[Ramble] Long time no see

Hey! Long time no see! I haven’t really been around much lately and that’s all my fault. I’ve let myself get caught up in struggling to accomplish and I’ve lost sight on getting anything done at all. So I’m going to try and get back to putting up a column once a week–it might not be on the same day, but I need to rebuild my habits.

Also, I want to get back to arting. Part of my process used to be sketching, doing something else creative while I’m stuck on a draft and since I’ve let that slide, my ability to write has dropped quite a bit. I just keep getting stuck and then frustrated and then not sitting at the computer typing lest I snap my keyboard in half. Which, of course, means getting over that my style is abhorrent. I mean yeah, this torso is really long, the legs are laughable, and the eyes are kind of “off”, but I did this in three hours from sketch to CG and I need to realize that’s something of an achievement. Sure I can hardly draw anything else, but the basics are there if I can ever get over being the suck.

Anyway, watching #PTDGM so I’m around. Prolly going to sketch some more and put it up on my tumblr while I try to resolve plot holes in the Curse rewrite.

’til next time!

 

[Magic Mondays] Return of the Split

Spoiler season for Dragon’s Maze started last night and among the first things WoTC dropped was this baby:

Needless to say, I am stoked. I loved the split cards first reprinting in Dissention and then the craziness that was Planar Chaos and this new iteration feels like an evolution of a Magic mainstay since Invasion. Granted Fire//Ice and Boom//Bust are probably the only two splits that see any regular play at Comp Rel, but there’s plenty of them that have pretty solid uses–and I’m betting this one will be seeing serious play:

Why?

See, there was this card in Champions of Kamigawa called Glimpse of Nature. For those not familiar, it was a sorcery for G that had rules text to the effect of whenever you cast a creature for the rest of the turn, you draw a card. Sadly, it was banned almost immediately when Modern was first formed because of decks like this one played by LSV in the community cup just before WoTC replaced Extended with Modern. The the main concept was build into an Elf-powered ball of mana and then hardcast Emrakul. It could do this on turn 2. Turn 2.

Beck is cut from the same cloth. The extra mana cost makes it a bit harder to combo off on turn two with, but it works with ETBs and not on cast. Which makes me wonder if RUG Twin will make a come back over Raka (WUR)–I know I’m certainly going to give it a try–I can definitely see Combo Elves trying to make a come back in Modern with it.

Beyond that, the rest of last night’s spoilers were pretty much around were I expected. Ral’s a solid walker with some neat abilities that are 110% Izzet. Malek is going to be one heck of an EDH general. I am surprised Resto’s ability is staying in standard, albeit at a lower power level.

Can’t wait for tonight to see what new goodies get spoiled. We have 8 guild champions left and who knows what else waiting to see the light of day.

’til next time!~

 

[Magic Mondays] Dega Midrange

Last week I mentioned a Dega build–that wasn’t The Aristocrats–that was putting up results on MODO. I can say after some testing that this fact isn’t a fluke. The deck has answers for days and having Rites as a means to extend the usefulness of your fatties places the deck in a position that allows it to take on all comers.

Testing

Prime Speaker Bant 

Did a couple test hands against Renee’s build for PS Bant. Of course since it was the first hand since either of us put the deck together, game one was going to go to whomever was less mana screwed–which ended up being Renee. Game two was a similar affair, only I won the land screw draw. Game three through, game three showed off. I started with a Faithless looting that put both Unburial Rites in the graveyard. Renee dropped a Smiter  and proceeded to beat down. Lingering souls held the line for a few turns until she got an Angel of Serenity online. A timely ultimate price into Olivia Voldaren seemed like it was going to stabilize me, but a Zaganna ETB got Renee ahead. I stole Zaganna and then I swung…right into an Azorius Charm. Renee got her Zaganna back and killed me.

I realize I lost because of misplay. I should have have activated Vault of the Archangel and gunned down both creatures, but that’s the advantage of hindsight.

GR Werewolves

Hung out at Kaboom down in Va Beach on Saturday while visiting the fam and played a couple games.

My first couple of hands were against a GR Werewolves build that pushed me very hard game one. Post board, with more removal and more rites, I outclassed it and both games two and three went heavily in my favor.

UWR Flash

My second match was with UWR flash and geez did their build have a pile of answers. Game one was what felt like an endless torrent of negate, counterflux, rewind, and snapcaster mages. Game two was a brilliant looting into Rites, Obzedat followed by Lingering Souls and Lilianna of the Veil. Ended up a win off the back of two Boros Charms. Game three was another amazing looting (Rites, Aurelia). Won on Souls, Obzedat and Lilianna.

Knowing that this UWR Flash was more worried about counter and lass about burn, its hard to get a good feel for where I am in the more global match-up. I feel like I shouldn’t have won off of Lingering Souls twice, but its how the games played out. Going to get some more testing tonight and I’ll update when I get back.

 

[Magic Mondays]Scrubbing out in DC

Well, I say scrubbing out, but I was statistically in contention for money pretty much the whole day until I lost in round 7. Honestly, this is the best I’ve ever done at a large event and, in the abstract, I’m overall pleased with 3-5. Really though, I’m still quite sad. Looking back on my play, there are numerous places where I could have done better. Deck wise, the Spicy Raka build was right on for most of its matches, but not having Boros Reckoners to side in against aggro was a pretty big issue. Had I the four of, two of my losses to aggro could very well have been wins. I also missed a Pillar of Flame interaction with Doomed Traveler that likely cost me Round 1 game 1 against Esper Spirits.

But that’s last week. Let’s talk this week.

First off, this deck happened and as a wedge player I can only say it’s about time.

Main Deck 60 cards		Sideboard 15 Cards
4 Blood Crypt 3 Clifftop Retreat 4 Dragonskull Summit 4 Godless Shrine 4 Isolated Chapel 2 Mountain 3 Sacred Foundry 2 Vault of the Archangel 2 Aurelia, the Warleader 4 Boros Reckoner 2 Falkenrath Aristocrat 2 Obzedat, Ghost Council 1 Olivia Voldaren	1 Blasphemous Act 3 Dreadbore 4 Faithless Looting 4 Lingering Souls 3 Mizzium Mortars 1 Rakdos’s Return 3 Tragic Slip 2 Unburial Rites 2 Liliana of the Veil	1 Blasphemous Act 1 Dreadbore 2 Gloom Surgeon 2 Liliana of the Veil 1 Mizzium Mortars 2 Purify the Grave 3 Rakdos’s Return 1 Rolling Temblor 1 Tormod’s Crypt 1 Unburial Rites

I’m not 100% on the Sideboard, I feel like 4/75 cards being Rakdos’s Return is a bit much, esp. with 4 Liliana of the Veil as well. I’m probably going to run a package that’s more like the following to be better matched up against things like Reanimator, PSZ Bant, or Flash, where I’m just dead if the resolve an Angel of Serenity for value.

3 Ultimate Price
1 Dreadbore
2 High Priest of Penance
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Purify the Grave
1 Rakdos’s Return
2 Rakdos Charm
1 Unburial Rites

Ultimate Price, Purify the Grave, and Rakdos Charm each allow me to respond at instant speed to either their reanimation or Zanganna and Angel of Serenity’s ETB triggers. I won’t catch everyone, but there are definitely times where I’ll get things exiled permanently off an Angel or make them draw one card off Zaganna.

Going to be playing the above build this weekend and will report back on how it does. Not sure If I’m playing over at the Pillage or down at Kaboom in Va Beach, but I’m sure to be having a blast either way with my second favorite color combo behind RUG.

Speaking of RUG, RUG Flash finally put up some tournament results with a top 16 finish at SCGKC. The build is pretty much what I was running pre-GTC with Yeva and Huntmaster doing most of the heavy lifting. Should this Dega build not work out, it’s likely I’ll go back to that. Aggro-Control is my main skillset and these two builds are right in that wheelhouse.

Anyway, ’til next week!

[Magic Mondays] A side trip to Pandemonium

So I was up in Boston last weekend for The Association of Writing Professionals annual conference and by time Friday rolled around, I was absolutely done with the highfalutin, not-interested-in-you-because-you-write-genre-fiction attitude I had gotten through out the day. So I hopped on the 1 Bus and headed over to Cambridge to get in some FNM and testing for DC this weekend at Pandemonium. (Yes, I left a writing convention to go play Magic, crown me king of the dorks now). Getting over there was a bit rough. The streets were clogged with slush and every intersection from the bus stop brought with it another chilly plunge, still I soldiered on–though I arrived late and got a match loss.

Which turned out to not be all that terrible. I got to watch two guys play Android: Netrunner, based on a long lost CCG designed by Richard “always designing things” Garfield which in turn was based heavily on Cyberpunk 2020 a setting very similar to Shadowrun. The asymmetrical deck system had some interesting aspects that I think will help with my own “Dungeon Crawler”. One player plays as a Megacorp, whose goal is to advance agendas. The other player is a runner or hacker and their goal is to break in and steal information. Corps and runners each have their own pool of cards and decks are built from them–which means no mirror matches of Bant Control on Bant Control. While the series is more of a board game format now, with ll you need in one box, there’s still a deck building aspect and, as Fantasy Flight does, there are plans for regular expansions–one of which is up for pre0-order now.

After they wrapped up, there was still time left in the round so I talked with the judge, an L1 named Amelia, about the store and how Fridays normally went. With Pandemonium being only one of a few card shops in the Boston metro area, the game room is consistently packed, that night there were about 100 people there. Not surprisingly, most people drafted, but there was a good number of standard players. What stuck me as odd was that she didn’t have any help, unlike our store where nearly half of the players are at least rules advisers, Amelia is the only judge at the store. She said it was because few players wanted to consistently to give up their Friday night play time to help out and that’s kind of sad. Beyond Friday, we talked about other events that she runs including Casual Sunday, where she has players draft the Store Cube, all the way up to PTQs which are typically held at a nearby hotel. At the point the round was over so she posted pairings.

I sat down across from a guy with flaming red hair, I believe his name was Andrew. We chatted for a bit while shuffling and I won the roll and went first. Two turns in, I literally squeed. We were both playing RUG. The first game was a steam roll in my favor and we went to board–which is when the problems happened. See, my RUG build is low range aggro-control, his was midrange full-control. He got a card drawing engine online and though the second game was close, he pulled ahead with a timely ‘tusk followed by Zagana. Game three was a bit of a misplay on my part, I kept a hand of Strangleroot, Boar, two lands, and three charms. At which point I drew nothing but land. Even so, the game came down to 5-7 before his Deadbridge pushed through with a wolf run.

Match two was against Grixis Delver, but it too wasn’t like any build I had seen previously. The deck hammered me down game one with dual Falkenrath Aristocrats. Game two my deck went off like an explosion and I won in five turns. The highlight of which was a stack war over my Quirion Dryad who ended up a 6/6 by time all was said and done. Game three was super close, but he got another ‘risto online and I didn’t have answers.

The last match of the night was against a guy named Jared who was running Grixis Control. Unfortunately for him, Strangleroot and Pyreheart ruined his sweepers and both games went to me in quick succession with a solid beat down.

1-3 might seem bad, but I feel like more of the games would have gone in my favor had I not played poorly. The deck still needs some tweaking, but I feel like it’s in a good spot. More testing tonight and we’ll see!

OH!

Rei was on Deck Tease last week. The podcast is here or on iTunes.

[Magic Mondays] A Delayed GP

There was supposed to be a post for Charlotte last week, but instead I finished a draft of my third semester project for my MFA. I’ll remedy that now though before heading off to AWP.

Oh mine guttes! GP Charlotte…

Friday - Getting there

Leading up to the weekend I was suffering from one heck of a head cold, but I’d lived through worse and, as always, paid the illness no mind. Left on Friday around noon after picking up a couple of other players from The Pillage. The route we drove took us down 81, through the mountains. Had I know what I do know, I would have suggested 95 a bit more strongly. Thirty minutes into the drive, just past Front Royal, I felt like my head was being stuffed with cotton while also being clamped down on. Right after, my hearing went all wonky and I developed quite the headache. This is the state I played in all weekend–and that very well might be a major contributing factor to my subpar GP experience.

We got to Charlotte just after six, just enough time to check in to the hotel and get to the hall for Foiled Again.

Friday – Foiled Again

In my mind a super-sized FNM , there were about 250 people playing Standard, where playing got you an FNM promo and each round you won garnered another. Played Life Bomb after managing to find the last two Sorin’s I needed for the deck. Match One, I drew with UWr Tempo after assembling the combo game one and losing game two. That put my win by combo count to two out of nearly 20 games at that point. Not a good sign, but I’ll get to that later.

Even so, my other two matches were pretty solid outings with Obzedat/Sorin wins. I lost to RDW in the final round to end 2-1-1 after running over to register for the next day. I couldn’t hear shit with the noise from the grinders going on by the main event stage, but eventually the judge and I synced up and I got signed up.

Though I was a bit sad that my 2-1-1 finish meant I only got three foils, I finally have a playset of FNM Gitaxian Probes now and the pack I got for being top 64 had a Domri in it. This was the high point of the weekend, if I’m honest.

[Magic Mondays] That Pro Tour

Many who might be reading this are already aware that Tom Martell took PT Gatecrash with his “The Aristocrats” deck, which,  believe it or not, was RWB Aggro-Control. I’ve been trying to crack the wedge since the Baltimore Open and a solution is finally here. I mean look at the list run by both him and Sam Black as opposed to my Baltimore list. There are some definite gaps with Gatecrash having not been around, but I feel like had that weekend not been so soul crushing, I likely would have stuck with this list and been in a spot that was ready to just slot the Reckoner and Shocks in.

Always trust my gut, it would seem.

4  Blood Crypt 3  Cavern of Souls 1  Clifftop Retreat 4  Godless Shrine 4  Isolated Chapel 3  Plains 4  Sacred Foundry 1  Vault of the Archangel 24 lands 4  Boros Reckoner 4  Cartel Aristocrat 4  Champion of the Parish 4  Doomed Traveler 4  Falkenrath Aristocrat 3  Knight of Infamy 1  Restoration Angel 2  Silverblade Paladin 2  Skirsdag High Priest 2  Zealous Conscripts 30 creatures

2  Lingering Souls 4  Orzhov Charm 6 other spells Sideboard 2  Blasphemous Act 2  Lingering Souls 1  Mentor of the Meek 2  Obzedat, Ghost Council 2  Rest in Peace 1  Skirsdag High Priest 2  Sorin, Lord of Innistrad 3  Tragic Slip 15 sideboard cards

4 Blood Crypt 4 Clifftop Retreat 4 Isolated Chapel 3 Plains 3 Swamp 3 Mountain 2 Cavern of Souls 23 lands 4 Champion of the Parish 4 Kruin Striker 3 Silverblade Paladin 2 Sublime Archangel 4 Knight of Glory 4 Knight of Infamy 3 Falkenrath Aristocrat 24 Creatures

3 Duress 4 Faithless Looting 4 Krenko’s Command 2 Mizzium Mortars 13 Other Spells

Other than that, there isn’t much to talk about. I don’t get any play this weekend as I was at a wedding with Rei. Going over to The Pillage tonight for some Monday Night Standard so I can get Life Bomb(WB Vizkopia Guildmage+ Exquisite Blood combo) in order so I have something to play in Standard side events should I scrub out at Charlotte.  Hopefully my phone doesn’t die before I even get my cards this time and I’ll actually be able to tweet about the rounds.

For any who are going to be at GP Charlotte, drop me a line here or on Twitter.

See ya’ll next time!

[Magic Mondays] Ugh, this season…

I know, I know, I was just praising the format last week, but I had one hell of a week. Between deck testing at lunch and at my store’s Monday Night Standard, I’ve pretty much given up on making RUG work for the forseeable future. RDW/BDW and Gruul are more effective aggro plans, Jund is better at grinding and taking control of a game, and xUW Flash is better at well…Flash.

So I’ve got one deck brewing, the one I ended up playing last Friday: Supreme Ooze. It definitely needs some tweaks, but I think the Predator Ooze + Supreme Verdict synergy is worth looking into. Was using Zameck Guildmage and Ooze Flux to turn Undying back on for Young Wolf and Strangleroot Geist, but my 2 drop spot is really croweded so I may drop the guild mage in favor of another undying creature, possibly Stormbound Geist. Cathar’s crusade is definitely out though. I liked the improvised evolve mechanic, but it’s ultimately not worth it since I can’t fake people out into wasting removal on what seems to be an undying creature with a +1/+1 counter on it since the Remove a counter for ooze flux to make an ooze will resolve before the burn does meaning the +1/+1 counter goes right back. Maybe just run a couple more unsummons and simic charms and bounce the guildmage on their turn end and then verdict?

Anyway, I have another deck idea I want to play with RWB control. Why those colors and control? Well, I want to play Aurelia and she’s RW. Now, for six mana there’s three places she goes. In a midrange deck, in a reanimator deck, and in a control deck. Now, as a midrange threat, she’s kind of weak in comparison to Huntmaster, Thragtusk, and Restoration Angel and she’s probably too much for RUW flash to pay for. So that leaves reanimator and control. With Angel of Glory’s Rise and Humanimator being thing, maybe Aurelia is a worthwhile include, but honestly the deck doesn’t have much space that it isn’t using for the combo.  In a more conventional reanimator, there are better fatties to grab between Craterhoof and Griselbrand. Which leaves control as the last place she can feasibly be played.

So what combinations can we play?

• Boros Control — with Blind Obedience this seems like it could be a possibility, but there’s not really a method of gaining card advantage
• RWU — Just no, Flash is a better build
• RWG (Naya) — Again, no. Aggro and Midrange is where Naya is king
• Which leaves RWB. So what’ve we got?
• Well…how about some super effective flyers to attack with?
  • Desecration Demon
  • Olivia Voldaren
  • Vampire Nighthawk
  • Thundermaw Hellkite
  • Restoration Angel
• And some solid sweepers
  • Rolling Temblor
  • Bonfire of the Damned
  • Mizzium Mortars
  • Magmaquake
  • Merciless Eviction
  • Divine Reckoning
  • Terminus
  • Killing Wave
• Great Burn
  • Skullcrack
  • Boros Charm
  • Searing Spear
• And all the removal, ever
  • Dreadbore
  • Pillar of Flame
  • Searing Spear
  • Mizzium Mortars
  • Tragic Slip
  • Devour Flesh
  • Ulitmate Price
  • Human Frailty
  • Victim of the Night
  • Angelic Edict
  • Murder
  • Tribute to Hunger
  • Barter in Blood
  • Killing Glare
  • Death Wind
  • Orzhov Charm

“So why not play Jund then? This seems like you’re just trying to do something different for the sake of difference. In fact, this is worse than Jund or Naya because no Farseek, Huntmaster, or Thragtusk.”

Because while those lists above are available to each they’re tied to Green and thus Thrag and Huntmaster, they can not get away from them lest they be overrun by the Aggro decks. With Extort and Nighthawk we’ve got most of the lifegain we need and Tribute to hunger isn’t a bad backup tune–and we can always side in Faithmender.

[Magic Mondays] Rebuilding RUG

Whew! Gatecrash sure hit with a bang didn’t it? The Atlanta open saw all the staples updated and new takes on old archtypes. Humanimator, a rebuild of the Angel of Glory’s Rise combo, almost took the whole tournament, but lost to a much more explosive Naya Humans in the finals. Really has me excited for next weekend to see what shakes out.

As for me, my weekend was quite the enjoyable Magic frenzy. Played sealed on Friday night at Epic Loot in Deleware City. Played a BUG build that was powered by Crypt Ghast and evasive dudes. Then, when we got back from DE on Sunday, we picked up our box of Gatecrash and cracked that. Got a few good pulls to add to the Prerelease haul. Somehow though We’ve managed to not pull any Godless Shrines…

Anyway, just got back from my store’s slowly growing Monday Night Standard event with my rebuild of RUG Flash. I shifted a bit more into control and away from the flash aspect, and the deck’s still not in quite the right place. I’ve been looking at modern and legacy builds for RUG, but they both rely pretty much on Delver and Tarmagoyf for the beats and while Delver’s still a thing in Standard, I don’t know what I can do to replace ‘goyf. Flinthoof Boar? Strangleroot Geist? Should I find a solution, there’s still the issue of Delver not having the best chances of flipping. Is index a viable solution? I mean sure it doesn’t do nearly everything that Ponder does, but they’re the same cost and the same speed.

Let’s put Delver aside, and focus on more reasonable options. If we run Strangleroot Geist, Zameck Guildmage, Young Wolf, and Talrand we have a solid suite of creatures that provide a draw engine and decent pressure. So then, what do we do with the rest of the card slots? 25 Lands and 11 creatures leaves 24 spells. Obviously we need some disruption..and some pump…and probably some burn and draw. So its really just a question of what.

I”m thinking a list like this: (thought it’s currently 63 cards)

• 3 Izzet Charm
• 3 Simic Charm
• 4 Searing Spear
• 3 Spell Rupture
• 4 Think Twice
• 4 Rancor
• 4 Experiment One
• 4 Strangleroot Giest
• 4 Young Wolf
• 4 Zameck Guildmage
• 3 Talrand
• 4 Steam Vents
• 2 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Stomping Grounds
• 3 Rootbound Crag
• 4 Breeding Pool
• 3 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Forest
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Island

Well then, I’m going to head off for now. I’ll figure out some things to cut and be ready for Friday with Undying RUG

[Flash Fiction] Date Night

I wrote this piece four or five years ago now. I was satisfied with it then, but now I’m not sure on the ending.

Let me know what you think and let me know if you want to see more like this in the future!