Team Leeds Magic

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

Playing to your (meta) Strengths

By Norman Ralph

Week 2 of my FNM Hero series was a roller coaster ride. I again ended up going 2-2 but this time without the help of a bye and yet still managing to come fourth in the Swiss, meaning I made my first ever FNM Hero profit!

My sideboard is still causing me headaches and removal heavy decks are still trouncing me in every match up, but against mid range and aggressive decks that are light on removal I have the edge pre-board and on the play, so winning 2-1 is my usual course.

One of the biggest lessons I have learnt so far in FNM Hero is that I really should have considered the local meta when deciding on my deck. My main deck Pillar of Flames are the cards I take out most often, along with my Guttersnipes. Pillar comes out as we have a Voice of Resurgence light meta (although Strangleroot Geist appears in a couple of local decks) and getting red on turn 1 to kill the mana elves is awkward the majority of the time. Making the decision between turn 1/2 Pillar of Flame and Thought Scour/Izzet Charm/Faithless Looting is also a really tough one against a lot of match ups. I wonder whether this would be better as an Unsummon or similar. or even a set of Mizzium Skin across the main deck and board. I am always disappointed to draw a Guttersnipe as I feel that if the game goes long enough where the damage from Guttersnipe is relevant, then I have already lost. In an ideal world, I would swap these out for Geists of Saint Traft, but seeing as I have £20 to play with, I doubt that I could manage that, even if I got super lucky on eBay. The other priority is the mana base. The Guildgates are great and help fix the mana better than basic lands, but after turns 1 or 2 I usually prefer to throw them away to a Faithless Looting than a basic. Ensuring a more stable access to white to allow me to play cards like Nevermore or Blind Obedience is something that I am considering too.

R1: UG Tempo, won 2-0
R2: Jund, lost 2-0
R3: Bulletproof Eggs, lost 2-1
R4: RG Aggro, won 2-0

Round 1
I was playing a brand new player and it was barely a contest. In game 1, I won with Young Pyromancer and Elemental Token beat down. Game 2 saw me combo off turn 5. In neither game did my opponent play a threat.

Round 2
This was the match up I had been fearing since I picked this deck. The combination of efficient threats and excellent removal package is tough for me to fight through. In game 1 I was in with a shout, despite multiple Huntsmasters of the Fells, until he found a Mizzium Mortars with enough red up to overload it. I had the combo in hand to win the next turn. With a flipped Huntmaster on the table and no bodies in my hand I scooped in my draw step on hitting a blank and being dead on board. Game 2 was not as close, my opponent kept the nut draw for Jund and won at a canter.

Round 3
This was a match up that I wasn't expecting in our local meta, but the Bulletproof Eggs deck should be a good match up for me as I actually benefit from having Electrickery in the sideboard and being a turn faster to win. This was borne out in game 1 where I won the race comfortably. After sideboarding in Electrickery's and Wear // Tear I was confidant of game 2. I was even more confidant when my opponent then mulliganed to 5 on the play. Unfortunately, the 5 he kept was 3 land, hexproof 1 drop and Unflinching Courage. The lifegain was just too much for me to race and I drew my Electrickery turn 3, a whole turn too late. Game 3 was just a horrible draw for me and I lost the race after flooding out.

Round 4
My favourite match up, RG Aggro. I won quite comfortably in 2 games after my opponent kept a 1 lander in his 6 cards after a mulligan in game 1 and then he drew no red mana in game 2.

Cost to enter: £3.50
Prizes: £5.00

Friday, 9 August 2013

Sunday, 28 July 2013

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Having made my call to arms last month, FNM Hero Team Leeds style is starting to warm up. M14 has been released bringing with it the official start date for my challenge. From release day onwards, any Planeswalker Points I earn will be with my FNM Hero deck.

Talking of decks, the Event Deck for M14 has now been spoiled. In terms of cards per pound Event Decks are almost certainly the best way to go but, as with a lot of the recent Event Decks, I have been left unimpressed with the offering. Whilst there are some good cards in the deck, I feel that they could have been stronger. My thoughts on Event Decks for the last few sets have focussed on why Wizards keep producing decks that are OK but are missing some glaringly obvious cards. I want an Event Deck to be a strong deck out of the box whilst being open to improvement. I understand that Wizards won't just package up a fully powered Jund deck or similar and I would not want them to. I appreciate a budget deck that works without the more powerful additions. I would love them to make a R/G deck that plays well against the big boys straight out of the box, not because it is stuffed fall of bombs and mythics but because it is built with synergy and fluidity in mind.

Having said all of that, I am quite tempted to start off with this Event Deck mainly due to the fact that all of cards are going to be Standard legal for the whole of the coming year which means that I can focus my initial budget and any winnings on replacing cards with better options rather than having to replace cards once they rotate out. The other option is to build an Izzet aggro deck built around Young Pyromancer, Nivix Cyclops and Guttersnipe. This has the benefit of fitting my play style better as well as being relatively cheap to build. It does, however, rely on some cards that will rotate out of Standard in September.

I have created my tracking documents for people to follow my card pool and budget. You can them on my Google Drive.

As we are now fully underway on FNM Hero I will be bringing you updates on a weekly basis from now on, so get this added to your feed reader, or favourite the site, and keep up with the fun and frolics of the next 12 months.

Comments are always welcome.

Thursday, 18 July 2013

Team Leeds Challenge: Pauper!

I love commons.

The meat and potatoes of any deck, these unsung heroes are the glue that hold the pile of expensive rares together to produce the top level decks.

Where would standard be without Farseek? Legacy without Brainstorm?

I'm on a mission to encourage more people to take up this much neglected format in paper. I have built a pauper cube to help spread the virtues of pauper as an accessible format for all.

More recently there has been a push to make standard pauper a thing, providing the perfect place for a new player to start. Low investment, lots of fun.

So what is pauper?

It is a format of decks made from only commons. In standard pauper this includes the last two blocks (taken today that is Return to Ravnica and Innistrad) as well as current standard legal core sets (At present M13 and M14).

Classic pauper is more like legacy; any card printed at common in the history of magic (apart from Cranial Plating) is legal.

So why play pauper?

1. It’s cheap: 75 commons isn’t going to put you back a lot. Hang around after a draft and you will more than likely be able to pick these cards up for free.

2. It’s the perfect place for new players to get to grips with tournament magic play due to its accessibility and generally less complex nature (although there is plenty of scope for combo).

3. Ample of scope for creativity, without compromising on quality. All deck types can be played using the available card pool.

If you are interested drop me an email @ MangaraLock@gmail.com.

The pauper cube will launch August 11^th. Hope to see you at Patriot Games Leeds. Currently 7 seats remaining.

Friday, 5 July 2013

[FNM Hero] Lets see how this will evolve….

Too late to back down now! I’ve committed. My deck is pre-ordered through Patriot Games Leeds and awaiting my pickup. I also brought a deck box, and theoretically brought sleeves (I have plenty in a box at home but I‘ll take them from the budget).

Starting budget: £75

Spent:

4 x Bred for the Hunt (Bred for the Hunt) = £2.00
4 x Hands of Binding (Hands of Binding) = £0.80
4 x Spell Rupture (Spell Rupture) = £0.80
4 x Simic Charm (Simic Charm) = £2.00
4 x Rapid Hybridization (Rapid Hybridization) = £2.00
4 x Elusive Krasis (Elusive Krasis) = £2.00
1 x Ultra Pro Deck Box: Gatecrash -Simic Zameck Guildmage (simic deckbox
#86040) = £2.00
4 x Young Wolf (Young Wolf) = £0.80
4 x Strangleroot Geist (Strangleroot Geist) = £4.00
4 x Zameck Guildmage (Zameck Guildmage) = £2.00
4 x Cloudfin Raptor (Cloudfin Raptor) = £0.80
4 x Experiment One (Experiment One) = £4.00
100x Ultra-Pro sleeves, Black = £3.50

Total = £26.70

Remaining = £48.30

So I’ve got a deck, a box, sleeves and a plan. Obvious improvements to this deck are:

1: The manabase: a set of shocks wouldn't go amiss.

2: Some better sideboard options apart from Island and Forest.

3. M14 bringing me Scavenging Ooze.

Proposed Deck List

Creature (24)
4x Cloudfin Raptor
4x Elusive Krasis
4x Experiment One
4x Strangleroot Geist
4x Young Wolf
4x Zameck Guildmage

Land (23)
10x Forest
9x Island
4x Simic Guildgate

Instant (8)
2x Rapid Hybridization
4x Simic Charm
2x Spell Rupture

Sorcery (2)
2x Hands of Binding

Enchantment (3)
3x Bred for the Hunt

Sideboard:

2 Rapid Hybridization
2 Spell Rupture
2 Hands of Binding
1 Sanctuary Cat (Foil!)
1 Bred for the Hunt
6 Island

Next installment I’ll talk about my card choices, interactions and plan. Maybe I’ll get some play testing in soon to see how much of an abomination my creation is! If anything it will be fun! Thanks for your time! @MagicMander

Saturday, 22 June 2013

FNM Hero: The Pledge

Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I’ve been away from the game for about 9 months. In this time I’ve drifted away from the game a little, my attentions drawn by other game systems, my time eaten up by adult life.

But things are about to change. I have a new job. I will be able to attend FNM from now until eternity. No more shift work!

So what better way to return than as a new player would, by picking up an event deck and trying to mould it into something to suit my playing style and using its success to improve it piece by piece. I only ventured briefly into standard in the past, and so this is uncharted territory for me.

If anyone knows me well, they know I like the underdog. I also like working on restricted card pools, and I like to try to play on a budget.

By the magic player classification I am very much a Jonny, I am forever being told my card choices are sub-optimal. In a world of Spikes it is hard to keep that creative edge, as success at any cost seems the mantra of Friday nights.

I thrive on playing janky homebrews, from Séance Self Mill to Kangee EDH, I like to push uderused and undervalued cards to the maximum. Despite knowing this is not the best course of action, nothing can beat that feeling when your rogue brew pulls a win from nowhere and a card becomes a personal cult icon!

I'm not claiming I'll be successful in this venture, but I'm pledging my commitment to join the challenge proposed by Norman Ralph. I know I'll have a heck of fun regardless of my standings, and look forward to my deck becoming a loyal companion in my quest for FNM glory!

I plan to document my adventures here, and you can also follow me on twitter, @MagicMander

FNM Hero

By Norman Ralph

Can you remember being a new player? It was only eighteen months ago that I was sitting down at my very first draft at my first FNM as a registered player. I had played at the pre-release for Innistrad the week before with some friends for my first taste of magic in several years and the experience got me hooked.

The thrill of building that sealed pool and then drafting the set the week after was a great feeling. However, the real excitement for me came when I had to put my first standard deck together, an horrific mono blue mill deck that went 1-3. Building a deck after playing magic for two weeks with cards pulled from a pre-release and a draft, plus a handful of boosters I'd picked up was a challenge that I relished at the time and was the sticking point (that moment when your allegiance to a hobby goes from passing interest to a full on commitment). Winning the match, even though it was effectively a dead rubber, was such a high that I wanted to do it again and again. Unfortunately, it took a while to replicate that success in standard but it did come and the lessons I learnt from that early period in my Magic career have shaped it ever since.

After speaking to some fellow members of Team Leeds, and having read the brilliant series on SCG by Adam Prosak by the same name, I decided to try and recreate that new player feeling by issuing a challenge.

Can you become an FNM Hero?

The goal is simple. Relive that first year of your Magic life by starting again from nothing. This is Team Leeds, and as we are a competitive bunch at heart, there will be a twist. With a small budget to buy cards, accessories and entry fees, aim to cover the cost of your FNM's for a year with the aim of getting enough Planeswalker Points off the back of those FNM's (and any other tournaments you enter using the FNM Hero budget) to qualify for a place on next year's WMCQs.

As I have set the challenge, it is only right and proper that I partake, so you can read my exploits over a series of articles over the coming weeks and months. I will maintain a public card pool and list of transactions so you can see how I am doing, along with a variety of tournament reports and other odds and ends.

If you are up for the challenge, or have any thoughts on the series, then leave a comment here, or contact me on Facebook or Twitter and let me know what you think.

The Rules

1. Starting Budget

The initial capital for this challenge will be £75. This means you will have a maximum starting budget for the year of £75 with which to buy all cards, product, accessories etc. as well as cover any entry fees to FNM or other tournaments. You may not add any additional funds of your own to this budget, but you may add any prize-money or store credit you win through playing in the challenge to it.

2. Card Pool

Any cards you buy, product you open or prize support you receive will be added to your card pool for the challenge. This card pool is the only source of cards you may use for building decks, trading or selling. You may not use personal collections nor may you borrow cards from other players or receive free cards as gifts. You may add to this pool through trading and buying cards from either vendors or other players by following the Trading/Buying rules below.

3. Trading (inc. Buying/Selling)

You may buy or sell cards to vendors without restriction, except that any cards you sell to a vendor must have been played in a minimum of two tournaments within the challenge (this does not apply to door prizes, promo cards or tokens that are opened/awarded).

You may trade to and from other players using a recognised website for valuation (e.g. SCG, Patriot Games etc.). Again, any cards you trade away must have seen play in at least two tournaments and, again, this won't apply to promos etc.

When buying or selling to players then this must be done at market value. Buying must be done at retail buy prices (eBay completed listing prices for example) and selling must be done at Buy List prices (e.g. SCG, Patriot Games etc.).

Monday, 15 October 2012

Quest for the Golden Parmo: Part 2

By Chris Mander

Now onto the sideboard, a difficult decision when new to the format. I had a pile of roughly 30 possible cards to narrow down, a difficult task with a somewhat unknown meta and a lack of knowledge of the format. After lengthy questioning of my much more knowledgeable teammates I narrowed it down to this:

1 Sword of Light and Shadow: Protection from Swords to Plowshares, this was mainly to bring in vs creature matchup’s like Maverick, or to give my creatures protection from Dispatch.

1 Leonin Bola: It doesn’t look like much, a card that was pretty good in limited, but not really made an impact elsewhere, but as I learnt a couple of weeks previous against Hypergenesis, this card can do some serious work against all in type strategies.

2 Tormod’s Crypt: I’ll be honest, these are a no brainer in most sideboards, abuse of the graveyard is prevalent in Legacy, even if I didn’t really know when I should be siding them in.

3 Ethersworn Cannonist: Insurance vs combo, slows down swarm type decks, doesn’t die to dread of night (That card, as I was soon to learn, is just horrible for me.)

3 Jotun Grunt: Dodges lightning bolt, shrinks Goyf, removes Snapcaster targets and can get in the red zone.

2 Judge’s Familiar: Slows combo, stacks with Thalia, and can do a pretty good job as a sword carrier.

1 Leyline of Sanctity: I knew combo and Burn were present at the tournament, if I’d have owned 2 I’d have put 2 in.

1 Fiend Hunter: Gets stuff out the way, fairly good on the defence, and can do fun things with a Flickerwisp

1 Phyrexian Revoker: See part 1, so many uses.

I was fairly happy with the board, although I think I’d like to try a tutor board, but not having time to obtain the narrow hate cards I’d have liked, I went with what I had, and into round 1, and mono red burn.

Round 1: Burn

G1: Ouch, my lifepad tells the tale of this game, the numbers dropping faster than Felix Baumgartner, I was dead before I could make any sort of impact. Creatures ate shocks, and despite managing Mangara taking a mountain into exile nothing could stop the lava spike to the face.

Out went Mangara, too slow for this one I feel, in came Leyline of Sanctity, and 2 Judge’s Familiar.

G2 :Mulligan for 1 card is not a thing (Trademark, Alex Gershaw), but somehow I managed it. I hit the Leyline on my second mulligan, and forced my way through the burn with a Flickerwisp with Jitte and a Batterskull.

I brought in 3 Jotun Grunts, as they seemed able to dodge most removal.

G3: This was extremely close, a grindy game with the burn dropping me to 1, before I managed to hardcast Leyline (yes, I know, very lucky to draw into it). Smash to Smithereens was a thorn in my side, but managed to keep a Jitte for an attack and saved myself with its lifegain ability. Drawing 3 Jotun Grunts in a row got me there, smashing their way in.

(2-1)

Round 2: RUG Delver

G1: Muligan to 5, and I never really got going, his Wasteland on my Karakas turn 2, followed up by a Force of Will on my Aether vial left me in a pretty deep hole. Delver beatdown followed, and I scooped holding nothing of note.

Game 1 was so fast my opponent didn’t know what I was playing. In came the Jotun Grunts and Judges Familiar, I can’t quite recall what got evicted.

G2: I always felt like I was behind in this game, pretty soon I was staring down 2 Goyf’s, a Mongoose with threshold and a flipped delver, with my board being 3 Mother of Runes. A timely stifle on my Wasteland, and a Fire on 2 of my pro green mother of runes finished me off. Very much outplayed.

(0-2)

Round 3: W/B Stoneblade

G1: My opponent began to destroy my hand, but had no answer for 2 Serra Avenger’s dropped in 2 turns. When the Sword of Fire and Ice hit the table there was nothing a few lingering souls could do against the angelic onslaught.

G2: The reverse of game 1, my opponent dropped Dark Confident, Stoneforge Mystic and fetched up a Jitte, I had no answer for the beatdown, dying quickly with very little on the table, and no damage done to my opponent.

G3: Here my notes get sketchy, I must have been a bit engrossed in the action to take any, but if I recall rightly this game involved an early Revoker naming Liliana (It was in his hand), followed by a Serra Avenger carrying a Sword of Fire and Ice. My opponent didn’t recover, and the Sword trigger brought the game home.

(2-1)

Round 4: Show and Reanimate?

G1: I mull to 5, and drop a Revoker, naming Griselbrand, this quickly met a reanimated Angel of Despair, killing my revoker. The next line reads Iona, so I guess you can all see how this game went from here, unable to cast most of my deck isn’t really a good position to be in.

G2: I dropped a few weenies, including a Stoneforge Mystic, which fetched my trump card in this match, the Leonin Bola. I managed to keep a Griselbrand tapped down, and began the beats with a Flickerwisp, the game ending pretty soon after that.

G3: A non-event really, my opponent had to drop to 5 cards, and didn’t draw any gas, the game was quickly over with my fliers beating in.

(2-1)

So I’d made it into a top 8 cut, finishing 3^rd out of 18, to be honest I was not expecting to get near the top 8, but my luck seemed to be holding. My next game was against affinity, a matchup recently a final at SCG, and one Tezzeret won, thanks to the Dread of Night. My notes here become sketchier, and so these parts might be a bit brief.

Quarter Final: Affinity

G1: This game revolved around a Revoker naming Cranial Plating, a card of which my opponent held 2 in hand. I was staring down 3 Etched Champions, but a Flickerwisp saved the day carrying the Sword of Fire and Ice, burning away the defences, and smacking Tezzeret around on its path to victory.

G2: T1 Dread of Night by my opponent is pretty much an auto scoop when my hand is lands, Flickerwisp, and a Mother of Runes.

G3: Inkmoth Nexus with a Cranial Plating is a scary sight, and my error of forgetting it could be equipped at instant speed led me to take 7 poison damage pretty quickly. My board of Flickerwisp and two Avengers just got me there; the angels’ last act was to throw themselves in the path of the Nexus, allowing the Flickerwisp to end the game.

(2-1)

Semi Final: Storm

I’ll be honest here, I had no idea what I was doing in this match, and won game 1 through a play error by my opponent, who didn’t account for his mana correctly. Game 2 and three he stormed off, tendrils corrupting me, and removing me from the tournament.

Conclusion

Death and taxes is a legitimate deck, with a decent chance against most decks. I feel it’s a deck which improves with the pilot, and I’m sure I will get better as my knowledge of the format becomes broader. I wish I managed to dodge the storm deck until the final, as I fancied myself vs Maverick, a much more favourable matchup for my deck. I was often too quick to become the aggressor, something I’ll work on as this deck does well going long.

My card of the day was the Leonin Bola, it really did some work and I like its versatility, now all I need it wizards to print more utility equipment! I think I will probably change to a tutor board next tournament, and play 2 Judge Familiars main deck at the expense of a revoker or two. The card seems well placed at the moment.

It was nice to have the Team Leeds lads together, and a feeling of community is growing again. We all had a fantastic time with the Boro’ lads and the meal following the tournament was worth the trip alone, the Golden Parmo attained. If you are interested in joining the format, or just want to know more feel free to email me at MangaraLock@gmail.com.

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Quest for the Golden Parmo: Part 1: Deck Overview

By Chris Mander

This Saturday I attended my first big Legacy tournament, at Meta Games, Middlesborough. We traveled up in my little Corsa with Dan, James, Lawrence and Alex. Much magic was discussed, sideboards were dissected, and rules questions solved. A brief stop over in a café led to our deck lists being confirmed, and we set off to find the shop. Arriving an hour and a half early we were confident we were only 5 minutes away, and the sat-nav indicated it wasn’t far. We didn’t account on the sat nav leading us into Fallout 3’s wasteland, but luckily a quick phone call to Wizbit saved us from the deathclaw assault.

The shop itself is a good venue, with several tables, lots of room, friendly staff and a hi-tech TV method of showing the matchups, which avoids the crush around the piece of paper nicely. Attempting to register we were unable to find my DCI number, (For some reason I have no country, and I can’t seem to fix it) so a new DCI number later I sat down for my first match.

Now, a little bit of history of me as a player, I am a recent convert to legacy, mainly due to watching some truly awesome games in Patriot Games Leeds and discussions with James. I am at heart a mono-white man, and I was recommended Death and Taxes by James, after proxying it up vs. Dan at the team Harrogate meet I knew it was the deck for me.

The Decklist + Rationale

The Creatues:

4x Thalia,Guardian of Thraben

3x Phyrexian Revoker

3x Mangara of Corondor

4x Mother of Runes

4x Flickerwisp

4x Stoneforge Mystic

4x Serra Avenger

The Instants:

4x Swords to Plowshares

The Artifacts:

4x Aether Vial

1x Umezawa’s Jitte

1x Sword of Fire and Ice

1x Batterskull

The Lands

4x Wasteland

3x Rishadan Port

1x Kor Haven

4x Karakas

11x Plains

Thalia: She is such a beast in many match ups she slows combo, she carries equipment like a boss, and she has a few fun interactions with Karakas and damage.

Phyrexian Revoker: Can really hurt any strategy, the uses for this guy are so vast I’ll not go too deep. He stops Jace and the likes, can turn off equipment, and can even attack fairly well and block Etched Champions.

Mangara of Corondor: If the game goes long this is the main way to win, with it and karakas you have a reusable permanent exile effect, and if you also have an Aether Vial on 3, you’re in a real good spot.

Mother of Runes: Negates removal, blocks anything on the ground all day long, and is generally a real menace for decks looking to get rid of her. If she gets to untap she’s lived too long.

Flickerwisp: Much like Revoker, this card has several interactions, from flipping a delver back over, acting as a Karakas for Mangara, and many more uses. Also carries equipment really well.

Stoneforge Mystic: Quite bonkers as a card, its ability to drop a Batterskull on turn 3 for 1W is just broken. Also important in some matchups in fetching the utility equipment that can turn the tide against some decks.

Serra Avenger: A dumb beater, but probably one of the best, a 3/3 vigilance flier, for WW, with a drawback negated by a vial on 2. If you get a sword on this its probably already over.

Swords to Plowshares: W, get rid of almost anything. Yes please.

Aether Vial: The deck is creature heavy, the vial helps you use your lands for other uses (Mana denial through ports is common) and it helps you drop your creatures in relative safety.

Umezewa’s Jitte: Trademark Dan Hiscutt: it’s a Plainswalker on a sword. So versatile, some nifty tricks with first strike, and colourless removal. This sword is just silly.

Sword of Fire and Ice: Protection from red is very useful in the land of lightning bolts, pro blue means your creatures can smash through delver, and you get to draw a card and shock a creature (or player) . Unreal.

Batterskull: A ridiculous threat with a Stoneforge Mystic active and a very good flicker wisp target, if you’re looking to beat down, or stabilize with life gain, this is your card.

Rishadan Port: Keeping a player off a colour can be the difference between a win and a loss, unfortunately this requires you to know the format, and being fairly new I tend to miss opportunities for this card. Will get more and more useful the more I play I’m sure.

Karakas: Bounces legends, both offensive in the Mangara interaction, and defensive in the Show and Tell matchup.

Kor Haven - It was meant to be a fourth Rishadan Port, but mine were in the post. Seemed a good white utility land, and could save me

Wasteland: Furthers the mana denial strategy, as mentioned above, keeping a player off a colour can win you the game.

So we have come to the end of part one. You've met the deck and I've explained the cards. The deck itself can be played as a control deck, looking to go long to ensure the Mangara Lock, through mana denial, taxing and timely use of removal. Some matchups you need to be the aggressor, dropping threats, and getting in the red zone. It’s a deck with many interactions, and a bit of an all rounder. Its favorable matchups are against other creature decks, and its weakness is a lack of speed, especially against combo. As I learn to play the deck my main issue is my lack of patience, sometimes my desire to win can lead to mistakes, return for part 2 to see if it gets the better of me!

Wednesday, 4 January 2012

The Command Tower - Tales from the Drawing Board

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.

Sunday, 18 December 2011

UK Modern PTQ Schedule 2012

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.

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

Team Leeds Drafting #3 - Cube with Wagz and Catton

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 :).

Thursday, 3 November 2011

Team Leeds Drafting #2 - Inn with Wagz

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:

Saturday, 15 October 2011

Controlling Red inn Standard - One Game

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).

Monday, 3 October 2011

Dwarven Trader – Investing In Innistrad

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!