Team Leeds Magic

The Command Tower - Tales from the Drawing Board

2012-01-04T13:25:00.025Z

by Alex Gershaw

It's lunchtime I'm sat at my desk looking around the MTG Salvation Commander forum, I am obviously bored and looking for a new project to start. I reminisce about the previous deck I built, Niv-Miz, you know the one. It runs such dull instant win combos such as Niv-Miz-curiosity and Niv-Miz-ophidian eye but I love it. It didn't start that way - just ask the little slips of paper in front of my Curiosity or my Ophidian Eye, the ones that say Spiraling Embers or Scrabbling Claws. The deck started out "fun" and all the baggage that complicated word implies.

Commander is this "fun" format where everyone playing is a Timmy (please read that article before telling me I am defining Timmy incorrectly) - not in the "lets all play Craw Wurm" way but in the "We are in this for our enjoyment" everyone involved in a multiplayer commander game is looking for enjoyment.

I enjoy winning. This isn't contradictory to the rules of Timmy, but it is contradictory to the rules of other Timmies - Cue the white mist as we travel to the not too distant past to a game where I am ahead with the capabilities of taking some player from 40 (crazy format commander is) to 0 life in a matter of a double striking, double combat phase. So I do. He sits there grumpy as the rest of us take 30 minutes to finish the game, he didn't find that very fun even though my experience was completely enjoyable. My reasons at the time were clear, "Don't touch my Mirari's Wake", but was it worth watching a friend suffer for 30 minutes... No. I annihilated some one's enjoyment of the game by ending it before they had their fill of crazy EDH goodness.

Back to my story, the one about searching online for a new commander deck - I know quite a journey we went on there. I stumble upon a deck I like the look of a Hermit Druid combo deck. "OMG" I said to myself, like an American teenage school girl, it potentially wins turn 4 against a whole table and it's packing disruption the likes of silence, orim's chant and Teeg with a whole suite of saucy flashback spells. I print off the net-deck and go about highlighting and circling all the cards I didn't believe were necessary so I could make some personal touches.

As a quick aside, I don't often construct decks in this way and I would suggest using either magiccards.info or gatherer as a toolbox to start construction, in this case there was an idea someone else came up with that I wanted to try. Also there is nothing fundamentally wrong with net decking in general but for Commander you should learn and try your own style both in construction and in play, you might learn something.

Back to the story again... "I print off the net-deck and go about highlighting and circling all the cards I didn't believe were necessary so I could make some personal touches." ...

Then it hits me. The back of my mind there is a voice that says, "this deck has no interactivity in fact it goes about silencing and stopping the opponents for an easy win which isn't fun for you or them." I put the highlighter down and I step away from the desk. The reason why none of my playgroup have been vocal about Niv-Miz is because he is relatively new, relatively under tuned and I play the deck in a way that doesn't hamper the fun of others. Sure I counter the occasional vital spell, but sometimes Rite on Wit needs to be experienced.

In the words of a true friend of mine "Winning turn 4 sometimes, isn't fun for all the people involved, it would be much better if you could win turn 15 every time, so that everyone gets a game, everyone gets a chance to play some spells, get some experience and learn something before you combo for the win."

Needless to say (or not since I'm saying it) the deck list went into the recycling bin and I drew a card.

Which leads me to my final point - Combo for the win is legitimate, as much as land destruction and games of chaos. Whatever way you choose to win is fine, as long as everyone picks up their cards at the same time, in order to say "another game?"

Thanks for reading

Alex

PS. If anyone wants me to build a Commander deck for them I am willing just define your commander, play style, favourite cards and budget, just post a comment.

UK Modern PTQ Schedule 2012

2011-12-18T22:31:00.003Z

By Wagz

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of regular content recently, my Camtasia subscription ran out and I haven't had much focus on any particular Magic formats. I've been looking a little at Modern, but with potential bannings/unbannings coming up on Tuesday I haven't been committing to any particular decks. I've been committing to buying Tarmogoyfs though, that card is going to be great in a bunch of decks (get your Spell Snares now). For those who are interested, Modern is the format of the next PTQ season, the schedule for which can be found below:

21st Jan - Manchester - Fan Boy 3
18th Feb - Dublin - Gamers World
3rd March - Glasgow - Spellbound Games
10th March - Cambridge - Inner Sanctum Collectibles
17th March - Leeds - Patriot Games
24th March - London - Dark Sphere
31st March - Cardiff - Firestorm Games

As you can see, this is a pretty good spread around the country with a couple in the North, a couple in the South and one in each of the three non-England countries. This obviously isn't a perfect spread but it's much fairer than we've had previously. The big news in particular is a LEEDS PTQ :D. I'm sure this is exciting for many people and we really want a big showing at the event (which I highly doubt will be in the Patriot Games store itself) to show the PTQ organisers we mean business.

Team Leeds Drafting #3 - Cube with Wagz and Catton

2011-11-15T19:39:00.006Z

By Wagz

Hi all! We have an unusual format for you today. I've not talked about my Cube on the blog before apparently but it's just over 400 of the best Commons and Uncommons since original Mirrodin (Peasant Modern to some) in one box, ready to draft with. Why would you bother, I hear you say? Well, everyone has their fun casual formats (e.g. EDH) but some like theirs to be a competitive one. Also, a great way to keep up the competitive skill levels is to play a variety of formats. This will help develop your "fundamentals".

"Fundamentals" are important in Magic because it helps in a variety of aspects of the game, from generic Card Evaluation, to Format Evaluation and Deck Selection, and simply in regular Draft Formats also. Being able to get a general feeling for why one deck style beats another one and which cards make a difference to the general rule helps to make a good player a highly competitive one. We've gone to the effort of trying to record one such draft, using the Fact-or-Fiction style.

We have 92 cards from the Cube (6 boosters of 15 cards, with an additional 2 for reasons soon described) shuffled and piled up. 4 cards are removed from the top and laid face up. Just as with the card "Fact or Fiction", one player splits the cards into two piles and the other chooses which pile they take (with the splitter getting the other pile). By repeatedly alternating this process both players end up with a bunch of cards to make their deck from.

The Draft:

I was reasonably happy with my deck but it lacked in certain areas, which become apparent in the games. My decklist for reference -
1: Sunlance, Ponder, Dismember
2: Merfolk Looter, Vedalken Mastermind, Flashfreeze, Mana Leak, Remove Soul
3: Fathom Seer, Willbender, Wall of Frost, Flickerwisp, Blinding Souleater, Wall of Denial, Necrotic Sliver, Crystal Ball, Oblivion Ring
4: Guardian of the Guildpact, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Faith's Fetters
6: Nucklavee, Kiss of the Amesha, Mindculling
Lands: Vivid Creek, Jwar Isle Refuge, Dread Statuary, 7 Plains, 7 Islands

Games 1 & 2:

Game 3 + Conclusions:

Fundamentals to be learned are mentioned in the videos, but I'll reiterate them here for clarity. Decks with many colours often have to play lands which enter the battlefield tapped in order to reliably cast their spells. A great way to beat those decks is to take advantage of them effectively using their mana to make land drops and use all your mana to be very aggressive in killing them. If your deck is unable to kill them quickly, then you'll need to beat them on card quality or present some kind of trump card. My deck wasn't really able to do either of these so my best bet was to try to beat him on card quantity - as I managed in the one game you saw me win (the off-camera game we played I had a draw which attacked him before he fixed his mana).

The other lesson is that when you're not in much trouble it is better in general to develop your board rather than try to cut back theirs. On the other hand, when you are in trouble then it can be better to try to cut down your opponent's board than try to develop your own. This basically boils down to the advantaged player having or not having lots of options and being able to press their advantage accordingly. I should ask people to pay heed, however, to a common misconception of general rules - they should be seldom broken or else they're no longer General Rules! If you commonly deviate and use the excuse that it's okay to do so sometimes, then you haven't understood what "sometimes" means. Anyway, that's all for now so I hope you enjoyed the videos and took away something about competitive Magic being found in uncompetitive formats :).

Team Leeds Drafting #2 - Inn with Wagz

2011-11-03T00:19:00.007Z

By Wagz

The second in our series of draft videos recorded on MODO - this time Wagz drafting 3x Innistrad. With the PTQ in Manchester coming up this is a relevant format for anyone intending on top 8-ing. Please leave any feedback in the comments below - where would you have done things differently?

The Draft (note that if the video quality is not high enough for you then try maximising the screen, or buying Team Leeds a massive computer):

Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

Controlling Red inn Standard - One Game

2011-10-15T21:19:00.014+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all, the new Standard is shaping up and I believe the format is fairly under-explored. When a ramp deck with Primeval Titan can take the format by surprise it's indicative that people aren't really thinking about it, since that style of deck was extremely constraining for the entirety of the last season. Although I'm happy to just play whatever the best deck is (or at least the best deck I have available to me, as with my Zoo forays in Legacy), regardless of deck archetype, I am often at my happiest playing Control. Mostly Aggro-Control, but pure Control is good too.

When building a control deck in an uncontrolled format, you have to account for all the possible avenues of attack. One of the fore-runners in aggressive decks is the Red Deck. An emergent deck in any format, since some people are just that way inclined, this plays aggressively-costed damage-dealing permanents and cheap, efficient burn spells. There is still some discussion on the optimal builds of current Red decks, but the important cards appear to be Stromkirk Noble, Stormblood Berserker, Shrine of Burning Rage, Brimstone Volley, and Koth of the Hammer. After that people are filling out their curves with an array of cards from Furnace Scamp to Volt Charge. Personally I think they're all fairly interchangeable so long as you have a good aggressive curve and match your own personal play style.

I have been playing on Cockatrice with Manaleak store owner Tu Nguyen a lot, mostly in control mirrors, but I occasionally throw other decks at him for the lols. This time around I played the role of the Red deck versus his Grixis control list. So here begins our one game:

My opening hand had no one drop, but it had two copies of the dreaded Shrine. Also, I was on the play so I could sneak one under a Mana Leak and then see what happened later on to resolve the second one. While this hand may not look really powerful, it has a plan and Tu doesn't know if my plan is Stromkirk Noble into Stormblood Berserker, or Goblin Arsonist into Shrine. This sort of dilemma is exactly why it's hard to build a control deck right now - if you want to be a deck with the right answers then you have to defend against creatures of all sizes and speeds, Artifacts, Planeswalkers, really all sorts.

I made my Shrine on turn 2 and had drawn a Koth and then a Grim Lavamancer. Although slightly fearful of a counter, I manned up and cast my second Shrine, which resolved alongside my Lavamancer to charge up the Shrines. At this point my plan was to merely cast my spells and get damage in where I could, but at some point I would be able to simply deal enough damage with the Shrines.

On my previous turn I had attacked for one, then got an Arc Trail Dissipated and landed a Spikeshot Elder. This turn I had drawn a third Shrine, but I didn't really need this one. I held up the mana to shoot Tu for one damage with my Elder because my Shrines were getting me to the point that a single damage really was giving Tu one less turn to draw out of things.

My Spikeshot got killed at the end of Tu's turn, but without drawing another Mountain I was content to attack with Lavamancer and pass the turn to keep mana open for my Shrines. This game really was all about them, and as we see:

Tu luckily draws the Geistflame in the last possible turn to kill both my Shrines and I'm forced to concede. I mentioned earlier the great draw of turn 1 Noble into turn 2 Berserker, and if we look at the cards Tu's drawn then he would have handily handled that curve (though I still have all these in my hand). Control decks really need to be able to answer a lot of different things right now if they want to stay reactive, which is why a lot of the decks that appear controlling (e.g. Solar Flare) are really quite proactive in what they're trying to achieve. It remains to be seen how people choose to make a true control deck in this format (if it is achievable and/or good) but my thoughts are heavily in favour of a draw-go style deck with a lot of Flashback going on since Snapcaster Mage really is the best creature in Standard (all the best creatures ever cost 2 it seems).

Dwarven Trader – Investing In Innistrad

2011-10-03T22:09:00.009+01:00

By Dan Hiscutt

Greetings, and welcome to my first article on Magic finance. It’s geared mainly towards newer players, but hopefully everyone will find one or two of these tips useful.

I will be concentrating on buying cards for cash, rather than trading, as this is my forte. As long as you carry a smartphone or a printout of Starcity Games latest buy/sell list, trading should be simple and relatively hassle free.

***

The Magic year

Let’s kick things off with the yearly cycle of set releases :-

The “Big” Autumn set – this set – currently Innistrad, is drafted roughly a million times more than the others, Innistrad sealed is also the format for the coming PTQ season. There will be a lot of this set around for trade and purchase, keeping the prices reasonably low. Look at the price of Scars of Mirrodin cards now to see the kind of values Innistrad cards will eventually level out too.

Although there is not so much of a rush to pick up Innistrad cards compared to other sets in the block, there is still an opportunity to get yourself a pre-order bargain. Simply because people are slow to evaluate all the new mechanics and interactions at the start of a block, and often mis-price cards.

The middle set – “Dark Ascension”. This set will strengthen and add nuances to the themes in Innistrad, cards will generally be evaluated quickly, they will fall straight into existing decks and will be priced correctly much sooner. You will have to be quick to grab a bargain.

The last set – currently unknown name. Drafted the least, I highly recommend picking up any cards you need from this set as soon as you can, as the prices will only go up.

The core set – Wizards seem to use this set to experiment and plug gaps, as they (in theory) can pull a card from the next year’s core set if it becomes a problem. In practice they seem to keep popular (and/or financially expensive) cards in for two years, so they don’t anger players. See Baneslayer Angel and the Titan cycle. It will have a few key cards for standard, but plenty of junk rares and reprints too.

Trading tips

So then, in no particular order, here are some tips.

The day before the pre-release is the best time to pre-order cards (before anyone has a chance to actually play with them and re-evaluate). Buying as early as possible gives the most reward, but also the most risk! As a rule of thumb, ignore the 6-8 most expensive rares in the set, and also the 20-30 or so cheapest. Crap rares are evaluated quickly, and chase rares can be subject to irrational cardlust. I’d recommend picking up anything from the middle section that appeals to your tastes, if it also displays card advantage, appears undercosted, or has powerful synergy with the rest of the set.
Planeswalkers are risky, they usually drop in price after release, sometimes massively. Liliana 2.0 is proving me wrong so far though, she was $20 at one point!
About a month before a new set is released, just as the very first spoilers appear (typically the buy a box promo, pre release card or something to do with Duel of the Planeswalkers) take time to look back through previous sets in the block and the rest of standard. You would be surprised how many cards are forgotten about until an old block leaving standard re-invigorates them. Tips like this lead to £7 Elspeth Tirel’s and many other bargains.
Use Twitter. It will often give you a one day lead on the pack, and let you grab cards before some webstores adjust their prices. I bought my Splinter Twins for $1 each, a day later they were nearly $10. @mtgmedina, @thejrrr, @NextLevelSpec are worth following – but I recommend following all the pro players too, as they are more carefree with their tips (the speculators only go public after they have bought what they want). Last Thursday for example, I read a retweet from a webstore owner to Brian Kibler – mentioning that he saw Kiblers name on one of his invoices, buying up his entire stock of Daybreak Ranger. At this point the card was $0.79 on some stores. On Friday Kibler published his article on Starcity Games Premium regarding Daybreak Ranger, it’s now $3.99. Information and timing are important!
While eBay can be a bargain, think about how many transactions you make, ten different purchases from several different traders leads to an awful lot of postage charges. Sometimes it’s better to buy in bulk from a single webstore.
If you don’t draft much, consider buying a 4x common/uncommon playset rather than random boosters. This will set you back somewhere in the region of £24 plus postage on ebay, less for small and core sets. Almost every set has a “power uncommon” Kitchen Finks, Bloodbraid Elf, Path to Exile, Inquisition of Kozilek, Dismember and so on. The price of a 4x playset of these alone can often be in the region of £12-£15 at their peak of popularity.
Buy from America if you can. No, really. Prices are literally half of those over here.
It’s worth your time looking for a “mom & pop” Magic webstore who are slow to update their prices. When a junk rare becomes a pivotal piece of a new deck or strategy overnight (especially true of Modern and Legacy), you can grab them at the junk rare price if you are lucky. My current store for this is bazaargames.co.uk, although I’m sure they will tighten up their act eventually and I will have to find somewhere else - £6 Vesuva’s when everyone else raised them to £25+ , yes please!

Just to hammer home the point about buying from America, consider my Innistrad preorders:

Card	TCG Warehouse 23/09/2011	Magic Madhouse 23/09/2011	Magic Madhouse 04/10/2011
Hinterland Harbor	3.56	5.99	5.99
Isolated Chapel	3.53	5.99	5.99
Sulfur Falls	3.53	5.99	5.99
Woodland Cemetery	3.53	5.99	5.49
Clifftop Retreat	3.21	5.99	5.99
Heartless Summoning	2.24	3.99	3.99
Mentor of the Meek	2.24	4.99	3.99
Bloodline Keeper // Lord of Lineage	1.99	3.99	4.99
Tree of Redemption	1.76	4.99	3.99
Army of the Damned	1.60	3.99	3.99
Champion of the Parish	1.60	2.99	2.99
Stromkirk Noble	1.60	2.49	4.99
Moorland Haunt	1.44	2.99	2.99
Mayor of Avabruck // Howlpack Alpha	1.25	3.49	3.99
Stony Silence	0.96	1.49	1.49
Kessig Wolf Run	0.89	1.99	1.99
Cackling Counterpart	0.83	2.49	1.99
Kruin Outlaw // Terror of Kruin Pass	0.80	1.99	2.99
Nevermore	0.80	1.99	1.99
Splinterfright	0.80	2.49	2.49
Gavony Township	0.64	1.99	1.99
Nephalia Drownyard	0.64	1.99	1.49
Unbreathing Horde	0.64	2.49	1.99
Curse of Stalked Prey	0.57	1.49	1.49
Stensia Bloodhall	0.48	0.99	0.99
Falkenrath Marauders	0.32	0.99	0.99

(All prices are in £)

TCG Warehouse was the American webstore I used this time round, with the comparison function on magic.tcgplayer.com. I mostly use Challenfireball.com to be honest, but they were undercut by many other traders on Innistrad. Magic Madhouse prices are given to show typical UK prices in comparison.
Most of the above is baseless speculation and hedging before a metagame develops, but really, at these prices there is little that can go wrong. Trading them on for profit if they fail to deliver is pretty easy. I seem to have lucked out on Stormkirk Noble in particular  Edit: it’s now a $10 card on American websites, ker-ching!

And lastly, trading magic cards is a gamble. Don’t risk what you can’t afford and never go into debt. Because for every one of these;

Or these;

Or even these;

There is almost always one of these!

The Command Tower - Building Hanna

2011-09-30T00:00:00.001+01:00

by Alex Gershaw

Hey.

Before I get started with my EDH/Commander (hereby referred to as EDmander) deck tech, I want to outline what my goals are and why I am doing this. I was inspired by a fellow planeswalker of mine, Andy Pemberton, who originally began posting EDmander articles on the Team Leeds blog before he got drafted by MTG:UK (check out his articles - they are all good). His style is to post about his commanders, do some set overviews and post about his EDmander experiences, I will not be stealing his thunder. Instead I will be taking suggestions of commanders and doing a deck tech for them. I hope you enjoy.

Hanna Ship's Navigator

A friend of mine once asked me to look over his Hanna deck a while back and I didn't manage to do a great job, possibly because I would have preferred to gut the deck and start again, this is what I have done this time around.

Observations first, this commander doesn't have haste, I don't mean in the conventional red creatures and some green or black creatures "This creature is unaffected by summoning sickness" kind of way. I mean in the "This creature works immediately, I don't have to pass a turn to use it" way (read that article, if you haven't before). Hanna requires you to either give it haste or pass the turn in order to use her and one set of turns is a very long time in EDmander. This fact alone makes Hanna a slightly harder commander to work with.

On the upside of observations, her ability is definitely a "build around me" ability and it has given me plenty of options when building the deck. The deck list (with notes) is as follows:

Cheap Artifact suite:

Aether Spellbomb - Bounce effects are often useful for indestructible or hard to deal with creatures, this seems like a good cheap re-usable toy for Hanna to play with.

Dispeller's Capsule - Cheap, easy to use, just what every dispeller needs.

Elixir of Immortality - A favorite card of the friend who wanted me to build this deck there will be many of these. Crafting an EDmander deck is a personal experience and the deck needs to be fun for everyone but especially the pilot. There are many of these in the deck.

Expedition Map - I won't go into great detail on the lands until later but needless to say this can fetch a multitude of great effects (except I did have to say it).
Everflowing Chalice - Solid ramp in slow ramp colours especially when after casting Hanna from the command zone once to get her effect, she loses value every time. This should help offset that in the late game while also being a useful early game ramp spell.
Sensei's Divining Top - Any deck with enough shuffle effects should pack a top, it's like drawing another three cards every time you shuffle.
Pithing Needle - Need to shut down a commander with a tap effect... look no further than the handy-dandy Pithing Needle, shuts down important combo pieces, no questions asked. No refunds if Mindslaved into injecting your own commander with the needle.
Sol Ring - Obviously
Tormod's Crypt - Because graveyards won't remove themselves, actually sometimes they do.
Wayfarer's Bauble - It's like ramp but colourless.

Other Ramp Artifacts:

Green is the best colour for ramp effects sadly since Hanna can't run any of them she has to stumble around looking for baubles, signets and talismans to get the job done.
Azorius Signet, Talisman of Progress, Armillary Sphere, Darksteel Ingot, Coalition Relic, Solemn Simulacrum and Coldsteel Heart.

Tutors:
EDmander is about inconsistency and some people find the use of tutor effects in this format a problem, I do not think this, I think you can use tutors to make different choices than you did in the last game thus making the overall experience different:
Tezz 1.0 - The -x ability can be used on 1 to get any of the cheap artifact suite (or even 0 to get the Crypt or artifact lands). Which brings me on to... Trinket Mage the EDmander blue workhorse, if I had an artifact for every time I resolved Trinket Mage, I would have used him correctly.
Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Idyllic Tutor and Fabricate as ways of getting useful singletons from your library to your Brain pan scroll room (read hand). The only one of real interest is the Mystical Tutor as it doesn't seem to be doing anything so far, but you shall see, you'll all see.

Draw spells:
Rhystic Study Asymmetrical effects are generally considered a good thing, this three mana enchantment either slows opponents down or gives you a card, make sure you ask politely.
Let me give you the Opportunity to see a great instant speed draw spell, reload at the end of an opponents turn and have a full grip for your turn.
Fact or Fiction - Has netted me somewhere between 2-4 cards at instant speed in the past, never be surprised about how wrong opponents can get your piles since they don't know what you know.
I also can't recall how many times I have stroked myself... but enough about my personal life.
Future sight and Magus of the Future - What if I told you every land you played and every spell you cast came with an additional "Draw a card" clause... What? Wait... Five manas?
Pulse of the Grid - I find this card a draw spell to find draw spells, when it's my only option I probably only have 3-4 cards in hand while my opponents have 6, so I can use it twice at the end of an opponents turn and dig four cards for something better. This is a bit of a personal choice but ever since a friend started using Pulse of the Tangle I knew I wanted to run is one in a couple of my decks.
Courier's Capsule - Re-usable instant speed draw when using Hanna. It might not be great and the first thing I would put on the chopping block.

Counters:

So you happen to be playing Blue so you have all of these counterspells to choose from which do you pick:
Hinder and C-c-c-crumple are two counterspells that I personally dislike (not that I don't or haven't used them in the past) but they are very useful for getting rid of pesky commanders who just won't die. These were selected personally as cards wanted for this deck.
Some Mages won't take "no" for an answer, but now you can tell the repeatedly with Forbid.
Glen Elendra Archmage, Draining Whelk and Venser, Shaper Savant are all wonderful options for counterspells, Glenny with her re-use-ability, Whelk with "I'm also a beat stick" and Venser with his versatility, all personal favorites.
Time Stop - Exile the stack? End the turn? I use this and Riftsweeper in my Bant deck to hopefully one day stop two turns in a game as it exiles itself.
Decree of Silence - I have no idea why my playgroup doesn't run this apart from the "risk of hardcasting" it into a dull game. Cycle this for six mana and get a nigh on uncounterable counterspell and draw a card. (Note those are the only four effects in the game that I can think of that usefully stop triggered abilities aside from maybe Sundial but that card sucks anyway). Also for this deck in particular it is an enchantment so for three more mana Hanna can fetch it back.

Removal:
All decks need some form or removal usually in the form of wraths although spot removal is necessary too.
Wrath of God and Rout for creature clearing.
Austere Command and Oblivion Stone for a general destroy everything (or some of everything) kind of wrath.
Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares and Soul Snare backing up your sweeps with some spot exile.
Aura of Silence and Seal of Cleansing which backs up the Dispeller's Capsule for more point artifact and enchantments hate. (Be aware that some of the above removal spells are either artifacts or enchantments and thus reusable with Hanna, time and time again).
Finally in this section Stonecloaker - Evacuate your MVP, or pay three to exile a card and bounce it to use again. Stonecloaker is an almost auto include for any deck I build carrying White.

Enablers:

Usually this section would be for any combo enablers I would have. I have neglected to give this deck a combo finish, it is more of an attrition style build and as such likes to grind down its opponents and beat them with fatties (in a later section). So in this section I have included cards which give Hanna haste and one which gives the deck a bit of a boost.
Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots and Strider Harness to grant Hanna actual haste, although if I was going to cut back here, I'd let go of the Harness as it doesn't protect your commander.
Thousand-Year Elixir - If your commander has a tap ability and does not have haste or enough of your creatures, this is an auto include.
Rings of Brighthearth - Since the deck is built upon activate abilities, you might want to use them again, copy them for two mana... Bargain.

Fatties:
These are just eight big Blue/White/Artifact Creatures I could find, Since this deck wants to exhaust the opponents and then win, it didn't really matter what I put in these slots. You get the added bonus of their effects, some are draw, removal or recurrsion but mostly they are here to bring the pain.
Sun Titan, Yosei, the Morning Star, Consecrated Sphinx, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Deathless Angel, Wurmcoil Engine, Godhead of Awe and Rite of Replication (not technically a creature, but also technically five creatures).

Lands:

Due to budget considerations, I'm not going to tell you how to build the mana base, technically 18 Island and 18 Plains should do it. I wanted to inform you of the best lands in these colours (and colourless).
For this deck specifically: Ancient Den and Seat of the Synod due to Tezzeret's -x ability.
Generally: Kor Haven, Reliquary Tower, Tolaria West, Winding Canyons, Prahv, Spires of Order, Terrain Generator.

If budget wasn't an option I'd cut the two cards I mentioned earlier (Courier's Capsule and Strider Harness) for Land Tax and Scroll Rack. I would also suggest a whole swath of lands you could use ranging from Tundra to Mystic Gate to Glacial Fortress.

If anyone has any suggestions for Commanders you want me to build around, tell me the general, how competitive your play group is (from casual to competitive on a 1-10 scale) and how involved you wish the deck to be (from easy and fun to challenging and involved on a 1-10 scale). Please do not suggest either Hakkon or Phage as all you will get is a Mono-Black Control deck with no care about the commander.

Thanks for reading.
Alex

Team Leeds Drafting #1 - M12 with Rob Catton

2011-09-26T22:15:00.006+01:00

By Rob Catton

In a new series for the Team Leeds Blog™, Rob Catton will be presenting some of his online drafts which he will record for our viewing pleasure. To get things going we have a triple M12 draft - a format quickly going out of style but a good format which can teach us much about tempo. Please leave any feedback in the comments below - where would you have done things differently?

The Draft (note that if the video quality is not high enough for you then try maximising the screen, or buying Team Leeds a massive computer):

Round 1:

Round 2:

University Prerelease Report - Innistrad

2011-09-24T22:58:00.005+01:00

By Wagz

Hello and welcome! One thing we've done here before is live coverage of our pre-releases. While not possible this time around I did manage to take some notes while I was there, so I can bring some posthumous coverage - here goes!

We managed to get a whopping 50 players at the event for Innistrad Sealed deck and managed an 8-man draft along the way. Some familiar faces came back, along with many new ones, and even some very old ones. We managed to begin our coverage with a feature match in round 2:

Round 2: Steve Parker vs Andy Pemberton

For game 1, both players decided to send back their opening hands and after a pair of lands apiece, Silverchase Fox on the draw began the board development by Steve. Crossway Vampire from Andy presented a potential blocker, but Steve fearlessly sends his pet, and backs it up with a Voiceless Spirit. Attempting to break the tempo of the attacks, Andy makes and equips a Blazing Torch, but once more Steve doesn't care for it and attacks to take Andy to 14.

A Galvanic Juggernaut for Steve presents Andy with quite a conundrum. Andy passes without a play once more, and Steve attacks before reinforcing his army with an Abbey Griffin. Andy attempts a comeback with a 3/3 flier for 5 mana, but a Fiend Hunter takes it out of the game and Steve is able to press even more damage through. Andy is unable to bring enough defences out to stay alive, and concedes the game - Steve 1, Andy 0.

Both players topped off at 5 lands of two types in game 1 - were their decks hiding any bombs? Steve's turn 1 Traveller's Amulet for a Forest in his previously- White/Red deck would indicate that something should come along soon. Andy makes the first creature with a Kessig Wolf, a 3/1 for 3 mana which can gain first strike - quite a difficult card to play against perhaps. Steve looks visibly annoyed at himself as he untaps, but makes a Voiceless Spirit to block. The Spirit is Exorcised, allowing for an attack for 3 damage, and after another attack into Steve's Abbey Griffin, Andy makes the Innistrad answer to Siege Mastodon.

Steve lays a Kessig Wolf Run, answering the question of what the green mana was for, and starts to clog up the ground with a Pitchborn Devils. The 5 mana creatures trade in combat, taking Steve to 11 life. Finally making the card he'd missed out on turn 2, Steve offs the 3/1 Wolf with a Geistflame, flashing it back to kill a Village Ironsmith. Both players make a few more creatures, but the Wolf Run means that Steve is able to push through lethal damage, taking the match.

Steve 2 - 0 Andy

During round 3 I was busy setting a side draft going, but I managed to note a few interesting sights around the pre-release:

Johannes Ihli curved out with turns 2-5 Werewolves in draft but due to casting spells each turn doesn't transform them for too long - not as aggressive as desired.
Craig Stevenson makes a turn 2 Mayor of Averbrook in both games of his match, that'll sting in the morning.
Kenny Hall made a Grimoire of the Dead, discarded 3 creatures to it and took 7 total back onto the battlefield at once.
Old-school pro Gordon Benson was seen bothering the top tables - does this herald a return to Magic?

Round 5's Feature Match was:

Round 5: Rob Catton vs Steve Tyson

On the play, Steve mulligans once and makes audible concerns about the hand he does keep. He has three different basic lands on turn 3, and makes the first play of the game with a Screeching Bat. Rob matches it with a Thraben Sentry, but it can only dream of attaining the 5/5 size of the Vampire on the flip-side. A Bonds of Faith deals with the Vampiric entity, and the game notably slows down as Rob summons a Skirsdag High Priest, promising to itself summon some 5/5 fliers.

Scourge of Geier Reach attempts to clog up the ground of the battlefield for Steve, and his Rolling Temblor as an attempted Plague Wind is thwarted by Rob's own small burn spell. An Angelic Overseer from Rob is rolled out to try to break the deadlock, but it is forced to Fight the Pacified Vampire. Another attempt to get things rolling is also nullified, and Steve is makin' Morbid Bacon to fill the gap. It finds itself Rebuked on its attack, and Rob is the first to draw more creatures - killing his own Pitchborn Devils with a Harvest Pyre to deal the last few points of damage.

On the draw for game 2, Rob makes the first play with a Rakish Heir. A Tribute to Hunger allows the vampire to get in Steve's hair, but a Bloodgift Demon threatens to single-handedly take over the game. Rob attacks and Steve blocks with his Demon, Rob using two different cards to save his own creature and kill his opponent's, losing out on cards but ensuring he wouldn't quickly lose the game. The Rakish Heir is dealt with, and the players resort to draw-go for a few turns, with a 5/4 trampler staring down a 1/1 deathtouch.

An Angelic Overseer is shot down by a Geistcatcher's Rig, and a first attempt to Geistflame the deathtoucher is thwarted by a Spidery Grasp. It is removed on the flashback, and Steve is forced to use 2 Rolling Temblor to not quickly lose any kind of race. A Gallows Warden is taken down via a Prey Upon, but a final Village Ironsmith is not met with an answer and Rob is able to attack in for lethal damage once and for all.

Rob 2 - 0 Steve

Round 6: Danny Whitaker vs Nathan Edwards

Two Leeds prerelease veterans face off in the finals, but neither one has ever won a feature match here - who will manage to end their streak today? A Deranged Hermit on turn 2 for Nathan on the play signals a ramped start. It only attacks for one on turn 3, but is soon stopped by a Chapel Geist. Milling an Unburial Rites while generating mana for an Angelic Overseer, Nathan threatens a very aggressive start to the game. Not to be outmatched, Danny summons the Angel's Evil Twin. Although Danny was yet to supplement his Angel with a Human, Nathan was unable to attack due to losing a racing position due to the Geist. Danny soon found a Human and a deadlock was reached - who would first be able to deal with their opponent's Humans and then Angel?

For many turns creatures were summoned and dealt with on both side of the battlefield, the action revolving around the two identical Angels in the centre. The mighty Grimgrin, Corpse-Born shows up to break the stalemate, but his Bloodline is Severed to keep the fight fair once more. Danny begins to gain an upper hand in terms of flying dominance, with some less-relevant 4/4 and 3/2 creatures which were building up to a lethal attack team. Nathan cannot find a second Island, presumably for some stockpiled spells, but also for the flashback on a milled Cackling Counterpart.

Danny finally draws enough removal spells for all the Humans, and aims a finishing blow at Nathan's Angel, but the Village Bell-Ringers ring in the town's defences to aid their champion. Taking the game another way, Danny is able to deal with Nathan's other flying creatures, and sends in his team for a large strike. A Murder of Crows finds its end, but 15 damage is inflicted to the defender. Another dies the next turn, and a brief flurry of spells seeks to save Nathan enough damage, to no avail. The players apologised for what looked like a boring match, but this writer saw nothing but a tense show-down the whole way through. Danny 1 - 0 Nathan.

The same, unfortunately, could not be said for the second game of the frame. Nathan's Deranged Assistant makes another turn 2 appearance, but Danny cuts off the Dead Weight. Nathan misses his third land for a ocuple of turns, and Grimgrin returns to take revenge for his quick death in the previous skirmish. Tearing through both armies alike, he inflicts cutting blows on Nathan, and a Stitched Drake called to Grimgrin's side is enough for Nathan who raises the white flag. We have our winner,

Danny 2 - 0 Nathan.

Thanks to all who attended the pre-release and making it yet another great day and tournament. I took notes on which archetypes were represented at the event and will be collating the data soon when I'm not so tired (I've judged 2 prereleases in the last 24 hours :s). See you at an events soon!

Team Leeds is Recruiting!

2011-09-23T00:59:00.006+01:00

Hi all! Some of you may remember this Blog from before but most of you are unlikely to. Team Leeds is the competitive branch of Magic play in Leeds. We are aiming to play the best Magic we can, and win events.

Magic in Leeds has undergone a lot since I last posted here. I used to run a weekly event in the University, which is still going on Wednesdays, which was the only option for sanctioned Magic play at the time. Since then Travelling Man began running events, and a player at the Wednesday events (Mark Hammond, who now runs the Wednesday events) set up a branch of Patriot Games in Leeds.

It is really great to see so many players wanting to play Magic in Leeds, and having a place to play. However, what I really want to see is players looking to go that little bit further. I want to see players who wish to improve themselves, to try to win. This isn't in any way opposing having fun playing Magic, it's something additional.

If you feel like you want to stop slinging cardboard around a table and take an active part in just being better at the game we all enjoy, then come to the banner of Team Leeds. Anyone and everyone is welcome to add themselves to the Planeswalker Points table (link here, message me your name and DCI number), and anyone and everyone is welcome to write for this Blog. If you feel like you have anything to contribute then please ask - you will be printed! If you are scared that people will disagree with you, don't be. Discussion is how you improve as a player. Look through our archive for many instances of people lodging their opinions and being wrong (I've done it more than enough). We will try to stay up to date with all the local news and provide details of local and competitive events, but this blog is an open book for anyone wishing to improve. I hope to hear from you soon.

Wagz

The Ten Command-Ments: Mirrodin Besieged and what it means to you

2011-02-02T08:49:00.009Z

by Andrew Pemberton

Greetings and salutations, my fellow Planeswalkers. I realise it's been way too long since we had an update, so why not go with what everyone else is doing: For those who read Channel Fireball or Star City Games, both LSV and Pat Chapin are in the middle of doing set reviews. Now, I'm not one to step on other people's work, so instead of focusing on constructed and limited applications, I will be talking today about what cards you should be looking out for to take your deck to the next level.

WHITE

Well, doesn't this kitty have claws! Relic-Warder is one of the cards that has been getting a lot of hype, particularly for the Eternal formats (Legacy and Vintage), in order to stop opposing AEther Vials and Counterbalances. However, we also get serious applications with this in Commander. Having an early answer for cards such as Luminarch Ascension can be a real boon, certainly in multiplayer, but also being able to remove more serious Enchantments and Artifacts later in the game means he never loses value. Of course, being a creature does hamper him slightly due to his inability to survive Wrath-style effects, but you do effectively shut down an effect for at least two turns, probably enough time to get around said threat another way. Of course, the major trick with this is one we can also use with Tidehollow Sculler: By stacking RW's Enters the Battlefield ability, then sacrificing him, say with a High Market, you get rid of the card PERMANENTLY. Definitely worth a look in for the predominantly white decks.

Now, I'm a sucker for a Wrath effect as much as the next guy, and believe me when I say this: There are better effects than this in the format. However, that's not to go against counting on this should you need to. This can certainly be a budget option should you need it, or just having the threat of having a creature when your opponents have nothing. Granted, it'd be pretty sick if you got a 6/6 or higher every time, and this does scale up quite nicely for multiplayer, but there will be times that you just need to get rid of a threat or two, and that's fine. Heck, you still get value out of your 2/2, I'm sure.

...and for those of you who liked the other side of Martial Coup, I present to you... the Itteh Bitteh Kitteh Committeh! For those of you using Raksha, Jareth or Kemba-based Cat Tribal, this is a fun option, but there's so many ways to abuse this card. At 4 or 5 mana, it functions as an instant speed fog effect, effectively nullifying your opponent's attacks for a turn if needed. At 6 Mana, you start getting value out of your spell in terms of Power:Mana Cost. At 7 or more, you start jumping the curve in terms of power. Token strategist such as Teysa, Orzhov Scion will love this card, as a means to activating abilities, or just swinging with a mass of furry feline fury! Oh yeah, one thing that's kinda crucial about this card? Yeah, it's an instant, meaning you can throw a furba- er, curve ball at your enemies by popping up with a ton of 2/2's at the end of your opponent's turn... and of course, letting you shuffle it back into your deck for even more value later on. All in all, a great card for White-loving Planeswalkers.

BLUE

I really feel the need to make a Mass Effect reference, but I think I'll hold back on this occasion. Yes, this is Stroke of Genius 2.0, but with two major changes. Obviously, the more restrictive mana cost makes this a wee bit harder to cast in multicolour decks, but it shouldn't pose a great deal of issues, especially if you're running as much mana fixing as you should be. The other great detail is, like all the Zeniths, the shuffle ability. Paying XUUU instead of X2U does seem a little awkward, but again, the incremental gain is there. For example, wasting a Stroke for X=2 is usually a little poor, but with the shuffle, using it with Blue Sun's Zenith takes that poor play away: Giving you the option of potentially casting it later makes this Zenith a lot more versatile than it's Urza's Block cousin. Of course, the real value of this card probably starts at around the 7 mana mark, but hey, if you've ramped up and need a refill, then by all means do so!

Just... Hnng! This card screams 'Abuse me!'. Blue doesn't need another useless flying body, but that's not what we're interested in: Drawing two cards off of an opponent's draw step is pretty sweet, but this card just keeps on giving: Cycling, Skullclamp triggers, etc... every use gives you at least two cards back if you want them. Of course, the 'may' clause is ever-present in the text, so once you have attained the desired value, feel free to take your turn, use some cards, then let him refill your hand all over again. In a game at Sunday's pre-release, I managed to Bribery one out of a friend's deck, and managed to draw at least 10 cards before it was dealt with. Even the body can be relevant, blocking most flying threats

Now, I've not always been the biggest fan of Clone-style effects, but this one... I quite enjoy. You can't argue with Rite of Replication and Spitting Image in terms of power and utility, but this is a pretty cheap way of knocking out someones General. Even if not, copying something for value can be perfectly fine if your opponent has something worth copying. Heck, you can even copy your own creatures, so if you want double Blightsteel Colossus, here's another way to achieve it, I guess.

Thar she blows! Now this one is interesting. I see this as a blue Relic Crush, without the drawback of only targeting artifacts. Sure, it's only a bounce effect, but tagging two permanents at once gets you solid tempo gain in most cases, and it can even kill off your opponent's plans, for example, by bouncing a Mimic Vat in response to its own trigger. Heck, you can even just fog a little with it if you like. Nice applications, definitely one worth trying, whether budget-inclined or not.

Yep, that's a tutor all right. For those with Artifact-based strategies (I'm looking at you, Sharuum the Hegemon!), this card basically says 'Search your library for target bomb'. Whether its Mindslaver, Darksteel Forge, or Steel Hellkite, this ensures you get what you need, and unlike Trinket Mage in this format, it seems to get a lot more: Having that '1 or less' restriction lifted seems so much better for this format. It's all about the fatties, and this guy might just replace Trinket Mage in some cases, if not doing the inevitable of complimenting him.

BLACK

Yep, that's another Zenith. This time, it's Black rocking the field with a reusable Wrath effect. This has already received widespread acclaim for its possibilities in Standard, but those possibilities also exist in Commander. Shrinking an army for cheap, or killing them for a little more, Black Sun's Zenith gives Black builds another Wrath to compliment Damnation and Mutilate. I'm glad to see that Wizards has posted a cycle with such broad applications, and it certainly speaks well for the future of Commander.

Wraths are usually better in Commander, but hey, this is one of the best pieces of spot removal I've seen in a while. Destroying everything that isn't an Artifact is pretty sick, especially if it's a threat you need rid of. Heck, if you're using a multicolour deck anyway, chances are you have separate Artifact removal anyway, unless you're in Blue. Two mana to sink a dude is good value, and with its widespread amount of targets, there will always be something to shoot.

Definitely another weenie killer, but one with benefits! Sure, the only things this thing will be likely shrinking are going to be Sakura-Tribe Elder, Eternal Witness and Solemn Simulacrum, but hey, if they want to pay 2 life to draw a card, or get a land, seems fine to me. Putting that extra cost on creatures makes it harder to make effective blocking decisions, as well as when to use those sacrificial effects. Not to mention, he fits Commander's remit of being big and beefy. A solid hit in my books, not only for the mini-wrath, but also for the life-taking effect.

RED

More efficient spot removal. Not hitting creatures sucks a little, and Shatter might be a better option for your mana, but being able to destroy their Sol Ring or Mana Vault on turn 1 completely nullifies the tempo swing they would otherwise gain.

It looks more like some giant beetle thing than a Beast, but I guess Insect doesn't cut it for something that big either... Anyway, here we welcome one of my top Commander cards from the set. For those who are used to playing with Future Sight, this is kinda similar. In mono Red, you have limited options aside from burn, but in multicolour, you open the door to plenty of things... Ramp spells in Green, Draw in Blue, or removal in White. The day you get a Time Stretch off of this, however, is the day you'll forever be targeted in your Commander games, so be careful. Free stuff is always good stuff in EDH, and there's certainly worse things you can play for 5 mana.

Sure, Shatterstorm destroys every artifact for the same cost, but where's the fun in that? Exiling is such a powerful effect, and paying 4 to exile two of your opponent's artifacts is fair game, really. Having to have two targets is a little bit lame in single player, but multiplayer is where this guy really shines. You can screw one guy off of his combo, or be political and take one each from two guys. Either way, a good solid utility card to fill out your decks with.

GREEN

Speaking of Shatterstorm, here's the Green variant we just got. Green could use a couple more wrath effects, even if they only serve the purpose of killing Artifacts and Enchantments. I'm a little iffy about this, as I'm not sure how good it is at the moment, but of course, it scales up the more artifacts your opponents have. I'd probably compliment this with All is Dust, just to be able to hit everything on the board over a couple of turns.

See that? Now THAT'S a Tutor! For one mana extra, you can find a creature in your library, and slap it right down onto the Battlefield. Sure, it has the same Primal Order-style drawback of needing to be a Green creature, but who cares? Slapping down Primeval Titans and Woodfall Primus' is so good. Not to mention, Gold cards with Green in their mana cost are fair game too, so if you want to pay out 6 Mana for your favourite WUBRG card, go ahead! Plus, like all the other Zeniths, that huffle ability comes in handly. Note that the power of the card only scales up if you have the creatures to make use of it, so make sure to build your decks properly!

For all those Phyrexians who wished Yawgmoth would whisper sweet nothings into your ear, now's your chance. This is certainly a Commander card, no buts about it. Steroid-infused Regrowth effects are always good - It's why they exile themselves after their use. Can you imagine a loop of Restock and this if they didn't Exile themselves? Crazy. Anyway, giving your spells another go around the table is nothing to scoff at, especially if you want another shot at casting your Time Stretch and Rite of Replication. The Reliquary Tower-style is an expected, but nonetheless crucial bonus, preventing you from losing the cards you just got back. Better yet, you can't lose your hand to a Strip Mine, unlike with Reliquary Tower. Solid, amazing, and every Green deck should pack one.

Sac Elder number two? I'm not sure if this is as useful as I think it is yet, but it's certainly worth a shot. Trading an extra point of power for not being able to sac it off manually is kinda iffy, but if you're packing Sacrificial effects such as High Market anyway, you can still claim the benefits from it, not to mention the ever-presence of Wraths in the set. Guys that replace themselves are always worth looking at, and the ramp can sometimes help. Definitely worth a look at, especially in decks such as Savra, Queen of the Golgari, where the sacrifices are used to your benefit.

GOLD

A creature that kills any other creature in combat? Where do I sign! First Strike and Deathtouch are such good abilities, that when put together, give you pretty much the perfect package to deal with blocking creatures, sans the obvious Indestructible and Protection creatures. However, what is truly interesting is the second ability: getting back your used Artifacts is a sure-fire bet that you're gaining back value. Having Glissa out with an Executioner's Capsule basically means you can kill anything your opponent has, and just recur the Capsule straight away. A candidate for a Commander in her own right, or a solid addition to any BG strategy.

ARTIFACT

May as well start this section with the one card I expect to cause the most controversy. An old favourite turned compleat, Blightsteel Colossus has the capacity to kill any opponent in one shot. Now, we all know what happened to Emrakul, with the Ban-hammer floating over his head for the longest time before he eventually got taken away. I'm not so sure that this particular Colossus will stick around for too long. I mean, think about it: Rite of Replication means you WILL kill at least two or three players in one attack step, and even shenanigans like Tooth and Nail fetching this and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can end games quickly. I'm glad both Red and White have ways to deal with this menace, and even Black can deal with it to an extent, but the fact that you need to do it in one turn is useless if you don't have the right cards at the right time.

Thinking of this guy from a community standpoint as well: Sure, he doesn't grant the extra turn that Emrakul provided, but he essentially will end the game in his next turn unless dealt with. You then have the problem of being political about who you swing at. There will always be a player that feels that he has been picked on, and I've seen groups almost lose players due to pressing home their advantage against one player in particular. Guys, I'm not sure the loss in players is worth the advantage you get out of this, so think carefully when deciding whether to pack this into your deck or not.

Players, pack your Path to Exile and other exile effects now, because you don't want to be caught with your pants down against this guy, especially if he's spreading an infection :p.

...and from one innuendo to another, here we have the Bonehoard! Now, I wasn't a huge fan of Living Weapon at the Pre-Release, but this guy seems pretty solid to me. He feels a little like an Empyrial Plate for your graveyard, giving you a boost based on how many Wraths your fellow players have used. I wouldn't be surprised at seeing this on a Voltron-style Commander in order to help deal 21 General damage, or even just augmenting an equipment strategy. Either way, you get a potentially monstrous creature for just 4 mana, and can make another creature into a monster for just 2 mana. A solid playable in any Equipment-based strategy.

...and speaking of Equipment-based strategies, check out this wicked set of armor. Probably a throwback to Shield of Kaldra way back in Darksteel, this offers the same abilities for 3 mana less overall. The ability to protect your General is pretty sweet, though you do lose out on being able to get that sweet Kaldra token :(. Joking aside, another very solid equipment that should see play in Commander.

Vedalken Orrery for Artifacts? Sounds sweet. Early game, you can drop surprise Artifacts on people, and late game, you can even drop the Myr at the end of turn, along with any busted Artifacts you want. It's a little bit cute, and of course a little more susceptible to removal, but come on, he's sparkly and does a mean job of scaring your opponent. Dropping a Master Transmuter at the end of your opponent's turn, only to transmute the Myr into a Colossus seems like GG's to me.

Two mana Artifact acceleration is usually pretty solid. From the Cameos, Signets and Talismans of old, we now get a card similar to Gemstone Mine in flavour, and pretty high in quality too. It can be used as another Signet in most decks, but decks that love abusing charge counters will love this. The ability to Proliferate this and Everflowing Chalice means you'll pretty much always have enough mana. Solid, definitely worth a slot in your Ramp set-up.

Ok, now I know 7 Mana for a Vindicate is a lot... heck, you can pay 11 Mana for Ulamog, and he gives you a 10/10 Indestructible body to boot! However, the applications I can see are with a sacrificial effect. Having, say, Goblin Welder swap this for something in your graveyard only for you to get it back is pretty nifty, albeit a little expensive, but we're used to expensive spells anyway. It might see play, it might not, but it deserves a shout, especially for those decks that want Artifacts that do crazy things.

As with all of the previous Swords, Feast and Famine is pretty solid. When evaluating cards like this, I tend to value the Bonuses and Protection abilities over the secondary, combat damage-based abilities. Now, +2/+2 is amazing for just 5 mana. A 2 mana equip costs means anything can carry the sword and use it effectively, and both Green and Black are popular colours in the format. The combat damage abilities do seem a little bit weak at first: making them discard a card can mean very little with such rampant card advantage floating around, but checking out the second ability... It gives you another Seedborn Muse, effectively. It gives you the chance to use your expensive spells for one more shot, or come up ahead on tempo by casting into multiple threats at once, effectively doubling your mana in the process. Sure, Sword of Fire and Ice is still the top slashing implement, but this guy is no slouch either.

***

...and thus ends my views on the new set for Commander! As always, don't just take my word for it - try the cards I haven't mentioned: you might find a busted combo with some older cards. The only way to find them is to play them and see!

As always, you can address any comments to the section below, Facebook, or hit me up on MSN at Mirage_Knight@hotmail.co.uk. Until then, happy Commanding!

Andy P

The Ten Command-Ments: Building your First Commander Deck

2010-12-30T20:09:00.011Z

by Andrew Pemberton

Howdy, gang! I hope everyone had a suitably Magic-filled Christmas, and is ready to get back to some real brewing. Last article, I talked about my own Azusa Commander deck, and this week, I'd like to continue on from that to show you the steps to creating your own Commander deck, by not only leading you through the thought processes, but give you examples along the way.

1, Selecting your Colours and Commander

Now, to start off deck building, it's imperative to know what you wish to accomplish: Do you want to smother the battlefield with powerful board spells, or intricately build up a machine-like combo? Once you know what you need to accomplish, you can choose your colours accordingly. For the intricately minded, Blue offers a lot of tricks and disruption effects, while the aggressive strategies offered by both Red and Green may appeal to others among you.

You may not even want to choose your colours first: I have known many people (Including myself) to pick a Commander first and go with the colour(s) he or she offers. It's also fine if you like a Commander for his abilities, or even just sentimentality. It's Casual, so it's perfectly fine to have sentimentality enter the fray.

2, Knowing your Commander and your Plan of Attack

So, you've chosen your colours and (Hopefully) Your Commander. Now, we can start to build up an idea of the type of deck we would like to run. To do this, I often make a Pros and Cons list of what my deck should be able to do, as a result of my Commander choice. Doing this allows you to pinpoint both the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen Commander, and allows you to formulate basic plans of attack in order to fight your weaknesses. For example, if you need to sacrifice a creature in order to activate your Commander's effect, then having a few token generators allows you to use very little mana and card advantage to gain a continuous source of fodder.

Of course, knowing your Commander also means knowing your plan of attack, stemming into the Three major Archetypes: Control; Aggro; and Combo.

Control decks tend to favour a permission style of play: That is, they allow you to control what happens on the board, either through 'Sweepers' (Effects that destroy all of a given type of card on the field, i.e. Day of Judgment), Counterspells (Mana Leak), and bouncing permanents to their controller's hand (Unsummon). Supplemented with a fair amount of card draw, this style of play always needs a fairly large card count in hand in order to benefit fully, and cards that recycle themselves, such as Capsize, are often at use in these forms of decks due to the lack of Card Advantage spent in order to gain their full effects.

Aggro decks are the complete opposite of their Control counterparts: They want to win, and they want to do it as quickly and brutally as possible, either by playing a threatening creature every turn, or using fast ramp spells (Spells that increase your mana production or land count on the Battlefield) in order to put out their bigger Creatures as fast as possible. These strategies always include lots of efficient creatures that either have a high Power and Toughness, or that have very useful effects when in combat, such as Trample or Flying. Aggro decks also tend to have a lot of removal, either in the form of single-one-shot effects or their own versions of sweepers, and also gain benefit from having utility-style effects such as Hull Breach in order to target multiple threats at once.

Combo decks are a little more complex than the previous Archetypes: Combo decks support combination play, in that they want to assemble a game-winning set of cards as fast as possible. Not usually running many creatures, these types of decks instead want to use Card Draw and Tutors (Cards that allow you to search your library for a specific type of card) in order to assemble said combo as quickly as possible. There are plenty of Combination plays available, and even Aggro and Control decks can use certain combos in order to gain advantage. Combo play is also the most versatile form of attack, which can result in milling the Opponent's library; dealing infinite damage to every player; and making infinite mana to support said combos. Combo decks are also, by their nature, very fragile: If one of your pieces is gone, you may have trouble reforming it, so it does take careful consideration in order to make the right plays.

3, Choosing cards to fit your plan

Now, most Pro Players will say that a good basis to any deck is knowing what your deck does, and how its cards interact. In Commander, there is very little difference: In fact, the nature of Highlander formats allows us to have more interactions between our spells, and generally the more our cards interact, the better our results become. Certainly, it is important to consider what cards you need to achieve certain goals, and how versatile these cards are in our overall plan. Not only that, we need a structure so that we don't overdo it on certain areas: We don't want to be drawing too many removal spells when we need a Creature to end the game for us.

As a basic plan, I tend to not have a fixed outline for deck building, as some decks need cards that others don't. As a basic principle, I would look to this as an outline;

-35-40 Land

As with any format, you can't do much without Land. This should be a mix of both colour-producing lands and utility lands. In accordance with the number of spells of a specific colour, your lands should have a similar ratio in producing those colours. Of course, two and three-colour decks have the benefit of Dual Lands and Tri-Lands in order to help fix their mana base. Utility lands are lands that serve a purpose other than producing mana, and should be at their minimum in a 3 or more colour deck. This will give you the right mana to cast your spells, but can be added to or reduced depending on the lands you need to accomplish your goals. Some lands can add Coloured mana as well as an effect, such as Oran-Rief the Vastwood, allowing you access to the lands without crippling your mana base.

-5-10 Mana producers (Land Search, Ramp, Artifact Mana)

Depending on the colour, you may have more or less access to Ramp. Green tends to be the best colour for land searching and ramping, and can easily be a support colour in a three colour deck to ensure you get your mana as fast as possible. However, in other colours this ramp is a little harder to achieve. One way around this is to use the best slots available within your colour: All colours have some form of Land search or ramp spells;

White: Land Tax; Weathered Wayfarer
Blue: High Tide
Black: Dark Ritual
Red: Desperate Ritual; Seething Song

It's up to you to weed out what you think is the best style of card for your deck. The second option is the use of Artifact-based mana. Though sometimes expensive in terms of monetary value, this allows you to ramp if your colour is a little weak in terms of options in this field. Cards such as Mana Vault, Darksteel Ingot, and the Signets from Ravnica Block offer fairly inexpensive ways of producing mana, and depending on your budget, Sol Ring makes an invaluable ally in Ramping for any deck.

-20-25 Creatures

Now, let me get this point across very clearly: Everyone has creatures in Commander. If you go in unprepared, you'll find it incredibly hard to win. These creatures can change, depending on the makeup of your deck, however. If you have a control style of deck, you may find that loading up on Removal is a better prospect than having more guys, and finding one to protect may be an easier prospect than having your creatures constantly destroyed.

I like to think of creatures in a few ways: I want a few creatures that do specific roles - Some to help me ramp, some to give me some utility, and some to win me the game. Getting the right balance is all about playing with the cards and finding out what works for you, and whether cards are optimal for the deck as a whole.

-7-12 Card Draw / Card Advantage

Having some form of card draw, even in colours that are scarce of it, allows you to keep refilling your hand and finding gas. Just like ramp, all colours have some form of draw, although some draw is better than others... and just like ramp, there are colourless options as well, though they tend to be more of a 'group hug' (Cards that help all players equally) field than anything. Colourless draw that is targeted (Jayemdae Tome, etc), can be expensive in most cases, but may be better than having no options at all.

-2-5 Tutors

Invaluable for combo decks, these allow you to find what you need straight away. Black tends to have the most versatile tutors, but some will cost you life. Depending on your game plan, you will need some form of tutoring in order to find what you need easier: If you know a card is key to your strategy, then packing a couple of ways to search it up is never a bad idea. These cards can be a little expensive in monetary terms depending on your colours, though, but there are always options in a field of 11,000 Cards. Reusable Tutors are always handy (Artificer's Intuition; Survival of the Fittest), and can let you go for whatever you need as you go through the game, often for minimal cost.

-8-10 Removal (Including Sweepers and Spot Removal)

As with creatures, removal is essential for any deck. The types of removal vary greatly from colour to colour: White prefers to destroy everything on the board or Exile certain threats, while Red prefers to burn everything to a crisp. The best way to pack your removal is to know that you have something for everything, so at least you have a chance at neutering opposing threats. The best cards in this category for versatility are the Command Cycle from Lorwyn Block. Each Command offers at least some form of removal over its four 'Modes', but that versatility means that the cards can still be useful should you not be under direct threat of a Woodfall Primus stomping on your face.

-10-15 Utility Spells (Recursion, Token Generators, etc)

These incorporate cards that aren't defined the above structure. These cards can include recursion, either returning cards to play or to your hand, or cards that allow you added utility in some regard. These cards are usually tied to your Commander in some way, either in creating a combination play, or just in aiding your board position a little by letting you re-use key cards.

Now, the structure is never a perfect structure: You can never tie many strategies into one style of deckbuilding, but you can at least get a starting point from this style of thinking. Just think of what you need to be playing, and dedicate an area of your 100 cards to that specific point.

4. Testing and tweaking your Deck.

Of course, Commander is meant to be a fun format, but that doesn't mean you can't always tweak your deck. Building the deck is half of the fun, but actually playing and enjoying your deck is the major part of any game of Magic. Now, you can never make a perfect Commander deck on the first try: I find myself always finding cards that I want to try, or cards that I didn't find were up to the task that I'd set for them.

Deck Construction in this format should be in a constant state of flux: You should always want to try and adapt your strategies, try new cards if and when your budget allows, or even so much as change the Commander you're using if it means developing your play style further. If there's one thing I want you to take away from this, it is that you never have to keep your deck the same: Change cards, mix it up a little, and you'll find your understanding deepen, and even take some helpful hints into Standard or Drafting at the next WNM. Your deck won't evolve if you don't evolve with it.

5. Repeat Ad Nauseam

Now, once you've caught the bug of actually building and playing decks, you can experiment with new colours and Commanders. The world of Commander is a constantly evolving format: With each new set comes new potential for Commanders, new removal cards, and new cards to supplement our strategies. Only by exploring these intricacies will we find our new ways to play.

...and with that, I will bid thee adieu. I hope you enjoyed this week's segment as much as I enjoyed writing it. Until next week, feel free to use the links below to contact me, or just grab me for a chat at WNM next week.

Until then, take your game to the next level!
Andy P
e-mail: Ajpem@castlecore.com
MSN: Mirage_Knight@hotmail.co.uk

The Ten Command-Ments: Azusa, Lost but Seeking

2010-12-19T16:25:00.008Z

by Andrew Pemberton

Howdy, all. After last week's success (or so I've been told), I can now announce my further involvement in the Team Leeds Blog! Ron Wagner has set me up as a Co-Author for the site, and I will be using this capacity mainly as a multiplayer writer. My aim is to get more people involved and interested in all formats, but for the most part, I'd like to talk about Commander in many facets, from strategy and politics to deck techs from not only myself, but other players within the group.

However, as of last week's discussion, two major rules changes have occurred:

*Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is now BANNED!

For those of you just getting into Commander (Or for those who have played against John Ingham or Mark Hammond any time during the last 3 months), Emrakul was the bane of any player's existence. Play would devolve into one of two scenarios usually;

1, You cast a 15-Mana 'I win the game spell', which forces everyone else on the table to try and kill you before you kill them.
2, A player would cast Bribery, and often steal a player's Emrakul, sealing the win for themselves as early as turn 4 or 5 with acceleration.

Now, the Giant Tentacle Monster is no more, and we can all feel free to enjoy intricate combos again. As for the other change;

*When building a Commander deck, the mana symbols in the text box are just as important as those in the cost of a card. The Commander’s color identity restricts what cards may appear in the deck.

In short, this translates to previously unplayable Generals such as Memnarch; Bosh, Iron Golem and Rhys the Exiles being legal for Commander play. Colour Identity refers to both the mana cost and any mana symbols in your chosen General's text box, and you may use cards of those colours.

i.e. I am running a Thelon of Havenwood Commander deck. Under the old rules, I could only use Green or Colourless cards because Thelon's colour identity was only Green. Now, Thelon decks are allowed to use both Green and Black coloured cards, as Thelon has a Black mana symbol within his text box: Perfect for those who love Pernicious Deed!

OK, now that those have been addressed, I'd like to begin my real talking point. At the request of Steve McAleer, I have produced a Deck Tech for my own Commander deck. I present to you... Azusa, Lost but Seeking!

Commander:
1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking

If you remember from last week, I described a few ways in which you should look to use your general. Azusa, in my eyes, is a little bit of a unique general, in that you want to be able to cast her often, but even just casting her once can put you incredibly far ahead based on what your hand looks like. I sit in the Sam Black school of thinking, in that I want to abuse my general as much as possible, and what way to do that than with a lot of land?

Lands:
20 Forest
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

As a Mono-Green build, the Forests are essentials. The fetches allow me to thin my deck slightly, and also combo well with cards further down the list. I generally want one or two Green-producing lands in my opener, ideally with one of the next few cards.

1 Havenwood Battleground
1 Hickory Woodlot
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Crystal Vein

These lands are all special in that each one allows me to cast a turn 2 Azusa. Some do it at the cost of life, others at the cost of a sacrifice. Either way, the resources in Commander are such that you can afford some form of liberties, either with your life total or with sacrificial outlets. The increase in tempo they allow you is well worth the cost.

1 Dust Bowl
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Wasteland

Land Destruction is helpful both in 1V1 and Multiplayer situations. In any case, most LD is used to keep a cap on someone trying to abuse utility lands such as Academy Ruins to set up a combo. At a push, you can keep people off colours, but it depends how cut-throat you want to be. Know that by destroying lands just for the sake of it, you will likely incur the wrath of your opponent.

1 Blasted Landscape
1 Slippery Karst
1 Tranquil Thicket

The cycle lands offer a little bit of extra draw late game, while being acceptable as land drops in the early game. Every card matters, and having some that can pull double-duty is important in such a format.

1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Yavimaya Hollow
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Eldrazi Temple
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Petrified Field
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Temple of the False God
1 Vesuva

The rest of my mana base just offers various utility depending on what I need. Cradle gives me lots of mana; Hollow allows me to protect my creatures, while Boseiju protects my spells. The Temple and Eye of Ugin are for my small Eldrazi contingent, and it gives me a tutor for not only them, but also other Colourless creatures, depending on what I need. Petrified Field lets me re-use my sacrificed lands; Temple of the False God is an easy 2 mana in this deck; Reliquary Tower lets me go overboard on some of the draw effects; and Vesuva allows me doubles of any land, or just detroy my opponent's Legendary land.

Mana Acceleration:
1 Crop Rotation
1 Hermit Druid
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Life From the Loam
1 Realms Uncharted
1 Journey of Discovery
1 Gaea's Bounty
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Seek the Horizon
1 Primeval Titan
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Crucible of Worlds

Many green Commander builds are based around the production and effective use of mana, and mine is no different. There's plenty of cheap, effective ramp for my strategy, and I don't skimp out on it. Land search is prevalent, and it mainly adds lands to my hand, allowing me to use Azusa to her full potential, as well as trigger Landfall, making Lotus Cobra a very good addition. Primeval Titan is usually seen fetching Valakuts, but here it allows me to fetch any two lands I need. However, the two most important cards are Life From the Loam and Crucible of Worlds: Both of these allow me to add another layer to my gameplay: Using the graveyard as a resource. Crucible allows me to recur my 2-mana producing lands, as well as fetch lands, while Life from the Loam gives me back the cycle lands to re-cycle (Heh ;p) for more advantage. Cast, Dredge, Repeat. The ability to constantly cantrip with the Cycle lands gives me plenty of options, including the ability to dredge back Loam should I have two or more of them at my disposal.

Draw:
1 Sylvan Library
1 Harmonize
1 Greater Good
1 Regal Force
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Scroll Rack
1 Horn of Greed
1 Well of Knowledge
1 Mind's Eye

Green does have some of the worst time with stable draw, so I've tried to include not only the best draw from my own colour, but also some artifact-based draw. Sylvan Library, Harmonize and Greater Good let me dig deeper, while Sensei's Divining Top helps me filter what I need, along with Scroll Rack. However, the most influential card is Horn of Greed: The ability to get three draws a turn with Azusa out gives you plenty of gas, or more land to continue to cycle through next turn.

Removal:
1 Lignify
1 Relic Crush
1 Rootgrapple
1 Acidic Slime
1 Desert Twister
1 Duplicant
1 All is Dust

Most Green-based removal tends to be favourable towards Non-Creature destruction, as can be seen via Rootgrapple, Relic Crush and the Slime. However, Green also has the undeniably strong Desert Twister, allowing you to destroy ANYTHING for 4GG, and as an uncommon, is a staple for those of you on tight budgets. All is Dust gives me a good board sweeper should I need it, and Duplicant gets rid of pesky fatties trying to get in your way, not to mention opposing Generals.

Tutors:
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Sylvan Tutor
1 Treefolk Harbinger
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Eternal Witness
1 Natural Order
1 Primal Command
1 Tooth and Nail

Whether tutoring for a utility creature or for a game-winning combination, these allow me to search for exactly the right type of card for the situation. One of the more intricate of these is Treefolk Harbinger: He can fetch me a Forest if I need mana; Lignify if I need creature removal; Rootgrapple if it's a non-creature giving me trouble, or Woodfall Primus if I need a fatty AND removal in the late game. Natural Order and Tooth and Nail are both very powerful as well, giving me a tutor and allowing the creature(s) to enter the battlefield, ready to fight. I will admit that Tooth and Nail is one of my pet cards (My first forays into Standard were during Onslaught-8th-Mirrodin), it's hard to ignore such a drastically powerful spell that can set up any number of game-winning combos.

Control:
1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Plow Under
1 Stunted Growth

These cards just give me a little more control over certain situations. Acid-Moss and Plow Under gives me some control over my opponent's lands, while Stunted Growth gives me a very rare ability: The ability to affect my opponent's hands. Usually a Blue or Black ability on the 'Colour Pie', this is a rare and very powerful effect for Green, and certainly a hidden gem of mine. Serving the same type of role as Plow Under, setting your opoonent back three cards in hand and neutering their draws for three turns can have a drastic effect on the game. I recommend it for any Green player out there :).

Creatures / Win Conditions:
1 Masticore
1 Rude Awakening
1 Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Avenger of Zendikar
1 Terrastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Genesis Wave

...and finally, we come to our win conditions. Eventually, once we have our mana set up, we want to cast a huge threat for beating face with.This can be anything from an Avenger of Zendikar with a ton of Plant tokens; Terrastodon and his Elephant buddies; or even just an Eldrazi. Steel Hellkite gives you some much-needed evasion, and allows you to hurt your opponent's field after he hits.

Strategical advantages of Azusa:

Obviously, Azusa's main goal is to set you up with a lot of land, in order to cast your bigger spells. Azusa does this by trading in your hand for more board prescence, in the form of extra land. When combined with the draw engines and other ways of attaining Card Advantage, this becomes an immense way to keep on top.

Azusa also has the benefit of helping you ramp without painting a serious target on your face: In 1v1 games, you should aim to get a Turn 2 Commander casting, into a turn 3 massive spell, by which point, you're so far ahead that it becomes very difficult for the other player to make it back into the game.

Finally, I'd like to go few a few combination plays I use when playing;

Azusa + Horn of Greed: Horn of greed is powerful in its own right, helping you get more value out of extra lands. However, when combined with Azusa, you'll be getting 3 cantrips for the price of your opponent's one in most cases.

Crucible of Worlds + Azusa + Strip Mine: This allows you to nuke up to three lands a turn. Great for getting ahead, but not so great when everyone turns against you for it!

Masticore + Kamahl, Fist of Krosa: Another Land Destruction element, this allows you to turn your opponent's land into a 1/1 for G, then shoot it to death with Masticore's ping ability. Mid-Late game, this can be devastating, leaving your opponent with an insurmountable task to accomplish.

Regal Force + Avenger of Zendikar: Depending on the amount of land you have in play, this will almost certainly refill your hand, if not give you a little more to play with. Add Gaea's Cradle if you want a lot of mana to go with it as well.

Survival of the Fittest + Kozilek / Ulamog: Allows you to grab any creature you need, while also allowing you to shuffle your graveyard back into the deck, ready to use those spells a second time.

Well guys, that's all I have for this week's installment. As always, if you have questions, comments or just wanna chat, you can hit me up on the blog, at WNM or via MSN at Mirage_Knight@hotmail.co.uk. Thanks, and have a great week!

Andy P

Worlds Extended metagame analysis

2010-12-13T00:00:00.001Z

By Wagz

Hi all, have you been watching the Worlds Coverage? I didn't stay up all night to do so and they're being very slow to put the videos online so I'm filling my time by writing this article. Coming out of Worlds the only relevant format for most Brits will be Extended, so this is an attempt to bring to you an analysis of the format, listed by the most played decks and including the number of them which went 4-1-1 or better:

#1 Jund - 48 Players, 3 5-1's, 1 4-1-1.

4 Blackcleave
Cliffs
2 Copperline Gorge
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Graven Cairns
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Mountain
3 Raging Ravine
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Savage Lands

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Putrid Leech
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat

4 Blightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Thoughtseize

Jund was promised to be one of the more popular decks going into Worlds and it didn't disappoint. It did, however, disappoint most of the players running it. Probably due to it being too much of a Standard deck, the loss of Tarmogoyf hurt this deck a lot. There were rumours of a version with Woodlurker Mimic going around before the tournament due to the large number of Green-Black spells making this card a regular 4/5 for 2 but they either didn't get played or simply didn't perform very well.

Verdict: A bad choice of deck for Extended, but many players in the UK will play it anyway and think that I'm wrong *sigh*.

#2 Vivid Control - 41 Players, 1 6-0, 1 5-0-1. 1 5-1, 1 4-0-2 (Matignon), 3 4-1-1's.

Decklist from Luis Scott-Vargas
1 Cascade Bluffs
2 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Marsh
3 Vivid Meadow

3 Wall of Omens
2 Wurmcoil Engine

2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Cryptic Command
1 Day of Judgment
4 Esper Charm
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
1 Path to Exile
4 Preordain
2 Volcanic Fallout

Cruel Control was a big player during its time in Standard and an Extended version was always going to appear. The manabase allows one to play the best spells across any number of colours, which makes it easy to fit in any spells from the whole of Extended. Jace and Preordain are clearly auto-includes for any Blue-based control deck (Ali Aintrazi is plain wrong, he could have 6-0'd with a better decklist) and make sculpting the game up to that first crippling Cruel Ultimatum that much easier.

Verdict: A good performer, getting many pilots the points they required. This will be the main control deck going into the PTQ season.

#3 Scapeshift - 32 Players, 1 5-0-1, 4 5-1's, 2 4-1-1's.

I won't provide you with a decklist, for the plain reason that there isn't a definitive Scapeshift deck yet. Some are straight Blue-Green decks like last season's version, some are Prismatic Omen-based Bant Control decks, using Wargate as an effective tutor for Valakut or the Omen, and some have even replaced Pyromancer Ascension in that shell of a deck for a better kill.

Verdict: Scapeshift looks like it will form the basis of the best or second best deck in Extended, but we're a way off figuring the right build as there is a lot of room to do bad things on the path to goodness.

#4 Fae - 30 Players, 1 6-0 (Jonathan Randle :D), 2 5-1's, 2 4-1-1's.

3 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
4 Mutavault
4 Secluded Glen
3 Sunken Ruins
3 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge

4 Mistbind Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique

4 Bitterblossom
3 Cryptic Command
3 Disfigure
1 Doom Blade
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Mana Leak
2 Smother
4 Thoughtseize

This is the Japanese list but most are likely to be very similar. The perennial aggro-control deck, Bitterblossom is a potent threat which drastically powers up Spellstutter Sprite and Mistbind Clique. The idea behind the deck is to slowly take control of the game and then when you have the opponent locked out to finish them off. The most annoying deck in Standard in its time and the best deck in Extended 2 years ago, Fae looks to be a player yet again with Jace thrown into the fold.

Verdict: A solid choice if you know what you're doing, the deck has benefitted greatly from Darkslick Shores in giving it turn 1 Thoughtseize more often to enable the Seize-Blossom-Counter-Clique draws which are nigh unbeatable.

#5 GW Hideaway - 28 players, 3 5-1's.

Decklist from Rafael Levy
5 Forest
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Mutavault
1 Plains
1 Sejiri Steppe
4 Stirring Wildwood
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Windbrisk Heights
1 Wooded Bastion

3 Baneslayer Angel
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Nest Invader
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Primeval Titan
4 Summoning Trap

Originally conceived by Zvi Mowshowitz for Amsterdam, this is the fast mana cheat-a-fatty deck with a solid back-up plan of big creatures. I saw Richard Bland and Joe Jackson bash this against Elves for a while at the Nottingham PTQ where the faster combo deck won, often a Baneslayer Angel was useless - even on turn 3. I don't think decks need to adjust too much to beat this consistently but the pilots need to be aware of its existence to beat it with regularity.

Verdict - a fun fatty-cheat deck with some powerful things to do but not consistent enough for me. This is one for the coin-flippers among you (if you play Belcher in Legacy and Eldrazi Green in Standard, this might be a deck for you).

I don't have the time or inclination to go on but some noteable decks are:
- Elves with 17 pilots, 3 of whom went 5-1. This is a weenie combo deck which got a big hand from Ezuri, Renegade Leader in having a spout for its mana.
- White Weenie, UB Polymorph, RDW and Pyro Ascension having 21, 13, 13 and 7 appearances respectively but unable to buy (wescoe check) a 4-2 between them.
- Merfolk, UW Reveillark and Doran doing fairly poorly - the midrange aggro decks with a bit of disruption aren't battling well in this field. This is presumably because Jund is doing their job better, but it could also be bad matchups.
- Tempered Steel being the mathematically most successful deck with 7 players yielding a 6-0, a 5-1 and a 4-1-1. It remains to be seen if this was a fluke but it looks like it has a lot of power with 12 Anthem effects, lots of cheap weenies and a bit of card draw thrown in.

Overall Verdict:
We seem to lack a fast aggro deck because of Jund's popularity. The metagame is shifting into midrange aggro (Jund), control (Cruel), aggro control (Fae) and Combo (Scapeshift). These decks are just quick enough to force out anything too quick but there would be room for a very quick combo deck to do its business if one emerged. The Tempered Steel deck could bring out a very fast aggro deck but it seems like the diminished popularity of Jund is the only thing that will help shake up the meta. Since Jund isn't a very good deck to be taking to a tournament right now (at least if you're expecting to face good players) then this could happen come the new PTQ season. Of course, Mirrodin Besieged could bring anything along. What're your thoughts?

Guest Article - The Ten Command-Ments: What you should know about Commander.

2010-12-10T19:21:00.001Z

By Andy Pemberton

Imagine yourself, a mighty Planeswalker standing across from a sea of fire and combat. Your mighty forces leap into battle against your foul enemy, his forces obviously unable to take the might of your charge. Victorious chants begin to rain upon the battlefield as steel meets steel and claws rake against fragile flesh. You charge into action, seeing your victory but one combat step away, until a blue flash overtakes the battlefield. You stand, idle and unmoving, as your opponent seems to make time stand to a halt, and his own machinations come to life, reducing your forces to mere ash before your very eyes. Grand automations rise at his feet, as you stand, time stretching forever in front of you as they charge, your last trick, last hope, thundering onto the field to meet in one last clash of power...

Commander, a format of intricate deck building and powerful, game-ending spells. A format in which literally anything is possible. From the tournament player to the casual beginner, Commander is a format in which anyone can find enrichment and fun, and I hope I can show you a few ways which have captured me in this format.

1, The rules.

Commander, formerly known as Elder Dragon Highlander, is a format based around building a deck of 100 cards. Within these 100, you choose a Legendary creature to be your “Commander” or “General.” This general is the forefront of your deck, and can be used for many purposes: You can build a theme around a specific general, or use him for his (or her) powerful ability. This Commander sits outside of the play zone during a game, in a zone called, rather fittingly, the Command Zone. Commanders can be cast at any time for their mana cost. However, every time he returns to the Command Zone and has to be recast, he costs an additional 2 mana to cast.

As far as your other 99 cards are concerned, they have some restrictions as well. As a Highlander format, you are only allowed one card of any type, not including basic lands. That means you have to choose incredibly carefully when deciding what to add, as you only get one copy! This also means that any intricate combos have to be formed upon the basis of having to search through those 99 cards in order to assemble it. In addition, cards of these 99 can only be of the colour of your Commander, and lands you play can only produce colours of mana that match your Commander.

E.g.: I am playing with Intet, the Dreamer as my Commander. I can play cards such as Call the Skybreaker and Hull Breach, because all of the colours of these spells match the colour of my general. However, I cannot play a card such as Kitchen Finks, because a colour in its mana cost does not match my Commander.

E.g.: I am playing with Iona, Shield of Emeria as my General. I'll be quite happy playing with Basic Plains and other white mana-producing lands, but I cannot play Glacial Fortress, as it produces a colour of mana that does not match my General.

2, Commander is not just a multiplayer format.

Now, I would be the first to admit that the most fun I've had with this format is with four or five players all sat around a table, having fun casting gigantic spells and throwing Goblins at each other. However, Commander is not just for the multi-player in mind. You and a buddy can duke it out one on one if you please. This adds another layer of strategy to the format: It allows you to make card choices based on what you play more, or even build separate decks based on how you play. It also allows you to see how certain cards interact in certain settings: A card such as Blatant Thievery obviously gains more power with the more players you have, but other cards may be much better in a 1-on-1 game.

3, General Construction Guidelines.

In any format, there are certain guidelines that you can follow in order to get a consensus on how to build your deck properly. The old guidelines tended to be 20 Land, 20 creatures and 20 spells, and to be fair, this is close to how I'd recommend building your first deck. I'd look towards this as a rough estimate of cards;

35-40 Land / Mana sources
20-30 Creatures
30 Other Spells

This can vary widely depending on what sort of deck that you're building. In some decks, you may be pushing towards ending it with a milling strategy, or an alternate kill condition, in which case, the number of creatures can be reduced in order to add more tutors (Cards that fetch other cards of a specific type from your deck) in order to create your combos more easily. However, if you're Aggro (Read: Green :D), you'll generally want more Creatures, and balance the rest of your set-up between ramp, pump spells, etc.

What I will say is that this isn't a be-all, end-all formula. My Azusa, Lost but Seeking deck plays between 37 and 45 Lands in order to abuse her as much as possible during the early turns that she is on the field, whereas my Intet, the Dreamer deck runs on 36 with some ramp, and a lot more powerful spells as a result. Creating the right balance is part of the fun and intricacy of the format, after all!

4, Commander is an ever-changing, diverse format.

Commander decks can be built from any cards that are tournament legal. From Alpha and Beta cards up to Scars of Mirrodin, you can use many cards from previous eras. You may discover new combos, or brew up interesting interactions between similar cards. Also, as cards are released, they become legal in the format upon pre-release. That means that you can play with your new cards a week earlier than in the older formats such as Standard and Extended!

Of course, Commander has a banned list of cards deemed too powerful and against the flow of the format. For the longest time, the format grew from community support, and banned lists shifted depending on what people deemed fair. While this is still the case in some circles, as of December 20th there is speculated to be a fully standardized and supported Banned list by Wizards. The current list is as follows;

Ancestral Recall
Balance
Biorhythm
Black Lotus
Coalition Victory
Fastbond
Gifts Ungiven
Grindstone (Unbanned as of 2009-12-01)
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Karakas
Library of Alexandria
Limited Resources
Lion's Eye Diamond
Tolarian Academy
Channel
Metalworker
Mox Sapphire, Ruby, Pearl, Emerald and Jet
Panoptic Mirror
Protean Hulk
Recurring Nightmare
Sway of the Stars
Time Vault
Time Walk
Tinker
Upheaval
Worldgorger Dragon
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Painter's Servant
Staff of Domination

The list is updated every 3 months, and with Wizards' rules team taking the helm, there could be significant changes towards cards being banned, or even cards becoming unbanned for play.

5, Commander is not just a game of skill, but a game of politics.

Now, I know what you're thinking... “I just want to cast my spells and win!”. However, in Commander there can be serious repercussions from your actions. I've been on the forefront of an attack many times due to trying to win the game too hastily. In some situations, I'll be able to pull back enough to stabilize, or I'll be stomped over and literally crushed. The one thing I hope you take away from this is to remember that there's not only you who wants to win. You could have two, three or even four other players each exacting their own plans. In addition, alliances form and break just as easily as in any multiplayer format, so your friend could be your enemy come your next turn. That's not to say that you have to be a pro to win; I've certainly gotten gratification out of just stopping certain players from winning if they decide to bring out a broken combination of cards.

6, The mood of play

Depending on who you play with, the games can take a large variance in tone, either with the player or the deck. One player may gravitate between fun decks such as a RB Goblin build, while one builds towards a more competitive 5-colour build depending on who he plays against. Sometimes, this can result in a player becoming serious about his line of play, in the quest for winning. Other times, that same player playing a fun deck can do things just because it makes the table laugh. One thing I have taken away from the format is that the optimum play to win is not always the most fun play. I once played a game in which I played a combo to draw a lot of cards, but due to the nature of the combo, allowed my opponent to take advantage and force me to draw my deck. It made me lose, sure, but losing to your own combo can be just as fun as winning with it, in my opinion. If it brings smiles to the table, it's definitely worth it.

7, Wizards' support and what it means for you.

As of December 2nd, Wizards has announced that it will be producing 5 Decks for release in June, each representing a different Wedge (A three colour combination with two allied colours, and their shared enemy colour, i.e. URG; WUR, etc). Within these decks, there will be 51 new cards designed specifically for the format itself, of which there will be TEN new Legendary creatures suitable to become your next Commander. This not only gives you an easy way into playing, but also a very inexpensive way to get into the format.

8, Commander is as expensive as you want it to be.

I'm sure this is one area within which the casual players will seek solace. This isn't Standard, you don't need 4 of every expensive Mythic going to compete. In fact, most decks I've seen are mainly built from commons. There's enough uncommon and common land to make two or even three colour decks viable, but also allow you to spend over a prolonged period if you see cards you like. In fact, even some of the rares are cheap: I'd say 10% of the rares I use go about £2 or £3 in value, but who says you even need to use rares? MTGSalvation has a Thread called 'Hidden Gems', within which people post cards that they have used that are 'off the radar'. It's how I've found cards like Stunted Growth – Green hand disruption for 3GG and all of 50p in value? SOLD!

9, Commanders don't have to be so... General.

Sorry for the pun, EDH-lovers. What I'm saying, is that you don't just have to have your Commander be there for his colours (i.e. the 5 coloured generals). There's currently over 450 Legendary Creatures in Magic, the vast majority of which can be used as Commanders. The best way to get value out of these is as follows;

a, They have an 'Enters the Battlefield' ability that you like to use
b, Their colours gives you access to cards that you enjoy playing (This is doubly true if you have pet cards, like I do.)
c, You wish to use them thematically as part of an overall theme you wish to support throughout your build.

Whichever way you want to go, know that there's plenty of support for whatever you want to do, and there's plenty of cards to experiment with to compliment your General. It depends where you sit on the argument: Do you want to be able to cast your General all the time to get the most value out of him, or do you want to just cast him once to help you win the game?

10, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

Guys, just have fun. In whatever way you seek to, just make sure you have fun with the format. If you want to be a power player and strive to win, go for it. If you just want to make a lot of tokens and swing for a billion after an Overrun, I not only approve of it, but I say go for it!

The format is so diverse that anything is possible. If you want to do something, chances are someone has done it and has had fun, so that you can try it yourself. There's over 11,000 different cards in Magic: Chances are, you could discover something amazing.

Well, those are your ten Command-ments. As always, if you have any questions, or you're interested in starting up and want to chat about the format, you can hit me up on the Facebook group, at WNM, or over MSN Messenger at Mirage_Knight@Hotmail.co.uk.

Take care, and have fun discovering new tricks!

Top 8 Drafting - 2 Scars of Mirrodin PTQs

2010-12-05T22:05:00.004Z

By Wagz

So, the Scars Sealed PTQ season is over and hasn't it been fun! It seems to be a pretty skill-intensive format, from the looks of the top 8 competitors at the PTQs I went to. My own record was 5-1-1 (lose quarters), 5-2 (lose semis), 0-2, 5-2 (9th) and 4-0-2 (lose semis), which is a success that comes with its own disappointment. Although the information is no longer really relevant to anyone not competing at worlds (hope they're reading this :p), I thought I would compile a small report on two top 8 draft decks. Firstly I have Mick Edwards' draft from the top 8 of Manchester (won by Grant Hislop).

Pack 1:
Pick 1:
Arrest over Razor Hippogriff, Red and White Myr and Glimmerpoint Stag. Obviously a difficult one, with so many good white cards in the pack. The best non-white card was the red Myr, however, so signals be damned - just take the best card.
Pick 2:
Grasp of Darkness over Turn to Slag, Palladium Myr, Stoic Rebuttal and Ichorclaw Myr. The choice is mostly between Grasp and Slag and the cheaper removal is better in draft but I'd rather have a Slag in sealed for silly bombs everyone has.
Pick 3:
Darksteel Axe over Grasp of Darkness and Rusted Relic. I disagree with this one. I know Mick likes aggressive decks and the Axe suits him but after one Grasp I think the second is a massive auto-include, whereas there are decks I don't play Axe in.
Pick 4:
White Myr over Clone Shell, Black Replica and Bladed Pinions. Seems correct, he can splash the Arrest in a mainly Black deck with this pick and it keeps his options open, but the Black Replica seems okay too.
Pick 5:
Ghalma's Warden over Strider Harness and Disperse. The pack is starting to look pretty empty. Mick is a massive fan of the Warden for some reason; I've never seen it have much impact on a game except to help my opponent to not die as quickly.
Pick 6:
Strider Harness over Green Trigon. By now the packs are getting as empty as my knowledge of the names of cards in cycles but this card always has a chance of making some deck. In a non-infect deck the Green Trigon is a really bad version of the Black Trigon.
Pick 7:
Tel-Jillad Fallen over Blue Trigon and Tel-Jilad Defiance. This Fallen is quite late but there hasn't been much of the Infect going before it so it could have just been a strong Infect pack. I like the Trigon more, even if it is just a 24th card a lot of the time.
Pick 8:
Black Replica over Lumengrid Drake and Infiltration Lens. Further cementing his Black but could Blue be open?
Picks 9-14:
Accorder's Shield, Wing Puncture, Abuna Acolyte, Razorfield Thresher, Necrogen Censer, Glimmerpost.

Not looking to be in good shape after pack 1 but apart from the Axe / Grasp pick there really haven't been any opportunities for a great deck.

Pack 2:
Pick 1:
Oxidda Scrapmelter over White Myr and Rust Tick. More bad packs for Mick here. The Scrapmelter is by far the strongest card even if it warrants another colour. The Arrest can always be splashed still as it's the only good white card Mick has so far.
Pick 2:
Rust Tick over Bloodshot Trainee, White Spellbomb and Ghalma's Warden. More keeping the options open, Rust Tick is good in any deck. We need to see a sign for what colours to play soon to make the most of the picks we get going forward.
Pick 3:
Black Myr over Barbed Battlegear, Cystbearer and Riddlesmith. Some good cards for strategies we don't have access to and a Myr for some cards we are playing.
Pick 4:
Tumble Magnet over Memnite, Red Myr and Tel-Jillad Fallen. Mick is Tumble Magnet's biggest fan but I would have taken the Red Myr after the Scrapmelter as it seems far more relevant.
Pick 5:
White Spellbomb over Ghalma's Warden. This card is good but it's a bit of a mediocre deck - need to see some pack 3 power.
Pick 6:
Heavy Arbalest over Saberclaw Golem. This card is quite good and gives him an opportunity for some removal in a mana-heavy draw.
Pick 7:
White Replica over Instill Infection and Blistergrub. I quite like Infection but Mick isn't a fan and he takes the body to make sure he has a curve whatever colours he ends up in.
Pick 8:
Vedalken Certarch over Loxodon Wayfarer, Golem Foundry and Necrogen Censer. Dry pack, the Certarch might warrant a change to Blue?
Picks 9-14:
Wing Puncture, Dross Hopper (over Corrupted Harvester), Bleak Coven Vampires, Blistergrub, Whitesun's Passage and Turn Aside.

Oh dear, we're in bad shape at the moment but he's making sure he has a curve with playable creatures whatever happens. When the packs aren't being kind it is prudent to make sure you end up with maximal playables.

Pack 3:
Pick 1:
Red Trigon over Black Replica, Grafted Exoskeleton, Hand of the Praetors. As mentioned here I like Grafted Exoskeleton and see it as a way of winning in an underpowered deck. I would still have taken the Black Replica over the Red Trigon.
Pick 2:
Golem Artisan over Chrome Steed, Volition Reins and Cerebral Eruption. Finally a pack with some decent cards. I like Artisan best, Reins is way too blue for us and Cerebral Eruption is not a good card, but I mentioned it so I could say this, how self-referential!
Pick 3:
Darkslick Drake over Blue Trigon, Barrage Ogre and Flameborn Hellion. Not sure about this, the Blue seems too late to move into as we already have White and Red removal spells and don't even have a Red Myr so could do with picking one as a secondary colour (probably white). I think the Barrage Ogre is a safer pick myself.
Pick 4:
Necrotic Ooze over Glint Hawk, Sylvok Lifestaff and Barbed Battlegear. Seems correct, Glint Hawk is good but we have a few activated abilities already and a 4/3 for 4 is a good size for limited.
Pick 5:
Darksteel Sentinel over Black Spellbomb and Bleak Coven Vampires. The packs are still a bit empty but this guy is very reliable as an attacker and blocker. Yes he's "bad against Infect" but he's really good against everything else and that's what sideboarding is for.
Pick 6:
Sky-Eel School over White Trigon. With his move to Blue as well this makes sense as it's a very good card and there really is nothing else to play.
Pick 7:
Blue Spellbomb over Neurok Invisimancer and Stoic Rebuttal. I don't like this, if we want to play Blue then Stoic Rebuttal seems better as we want to stop the opponent from casting their cards which are undoubtedly better than ours.
Pick 8:
Razorfield Thresher over Bladed Pinions. Zzzzzz.
Picks 9-14:
Fume Spitter, Fume Spitter, Seize the Initiative, Soul Parry, Vault Skyward, Vault Skyward.

Some gift Fume Spitters at the end and the White instants can be good sideboard cards.

Overall we don't end up with a very good deck, but apart from the the highlight discrepancies I don't think that Mick had much control over his fate. I think he ended up playing Black-Blue but sided into Black-White, which is what I would have played. He lost in the quarters to Kenny Hall - another Leeds player; who in turn lost to Martin Sylvester - the other Leeds player in the top 8.

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

Secondly I have my deck from the top 8 of Nottingham (won by Stuart Horden). I think my deck was pretty good so I was a bit disappointed to lose out but that's the way it goes. I was one of one-and-a-half Infect drafters at the table and the only guy in black for a few seats to my right so the goodies just kept coming. I beat someone I am afraid I don't remember the name of in the quarters (he was a nice guy but I had good draws) before succumbing to Stuart in the semis with a tight game 1 and big screws game 2.

1 Horizon Spellbomb
3 Blight Mamba
2 Necropede
1 Plague Stinger
1 Livewire Lash
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Cystbearer
3 Moriok Replica
1 Carrion Call
1 Corpse Cur
1 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Skinrender
1 Trigon of Infestation
1 Instill Infection
1 Slice in Twain
1 Contagion Engine
1 Untamed Might
10 Forest
7 Swamp

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

With Worlds coming up next week the Standard metagame will get thrown up a little (but it doesn't sound like there's anything surprising, the SSG Open Series is keeping it fresh) but we should expect the Extended meta to be set up for the new year's PTQs. Does anyone have any particular stories they want to share from this round of PTQs? If it's too long for the comments then remember that we're always soliciting guest writers :), hear from you soon.

Deckbuilding Challenge - PTQ Manchester 9th

2010-11-28T22:16:00.001Z

By Wagz

Hi all, another PTQ gone - 9th this time unfortunately. It was by a whole point to, so I don't even get to complain about tiebreaks. I beat everyone who hadn't driven over from Leeds that day though so I can see a pattern. Today I went to the win-a-mox Legacy tourney as well and went 4-0-2 with the UG Survival-Vengevine deck, losing to Tomas Sukaitis in the quarter finals to get a sweet 5 boosters. Props to Jules Parker for lending me infinite cards for the deck :). Anyway, what I have to ask about today is my sealed pool from the PTQ. I feel I made the best of it I could but a quick glimpse from Mick Edwards and a claim of me "horribly misbuilding it" led me to want more opinions - it's a hard one when you get into it. So, enjoy the challenge of this one: (copy the cardname into http://deckbox.org/mtg/cardnamehere for a picture)

White:
Abuna Acolyte
Arrest
Glimmerpoint Stag
Glint Hawk
Indomitable Archangel
Revoke Existence
2 Salvage Scout
Soul Parry
Sunspear Shikari
Whitesun's Passage

Blue:
Darkslick Drake
Lumengrid Drake
Neurok Invisimancer
Plated Seastrider
Sky-Eel School
Steady Progress
Trinket Mage
2 Vedalken Certarch

Black:
Blackcleave Goblin
2 Blistergrub
Carnifax Demon
Corrupted Harvester
Flesh Allergy
Moriok Reaver
Necrogen Scudder
Painful Quandary
Psychic Miasma

Red:
Assault Strobe
Barrage Ogre
Flameborn Hellion
Melt Terrain
Molten Psyche
Oxidda Daredevil
2 Scoria Elemental
Tunnel Ignus
Turn to Slag
Vulshok Heartstoker

Green:
Carrion Call
Copperhorn Scout
Ezuri's Archers
Ezuri's Brigade
Lifesmith
Tel-Jilad Defiance
2 Tel-Jilad Fallen
Untamed Might
Viridian Revel

Artifact:
Barbed Battlegear
Bladed Pinions
2 Chrome Steed
Contagion Clasp
Corpse Cur
Darksteel Sentinel
Echo Circlet
Flight Spellbomb
2 Glint Hawk Idol
Golden Urn
2 Golem's Heart (1 foil!)
2 Grafted Exoskeleton
3 Ichorclaw Myr
2 Necrogen Censer (1 foil!)
Panic Spellbomb
2 Razorfield Thresher
2 Saberclaw Golem
2 Sylvok Lifestaff
2 Sylvok Replica
Trigon of Thought
Wall of Tanglecord

Land:
Island (foil!)

Decklist:

Discussion:

Guest Article - Tournament Maths – How to Make a Profit on Magic Online Part 2

2010-11-20T06:00:00.000Z

By Sebastian Parker (RisingSun000 Online)

Ok, now that my last post has been up for a few days, I’d like to discuss how calculating the EV of entering events can affect your strategic decisions.

Case 1: Hourly EV
Consider, if you will, a hypothetical metagame consisting of red aggro decks (think goblins, red deck wins, burn etc.), blue control decks (mystical teachings, monoblue counterspells etc.) and some other decks. The red aggro decks only take about 10 minutes to complete a whole match whereas the blue control decks sometimes win by timing out the opponent and take 40 minutes on average to complete a single match.

After playing a hundred 2 man queues with each, you find that the red deck is winning 60% of the time and the blue deck is winning 80% of the time. Which one is more profitable?

On a per-match basis, obviously blue is winning more so blue should be most profitable right? Well, that’s not the whole story. Our equation from last time:

EV = expected prizes – costs

For a 2 man queue, the expected prizes are 1 booster*P(win) and the cost is 2 tix.

EVblue = 0.8*booster -2
EVred = 0.6*booster -2

But, the red deck is 4 times faster than the blue deck so the EV of 40 minutes of 2 man queues is

EVblue,40 = 0.8*booster -2
EVred,40 = 4*(0.6*booster -2)

To work out when it is more profitable to play red:

EVred,40 > EVblue,40
4*(0.6*booster -2) > 0.8*booster -2
2.4*booster – 8 > 0.8*booster -2
1.6*booster > 6
Booster > 6/1.6
Booster > 3.75tix

So when a booster is worth more than 3.75tix, you make more profit playing the red deck than the blue deck, even though the blue deck is more likely to win a round.

This theory only really works for 2 man queues (and sometimes to 8-4 drafts, where you sometimes split the finals) because during a daily or premier event you have to wait for everybody to finish a round before the next one starts so playing a less winning, but faster deck will not increase your EV.

Another interesting point arises here, the fast red deck and the slow blue deck are hypothetical extremes but this sort of calculation can affect how you build your deck. If the most reliable win condition for your control deck is gaea’s blessing, so be it, but if you could put in meloku to take a hit to your win% and finish your matches in half the time, it may be profitable to do so even though you win less of the time.

Case 2: Cost of Investing in Cards
Last time, I discussed the loss of value during the act of opening a booster pack. This is part of the cost of playing in drafts and there’s nothing you can do to avoid that loss other than win lots more packs to make up for it.

A similar thing happens in constructed, you have to invest into a deck before you can play. You can sell the deck when you’re done, but usually you make a loss on the transaction. (You did buy the cards to play with after all – not to speculate on an increase in price.)

I’ll be working on the assumption that by this point you’ve done enough drafting to have a playset of commons and uncommons, which you can’t sell to a bot. So the loss on a bought/sold deck is basically going to be the rares.

This year’s block constructed UW control contains some number of the following rares:

Card	Buy	Sell	Diff
Elspeth Tirel	10.5	10	0.5
Venser, the Sojourner	13.95	13	0.95
Sunblast Angel	0.3	0.2	0.1
Myr Battlesphere	1.5	1	0.5
Seachrome Coast	1.3	1.2	0.1
Contagion Engine	0.4	0	0.4
Indomitable Archangel	3.25	2.8	0.45
Wurmcoil Engine (promo is cheap)	2.5	2	0.5
Precursor Golem	0.6	-	0.6

(Buy prices taken from cardbot, sell prices taken from ads in the Classifieds)
The diff column is essentially how much it costs you to buy the card, put it in your deck, play for a while and then resell it. For this decklist
4 Glimmerpoint Stag
3 Sunblast Angel
3 Origin Spellbomb
2 Trinket Mage
3 Venser, the Sojourner
3 Elspeth Tirel
2 Contagion Clasp
2 Tumble Magnet
4 Revoke Existence
2 Volition Reins
4 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Contagion Engine
1 Precursor Golem
4 Seachrome Coast
10 Island
11 Plains

Sideboard:
4 Necropede
4 Halt Order
4 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Trigon of Thought
1 Volition Reins

The ‘buy and immediately sell’ cost is 7.55tix. Compare that to the 92tix you need in your account to actually buy the cards and it comes off quite favourably. To make back the “cost” of the deck, you only need to win about 4 more 2 man queues than you lose (so even if your win% is only 55%, you’ll eventually make it back).

Since UW control is posting solid results in daily events, I’d expect it's winning something like 60-70% from the strength of the deck. A very strong pilot could probably steer toward the top end of that, along with the certain level of randoms playing their draft cards in 2 man queues, you can expect to win back your 7.55tix by entering

EV2man = 0.7*3.93 – 2 = 0.75
7.55tix/EV2man = 10

Ten 2-man queues, which will take approx. 4-5 hours with a control deck.
These are just a couple of the ways I use maths to help me make decisions in what to play online. I’m sure that a lot more people will want to play 2 mans when they release higher stakes. Hopefully this has been enlightening and as always,

Thanks for reading.

Guest Article - Tournament Maths – How to Make a Profit on Magic Online

2010-11-16T00:00:00.006Z

By Sebastian Parker

It's been a while since I contributed to the blog, but I have some spare time (since i've finished my degree and haven't got a job yet) to play magic. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to go to all the PTQ’s I had planned to because I stupidly won the first one I went to (OOPS...). So now I have turned my attention once again to Magic Online.

Last time I talked about block constructed vampires, making profit online from a small initial investment. There are several layers of probability maths in magic:

1) “in game” maths, which affects your plays, like the probability of drawing a removal spell influencing whether you block or not.
2)“deck construction” maths, which affects how many lands you put in your deck, how many birds of paradise is preferable etc.
3)“tournament” maths, which affects your deck choice, how likely you are to win a round, how likely you are to top8.

This time I want about tournament maths - how to go about making profit online.
First, I’d like to introduce the concept of expected value (EV). EV is a way of expressing the average outcome of uncertain events. The easiest way to explain is with an example game:

Alex and Norman are playing a bean game. Alex has to throw beans into a cup a 3 metres from where he’s standing. Alex will win every bean which lands in the cup. Norman thinks Alex will struggle to throw beans into the cup, so Norman and Alex each put 5 beans into the pot from which Alex will attempt to throw beans.
From Alex’s perspective, he’s paid 5 beans to play the game. He will win every bean which lands in the cup. His expected winnings are the number of attempts times 1 bean times the probability that he will successfully get a bean into the cup minus the cost of entry to the game, 5 beans.

EV= expected prizes – cost of entry

EV= 10*1 bean*P(success) – 5 beans

(the asterisk * indicates multiplication, P(success) indicates the probability that Alex will successfully throw a bean into the cup)

So if Alex is good at throwing beans into cups, i.e. if P(success) is more than 0.5, then Alex will have an EV of more than 0 * (i.e. positive) and as the game goes on expect to increase his collection of beans.
*(EV = 10*0.5 – 5 =0)

Now let’s relate this concept to magic – 2-man constructed queues. To enter costs 2 tix, the prize depends on the format but most at the moment are either Scars of Mirrodin packs (which you can sell to the trading bots ..Hogwarts.., .7BP or .Coruscant for 3.93 tix) or M11 packs (which are 3.3 I think).

In order to make profit in 2-mans, we can apply the same formula:

Scars pack queues:	M11 queues:
EVscars = 3.93*P(win) scars – 2	EVM11 = 3.3*P(win) M11 – 2

And rearrange to find the point at which we start to make profit (EV=0 is the point between profit and loss, so setting EV=0 gives us a minimum P(win) needed to make profit).

2/3.93 = P(win) scars = 50.9%
2/3.3 = P(win) M11 = 60.6%

So in order to make profit in 2 man queues, you’ll need to be winning more than these %’s.

So far so good, these are fairly simple calculations. Now let’s move it up a notch – 8 man constructed. 6tix entry, 3 rounds, single elimination, 5-3-2-2 scars packs. To keep things simple, we’ll assume and average win% rather than take into account the fact that winning players are tougher opponents.

We’ll start by listing all the outcomes and their probabilities and payouts:

Outcome	Likelihood	Prize
Lose 1st round	P(lose)	0
Win 1st round, lose 2nd round	P(win)*P(lose)	2*3.93
Win 1st round, win 2nd round, lose finals	P(win)P(win)P(lose)	3*3.93
Win all three rounds	P(win)P(win)P(win)	5*3.93

Since there are only two outcomes to a match – win and lose, P(lose) = 1 - P(win)
EV = expected prizes – costs
EV8man = P(lose)*0 + P(win)*P(lose)*2*3.93 + P(win)*P(win)*P(lose)*3*3.93 + P(win)*P(win)*P(win)*5*3.93 – 6

This is easiest to do in excel, so I’ve written a spreadsheet to work it out for me. In order to make profit in an 8-man, you need a match win% of just 51%.

Let’s add another layer of complexity. When you’re drafting, the booster packs you open have random cards in them and the cards hold a value. The expected value of the cards inside a pack is the value of the cards you could open, multiplied by the likelihood of opening them. As such, I have another spreadsheet with all the card names of Scars of Mirrodin and how much you can sell them to cardbot for. Multiplying each value by the likelihood of opening that card yields a value of 1.08tix. So to buy a scars pack for 4tix and open it and sell the cards inside has an EV of -2.92tix. (We all know just opening packs straight up is like throwing money down the drain, and this is why – it costs nearly 3tix per booster!)

So when you’re drafting, it costs 3 packs and 2 tix (or 14 tix if you’re buying boosters). Your expected prizes are the value of the cards you open (3 Scars of Mirrodin booster packs worth = 3*1.08 = 3.24tix) plus the actual prizes you win.
Again, we list all the outcomes and their probabilities and payouts:

Outcome	Likelihood	Prize (4-3-2-2)	Prize (8-4)
Lose 1st round	P(lose)	0	0
Win 1st round, lose 2nd round	P(win)*P(lose)	2*3.93	0
Win 1st round, win 2nd round, lose finals	P(win)P(win)P(lose)	3*3.93	4*3.93
Win all three rounds	P(win)P(win)P(win)	4*3.93	8*3.93

Assuming you’re using packs you’ve won (which are worth 3.93tix to you) 2 tix + 3 packs = 2+3*3.93 = 13.79

EV_4-3-2-2= P(lose)*0 + P(win)*P(lose)*2*3.93 + P(win)*P(win)*P(lose)*3*3.93 + P(win)*P(win)*P(win)*5*3.93 +3.24-13.79
EV_8-4= P(lose)*0 + P(win)*P(lose)*0 + P(win)*P(win)*P(lose)*4*3.93 + P(win)*P(win)*P(win)*8*3.93 +3.24-13.79

Again, I’ll let the spreadsheet do the work. To make profit in a 4-3-2-2, you need to win more than 79% of your matches. To make profit in an 8-4, you need to win more than 64% of your matches. Remember, this is under the assumption that you’re selling all the cards you open (that you actually can – you’ll end up with a bunch of worthless rares like Dissipation Field along with all of the commons and lots of uncommons).

The conclusion is that it’s much easier to “go infinite” online playing 8-4’s than 4-3-2-2’s, which we all knew since we’re good players and we only play in 8-4’s anyway.
We could add another layer of complexity, which would be to account for winning players being tougher opponents – P(win round 1) being greater than P(win round 2) etc. But in order to come up with an estimate, we’d need a bunch of data on the ratings of players who enter the tournaments. (The ELO rating system used by the DCI uses a formula to calculate the probability of the outcome of a match given the difference in rating between the two players). At the moment, MTGO ratings are not published due to a previous culture online of ratings taunting – players being obnoxious to each other due to their low ratings etc. so calculating different win% for different rounds is impossible.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about the maths of magic tournaments, hopefully I was clear in my explanations. If you were skimming through for some actual online strategy, rather than just some abstract theory:

1)Force poison in draft, I mean it – take Plague Stinger over pretty much anything (even Sunblast Angel and Arc Trail for example). Do not pass infect creatures except to pick up Darksteel Axe, Untamed Might, Grasp of Darkness, Skinrender, Steel Hellkite, Wurmcoil Engine, (Spikeshot Elder if you might be Gr or Br) or money cards (Koth, Venser, Masticore, Elspeth). Cut the player to your left out of black and green as hard as you possibly can. Give them good metalcraft cards so they’ll stay out of poison. I have made 49tix in the 7 drafts i’ve played so far using this strategy and I intend to continue. (editor: must be lucky, I agree with the sentiment but I've found infect to be massively overdrafted and easy to beat if you want to).

2)Play UW control in Scars of Mirrodin block constructed – it’s dominating this year. Check out http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnline.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/whatshappening for daily events decklists. It also doesn’t have the same mirror match problem as last year since it’s about 100tix to put together not 12, so people are trying out cheaper (and worse) options.

3)Don’t play queues where the payout is M11 packs (pauper, classic, singleton) when you can play Scars (scars block, standard, extended, legacy) queues and have a much easier ride on the road to profit.

Thanks for reading.

Drafting with Wagz #8 - Beating Poison

2010-11-11T16:49:00.003Z

By Wagz

Hi all, apparently I haven't done one of these in a while. Zendikar and Worldwake were truly awful draft formats but I'm not sure why I didn't bother with Rise. Probably because I was having too much fun drafting to spend time writing about it. Zendikar and Worldwake regularly beat be out of tickets and boosters on Magic Online because each time you have exactly a 1/8 chance of winning the draft and those odds are hard to beat. I bought enough tix to do a Rise of the Eldrazi prerelease and have ridden that investment, going infinite for a while. I drafted a lot of Rise and then M11 2-3 times a week before Scars of Mirrodin came along.

This draft format is hard!

But fun. So many options, lots of things to do with your mana on any given turn, and very skill intensive. With Zendikar draft, even the stupidest of opponents couldn't much up happening to have a 1-drop, 2-drop, 3-drop draw but I've seen many opponents throw away games in Scars because there is so much to play around and so much to do.

My going infinite got me down to a mere 10 tix and a booster yesterday, however. I sold off a couple of Mythics I'd got during M11 (Gaea's Revenge has gone up in value ^^) to get me up to 20 and invested in the remaining 2 boosters to fire up an 8-4. Here's how it went:

  Pack 1 pick 1:

  My Pick:

I was obviously tempted by the rare but he's not very good in draft. The real options were Clasp, Red Trigon and Plague Stinger. These are all good in infect decks but the Clasp is good in any deck so I took it to keep my options here. I love drafting infect as much as the next man but when all 8 players are drafting it, as it seems to be on magic online at the moment, it doesn't often come off. I was, therefore, a little disheartened to be passing a Plague Stinger because this basically guarantees one of the two guys on your left will be in infect, sadface.

  Pack 1 pick 2:

  My Pick:

I guess I should have taken Glint Hawk Idol here but I was still living the infect dream and Cystbearer is really good. Plus he's fine in a G/X control deck, so fit in many of the same decks as Clasp. The other option is Sylvok Replica, who is really good but puts you mostly in the same Green control deck when you're passing this many infect guys.

  Pack 1 pick 3:

  My Pick:

*holds onto dream*

  Pack 1 pick 4:

  My Pick:

*gives up*. Arrest and the other white cards here are a clear sign that White is open on my right. I don't rate Auriok Edgewright at all but since it is the 4th white card it lowers the probability that there were more white cards in here before and so increases the likelihood that white is open. Slam down the Arrest (which I didn't see for a while because the foil Soliton was shiny).

  Pack 1 pick 5:

  My Pick:

Slice in Twain also should not be this late. Infect is clearly a dead end so I'm prepared to be a Green/X control deck at this point, probably Green-White although I'm not sure what that deck would look like.

  Pack 1 pick 6:

  My Pick:

Ooh, a rare! This will help with all my mana problems! Yes, that'll do.

  Pack 1 pick 7:

  My Pick:

I like the Wall a lot. At this point we notice a few blue cards have gone round, the Lumengrid Drake last pack and 2 Invisimancers. The Wall of Tanglecord will definitely go in any colour control deck though and moving in on a 2/1 for 3 isn't amazing. Obv I didn't notice the rare.

  Pack 1 pick 8:

  My Pick:

Nothing really here except the Trigon which is okay but not amazing. It costs a lot of mana but card advantage is card advantage and it's a better option than the rest of the pack.

  Pack 1 pick 9:

  My Pick:

Really had no good picks for the rest of the pack.

  Pack 1 pick 10:

  My Pick:

Oh, except this one was interesting. The Ezuri's Archers are a good sideboard card against Poison decks (well, Plague Stinger decks) but if I do end up control then I need some way to finish the game. The Hellion will be good if I can pick up removal. The Panic Spellbomb is also good but I prefer it when I'm definitely a lot of red, definitely not splashing that one.

  Pack 1 pick 11:

  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 12:

  My Pick:

O.o

  Pack 1 pick 13:

  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 14:

  My Pick:

  Pack 1 pick 15:

  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 1:

  My Pick:

I heard this guy was passable in a control deck so I drafted him to try him out. You should always try out rares that look okay to get a feel for them. That is to say I am now White based control because this guy is absurd.

  Pack 2 pick 2:

  My Pick:

White Myr will be very good with the Angel I've just taken. I'm itching for a couple of the other cards but this guy will always make my deck and always be very good. One thing to notice at this point is that infect wasn't an option, but also metalcraft isn't the way this deck is shaping either. I'm willing to be in the market for just good cards if they have a deck strategy at least - control. One way to get ahead here is to go in on fliers and stuff up the ground - this means I might actually go in for blue cards. Blue was open but we don't really have any blue cards yet. We do still have all those green cards, but I'm kind of okay to let them go if I'll get set up for the rest of the draft - at this point I'll be on the lookout for Blue being open from my left as well.

  Pack 2 pick 3:

  My Pick:

Revoke is a great control card and we pass on Invisimancer #17.

  Pack 2 pick 4:

  My Pick:

Sky-Eel School is a funny one. It's very good, but it never gets taken. That's because it's just a `good stuff' card. I think that blue mostly just wants to be a good stuff colour (well, it is the best colour in Magic) so we take it but accept that it might not be a signal. Trinket Mage also being in the pack, however, might be.

  Pack 2 pick 5:

  My Pick:

Control needs counter spells, but this will most likely just be a sideboard card.

  Pack 2 pick 6:

  My Pick:

Erm, so 4th pick and 6th pick Arrests presumably means I'm the only white drafter. Not sure why the packs have been relatively empty then but I happily take the #1 common removal spell.

  Pack 2 pick 7:

  My Pick:

Gotta love the fatties. I'm not a big fan of this guy but you need a way to win somehow and he essentially has unblockable because if they have no artifacts they probably have nothing on the table.

  Pack 2 pick 8:

  My Pick:

Definitely the only white drafter - screw my green cards!

  Pack 2 pick 9:

  My Pick:

Bad removal is still removal and it gets better when you have more good removal because you don't have to waste your good removal on their less good things.

  Pack 2 pick 10:

  My Pick:

The jury's still out on this one in draft as he's bad against infect but I need him in this deck.

  Pack 2 pick 11:

  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 12:

  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 13:

  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 14:

  My Pick:

  Pack 2 pick 15:

  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 1:

  My Pick:

This was a bit empty. Part of me wanted to take the Galvanic Blast to keep the green and red splash open but this seemed a bit greedy as I only really had a Shania Twain that I would want to splash in green. I take the mana Myr because I really need a few of those in this sort of deck. I've plenty of removal so I'm on the lookout for 1-2 more mana myr and a few more 4-5 drop fliers at this point, as well as anything else ridiculous the packs happen to offer me.

  Pack 3 pick 2:

  My Pick:

This guy is a great stalling mechanism in an empty pack. There's a stoic rebuttal here and there was one in the last pack so one will probably come back to me, which is nice.

  Pack 3 pick 3:

  My Pick:

Mana Myr - check!

  Pack 3 pick 4:

  My Pick:

Something ridiculous - check!

  Pack 3 pick 5:

  My Pick:

4-5 drop fliers - check! Getting into a decent shape here.

  Pack 3 pick 6:

  My Pick:

Didn't need it but wasn't going to play anything else except the remote possibility of Darksteel Myr. Turn to Slag deals with the only ways we have of winning though so I remove it.

  Pack 3 pick 7:

  My Pick:

The snapsail glider is decent but will mostly be a 2/2 in this deck. There's another 2/2 for 3 in this pack who interacts very favourably with 4 of our 2-drops (3 mana and the perilous Myr) so we take it for a bit of curve and synergy.

  Pack 3 pick 8:

  My Pick:

I take the Accorder's Shield in case I need to Shield up my ground creatures or fliers in fights but it's unlikely to be great for me.

  Pack 3 pick 9:

  My Pick:

Ding!

  Pack 3 pick 10:

  My Pick:

I take the Certarch in case I need him and the Liquimetal Coating from pick 6 comes back in pick 14 but I don't have enough artifacts here. I'm still missing a good flier so I'm a bit concerned but I do have plenty of removal and a good curve.

  Pack 3 pick 11:

  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 12:

  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 13:

  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 14:

  My Pick:

  Pack 3 pick 15:

  My Pick:

The rest of the packs don't give me anything to work with so I set about constructing my deck as:

Gold Myr
Copper Myr
Leaden Myr
Perilous Myr
Wall of Tanglecord
Riddlesmith
Contagion Clasp
2 Revoke Existence
Myr Galvaniser
Stoic Rebuttal
2 Arrest
Halt Order
Darkslick Drake
Bonds of Quicksilver
Trigon of Infestation
Sky-Eel School
Trigon of Thought
Sunblast Angel
Darksteel Sentinel
Volition Reins
Scrapdiver Serpent

I don't have replays of my matches but round 1 was against RB poison hybrid (not enough poison guys) and I shut him out on the ground before getting in with some fliers. I didn't even have my Angel this match but a 2-0 win in classic Magic™ fashion was enough.

My opp for round 2 didn't show up, leading me to believe that I'd accidentally clicked on the swiss queue and lost my first round. When I came to my senses I realised I'd been given a bye to the finals, very strange.

The finals was against UGB poison with not enough poison guys. This is the problem with poison at the moment - everyone's scrabbling for the guys and no-one gets enough playables. The best way to capitalise is as I did - solid cards and fliers. Since you have to trade a lot against poison, metalcraft decks struggle to hold onto metalcraft so you may as well play cards which are good anyway. Ways to stop the Plague Stingers are pretty key so Contagion Clasp-a-likes and slightly bigger fliers will blunt the assault very quickly (but don't play Blunt the Assault). When you have them unable to do anything you can pull ahead with your superior cards and card advantage mechanisms.

I now have 10 tix and 8 boosters in my account - guess I'll try to keep going infinite for a while.

Guest Article - A Newbie’s Story Part 1: Manchester Game Day

2010-11-02T14:08:00.003Z

By Sam Fryman

Rob mentioned a couple of weeks ago on the blog that he wouldn’t mind having a guest writer, and I have dutifully volunteered. The superficial reason that I am writing is that a lot of magic articles are written by the winners, covering their good plays and any small (but often rare) mistakes they make. I am approaching this from the other angle: I am not a particularly good player, I make many mistakes, and I’m not helping by attempting to play one of the most difficult archetypes to master: UW Control.

(The real reason I’m writing is due to the vague hope that if I write down my mistakes I will actually remember them.)

Anyway, a quick background: I started playing around about the release of Rise. After several months casual pestering from Rob I joined in and, at his suggestion, bought the UW Worldwake Intro Pack. The only card I distinctively remember was the foil rare, the Archon of Redemption: a rubbish rare by all accounts, but I liked it... not least because I also picked up a Rite of Replication at some point and wanted the ability to gain 90 life. Aside from the odd deck – a borrowed Goblins deck, an extremely flawed RW lifegain, and possibly a white-knight-weenie - I’ve mostly stuck with UW Control.

Along the way I’ve borrowed heavily – Elspeth, Baneslayers, and Martial Coup spring to mind – and it has only been with the introduction of Scars and the loss of the Shards of Alara block that I’ve managed to get the cards.

Here’s the deck I took to the Manchester Game Day that Rob wrote about in his last post:

4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Mystifying Maze
4 Glacial Fortress
5 Plains
5 Island
4 Mana Leak
2 Stoic Rebuttal
4 Spreading Seas
3 Day of Judgement
3 Condemn
3 Journey to Nowhere
4 Wall of Omens
3 Baneslayer Angel
2 Frost Titan
1 Sun Titan
1 Sunblast Angel
3 Jace Beleren
1 Elspeth Tierl
1 Venser
Sideboard:
2 Negate
3 Celestial Purge
2 Revoke Existence
2 Spell Pierce
4 Flashfreeze
1 Sun Titan
1 Volition Reins

Overall, in my mind, quite a good deck. No Jace the Mind Sculptor because... well, for a start, I’m working on a budget. Plenty of anti-aggro, plenty of anti-ramp (especially Valakut), enough card draw... my main worry was the control mirrors, hence the extra Sun Titan in the sideboard (for bringing back Jace to kill my opponent’s Jace 2.0) and the Volition Reins for stealing anything nice, such as Gideon.

Round 1 I initially had a Bye, but then another player arrived and we started late. I recognised Kat from the Altrincham PTQ... and as she was sleeving up, recognised what I hoped was a fairly standard Eldrazi Ramp deck (editor's note: I was sat next to their match and she was sleeving up face-up..). I can’t remember it exactly but it went something like this: Kat played Game 1 and I think got a little mana screwed for a couple of turns (which wasn’t helped by a pair of Spreading Seas). A few small creatures and then a DOJ on my part later and she cast Ulamog (I think), which I successfully countered. A few turns of bashing with a Baneslayer (I managed to cast 2) and I was 1-0 up. We sideboarded for the second game, and within two turns heard time being called. Kat insisted we keep playing (extra time for being late). I cast a Baneslayer with no counter in hand (with the mana open for the bluff, obviously). Kat played Summoning Trap and I waited with baited breath for something big and stompy... but fortunately she drew nothing. I managed 3 turns of bashing with the Baneslayer before our 5 rounds were up and we called the game a draw. 1-1-0 for the Round (this is a win for Sam. Wagz).

Round 2 I played Elliot Coen and his copy of Rob’s deck (though with Dispels instead of Spell Pierce in the sideboard). I successfully countered a couple of things (and even killed his Jace with mine), but eventually lost Game 1 to bashings from Oracle of Mul Daya and Lotus Cobra. I sideboarded for Game 2, but stupidly didn’t counter his turn 2 Lotus Cobra and went down to Avenger of Zendikar, having failed to draw a Day of Judgement.

Round 3 was against Goblins. I kept a 2-land hand (Island and Tectonic Edge) with a mana leak and 2 wall of omens. He played, and cast Goblin Guide. I revealed Jace, which I drew and dropped a land before passing the Turn. A second Goblin Guide (though still only 1 mountain) and I was down another 4 life... revealing another Island and the Mystifying Maze. I eventually drew a Colonnade and fended off with my walls for a couple of turns but some extra goblins and lightning bolts wiped me out. We sideboarded and I won games 2 and 3 fairly quickly with Baneslayer Angels.

During playtesting with Alex Gershaw and Andy Pemberton I had constantly been tapping out (a bad move for control decks, apparently). I had been doing the same against the goblins, saving my Baneslayer for turn 7 instead of casting him on turn 5. Alex mused that I could safely cast the Baneslayer without much fear of repercussion.

Round 4 went up against an Elves deck. The first game I successfully countered an Elvish Archdruid and Joraga Warcaller but couldn’t counter an Eldrazi Monument and took millions of damage to the face. Game 2 started slightly better: I opened with a Revoke Existence for his Eldrazi Monument, but it then went downhill. I failed to draw a single blocker or DOJ. As a last ditch attempt I brought out Elspeth and her tokens, and immediately lost them all. My one last hope was to draw my Sunblast Angel... which didn’t happen, and I scooped for a very infuriated 2-0 loss.

Round 5 I faced Aaron Copping and his mono-black deck. Neither of us could make top 8 (though Aaron had the better chance). His deck had Duress, Inquisition of Kozilek, and Mind Sludge as well as Liliana’s Specter. First game he brought out a Mimic Vat and Doom Bladed my Baneslayer, bashing me with Baneslayer tokens from the Vat. Second game he Mind Sludged me without a single counter in my hand, so I was forced to draw from the top. I did manage to get a Volition Reins on his Grave Titan, but that was about it. Overall an annoying loss, especially as I had been expecting Vampires or Infect, both decks I knew I could fairly easily beat.

Overall the day was slightly disappointing. I had expected to do better but had obviously underestimated one thing: my ability to make stupid plays. My deck had plenty of threats and solutions but not enough secure ways of drawing them.

I’d best make some changes then...

Tournament Report - Game Day top 8

2010-10-31T18:19:00.010Z

By Wagz

Hi all! This weekend I attended a Game Day, the descendent of County Champs. Going into it I didn't realise how casual the event has become so brought a decent deck (RUG Control) and even did a bit of testing - this turned out to be overkill. We saw on Manascrew that the event started at 11 but the shop's own website claimed it began at midday. We erred on the side of caution and arrived at 10:30ish. Unfortunately for us the person running their FNM had told everyone it began at 1 so we cubed to kill some time. Here is the deck I played, given to me by Rob Catton:

4 Copperline Gorge
4 Raging Ravine
2 Halimar Depths
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Forest
4 Island
2 Mountain
4 Preordain
4 Explore
4 Lotus Cobra
3 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Frost Titan
2 Avenger of Zendikar
4 Mana Leak
1 Deprive
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Flame Slash
Sideboard:
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Spell Pierce
2 Flashfreeze
1 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Pyroclasm
3 Obstinate Baloth

Round 1 I faced a serious-looking player with a poker shirt on. He was playing UB Control but I started off with t1 Preordain, t2 Explore, t3 Oracle of Mul Daya, t4 Jace the Mind Sculptor with 3 mana open. He had a Negate instead of the Mana Leak but I soon landed a Frost Titan. Game 2 I got heavily mana screwed (27 lands, 4 Preordain, 4 Explore....) but Game 3 played out in normal fashion and I took the win. We had to play quickly to get the round done before time was called and this was unusual for me because I'm a very fast player.

Round 2 was against a Black splash Red Vampires deck. I made the critical play of not laying out turn 2 Cobra having lost the dice roll so when he tried to turn 4 Gatekeeper it I was able to crack my fetch land and Mana Leak his removal spell. I ground out something big and took the game. Game 2 was less good for me and his quick aggression allowed him to bring my life total all the way down. Time was called as we were shuffling and I began to get suspicious. We intentionally drew but I went over to the store owner to ask how long the rounds were. I got told they were 50 minutes but I checked my time-keeping device and it had been 1hr25mins since the 1st round had begun. We were thus granted an official time keeper for the rest of the day.

Round 3 I faced a mirror-match of sorts. He had a couple of Garruks, Primeval Titans and Cultivates but lacked the Cobras and Oracles to really go nuts. I later found out he had Destructive Forces but I think his more-fair version of the deck caused him problems in the mirror and I controlled the tempo of the games to win 2-1.

In round 4 I faced someone who looked at my deck during shuffling. I asked him not to and he apologised but there was no judge to call over. I told the store keeper afterwards in case there was a history but I'm not keen on being cheated, even at a casual event. He was playing a janky mono-black control deck, some kind of midrange Vampires thing. He sided in Duresses against me which are pretty bad for him but I had no answer to a Liliana Vess which kept me discarding the cards I couldn't cast off my 3 lands, very annoying.

The win-and-in round was against a GB Infect deck which was quite innovative. His previous loss was to Elliot Coen who was playing the same 75 as me and Catton and it might just be a bad match-up for him as I was able to control the games, soaking up 9 poison game 1 before making Avenger of Zendikar and his many massive minions and Jace-ing him out game 2.

I received my foil Tempered Steel for top 8-ing and began my quarter finals match against a very nervous-looking UW player. We had three closely-fought games but he out-Jaced me and countered the threats I could muster up. I think this might be a slightly rough match-up for me and he played it well so I wasn't too annoyed to lose it. The rest of Team Leeds had buggered off before this match so I got a magazine and took the train home.

Overall it was a slightly disappointing day due to the casual nature of the organisation but it was probably my own high expectations that were to blame. I think the deck needs a bit of tweaking in the sideboard as it needs some better threats against control decks (or better ways of landing them) and it has a problem with Elves but it seemed to make a good showing at the Star City Games Open mere hours later.

How was your Game Day?

Tournament Report & Sealed Deck Exercise - PTQ Chesham - 3rd

2010-10-25T13:31:00.006+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all, sorry for the lack of recent content. Jim is still in a job that doesn't allow him much (if any) time to play Magic and I've been busy with things - if anyone wants to write guest accounts then they're more than welcome :D. In any event, we're a week or so into the start of the new PTQ season and the set seems very exciting. And more importantly, it seems very difficult. I lost in the quarters of last week's PTQ in Altrincham and this weekend I lost in the semis of the 112-person PTQ in Chesham. This tells me I need to learn how to draft the set properly, but I think I know what I'm doing in sealed. I'll give you my sealed pool below and then my decklist and explanation. I went 6-1 in matches, losing round 3 and getting paired against a 5-1 with terrible breakers in the last round, squeaking a win with tight play, unfortunate mistakes from my opponent and good topdecks. What would you do with the following: (copy the cardname into http://deckbox.org/mtg/cardnamehere for a picture)

White:
1 Auriok Edgewright
1 Auriok Sunchaser
1 Fulgent Disraction
2 Ghalma's Warden
1 Loxodon Wayfarer
1 Revoke Existence
1 Salvage Scout
1 Soul Parry
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Tempered Steel
1 True Conviction
1 Whitesun's Passage

Blue:
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
2 Darkslick Drake
1 Grand Architect
1 Neurok Invisimancer
2 Plated Seastrider
1 Screeching Silcaw
1 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Turn Aside
1 Twisted Image
1 Vault Skyward
1 Vedalken Certarch

Black:
1 Blackcleave Goblin
1 Bleak Coven Vampires
1 Blistergrub
1 Dross Hopper
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Instill Infection
1 Moriok Reaver
1 Necrogen Scudder
1 Psychic Miasma

Red:
1 Bloodshot Trainee
1 Melt Terrain
1 Ogre Geargrabber
1 Oxidda Daredevil
2 Scoria Elemental
1 Turn to Slag
2 Vulshok Heartstoker

Green:
1 Acid Web Spider
1 Alpha Tyrranax
1 Bellowing Tanglewurm
2 Blunt the Assault
1 Carapace Forger
1 Cystbearer
1 Tangle Angler
1 Tel-Jilad Fallen
1 Withstand Death

Artifact:
1 Accorder's Shield
1 Bladed Pinions
1 Chrome Steed
1 Darksteel Myr
1 Echo Circlet
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Gold Myr
1 Golden Urn
2 Golem Foundry
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Iron Myr
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Liquimetal Coating
1 Moriok Replica
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Origin Spellbomb
2 Palladium Myr
1 Perilous Myr
1 Prototype Portal
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Strider Harness
1 Trigon of Corruption
2 Trigon of Infestation
2 Tumble Magnet
1 Vulshok Replica

Decklist:

Discussion:

Tournament Report - 15 Card Highlander Part 2 - the banning of Sadistic Sacrament

2010-10-03T14:26:00.003+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all, as a follow-up to my previous article on 15-card I thought a lot more on the format and what the good cards were. We had a 15-card WNM on 29/09/10 and two of the decks I was interested in trying were Mono-Black control and Sti's Grixis deck with some improvements. After both decks were doing alright but having complementary weaknesses I amalgamated the two to create:

Inquisition of Kozilek
Lightning Bolt
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Liliana's Specter
Sadistic Sacrament
Consuming Vapors
Goblin Ruinblaster
Grave Titan
Crumbling Necropolis
Creeping Tar Pit
Lavaclaw Reaches
Dragonskull Summit
2 Swamp
Tectonic Edge
Sideboard:
Pithing Needle
Doom Blade
Leyline of Sanctity

The deck is full of 2-for-1's with the key card being Sadistic Sacrament as it is just a blow-out and will now be banned from the format if I'm organising it. I gave my list to Rob Catton and we both went in to battle in the 18-man event.

Round 1 I faced Andy Pemberton with a good WRg planeswalkers deck. I made Sad Sac early both games and removed his opportunity to cast spells. I felt extremely mean as you shouldn't win by resolving a 3 mana spell as your only spell.

Round 2 was against Chris Simpson. He had entered the event and then just after round 1 pairings went up came to me saying that he hadn't got a deck. He said he had a bunch of standard-legal cards and I said he had 5 minutes to put a deck together. Turned out he meant future standard as he had a GB poison deck. Luckily the poison creatures are all a bit tiny and after I dealt with them he didn't have any way of winning.

For round 3 I was paired against Rob Catton and we agreed to ID rather than mirror it out. I beat him in the for-funsies game so I vaguely regretted playing it out but we were pretty sure we had the best deck in the room and would easily both 4-0-1 anyway.

Round 4 I played Mick Edwards who was back to Leeds for a week to see people. He had a mono-white control deck which had Luminarch Ascension and Elspeth to trouble me. Sad Sac did its thing and Pithing Needle after boarding dealt with our 'Spethial friend. 4 counters is a lot to get on the Ascension and I let him have 3 before stabilising the board - manlands are good for this.

The final round was against Steve Tyson with Naya planeswalkers. Once more I beat him with Sad Sac, including one for the last 3 cards in his library - Ajani V, Elspeth and Garruk.

Rob and I both went 4-0-1 with this sick deck. Sadistic Sacrament is definitely too good for the format as an unconditional 3-mana 3-for-1 but I think the deck is still really good anyway, with lots of card advantage. Planeswalkers are also very strong in the format but a lot of the good planeswalkers are rotating out so we'll have to see how they work out in new standard 15-card. The deck moves into new Standard by replacing Crumbling Necropolis and a Swamp with the new Black dual lands (so good in 15-card) and the sideboard Pithing Needle for something; it really doesn't lose much, if anything. If your TO doesn't ban Sad Sac (and does run 15-card, probably a harder find) then I'd run this deck as it is by far the best deck. Thanks, as always, for reading.

BONUS! I just won a 4322 with the following:
1 Preordain
3 Tome Scour
2 Doom Blade
2 Jace's Erasure
2 Augury Owl
2 Maritime Guard
1 Gargoyle Sentinel
1 Assassinate
1 Call to Mind
1 Mind Rot
1 Aether Adept
3 Scroll Thief
2 Foresee
1 Azure Drake
1 Nether Horror
1 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Swamp
12 Island
Sideboard:
1 Cancel
2 Negate

Saying goodbye to Shards Block

2010-09-16T00:29:00.003+01:00

By Wagz

*Sob*. I wish that it weren't so, but it is time for Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn and M10 to rotate out of Standard. Oh sure, Bloodbraid Elf and Blightning have made things pretty miserable over the last 12 months. Between Bloodbraid Standard and Zendikar Limited I've experienced some of the worst Magic™ formats I've ever seen.

But I love Multicolour!

There - I said it, and I'm not ashamed. If you've ever seen me Cube draft (my favourite format) you'll have seen some of the 7-colour monstrosities I've put together and won with.

As a result I had to say one last goodbye to some of my favourite cards (mostly from last year's Standard). This week at WNM I played the following:

4 Arcane Sanctum
1 Celestial Colonnade
1 Creeping Tar Pit
3 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Island
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Mountain
4 Rupture Spire
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Swamp
3 Ajani Vengeant
3 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Earthquake
4 Esper Charm
1 Ethersworn Adjudicator
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
3 Sedraxis Specter
2 Wall of Denial
4 Wall of Omens
Sideboard:
2 Celestial Purge
4 Luminarch Ascension
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Slave of Bolas
2 Thought Hemorrhage
3 Wall of Reverence

I won round 1 against White Weenie and round 2 against UW Control before losing round 3 to Green Eldrazi Ramp and round 4 to Aggro Vampires (Nantuko Husk version). A 2-2 record didn't quite do the deck justice but I had a lot of fun.

Round 1 I got to cast Cruel Ultimatum and Ultimate my Ajani in a single turn to leave my opponent with no hand and only 2 Honor of the Pure in play. Two turns later I Esper Charm 2 of his 3 cards away and Jace Ultimate him for a near-flawless victory.

Cruel Ultimatum, Planeswalker Ultimates, casting Eldrazi - these are the moments I play Magic™ for! I don't like Bloodbraid into guy getting 2 Vengevines back. I like casting cool spells - if I want infinite creatures I'll play Pokemon™ thx. Shards of Alara Block, I will miss you dearly. I cannot wait for the next multicolour block. Artifacts are pretty awesome too though ;)

Guest Article: Remember to have fun, by Mick Edwards

2010-09-13T14:37:00.003+01:00

By Mick Edwards

People who know me will know that August was a month in which I took magic very seriously. Not only was Nationals on everyones mind, but i was qualified for Pro Tour Amsterdam. This meant I spent A LOT of time testing what I expected the new extended metagame to be (special thanks to people helping me test such as Rob Catton). In the end I think a slight bad judgement in the meta (I predicted all combo/punishing fire decks) made me play a weak deck and I didnt make day 2, finishing 4-4.

However, one common theme with this event (and all other large event I have been to) was the underlying sense of 'Magic is also really fun, remember?' and by that I mean Cube Drafting! Cube drafting for those that don't know is where a player basically makes their 'own set' using whatever cards they like. The initial Cubes were based around the most powerful cards available, and its quite nice to 'open a pack' to pick from Black Lotus, Sol Ring, Treachery, Recurring Nightmares, etc. However some people make their Cubes a bit different - e.g. Rob Wagner and Seb Parker both have cubes consisting of the most powerful extended (old extended) legal commons and uncommons. The thing about cube is its purpose. When I enter a PTQ I play to win, when I sit down against my opponent I often try to play like a machine designed for winning magic games. When I draft cube I play for fun, when I sit down I have a laugh!

Thinking back, some of the most fun I've had playing magic has been weird formats that are only really played for fun: Reject rare draft, Multiplayer Winston draft, elaborate mental magic pack wars style. So when I though about how I wanted to play more magic for fun purposes it saddened me when I realised that part of what makes these formats so fun is the people involved and I was going back to playing Magic Online. Thats when it hit me! Momir Basic: http://wizards.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wizards.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=1067

Momir basic is THE random fun format, but its actually got more skill to it that it seems and the random factors of mana screw/flood are taken away.
I strongly encourage anyone who has a Magic online account to play this format as its pretty crazy. Here are some pro tips I have found:

Never play an island unless you have an ability that needs it as Benthic Behemoth crops up a fair amount at 8.
There are some good one drops but your chances of hitting them are low, some good ones I've hit include goblin chirurgeon and dragonmaster outcast.
In general its proabably best not to make a 1 drop.
Two drops are better than three drops, this may seem weird but a lot of mana elves/myr are at 2 as well as guildmages!
Play more mountains I currently run 15 mountains in my Momir deck, when you make dragons you want them to breathe fire.

Finally I want to mention an idea I have had for building a cube of my own, hopefully creating an entirely different cube format. I want people to vote on what they think are the worst cards in each set for inclusion in my 'Worst Cube Ever'. Keep an eye on the Leeds Facebook site for more details, or begin the voting for M11 Cards here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=7402096935&topic=13443

Tournament Report - 15 Card Highlander

2010-08-23T14:42:00.004+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all, my exit from nationals was fairly swift this year after drawing terribly against a good matchup and facing 2 of the 5 pyromancer ascension decks in the room to go 1-3 into draft 1. A risky strategy and a loss later and I packed them up. This left me a lot of time to (immediately let off steam and) check out the side events. I borrowed a combo elves deck for the Vintage championship the next morning and after handily beating Dredge round 1 I faced 3 workshop decks who made turn 1 chalice of the void for 1 every game. After such tedium I decided I wanted to get involved with a much more fun format - 15 card Highlander.

The premise of it is similar to 100 card Highlander, your deck can have only 1 of any card which is not a basic land. However, you must have precisely 15 cards in your deck, a sideboard of 3 cards, and you don't lose the game to drawing from an empty library. It immediately became apparent that you will often draw nearly every card in your deck and if you have the right number of lands then your draws will be very smooth. Additionally, you want as many cards which interact with your opponent as possible - manlands are much better than other lands, preordain and ponder should only be played for a very particular reason or you are playing with a deck with less than 15 cards that do anything.

My first attempt at a deck was as follows:

Halimar Depths
Island
2 Mountain
Scalding Tarn
Ponder
Preordain
Tome Scour
Hedron Crab
Elixir of Immortality
Lightning Bolt
Flame Slash
Relic of Progenitus
Howling Mine
Mana Leak

The deck was a bit degenerate - it had Tome Scour and Hedron Crab to immediately mill away the opponent's deck and Mana Leak, Flame Slash and Lightning Bolt to deal with the threats they try to play. Ponder and Preordain are basically Demonic Tutor in the deck to find the answers it needs. Having eliminated the opponents threats it can set up its own graveyard to be rid of the mill spells, then the mana leak and later the ponder, preordain and flame slash so that using the howling mine it can use its 4 mana-producing lands to draw lightning bolt and elixir of immortality every turn, dealing the opponent 3 and taking 5.

I ran to tell Jason Howlett, Tim Willoughby and Rich Hagon about my deck and soon enough Tome Scour, Hedron Crab and Elixir of Immortality formed the banned list. Mark Glenister suggested they add Mind Funeral as well and we were all set to play a much fairer format. Since my deck was banned, Seb Parker and I audibled to a deck built by Mick Edwards:

Ancient Ziggurat
Seaside Citadel
Stirring Wildwood
2 Forest
Birds of Paradise
Noble Hierarch
Qasali Pridemage
Garruk's Companion
Jenara, Asura of War
Rhox War Monk
Leatherback Baloth
Rafiq of the Many
Vines of Vastwood
Oblivion Ring
Sideboard:
Path to Exile
White Leyline
Elspeth, Knight-Errant

We weren't quite sure what to prepare for in the board and took a gamble with the Elspeth but the other 2 cards seemed pretty good. We have a nice array of abilities on our creatures and some which are really hard to answer so hopefully we'd always have something to do to beat our opponent.

Round 1 I play against a mono-black deck with some nice vampires. He gets Guul Draz Assassin down turn 1 every game but I always use my removal spell on it. My mana guys are fuel for his Gatekeeper of Malakir and after boarding my other removal spell takes care of his Grave Titan. He has Reassembling Skeleton and Malakir Bloodwitch which threaten to stem my beats but the Garruk's Companion's Trample is super relevant. He has a Royal Assassin but it was too slow and my Vines of Vastwood would provide 1 turn of safety if I need it. I take the match due to Trample and Rafiq.

Round 2 was against a Burn deck and it becomes immediately obvious that if I can set up Rhox War Monk and Vines of Vastwood then I probably win because he only has so much damage he can deal and spending 2 cards twice to deal with a War Monk plus the 3 life I gain is likely to negate his entire deck. My Path over my O-Ring in boarding kills a Ball Lightning or a Hell's Thunder which significantly reduces the damage he can deal. I win the match.

Round 3 comes and I am paired against Seb Parker in the mirror. We agree a prize split and he wins the roll and then game 1. I mull to 5 game 2 after drawing only Forests for mana and so lose that one as well, the deck is 4-0 at this point though.

In round 4 my opponent is Stuart Wright and I knew he had a Grixis Titans deck he was brewing up. It is a good idea as they are the most powerful creatures you can hardcast in the format, but you immediately have to play a lot of lands to cast them so you lose some card advantage straight away when you draw all those lands. I make a few punty errors like trampling over a 2/1 for 1 with my 3/2 and not tapping a noble hierarch for green mana when it gets pyroclasmed so I am unable to save my Rafiq from a Lightning Bolt. Despite my retardedness I take the match as my deck has too many threats for him to answer and I am able to throw away excess mana to his Blightning and Liliana's Specter.

My final opponent had a cool Naya Destructive Force deck which abused Garruk, Sun Titan and Dauntless Escort to be really one-sided. Unfortunately for him I, as Seb had the round before me, figured out that I had 1 4-mana spell and 7 mana sources in my deck so if I only played out half my mana before the Force I would easily negate it. Plus my Oblivion Ring would deal with the Sun Titan and I could attack the Garruk with an evasive creature so his card quality was then worse than mine.

I ended up going 4-1 and Seb went undefeated with the same deck, so we took 1st and 2nd places in the 20-odd man event. It was a really excellent format as every card counts and you have to save cards for very particular roles. There is very little variance to decks so you should only play as many lands as you need and having cards which do more than 1 thing will significantly increase the amount of play you have. I'm probably going to run the format as the 5th Wednesday event next month in Leeds and might even show up to WNM with a few decks for people to pick up between rounds and have a go. Give it a try - it's very rewarding!

Tournament Report - Win a Mox Pearl in Fanboy3

2010-08-02T10:48:00.010+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all! I come fresh from another foray into Lejacy Magic at the always-fun Fanboy3 in Manchester. 37 players came with their favourite deck sleeved up, resulting in 6 rounds before top 8. The prizes? A very good looking Mox Pearl to the winner, with store credit to the top 4 and 5 boosters for each of the losing quarter finalists. Legacy has undergone a lot of changes recently with the StarCityGames Open Series forcing people to make better decks than the classic Team America Control, Goblins and so on. The buzz was that the format would be Zoo, Merfolk, Goblins and New Horizons this weekend, so I picked a deck which would be good against those 4 and forsaked my usual protection against silly combo decks, since with a 9 round tournament I might only have to face it once or twice and I can afford one loss in the swiss easily. I brewed up the following, borrowing many cards from the always-excellent Rik Powell:

4 Goblin Guide
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Lightning Helix
4 Price of Progress
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Mountain
3 Plateau
2 Taiga
1 Savannah
3 Horizon Canopy
1 Raging Ravine
1 Karakas
3 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard:
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Baneslayer Angel
1 Stirring Wildwood
3 Krosan Grip

Which is similar to my Madrid deck but has subbed the Mindbreak Traps for the mirror tech of Baneslayers :D. The Karakas was a last-minute addition I borrowed from Matt Light in lieu of the presence of many Emrakuls in the room.

Round 1 vs Phil Smith with Bridge-Naught

His deck is one of the new Emrakul ones. It is based on the old Stifle-Naught decks which used Stifle to cheat Phyrexian Dreadnaught into play. Using Mosswort Bridge they can hide away a good card and with the Dreadnaught in play and trigger on the stack can activate the Bridge to cast something good. They also have Show and Tell to directly cheat stuff into play. I have only a few answers for this sort of deck but I have a lot of aggression so it might not be too terrible. Game 1 he chose to not counter my Knight of the Reliquary as he wasn't sure if Zoo was playing Karakas still (most don't) so when he Show and Telled Emrakul into play I was able to tutor up my land to bounce the Spaghetti Monster. Game 2 he countered my Knight but I'd already drawn the Karakas. In any event his countering my Knight put enough card types into graveyards to power up my Goyfs for a lethal attack so it was Catch 22 really.

1-0

Round 2 vs Tomas Sukaitis with Bant

Tom brought Bant but had given up on Counterbalance-Top for a straightforward aggro-control version of the deck. My Baneslayers came in for this creature mirror and it was mostly back and forth with life totals only he has War Monks. Game 1 I played around Stifle (quite common in current Bant Decks) only to get blown out by Wasteland (far less common). Game 3 had an unusual situation: on 4 life with a Jitte versus War Monk and Qasali Pridemage I rip a Baneslayer Angel. He rips Noble Hierarch and the Exalted means I actually have to chump block :o.

1-1

Round 3 vs Thomas Robinson with Goblins

I may be mixing up rounds 3 and 4 here as I don't have any notes to go on but I definitely played these 2 matches. Goblins is a good matchup for Zoo as they lean fairly heavily on turn 1 Goblin Lackey (how lackey!) or Aether Vial, but Lackey is a 1/1 versus my 21 1 mana answers and Vial doesn't affect the board very quickly. I draw a bit of gash while he nuts off a Ringleader but his deck is set up to do that so fair enough. Game 2 I establish control of the board but only draw 3 creatures the entire game, 2 Guides and a Nacatl - Jitte helps a lot with this. Game 3 he didn't have a very explosive start and played out 2 Vials in the first two turns before Edicting me when I had a Nacatl and a Pridemage in play. I sacced the Nacatl as I was fairly sure his hand had something like Goblin Warchief, Ringleader, Siege-Gang so I kept the Pridemage to kill his 2 counter vial in his next upkeep with the trigger on the stack. This turned out to Time Walk him just enough for my guys and burn to get in before he could develope a board presence.

2-1

Round 4 vs Jason Christie with Enchantress

Another good matchup for Zoo. I was lucky enough to know what my opponents were playing every round today - having good friends at tournaments has a lot of benefits and you should always help out the people you know if you can because they often return the favour. I kept my hand despite being slow because it had a Qasali Pridemage in. I got some damage in and kept him off the right cards until he raw-dogged a Moat when he was going to tutor for it with the Sterling Grove he had in play. I'd rather he'd tutored for it as I'd been sandbagging my Pridemage in hand. I ran it out to kill the Grove as he had a card which prevented players from casting spells and activating abilities in opponents turns and had to hope to draw another Pridemage to win. Luckily I did and was able to attack in in time. My hand for game 2 had no 1 drop or 2 drop again but 2 Krosan Grips so I kept. My draws were Wild Nacatl, Gaddock Teeg, Qasali Pridemage, Qasali Pridemage; proving that it is, in fact, very nice being me.

3-1

Round 5 vs Alex Shoemark with Iggy-Pop

This is not a good matchup for me as I have to have one of my Teegs or Canonists to win, but at least if he's leaning on Ill-Gotten Gains rather than Ad Nauseam my sideboard graveyard hate has room to do something. Game 1 I mull a hand without Teeg into another one without Teeg but some aggression. I cast 2 spells before I lose (Goblin Guide and Lightning Helix) and start sideboarding. Games 2 and 3 I get a hate bear and some aggression plus a Tormod's Crypt so I am able to put him under pressure. Luckily for me his draws are terrible and I sneak the victory. Game 3 his keep was because he had Lotus Petal, Crystal Vein and Dark Confidant, which seems fair but he failed to draw any more lands. I'm not convinced Bob comes in against Zoo because he just gives me extra Lightning Bolts on my opponent but perhaps his testing revealed that he wanted more cards more than he wanted his life total - I think Bob is more for mirror matches. Ah well, no complaints as I can ID into the top 8 with Matt Light in round 6.

4-1-1, 4th after the Swiss

Quarterfinals vs Matt Light with Hypergenesis

Matt is playing another one of those Emrakul decks, only using Hypergenesis alongside Show and Tell to put Kul and the gang into play. I literally have only my main deck Karakas and my sideboard Ethersworn Canonist to interact and sure enough Matt kills me with gigantic monsters. 1 at a time, a la Reanimator I can deal with but 5 or 6 at once is too much. He kept a dog of a hand game 2, with 1 land, a cascade spell and 5 monsters on the draw, but he only needs 2 mana sources to plain win the game, against a deck with Goblin Guide, up a game and in a match where he is the heavy favourite so I think it's defensible.

Lose in the Quarters

I pack wars my 5 M11 boosters and manage to get a Fauna Shaman and am fairly happy with top 8 when I hadn't played Legacy in a while and couldn't list peoples' decklists by heart any more. I've got a new version of Zoo brewed up with a bit more metagaming involved but I'm saving it for Rik or myself to run in the Legacy event at Nats in a few weeks time - probably not me, I'll be busy being National Champion obv.

Deck Tech: RGu Aggro

2010-07-30T01:19:00.006+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all, been a while! Sorry if this looks like filler content, but that's almost precisely what it is :). Here's the list for the deck I played at last week's PTQ to reasonable success, RG aggro splashing Jace:

4 Raging Ravine

4 Rootbound Crag

4 Misty Rainforest

3 Scalding Tarn

4 Forest

3 Mountain

2 Island

3 Noble Hierarch

3 Birds of Paradise

4 Lotus Cobra

4 Fauna Shaman

1 Nest Invader

1 Sylvan Ranger

2 Cunning Sparkmage

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Vengevine

2 Siege-Gang Commander

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Eldrazi Monument

Sideboard:
2 Chandra Nalaar

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

1 Clone

3 Combust

4 Obstinate Baloth

2 Cunning Sparkmage

1 Into the Roil

I went 4-2-1 on the day, IDing the last round for prizes and my 2 losses coming to horrid draws and a mull to 5, although likely some of my wins were lucky and I'm not remembering them. The field was choc-a-block full of Shaman decks and UW decks and this was definitely a good call for that field. I'm not sure how it'll cope with Titan Force decks but I'd recommend you try it out at your local FNM.

Sorry we haven't been updating much recently, Jim has been very busy and I'm an ancillary writer at best so you'd better enjoy what you're given for now. I'll have an update after a win-a-mox Lejacy tournament in Manchester this weekend where I'll be whipping out my old faithful, Zoo. Then I could be a bit quiet until after Nats, but at least I'll have a winners report for you all then.

Player of the Year Race Update 15/07/10 - 1 Month to go

2010-07-15T14:35:00.003+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all! We're now entering the final stages of the player of the year race and things are pretty hot. The winner after WNM on 11/08 will receive a trophy for their efforts but we won't be organising a top 8 anything because it looks like it will be hard to get all 8 people in one place. Currently the top 8 is:

46 - Andy Devine
44 - Rob Catton
43 - Mick Edwards
38 - John Ingham
33 - Andy Edwards, Chris Vincent
29 - Rob Wagner, Andy Bodle

with Steve Tyson, Stephen Porritt and Andy Pemberton all snapping on the heels. Mick has left university so is unlikely to get any more points but Rob and Andy are definitely going to make a close race. My excuse is that I only played 7 WNMs since December (but I won 4 of those), so I'll try to make Pro Level 2 and then I can play in every event next year :D. Anyway, the winner will receive their trophy at nats but no more updates to the online spreadsheet will be made until then to keep it exciting.

Live Coverage of the Team Leeds M11 Prerelease

2010-07-10T13:09:00.009+01:00

By Rob Wagner

ROUND 1; Andrew Pemberton vs Paul Wray

Andy comes from a local house of Magic players who throw excellent Cube Drafts and Paul Wray is a long-time playtest partner of Craig Stevenson's. Paul wins the roll and gets things started with a Blinding Mage off his Plains and Mountain. Andy has fetched up a Swamp and a subsequent Forest casts him a Child of the Night. 3rd land but no spell from Paul is suspcious but Andy can only match this with a Reassembling Skeleton. The Skeleton looks like a good limited card to me so we'll see how he gets on through the day. Paul draws a Palace Guard on defence but only has a Mountain untapped so no tapping for him. The Mage gets in for 1 but Andy Assassinates it before casting a Brittle Effigy, two good removal spells. Siege Mastodon comes down for Paul, acting as a massive road block. Not one that Andy is worried about though as he summons a Spined Wurm to begin the beats. Act of Treason steals the Wurm and the Skeleton jumps in the way. A Stormfront Pegasus joins the offensive and the Spined Wurm cracks back, making it 16-15 in Andy's favour. A second Assassinate kills the Siege Mastodon and things aren't looking so hot for Paul now. A second Blinding Mage looks to help out but the Skeleton reassembles end of turn. Doom Blade takes out the Wurm as it tries to attack and things are looking a lot more even again.

Barony Vampire becomes the biggest creature on the table, on Andy's side, but the Pegasus' evasion looks to be winning it at the moment. Stone Golem provides more beef for Andy but Paul's Mage is going to keep it tapped for now. Elite Vanguard and a swing for 2 with Paul's flier keep up the pressure but Andy still has the Effigy to blow any time he so chooses. Vampire and Vanguard trade but Andy has topdecked his Grave Titan and the crowd is going wild. 2 more from the Pegasus, Blinding Mage taps down the Grave Titan on attacks but now the Stone Golem is free to swing in with his 2 Zombie friends. One Zombie gets blocked by the Palace Guards but Paul takes 6, going to 9. The Goblin Tunneler he made the previous turn can allow a guy to get in unblocked but things are looking bad on the defence here. Pegasus again forces his way in, digging Andy down to a mere 6 life but at the end of the turn the Blinding Mage finds himself exiled by the Effigy. Palace Guard is a mass chump-blocker for the turn and after the Pegasus swings for 2 a drawn land allows Paul to make Hoarding Dragon and Fling it at Andy's face for exactly lethal damage, good game!

Paul 1 - 0 Andy

For Game 2 Paul mulligans a Swamp, Mountain, 5 White Spells hand after Andy has kept his 7. His 6 is a lot better though and he matches a turn 2 Child of the Night with his trusty Stormfront Pegasus. Andy assembles his Skeleton for the first time and gets in for 2 with Lifelink. Paul cancels out the life total then makes a threatening looking Warlord's Axe. Deathmark takes care of the Pegasus before Andy Signs his name in Blood to get ahead on cards. Just an Elite Vanguard for Paul which trades with the lifelinker. A 3/2 comes in for Andy who bemoans his lack of a 5th land. Paul summons a Siege Mastodon and Andy draws his Terramorphic Expanse and casts a Gargoyle Sentinel, your reporter's tip for a very solid limited card (and one which some people weren't putting in their decks). Vulshok Berserker comes into play and immediately enters the Red Zone with the Mastodon. The Skeleon takes one for the team and Andy takes his 3. Assassinate takes care of the Mastodon and the Gargoyle trades with the Berserker. Skeleton comes back tapped end of turn in time to swing with the Barony Vampire. A second Reassembling Skeleton makes its presence felt and Paul is unlikely to get through on the ground. Seeing this he makes a Cloud Crusader, possibly the top White draft common creature. Effigy takes care of it however and after an attack, Paul draws nothing and scoops them up.

Paul 1 - 1 Andy

The players wish one another luck for the decider and both keep their 7. Andy's turn 1 Llanowar Elves beats on turn 2 but a Palace Guard stops those shenanigans. Stone Golem faces Vulshok Berserker but a Fire Servant ("pretty good with Fling") threatens to break the deadlock. The Golem attacks into the Palace Guard and Vulshok Berserker, killing the Guard. Triskelion comes in and immediately kills the Fire Servant, leaving a not-so-threatening 1/1. The Berserker easily gets in for 3 and is joined by a Blinding Mage to help tap down those pesky blockers. Those blockers include Garruk's Packleader and Black Knight so the board has reached a small stalemate for the moment. Having seen these guys' decks I'm sure that will change. Andy's Greater Basilisk draws a card off the Packleader and the Packleader is tapped down, allowing Black Knight to get in for 2. Child of the Night also enters Andy's army but does not draw a card. Paul finds his Warlord's Axe, which usually allows you to trade your bad guys for their good guys. Paul only has his Berserker and Mage though so not much trading will be going on. Only the Basilisk is able to attack in now that the Berserker has picked up an Axe but Andy is still pushing Paul down, the life totals being 6 to 14. Paul has made a Goblin Tunneler but appears to have drawn his black spells before his black mana.

Oh wait, that's an Angelic Arbiter now. Pretty irrelevant, Paul says, but a 5/6 flier will still help get the defence on track. Sacred Wolf and Spined Wurm come in and draw cards for Andy. He can't attack but it likely won't matter at this point since he has an overwhelming army. Pegasus joins the defence but Paul can't attack for fear of a massive counterattack. Effigy exiles the Arbiter and then a Grave Titan comes in with 2/2's and a drawn card and it is surely over now. Andy swings with the team and Paul offers the hand.

Andy 2 - 1 Paul

ROUND 2; Andy Devine vs Nathan Edwards

Nathan is down from Scarborough and is an old-school player from 1995, playing with our very own John Ingham. Andy Devine is likely to win the Leeds Player of the Year Race but thinks he has a bad deck for today. Nathan wins the roll and sets things off with a turn 2 Augury Owl from his seemingly blue-black deck. Andy has a mountain and an island but no turn 2 play. Nathan's turn 3 Scroll Thief gets Lightning Bolted, can't let Ophidian get out of hand. Forest for Andy, or not as he picks it back up. No, it comes down again and casts Awakener Druid, making it a 4/5 creature. Nathan gets ahead on cards with a Foresee but just the Owl means he isn't high up on the attacking pecking order. Wall of Frost from Andy doesn't seem to do much at the moment but he gets in for the expected 5 damage. Nathan makes a Conundrum Sphinx, a very efficient beater who plays very well with the set's Scry mechanic. Andy sends only the 4/5 in, taking Nathan to 11. Andy then makes a second Forest and uses Sylvan Ranger to find a second Mountain. A second Augury Owl sets up Nathan's Sphinx to be very one-sided. Sure enough the Sphinx draws a Liliana's Specter and Andy's named Forest misses as he reveals Cultivate. The Specter comes in and forces Andy to discard his Diminish. Andy's Forest gets blocked and only the Ranger gets in but a post-combat Chandra's Outrage deals with the Sphinx in royal fasion.

Nathan's fliers continue to beat in, putting Andy at 10. He makes a Scroll Thief and a Crystal Ball, signalling an extremely card draw-centric deck. The Forest and Sylvan Ranger once more get in and Nathan pauses to consider Andy's tricks. Not falling for any of them he simply chumps the Forest with his 1/3 and now also faces a Garruk's Packmaster. Crystal Ball helps Nathan's draw step and he makes an Air Servant before serving for 2 with the Specter. Water Servant for Andy seems good and Ice Cage on the Air Servant serves as a very good answer, allowing Andy to swing in for a bunch. Nathan didn't draw anything of relevance and scooped them up.

Andy 1 - 0 Nathan

John Ingham and I were saying how we liked Water Servant as the players shuffled for game 2. He called it a "little Morphling" so I used the segue of "speaking of More Fling" to tell the story of how round 1 game 1 ended. Enough of my silliness for now, Nathan shuffles his 7 away, then his 6, but deems his 5 to be acceptable. The first play is a Cultivate by Andy but Nathan has the Flashfreeze at the ready. He makes an Augury Owl to try to draw into more gas but can't be happy to see Awakener Druid opposite him. He might be actually, as he has at Stabbing Pain ready to deal with the Druid, incidentally turning off the Treefolk. Foresee draws Nathan into even more gas and his Owl gets in for 1, not a bad mull to 5 at all. Andy discards a Berserker of Blood Ridge, clearly leaning on the Cultivate for his mana. Scroll Theif for Nathan look good but but Andy has found a Mountain and casts a Conundrum Sphinx of his own. Crystal Ball makes the Sphinx more one-sided for Nathan again and he draws a card where Andy misses, but Nathan still takes 4 from the attack. Juggernaut is yet more body for Andy so Nathan will need to do something with all these cards he's drawing. Royal Assasin clearly is something to do with those cards and he even has a Negate ready for Andy's Lightning Bolt, strong plays all round. Ice Cage really deals with the Assassin until Nathan can come up with a targetting ability. Sphinx draws Nathan an Augury Owl but deals him another 4. The Owl comes down alongside a Juggernaut on blocking duty but Sleep from Andy takes the game and the match.

Andy 2 - 0 Nathan

ROUND 3; Rob Catton vs Alex Gershaw

Alex is a relative newcomer to Leeds Magic but qualified for Nats after I made him play Time Sieve. Rob Catton is another high-runner in the Player of the Year race and is also qualified for Nats via his Blue White control deck. Alex makes 2 Islands and Rob matches it with one Island but breaks the trend with a Plains. Alex makes a turn 3 Cloud Elemental then a turn 4 Phantom Beast before attacking for 2. The Beast is thoroughly diminished by Rob and he returns fire with a very big Juggernaut. This immediately becomes Caged in Ice and Alex once more swings for 2. Augury Owl for Rob sets up his next draws, which include 2 Angels - very nice! Cloud Elemental #2 for Alex gives him some gas just before the first one runs into the Owl taking a Mighty Leap. Rob draws 3 with his Jace's Ingenuity, getting ahead in this blue mirror match. Alex decides against using the Mystifying Maze on the Augury Owl, electing to take 1 instead. His Cloud Elemental is winning that race anyway. Not any more, Angelic Arbiter is the first Angel for Rob, but Alex immediately Mind Controls it and attacks for 2.

Vengeful Archon is Angel number 2 for Rob, clearly hoping it stays on his side of the table. Aether Adept bounces the Vengeful Archon for a turn and allows Alex to swing in for some damage, which the Augury Owl takes the brunt of. Nothing from Alex might mean that Rob can start moving ahead but he chooses to make an Augury Owl rather than begin swinging (because of his own Arbiter). Alex plays his main deck Jace's Erasure as a way of punching through the deadlock but Rob's Air Servant looks like it will do the same job a lot better. Rob even draws an Excommunicate to free up his own Angelic Arbiter, which will get milled by the Erasure. He fails to attack though, probably thinking the effect still holds. It seems to be for naught though as he begins swinging the next turn. Maze takes some of the sting out of the Angel's tail but it's probably only a matter of time now. Howling Banshee for Alex brings both players' life totals down by 3, putting Rob on 5 and Alex on 10. Rob wins the flip on a previously-made Sorceror's Strongbox, bringing him 2 Islands and a Fireball. Alex chumps the Archon, neglecting to use his Maze (a bluff?) and dies to a post-combat Fireball.

Rob 1 - 0 Alex

Both keep their 7 for game 2 and Alex burns a Preordain, probably having kept a mildly speculative hand. The first real play is a Temple Bell for Alex on turn 3, clearly having played Time Sieve too much. The Temple Bell mills Rob twice as he is making lands but has little action. Turn 5 Stormfront Pegasus gives Rob some aggression but he is playing quite defensively. Captivating Vampire for Alex is unlikely to be stealing any creatures but one should always play one's rares in Sealed, even if they're Grey Ogres. Rob Excommunicates it regardless but Alex Bells it to hand at the end of the turn. Phantom Beast for Alex gets Mighty Leaped (i.e. killed) and Rob makes an Augury Owl, looking to set up his Bell draws. Rob had discarded his own Phantom Beast earlier, certainly a card I would sideboard out in the blue mirror. Nether Horror For Alex might bring him some offence as Rob has only made fliers so far, evading Alex's Wall of Frost. Rob gets ahead once more with a Jace's Ingenuity, drawing even more cards. He makes a Wall of Frost which actually does something and flies in for 3, reducing Alex to 13. Jace's Erasure looks to do a little bit more this game but Rob has very little respect for the Erasure and Cancels it. Alex has the Mana Leak, however, so it comes down. Rob gets in for another 3 and summons an Air Servant, which gets Doom Bladed. Alex Bells end of turn, turning up the mill. Alex has the Foresee, which Rob Mana Leaks to tap Alex's mana. He pays the 3, keeps all the cards on top and mills Rob for 2 more. Rob attacks in a little more but has the Fireball to Burn Alex to a crisp.

Rob 2 - 0 Alex

ROUND 4; Fu Sheng vs Mark Pinder

Fu is a native Malaysian at Leeds University and brother of a national team member. Mark comes from the Grimsby area and will be running his own Pre-release tomorrow. Fu said he wanted to draw but Mark definitely came to play. Whsipersilk Cloak from Mark was the first play and his turn 4 Giant Spider matched Fu's turn 3 Stormfront Pegasus very effectively. Fu's turn 4 Assault Griffin would normally be very good but he looks shut down at the moment. Greater Basilisk gives Mark something he can begin to swing with, Fu's Palace Guard not being enough to shut it down. The Griffin ate a Doom Blade from Mark and the Basilisk donned the Cloak, clocking Fu for 3. Stone Golem from Fu gives him some aggression, "oh joy" says Mark. Basilisk in once more and a second joins the team. Fu's Magma Phoenix is another guy on board but he still can't attack effectively. Acidic Slime destroys the Stone Golem post-combat but now Fu has a Serra Angel to take its place. Mark attacks with all 3 of his Deathtouch creatures, leaving Fu some difficult options. The Pegasus blocks the Slime, the Palace Guard puts itself in from of the uncloaked Basilisk and Fu takes 3, going to 8. Mark's Gravedigger gets back the Slime but he doesn't have the mana to replay it this turn. Angel vigilances in for Fu, before an Earth Servant (4/8) helps Fu's ground force. Just the Basilisks come in from Mark, the Earth Servant being backed up by a Lightning Bolt to finish off the Basilisk. An Elite Vanguard gives Mark yet another attacker, causing Fu to look for an answer. Not drawing Wall of Fire, Fu scoops up his cards and we move to game 2.

Mark 1 - 0 Fu

2 mulligans for Mark to start the match but his 5 seem alright for him. Fu kept 4 lands, 3 spells and is dismayed at having drawn 2 lands to begin with. His hand is responsive and has the Bolt to kill Mark's Garruk after it has made a Beast. Assault Griffin declares Fu's intention to race and with 2 more cards he is not in a bad position to do so. The Griffin flies in for 3 and then a Stone Golem comes in for Fu. The life totals are high but Mark will need to draw something relevant soon. The Golem is excommunicated (silly religious golems) and a Silvercoat Lion adds to Mark's beats. The Griffin once more gets in for 3 and the Golem gets replayed, only this time it is Pacifismed, seeing the error of its previously-religious ways. Fu brings an Excommunication of his own to deal with the Whitemane Lion and the Beast gets Pacifismed too. Fu explains that he is trying to stymie Mark's draws after Mark questions the play. Assault Griffin number 2 speeds it up for Fu but Mark has found his Incy-Wincy Spider and Fu can only wince himself. The Lion brings Fu to 5 and Mark makes a Yavimaya Wurm to beat Fu before his own life total of 8 is diminished. Fu finds his Sword of Vengeance off the top and equips one Griffin, attacking Mark to 3. Mark desperately sends in the team but Fu blocks the Lion with the 3/2 and the 6/4 with his 5/2 Akroma, taking 2 and going to 3. However it was a bluff and Mark has no defence to Fu's flier.

Mark 1 - 1 Fu

Mark mulligans again but Fu thinks long and hard. He elects to keep but doesn't look confident. Both players develope their mana and Mark makes the first move with turn 4 Garruk, this time untapping 2 lands for protection. Fu makes an Ember Hauler but Mark uses his extensive mana advantage to make a Yavimaya Wurm. Fu Pacifisms it and attacks Garruk to 3 counters but has no other plays. Mark makes a Greater Basilisk and the pain is really being brought to Fu now. The Basilisk gets Excommunicated and the Ember Hauler attacks then sacs to finish off Garruk. The Basilisk sees a second spawning and Fu matches with his Stone Golem, the life totals still very high. Giant Spider for Mark isn't as impressive as it has been and the ground is stalled. Both players continue to lay out lands and Mark uses his Excommunicate on his own Yavimaya Wurm and Fu Reverberates it to get rid of the Basilisk while he was at it. Mark makes a Cloak and doesn't block Fu's Stone Golem. Fu's Stormfront Pegasus is blanked by the Giant Spider but Mark lets the Stone Golem through, going to 12. Mark draws his Basilisk, attacks for 6 and makes the Basilisk, leaving up a single mana. Fu draws Shiv's Embrace and puts it on his Stone Golem. He attacks his Stone Golem and Pegasus into Mark's board, the Spider chump blocking the Golem and so taking Mark to 10. Mark's Wurm picks up the Cloak and he attacks Fu for 9 down to 5 life. Mark Plummets Fu's Golem, takes 2 from the Pegasus and Fu makes a post-combat Griffin. Mark's attack is Safe Passaged and when Fu doesn't draw a Lightning Bolt Mark takes the win.

Mark 2 - 1 Fu

ROUND 5; Craig Stevenson vs Andy Devine

Andy comes back from his round 2 showing with 2 more wins and facing him is former National Champion Craig Stevenson. An all-Hunslet final promises some violence here ;). Andy leads with a turn 2 Sylvan Ranger fixing his mana and passes turn 3 after playing a second Island. "Cancel mana up declares Craig" and right he is too. More lands from both players and the only action is the 1/1 beating down. Andy turn 5's a Cudgel Troll with regeneration mana up, a strong play against Craig's Red-Black deck. Craig Bolts it at the end of Andy's turn, allowing him to Deathmark it during his own. Craig makes a Sword of Vengeance with nothing to equip but when he gets something into play it will surely dominate. Andy makes an Awakener Druid, upgrading his tapped Forest so as to keep this "cancel mana up" and swings for 1 with the Ranger. During Andy's next turn Chandra's Outrage deals with the Druid and then the Forest by proxy, Craig taking 1 more from the Ranger, putting him at 15 to Andy's 18.

Craig summons a Stone Golem during his turn and at the end of that turn Andy casts Jace's Ingenuity to draw 3. It allowed him to draw is second Mountain to cast a Magma Phoenix and the Ranger stays at home for once. The Golem picks up Akroma's Sword and attacks Andy down to 12 (busted sword much) but Andy Ice Cages the Golem on his turn before attacking for 4. Cultivate for Andy draws him 2 more (and casts one for free), thinning his deck slightly. Brittle Effigy for Craig sneaks in and a re-equipped sword knocks off the Ice Cage, allowing another attack from the Golem. When Andy's Phoenix attempted an attack it became exiled due to the Effigy but a post-combat Water Serpent will do nicely too. Craig Vigilances in with the Golem and Andy chumps with the Sylvan Ranger. The Golem tramples over for 5 damage, putting Andy at 1 and asking a good draw step of him. 6 mana makes Inferno Titan for Craig but the sandbagged Cancel makes itself well-known. Andy draws a Juggernaut but cannot attack just yet. It's all for naught though as Craig Act of Treason's the Juggernaut to take the victory.

Craig 1 - 0 Andy

Both players take a mulligan to begin with and Andy goes down another one. Andy has Cancel mana up from turn 3 but neither player is doing anything too interactive with the battlefield for the moment beyond plagueing it with lands. Andy misses land #5 and Cancels Craig's Berserkers of Blood Ridge. Andy draws his 5th land and smacks down a Magma Phoenix. Doom Blade causes each player to take 3 damage and Craig follows it with a 3/2 ground pounder. Andy draws his Jace's Ingenunity and then another 3 cards, recovering from his mulligan. The next turn sees Conundrum Sphinx and Craig's "playing round a mana leak" Chandra's Outrage gets Flashfrozen. The 3/2 attacks into the Sphinx and a post-combat Ember Hauler finishes it off. Andy finally finds a Forest for foraging for a further one with his Sylvan Ranger. The rebought Phoenix comes in once more and Craig is on the back foot. Oh no he isn't, he's got Inferno Titan and kills the Ranger and a Garruk's Companion which Andy had made with his Green mana. Andy swings for 3 in the air then made an Acidic Slime (killing Swamp) and a Manic Vandal. Craig attacked, dealt 3 to the Phoenix which killed Andy's blockers and Craig pumped for the win.

Craig 2 - 0 Andy

Craig wins the Leeds Prerelease!

Guest Article: PTQ Win with Next Level Bant, by Mick Edwards

2010-06-28T19:25:00.005+01:00

By Mick Edwards

Having missed out on my chance to play Standard at a more competitive level this year (since I was auto-qualified for Nationals), I was quite worried that the format would have changed to 'whoever has the most expensive mythics wins'. Unfortunately I was a little right. Fortunately for me, fellow Team Leeds member (or maybe he's Team York or something) Chris Vincent was unable to attend the PTQ and kindly offered to lend me some of his mythics. Here is the list I decided to play:

4 Celestial Colonnade

5 Forest

2 Island

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Plains

4 Seaside Citadel

1 Stirring Wildwood

3 Sunpetal Grove

3 Birds of Paradise

1 Borderland Ranger

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Sea Gate Oracle

3 Sphinx of Lost Truths

4 Vengevine

4 Wall of Omens

3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Gideon Jura

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 Oblivion Ring

3 Path to Exile

Sideboard:
2 Celestial Purge

2 Day of Judgment

2 Meddling Mage

3 Negate

2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence

2 Oust

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

Since the PTQ was at Fanboy 3 in Manchester, as well as begging for cards I was also begging for a lift. Kindly Kenny Hall offered to drive via Leeds to pick me and Fu Sheng-Wong up. In the car Kenny told me that riding in his car would bring luck since the past 3 lifts he had given had been a winner and two finalists - I apologised to him and Fu explaining that I would be the one to continue that streak with a win. Fu joked about not bothering to register in that case.

About the deck:
Some of my many reasons for playing this deck were:
Elspeth + Path <3 (editor: it's true, Mick goes to bed with these and Figure of Destiny)
Lots of card draw means more consistency and combined with BoP/Heirach means less mulligans
Brian Kibler won a GP with a similar list
It has the option to play aggro or control depending on the match up (editor again: Mick only plays aggro)

Changes/Unusual Sideboard options:
I decided the Ranger + Scute Mob was good, but not as good as Sphinx of Lost Truths, therefore I cut the Ranger package to make room for an extra Sphinx. This also allowed me to play an extra BoP as a turn 1 mana guy is the ideal start and accelerating into a turn 3 planeswalker is key to winning alot of match ups.
Mythic seemed like the 'deck to beat' and an argueably stronger choice, and my sideboard reflects this with Ousts, Linvala and Day of Judgement. Meddling Mage can also be good against mythic as they have have little removal so it's often like a much better Thought Hemorrhage.

When we arrived at the event and met up with some other members of Team Leeds I realised I needed a 4th Vengevine. I spoke a bit to Seb Parker who told me he had just been hunting around for Vengevines and struggled to find a few so I decided to buy one and quickly scribbled down a decklist in time for Round One.

Round One: Grixis
I won the dice roll and accelerated into a turn 3 Vengevine to bash for 5 as he did nothing until turn 3 when he made a Nighthawk. I decided not to play a turn 4 planeswalker and opted to O-ring his Nighthawk and continue the beats. On turn 4 he Earthquaked away my team so when I dropped 2 creatures to get back vengevine that was pretty much game.
Side: -4 Wall -1 Sphinx LT +2 Purge +2 Negate +1 Sphinx Jwar Isle (I think)
Game two went a similar way from my side: turn 3 Vengevine but with a turn 4 Jace (using +2 to get to 5). I also managed to turn 2 Purge his turn 3 Specter which was nice. Then on his turns 5 and 6 he cast Blightning twice killing Jace and stripping me of my hand. This confused me a little as I had expected him to board Blightning out, but in this game it was surprisingly effective against me - although it didn't matter as that had given me enough time to get beats in with the Vengevine.

Round 2: Aaron Copping with Grixis
Aaron also came with us in Kenny's car so I knew he was Grixis so I was pretty confident after how round one had gone. These games went quite different to round one but ultimately his deck's spot removal wasn't enough to keep up with the many many threats I made. In game two I think he got stuck a little on awkward mana too.

Round 3: UW Control
I dont really remember this round, only that it gave me great confidence that the Bant deck crushes control decks :D
Side: -4 Wall +3 Negate +1 Sphinx Jwar Isle

Round 4: Ben Scoones with Naya Conscription
I knew Ben was playing some kind of Conscription deck so was a little worried when he won the dice roll. He made turn 2 knight but I had turn 2 O-ring. Then he didnt really do anything while I quickly ended the game. I later found out he had triple Sparkmage in hand and was stuck on red mana.
Side: -4 Wall -1 BoP -1 Ranger -1 Sphinx +2 Oust +2 Linvala +2 Day of Judgement +1 Meddling Mage
Game two I had what I thought was the god draw with turn 3 Linvala and Planeswalkers. However, since he won the dice roll he got to play his turn 3 Linvala first, meaning I was mana screwed and he had the win before I could get an answer to Linvala or a 4th land.
I game 3 I made a misplay (in hindsight) that cost me the round. Although it was game 3 I hadn't seen any red yet (though he might have played a Ravine in game 2) so I assumed he was a more conventially mythic deck but with a splash. So when I made a turn 2 Meddling Mage I named 'Baneslayer Angel', then immediately regretted it. Baneslayer Angel is usually one of the best cards to name against Mythic as it comes down easier than Sovs, but changes the board to make it very dificult to win through giving them the time to get the Sovereigns/win. However, most of the less conventional Mythic decks dont even run Baneslayer. After he played turn 3, 4 Sparkmages and turn 5 Blodbraid into sSarkmage he ripped apart my mana (and Mage) and I quickly realised I had named the wrong card.

3-1

Round 5: Turbofog
This round was quite a slog and one I'd had no practice against with Bant so wasn't sure if it was a good match up or not. Fortunately game one I was able to go ultra aggro with Vengevines, which seemed the best way to win.
Side: -4 Wall -1 Gideon +3 Negate +2 Meddling Mage
Game 2 I was able to get some advantage by discarding double Venegvine in my cleanup, but made yet another Meddling Mage blunder by naming Angelsong. The correct card to name against Turbofog is Time Warp and he proved it by 'going infinite' casting 4 Time Warps (+1 with Twincast) then discarding Emrakul to shuffle them back in. I conceded to get chance to play a third game.
Game 3 I managed to win in the first game of extra time. This time I named the right card with the Mage, he even cast Angelsong in response this time (expecting me to name the Song). I confused everyone a bit by calling for an oracle wording on Angelsong (since my oponent was using foreign cards). I was 99% sure I knew the wording on Angelsong, but knew where was one fog effect that meant you could still attack planeswalkers. Checking these things costs nothing and the judges are there to help (editor: quite right. also, it's Safe Passage).

Round 6: UW control
As with Round 3, this deck crushes control in general. In game two I even played for the long game and managed to keep all three planeswalkers so there was nothing he could do.

Round 7: ID
As I was 5-1 at this point I gladly excepted the ID. My oponent was 5-0-1 so technically could have played to try and knock me out. I was glad of the spare hour to go for a Burger King to celebrate making another top 8 at Fanboy.

Quarterfinals: Some Scottish guy (not Guy) called Andy with UW control
For some reason he thought I was playing red (he said it was the red sleeves). Then I managed to confuse him further with a start that looked like it could have been Naya/Mythic. Eventually I lost game 1 because I played too aggressively, being too careless with my planeswalkers when I probably could have used their card advantage for victory.
Side: -4 Wall +3 Negate +1 Sphinx Jwar Isle
I got a fairly fast win and he 'punted'. This caused him to get really annoyed at himself to the point of slamming the table in anger. The Situation: I had lethal on the board including a manland (I think it was Borderland Ranger + Elspeth). He had 6 lands (1 was Tectonic Edge). He made Gideon and made me attack it, so I O-ringed
Gideon and swung for the win. Aparently he could have played Jace instead and bounced the ranger and blown up my wildwood so I can see why he was annoyed.
He never really gained control in the 3rd game as I just played threat after threat. When he knew was dead he tried to claim I had tapped my mana wrong to make a Gideon I shouldn't have. This annoyed me as I had made special care to show clearly which mana I was using for what as I knew it was a mistake that could easily happen. Fortunately a judge had been watching the whole time (and many other people), but the guy even had the cheek the argue with the judge and claim that the judge hadn't actually seen!

As the our game in the Quarters took longer than the other three, Amar Dattani (my semis opponent) had seen how the game had ended and told me that I could have as much time as I wanted to relax before we started. This was very nice of him as he had probably been waiting around for some time.

Semis: Amar Dattani with Naya Conscription
The first 2 games were fairly straight forward. He had a great hand game one and flattened me with a giant BoP. Game two I had Linvala to help me out, followed by a Sphinx and a Gideon which I used to make his 2/2 Knights have to attack into my bigger flyers :D
Game 3 was much more close. He made no play until turn 3, and had a similar multiple Sparkmage hand to Ben in round 3. I also had a slow hand, too many tapped lands (and him shooting my mana guy) meant that my first real play was Day of Judgement to get rid of the Sparkmages. He followed up with another Sparkmage (from a Bloodbraid I think) so was quickly able to deal with my Elspeth. A second Day of Judgement from me allowed me to begin to stabalise on 3 life since his Bloodbraids + pings had been adding up. I then drew mostly card draw so gave him a worrying amount of time to topdeck a Sovereigns to finish end the game. I eventually Ousted a Linvala to buy me the time to win. After the game he flipped the top card to reveal Sovereigns so the Oust really made the difference.

Finals: Tom "End Boss" Harle with Next Level Bant
Game one took a long time and Tom made me realise I may have been too hasty to dismiss Ranger of Eos as he used 2 to gain huge army that eventually swarmed round my team which was about half the size. Before the game I had decided not to board in Day of Judgements but based on how game one had ended I quickly changed my mind.
Side: -4 Wall -1 bop -1 Sphinx +2 Oust +2 Linvala +2 Day of Judgement
Game two I won by being able to stick and protect more planeswalkers, I was slightly surprised by Toms sideboard choices though as he had brought in Deprives, Negates and several Jace Beleren. I personally don't like bringing in counterspells in against this matchup as it doesnt suit the way I play the deck and I find the Bant deck has a lot of solid creature based threats that Negate obviously doesn't answer.
Game three I kept something amazing like 3 land, Heirarch, Oust, Jace, Elspeth while Tom was not so lucky. He mulled to 6 before playing turn 1 Scute Mob.
Although I expected the game to end quickly in my favor, since he got stuck on lands. However while I was making planeswalkers he was answering them with Deprives, Negate, O-ring etc. On Turn 8 I cast Day of Judgement + Gideon to put him further behind on mana, Then he finally started drawing lands, but this meant he had stopped drawing his answers so I was able to kick Sphinx of Lost Truth for the win.

Editor: Mick didn't supply an ending so I assume he's very happy to have won the PTQ and wishes all members of Team Leeds, and to a lesser extent the other readers of this blog, luck in their future PTQs to join him in his trip to Amsterdam. Mick's too cool for real endings.

Pro Tour San Juan - 182nd place

2010-06-03T13:10:00.011+01:00

By Wagz

Not the most astounding of positions but one I am reasonably chuffed with for my first Pro Tour. I want to write this article to give a taste of the Pro Tour to one who has not yet experienced it, so there will be less Tournament Report and more story if I get it right ;).

My trip started way back in January but began in earnest on Monday 24th. Matt Light had come up to stay the night before and we went over to Manchester to catch our plane to Puerto Rico. There was a long stop in Newark where we had to wait for several hours but it gave us a chance to walk about after the long flight and we met up with Manveer Samra and Stuart Wright at the gate. We chatted for a while about the format and had a bit of a laugh getting to know each other. After a while we got bored of the gate not being called and it not going up on the display so we went to check what was going on. Turns out they're a bit more `relaxed' about domestic flights and didn't bother to call it, so we had in fact missed our flight. After a bit of controlled panicking on my part we sorted out a hotel room for the night which was close-by and had a free taxi service. We were (unchargedly) put on the first flight the next morning and finally arrived at San Juan early on the Tuesday afternoon.

Matt and I went to our hotel, leaving the others to go back to theirs, and we shared a taxi with an American who had the intelligence to work out we were Magic players :). We met a different American in the hotel lobby who was there with his Mum and this guy ended up hanging out with us a lot as he didn't really know anyone else it seemed. Good for us as he was a nice guy and made our hotel room 4 people for playtesting. Our room-mate Mark Mc Govern was waiting for us at the hotel and we quickly made our acquaintances.

San Juan is beautiful in parts and slightly slummy in parts. The natural elements are truly wonderful and there are some very nice rustic-style buildings, but there is also a lot of more ghetto-style areas. I didn't feel unsafe anywhere except inside some of the taxis at night, but I did feel like I might have hurt myself on broken glass or something. Due to it being Tropical Storm Season we didn't venture too far into the countryside or anything as it accelerates from sunny to downpour in seconds a couple of times a day. Another thing - the sun was very warm but not stiflingly so. I don't enjoy the sun in England as I feel suffocated but in Puerto Rico it felt a lot more natural.

The rest of the Great Britain team were in a rented flat a short taxi ride away (and a long walk, we tried it). We had a bit of trouble getting to them on day 1 as there is little phone signal there and the person who had rented them the flat was not supposed to do so, leading the security guards to be hesitant to rush to our aid. Also staying in the same complex were Ben Rubin, Brian Kibler, Pat Chapin et. al., you will meet these people at the pro tour so don't be weird about it. The advantage to hanging out with so many people at once are twofold: 1) there is always something to do - football, draft, playtest, drink beer etc and 2) someone will have a deck you want to play. In our case it was Marco's UW Loldrazi control deck which peaked our interest. Mike Flores is currently advertising this as Dan Gardner's deck, lol.

We changed the sideboard a little bit after testing showed a few of their cards weren't quite up to scratch. They disagreed with our picks but at the end of the testing process it's just about personal preference anyway. Here's the list:

4 Eldrazi Temple

2 Eye of Ugin

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Sejiri Refuge

6 Island

1 Misty Rainforest

4 Plains

1 Tectonic Edge

2 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

4 Sea Gate Oracle

2 Sphinx of Lost Truths

2 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

4 Wall of Omens

4 All is Dust

1 Day of Judgment

4 Everflowing Chalice

1 Into the Roil

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Oust

2 See Beyond

Sideboard:
3 Felidar Sovereign

3 Narcolepsy

2 Domestication

2 Perimeter Captain

2 Tectonic Edge

3 Spell Pierce

The only real differences are that they have Spreading Seas over our Tectonic Edge and they have Gideon Jura. We like casting our All is Dusts so we didn't go in for these permanent-based spells because of the tension they cause. I would have played another Narcolepsy over one of the Perimeter Captains given another chance, but I was definitely happy with Spell Pierce over Cancel as it costs about 3000 less mana. This format really wants Negate :/.

We went to the venue the day before the Pro Tour for the Pro Players Party. This typically involves a buffet, some music, some drinks, a free t-shirt, a free draft set, and tables to play on. The food was nice and the view was beautiful. It was during this evening that I really reflected on how much of a good thing™ being On Tour is. If you manage to get there some day then I advise you enjoy the moment. Don't necessarily go out of your way to do things you don't want to do but have fun doing what you are doing and be happy that you are where you are.

On Day 1 we went to the venue to write up our decklists and join the player meeting. I had my deck all sleeved up and sorted the night before so it was just a case of writing it up, checking it and buying the last couple of cards from the dealers. I sat down for the player meeting (this is when all the players sit down before round 1 pairings are announced for the Head Judge to make a few announcements about what they expect from players etc) opposite Guillaume Wafo-Tapa but a quick look around confirmed that being next to somebody famous is pretty normal at this level of event.

Richard Hagon came by us on his usual Podcasting run and interviewed us both, asking if I would be up for the challenge of facing Wafo-Tapa round 1. I said no, since although I was pretty sure he was classic UW and our deck was good against that, Wafo-Tapa is good against everyone regardless. I go to find pairings for round 1 but somebody's head is covering my opponent's name. It's usually good form to check this to help make sure you're at the right table but I could see my name and table number so I just went with it. I sit down facing towards the timer and then Hall of Famer Rafael Levy comes and sits down opposite me.

Ouch.

Thankfully he was extremely friendly and chatty and I had a really good time playing him. We had very clear communication all through the game, confirming life totals a few times (we had a few discrepancies but I was always right :)) and I managed to get through a win via Felidar Sovereign beating down into his Monument Green guys. This was a great first match for me as I pulled out a win against a Hall of Famer and I really felt like I could actually compete at this level.

I won't bore you with a round-by-round report since this is not what I intended to write about, but to summarise: I lost to Robert Van Medevoort (Vampires), beat a random (UW), lost to Petr Brozek (Brozek Red obv), beat a random (UW) then in the draft beat Tomoharu Saitou (UBr control), lost to David Ochoa (Ur levellers) and finally lost to a random (RG tokens). The last match and the Vampires match were pretty unwinnable but I punted slightly against Ochoa (basically played for the second best line rather than the best line) and drew infi-lands against Brozek. I also kept a speculative anti-control hand against Vampires game 1 and mulled to 4 game 2, so I feel like I had a bunch of opportunities to make day 2 run away from me.

Day 2 I didn't want to play any real life events as my rating was qualifying me for Nats and I didn't want to ruin it. I joined the Magic Online Live Series Championship on a whim and got through the first round with a terrible WR control deck with only really Keening Stone and Mammoth Umbra on a flier to win the game, with Hedron-Field Purists, Lightmine Field and a bunch of removal spells to save me from dying. I had a Hellion Eruption if I clogged the board up but I was slightly creature-light and often sided it out (you can see me playing the matches in some of the feature coverage). In the Semi-Finals I drafted the nut-high UW levellers deck with Lucas Siow on my left drooling at the card quality. I then got flooded+screwed to go straight out of contention but it happens so I walked away calm. I also got a few Team Drafts in and watched people play in various side events.

On the Sunday (top 8 day) I did a survey and entered the Champion's Challenge twice to get myself a free draft set, got my picture taken with Ulamog, the Infinite Gayer and did a small judge questions thing to get myself a foil Broodmate Dragon before a few more Team Drafts. We cubed at the guys' flat that night and then prepared for coming home the next day.

So, I had a few unlucky moments but basically the Pro Tour is the most fun thing ever and I hope this gave people an insight into what goes on. Don't beat me in the next PTQ, because I want to go again :)

Drafting with Team Leeds: Rise of the Eldrazi

2010-05-14T15:42:00.004+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all, this weekend I got 7 of my good local friends together for a draft with some boosters I have of the latest set. While I won't provide an in-depth tournament report, I will give you the decklists and the results for you to draw your own conclusions from:

Results:
1) Rob Wagner
2) Rob Catton
3) Andy Devine
4) Chris Vincent
5) Jim Marlow
6) Rick Meeson
7) Mick Edwards
8) Robertas Aluzas

Match Results:

Round 1:
Rob W 2-0 Robbie
Chris 2-1 Mick
Rob C 2-1 Jim
Rick 0-2 Andy

Round 2:
Rob W 2-0 Andy
Chris 1-2 Rob C
Robbie 1-2 Rick
Mick 1-2 Jim

Round 3:
Rob W 2-0 Rob C
Chris 2-1 Rick
Jim 1-2 Andy
Mick 2-0 Robbie

Decklists (not including basic lands):

Rob Wagner:
1 Zulaport Enforcer

2 Goblin Tunneler

2 Kiln Fiend

1 Tuktuk the Explorer

1 Gloomhunter

1 Battle-Rattle Shaman

2 Escaped Null

1 Zof Shade

1 Valakut Fireboar

1 Sarkhan the Mad

1 Devastating Summons

2 Vendetta

1 Virulent Swipe

2 Last Kiss

2 Surreal Memoir

1 World at War

1 Heat Ray

Rob Catton:
1 Overgrown Battlement

1 Mul Daya Channelers

1 Aura Gnarlid

1 Rage Nimbus

1 Sporecap Spider

2 Vent Sentinel

1 Ondu Giant

2 Kozilek's Predator

1 Wildheart Invoker

1 Ulamog's Crusher

1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

1 Flame Slash

2 Ancient Stirrings

1 Ogre's Cleaver

1 Warmonger's Chariot

1 Growth Spasm

1 Snake Umbra

1 Bear Umbra

1 Heat Ray

2 Eldrazi Temple

Andy Devine:
1 Enclave Cryptologist

2 Skywatcher Adept

1 Caravan Escort

1 Kor Line-Slinger

1 Ikaral Outrider

1 Knight of Cliffhaven

3 Halimar Wavewatch

1 Hada Spy Patrol

1 Dawnglare Invoker

1 Venerated Teacher

1 Hedron-Field Purists

1 Makindi Griffin

1 Kabira Vindicator

1 Ulamog's Crusher

1 Smite

1 Guard Duty

2 Hyena Umbra

1 Deprive

1 Time of Need

1 Drake Umbra

1 Evolving Wilds

Chris Vincent:
1 Renegade Doppelganger

1 Overgrown Battlement

3 Sea Gate Oracle

1 Phantasmal Abomination

1 Wildheart Invoker

1 Merfolk Seascout

2 Kozilek's Predator

1 Nema Siltlurker

1 Artisan of Kozilek

1 Gelatinous Genesis

1 Might of the Masses

1 Naturalize

1 See Beyond

2 Narcolepsy

1 Regress

1 Awakening Zone

1 Drake Umbra

2 Dreamstone Hedron

Jim Marlow:
3 Zulaport Enforcer

1 Null Champion

1 Bloodrite Invoker

1 Lavafume Invoker

1 Lagac Lizard

1 Zof Shade

3 Battle-Rattle Shaman

1 Valakut Fireboar

2 Emrakul's Hatcher

1 Pestilence Demon

1 Hand of Emrakul

3 Last Kiss

2 Wrap in Flames

1 Heat Ray

Rick Meeson:
1 Joraga Treespeaker

2 Soul's Attendant

2 Stalwart Shield-Bearers

2 Nest Invaders

1 Ikaral Outridre

1 Umbra Mystic

2 Aura Gnarlid

1 Kabira Vindicator

1 Pelakka Wurm

1 Prey's Vengeance

1 Demystify

1 Hyena Umbra

1 Naturalize

2 Eland Umbra

1 Boar Umbra

1 Gravity Well

2 Repel the Darkness

Mick Edwards:
1 Null Champion

1 Runed Servitor

2 Bloodthrone Vampire

1 Gloomhunter

1 Arrogant Bloodlord

4 Cadaver Imp

2 Bloodrite Invoker

1 Soulsurge Elemental

1 Bala Ged Scorpion

1 Virulent Swipe

2 Staggershock

1 Last Kiss

1 Surreal Memoir

2 Consume the Meek

1 Corpsehatch

1 Eldrazi Conscription

Robertas Aluzas:
2 Skywatcher Adept

1 Enclave Cryptologist

2 Champion's Drake

2 Halimar Wavewatch

1 Nirkana Cutthroat

1 Sea Gate Oracle

1 Guard Gomazoa

2 Venerated Teacher

1 Merfolk Skyscout

1 Crab Umbra

1 Emerge Unscathed

1 Distortion Strike

1 Ogre's Cleaver

1 See Beyond

1 Puncturing Light

1 Eel Umbra

1 Narcolepsy

1 Survival Cache

1 Reality Spasm

Prerelease Report - Rise of the Eldrazi Online Prerelease

2010-05-08T00:11:00.007+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all! We're going to try something a little different this week - for the first time on the Team Leeds Blog we have videos. You'll have to excuse the quality as this is an experiment using screen capture software. Firstly, here is my pool:

and the deck I made from it:

8 Island
2 Mountain
7 Forest
1 Forked Bolt
1 Skywatcher Adept
1 See Beyond
1 Deprive
1 Narcolepsy
1 Bramblesnap
1 Halimar Wavewatch
1 Nest Invader
1 Growth Spasm
1 Snake Umbra
1 Aura Gnarlid
1 Guard Gomazoa
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Sporecap Spider
1 Kozilek's Predator
1 Merfolk Skyscout
1 Ondu Giant
2 Drake Umbra
1 Broodwarden
1 Frostwind Invoker
1 Stomper Cub
1 Heat Ray

The deck seems okay, a bit of removal, bit of card advantage, couple of bombs (Drake Umbra). Basically I wanted to play cards which I would be happy to draw at any time and would give me options against a lot of decks. Here's how I fared:
(n.b. videos are of replays due to wishing to save on file size and also I don't have a microphone FML - enjoy!)

or external links:

Match 1 Game 1
Match 1 Game 2
Match 1 Game 3

Match 2 Game 1
Match 2 Game 2
Match 2 Game 3

Match 3 Game 1 - Modo did not give me the replay for this one, presumably because (on the play) I went turn 3 Growth Spasm, turn 4 Kozilek's Predator, turn 5 Drake Umbra, turn 6 Snake Umbra and Heat Ray his Nirkana Revenant which got a scoop. 1 Massive guy is obviously good enough.
Match 3 Game 2
Match 3 Game 3

Match 4 Game 1
Match 4 Game 2
Match 4 Game 3

I made a few punts in the last match and one on match 2 game 2 turn 3 which worked out okay but overall I think I played pretty tightly and had a good deck. Bramblesnap is an obvious winner but basically it seems like if you keep up the aggression and get every point of damage in it should be okay. Who needs massive Eldrazi anyway? Any comments are welcome below, thanks for watching :D

p.s. no spoilers about match results, but comments on plays are extremely welcome.

Player of the Year Race Update 04/05/10

2010-05-04T12:07:00.003+01:00

By Wagz

Hi all, it's been a long while since the last one but the blog is on a slow period so it seems like a perfect time for a player of the year race update!

35 points - Andy Devine
33 points - Andy Edwards
31 points - Mick Edwards
28 points - Rob Catton and John Ingham
23 points - Andy Bodle
22 points - Steve Tyson and Chris Vincent
21 points - Rob Wagner
19 points - Mark Hammond

Hotting up towards the top of the tables but Andy Edwards has gone away for at least a month, Andy Devine says he probably doesn't want to draft Rise, Mick leaves Uni for the summer and I'm in the middle of a period of not playing to protect my rating (1 more month of abstinence). With that kind of overhaul is there room for someone to sneak in the Leed (sic)? Rob Catton has been making good moves in recent months and Steve Tyson had a good month getting some Bloodbraid Elves.

The race finishes with Nationals, so still plenty of time to get in. Not quite sure what to do with the results - top 8 draft perhaps? We'll see nearer the time.