Color War: A Multiplayer Magic Format

 Hello Everyone!  This is ‘Marshall’ guest writing for Andrew today.  No, this isn’t a hostile take over.  Yes, he’s fine...well mostly.  As many of you postulated by this point Andrew and I work together on several fronts, I help design different decks and we bounce ideas off each other.  Unlike Andrew, I don’t really participate in competitive Magic, I’m more of a ‘Kitchen Table’ kind of player.  I like tournament decks as much as any Spike, but that’s for their linear and powerful synergies.  For me deck building comes grew to a new height when I developed “Color War”, I specifically choose the word ‘develop’ because I am not the origin of the format, but instead have invested significant amount of time and resources into it.  Andrew asked me a few weeks ago to do a guest article pertaining to my favorite format: Color War.

Shall we get started?

I’ve been playing this wonderful little game for the better part of 20 years.   Through these years I’ve seen ups and downs of this game, from Fallen Empires, Homelands, and Champions of Kamigawa, to Invasion, Mirrodin, and Tempest (my personal vote for best all time set).  Through this time I’ve played in many different formats but one hit home more than others, because it answered this one question every magic player has thought of at least once (if not you’re about to):

“Why do the colors have specific allies and enemies?”

I’m not talking about why design has set it up that way, or the theory of why great Richard Garfield deemed it so on the 5th day of creation.  I’m talking about the simple truth we’ve all learned about this game:

Blue mages hate Red and Green mages.

In fairness, everyone hates Blue mages

This is something I learned early on, and I learned why through Color War.  An uncle of mine introduced the 5-way multiplayer format to me and it explained to me these color allegiances much like my body learned it needed oxygen to survive.  This my friends (and Andrew’s readers) is what I’m here to give you!  I’ll be explaining this in two parts: First, I’m going to discuss the basics and rules of the format, and then the decks that I've developed.

1. Color War is a 5 player format, wherein each deck is a single color.  (This is similar to Star, for those familiar with that format, this was just introduced to me prior to Star and I’m stubbornly keeping the name as Color War) [Editor's Note: Marshall is more stubborn than the Goat Tokens he loves so much.]  All 5 players sit in the order of the colors on the back of the Magic card (Go look! we’ll wait).  From here things begin to get complicated.
2. Turn order:  Now that everyone is seated in the correct order.  You should be seated next to your two allies and across from your two enemies.  Watch for dirty looks – they are EVIL. [Editor's Note: For example, Black is allied with Red and Blue, but enemies with Green and White. Think Alara shards, or the Core-Set-Dual-Lands to keep track of allies.] Unlike normal multiplayer matches, the actual turn order does not go in a circle, it follows a star pattern in clockwise order.  This is designed  to prevent two allies from having back to back turns (at least at the start of the game).  My suggestion is to call out the next color when you’re done your turn. Try “Black, you're up!” instead of “Pass” when you first start playing this format.  Turn order remains the same when a player dies, just skip over the eliminated position.
3. You only win when your two enemy colors are dead.  This may explain some of the targeting restrictions above.  Because not only can you win when your two enemy colors are dead, the same applies to your two allies.  Yes destroying their planeswalker or fogging when they go in for a kill, is something you can do as it will slow them down to allow YOU to win.  To answer your inevitable next question, Yes you can tie.  In fact it’s almost as common as normal  solo wins.
4. Targeting:  I encourage some additional targeting restrictions to help balance the format and encourage the format to play as intended. Your mileage may vary on these, but I think they're a good baseline.
• a. You can only attack your enemies
• b. You can only do direct damage to enemy players (EXCEPTION: you can target allies to kill allied planeswalkers).
• c. You can target allied permanents.

Multiplayer Magic...right? Call a Judge?

That’s it, the rest is normal fun multiplayer!

Right?

Andrew, I think I’m missing something here, because something tells me that left to their own devices people would make independent decks packed with color specific hate.

[Editor's Note: Muffled cries]

What’s that? You think so too? Hold on, let me take off the duct tape, I can’t understand what you’re telling me…..

The hard truth is in ever group of magic players there is at least one that takes the time and energy to find a card or two that gives them a significant edge over their friends. I'm sure you all know that guy – you may even BE that guy. Hey, this could be a good thing if it pushes everyone to continuously improve their decks and can provide a natural way to keep the group fresh with ideas.  Unfortunately, this idealism doesn’t really hold true though when it comes to formats with distinct limitations like Color War (and one could argue it doesn’t hold true in normal free for all either, but that’s an argument for a latter day).  The balance of Color War breaks down when cards like Mirran Crusader, Karma, Magnetic Mountain, Conversion, and even something as innocuous as Blue Elemental Blast (props to those that didn’t have to look up those cards.)  It becomes harder to balance when you load up a Black deck with so much removal that it wipes Green and White off the map.  So what is a multiplayer group to do?

The Color War was originally introduced to me with 5 premade 40-card decks, none were incredibly powerful, but they all contained some surprisingly strong iconic cards: Chain lighting and Vesuvan Doppleganger come to mind.  They were built with the idea that any of the 5 could win on any given day.  This was primarily controlled by the fact they were all built by the same person (my uncle.)  After I moved away, and I found a new group of fellow Magic junkies, I decided I wanted to introduce the format to them.  This was around the time of Invasion, and so I knew that I needed to build 5 decks of approximately the same strength.  Since then I’ve been continually tweaking and adding new cards to the lists., keeping them recognizable but still fresh. This is a deceivingly hard thing to do, you want to maintain several things:



1) Each deck should keep the flavor of the color.  When you play as the Green deck you should feel like a big old tree loving hippy with a really REALLY big stick to hit people with.  This also means that even though removal exists in White and Red Black should still be king of the hill with creature removal – it's needed to help balance out White and Green.

2) Each deck should have cards that hearken back to the history of the color, Shivan Dragon isn’t the best dragon in the deck (that probably goes to Thundermaw Hellkite – a recent addition) but every Red mage sees Shivan Dragon and smiles. Feel free to adjust this based on your group. If all of you started within the last two years, 'the History of Magic' probably means very different for you than it does for my group, who still remember a time when the Stack didn't exist.

3) In the same vein I choose to update decks with new cards too, it keeps the circle of friends interested and enjoying the format long past when it would otherwise have started to get stale.

4) I maintain that each deck needs to have cards that surprise the player “You have Rofellos in here??”  Due to the nature of the format resolving these cards or untapping with them isn’t necessarily guaranteed, but I feel that it’s important for players to look at their opening hands and be excited. It's hard to look at some of the best cards ever printed and not be thrilled to play a game with them  - in this way, I try to maintain a feel much like Cube Drafting has.

5) Above ALL ELSE balance trumps card selection.  I have been asked why certain cycles aren’t in the decks - and I'll admit some are due to availability (I’m looking at you, Primeval Titan), but 9 times out of 10 it’s because one member of the cycle is completely unbalancing in the format.  In very few circumstances should one card completely win the game for a color, and at times sacrificing a partial or complete cycle is the cost necessary for the health of the format.



A bit more on balance: Over the years I’ve noticed how difficult it is to keep these decks tuned properly.  When testing a deck individually it can seem the exact level of power you were shooting for, but it’s not until you see various global effects hit the field does the balance start to fall apart.  Probably the occurrence that highlights this so nicely is when Red had Mana Flare (a great ramp spell to help it get to it’s dragons and X spells), and Blue had Palinchron (which by itself is a great fat blue creature that has a way to save itself, very Blue).  Yeah for those that figured out the interaction of  those two cards... whoops?  Since then, I’ve had the benefit of being able to test more frequently with all 5 decks on the field. Below you’ll find the current incarnations of decks – recently updated to include some choice cards from Magic 2013.



When looking at them, keep in mind that these decks are not built to be tournament worthy, but instead to produce fun and exciting games that are difficult to predict.  Even now I keep notes to every game for future edits and balance questions, for example:

1) Gideon might be too good.
2) Switch Cockatrice with another spider
3) Add Vampire Nighthawk
4) Boost Red a little
5) Hapless Researcher

Combined with those is a running list of wins (and allied victories).  The thought is to collect sufficient data to warrant changes.  “Boost Red a little” for instance seems pretty straightforward, except that the process of boosting Red’s strength leads to White performing poorly next time, meriting improvements to white,  perhaps too far, which can cause Black to stumble. Yeah it’s not always that complicated and the occasional gift from a new set helps fill in the hole.



If you decide do go down this rabbit hole, learn from where I am, look at these decks, and use them.  I understand that several of the cards are not easily obtainable, and none are strictly required to build a color war deck. That said,  I hope when looking at them you’ll see the spirit of each and understand why:

Blue mages hate Red and Green mages.



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Hello everyone – Andrew here for an afterword. First, a great debt to Marshall for helping me with this post. Color War is one of the best formats I've ever played, and I think that it's a great way for a group of friends to get together and play multiplayer when their normal decks might not necessarily be on the same part of the power curve.

I'd also like to thank those of you who helped me out with the white commons in my post on Tuesday. While I didn't get quite the volume of specific feedback as I'd hoped, there was still a ton of great advice – so thanks again. I hope some of you are interested in the project, and will be hoping to play at GP Philadelphia in a couple months.

This weekend, I won't likely be playing much Magic, since I'll be moving to a new place with my lovely girlfriend. Nevertheless, this weekend also marks the PAX Magic party, and that's bound to be a blast for all of us F5'ing on our computers, waiting for spoilers. Personally, I can't wait. All three of the spoiled mechanics so far look to be good, innovative takes on the guilds, and I can't wait to see the rest of them. There's a good chance that I'll take a look at the mechanics on Tuesday's post, and talk about what I see each of them doing in the set.

Or hey, maybe I'll get an entirely different idea by morning – who knows! Check back in on Tuesday to see!

As Always, Sling Some Spells,
Andrew

Bye Bye Bye - Why Planeswalker Points Are Important

Hey man! I haven't seen you around here in ages.

Yea, I've been pretty busy traveling.

So, you coming to Sunday drafts now?

Absolutely. I’m grinding for points. Didn’t you hear? There’s a GP in Philadelphia in October. Got to be ready.

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As some of you may know, this coming Sunday represents the end of the second Planeswalker Points season. For some of us, that makes this week a flurry of furious playing and grinding, with the hopes of gathering those last few points. For others, the entire idea of planeswalker points seems alien and obtuse.

Why are we seeking planeswalker points like they’re some finite resource? Why do some of us keep track of the number with post-its and bookmark the page in our browser to make sure that everything is up to date?

There’s a couple reasons for it, honestly, and to start, I’d like to tell you my story.

A few months ago, I decided that I was interested in joining the Magic Competitive Scene. Previously, this meant going to GP’s and PTQ’s, hoping to qualify and make it to the Pro Tour. Unfortunately, my level of skill at that point was nowhere near where it would need to be to have a chance at either of those events. I wasn’t thinking clearly about what I’d need to do to succeed. I was flush with success with a Top 8 at a 75 person GPT, and I thought I was one of the best players ever. Seriously. I actually thought that.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really have anything to work towards. There weren’t any GP’s in the area, so I just shrugged it  off and kept playing in GPT’s and SCG:IQ’s. The story could have ended here.

Then there was an announcement. A special tournament – held three places across America. The World Magic Cup Qualifier. All jokes about qualifying for a qualifier aside, I knew that this was an event I wanted to participate in – and it was fairly local: just past Baltimore, maybe a two hour drive. I checked the requirements and found that I needed 300 Planeswalker Points to get an invitation.

I fired up the handy website and took a look. The system is pretty simple – three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss, and then multiplied by the kind of event it was.

FNM – 7 points

FNM – 4 points

FNM – 7 points

This looked like it was going to take a while.

GPT Baltimore – 66 points.

Wait, what? Sixty six? Well, I suppose that the event was seven rounds of Swiss, where I went 6-1, and you get some points for participation…

 If you’re looking to grind points, events with a multiplier are where it’s at. There’s just no competition. You could win 9 rounds of FNM, and it’s likely worth less than winning three at a GPT – or just a little bit more than two at a PTQ. A single win at a GP is worth more than two flawless Friday victories at your local game shop.

But why do we want these points? Even ignoring the primal urge – present in every nerd – to make numbers go upwards. (Seriously, take a look at every RPG ever. That’s all we’re doing) Surely there are rewards for earning all these points! Well, luckily for us, there are – and the rewards are significant. Let’s take a look at some of the numbers to know for the current system.

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Byes:

By gaining planeswalker points in the current system, you can earn Byes at Grand Prix events. A bye is a free win in one of the early rounds, and any player can have up to three. Having them is an enormous advantage, and for many, these are the primary benefit of Planeswalker Points. These points accrue over the course of a season. The most recent season ran from April 2, 2012 – August 19, 2012. The next season, which begins on Monday, runs from August 20, 2012 – December 16, 2012. If you earn byes during a season, they will apply for the duration of that season and for the next one as well.

                -One Bye: 400 points

                -Two Byes: 750 points

                -Three Byes: 1500 points

Invitation to the World Magic Cup Qualifier:

 Where Grand Prix Byes count based on a single season, the World Magic Cup Qualifier tracks points over an entire year. The most recent World Magic Cup Qualifier season began on April 2, 2012, and will end on March 17, 2013. To be invited, you need to reach a threshold based on your country. These range from the USA – where you’d need 500 points within the year, to small countries like Peru, where the cutoff is a mere 100 points. You can find the list of thresholds HERE.

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For those of you wondering if a Bye is even worth anything to you, it’s a fairly simple question. If you are going to a GP, the bye is absolutely worth it. Compared to the FNM’s and other events that you’ve gone to, GP’s can be more likened to a marathon. With two days of play and thousands of dollars of prize on the line, you need to be at your best to have a chance, and that means giving yourself advantages before you walk in the door.

A normal GP plays 9 rounds on Day 1. To advance, you need to be 7-2 or better. Going 7-2 in a tournament is no mean feat, and even a single bad mulligan could spell the end of your tournament aspirations. With three byes under your belt, you mitigate that to a paltry 4-2 to make the second day of play (and put yourself in contention for a reasonable cash payout!) In addition, the three byes have the related side effect of making your tiebreakers markedly higher than those without byes. Because people playing since round one will have their tie breaks calculated off all their opponents, they account for the person who started off 0-1, 1-1, and 2-1. Your worst tiebreaker player is the person you hit in the fourth match, who (assuming you win) will be 3-1 at that point. This could buy you the crucial percentage points that elevate you into the “I won something!” arena.

This coming season, for example, I’m planning on attending two GP’s – one in Boston, and one in Philadelphia. Each Bye I earn puts me that much closer to Day 2. Because I played in GP Atlanta, as well as a number of other events, I’ve earned over 900 points, easily enough for my second bye, but still a far cry away from my third. With the addition of a second GP to my personal schedule in this coming season, it would be a reasonable thing for me to expect getting a third bye in the coming season. As my play gets more precise, I expect to earn more points for any given tournament. GP Atlanta earned me a cool 200 points, and I didn’t even make Day 2. If I had, it easily could have been a 350-400 point weekend.  I certainly wouldn’t have been as close as I was if not for the three byes I had.

This is more or less how GP Atlanta felt with three free wins..

This coming season, I’d encourage you to set yourself a goal – be it your first bye, in case you attend a GP early next year (the schedule should be announced soon!) or qualification for the World Magic Cup Qualifiers, or whatever you decide. Set yourself a goal, and then set out to attain it!

[Editor's Note: The Planeswalker Point website can be found HERE.]

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I hope that you guys enjoyed this look at the planeswalker point system, and what we can get out of it as a competitive player. Next post comes in Thursday, where I’ll talk a little bit about what I see in the format going forward.

A Respectable 6-3 at Star City Games: Washington DC

It’s interesting how things happen sometimes. You write something, yell up and down about the new thing that’s going to change it all, and then, forty eight hours later, you’re scrambling to put a deck together – your third in two days.

How did this happen?

Last weekend was the Star City Games: Washington DC event. By random luck, I was able to attend, because my job wanted me to go to Washington DC from Sunday till Tuesday. It meant that I wouldn’t be able to play in the Legacy Open on Sunday, but I was mostly alright with that, since my Legacy deck is still broadly ‘under construction’ – missing a Karakas, Urborg, four Wastelands, and three Bobs. (Plus some other assorted cards that have since been filled). That’s not exactly a small list, but still, we’re getting closer.

So, Standard Open was going to be my best bet – with hopes that I would make Top 8 and secure an invitation to one of the two remaining invitational’s of the year. That was the goal. To accomplish that, I’d most likely have to go x-1 or better, with the potential of a draw in the last round.

To this goal, I wrote an article about my Naya Aggro deck, which can be found Here. The decklist I ended up building to play in the event was as follows:

There was a lot of power in this deck, and it has the potential to run away with games that it was clearly losing. Hero of Bladehold and Gavony Township provide a strong top-end, and four Caverns give the deck a lot of game against Delver Style decks. With Restoration Angel to back up any assault, and Bonfire for the occasional blowout, the deck was strong.

And I hated it.

I played some test games with it, but it constantly felt like I was mulliganing into oblivion. I was never able to find the lands that I wanted, a dork, and some reasonable sequence of plays that didn’t depend entirely on “and then I’ll draw all the cards I need.” I found myself playing out my hand quickly against other similar aggro decks and lacking a way to go over the top to win, instead getting into a board stall and knowing that I really didn’t have many (if any) outs.

I called up Marshall on Thursday, after posting my counterpoint about Bonfire. A lot of the points that I’d made were festering in my mind – countermagic WAS strong against that kind of deck. Tokens did have a lot of recurring threats that made it viable against Naya style decks. Delver was still a flying Wild Nacatl for U that needed to be dealt with.

What if I merged the two decks?

I drove to Marshall’s that night and we spent the better part of four hours piecing together the deck that I’d be taking down to DC. Late night audibles rarely work, because you end up with little familiarity with the deck and not enough practice. I ignored this because I figured that it was just tokens with a support package instead of a Humans package. It looked strong. Plus, I got to sideboard Day of Judgment and go to town with that as tech against Naya and the Elf deck that BW is completely incapable of beating.

This deck looked like it had everything. A strong early game with Delver/Snapcaster/Vapor Snag, it had the late game with Anthems and Lingering Souls. We were able to find a mana base that worked (partially by being very careful to avoid double-colored spells), and enough removal to punch through the biggest offenders in the format. We were positive we were on to something here.

Unfortunately, we finished the deck at Dark O’Clock and didn’t have time to test it. I couldn’t go to FNM on Friday to test it because I was busy sleeping – since my train to DC left at 5am. Still, I felt confident that I’d be able to do well with the deck. I slept a healthy amount before the tournament, and we were ready to go.

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It’s 10:05. The tournament was scheduled to start five minutes ago, but there’s still a line out the door. I’m staring across the board at two Rancors on a Blighted Agent.

“This deck is pretty bad,” I admit – referring to mine, not the UG Infect deck that’s been tossing me around like a ragdoll for the last hour.

“It’s probably a bad matchup for you. Don’t worry.” That’s my friend Mark. I’ve seen him at a bunch of events, and he offered to play a few rounds to get each of us used to our decks. It isn’t going well. I’ve managed to squeak out a single win – he’s got more than half a dozen under his belt.

“It’s not that your deck is good,” I explain. “Well, I mean, it is. You’re really explosive, but my deck isn’t flowing the way it should. The mana feels fine, but I just don’t feel like I’m going to have the power to punch through and actually get a kill.”

“So, what’re you thinking?”

“I’ve still got all the cards that I’d need for BW Tokens…” I say, hesitantly. I could also audible to Delver – since I have that almost built as well, but that doesn’t put me in any better shape.

“I don’t think that’s smart.” Mark answers, and we keep playing. “Maybe you’re just getting bad hands.”

Five minutes later, one of Mark’s friends comes by and reports. “I’m seeing a ton of control decks in the field today – and a lot of Delver too. A lot of Pod, but not a lot of Naya Aggro or Humans.”

Mark taps some creature, probably an Ichorclaw Myr. “Four infect at you?” I try to remove it, and he casts apostle’s blessing in response. Two Wild Defiance Triggers go on the stack and I scoop it up.

“Last call for registration!” goes the shout. I take one last look at the deck and make the call.

“Help me unsleeve this.”

It’s 10:25 and I’m frantically writing on a deck registration sheet, putting back together a deck that I’d played in more than a dozen tournaments. If there wasn’t much Naya in the room, and the read was right, Tokens would cut through the control decks and the Delver decks – all I needed to do was dodge the Naya decks.

Round 1 – Chris with Bant Pod

Chanting “Not Naya” while I shuffled, my opponent leads with Razorverge Thicket into Birds of Paradise – because why not. Luckily for me, I’ve got the fast start, and he’s not really playing Naya at all. He’s on Bant Pod – a deck that I know exists, but not much more than that. I remember the older Bant Pod lists – flicker an acidic slime a bunch of times with Venser and lock you out of the game, or get a Stonehorn lock. I imagine that this deck plays out much the same.

Luckily, I have the Champion > Gather > Anthem > Anthem draw, and he goes down on turn five. Before he’s able to set anything up.

I play game two much more conservatively – unsure if he’s running Day of Judgment in his list. He almost gets a stonehorn lock on me, but I’ve got removal for the Venser to keep me on the right side of the matchup. I end up killing him while I’m on 31 life.

1-0   (2-0 in games)

Round 2 – Steve with Mono Black Control

Game one is agonizing. I get my beatdown on, dropping him down to three life over the opening turns of the game with a fairly aggressive start. I’m still on 20, and feeling great. He topdecks a Mutilate to wipe my board, but I’ve got a Gather the Townsfolk in reserve. This unfortunately does nothing when he drops a Wurmcoil Engine, and I quickly drop to two life as he beats me down with it (and removes my human tokens). He goes back up over twenty before I find a Gather the Townsfolk and a Hero of Bladehold to stop him. I’m poised to gain 20+ life the next turn and kill him off a vault of the archangel swing, but he topdecks a second mutilate and kills me with the Wurmcoil Tokens.

Ouch.

Luckily for me, his good luck breaks and he mulligans in the second game. Despite him activating mindslaver twice on me, he can’t quite get a lock on the game and I kill him through two pristine talismans that gained him 16 life over the course of the game.

Our third game is a classic Tokens vs Control matchup, with me always having more gas to stop his attempts to regain control. I slow roll every token maker, buying a board wipe from him every turn until he eventually runs out. Even his pair of pristine talismans can’t keep him up through two anthems and any creatures.

2-0   (4-1 in games)

Round 3 – Robert with GW Elves

Let me just go on record and say that I don’t know why this deck isn’t bigger. In game one, I remove his turn 2 Archdruid, and still die on turn 5 to a swing for 45 damage off a Craterhoof Behemoth that he green sun zenithed for. Shockingly, I almost survived. Almost doesn’t count.

I have no notes for game two. It went more poorly than game one.

2-1 (4-3 in games)

Round 4 – Brad Nelson on BW Zombie Pod

I read the pairings and I’m on fire. Brad Nelson, player of the year for 2010. This is the first game I’ve ever had against a player of his caliber, and I’m nervous as all hell. I sit down, and try to make some small talk – he seems pretty quiet. Understandable, since he’s already picked up a loss. We present our decks and I move to cut his, but my hand slips and flips a card.

Geralf’s Messenger.

Both of our hands shoot into the air and I get a warning for Looking At Extra Cards.

I apologize, and he nods. “It’s alright, just sucks because it’s a pretty big tell.”

That’s pretty fair, I think. I hope that he doesn’t think I did it deliberately, because I can see how it could be interpreted like that. Brad is one of my favorite writers, and I’d hate to think he had a negative opinion of me because of a mistake like that.

I’d like to tell you guys that I drew a hand that was marginal against Zombies and kept it because I was doing the honorable thing. Truthfully though, the hand was just all gas. He gets some quick hits in with a nighthawk before I land two heroes. He answers the first, but the second gets a combat step with Vault of the Archangel and start beating in for 24 point life swings. He goes down and we sideboard.

I love my zombies sideboard in this deck – it’s one of my favorite parts about playing it. To this day, I’ve only lost to zombies once with Tokens, and that was due almost entirely to a gigantic misplay on my part.

Today kept up that trend, and despite him getting the Restoration Angel/Geralf’s Messenger combo going, I beat him down and win the round.

3-1 (6-3 in games)

Round 5 – Gavin with RG Pod

I don’t have a lot of experience against this deck, and I keep a slower hand. He doesn’t seem interested in playniog that game, and crushes me in a quick game one.

Game two, he mulligans and we both stall out on the ground, unable to make a profitable move. The game comes down to me being able to draw flyers, and him never finding a bonfire to miracle.

Game three, I pull off a miracle’d Entreat the Angels for 1 on turn 4, and the angel went the distance to beat him down for the win.

4-1 (8-4 in games)

Round 6 – Andrew with Esper…well…

The round starts, and I win Game 1 without any real idea what he’s playing except Esper colors. He cast a lingering souls, a ponder, and a mana leak – which effectively means he could be any Esper archetype ever. He boards in a bunch of cards, but I’m hesitant, and end up presenting my original 60.

I think I actually stand by this decision. My sideboard cards for the Esper matchups are pretty weak overall, and I’d rather not dilute my deck with dead cards if I guess wrong. Unfortunately, I have a quick draw and he has the answers for it, stalling me out until his plan becomes obvious – as he copies a bunch of Sun Titans with the least fair clone creature ever printed.

To be honest, I’m positive that I could have won this one. I made a bad removal early on, sacrificing a creature to kill his doomed traveler clone – thinking that it would be sacrificed and not give him the token. This is 100% absurd – the only reason I thought it was because my opponent a few tournaments ago had missed his trigger, not because it doesn’t happen.

I got him to 1, and he killed me with triplicate Sun Titan attacks and Dead Weight and such. It was unpleasant.

Game three, I was forced to mulligan, and I couldn’t put out enough pressure. He stabilized at 8 life, and I never got to touch him again.

4-2 (8-6 in games)

Round 7 – Naya Pod

And here we go, folks. The matchup I feat more than anything – Naya. Cocked and ready to go with a quartet of Bonfires, we squared off. I lose the first game after he gains a ton of life off a Thragtusk to change the math on our race. Both of us sideboard, and we’re off into game two.

Game two was the best match of magic that I have played in a long time. I have a slower start, with a slew of anthems. After losing my board in the late game to a catastrophic Bonfire, he beats me down to 4 life – with him still on 20. Things look grim, but I topdeck a Gather the Townsfolk, putting 20 power and toughness onto the board with a vault – but one mana shy of using it. He had a single flyer – a restoration angel that dropped me to  1 life. I attack, and he first-strikes down one token, eating eight damage, and losing only a little bit of his ground force while we trade off creatures. I gain sixteen, going to seventeen and having more than lethal on the board. He draws, and finds no help, playing another Blade Splicer and hitting me for three in the air, I go to fourteen. I draw for the turn, attack, and pass after destroying a few more of his guys.

He topdecks a bonfire, and hitsme for five with it, wiping my board. The crowd (because we’ve drawn a crowd at this point) goes wild, and he turns his guys sideways for the win.

I drop Midnight Haunting, blocking his angel and a splicer token to go to six, and then counter swing to kill him the following turn.

 Game three was sadly a little anticlimactic, with him mulling to six and stumbling on lands. He still made a fight of it, but I manage to get an Angel of Jubilation out to turn off his Pod, and without the mana advantage, the threat of a bonfire was minimal. I killed him with a Pod rotting in hand, and a Bonfire that could never have killed anything.

5-2 (10-7 in games)

Round 8 – Ian on RG Aggro

In our first game, I manage to get the tempo advantage on him once I’ve got an anthem set up, and I run him over pretty handily. Our second game isn’t close, with him getting a turn 2 sword of war and peace and crushing me.

Our third game goes much the way of the first, with Vault fo the Archangel sealing the game once I get ahead. Ian reveals after the match that he runs four Sword of War and Peace main, as well as four bonfires that he never saw a miracle of. I was probably lucky to get out of this one.

6-2 (12-8 in games)

Round 9 – Russo with RG Aggro

I know Russo – he plays at the shop I used to go to all the time back in NY. He’s on RG Aggro, and while I’d love to say they were both close games, decided by the skill of both players, he crushed me in both with T2 Sword, and T2 Sword. I really don’t know if there’s a good answer to that card in white that doesn’t open you up to an insane blowout if they don’t have it.

6-3 (12-10 in games)

Aftermath

While the tournament was 10 rounds long, a quick look at the standings after the ninth round revealed that there was no way that I could make the top 64. It was unfortunate, and crushing, because up until then, I felt like I was doing fairly well in the tournament.

My losses were against Elves (which is a bad matchup – I’ll need to Sideboard some Day of Judgment in the future. The loss to Esper was avoidable – I think – if I had remembered my Phantasmal Image interaction better and not flubbed the second game.

The games against Russo were probably not winnable – as he had the nut draw in both games, but without Sword in the picture, I can’t imagine that he has a terribly good match against me. Both games were winnable if I had a turn or two to breathe, so maybe Gut Shot would have been all I needed to take the lead there.

Altogether, for the longest tournament I’ve ever played in (10 rounds is monumental, and kudos to the judges for keeping it running so smoothly) it went reasonably. I would have liked to have finished x-2, but then again, so would everyone else in the room. Next time, I will.

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This weekend, I’ll be attending (and judging) the Top Deck Games Summer Open. If you’re interested in going to GP Boston, this represents a great tournament with a robust prize, in addition to some spectacular side events that range from Standard Win-A-Box to Ravnica/Dissention/Guildpact drafts. You should absolutely come on down and check it out.

The facebook event can be found Here. I'll be one of the guys in the Judge Blacks.

Adios Tokens, Hello Bonfire

This last weekend didn’t go according to plan at all.

All-Stars Collectables has a Star City Games Super Invitational Qualifier on the schedule, and I was most likely scheduled to judge it. Unfortunately, due to attendance concerns, I was asked to play instead of judge, and so I took my same old tokens list to task, and finished with a disappointing 2-2 drop. During this, I won a close match with Delver and crushed a janky GR Artifact Aggro deck. I lost to Naya Aggro and the new Elfball deck that got some hype on the GP Coverage.

And so that was that. Tokens goes down with another lackluster performance. I dropped from the tournament and watched a movie with my girlfriend, thinking half the time about what deck I’d rather play. I’ve become disillusioned with Tokens as of late. It just doesn’t have the power it used to in a world where every topdeck could be a Flame Wave. Bonfire of the Damned has – along with Restoration Angel (already hard enough to deal with) put enough roadblocks in place that I’ve got to throw in the towel on that one and move to plan B.

In fairness to plan B, I love this deck and everything about it. My weapon of choice from here on out is Naya Aggro. The deck is slick and powerful, full of every great card in Standard. You love the Restoration Angels from Delver? We’ve got em. Bonfire to wipe their board? We’ve got the full package. Uncounterable because of Cavern? Been there. Thalia? Yep. Huntmaster? Blade Splicer? We’ve got your token action in spades. You want Mana Dorks? Try eight.

Mikaeus? Isn’t he unplayable? Maybe not.

Hero of Bladehold? Pinch me.

Gavony Township? I’m sold.

Let me just make this very clear. Almost every card in this deck feels like it could be the best card in the format. We get to throw them all into one big pot, stir them up, add Borderland Rangers so we don’t kill ourselves with our land base, and go to town(ship).

It’s hard to not get excited about a deck with so many raw powerful cards. It’s hard to not be giddy at the thought of so many different lines of play. The only thing missing is a toolbox element, and I don’t think I want to add in the Birthing Pods, simply because it would dilute the all-gas nature of the deck.

Every single non-land is capable of advancing your board presence or dismantling theirs. None of the cards in this deck are ‘dead air’. Even the lands do good work, fighting against Counterspells and board stalls respectively.

Here’s the list that I started working from:

This list is awesome. I’m a little leery about some of the sideboard cards, and we’re certainly going to mess with some numbers, but the core is solid.

Here’s another list, from the Dragonmaster himself – Brian Kibler, who'd been advocating for a Naya build since we were all screaming about Bans.

Kibler is obviously going with more of a toolbox feeling for his deck. He’s got plenty of one-offs and the ability to find them with Birthing Pods. This allows him to have a more eclectic sideboard, full of one-of creatures with huge board impact. With that said, I think that we can tighten up his core a bit and make this deck equally consistent without the use of Birthing Pod. He’s also dropped the Bonfires from the maindeck – which is a choice I just cannot get behind. I feel like without bonfire, you’re bound to lose the mirror match in game one, and that’s certainly a matchup I’m going to want to be prepared for.

One creature that I’m very interested in is Geist-Honored Monk. I’ve watched it in some test games, and I bounced the idea off Marshall, who likes it quite a bit as well. It serves the dual role of being a major beater in a board stall situation while also putting bodies in the air to be pumped by Mikaeus and Township. It also makes Vapor Snag look like a joke, so that’s not horrible either. Kibler seems to think that we can get away with less colored Mana sources, and with the inherent power of the deck, I’m inclined to agree with him.

Thragtusk is one of those cards that has a huge inherent power, but might just get hated out by the metagame of the moment. 5/3 is a fairly fragile body with a billion first striking golem tokens running around, as well as Delvers and Flashed in Restoration Angels. I suspect we’ll see a ton more of him after Blade Splicer rotates out. (Personally, I suspect a very grindy metagame with monumental blowouts due to Bonfire as the future of Standard, post Scars Rotation.) I think I’m going to pass on Thragtusk for now, though one might find a place in the board for extremely grindy or tempo-driven games. He’s a great roadblock, with a lot more potential.

Zealous Conscripts is a very powerful card as well, but it’s use is situational, and without Birthing Pod for some Pod + Angel nonsense, I think that I’d be better off with other options, at least mainboard. It probably has a place in the side though.

Daybreak Ranger - I’m hedge-y on her. She’s spectacular in the mirror, which is almost a reason to include her off the bat, but she’s also fragile against Delver, and takes a lot of work to make it worth it. Mana dorks give her a ton of extra action by playing her on Turn 2, but I’d still be concerned about every removal spell in the format hitting her hard. Again, passing for now. Maybe in a post-Vapor Snag world.

Sublime Archangel is a powerful creature, and obviously competes with Hero of Bladehold in Nelson’s list. I don’t have any Archangels at the moment, but I think that this is one place where the Archangel might shine over the Hero. I’m a giant fan of Hero, but with the number of creatures we have (and the ability to get into deep board stalls), having a giant flyer might be just what we need to end games. I'm going to be aggressively picking them up if I can before this weekend. Turning my ground stalled out ground offence into half a dozen exalted triggers seems like a good way to take over a game.

Wolvir Silverheart seems great in any game where the other guy isn’t playing blue. Can we start hashtagging #PostVaporSnag yet? I want to play with this card, but I can’t justify skewing away from Delver. Marshall comments that it has the ability to punch through any board stalls with unparalleled power, but he worries about it's GG mana cost and it's vulnerability to Blue 'removal'.

Absent from both lists is Thundermaw Hellkite, which I’m also very interested in, but don’t quite have access to at the moment. I haven’t opened much M13 yet, and if neither of these guys thought he was worth a nod, maybe I’ll hold off on him for a little bit.

Ultimately, I came up with the following:

I’m keeping the Kibler mana base, more or less, because I think that having Gavony Township is the most important thing you can be doing with this deck once you have some board presence. I skewed more towards the Nelson style of build – aiming for consistency without Pod. I’m not a huge fan of Birthing Pod. It’s a powerful engine when built around, but I don’t like the trend of 1-ofs that it enables. I like my decks to function regardless of what I draw. Admittedly, this makes our sideboard cards less impactful, but I think the greater chance of winning Game 1’s is worth it.

I’m keeping Bonfire because seriously that card wins games.

This list is absolutely very much still in progress. I haven't played Naya since before Avacyn Restored came out, and my biggest issue was it's lack of ability to punch through in the late game. Now, with Bonfire as a late game Plague Wind, plus the addition of Restoration Angel to literally go 'over the top', I think we might finally have the deck I've been looking for to replace Tokens in my heart.

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This weekend, I'll be attending the Star City event in DC. I'll most likely be taking this deck with me, after some intense play testing for the next two nights. I'd encourage you to bring it to your game day, and see how it plays. If you're interested in meeting up, let me know. Maybe we could grab some food or something, keep each other's spirts high, and avoid all that ugly tilt.

This Thursday,we'll have the next installment of our Deckbuilding 101 series, this time looking at making your land spots count - and as a bonus, the results from my playtesting with Naya.

Got any questions about the deck? Anything you'd like me to talk about in future articles? Want to tell me what I'm doing right? Wrong? Drop me a message or a comment - here, on reddit, or tweet me (@ajrula)

Until Thursday, may all your draws be miracles.

Deckbuilding 101: Play The Deck You Love

When playing Magic, there is often one choice that overrides all the others. This one singular choice colors every other one that you’ll make in the course of the game, and informs every decision that you’ll have. A poor choice at this juncture could lead to a series of disappointing 0-2 drops, while a good decision can do everything from giving you an advantage to handing you a Pro Tour on a platter.

I’m talking about Deck Choice, and it’s the most important thing that you can learn in Magic. We all hear about breakout decks. Sam Black recently pioneered a Zombie deck at GP Atlanta to significant success. A few years back, Dragonstorm took the Pro Tour by…well…Storm. Not a year ago, in a field of Solar Flare and Illusions, a deck called Wolf Run Ramp arrived from the shadows in a blaze of glory. Choosing the right deck is the kind of choice that sticks with you.

Hard Choices

Something to take into account here is the difficulty of actually assembling the deck in question. For the most part, building a deck requires an expense of time and money, and both of those are scarce quantities in the lives of many players. Many strategy websites have made their living off using their time to work out a decklist and deliver it to players who don’t have the time to analyze metagames and sift through available card pools. For the brewers among us, the provide a critical jumping off point.

Thing is, we can’t just build every deck. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m strained on time as-is, and adding a ton more decks to upkeep would start cutting into valuable sleep time. That might work alright if you’re a college student who doesn’t need to wake up till Noon because you have a Class Schedule handed down from the Divines, but for us working stiffs who need to be at work by 9, and need to actually cook our food when we arrive home, it’s less viable.

So, here’s the critical question – how do we decide what decks are worth building?

A Question of Style

There are a lot of people who would tell you that you should just find the ‘best’ deck in the format and play that. While that will certainly give you a reasonable chance to do well, it makes me leery because the nature of the ‘best deck’ is that people will be gunning for it, and they’ll likely have more experience playing against it than you do playing with it.

No, the best option for someone who wants to go to a tournament is a deck that they will love. Find a deck that suits their personal style and work on it. Iterate it until it’s the best it can be. If you know your deck well, you will win games that you otherwise would not be able to. This isn’t to say, of course, that you should play horrible decks with the justification that you know them, but you need only look at recent legacy tournament results to see the benefits. Goblins and Elves surging upwards where they hadn’t before, Patrick Sullivan wins the Legacy Open with Burn of all things, Junk takes one of them down. These aren’t the ‘best decks’ of the format, but they certainly are decks that their owners have played with for a while and see significant advantage from that.

Case Study: Marshall

I’m going to mention my friend Marshall here, because his deck building style is fairly pronounced. In general, if given a choice, Marshall prefers two things overwhelmingly in his decks. First, he loves Blue. He enjoys the cerebral aspect of it, and how much choice it gives him over the way that the game plays out. When he plays a non-blue color, the decks just feel inconsistent and constrained. He doesn’t enjoy it as much. The other thing that Marshall loves is a good build around card. He wants to build a deck around a central core that makes the deck borderline unfair.

Some decks that he’s worked on in the recent past include Spirits, UR Delver, Heartless Architect, and Zedruu the Greathearted EDH. Each of these decks incorporate aspects that Marshall loves, and all include Blue. For Spirits, the deck has a strong tribal component that calls to him. Delver asks for a high percentage of Instants and Sorceries that provide the backbone of this counter-burn deck. Heartless Architect, as I noted in a previous article here, takes a number of shells and melds them together into an incredible ramp deck that is capable of really explosive starts. Building Zedruu is an exercise in counterintuitive cards – turning otherwise unplayable cards into deck staples via donation effects.

Case Study: Me

A wise man once looked at a deck that I had sent him and sagely nodded before responding. “This deck suits you.” When I asked what he meant, he pointed at it and explained. “Well, it’s an aggro deck…sort of.”

“Sort of?”

“It can be an aggro deck, but you it has a twist.”

“I do that a lot?”

I hadn’t even realized the common strain holding my decks together until someone else pointed it out to me. I hated Combo – I knew that much. The playstyle doesn’t appeal to me, and playing both with and against Splinter Twin was miserable for me when it was in Standard. Control decks hold some allure, but I can never bring myself to pull the trigger and build one to actually bring to a tournament.

Then I look at an Aggro Deck, with its sleek lines of play and I fall in love. For those of you who don’t know me in real life, back during Zendikar-Scars, during the height of Caw-Blade, back when I was a much worse player than I am now, I built UW Stoneforge Knights. I saw Hero of Bladehold and Knight Exemplar and knew there was a deck there. Stoneforge Mystic came along for a ride, just on the merits of sheer power, but the knights were the core of the deck. Unfortunately crippled by a terrible Splinter Twin matchup, the deck had some moderate success for a rogue strategy, but was ultimately hamstrung by my own skills, which were still developing from their young idealistic state. (I mourn that I wasn’t playing the full 4 preordain in that deck, even now, and I devoted no sideboard cards to Splinter Twin because I just didn’t understand the matchup.)

When Knights rotated out (RIP Knight Exemplar and Student of Warfare), I turned towards Puresteel Paladin. Here was a build-around card that I could sink my teeth into. I got to cast awesome spells, and my deck had five swords in it. What other deck could say that? I built my own Progenitus using an Etched Champion and six different equipment at one point. I ran Valakut out of threats – his deck had no mountains left, and all his Primeval Titans were dead. I stood victorious, and it felt great. The problem with that deck was that it was too fragile. Without a Puresteel Paladin in play, I felt like I could get run over at any time. I didn’t devote anything to protecting him, and without the advantages offered by the Paladin, I couldn’t keep up.

The loss of Puresteel left me in a lurch for a bit, I played Red Deck Wins, and then Mono-Black infect. I wanted to attack with creatures for the win, but balls-out aggro wasn’t for me. I liked counting Shrine Triggers, and manipulating the board to win with a single 12 damage shot. I loved being able to carve someone’s hand and use a 1/1 or 2/2 to get there for the win.

Then I built Zombies, to some success, and then finally, I found what I was looking for – BW Tokens.

I love the idea of Tokens. I love the spells that make multiple creatures. I love the anthems that make it practically feel like I’m cheating. I love that white gives me versatile answers, and black gives me effective ones. I love that I can act at Instant speed, that Lingering Souls lets me play around counterspells. I love that I can have explosive starts involving putting them into single digits on Turn 3.

I like making them have the answer, not looking for it myself.

So, what have I learned about myself? I like decks that turn guys sideways, but I’m not happy with a single dimension. I want some extra angle that lets me interact with the format.

Marshall often said that playing with a deck that you know is the best play you can make in Legacy. The format is wide enough that there’s no way to prepare for the entire field unless you’ve just played your deck enough that you have experience there. When we set about building a deck for me for GP Atlanta, Marshall took this into account and built a deck that was deliberately similar to what he knew I loved – a deck that attacked with smaller creatures, backed up by disruption. Yards Pale Ale was very much designed with my play style in mind, and because of that – even with my relative inexperience with the deck, I was able to pilot it to a 6-2-1 record, and narrowly miss Day 2 due to tilting (which, again, the result of my inexperience). Someone should write an article on recognizing and managing tilt. (And when he does, I’ll be sure to link over to him – hint hint Wingman.)

Take It Away

So, what should you get out of this article? Simple. You will play better and see stronger lines of play when you are playing a deck that you enjoy and are comfortable with. If you’ve been building and rebuilding decks every week, I strongly encourage you to build one deck that you’re happy with, and play it for a while – perhaps a full three month rotation. Make small changes, keep it current, but stay with the same deck.

I did with Tokens, and I can proudly say that it’s done me well. I’ve had the best Magic finishes of my life with this deck, and not once did I wish I was playing Delver, or Wolf Run Ramp instead. They don’t fit me – and so I’ll always be stronger with one of my decks.

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Do you have a specific style of deck that you prefer? Why do you like it? What advantages do you see in that style? Let us know in the comments – here or on Reddit.

This Thursday, I’ll talk about the changes I’m making to BW Tokens in anticipation of this weekend’s Star City Super IQ at All-Star Collectables. I’m still not certain if I’ll be playing or judging, but either way, I will be there. If you’re in the general Pennsylvania/New Jersey Area, it’s going to be a great time and we’d love to have you there. More information can be found HERE.  As a bonus, Thursday will see the first draft of the Naya Deck that I’m working on, though it’s far from complete.

Connecticon Convention Report - Top 8 in a StarCity Elite IQ

It was a long, mostly successful weekend.

I left work at noon on Friday, thinking to beat rush hour traffic. Unfortunately, that worked about as well as the George Washington Bridge’s Toll Plaza, and we arrived just after 10pm. Admittedly, we did get a late start due to some unavoidable circumstances regarding members of our party who weren’t necessarily ready to travel at the correct time, but traffic and dinner played a big part of it. We played Apples to Apples for the evening and Pop and I strategized for the next day.

Connecticon is a massive, multi-genre convention. If you’ve never gone, I strongly encourage you to give it a try. There’s literally something for everyone there. In previous years, I’ve spent the weekend roleplaying, attending panels on webcomics, buying magnificent art at bargain-basement prices, and playing Magic. This year, I will admit, my attention was a little bit more focused.

There were Star City Invitational Qualifiers firing off, two per day – all of Super Level or higher. Over the weekend, fourteen invitations would be given out – six for legacy, four for sealed, and four for standard. Nevertheless, Pop and I were leery about entering the Sealed Elite Qualifier. With a $40 price tag, it was certainly the most expensive event of the weekend, and neither of us wanted to get stuck with a subpar pool. I suggested that we swing by early in the day and make the decision to enter the tournament or not based on the number of people entering.

We arrived at 9:45, with only fifteen minutes left to enter. At that point, there were 35 people on the list. Cash prizes went down to the Top 16, and that seemed very reasonable, so we both entered. Unfortunately for our math, the numbers ballooned up to 65 in the last ten minutes, and so we were left with a (barely) seven round slog to the Top 8.

I opened a fairly lackluster pool, and was glad to pass it away, but unfortunately, Pop opened what some would conservatively call the Best Pool Ever. Featuring both a Liliana and an Ajani, the pool also had such all-stars as a pair of Serra Angels, double Murder and Pacifism, and enough exalted triggers to make Elves laugh at Titans.

Needless to say, he passed that away and got a pile of cardboard that could have been competitive if we were playing Homelands. Sadly, we weren’t. He went 0-1 drop on the spot.

I, on the other hand, received a pretty solid pool. It was a bit light on playables, but some creative choices ended up with a BW Exalted deck that splashed an Evolving Wilds and a single Island for Harbor Bandit. This choice ended up being the difference between winning a match and losing it in roughly half my matches.

Let me be clear about this – if you are using a member of the Kird Ape cycle, and you have any fixing in your deck, add one of the extra color. I promise you that you will not regret it.

I’m sitting there, building my pool, when I notice one judge stalking me. I look over at his nametag, and realize it seems familiar. I fish out my phone and start looking up a name on Reddit. It took me a good 45 seconds, but I eventually look up.

“Hello there Wingman.”
“Was wondering when you’d figure it out.”

Wingman2011, as many of you redditors know him, served as a judge for the weekend, and did a spectacular job. I have to give him some credit for being the primary announcer for the Fill-And-Fire events all day on Saturday, and managing to keep them amusing even the thirtieth time we all heard “Random So-And-So, your Draft is ready to fire. They would all LOVE to start playing, and we would LOVE to take your money. Please report to the desk immediately.” Also, ladies, he has an awesome radio voice, which had been described as both stand-up comedian and radio host.

Back to the sealed, most of the games eventually came down to one of my creatures being unblockable – either via flying, Harbor Bandit, or Tormented Soul. Add in a few exalted triggers, and it represents a very real clock that cleaved through opponents. Others were won because Vampire Nighthawk is incredible at racing. Others fell because Mark of the Vampire is an underrated card. +2/+2 and lifelink is a playable aura in Limited if you watch carefully and play it around instant removal. Often, a single swing would be more than enough to turn the tide.

Since again, I find limited summaries boring (and they often boil down to ‘and then I had it and he didn’t’) I’ll spare the details. I won my first four, lost the fifth, and then won round six to be able to draw into the Top 8 draft.

The Top 8 draft was one of the most harrowing Magic experiences that I’ve gone through so far. I’ve never done a competitive REL draft before, and I’m a little ashamed to know that I earned a warning for Improper Draft Procedure for looking at a pack of cards early. Then again, half the table got warnings for similar things, so I suppose that we were all fairly new to Top 8 drafts. I built what I thought was an awesome UW Skies deck – always a popular archetype in limited. Unfortunately for me, Big Green Stompy is also a good limited archetype, and Spiders beat birds in this set. Sentinel Spider, specifically, deserves some credit for being a huge road block for everything and their cousin. It’s a non-flying Serra Angel, but in Green, and at common. Seems pretty solid.

 I lose in the Top 8, collecting another SCG Top 8 pin (That makes three!), my first SCG IQ Playmat, and $100. I opted to receive the money in convention prize tickets, which allowed me to buy a pair of Scrublands for my legacy deck. While I was doing that, Pop had been doing some Fill-And-Fire Sealed events, and won one for a Convention-exclusive playmat – and enough tickets over the course of the day to buy a Karakas at an absurdly low price. Good for him.

We durdled around for the evening, playing one last Fill-And-Fire Sealed. (I lost in the finals in game 3 to Switcheroo on my 10/10 Slumbering Dragon. Mind control effects suck, but still good for some tickets.) Bed followed shortly thereafter, and on the morning, we were back at it.

The Standard Super IQ on Sunday went less well for me. I played my normal Tokens build with some minor sideboard tweaks for the Wolf Run matchup. I met Naya Aggro in game one, packing the newly released Thragtusk. I don’t want to say that I told you so, but that card is absurd. It throttled me in game one with a pair of Restoration Angels attached that I was never able to dig out from under. Game two came down to him miracling a Bonfire for 2 and killing more tokens than I’d like to admit. Neither match was close.

I won round two against RW Humans, which seems like a bad matchup unless you draw multiple Champions of the Parish like I did.  Sometimes you’re lucky, I suppose. Unfortunately, I was not, and I lost the third round to Delver after he blind flipped a lot of things and ran me over without much protest. He at least complimented that I blanked his Vapor Snags all game by playing around them.

Pop continued to play in the event and went on to Top 8 before losing his match. Still won a playmat and $50 cash.

While he did that, I entered the final Standard Fill-And-Fire  event of the weekend. Not wanting to go out on a 1-2 drop, I 3-0 the event and take home the prize of 32 tickets and a playmat. Two of the matches were pretty lackluster affairs – against Mill and a subpar version of Tokens that never got off the ground. The third match was against an extremely competent UW Delver player who put me down a game early, and took an advantage in the second. A well-timed Midnight Haunting put me back in the game, and I managed to crawl back before taking the game – and then the third in decisive fashion.

I cash in my tickets for my last Marsh Flats, my last Ethersworn Canonist, and three packs of AVR – one of which contained a Cavern of Souls. My luck was strong with this one. I’ve only got about 20 cards to go for my Legacy deck, and we’re making slow but steady progress on that front. I’ve resolved to not spend too much money on the deck from here on our, which means all the card acquisitions will have to be via prize support or trades. This is going to make it a little difficult, but I imagine that we can probably get there over time.

I caught up with Wingman once more before I left, and we made sure to get a picture for you guys. I’m the handsome one in green. He’s the handsome one in Judge Black.

Wingman2011 and Myself, Rocking the Con

Overall, the weekend went extremely well for me. I received prizes from 3 of the 4 events I entered, though admittedly not the events that I would have expected if you had asked me at the start of the weekend. We ended things up with a trip to Texas Roadhouse and then singing Linkin Park all the way back to Philadelphia.

This coming weekend will be spent in DC, so I won't likely get to play much Magic. There's an outside chance I might finally set up my Magic Online account though - and try out the new Beta Client (which I hear is sweet). The Magic Judge Open is coming up, and I'd like to have at least some familiarity with the system by that time. This Thursday, we'll talk about what I'm unhappy with in Tokens, and what deck I'll be testing out in Standard next week!

Have any suggestions for an article for me to write? I'm always accepting suggestions. Feel free to leave comments, message me on Twitter (@ajrula) or reddit (andrewrula). I also accept email suggestions - andrewrula at gmail.com.

Until Thursday, Happy Spellslinging!
-Andrew

Three Decks and a Challenge

For those of us who enjoy brewing decks and building carefully crafted stacks of cards, designed to cleave through the metagame, this weekend is one of the most exciting of the year. A new set, Magic 2013, becomes legal in all formats, and the metagame crashes wide open again.

In the last three months since Avacyn Restored, we’ve seen the metagame evolve. GR Aggro adopted Wolvir Avenger, and then Bonfire of the Damned. Wolf Run decks increasingly leaned towards Naya – seeking to utilize the power of Elesh Norn. Gerry Thompson ‘broke the format’ with Angel Delver, incorporating Restoration Angel and making your own turn seem much less safe. Infect with Wild Defiance and Venser Control lists cropped up again, and somehow, Esper Control began to win again. The lack of bannings in Standard pushed forward a surge of innovation as chinks began to appear in Delver’s armor. Blood Artists came to aid the Zombie apocalypse, and Naya Pseudo-pod, championed by Brian Kibler, left dead insects strewn about for weeks, while others continued to innovate on Delver itself, trying to recapture Faeries and Caw-Blade’s dominance.

Things have been interesting, to say the least.

Now, Magic 2013 has added 249 cards to our available pool, and we have three months before Return to Ravnica lights the heavens (and our minds) aflame. We’ll lose Titans, Swords, Phyrexian Mana, and a slew of other powerful cards. That’s where we’re headed.

Here’s where we are now:

Metagame Analysis Provided by MTGPulse

Delver is still clearly the deck to beat in the format, but Kibler’s Naya Humans is coming in strong in the last few weeks. Zombies remains powerful, as does Wolf Run and RG. Looking at M13, we can see that there’s quite a few cards that are looking to find a home in decks. I wrote about a few of them HERE, last week.

Today, we’re going to take a look at three decks that my friends and I have been playing with. We’ll see what makes them powerful, what choices we have, and where they’re weak.

MONO-GREEN-BEATDOWN

As soon as I saw Rancor in the spoiler, I knew that this was going to be the deck gaining the most. Dungrove Aggro had long been a deck hovering around Tier 2. For a week or so, it broke into the metagame, boasting a good matchup against Delver. Unfortunately, Dungrove could be 10/10+, but without Trample, it could never really break through for those last points of damage, and splashing for Kessig Wolf Run damaged Dungrove Elder’s P/T too much.

Now, we have arguably the best aura ever printed to work with, and Dungrove Elder…well, he’s not happy.

(editor's note: The above list should include 2 Yeva, Nature's Herald, 2 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker, and 1 Thragtusk. Mtgpulse has not updated for M13 as of the writing of this piece.)

Marshall sent me this list, and I made only a few tweaks to it. This deck incorporates an aggressive early game plan that resists removal more effectively than any other deck on the market. It forces early spells out to try to slow us, only to have the big guns come online and crush them beneath.

Thragtusk can act as a Green Sun’s Zenith target for 5 life and extra bodies, while Yeva allows us to fight through opposing countermagic (Cast one spell on End step, and another during your main phase, overloading their available mana). Strangleroot Geist and Dungrove act as a duo that, with Rancor, can punch through anything. T1 mana dork, T2 Geist and Rancor, Swing for 4 seems like a powerful Turn 2 option.

Revenge of the Hunted is an extremely powerful card, often amounting to Plague Wind for G, but I’m not sure that we want two of them in the deck. Likewise, I’m not sure that Primeval Titan is where we want to be in a deck that isn’t running any utility lands. Perhaps splashing a single Kessig Wolf Run and Mountain as targets could be an option – or else removing the Titan in favor of a tutor target – like Silklash Spider. (Look it up, it isn’t terrible!)

 The sideboard is obviously fairly dependent on the metagame that develops, so I’ll leave that up to you. I think the addition of Rancor gives this deck the kind of legs that it needs to trample over the competition.

NAYA FLICKER, or “How I Learned To Love Summoning Sickness.”

(editor's note: Please assume there are 2 Thragtusk and 2 Thundermaw Hellkite on the above list. MTGPulse hasn't updated for M13 yet.)

This Marshall deck is in a similar vein, taking a riff off of Kibler’s Naya list. We’ve removed the Pod plan in favor of a more removal-resistant Cloudshift suite, and we’ve added in a number of new creatures to take advantage of it. Zealous Conscripts combos with Cloudshift to be a full-on endless theft (that works on Gideon, if you use his ultimate after stealing him). Thragtusk might as well be called the Value Cow, because I can’t think of any profitable way to deal with him. Casting him is guaranteed to get you ahead, and blinking him only makes it worse.

Let’s look for a second at a situation where your opponent casts a removal spell on Thragtusk, and you flash in a Restoration Angel to save it. On this exchange, you get the following:

You lose a card; your opponent loses a card. Then, for 4 mana, you gain a 3/4 flying, a 3/3, and 5 life.

You thought Blade Splicer was good because it was 4 power for 3 mana? Get real. Casting Restoration Angel on anything in this deck feels like cheating. The biggest weakness is the mana base, and four cavern of souls will go a long way to fixing that. If colors are becoming an issue, I could be convinced to cut a single Gavony Township for more colored sources.

Your goal is to grind them out and end the day with superior board presence, which only gets better as you activate Gavony Township and let your huntmasters flip back and forth.

I asked Marshall why he chose to go this route, maximizing flicker rather than getting more value with a Pod plan, such as Kiblers. He responded, simply, that he wanted to see how powerful the mechanic is. Many of his decks operate on this principle – he’ll test a mechanic or an interaction, and after playing for a while, he’ll see the things that worked, the things that didn’t, and be able to use those components modularly in future decks. It takes time and a devoted test-team, but it gives you an idea of the power between specific interactions.

Finally, we’ve got something a little spicier for today. I’ll preface this with the statement that I have no idea how viable it would be. This list was (lovingly) borrowed and edited slightly from a SCG Top 8 competitor – Jake Moldowsky.

NON-MIRACLE GRO

For those of you who don’t know, Quirion Dryad was Tarmagoyf before we had Tarmagoyf. Given the high level of cantrips in Standard, we have a situation where a single Dryad could become huge and start crushing in very early for a ton of damage. Such a deck would ideally have a large number of instants and sorceries, which tends to point towards some other cards that also benefit from that style of deck construction. Luckily, Standard has no lack of powerful effects that care about spells.

(editor's note: The maindeck should also include 2 Augur of Bolas, and the sideboard should include 3 Talrand, Sky Summoner, and 1 Augur of Bolas. MTGPulse has not updated for M13 at the time of this article.)

While this deck could effectively be called UG Delver, it really plays subtly differently. It churns through its deck, firing off spells to sculpt the perfect hand and get enough protection for Dryad to go off. With the possibility of every cantrip drawing you into an Apostle’s Blessing, Delver is forced to cast preemptively or deal with a 10/10+ Dryad. Snapcaster lets you re-use your spells, Augur gets you more, Dryad grows, and Delver is Delver. Runechanter’s Pike ties it all together, and makes every card into a game-ending threat.

This deck was played at a very competitive shop’s testing session, and made the finals (where they drew). This isn’t the style of deck that I’d personally choose for my playstyle, but it’s certainly something that I’ll be accounting for in my mental testing. It looks like it has some significant power behind it, and if you’re not ready for it, you might just get destroyed.

Plus, you get to run Talrand and play 18 lands in the same deck. How often do you get to play with a legacy-style manabase in Standard?

THE CHALLENGE

Finally, today, I’m going to issue each of you a challenge. That means you, /r/MagicTCG and /r/Magicdeckbuilding! I want you to come up with a new archetype based on a card (or cards) in M13. Don’t build a deck around it, but try to find some of the core cards that would interact with each other. Think of it like a thought exercise. We’re trying to reduce the echo chamber effect here and come up with some innovation that leads to a varied and awesome metagame.

This Friday, I’ll be traveling to Hartford, Connecticut for Connecticon. There’s going to be a ton of Magic related events there, and I fully plan on entering at least the Star City Elite Qualifier there on Saturday. For anyone else who’s going to be attending, drop me a line and I’ll swing by and say hey.

Happy Brewing,

Andrew