NIght and run out a turn-7 Angelic Arbiter, which also meets its death via Doom Blade. I try to break the stalemate with Cloud Crusader but he has a Quag Sickness for that too. Finally, I draw my game-changer and cast White Knight. Followed up with a Knight Exemplar, I’m able to break through and reduce Liam to 0 life.

2 – 1

Round 4: vs Brian

Brian is one of the best local players, and I get paired up against him. He’s also playing a blue-white deck, but with the notable absence of Jinxed Idol and Squadron hawk. In short, the deck I was looking to draft after pack 1. He starts off strong with a turn 2 Blinding Mage, and I reply with my Squadron Hawk. I attempt to cast a Crystal Ball but it gets stopped by Mana Leak. When I cast Ice Cage on his Blinding Mage, it turns out Brian is also packing a maindeck Solemn Offering which means he can keep tapping my fliers. I bring out a Cloud Elemental to increase my beatdown, but he brings out Serra Angel. I manage to kill the Angel with Diminish, but he Mind Controls my elemental and casts Jaces Ingenuity. Unable to draw a relevant spell for multiple turns on end, I lose to his freshly-cast Harbor Serpent which islandwalks me to death.

In game 2 I start with a turn 2 White Knight, and he brings out a Silvercoat Lion. I cast a turn 3 Crystal Ball while Brian misses his third land drop. My turn 4 play is Forsee and Brian casts Wild Griffin. I reply with both a Cloud Elemental and a Squadron Hawk. Brian Foresees, and then casts a Holy Strength (sided in to deal with Ice Cage), on his griffin. I bring out a Cloud Crusader but it pales in comparison to his Harbor Serpent. Just like last time, I lose to the islandwalking monstrosity.

2 – 2

Round 5: vs Blake

We both have lackluster starts with his being a turn 3 Chandras Spitfire, and my first play being a turn 4 Foresee off of a mulligan to 6. He puts out a Whispersilk Cloak and equips his spitfire. I bring out Serra Angel which dies immediately to Doom Blade. I bring out a Scroll Thied and enchant it with Armored Ascension. I put him on a fast clock with my 5 power flier and win out handily in the air, using the Roc Egg/Jinxed Idol as a finisher.

In game 2 I start off with a Squadron Hawk. Blake resolves a turn 2 Ajanis Prdiemate, and I bring out the Jinxed Idol on the following turn, so we continue to trade guys pack and forth. He brings out a Cloud Crusader and sacrifices it to the idol, only to cast Rise from the Grave to reanimate it. He then casts a Chandra Nalaar which spells my defeat when I can’t draw a relevant spell for several turns in a row, staring at the double Solemn Offering in my hand.

Before game 3 I take another gander at my sideboard and realize that I forgot to bring in Celestial Purge. I take out the extra Solemn Offering I had boarded in previously and bring in the removal spell. Make this a note: when sideboarding, look at your entire sideboard, if you leave a card you boarded in previously in a different position, you’re liable to forger

Game 3 is where I make the biggest mistakes of my tournament, but the game starts off alright. I mulligan to 6 and play a turn 2 Augury Owl followed by a Scroll Thief. He plays a Whispersilk Cloak and then Excommunicates my thief. I reply the thied and it dies a fiery death to Chandra Nalaar. I Foresee on my next turn and he replies with a Hoarding Dragon. I Condemn the dragon and then get my Jinxed Idol/Roc Egg combo online. He is forced to sacrifice each creature he plays and then I manage to stick a Crystal Ball to improve my draws. I get in for a fair bit of damage with my bird token before it gets destroyed by a Fireball.

With the Jinxed Idol in play, the power of my Ice Cages and Pacifism is significantly reduced, but I end up needing to cast them to make him sacrifice them to the idol, with me just able to keep alive at 9 life. he has double Siege Mastodon and I have Squadron Hawks and my Knight Exemplar. With him at 10 life, I start to race with my fliers, with the notion that every pair of hawk hits I get in is another turn knocked off of the Jinxed Idol clock. However, this ends up being my undoing, as I attack with one Hawk while i’m sitting at 5 life, without realizing that he still can get in for 3 damage from an unblocked Mastodon as well as 2 from the Idol that he can give to me. Had I played differently, I would have been able to resolve Angelic Arbiter and Pacifism, which were sitting in my hand, drawn off of a Jaces Ingenuity. My notes don’t precisely describe the game state at that time ,but all I do know is that I had game if had blocked with both my Hawks.

Final Record: 2 – 3

On Jinxed Idol
This card was one that played a major role in the day, killing my opponent’s 3 separate times, and being responsible for my own demise in 2 games (I kept track on the card itself with black and red Sharpie). One mistake I made was playing it in a control style deck. This card wants to be played in an aggressive deck so that you can either pave the way for your early drops or just deal continuous amounts of damage. In order for this card to be effective, you have to be in the drivers seat, you have to be the one deciding where the game is going. Otherwise your own card will be your undoing. I want to try this card out in standard in a deck with Bloodghast for some constant damage, not only because it would be fun, but because it would allow me to put more black and red notches on my idol. Final Verdict: Jinxed Idol is a potent card, but one that should be used in a deck that absolutely warrants it. I think this deck would ideally be green-white with both the Roc Egg and Squadron Hawk interactions.

One of the things that I made sure to do about that day was to not get down on myself, quit magic, or blame bad luck. Because our game was the longest running, I talked with no less than 4 different people about how I could have played my games better. This is crucial if one is to become better at Magic, because learning from your mistakes can be much more valuable than winning all the time.

I believe it was Gerry Thompson who said something along the lines of “There are a lot of people in Magic who could really benefit from getting a good ass-kicking”. The joke was that there were maybe 7 people who this would not apply to, but I believe that everyone does need to lose really badly sometimes so that we can reevaluate how we’re playing and thinking about the game. Note that I’m not advocating punting matches for a learning experience, but if you happen to do so, try and salvage what you can from the experience.

I fully admit I made some bad plays, kept some bad hands, and played relatively poor Magic over the day, but I resolved to play more, play better, and play smarter. I’m going camping for the next 2 weekends so I’ll most likely only have a couple gams of casual here or there before returning to the tournament scene with a vengeance in early August.

As always, any comments or questions or future article suggestions can be brought to my attention in the comments field below, via email at zak -AT- power9pro.com or through my twitter at www.twitter.com/zturchan.

Until next time, Cheers,

Zak

Let’s look at what I opened in my other Magic 2011 Prerelease, shall we?

Zak’s Sealed Pool

Palace Guard Wild Griffin Goldenglow Moth Siege Mastodon War Priest of Thune Tireless Missionaries Excommunicate 2 Mighty Leap Safe Passage Vengeful Archon Solemn Offering Blinding Mage Diminish Flashfreeze Jaces Erasure 2 Augury Owl Maritime Guard Harbor Serpent Scroll Thief Alluring Siren Mana Leak Mind Control Sign in Blood 2 Lilianas Specter Nantuko Shade 2 Black Knight Quag Sickness Necrotic Plague Assassinate 2 Mind Rot Blood Tithe Nether Horror Viscara Seer Rotting Legion Unholy Strength Chandras Outrage 2 Pyroclasm 2 Goblin Balloon Brigade Pyretic Ritual Volcanic Strength Canyon Minotaur Incite Magma Phoenix 3 Greater Basilisk Dryads Favor Llanowar Elves Garruks Companion 2 Hunters Feast Brindle Boar Runeclaw Bear Naturalize Garruks Packleader Cultivate 2 Cudgel Troll Giant Spider Giant Growth Prized Unicorn Mitotic Slime Sunpetal Grove Sorcerers Strongbox Dragons Claw 2 Crystal Ball

Here’s the deck that I created.

Garruks Packleader Cultivate 2 Cudgel Troll Giant Spider Giant Growth Prized Unicorn Mitotic Slime Sunpetal Grove 2 Crystal Ball 3 Greater Basilisk Sign in Blood 2 Lilianas Specter Nantuko Shade 2 Black Knight Quag Sickness Blinding Mage Necrotic Plague Assassinate 8 Swamp 7 Forest 1 Plains

This deck is very midrange, with most of the punch coming in the form of Cudgel Troll and Greater Basilisk. The double Crystal Ball ensures a steady stream of relevant spells in the later turns of the game, and our suite of removal should hopefully provide enough room for our green creatures to bash in.

One card I was not sold on at all was the Necrotic Plague, because it seemed like it would run counter to our plan of using Cudgel Troll as a main beater, but after some convincing by a friend who also opened it, I agreed to give it a shot. I also considered the inclusion of double Mind Rot, as that card is usually considered good in limited. However, I wanted to make sure that I had enough creatures to keep up a steady stream of guys.

Regarding the splash colour, I chose Blinding Mage because of it’s ability to deal with bombs. This quality made it more attractive to me than the double Pyroclasm. However, I understood that my splash colour might change in sideboarding, so I ensured I had a supply of basic lands on hand. Blue also is a potentially attractive splash, boasting Mind Control, Diminish, Mana Leak, and even Flashfreeze. I would not fault anyone for choosing one of these other colours as the splash, but the Blinding Mage is more universal while being less intense on our mana.

Let’s see how the rounds turned out!

Round 1: vs Garret

Garret is a local player who has a strange affinity for goblins. Having sat next to him during the sealed, I jokingly asked him if he was playing the Goblin Chieftan that I saw he opened. He gave an ambiguous response, and we were off to the races. The game started off slow, with the first play being my turn 4 Prized Unicorn, which quickly met its end at the hands of Garrets Doom Blade. I followed up with a Cudgel Troll, leaving green mana open for regeneration. Garret cast a Stone Golem the next turn, but I still bashed in with my troll, knocking him to 16. I follow up with a Greater Basilisk, and Garret suicides his Golem into my snake, trying to bluff a trick. In the absence of one, he Gravediggers it back to his hand, and lands an Ancient Hellkite. However, his life total is at a precarious 7, and he opts to trade his hellkite for my basilisk when I attack. He casts another Gravedigger, and brings his dragon back, but with him at 1 life now, he has to leave his dragon back to block. Once he commits more of a force to the battlefield and dispatches my Liliana’s Specter with a Chandras Outrage, he is able to attack with the dragon and burn my Blinding mage to cinders. However, I topdeck an Assassinate, and the game is over in short order.

For game 2, I board out my white splash, as well as 2 Black Knights and the Nantuko Shade. Boarding out 3 cards that want double black extremely early lets me deepen my splash, as I bring in 3 Islands, Flashfreeze, Mind Control and Mana Leak.

Garret starts off with a Terramorphic Expanse for a mountain, and brings out Runeclaw Bear and Llanowar Elves. My first play is Cudgel Troll on turn 4, and we both cast Prized Unicorns on our successive turns. On turn 5, I’m staring at Mitotic Slime and Flashfreeze. I make the greedy play and assume he will not have a turn 6 Ancient Hellkite, but he does, and I quickly die because I didn’t leave my counter mana open.

In game 3 I cast a turn 3 Cultivate, and get two Islanda because I have Mind Control in my hand. I cast Greater Basilisk on turn 4, and draw some cards with Sign in Blood on the next turn. His attempt to Doom Blade my snake is stopped by a Mana Leak. I add further pressure with Mitotic Slime, and Mind Control his only creature: a Garruks Packleader. When he drops a Yavimaya Wurm, it simply isn’t enough.

1 – 0

Round 2: vs Shane

I start this round off with a mulligan to 5, and he puts out a Goblin Balloon Brigade enchanted with an Unholy Strength. Although Quag Sickness takes care of the ballooners, I’m quickly facing down a Juggernaut, with no removal to stop it. I manage to put out a steady stream of blockers but he eventually Fireballs my last blockers and steamrolls me to death with his war machine.

I board in Naturalize, Solemn Offering, and another plains to take care of both his auras (ideally as a combat trick) or his Juggernaut. The game starts off in an eerie fashion, with both of us having turn 2 Black Knights and turn 3 Lilianas Specter. He resolves a Royal Assasin which puts a hamber on any offense I could possibly mount. However, his Juggernaut does not get to go on the rampage that it did in game 1 due to my Naturalize, and I resolve Cudgel Troll, Giant Spider and Greater Basilisk to act as a solid defense until I can draw removal for his assassin. He eventually casts Act of Treason on my troll, and I respond by putting a regeneration shield on it (all that my mana would allow). He attacks with it, and then uses both the Assassin’s ability and an Assassinate to do away with the regenerating troll. Just in time, I draw my own Assassinate to kill his source of removal. When Shane starts casting spells like Barony Vampire and Unholy Strength in the late game, my more powerful cards like Mitotic Slime and Garruks Packleader begin to dominate and clinch the game for me.

After seeing the assassin, I actually board out my extra white and bring in the blue package, hoping to Mind Control or counter the assassin, while leaving Naturalize in to deal with his artifacts and auras. In game 3, he starts of slow with an Elixir of Immortality, and missing his 4th land drop. I however, have no such problems as I Cultivate into a Cudgel Troll with regeneration mana open. Shane does have his Royal Assassin, but I’m more than happy to Mind Control it. We each build up creatures until Shane decides to wipe the board with a Destructive Force. However, I am able to rebuild my mana much easier than shane does, and I bring out a Greater Basilisk in only a few turns, which does in Shane, who’s still struggling for land after his board wipe.

2 – 0

Round 3: vs Atilla

I start off with a Black Knight, and cast Necrotic Plague on his Cyclops Gladiator, trading in my knight. I cast my Greater Basilisk on turn 5, which looks quite impressive compared to his 5 drop: a Serras Ascendant. He does resolve an Earth Servant as a 4/9, but when my team grows to include another basilisk and a Lilianas Specter. When he starts to hit a bit of a mana glut, I capitalize and win out with my team.

In game 2, I board in my blue package again, including the Diminish. While my start is pretty lackluster with a Black Knight, Cultivate, and not much else. Atilla pumps up a hasty Vulshok Berserker[/card[ with Holy Strength and then brings out [card]Earth Servant. Unable to draw a Greater Basilisk, he is able to attack me down to 5 and finish me off with a Lava Axe.

Game 3 is all me as I play Black Knight followed by back-to-back Lilianas Specters. His lone Vulshok Berserker simply doesn’t do enough when I bring out a Garruks Packmaster as well, and he dies to my team when he cant mount a defense.

3 – 0

Round 4: vs Matt

I’ve heard rumours of Matt’s supposedly unstoppable deck, so I’m a little bit anxious going into the round. He plays a turn 3 Cultivate and casts Acidic Slime on turn 4 to screw me out of green mana. I’m able to play out Lilianas Specter, Black Knight, and Necrotic Plague, but soon my hand becomes clogged with uncastable green spells. Matt brings out a Fauna Shaman and tutors for a Sun Titan. To add insult to injury, he equips it with a Sword of Vengeance, and pretty much wrecks me.

I board in the blue package again, hoping to counter his bombs before they start to affect the game too much. He Cultivates again on turn 3, and brings out a turn 4 Garruks Packleader. I am able to resolve a Cudgel Troll and Mana Leak his Sun Titan. However, he has double Pacifism for two of my blockers and I die off in short order.

3 – 1

Round 5: vs Liam

Liam starts the game off with a Goblin Tunneler, and follows it up with a turn 3 Manic Vandal. I resolve my Prized Unicorn on turn 4, but he replies with a Sword of Vengeance. However, a draw of double Greater Basilisk is able to stave off his weaker creatures, even the ones who wield the sword. He ends up being stuck on 4 lands, which is hard with the sword’s equip cost of 3. When I bring a Cudgel Troll to the battlefield, he can’t defend himself and quickly keels over.

In game 2 I get a turn 3 Crystal Ball, which I follow up with Blinding Mage. He casts Reassembling Skeleton and Diabolic Tutor. He plays his tutored-for Sword of Vengeance and throws it on a Child of Night for a commanding presence. However, the mage makes the sword almost useless, and I manage to Assassinate his 4/6 Earth Servant. When I bring a fighting force of Nantuko Shade, Garruks Packleader to the battlefield, he can do little as all his threats are either locked down or destroyed.

Final Record: 4 -1

My X – 1 record nabs me half a box worth of store credit, and second place in the tournament. As before, here’s my segment on my top cards of the day.

Top Cards

Crystal Ball
Although not mentioned in detail during my match analysis, this card has proved itself to be amazing. If you can resolve one early, your card quality becomes simply amazing compared to your opponent. You almost never hit a dead draw and can dig very effectively for answers or lands of a particular colour. If you’re digging for a specific card, you can scry at the end of your opponent’s turn and during your own upkeep to dig 4 cards deep before drawing for a turn. The fact that such library manipulation is staple to a colourless card is also noteworthy, as it can give green and red decks that traditionally have little card manipulation the power and consistency that they need as the game progresses to the later stages. I can easily see this card getting picked within the first 3 picks in a draft, and it should be played in every sealed deck you open it in.

Greater Basilisk
Maybe it’s the fact I had 3 of these guys, but they served me admirably throughout the course of the game. They provide both an excellent offense when against a walling opponent, and can defend against most of the formats ground-based creatures without risking their life. When building my deck I had doubts about how good they would prove to me, but rest assured, my fears have been assuaged. I’ll always be happy to have this guy an in any green deck, as he makes your opponent’s gameplay extremely difficult.

Cultivate
While many players originally thought this card was amazing, there are some who don’t realize how ridiculous this card is. Not only does it ramp your mana and ensure that you make a land drop on the text turn, but it helps you fix mana for both splashes or double colour commitments easily. This card is the absolute nuts, and is one of the most potent 3-drops that green has.

That’s it for now, stay tuned for next week when I go into detail about drafting Magic 2011, and a I launch a video series of my exploits on Magic Online. If you want to contact me, email me at zak -AT- power9pro.com or sound off in the comments below.

Cheers,

Zak

Zak’s Sealed Pool

2 Ajanis Mantra Pacifism Blinding Mage Assault Griffin Solemn Offering White Knight Stormfront Pegasus Inspired Charge Ajanis Pridemate Foil Squadron Hawk Siege Mastodon Palace Guard Tireless Missionaries Foresee Azure Drake Cloud Elemental Augury Owl Negate Mind Control Preordain Armored Cancrix Jaces Erasure Phantom Beast Flashfreeze Redirect Lilianas Caress 2 Relentless Rats Unholy Strength 2 Stabbing Pain Corrupt Quag Sickness Black Knight Haunting Echoes Bog Raiders Doom Blade Barony Vampire Nether Horror Deathmark 2 Bloodthrone Vampire Magma Phoenix Prodigal Pyromancer Act of Treason Bloodcrazed Goblin Berserkers of Blood Ridge Goblin Chieftan Gobln Tunneller Chandras Outrage 2 Pyretic Ritual Goblin Balloon Brigade Fling Goblin Piker Manic Vandal Leyline of Vitality Plummet 2 Wall of Vines 2 Dryads Favor Primal Cocoon Runeclaw Bear Llanowar Elves Duskdale Wurm Garruks Packleader Sacred Wolf Yavimaya Wurm 3 Garruks Companion 1 Foil Spined Wurm Giant Growth Giant Spider Gargoyle Sentinel Juggernaut Sword of Vengeance Sorcerers Strongbox Elixir of Immortality Wurms Tooth Krakens Eye Terramorphic Expanse

And here’s the deck I built:

Zak’s Sealed Deck

Pacifism Llanowar Elves Duskdale Wurm Garruks Packleader Sacred Wolf Yavimaya Wurm 3 Garruks Companion Spined Wurm Giant Growth Giant Spider Blinding Mage Assault Griffin Gargoyle Sentinel Juggernaut Sword of Vengeance Foresee Azure Drake Cloud Elemental Augury Owl Negate Mind Control Terramorphic Expanse 9 Forest 4 Island 3 Plains

This deck has an aggressive edge to it, chiefly because of the 3 Garruks Companions. Note that I’m normally not a huge fan of the card, but the potential to have a reliably aggressive base green deck was tempting, so I tried it out. This deck has some mid-game flier that keep up the pressure, and has a solid late game with Mind Control, Sword of Vengeance and some fatties to see it through to the end. The white splash gives us 2 solid removal options, as well as another quality flyer to get in for damage when we need to.

Round 1: vs Wilson

I started the first game on the draw, and quickly cast a Garruks Companion. Unfortunately, he hits a turn 3 Lilianas Specter making me discard a card. Unfortunately, I don’t draw land on either turns 3 or 4, and he bolsters his army with the likes of Juggernaut and Vulshok Berserker. When I do hit my land drop, I drop Augury Owl and Sacred Wolf, but they simply can’t stand up to Wilson’s bomb: Inferno Titan.

Game 2 is more even with me getting out a turn 3 Garruks Companion, met again by Lilianas Specter. I get a devastating turn 4 Juggernaut which outclasses Wilson’s play of Arc Runner. A Foresee on my turn lets me dig to ensure my continued stream of spells, and I cast Pacifism on his Specter to ensure that my Juggernaut gets through. When Wilson doesn’t have an answer to my extra 3 points of damage in the form of a Giant Growth, he packs it in and we go to game 3.

Although i’m on the draw, I accelerate quickly with a first-turn Llanowar Elves. Wilson’s drop is just as good, and he casts a Ember Hauler. I play a forest on turn 2, and leave Giant Growth up rather than casting the Gargoyle Sentinel in my hand, because I want to ensure that I get out a turn 3 Giant Spider. He plays a Goblin Piker and, in a moment of confusion, attacks his hauler into my spider. It turns out that he had forgotten that damage doesn’t stack anymore, and admitted his play mistake may have cost him the game. We escalate the size of our armies with me casting a Garruks Companion and a Duskdale Wurm, and him bringing out a Howling Banshee and a Juggernaut. When I finally draw Sword of Vengeance and slap it on a Garruks Packleader, Wilson extends the hand.

1 – 0

Round 2: vs Jordan

I start the second round on the play with my aggressive start of a turn 2 Garruks Companion. He drops a Bloodthrone Vampire on his turn, and follows up with Blinding Mage. He Unsummons my 3/2 beater when I swing with it, but I Negate it, intending to capitalize on his lack of a fourth land. He eventually casts a Stabbing Pain on my companion, which I quickly replace with a Giant Spider. He casts a Cloud Elemental in an effort to break through, but another Garruks Companion shows up to make his potential attacks unprofitable. When he does draw his 4th land, he taps his mage to tap my 3/2, and then Assassinates it. He casts a Gargoyle Sentinel and an Assault Griffin. I start to gain advantage by bringing out my Sword of Vengeance, and equipping it on my third companion. A Juggernaut takes out his Gargoyle, and I cast a Spined Wurm. We eventually make it to a board position where if I draw a creature, I win by giving it haste with the sword, and I pull out the Assault Griffin to win a very evenly matched game.

In game 2 he gets a slow start while I come racing out of the gates with a Blinding Mage, Llanowar Elves, and Gargoyle Sentinel. His first play is a turn 5 Serra Angel, but when I draw my Sword of Vengeance, he has to make some suboptimal blocks to stay alive. When I cast Foresee into a Pacifism for his Azure Drake, he scoops up his cards.

2 – 0

Round 3: vs Adam

Having scouted Adam (and the rest of the 2-0 bracket) earlier, I knew he was packing a red-white-black deck with Day of Judgment, Fireball, and double Corrupt, so I came in expecting almost all my cards to hit some sort of removal. I get a solid draw of Garruks Companion and Sacred Wolf on turns 2 and 3 respectively. He casts Quag Sickness on my 3/2, and brings out a Howling Banshee which trades for my Juggernaut. After a timely Mind Rot to empty my hand, he brings out an Inferno Titan to do me in.

Because so much of Adam’s removal was damage-based, I sideboarded in my Leyline of Vitality, thinking it might help me out. I get a turn 2 Garruks Companion followed again by Sacred Wolf, which trades with his Blinding Mage. However, when I cast Azure Drake, he wrecks my board with his Day of Judgment. My last 2 cards get Mind Rotted away, and he keeps up the pressure with a Nantuko Shade. When I topdeck the useless green Leyline, I extend my hand.

Let this be a lesson to everyone. Do not play Leyline of Vitality. Seriously. It only works when you have creatures out, and in order to get decent value it needs to be in your opening hand, or you have to have a sizeable army. In retrospect, I would have been better off with another creature.

2 – 1

Round 4: vs Lorenzo

Lorenzo is one of the best local players, who usually only comes to big events. Having beat him in the Extended PTQ this year, I’m sure he was out for revenge. I start off strong with a Llanowar Elves and an Augury Owl. The vast improvement of this Owl over Sage Owl becomes apparent when I ship no less than 3 forests to the bottom of my deck. We trade guys for a while until I land a Juggernaut. Lorenzo offered the trade by blocking it with Barony Vampire, but I had the Giant Growth to ensure my war-machine could keep on wrecking the place. When I had the Pacifism for his last chump-blocker, my Juggernaut was able to steamroll its way to victory.

In game 2 we both start slowly, with a turn 3 Crystal Ball for Lorenzo, and a Sacred Wolf for me. He casts Nether Horror to follow up, but I land a Sword of Vengeance and equip it to my troll-shrouded wolf. Lorenzo scrys with his Crystal Ball at both the end of my turn and on his upkeep, putting all 4 cards on the bottom of his library in the hopes of finding an answer. He tries to cast Chandras Outrage on my Yavimaya Wurm, but it gets countered by my Flashfreeze that was brought in from the sideboard. Eventually, my Wurm arms himself with Akroma’s sword, and he destroys the last few points of Lorenzo’s life.

Final Record: 3 – 1

My record is enough to get me 12 packs of M11, which I take in store credit, and I play several games of Legacy afterwards against Lorenzo’s brother, Marcel, to cap off a great prerelease.

I’ve decided to start a new segment to increase the amount of analysis in my tournament reports. I’m going to cap off each report with a list of “Top Cards” of the day, including how to best play them. Note that I will not include any obviously bomb rares in this segment, because we all know that Sword of Vengeance is the nuts.

Top Cards

Foresee

When this card was originally printed in Future Sight, it was one of the most effective card drawing spells at the time. Sure, Tidings may have gotten you three cards for only 1 mana extra, but being able to sculpt your next few turns while accruing card advantage is what made Foresee see a fair bit of constructed play it its heyday. The 4 mana sorcery is not only back, but it’s better than ever in Magic 2011 limited. If you can set up a reasonable defense that can hold your opponent back one turn, say something like a Giant Spider, then you can use Foresee to ensure that your deck doesn’t falter as it progresses into the late turns of the game. Having a defense of some sort is important, because if you don’t draw into something insane, and you haven’t augmented your board position, casting Foresee can be a losing proposition. Of course, if you have no other plays, or plays that you do have would be suboptimal, Foresee is still a fine 4-drop, but realize that you’re giving your opponent another turn to both swing in at you and strengthen their forces. However, Foresee played an all-star role in my sealed deck, digging for my bombs and putting lands on the bottom that would have been blanks.

Augury Owl

Maybe I’m biased because scry is my favourite mechanic, but Augury Owl is head and shoulders above its Sage counterpart from Magic 2010. This 2 drop flyer makes it possible to keep marginal hands that contain disproportionate amounts of land, with an overall effect similar to Serum Powder. A 1/1 flyer is also not something that should be overlooked, as this owl trades with Liliana Specter and Stromfront Pegasus extremely nicely. With all the advantage that scry gives you, taking out an opponents 2-drop is one of the most satisfying plays you can make with this little bird.

Sacred Wolf

Sacred Wolf is a card that shone brightest when I equipped it with a Sword of Vengeance, but all day it had a solid role in helping my deck “get there”. Comparing him to the underplayed Mist Leopard in M10 limited, Sacred Wolf not only provides a decent offense that is immune to the likes of Blinding Mage and Royal Assassin, but the fact that it has shroud means you can get some extremely high value out of it. This guy trades with cards like Juggernaut all day, meaning that he is a card that you should really never be unhappy to run. In the absence of a Sword of Vengeance, this guy will pick up a Warlords Axe and beat in until your opponent finds a guy to block it. Paired with a suite of solid removal spells, Sacred Wolf is a card that helped me greatly when my opponent’s needed to cast their removal spells to try and reclaim a match.

That’s it for today, I’ll have another one of these articles up tomorrow. As always, feel free to contact me via email at zak -AT- power9pro.com or via the comments section below. If you think you’d have built the deck differently, tell me what you’d have played. This pool had some tough decisions to make, so I may have made some wrong calls, but that’s part of Magic. I’m sure that as the set becomes played with more, we’ll know exactly what cards are limited all-stars and which ones are duds relegated to the realm of proxy fodder.

Until next time, Cheers!

Zak