Saturday, January 16, 2010

Unusual tournament

Since Thursday I'm trying to take part in a magic the gathering tournament (format extended). On Thursday we arrived to the game store and found out that we are only 3 for the tournament. On Friday the situation was more or less the same. That day I at least managed to play few games with my UWR (t2) against bant (ext) and we had a lots of fun during the game. Today I arrived to the game store hoping that finally today at least 8 people would come. Well, the tournament took place not being a DCI one as there were not enough people for it. So why it was so special? Check the following photo...

Round 1 - GW Aggro

I played against GW aggro deck that was trying to kill the opponent with Bonesplitters and Shield of the Oversoul. My task was easy with my Izzet control - kill the creatures with bolts, counter Shield of the Oversoul or bounce the creature being enchanted and kill with Ephemerons or Mulldrifters. It was an easy task but I have to say that my opponent build his deck quite well. He at least thinks about what he's playing and why which is something many of the younger players don't do (as they usually net deck and then they are trying to figure out how the deck works). This player would deserve a praise for this even though he needs more skill and better deck building skills. He's getting better though. He even sided land destruction against me which surprised me. Well played.

Round 2 - Izzet control

I played more or less a mirror match. My opponent played Lightning Bolts, Incinerates, Burst Lightnings, Izzet Chronarchs all in playsets maindeck. He also played Flame Jab which is a good card but not really that good against me (especially not good for counter battles). Anyway all this translates to => too many burn spells compared to my poor Lightning bolts and burst lightnings. I don't remember how but I managed to win the first game somehow. Probably Errant Ephemeron won't be a win condition card in these decks^^. Mine ended up burned and I countered my opponent's one. After the first game I put out my martyrs and faerie trickeries (replacing it with negates and incinerate). The second game was a really bad one for me and the game was quite short compared to the first one.
In the third game I wanted to win^_~ and I was slowly getting closer and closer to that. In the end Shimmering Glasskite and burn spells managed that.

Round 3 - Monogreen Aggro

Last round was unusual. Actually I played against a deck I build myself so I knew what to expect. In the first game my hand was ideal 2 burn spells, island, mountain, 2x remove soul and train of thought. My opponent played Frontier Guide, then Nissa's Chosen (3x!!) and Larva. All those cards ended up burned or countered. I let him have Basilisk for a while (2 rounds) and it killed my Mulldrifter but that was actually what I wanted so my opponent helped me^^. My opponent tried few more creatures but all ended up dead, my two ephemerons and a mulldrifter with few burn spells did the job later.

The second game was quite funny. I kept a really bad hand ... or well actually it was Mountain + 3 burn spells + counters. This wasn't enough (as I did not manage to draw enough lands to keep up) against adventuring gear, harrow and territorial baloth.

I won the third game easily and won the "tournament".

Monday, January 11, 2010


Yesterday I took a little walk across Prague and I have to say that I haven't enjoyed the nature (and the city) since a long time. Seeing all the trees covered in snow ... just beautiful. It made me look everywhere to spot things I would never have spotted before. I even went to check some places were caches are hidden. If I would have a camera I would take photos of some things that caught my eye. I have few photos on my cell phone (I might add them later) but those probably don't have a good quality and I couldn't take pictures of things that were a bit further from me.

Anyway today Maxx Unlimited song tried to wake me up at 5. At 5:20 I decided that's it's already time to get up and catch the bus. The walk to the bus station was another miracle. Everything covered in snow and lighted by the artificial lights. Still it looked nice....

Sunday, January 10, 2010

RG beats - All common

For testing purposes of my new Grixis control deck I build a RG beats deck (as I'm tired of testing my all common decks against regular soldiers). I found out that my Grixis deck can't do much against first strike creatures (those soldiers are really annoying with that). So I took Ember Weaver and multicolor permanents as a base (nacatl outlander, jund hackblade and borderpost). 3/3, first strike, reach kills all my beloved Grixis creatures (Tidehollow Strix, Parasitic Strix, Kederect Creeper). Anyway the choices are quite clear - decklist follows.

Gruul beats (All Common)
Lands: 21
4x Firewild borderpost
9x Forest
8x Mountain

Creatures: 23
4x Wild Nacatl (one drop 2/2, nice)
4x Nacatl Outlander (multicolored and prot. from blue)
4x Rip Clan Crasher (multicolor + haste, yay)
4x Jund Hackblade (haste, 3/2 nice)
4x Ember Weaver (can't be better - 3/3 first strike, reach)
3x Goblin Bushwacker (I will test this...)

Non-creature Spells: 16
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Burst Lightning
4x Colossal Might (6dmg in turn 2?)
4x Vines of Vastwood (protection against opponents removal)

Haven't thought of that yet...

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Izzet control

In January a series of all common extended tournaments was about to start. Me and Lukas decided to build a deck for that as we are tired with competitive formats. Both of us had Izzet in mind as it can both counter and burn.
I also tried to figure out a UWR variant for extended (based from my T2 UWR deck) as I just can't play an aggro deck in a aggro way^^. I tested both decks at the same time...during the past few days so it's all in one post.
(keep in mind that I don't develop for competitive but for fun) and the outcome?

Mass Removal
I started testing my UWR deck trying to figure out if Day of Judgment is worth replacing with Firespout. I realized that this card works quite well but won't help me against Baneslayer Angel or creatures that get pumped (white soldiers). Especially mono white soldiers with Armorsmith and Honor of the Pure were killing me. And if I managed to counter/kill everything I had to deal with Baneslayer Angel. (not that I would encounter this at Extended).

In most of the other match ups I tried playing Firespout instead of Day of Judgment and it did not make a difference. I hardly play this card on turn 3 so I can wait till round 4 or more and with enough dual lands and fetch lands I don't problems having 2 white mana producing lands.

For mass removal in all common there is one card that stands out - Martyr of Ashes. One drop and pay 2, reveal x red cards, sac and deal x damage to non flying creatures? That's just perfect.^^

I also tried to focus on xU counterspells vs Mana Leak and Rune Snag vs Cancel/Remove Soul/Negate. In most of the games I played Mana Leak and Rune Snag became dead cards quite soon. Even though it's good to tap your opponents lands. Still it did not really help me much. Condescend and Broken Ambition did not work that well either (most probably because I don't usually start and don't have more lands and especially against Bant these cards are useless). Scry is a good thing but drawing the cards is still better. (or at least it seems so for the time being...even adding 3x ponder seemed as a better alternative. - not a good one for sure though^^)

I decided that the Cancel/Remove soul against mainly aggro decks is much better. People most probably disagree with me on this (few already were telling that it's a insanity but hell it works...). Ok well...Still I haven't played enough games to judge, but for me it works better.

Later I realized that there is Dissipate and Faerie Trickery that remove spells from the game. Dissipate is no longer Ext legal so I decided to try out Faerie trickery (it backfired only once for the time being - Vendilion Clique). Also Bant showed me Spellsnare which messes up with my Remove soul, but that would also mess up Mana Leak/Rune Snag. Path to Exile or enough burn kills even a baneslayer/goyf so I'm not that concerned about that.

Winning conditions
UWR still runs Ajani. Chandra is too slow and won't usually do those 10 dmg as the game at extended is much faster. Ajani can work wonders but still is pretty bad winning condition...He's just unreliable I have to think everything all over.

Creatures that can win the game are Sphinx of Jwar Isle supported by Kitchen Finks. Sphinx is good for obvious reasons and Kitchen Finks can block twice or die once and still block something (unless exiled or countered). I would fancy one more creature but can't decide what that should be. Usually Kitchen Finks + Sphinx are fine but sometimes I miss Wall of Denial. I need something to protect Ajani Vengeant but I should be able to take care of protecting him myself. So that Wall of Denial can be replaced with something else. (as the 'walker can easily die of other removal)

Izzet has also an obvious choice for a creature winning the game - Errant Ephemeron. 4/4 flyer with suspend 4. Suspending this card and then preparing for countering any removal is good (even though Meddling Mage managed to mess my plans! argh). Izzet deck also has Mulldrifters for drawing cards and mostly blocking. These creatures can't go for a damage race but blocking 4 damage is something the deck needs. I also added Shimmering Glasskite. Someone at some tournament played this against me and I had quite some hard time getting pass the first counter and opponents counters (till I managed to get my Jitte on the table). So I though that playing 2 of these could help me. It eats two cards, is a good blocker and even good attacker (at all common).

Card Advantage
In UWR instead of Jace I tried Mind Spring and it works more or less.

For Izzet I had troubles finding a card that would suit me. I found one when browsing my card pool - Train of Thought. I decided that in the worst case drawing 2 cards for 4 mana is still better than draw 3 and discard a land (or two cards). Train of Thought is really cool in late game. And Izzet Chronarch is something that can get this card back to me. I'm not really that excited about playing four of these so it's more of a late game card (play 2).

Spot Removal
UWR runs Lightning bolts and Path to Exile. On standard I actually replaced 2 paths with to Celestial Purges. It's good even in mirror. Exiling Ajani is always good and I don't usually need that much spot removal for non-red/black creatures. Anyway at Extended it's of no use as who the hell would play BR?

Izzet has Lightning Bolts and Burst Lightning. I put burst lightning there as this can deal more damage in late game and anyway there are hardly creatures with toughness 3 and if they are any they don't usually cost 2 mana. I was thinking about adding 1-2 Incinerates but I realized that this does not help much (in mirror it does but otherwise it messes the deck)

Izzet control (All Common)
Lands: 24
4x Izzet Boilerworks
3x Terramorphic Expanse
11x Islands
6x Mountains

Creatures: 13
4x Mulldrifter
2x Izzet Chronarch
2x Shimmering Glasskite
2x Martyr of Ashes
3x Errant Ephemeron

Non-creature Spells: 24
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Burst Lightning
4x Faerie Trickery
4x Remove Soul
1x Compulsive Research
2x Train of Thought
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Muddle the Mixture
1x Yamabushi's Storm
1x Mana Leak

4x Rune Snag
2x Martyr of Ashes
3x Smash to Smithereens
1x Errant Ephemeron
1x Relic of Progenitus
2x Steamcore Weird
1x Echoing Truth

Saturday, January 2, 2010

A comet? and a treasure?

Today was a really weird day. I should skip the first half of the day as it wasn't pleasant that much.

Afternoon I went to a draft. On my way suddenly something bright in the night sky showed up. It seemed to be burning. It was orange and moving fast in the direction of East (few degrees south). After some time the orange "flame" dimmed and finally the whole object disappeared. There were people in the streets wondering what it was and discussing that matter. I continued on though. I thought that later when I get home I would be able to find out what the hell it was.

At today's draft after I wasn't sure what to draft. It all started with kor skyfisher and plated geopede but ended up in mono green. I managed to get cards of all colors and I did few hate picks (because Malakir Bloodwitch would surely kill me). At that time I did not know yet that this deck would be capable of playing 3:0. I should note that I made a really idiotic plays 3 times (two were really serious bad plays, the last one not really).

Mono Green

5x Timbermaw Larva
2x Savage Silhouette
2x Turntimber Basilisk
2x Jolara Bard
1x Vines of Vastwood
1x Mold Shambler
1x River Boa
1x Oran-Rief Recluse
1x Territorial Baloth
1x Nissa's Chosen
1x Grazing Gladehart
1x Greenweaver Druid
1x Oran-Rief Survivalist
1x Frontier Guide
1x Explorer's Scope
1x Spidersilk net

Well, um...the fact that this five larva deck was capable of winning was a surprise number three of the day (with the flying object being the first one). Do you want to know what was the second surprise of the day?