Boros

So this is my new brew and what I intend to run on Friday. The deck can basically cast everything on turn 2, except for Koth. Some of the lists that are going around don't run Bushwhacker in the main board and I think this is a mistake. There's absolutely no reason not to run him in the mainboard. So far i've playtested against Ascension and Elves and it has a pretty good match up against both. For Elves I've got them dead before they can get off their Wave and with Ascension it's kind of a crap shoot, I have to kill them before they get Ascension online.

The sideboard will look something like this:

4x Luminarch Ascension
2x Adventuring Gear
4x Kor Firewalker
4x Cunning Sparkmage
1x Emerge Unscathed

Luminarch is obviously for the control decks out there. The additional Adventuring Gear are out there for control as well just because if I'm able to drop just one on Spikeshot Goblin, that's pretty much all she wrote. Firewalker for the red match up. Sparkmage for Basilisk Collar shenanigans against aggro and a singleton Emerge Unscathed depending on what i'm facing.

The deck can win on turn 4. It's very fast and it forces your opponent to make some decisions that they may not want to do.

A typical goldfish can look something like:

Turn 1: Mountain, Goblin Guide, swing for two
Turn 2: Plains, Steppe Lynx, Goblin Guide, swing for four
Turn 3: Arid Mesa, double landfall, swing for eight, drop Stoneforge Mystic, find Adventuring Gear, leave a Mountain open
Turn 4: Equip Adventuring Gear to Guide, Scalding Tarn, trigger on both Guide and Lynx, attack step, during their block step crack the fetch double landfall,bolt at the end for good measure

Again this is only goldfishing, your opponent will have ways to deal with you, but you can at least see how devastating it can be.

Questions, comments?

ANNOUNCING

TEAM BIG SEXY IS COMING TO SMASH YOUR FACE...OH YES!

ROCKETSHIPS...RECOGNIZE!!!

Big (Mythic) Red

Okay so this is the new brew I'm working on. Obviously I'm still working on the sideboard but I'm very happy with the main board.

The basis of this deck is to power out big creatures using Koth of the Hammer and Everflowing Chalice. It is actually possible to turn 4 Koth and then cast Kozilek on turn 5. Pretty sick for a red deck. I think an interaction people don't see on Koth is that his first ability almost plays like a mini Garruk. You can tap a mountain for mana and then use Koth's ability to turn it into a creature, but then you can tap that guy for mana again.

Cyclops Gladiator is a card that I think people underestimate. This guy can get on the board turn 3 and do serious damage to a deck that is relying on mana dorks.

The rest of the choices are just big creatures that are fun to see on the field. I am seriously considering making room for the Cunning Sparkmage/Basilisk Collar combo, but I don't think that's what this desk wants to do. Maybe in the board.

A full compliment of burn is here obviously to control the field until you can start putting out the fatties.

If you can't win with your fatties obviously you've got a few other win conditions. Koth's ultimate absolutely KILLS. A deuce of Comet Storm is also there for double mana shenanigans. If the game goes late, you've also got Valakut which is always fun.

All in all it's just a fun deck to play. I haven't playtested it yet, mainly because I'm looking for the cards, but I'm certain that this will be a blast to play...no pun intended. Until next time.

Agents of SHIELD

Okay so in an effort to better understand control and to not dislike it so much I put together U/W/R Super Friends a while back and generally smashed face with it. I may have even come to like playing the deck. After a while my aggro roots kicked in and I went back to my default playing style. With the new planeswalkers in Scars however, I decided that it was time to put Super Friends back together, but not your grand pappy's Super Friends...no sir! This version is all about intrigue and manipulation and stabbing you in the back. So with that in mind...I give you Agents of SHIELD. And yes Jace is supposed to be Nick Fury! :)



I've tested it against RDW, against aggro, even against the mirror and it generally does well. I feel like it will have a good match up against ramp too, but haven't been able to test it yet. Comments?

A List

Things I Don't Do:

Steal players from other shops (this isn't even possible to do, people choose where they want to play)
Bad mouth other stores (It's not even worth my time to bad mouth individuals)
Pick up players from one venue and shuttle them to mine (never happened, I only pick up when they're chilling with me for the weekend)

Things I Do Do :)

Run a kick ass tournanment at Collector's Corner in Parkville, MD on Harford Rd every Friday from 6:30 till whenever.
Play Elves because they're cute and cuddly and because Nissa got me feigning!
Give out door prizes, foil promos and 2 prize packs per participant for our Friday Night Magic event.

Things I'm going to do:

Get two more Jaces and one more Gideon to finish my deck. Oh yes. But Elspeth's at 19 dollars when Duel Decks Elspeth vs. Tezzeret comes out (ONLY if she gets reprinted in M11, which I think is a strong possibility).
Make my Blood Beetle deck viable...oh yes...oh yes.

An Open Letter

So usually this has only been deck related shenanigans, but I feel the need to post something on a topic that has caused some heat recently.

A few months ago, I took the opportunity to start running my own tournaments at my local game shop that I frequent. Now before this I was supporting another Magic event at another store because it was either that or the place down the street, where the sharks reside and I'm really a casual player at heart.

Now, before I left I remember the TO at the place I was playing at, tell me how great it was that I was going to run my own event. He even offered to come play at times. Now I live with a guy who played at this place as well, and when I started running the new event he started coming to my place. In addition, two other guys who frequented the previous place started coming to mine because they had an issue with the TO there. Now after I started running events, I took a week off and I attending an FNM at this place for old times sake and the TO took rules enforcement too far and we had a very loud and very public argument over it that spilled over into Twitter. Things were never the same afterwards, I had already pretty much washed my hands of this person and was civil only because he was friends with my friends. You know how that goes.

Now, recently I've started to get really good turnouts at the new place and that being said, please come show your support and come play at FNM at Collector's Corner every Friday at 6:30 in Parkville, MD on Harford Rd. It came to my attention that my previous play spot had a bad night and didn't have enough for FNM.

This is not my fault, I'm not out to hurt anyone. My priority is to Collector's Corner and help the Magic scene succeed there and help the store succeed. To think that I have ulterior motives involved or trying to sabotage another group is not only insulting but to be quite honest it's not that important for me to hurt someone else. It's hilarious if you think so. That being said, I've written this particular person off my life because let's face it life is too short and quite honestly I don't take this GAME all that seriously. It's a game right?

I hope that this other location comes back and thrives, but in the grand scheme of things here are some numbers. I ran a 14 person tourney this week, and only 3 people came from the other place. Am I really hurting the other location or did they maybe just have an off week? Or in the case of two of the people who came to play with my group, they just had enough of the TO running this other event.

To everyone else in that group, I love you guys, you're awesome to play with and i hope to continue to do so. There is no ill will towards any of you no matter where you choose to play. Just make sure above all else you HAVE FUN! :)

Till next time.

Seriously Part Deux

I know I'm trying to make this a "clean" blog so people take me seriously...but in all honesty...i just came in my pants.

Seriously?

Because Jund needed another reason to be any better than it already is. Guess it's time to join the crowd.

Getting My Bearings Back

So lately I've had a lot of trouble not getting upset about losing when I play Magic. I think it's because of where I'm at as a player. And I think this ties in to my rant on the reserved list. I am becoming what I ranted against and hate most. I am becoming someone who cares more about the monetary aspect of the game than the game itself. I've gotten into the mindset where if I can't go top 4 at an FNM and get promo cards and prize packs, there's no reason for me to go.

This is the worst kind of player and it's exactly the reason why I was excited that BHJ created a tourney at the Rotunda Mall because most of the guys who play up at Legends are these types of players.

This game is supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be a GAME. Somewhere along the line I have forgotten that and I need to find my way back to where it's a game first and winning tourneys is secondary. That is my goal in the next few weeks.

For those that don't know I will be running Standard tournaments of my own at Collectors Corner MD on Harford Rd in Parkville starting April 3rd. Signups at 11am and we start play at 11:30am. This is in no way meant to intrude on the Rotunda's business which is why I'm doing the tourneys when I'm doing them. I figure those that don't play Magic League or on Magic League off weeks can come support my tourney. This month we're giving out promo Baloths and Kor Firewalkers. In addition 2 packs per entry for the prize pool. Come out and help me get back into enjoying this game ya'll!

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY! Bows at the feet of Wizards for making such a Timmytastic card. I'm crying it's so beautiful.

Now to just create a Summoning Trap deck to play the bastard.

Seriously...look at it!!!!!!

The Reserved List - A Final Thought

First of all, we all know that Wizards has made an official decision on all the Reserved List hoopla that we all have been hearing recnetly. I would say a great many of us don't like this decision but at least they made one.

I think it comes down to this, and it's readily apparent by Twitter posts in which members of R&D can't discuss the decision in great detail. This was a legal decision that is perpetuated by Hasbro being afraid of a class action lawsuit should they change or even do away with the list. Yes that's a very real and very valid reason for them to have made the decision they made. And if you think that's BS please understand that there will be at least ONE greedy collector who can convince a lawyer to take on the case. And remember a class action lawsuit does not require that everyone who could be a plaintiff participate. It only takes one people.

So that's that. You won! Enjoy your overpriced cards and enjoy the fact that hard working people who enjoy this game will not be able to participate in Legacy. And let's not even talk about Vintage.

Congratulations to Wizards for doing what needed to be done to keep the game safe. I appluad them for that. My only complaint, and not really a complaint since it's nothing that they've done wrong, is that Wizards is clearly being punished for a decision that got made by people who are no longer with the company. A decision which they know hurts the game. Just continue doing what you're doing guys, putting out a great product that excites us everytime it comes close to a new set release.

In other news, I'm excited for Rise of the Eldrazi! Who's with me?

Reserved List

So I have been reading about the handling of the reserve list for quite some time now. Especially in the wake of articles by Ben Bleiweiss on www.starcitygames.com and also the forums on www.mtgsalvation.com

That being said I finally felt it was time for me to make my opinion known. The reserved list puts the game in a box. The policy basically says, "If you were around since the beginning, great! Enjoy the Legacy and Vintage formats. However if you're new to the game, we're not going to make it all easy for you get into anything other than Standard." I would even make the case that Extended can be hard to break into. I digress. The point is everyone goes on and on about how the value of their cards would go down. So? Let me ask you a question; what do you care more about? The health of the game over time or your own investment in the game? If you answered yes to both GREAT. You should care about your investment. But if you solely care about the investment and don't give a rat's ass about the health of the game, then we have a very serious issue.

Listen people, they aren't going to reprint power and if they do it's going to be in very limited formats and I honestly don't see it making much of a price difference on the older version. People still want that card and are willing to pay for it. What getting rid of the reserve list does is allow cards that have VERY LITTLE value in the first place anyway, a chance to be reprinted or functionally reprinted, or whatever they want to do.

Wizards needs to make the game accessible to a large range of players who want to play a large number of formats. I myself would love to get into Legacy and Vintage, but I have a mortgage and there is no way in hell I'm spending that kind of money to get into the format. Wizards has just lost one player to a format that they are trying to push more. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only person to feel this way. I'm one of thousands. Yes it's true that the recent turnouts in GP Legacy and Vintage events has been staggering. But take a moment to reflect on how many people actually showed up with T1 decks that could compete. People came because they want to be able to play with every card they've ever bought. They don't want to be restricted by Standard, where you are investing so much more over time to stay current.

The point is the reserved list serves one purpose, to keep the value of cards for collectors and sellers. That's it. That's what it boils down to ladies and gents. These people want to ensure that their Underground Sea will still sell for $90. They care about the value of their card, not the game.

I love this game (yes even though it frustrates the hell out of me) and I want to see the game continue to grow and see the success that it has recently been seeing. The game is not slowing down anytime soon, but it needs room to grow. The final word is that the Reserved List helps keep the game from growing. Think about it....

Optimus Prime Control

Okay so I've been battling the internal demons for awhile now to build an actual control deck with counterspells in it and I finally broke down and did it. I hate you very much to both Big Head Joe and Joey Pasco.

Anyway my version of this deck is to control the board via burn and counter. I can win in one of three ways. I can pop off Jace's ultimate on the Mind Sculpter version (as soon as I get one more of these I will be taking the other version of Jace out of the deck), load up a Pyromancer's Ascension and burn away, or a combination of Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Calcite Snapper.

Speaking of Pyromancer's Ascension, I think it's absolutely wonderful in this deck. Imagine having it out and being able to cast a kicked Into the Roil. Return two permanents to their owner's hands and draw two cards for four mana. EFFICIENT.

I like the way this deck plays out. I have a little trouble with aggro decks that are fast, but from playtesting I've still won a game on just 1 life. Once I get to a certain point, it's impossible for me not to control the entire board.

I'm open to suggestions on how to improve this and NO I am not open to making this grixis colors. I like only having two colors and I think that having three takes away from what I'm trying to do with the deck.