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 :).
Showing posts with label Rob Wagner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rob Wagner. Show all posts
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
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:
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).
Saturday, 24 September 2011
University Prerelease Report - Innistrad
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!
Friday, 23 September 2011
Team Leeds is Recruiting!
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
Monday, 13 December 2010
Worlds Extended metagame analysis
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?
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?
Sunday, 5 December 2010
Top 8 Drafting - 2 Scars of Mirrodin PTQs
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.
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.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Deckbuilding Challenge - PTQ Manchester *9th*
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:
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:
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Drafting with Wagz #8 - Beating Poison
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.
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.
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