Project X Redux

There was an old extended deck (and every time I talk about that format and the fact that it's been defunct for more than 5 years makes me feel old) that abused a combo with Crypt Champion and Saffi Eriksdotter.

Crypter Champion would come into play, return Saffi to play, the sacrifice trigger of the champion being on the stack, you'd sacrifice Saffi and Crypt Champion would return to play, creating an infinite loop.  All you need is something to abuse it.  The deck would use creatures like Essence Warden to gain infinite life as you would keep gaining 2 life for the creatures entering the battlefield.

Infinite life is decent, but there are some decks in modern that don't care about your life total (Infect, mill strategies) and a fair amount that play Eldrazi and can subsequently never deck out.  So why not kill your opponent instead?

Project X new

4 Crypt Champion
4 Saffi Eriksdotter
4 Essence Warden
4 Impact Tremors
4 Altar of the Brood
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Heartless Summoning
4 Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
24 lands

Again, I'm not sharing my manabase because it's embarrassing and mostly consists of lands that ETB/CIP tapped.  Yeah.

So the combo can gain infinite life with Essence Warden, mill with altar of the brood and do infinite damage with Impact Tremors.  Having options is nice.

One of the things I really hate is just losing to a card.  Stain the Mind, Cranial Extraction, etc.  If all 4 Crypt Champions get exiled somehow, it feels like you can't win.

That's what the other part of the deck is for.  Shirei + Heartless Summoning + Elvish Visionary means that the elves will come into play, immediately die and you can mill or ping your opponent.  If you have Heartless Out, your Saffis and Crypt Champions are also 1/1s and you can just start doing some crazy stuff.  I was able to draw nine cards in a single turn and found the components I was looking for to win.

The deck has some downsides though.  Being a graveyard deck, there's some pretty obvious hate against it.  And the deck can be very frustrating to play online.  You have to click about a million times to pul the combo off and you have to stack your triggers very carefully.

So with some tuning, this is something I actually could see myself playing in the real world.  Maybe some Glittering Wishes here or there, who knows.

Pauper Wizards

Woahhhhh has it been a long time since we've updated the blog.  5 weeks!  Sorry!  Time can kind of slip away from you.

I haven't battled much lately, I went 3-1 in FNM and 0-2d ( =/ ) in a pptq with a standard monored deck.  Nothing too exciting.

But I play pauper on mtgo from time to time.  I really like to brew, but there are certain constraints that most constructed formats pose.  Anyway I thought I would try this out:

4 Stream of Unconsciousness
1 Void Snare
1 Negate
2 Deprive
2 Muddle the Mixture
1 Repeal

4 Lavamancer's Skill

1 Sidisi's Faithful
4 Information Dealer
4 Minamo Scrollkeeper
1 Omenspeaker
4 Thought Courier
1 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Neurok Invisimancer
3 Archeomancer

4 Evolving Wilds
2 Mountain
16 Islands

The idea is to counter early aggression with guys with big butts (Scrollkeeper and company) and eventually lock up the board with a Lavamancer's Skill on a wizard.  Wow, is this card oppressive!  You just start murdering stuff.

The counterspell suite needs improvement,but you get the idea.  I weather the early storm, start moping up the board with a Lavamancer'd wizard and counter all of their spells from that point on.  It becomes surprisingly easy to swarm with little 1/1s once all of your opponent's creatures are dead.  The Invisimancer can be good as times, but hasn't been the best so far.

Information Dealer has been MVP, choosing to draw from five cards is amazing.
Anyway, I'm currently 12-1 with the deck so I really recommend giving it a go-round.

-t.

Modern Madess: For Sparta!

Greetings all.  Sorry for my hiatus of sorts guys.  As  you know, Cheerios just dies in my meta, but that doesn't mean I don't have a deck to play.  5 Color Blink, the list that everyone sees and just doesn't think twice about, is the real deal.

Modern Blink: Stephen D.

3 Wall of Omens
3 Runed Halo
2 Aven Riftwatcher
4 Restoration Angel
2 Reveillark
2 Body Double
2 Mirror Entity
1 Gel Elendra Archmage
1 Inquisitor Exarch
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Mystic Snake
2 Fiend Hunter

2 Path to Exile
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Day of Judgement
1 Wrath of God
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Noxious Revival
1 Unburial Rites

1 Swamp
3 Island
3 Plains
2 Mystic Gate
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
3 Polluted Delta
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Celestial Colonnade
3 Flooded Strand

SB:
2 Kor Firewalker
1 Runed Halo
3 Rending Volley
2 Path to Exile
1 Thragtusk
3 Spreading Seas
1 Mizzium Meddler
1 Mystic Snake
1 Aven Riftwatcher


This deck is real.  Very real.  Now, for the love of RNGeezus, do not for one second think that you can sleeve this deck together and play it and win.  No.  I am not so kind as to build a deck that can just auto-pilot itself to a victory.  This deck wants to keep parity for the first 3-5 turns before doing anything of pure value.  Halo, Wall of Omens, Aven and our newcomer Fiend Hunter are just good cards when you need them to be, which is what is going to be exactly what you want.  You just don't want to die, is all.  This deck can wrench and pull ahead of wild scenarios if you are patient and play your cards right.  If you can put your opponent into a position where top-decking is imminent, do it.  You will win the topdeck war.  Gifts, Body Double, Reveillark: all of these are amazing topdecks that will put the game firmly into your hands.

About 95 percent of your games are completely winnable game one, and only get better afterwards.  The exception is Tron, which you can see with the Spreading Seas in the board.  Beyond that, Aggro decks can't deal with Wraths and lifegain.  Jund and Abzan cannot deal with lifegain and card advantage.  Grixis can stumble you for the first few turns, but they cannot out-card you late game.  And very few decks can out pace Reveillark.  Get back Aven and Wall of Omens?  Solid.  Get back Body Double and Mirror Entity? Lights out.  And let's not forget about Mirror Entity turning everything in super tribal X/Xs.  Sometimes all you need to do is make your team big and attack a lot.

I could tout this deck's effectiveness all day, between the matches that I have played and the matches that my colleagues have played.  From 8-Rack, Grixis, Burn, Affinity, Twin (which is bad like Tron is bad haha), RUG, Valakut, Amulet Bloom, Death and Taxes... the vast majority of the format has trouble dealing with this pile of cards.  Like, realistically, how much hate do you need to beat this thing?  In order to stop the combo, you need graveyard hate.  But graveyard hate doesn't stop a bunch of enters play abilities and flying creatures.  If you bring in removal, you have to suck up the idea of having to kill them again.  If you play both of them, your deck likely doesn't do anything anymore.  Normally, I'd be a bit more joyful in my writing.  But let's be honest.  If you could play a deck that had a very very good chance of winning every game you ever played by virtue of having access to hate game one, wouldn't you?  And even if you didn't draw the hate, you made the game very unfair with creature based counter magic?  That's how I felt.  That's why I went back.

Super Budget Modern: Zombie Salvage

Hey guys!

Some of my more popular posts tend to be ones talking about ways to play magic on the cheap.  So here's a sweet brew that I stumbled across in the just-for-fun room that I added my own twist to.

4 Zombie Infestation
4 Grisly Salvage
4 Commune with the Gods
20 Entropic/Enigma/Sandstorm/Aurora/Verdant Eidolon
4 Dark Deal
5 (black-producing) Borderpost [Mistvein or Veinfire]
5 (green-producing) Borderpost [Firewild or Fieldwild]
4 Jungle Hollow
5 Swamp
5 Forest

Man, this deck is cheap!  You can build the whole thing online from scratch for less than half a ticket and most of that just comes from Zombie Infestation.  Every other card you can find at most bots for .007-.008 tix, which is just nothing.

So - you dig to find Zombie Infestation, occasionally throwing some guys in the graveyard.  Eventually, you play a Grisly Salvage or a Borderpost and you then get back all the creatures in your graveyard to your hand.  You can overwhelm your opponent with zombies or just grind them down with the eidolons.

Dark Deal is sweet bc you can damage your opponent's hand while (essentially) drawing cards for free.

I'm honestly surprised by how much game this deck has.  I've played and beaten some real decks over the course of the day and I might do some more adjustments to this later on.

Some cards to consider if you can afford them:
-Loleth Troll
-Squee, Goblin Naboob
-any of the scavenge cards

-t

Combo Questions

orrrr just because you can doesn't mean you necessarily should.

This post is going to be a bit more theoretical than most of the lists.  Maybe not for everyone.

I saw a cool combo from a youtube channel called MTG Budget Decks.  I pondered about it for awhile and tried to see if it was viable.

Composite Golem + Nim Deathmantle

As they explain and you can figure out, you sacrifice the golem for 5 mana and use four of it to return the golem to play, using Nim Deathmantle's ability.  Infinite mana!!!

Ok, that's fair and all, but composite golem is steep at 6 mana.  I usually try to put everything into play in one turn for combo-oriented decks, leaving my opponent less time to find an answer.  So, yeah, you can spit out your deathmantle on turn 2 (and 2 mana is perfectly reasonable!), but waiting four turns is just begging to get your artifact Abrupt Decay'd or something.

Once you have infinite mana, you need to be able to do something with it.  An x spell is the obvious answer and you can Banefire/Demonfire/Blaze/Fireball etc.,etc. your opponent.

I built this deck for modern and I actually won three games in a row (of three games).  The deck was nothing but combo pieces and draw spells.  A focused modern deck would rip it apart pretty easily.

Anyway, the main problem is essentially that it's a three part combo: you need the creature (1), the artifact (2) and the spell (3).  All of the cards are (essentially) worthless without them and having something get countered/destroyed/discarded from your hand leaves you completely vulnerable and unable to do much.

So, if you want to build a sweet brew and you wonder if it's tournament worthy, there's a few questions you need to ask yourself...

1) Is it worth it?
What is your deck trying to do?  Are you working toward a reasonable goal?  Too often, I see decks on MTGO and there's so much durdling from the opponent and I have to ask them what their deck even does.  If your combo isn't working towards winning the game, it probably isn't worth it.

2) Am I going to win right away? (/will my opponent concede right away?)
Another thing I see are these decks that produce what I call "I win...OK go."  They amass a huge army, or put some giant monster on the table, or something, but then they ALWAYS give the opponent an extra turn.  This is crucial.  Consider Living End in this example.  Without Violent Outburst, the deck would only use Demonic Dread and be very prone to getting blown out by a wrath of god effect.  And if you do get your combo off, will it be enough?  This is especially important for Restore Balance decks.  Although destroying your opponent's field/hand is obviously very good, but if you don't have a creature coming into play, your opponent then has time to rebuild.

3) How easy is it to assemble to combo?
Most of the really combos in Modern are 1 or 2 cards.  Scapeshift finds Valakut so it only counts as one.  Cascade spells finding Living End/Restore Balance are technically one.  Ad Nauseam involves three cards, but it's a two-card combo since it again finds the third piece in going off.  Anything above 3 is not viable.  I have some doubts how viable three is.  That's the "sweet spot" of brewing, where a lot of people try and, well, mostly fail.

Let me give an example of something I saw on CFB/gathering magic:
Intruder Alarm + Forbidden Orchard + Voyaging Satyr/Kiora's Follower + Massacre Wurm

Wow, I hate this.  First all, it's three different colors (which means a good manabase unless you want problems).  Second, you need four cards to accomplish your goal.  And none of these cards really interact with the others (i.e. none of these cards help find the other ones).

4) How resilient is your combo?
There is a lot of "hate" that your deck can face and in modern, you should expect that your opponent isn't going to nicely roll over and die for you.  For each color, you should have an expectation of difficulties that your opponent could present you with.  So

Black - Hand disruption (Thoughtseize), Graveyard hate (Crypt Incursion), Removal (Dismember), Exile Effects (Cranial Extraction)
Blue - Counterspells (Negate), Bounce (Echoing Truth), Mill (Tome Scour)
Red - Direct Damage (Lightning Bolt), Artifact Removal (Ancient Grudge), Mana Disruption (Stone Rain)
White - Artifact/Enchantment Removal (Disenchant), Gaining Life (Healing Salve), Protection Spells (Story Circle, Leyline)
Green - Artifact/Enchantment Removal (Krosan Grip)

These ways of disruption are obviously very diverse.  Players should still pay attention to what their opponents are doing.

5) Will you survive to your combo?
Even if you have all the pieces in your hand, you have to make it to that turn first.  A good expectation in modern is that your opponent will be able to kill you by turn 4-5, sometimes sooner.  Scapeshift is in a blue/red shell, blue for countering opponent's threats and red for removing problematic creatures.  Ad Nauseam's combo piece (Phyrexian Unlife/Angel's Grace) means the opponent has to deal extra damage.

In a way, modern is defined by Affinity, Burn and Infect.  These are the decks to beat.  You, therefore, need to dedicate certain cards to keep yourself from dying on turn 4 (or even 3).

I will probably come back to this post from time to time and make it a bit prettier/more eloquent.  Right now I feel pretty awful so that's enough writing for now.

Decision Points (#1/

Welcome to Decision Points, a column where I break down magic into its most basic components and walk you through how to  make well informed choices. The inspiration for this article comes from the work by Michael J. Flores on his Make the Play Monday series on TCG Player and decision making articles from Channel Fireball authors like LSV, PV, Owen Turtenwald, and William Jensen. I will not attempt to persuade you that my articles will be better in any way than the content of those authors, but I want to offer another article to help in what I consider the meat and potatoes of playing magic, proper decision making.

Before I begin I should start with a short introduction of myself and guide through this series. I’ve been playing since 7^th edition  and am almost exclusively an MTGO Player. I really kicked my playing into high gear with the release of Rise of the Eldrazi online. RoE is my favorite limited format which might be because it ist he first set I was comfortable playing well and the set that really hooked me on Magic: The Gathering. From RoE forward I was able to play well enough to avoid putting any money into MTGO even when drafting up to 20 times a week. Yes, I know I’m a bit of a draft degenerate, but in my defense drafting is really fun

 Unfortunately around the release of Return to Ravnica I got cocky, developed bad habits, and burnt through my winnings and most of my collection. By the time Khans was released I had to put money into MTGO, and it became clear I was doing things the wrong way and needed to refocus on my Magic game. I came to realize that I was making fast and poor decisions without thinking things through when I actually was thinking at all. I was playing on autopilot and just assumed what I was doing was correct, because, after all, I had gone a long time without putting money into the game. I was wrong and I let my ego get in the way of good decision making, so I have been working to correct that flaw. Through this column I want to help you avoid the same mistakes of letting yourself go on autopilot and to help both of us develop tools to improve as decision makers.

For the first Decision Points I want to draw on my own experience in the DTK draft format. For this example you are playing the above Green/Black deck in game 3 of the finals. You’ve curved well, taking your opponent to 10 life, but they seem to have stabilized with a Noxious Dragon. Your face down morph is a Segmented Krotiq. It is your first main phase and none of your creatures have summoning sickness, so now you must decide how to play out your turn. Before reading on, you should take the time to decide on your own line and think “Why do I think this is correct?” When examining your play, the “why” behind the decision is often the most important aspect of the decision made.. If you understand why you made a correct response or error, you will understand how to improve and how to make better decisions.

Decision Making:

Human beings just can’t process everything that goes on in the world around them. There is too much sensory information for us to get through the day taking in and processing all the information around us. To get by, our brains have developed shortcuts to deal with all the information. Many MTG writers through its history have talked about the various cognitive shortcuts that people use and the biases they can lead to,so I won’t spend a thousand words explaining how your brain deals with the information.  For this article, the main point I want you to keep in mind is that human beings are influenced by the amount of incoming information we have available, the time we have available, and the amount of choices we can make.

I our current case we have multiple choices we could make. We have the ability to play any single card in our hand and the option to play two spells in this turn as well. We also have the choice of whether or not we need to attack this turn. In MTG we are also always in a time crunch, and we need to play at a pace that allows us to finish the round. On MTGO, we have just over 15 minutes, minus the time it will take us to play the rest of the game to decide on our answer. In a real life tournament, if you don’t make a timely decision you could earn a slow play warning, or worst. Being under time pressure and dealing with information overload is a great way to ensure people make poor decisions and obscure the optimal play.

What I did:

In this case, I couldn’t come up with a way to attack through the board state without allowing my opponent to get back the Dragon from the graveyard with the dutiful attendant. I chose to pinion feast, expecting my opponent to kill my morph, so I attacked for 3 and set up my opponent to replay the dragon at 7 life. I thought that put me at a good chance to deal with the dragon the next turn with press the advantage and put him to 3 life after trample damage with a 3/3 and 2 removal spells (Hunt and Coat). It took me around 4 minutes to make my play, too slow for in-tournament play, and I didn’t even make the best play. How I came to the decision was based on how much I valued board position and how bad the Noxious Dragon was for me in the long game if my opponent stabilized.

Because of information overload it was difficult to find the key interaction I missed, and if I wouldn’t have missed it, I would have most likely won on this turn or, at the worst, put the opponent to 1 life with me having 2 creatures and two removal spells. This simple change now turns this into a Duels of the Planeswalkers puzzle where you can narrow down the relevant information. I can further narrow it down by telling you to consider the interaction between trample and death touch. Do you see it? Here, let’s run through what you should have done.

What I should have done.

My evaluation of the Dragon being bad for my game play is correct as I have to “2 for 1” myself to get it off the board, and I have to “4 for 2” myself if he gets it back with the dutiful attendant. That’s rough and tough to beat, but we could all but lock up victory with what is probably the correct play.

The correct play, in my opinion, was to attack and then use press the advantage and coat with venom. This puts your opponent in a very awkward spot to survive the turn. The best block the opponent could make is to block Dragon on the 3/2 and dutiful attendant on the 3/3 morph, and even that puts them at 1 life as you Press the Advantage the blocked creatures, and use coat with venom on the 3/2 shield-breakers. You assign 1 damage to the dragon and 5 trample to the opponent. This was the key interaction: trample and deathtouch. This combo allows you to assign only 1 damager because, due to deathtouch, you only have to assign a solitary damage to any creature to kill it. Your emissary hits for 1 and your morph tramples over for 3 damage. The opponent most likely kills the morph with noxious dragon’s trigger and brings back the dragon to their hand. You are left with a 1/1 emissary, a 3/2 shield-breakers, pinion feast, and hunt the weak. However, that is the best case scenario for your opponent, and if they block the emissary at all they die.

During matches and drafts, I like to take notes on interesting decision points and I recommend you do the same. If I can I ask friends for their opinion and some may even get further opinions from their friends. I like the different points of view I get from listening to others. This alternate point of view is a great learning tool in MTG. Rarely will there be one correct line of play and there will often be several reasonable lines During this column, we may not have a for sure correct line. We can evaluate how/why we made our decision and move on from there. In this case I know I just missed an interaction that would have changed my reasoning. This took me around an hour to understand, and if, you are wondering, that is about 59 minutes and 50 seconds longer than it took a platinum pro to come to the same answer when a friend asked them their opinion. Until the next Decision Points, may the variance be with you.

-DJ

Magic Origins: the last of the core sets

Spoiler season is always fun.  Maybe because speculation is more fun than the actual cards in practice.  Some cards have a ton of hype and end up being garbage.  It happens.  Maybe you guys remember people freaking out about Sarkhan Vol?

Ok, well we stand before a precipice of great change in magic.  This will be the last core set.  Ever.  Most people associate core sets with unexciting cards and a lot of reprints.

A lot of players complain about core sets.  And understandably.  They almost never add anything to eternal formats and usually only a small slice of cards make it into standard.  Because most of the cards are underpowered.  And there's a reason for that.  We, as players, often seem to forget that we started playing this game at some point and there was a huge wall of information you have to overcome to start playing.

What about newer players?  From now on, they're going to have to immerse themselves in new sets with very complicated cards - cards without reminder text.  I have tried to teach people to play.  It's never worked out.  I usually give them the basics and then we play a few games with decks that are already built (the worst ever was trying to teach someone to play with a standard dredge deck. wowwww).  I've never been able to convince someone to play and then they've become addicted to it.  It usually works the other way around.  I meet people playing magic and then we become friends.

I have to ask: is this good for the game?  Magic is one of the most complicated games in the world and quite possibly THE most complicated card game out there, or at least the most complicated of the popular card games (such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, etc.).

I picked up magic cards when I was ten (I started in Nemesis btw) and honestly, it probably took me more than a year to fully understand the intricate rules.  I have a distinct memory of playing with my cousin and saying "when you start the game, you can put as many lands as you want into play, but after that you can only play one per turn."

It is very difficult to get statistical information on magic players.  Wizards conducts surveys, but I am highly skeptical about the accuracy of this information.  Supposedly, there are 12 million magic players worldwide.  Is this the amount of registered DCI numbers?  There are people registered who haven't played in years and I know several people with multiple numbers - I've kept mine since 1999 though ;).

Do they somehow average this number based on the number of packs bought?  I think there's a huge number of magic players who play, but only casually.  In high school, there was a group of guys I played with and I was the only one who would go to FNMs or tournaments.  We would usually just draft in someone's basement.  How stereotypical.

Secondly, what constitutes a player?  Maybe there are casual collectors who go in from time-to-time and buy a couple packs, just to look at them and have no idea how the game works.  Also, there are probably a high number of people who have cards from a decade(+?) ago that just play casually together.  Again, in high school, I had a group of friends who played together who had cards mostly from Ice Age to Urza's Block, and this was during Shadowmoor (heyyy, you can probably figure out how old I am now).

Ok, but the points is, or what has been said on the internet and I have no factual evidence for, player growth in magic is slowing.  Spending by player is increasing actually.

It's hard to talk about the longevity of a game that's more than two decades old.  I doubt Richard Garfield ever imagined it would last this long.  But can it carry on indefinitely?  If that is the plan, WoTC needs some kind of plan to keep players in the game and bring new people in.

I think the new format decision for standard is another barrier to getting into the game.  This idea of a faster rotation is probably good for players who get bored with the "solved" standard format that is usually just midrange decks just slogging each other from May to July (and sometimes August if the core set is bad).

The entire set has been spoiled so far and it seems that it's pretty impressive.  The power level is a bit higher than many past core sets.  Might as well give it the last hurrah.

This post has a bit less substance than most, but I figure you've probably already heard about the potential new scry rule and you've already read through all the spoilers.

I have a bunch of exams coming up next week so we'll see how if I can come up with some sweet lists.

Some enchanted evening...

...you may meet a stranger...across a crowded room.

Yeah,  My folks really liked the musical South Pacific so that song is kind of burned into my brain, but as you may or more likely may not know, Enchanted Evening is a magic card.  And a terrible one!

So for five mana you can turn ALL permanents into enchantments.
a) Five mana is steep
b) ...enchantments?  So what?

so as I've mentioned before, I have a cube full of some of the worst magic cards in history.  The card just happens to be in it and, quite by accident, I discovered a very interesting combo.

(also, that happens every once in awhile.  Random, terrible cards interact to do something magnificent.  I think there was an actual gasp when someone went Endemic Plague + a Changeling.  Wrath of God, anyone?)

My first thought was hey, let's blow up all the enchantments!  But even things like Back to Nature cost 2 (1G) at a minimum.  A combo that costs seven mana is too much.  But!  There's a neat little card called Patrician's Score.  it's 3W to destroy all enchantments, BUT if you've played another white spell this turn, it's free.  So Enchanted Evening + Patrician's Scorn = destroy all permanents for five mana.

Obviously, you can't just blow up the board and hope your opponent concedes from frustration.  Sure, that will happen sometimes, but you can't count on it.

So, I thought this deck could be similar to Restore Balance.  Suspend some creatures and blow everything up, your opponent struggles to do anything relevant and then some giant monster with haste beats down.  This deck is sometimes better than Restore Balance though.  Although you can't attack your opponent's hand, you don't have to worry about pesky planeswalkers/artifacts since your opponent gets to keep nothing.

The problem is, blue and white aren't exciting in the suspend-creature department.  Most of them cost 2-3 to suspend and then you end up with 2/2s.  No thanks.  Errant Ephemeron is great though, he has been my main win condition so far.  I have considered Greater Gargadon, but that requires a better manabase...

My second thought was persist creatures.  The only ones that are actually any good are Safehold Elite and Kitchen Finks.  Finks buys us some time against aggressive decks, while the utility of getting a 1/1 creature back (from Safehold Elite) is pretty meh.

And the third was indestructible cards.  Darksteel Citadel is in there so I can continue to function after blowing up the world, but the creatures in the darksteel department are all pretty expensive.  The cheapest you can get a 0/1 for 3.  Cool...
There's that one artifact for 2 that can turn itself into a 2/2 for 3, but that's SUPER mana intensive just to get a bear.  Pass...

So here's what I ended up with...

4 Enchanted Evening
4 Patrician's Scorn
4 Peer through Depths
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Mindstone
2 Everflowing Chalice
3 Traveler's Amulet
3 Chromatic Star
4 Errant Ephemeron
4 Kitchen Finks

4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Flooded Strand
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
9 Island


Potential Sideboard:
4 Timely Reinforcements
3 Fracturing Gust
3 Silence
4 Rest for the Weary
1 Pull from Eternity

So - let's see your Enchanted Evening brews - can we make this dollar rare worth something?

Cheerios, The Next Evolution?

Greetings again everyone.  Like Travis posted before me, it has gotten a little bit dusty in here.  I am guilty like the rest when it comes to this, but life is something that cannot always be set aside for the glory of my keyboard.  As for me, I have been working on what I feel to be the next evolution for the deck we have come to love as Cheerios.  I know I have come to advocate the use of Monastery Mentor and Myth Realized on different occasions, so this is going to sound like blasphemy.  I have completely gone away from Mentor and Myth.  Let me repeat this statement again.  I have completely gone away from Mentor and Myth.

Go ahead.  Say what you need to here.  I know I've just gone against everything I've said, but it is how it is.

We good?  Ok.

So, if we have gone away from Myth and Mentor, what are we doing?  Well, I know what I am doing.  I am going all Grapeshot, all day.  Draw cards, cast Grapeshot.  To facilitate this, I have incorporated the Veldalken Archmage.  Yes, he is basically a 4 mana Paladin for this deck, but with the current evolution of the meta we can't rest our hope in a single enchantment that we can barely protect.  Sure, its size does a good deal to protect it from burn, but there is a plethora of removal spells ready to bring it down and there is only one card that is capable of protecting us as long as we need it.  That brings us to addition number 2: Silence.

4 Kite Shield
4 Accorder's Shield
3 Bone Saw
4 Paradise Mantle
4 Spidersilk Net

4 Mox Opal
4 Retract
2 Noxious Revival

4 Veldalken Archmage
4 Puresteel Paladin

1 Grapeshot
1 Echoing Truth

4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Silence

3 Plains
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
4 Seachrome Coast


So, I went back to Muddle the Mixture.  After meeting Eoin (serenechaos) in Charlotte, he loved the fact that the Muddle version I piloted in states was very consistent, and it re-affirmed my believe that consistency is what we need for this list.

Some things to note.  Archmage is not a may effect.  This means if you are going off with him, be mindful of how many spells you need to cast to get there.  Killing yourself is not the best thing ever.  This does, however, open us up the possibility of really winning with Lab Maniac for reals, which I am now testing as an out to Infinite Lifegain strats like soul sisters and some Collected Company variants.  Also, Mox Opal does draw a card with Archmage.  It helps, haha.

With this version, I will still go for it on turn 2 or 3 if the cards permit.  However, I also now have the luxury of waiting until my opponent either taps out, or just gets blown out by the mainboard silence.  Mainboard Silence catches storm with their pants down, has some game against Reanimator and Through the Breach builds (I'll cast Desperate Ritual, respond with Silence lol), and even stops you from losing the Hive Mind.  Check this out: Opponent has Hive Mind active and casts Summoner's Pact.  Hive Mind triggers. which you respond to with Silence.  Hive Mind triggers, and if no one does anything, your opponent now casts Silence, which means you cannot cast anything else from Hive Mind.  Lolz.  Also, if they cast Summer Bloom and make a million mana, if you respond to the last bounce trigger with a Silence they have a pool of mana and can't actually spend it on Titans or anything.

Most of our matchups do remain the same, save Burn.  Burn just beats the bloody jesus out of us game one, and there isn't much we can do about it.  The rest of our matchups, in my eyes, come down to patience.  You will draw cards naturally, and there are now 12 cards that basically end the game if you have them, with Muddle doubling as the rofl counter.

I have been happy with the new list so far.  There are some numbers that I am still working on, namely how many Archmages I want in the main, how many Silences, how many Noxious Revivals.  However, I have never been upset about drawing the Archmage.  Yes, he costs 4.  Yes, that's more than the Mentor.  However, If you cast Archmage, you typically win the game on the spot, as opposed to making an army and hoping that you don't just die.

Beyond my changes, I am curious as to the versions of this list that other folks are playing.  Do we favor the Muddle w/Mentor versions?  Myth Realized version?  Do we enjoy the Russian Roulette Spoils of the Vault versions?  either way, the end game is the same.  We all want the opponent dead.  And me, most of all, want them dead without having the pass the turn.

Thank you all so much for continuing to check out this blog.  If there is anyone happier to see this blog get noticed, it is our originator Travis.

And btw guys. I know he made a list regarding Hardened Scales.  Please make one with Allies.  It is super fun.  :)

Breakfast of Champions

Modern +1/+1 Counters

*clears cobwebs off blog*

*looks at the tumbleweed blowing past*

So, not many updates lately.  Eh, what are you going to do?

I can only post something really when I have a new idea or actually have a report...the latter unfortunately doesn't happen that often anymore.

There's an idea I've been kicking around for a long time.  Oona's Blackguard was always a staple of the standard rogue deck, but didn't see much traction after that.  Since I've been messing around with modern shamans, I wondered what could be done with the Blackguard.  A 1/1 for 2 is pretty low-impact in modern and having other rogues come into play with a counter is that great.  But what about the creatures you already have in play becoming specters? (i.e. opponent has to discard a card with damage)

My first thought was Rakdos Cackler into Blackguard.  Cool, a 2/2 for one mana that makes your opponent discard a card.  Not bad.  Other than that, the shell was nonexistent.  I mean, Arcbound Worker?  What else could there be?  So:

Jund Counters

4 Bloodhall Ooze
4 Scab-Clan Mauler
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Stormblood Berserker
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Oona's Blackguard
4 Skarrgan Pit-skulk
4 War-Name Aspirant
4 Hardened Scales
4 Inspiring Call
20 Lands

This is one of the weirder decks I've come up with.  The list is kind of rough right now, there's thing I'm trying out that I'm not sure on.  I write "20 lands" because the manabase I have on mtgo is just awful and it's too embarrassing to be written down.

The deck is straightforward.  You have a bunch of cheap creatures that come into play with +1/+1 counters and get boosted by Hardened Scales and Oona's Blackguard.  Usually, the Blackguard dies before any of my team connects, but I once got an opponent to discard two cards and he then put two Wilt-Leaf Lieges in play.  =/ =/ =/ cool.

Inspiring Call is just insane in this deck.  It usually reads "draw three cards, creatures you control are indestructible until end of turn."  If this had an actual boost effect, I would say that this deck could be viable.  (There's a white card that does the boost effect, but it costs 4)

There are some other things I'd like to try out - Solidarity of Heroes seemed crazy until I read that you had to pay for additional targets.  Servant of the Scales / Gore-House Chainwalker / and Experiment One are always possible inclusions.  Strangleroot Geist is another possibility, but that would require some adjustments of the manabase.

Are you interested in writing for us?  Any tournament reports or crazy brews you'd like to share with the world?  Let us know!

Tournament Report: Modern PPTQ in Hamburg

Hey guise,

I played some modern today (gasp living end gasp) and did quite decently.  I took the train with four other guys at 7 and we got there at 9:30ish.  I don't even know what RPTQ or PT this feeds into, but whatever, let's play.

The field is somewhat diverse.  I had a bye in the second round so I was able to do a lot of scouting.

4 Proc-Martyr (Monowhite gain life decks)
3 Burn
4 Tron
1 Amulet Bloom
1 Living End
1 Affinity
3 Splinter Twin
1 Elfball
1 Monogreen Ramp
2 Sultai Delver
2 RU(G) Delver
3 Grixis (including one cruel control)

That only adds up at 26 of 31 players, but ya can't get em all.

Round 1: Burn
Miserable, I get 0-2'd quickly.

Round 2: BYE
Wow, I haven't gotten a bye in a tournament in quite awhile actually.  I kind of moped for awhile, but 1-1 is fine.

Round 3: Amulent Bloom
I had to play against one of the guys I came with and with the help of land destruction I was able to kill him one turn before he went off both games.

Round 4: Proc-Martyr
I think I had played against this guy before.  He seemed to remember me and hate my deck(/me?).  He did an awful lot of complaining.  Anyway, game one he looked at his opener and conceded.  Ok.  Game two he led with a Rest in Peace on turn 2!  But I had a Beast Within so I just waited until I got to six mana, destroyed it at his end of turn, cycled 5 guys and violent outbursted.  Got 'em

Round 5: Tron
We drew in, but we played for fun and I got it 2-1.  Fulminator is pretty back-breaking against him.

Top 8
3x Burn
Affinity (R)
Living End (!)
Grixis (R)
Proc-Martyr
Grixis Cruel Control

So, out of the five of us, three managed to top 8.  Not bad, eh?  Also, notice how literally all of the burn players top 8d.  Is there no stopping that deck?  Also 4 Proc-Martyr out of 31 is an awful lot.  I usually see like one guy running that at a 100+ person PTQ.

Round 6: Proc-Martyr
So game one was really gross and after some bad cycles I was facing down some 6/6 avatars and my 3/4s just weren't good enough.  Game 2/3 were pretty straightforward though.

Round 7: Burn
Game one I mulled to 5 and just died on turn 3.  Misery!
Game two I was super careful with my life total and cascaded so I wouldn't take any more damage from a creature and I put 2 3/4s and my big 6/3 into play.  At 15 life, I go for the attack, expecting my 6/3 to die and he DEFLECTING PALMs it to me.  OK.  And then plays triple burn spell on his turn, With me having lethal on the board.  And my top card is Brindle Boar (after having drawn a blank).  Of course, cool.

So, knocked out.

Of the four tournaments I've played Living End, this is how is looks:

Burn 1-3
Proc-Martyr 3-0
Bant Walkers 1-0
Tron 1-0
Infect 2-1
Jund 0-1
Affinity 3-0
Amulet 1-1
Ninja Bear Delver 1-0
Abzan Junk 1-1
GW Hatebears 1-0
Splinter Twin 1-0
Jeskai Control 1-0
R/G Midrange 1-0

I don't know how representative this is of the modern meta, but 18-7 isn't terrible.  The 1-3 against burn is horrendous though.  Going forward, I will either get some white leylines or gnaw to the bone, but I just have to do something, because being fast just isn't enough.  I always end up dying on turn 3-4, partly because of how much damage I do to myself but partly because they're so fast.

Hopefully your weekend was just as successful as mine - keep slinging those cards guys!

GP Charlotte: Free Breakfast?

Greetings all! Stephen here, wishing everyone another great day of Magic with another decklist and some thoughts about GP Charlotte.  I know that most of the folks who tune into this blog, our originator Travis included, likely expect me to write something about Cheerios, which is fair.  I did sort of cause the price of foil Retracts to go from 1.20 to 33.00 USD.  This is rather entertaining to me, because I personally never thought I would ever push the price of a card to the extreme.  Now, it may just be coincidence, but I don't believe so.

Moving forward, Cheerios seems like the list that I would be gunning to play in Charlotte this coming weekend.  It's a sweet deck, it's very fast, and it's so far under the radar that no one in their right mind would even think that they would be potentially dead on turn two following a tapped Hallowed Fountain.  Even with all of this in mind, I must admit that I do not believe I will be playing Cheerios this weekend.  After a good deal of testing leading up to Charlotte, the introduction of Myth Realized, the departure from Muddle the Mixture, and the fated return of a format menace, I cannot see myself packing this list to battle.  Recent games have shown that, while Myth Realized can do some serious damage, it is a volatile basket to put ones eggs in.  The redeeming qualities are that it rolls over Twin and Tron as if they had no idea the card exists as they have very little to answer such a monster in the first few turns of the game, but what about the rest of the format?  Fringe decks can block the monster while we draw essential blanks.  Any creature based deck can wall this puppy off long enough to stabilize.  And not to mention the modern heavy weights of Grixis, who have Terminate, Abzan and UWR with Path to Exile, and the return of Jund, with Terminate and shared weapon of Abzan Abrupt Decay.  This is a lot of hate that is present for our new monster.  I've been trying to make it work, and I personally do not feel that I have come up with a list that is optimal enough to take with me for battling purposes.  This metagame is shaping up to be very mid-rangy, and it is those types of decks that punish decks like mine; infinite removal and enough card-advantage to keep up and even stay ahead long enough to win.  Even if we go to a ton of threats, we are just diluting the deck and losing the extreme speed that drew me to this deck in the beginning.

Now, does this mean I am going to be giving up on Cheerios for good?  Not at all.  This deck is like a child to me.  I still want to take care of it, decide what is best for it, and do my best to raise it into a format monster that people are going to take into account at every event.  However, with the format in flux and a new predator that beats Cheerios into the ground, I'm going to set it aside for now and instead do battle with a deck that I feel to have better match ups all around.  Ladies and gentlemen, I am bringing back Blink.

Modern Blink: Stephen D.

3 Wall of Omens
3 Runed Halo
3 Aven Riftwatcher
4 Restoration Angel
2 Reveillark
2 Body Double
2 Mirror Entity
1 Gel Elendra Archmage
1 Inquisitor Exarch
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
2 Mystic Snake

2 Path to Exile
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Day of Judgement
1 Wrath of God
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Noxious Revival
1 Unburial Rites

1 Swamp
3 Island
3 Plains
2 Mystic Gate
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
3 Polluted Delta
3 Hallowed Fountain
2 Celestial Colonnade
3 Flooded Strand

SB:
2 Stony Silence
3 Kor Firewalker
1 Runed Halo
3 Rending Volley


I have presented this deck to you all at one point in the past, and today I will be showcasing it again.  I feel that this deck is very well positioned for the GP Charlotte.  With the meta shifting into midrange, this deck simply puts the breaks on those strategies, grinding harder than any of these decks know how.  The only issue is Tron, which is a bad matchup for it.  I'm willing to concede that match as most other decks in the format are going to have that decks head on a pike, and I can beat those other decks.  Even still, 4 Spreading Seas and Stony Silence should help slow down the menace that is Tron.

As I'm certain you all are aware of how the combo works (I did explain it before), I won't drone you with that again.  Moving into Mystic Snake land gives up all types of game against random decks since no one plays around it.  Let's just hope that this deck has what it takes to bring down the event, as Cheerios simply isn't going to do it.

Best of luck to those of you going to GP Charlotte, and please, wish me luck as I go too.

-Stephen D.

Standard Building on a Budget: Mostly Monoblue (MoMU)

Hi guys, I know it's been awhile.  My lack of internet has really made it difficult to post stuff, but hey! as of today, I officially have internet again so I can post things from the snugness of my own home, rather than having to stay an extra 30-45 minutes on campus or something.

I thought we'd try something different with this list.  Some people have a strict budget and a set of a certain must-have card makes lists unplayable.  And I get that.

So you want to be semi-competitive without forking out a lot of money?  Try this list as a starting off point.

MoMU:

4 Elusive Spellfist
4 Gudul Lurker
4 Triton Shorestalker
4 Frostwalker
4 Jeskai Elder
4 Jeskai Sage
4 Artful Maneuver
4 Great Teacher's Decree
4 Defiant Strike
4 Taigam's Strike
2 Mystic Monastery
2 Plains
4 Tranquil Cove
12 Island

Note how there's no rares!  Totally budget friendly.  You can build the whole deck online for less than half a ticket and in real life, maybe for less than 5 dollars if you have some of the commons already lying around.

So!  The point is to have a bunch of unblockable guys and slide under your opponent.  Elusive Spellfist is probably the best card in your deck -it basically says prowess with unblockable.  Don't get me wrong, the little 1/1 for U unblockable guys do their fair share of work though.  The main idea is to use your rebounds to getting additional prowess(es?) and push damage further.  Taigam's Strike is really nice, it's just a shame it costs so much.  Almost every time I resolve a Great Teacher's Decree I usually end up winning the game.

Is the deck perfect?  No.  Is it going to win your local FNM?  Maybe!  But probably not.  I built this online and I've only dropped two games so far and I really like how it plays.  The only thing you need to worry about is having the right mix of creatures and spells and of course, not drawing too many lands.  Frostwalker is not the best in here obviously, but he does so much damage that it's hard to ignore.

I've already won against a couple real decks (Abzan, Sultai dredge) so I think this could be semi-competitive.  Red decks and tokens in general give the deck real problems.

There are definitely ways to improve this deck.  The mana base is obviously not perfect and temples/fetches would clearly be better.  If this gets a lot of views/subscriptions, I'll take it as a sign to keep doing this.  So that's all for now - take it easy

Cheerios + Emrakul = Spaghetti O's!

Greetings All! Stephen here, after starting a new job and all that jazz, I have updates for the Cheerios list that I will likely be piloting in Charlotte should I go. The joke of the title comes from the fact that I am building Food Chain in Legacy, using Emrakul as my main win con.

To get right to the point, while I loved the list that I played in States, moving forward I don't feel it to be the most optimal.  Even now, the list that I am having some degree of success with doesn't quite feel to be the most optimal, is actually EVEN MORE AGGRESSIVE, if that was possible.  Without further ado, the list. I will go over certain card choices afterwards.

Cheerios: By Stephen D

4 Kite Shield
4 Accorder's Shield
4 Bone Saw
4 Paradise Mantle
4 Spidersilk Net

4 Mox Opal
4 Retract
3 Noxious Revival

4 Myth Realized
4 Puresteel Paladin

1 Grapeshot

4 Serum Visions
2 Thoughtcast

2 Plains
1 Island
3 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
4 Seachrome Coast

Sideboard:
3 Angel's Grace
2 Gut Shot
3 Path to Exile
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Echoing Truth
3 Burrenton Forge Tender

First thing off the bat: no more Muddle the Mixture. I previously preached this card as the truth, and it is very good.  However, it does not pair well with the new addition of Myth Realized.  I do miss Muddle a bit here and there, but not having a spell that costs 3 mana all the time has been a blessing.  I have had a very tough time casting Mentor due to the cost of 3, and having essentially 5 Grapeshots now helps a good bit.  (a giant spell that goes to the dome)  Serum Visions has also been really good.  Being able to set up second equipment, find the retract, even protect a Paladin from Thoughtseize has been quite good.  Thoughtcast is something I tested this evening over Sleight of Hand, and I was thoroughly impressed.  At one point, I did pay 3 mana for it (haha, I know I cut the three drops) but it provides so much velocity that I'm willing to slot up 2 of them.

As far as gameplay, the strategy is still the same.  20 equipment is enough for game one, and you can shave some Bonesaws if you really need the space for game 2-3.  I wouldn't go below 18 equips at the lowest, but it's doable if you really really need it.  Myth attacks like its going out of style, and while I had some disagreements with the card at first, and sometimes still do, but some decks simply cannot stop a 6/6.  Like Twin. The worst matchup.  So, it has some merit.

Sideboard now has newcomer Forge Tender, which has been fantastic.  Path comes in to deal with things that Gut Shot can't, and Twin, lol.

Side note about the Tender.  This little Kithkin hero is obvious for the matchups that use Lightning Bolt to eat our dudes, but it is also our Golden Boy against Burn.  Choosing Eidolon and turning it off for a turn is great, but it also blocks very well too.  The biggest argument against this card I have heard is just to replace it with Kor Firewalker, and while that card is good, it simply doesn't perfom as well as our Kithkin Wizard.  Why?  Forge Tender protects Paladin, Firewalker doesn't.  Forge Tender stops Eidolon, Firewalker doesn't.  What she doesn't do is gain life, which is irrelevant against the Burn match.  They are either going to toast the Paladin, or burn us to death, and any intelligent human being that can read their cards will know that somebody is going to block with Firewalker, so they cast Skullcrack and kill the Firewalker.  This actually just causes us to lose the game outright.  I will take an additional one damage per spell and win the game, rather than pray my opponent doesn't know how "Protection from Red" and "Damage Cannot be Prevented" interact.  If you simply tell me not to block and take the lifegain, I'm going to frown at you because you can't cast Paladins anymore.  End of discussion. :)

I did play Modern this evening.  I toasted an infinite draw combo deck, Forge Tended my way through a deck that attacks for 20 on turn two (Mono Red Combo for the win... btw Firewalker would have lost me that match because it can't block two red monsters, or anything with Trample and Doublestrike, while things that big make fine choices to stop), and managed to show Abzan midrange that Myths are indeed being realized.  Forgoing match details, Thoughtcast was actually pretty good, Myth Realized does get quite large, Serum Visions is good, and holy moly Noxious Revival is the truth.  At no point did I 2-0 anyone, so these weren't clean sweeps, but the sideboard and mainboard are getting as close to optimal as possible I feel.  I'm going to keep testing new ideas prior to Charlotte to see if there are any other tricks that I can come up with, but so far, every sideboard card has a purpose, and every mainboard card has a purpose.

I'm sorry everybody for not bringing up new tech, ideas, or updates for a bit.  I just started a new job and have been pressed for time to keep up with everything going on around me.  I thank you all for simply taking the time to read the articles and talk about them to your friends and other Magic players.  If I don't post anything else prior to Charlotte, wish me luck guys.  :)

-Stephen D.

GP Excitement and some stuff

Hey guys, I'm headed to Utrecht (which is in the Netherlands, apparently - the more you know) for the GP this weekend to jam some modern masters sealed.  I can't say I'm particularly nervous about it.  Sealed is just always so hit-or-miss, sometimes you open garbage pools and sometimes you open things you know will carry you to the top 8.

I don't really have a "plan" and I think it's always a joke that people talk about sealed strategy.  You could do one thousand practice pools and then still mess up for the one that matters.  What do I want to do?  Well, wizards was not particularly subtle with the archetypes.  

My hope is just to open up the R/B bloodlust deck and attack people.  I don't know if there are a ton of people who can pilot a rakdos deck better than me.  Just sayin'.  Ashenmoor Gouger is one of my favorite creatures ever, along with Vampire Lacerator.  It's like this set wants me to run R/B.

I played in two drafts last week and won them both, going 3-1.  I started off 3-0 and then in both flights, got paired down against someone who was 1-1-1...and lost.  Even when I play sixteen lands, I always seem to flood like a bitch.  It's just so frustrating when you've drawn land 12, put one on the bottom of your deck and ANY REMOVAL SPELL kills your opponent.  Oh well, whatever.  I uploaded my decks - both were pretty strong, but the first one is probably better.

- - -

So I could talk about the white-weenie or Torchrunner 3.0 that I'm messing around with in standard, but I wanted to take this time and try something different.  I think that this won't be anything more than an echo of other players' sentiment, but I feel very let down with Modern Masters 2015.  

1. The set feels very rushed.  I don't think it was fleshed out very well.  There's a lot of inequity (Gut Shot at common) and non-synergy (Daybreak Coronet lacks real support enchantments).  I don't know if the set just wasn't tested enough or there were some executive decisions here and there, but this feels like one of the worst sets in a long time.

2.  The value just isn't there.  I understand that not EVERY card in the set can be a modern staple, but there's certainly a lot, and I mean A LOT, of dross in this set.  You almost have to open a Tarmogoyf or Vendillion Clique to make your money back on a box.  Most of the uncommons are worth nothing and there's a huge amount of cards that NO ONE asked to be reprinted, and a lot that weren't reprinted.  I thought the whole idea was to make modern more accessible to new players.  Well, are they just buying this set for the rares?  There's still a ton of commons/uncommons that are 3+ dollars. Gitaxian Probe is insanely expensive online and was anyone really calling for Tezzeret's Gambit to be reprinted?

3.  The print run is awful.  People are opening packs with three rares and people are opening BOXES with zero total rares.  I assume most people have seen the video of the guy opening something llike 18 foil Rusted Relics from one box?  He opened a total of 69 or something.  That is just unacceptable.  Wizards has been doing this for too long to be messing up this bad.  Between Utrecht and Las Vegas, I can only assume there will be a bunch of players who open up a bunch of craziness.  I mean, if you open up some pool with 18 Rusted Relics, would they make you keep it?  God, I hope not.  And if some guy if getting 3 rares per pack, would they let him keep it?  He just made his money back and then some.

4.  The packaging is awful.  Wizards statement is that they're trying to be more environmental-friendly with this.  Ok, I could get behind that, but come on, I can only assume that this flimsy cardboard is much cheaper to package with.  And yes, cards are coming out damaged, there are always accidents, but the main thing is that the sides of the cards are being marked IN THE PACK.  The packs look seriously awful and there are even rumors of stores replacing packs without the rares.  I don't know about all that, but it definitely seems like more shady things can be done with this flimsy cardboard.

All in all, MM 2015 has been a bit of a SNAFU so far.  The first modern masters was so fun to play and seemed really balanced, the second set honestly is less exciting and with the prospect of Modern Masters 2017....2019...2021(?) on the horizon, it certainly seems less interesting.  

So...we shall see how it goes this weekend.  Good luck to anyone battling out there!

Trash for...more Trash

Hi everyone,

I have a new brew for you for the first time...in well, a good while, not from anyone else, just from my brain.

If you want to have some fun in modern with an impractical deck then this could be the one for you.

People that know me have probably had the pleasure (?) of doing a draft with my "bad cube."  I collected some of the worst cards in magic and made a cube out of it.  Sometimes people come out with the craziest combos...and sometimes you have a deck full of 2/2s for 5.

Anyway, the following deck contains three (!) cards from the bad cube, so without further ado...

Immortal Coil!

4 Immortal Coil
4 Faithless Looting
4 Bazaar Trader
4 Trash for Treasure
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Wild Guess
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Street Wraith
4 Tormod's Crypt
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Manamorphose
4 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Bloodcrypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain

I wanted to fit a Darksteel Citadel in, but it's just a blank as far as mana-production is concerned.  Urborg would also be good, but once again, basically a blank on mana.

So - I presume you don't know what the three rares in here do.

Trash for Treasure - 2R sac an artifact, put an artifact from your gy into play.  Ok, fair enough
Bazaar Trader - 1R 1/1, tap, give target opponent target land/creature/artifact you control
Immortal Coil 2BB, remove 2 cards in your gy from the game, draw a card.  Whenever you would be dealt damage, prevent that damage and instead remove that many cards in your gy from the game.  Oh, and if you don't have any cards in your gy, you lose the game.

The idea - draw and discard a TON of cards.  Ideally, you put Bazaar Trade in play turn 2 and turn 3, remove SSG to put Immortal Coil into play.  Tormod's Crypt your opponent and give them control of Immortal Coil.  Wheeeeeeeeee!  Super magical christmasland.  It could happen.

Yeah, though, you have 12 cards that cycle for 0, and then 12 cards at 2 mana that get you 1-2 cards deeper.  You need to have a lot of cards in your graveyard because you don't want to just die to a lightning bolt after playing Immortal Coil.

Honestly, I have no idea how competitive this deck is.  By then I mean, it's terrible but is it so terrible that it will NEVER work?  Granted, the burn matchup just has to be horrendous.

So...I might actually end up building this, minus some of the actual expensive cards...and Mishra's Bauble which despite being played in ZERO decks is like a 7 dollar uncommon.

Ok, that's all for now.

Tournament Report: GPT Utrecht

Last Saturday I played in a GP trial to try and win some byes for Utrecht, which I'm going to next week.  I unfortunately haven't been able to get many points because, frankly, I haven't played that much magic this year.  I guess maybe our definitions on the word "much" vary, but on to the tournie.

I sleeved up Living End for the third time.  I have burn, but I really hate that deck.  I played it for an entire season once in 2009 (maybe it was 2008?) at seven different PTQs and scrubbed at all of them.  But then again, that was back in extended when a turn four goldfish just wasn't good enough.  WELCOME TO MODERN, I guess.

Anyway, I know that you have Skullcrack and Atarka's Command, but I seriously just can't make myself play a deck that loses to Kitchen Finks.

Maybe it's contradictory that I always play some dumb red aggro deck in standard, but can't stand it in Modern?  Perhaps.

The report:

Round 1: Bant Walkers

I didn't really get a chance to see much of my opponent's deck, he didn't really do anything and I only saw a couple of cards - Birds of Paradise, Caryatid, Kiora and a Sphinx's Revelation, but only because he dropped it.  He didn't really seem to know what my deck did, and usually that's a death sentence for anyone playing against combo.

In Game 2 I played a Demonic Dread into like four open mana and it just resolved (I had a backup Demonic Dread, mind you) and I won.  Hmm.  Ok.

Round 2: Burn
oh, hey, this deck.  This is my worst matchup by far.

Game 1: he's on the play and starts with Goblin Guide, but by third turn I'm literally at 5 life and I would have to shock myself to play a land to Violent Outburst so I just pack it in.

I mean, he had two cards in hand.  Would you have played it out?

Game 2:  I keep an average seven and again, I'm attacked for 2 on turn 1, this time finding a land.  He attacks again and I remove a Spirit Guide to bring back my 3/3 artifact guy and a Faerie Macabre, which is pretty unexciting, but he has no follow-up.  On his third turn he awkwardly has to play an Eidolon while I'm ahead in life total.  I just don't play anymore spells except for a Brindle Boar.  He eventually concedes as the Eidolon puts him to 2 life.

Game 3: He mulls to five but has a pretty decent hand.  I find a brindle boar and between sac-ing it, and a violent outburst, I'm able to gain enough life to stay out of burn range and pummel him with guys.

Round 3: Infect

Game 1: I keep an alright hand (by which I mean bad) and he goes for it on turn 3, attacking with his unblockable guy and a nexus.  I outburst and blow up another one of his lands.  He thinks for awhile and concedes.

Game 2: I cycle a lot,but mostly find blanks.  I have to beast within his unblockable guy to not take an additional 5 poison in one turn.  It sucks because he has a nexus in play.  I draw violent outburst the next turn.  Sucks.  Well, play to your outs I guess.  I put exactly 20 power into play and he gets his unblockable guy back and then plays a Glistener Elf.  I hope to draw Shriekmaw or another Violent Outburst orrrr Beast Within on my turn, but I just draw air.  I attack, he chump blocks with the elf and then has Immense Growth for exactsies.

Game 3:  My keep is just insane.  There's no way he's beating this.  2x land, Minotaur, SSG, Shriekmaw, Street Wraith, Violent Outburst.  I find another street wraith and when he attacks on turn two with his nexus, I remove my spirit guide to put nine power in play and put him on one land.  Sometimes you just have the nutssss.

Round 4: Affinity
ID

Even though this is a good matchup, being an autolock for the top 8 is better.  Don't get greedy now...

Round 5: Jund

This was misery!  Both games my deck refused to cooperate and I died in unexciting ways.  Game 1 an early thoughtseize took my only cascade spell and I couldn't find another one for several turns.  This gave him time to get a Liliana in play and discard a creature to it.  Gross.  And then between a Lightning Bolt and Liliana most of my creatures died and I couldn't do anything.

Game 2 I had a ton of cyclers and even though I opened on two lands, I never drew a third.  He even ran out a tarmogoyf on turn 2 and literally did nothing else for three turns.  I sat there with 2 outburst and 2 demonic dread in hand and then turn 5 he has slaughter games.  Guess I'm deaddddd.  And the third land is on top.  Obviously.

swiss 3-1-1

Top 8:
consisted of 2 Burn, 2 Affinity, Naya Zoo, Living End, Infect, Jund

Round 6 Affinity

I play against what I consider a pretty good matchup.  Game 1 is pretty close and I have to beast-within his ravager but I stabilize at 5 life and living end for 20+ power, which is good enough.

Game 2: I open on 2x Ingot Chewer...this was a massacre

Round 7:

Game 1: He goes for it on turn 3 with 2x Glistener Elf and a might of old krosa but I Living End, even though it wasn't for very much but he doesnt have a follow up.

Game 2: I keep a strong seven.  He mulls to 6 and then triple gitaxian probes me!  ...and then fails to play a land.  I bide my time for awhile and when he finally threw down a creature, I living end with mana up (he had shown Spell Pierce).  My draws from the cyclers weren't that good honestly, but sometimes it's just about your opponent giving you time.

Round 8: Affinity

The other semifinals match when I was playing against infect was affinity vs. burn and I would have rather not faced burn.  But I dodged it twice in the top 8.  How lucky!

Game 1: He mulls to 4 on the play and I feel like I've got this locked because my hand has lands, cascade and a cycler.  WELL, as it turns out, I never drew another cycler and have to living end for oneeeeee guy, which was just embarrassing.  Anyway, thanks to cranial plating, my crappy commons weren't able to keep up and I eventually died.

Game 2: I started the game at 16 life (2x street wraith) and I'm cycling like crazy.  On his first turn, He double galvanic blasts me and I fall to 8 life.  I panic and go on the offensive with a somewhat early living end just to pressure him.  He never draws any relevant fliers so my guys are able to get through.

Game 3: He has a very explosive start and I lead on ingot chewer blowing up his mox opal.  I'm terrified of him getting to three mana, as he had hinted that he had Rule of Law so I demonic dread on my second turn to blow up most of his permanents.  I only put two creatures in play but it takes him too long to rebuild and they get the job done.

6-1-1
and then byes to Utrecht

I find it interesting that no one actually plays graveyard hate anymore.  I saw Slaughter Pact, Stain the Mind, Chalice of the Void and Ethersworn Canonist as hate cards, but nothing that actually messed with my graveyard.

I really like this deck sometimes.  It has the ability to mulligain well since 1/3 of your deck is disposable.  It has the ability to be explosive and have turn 2 (because of simian spirit guide) Living Ends.  It also has the ability to be resilient towards hate because of Beast Within.

Honestly though, I think the deck's biggest problem is itself.  Yeah, sometimes you mulligain great and basically for free, but I would say I had one Living End in my keeps 20-40% of the time.  The worst feeling is mulling an opening 7 and seeing Living End in your six.  No, you don't always mulligain hands that have LE, but you do end up mulling most of them.  Sometimes you just draw rotten garbage with your cyclers, too many cascade spells or none.  Sometimes you don't get critical mass and even if you resolve Living End, it's not good enough to win because you've given your opponent too much time.  Sometimes the deck just deals too much damage to itself (I only run 3 shocklands and a couple fetches, but it's really the street wraiths that do the most damage to you).  And sometimes, which HAS ACTUALLY HAPPENED, you just draw all four living ends and die.  It happens.

Today's big loser was Fulminator Mage.  I boarded it out the most.

Burn
-4 Fulminator
+4 Brindle Boar

Infect
-1 Fulminator
+1 Beast Within

Affinity
-4 Fulminator
-1 Faerie Macabre
+4 Ingot Chewer
+1 Beast Within

Jund
-1 Faerie Macabre
+1 Beast Within

So...I did not play against a large variety of decks, but that's alright.  Of the seven rounds I played, five were against aggressive strategies, one against midrange and one against control.

I've questioned before whether the Format is too fast for fulminator.  Burn/Affinity/Infect are always the decks to beat and while the walking-stone-rain is useful against (bl)inkmoth nexi, I usually find myself wanting to do something else.  So, maybe another cycler?  Maybe another beast within or shriekmaw?  I drew a shriekmaw against affinity and got really mad.  Having a singleton seems ok, it's mostly for scavenging ooze.  Maybe i'll put a second in the sideboard.

This post has gotten out-of-control long and I think I'll save posting about another deck for a later day.  Until next time, take it easy.
-t

Pauper: Turbo Exhume

hey guise, I wish we could update more often, but genius takes time, amiright?

Anyway, there's a pauper deck that I saw on magic gathering strat a few months ago that I really liked.  The deck plays very well and it's quite impressive how many turn-2/3 concessions you get.

List:

4 Ulamog's Crusher
4 Gurmag Angler
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Exhume
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Wild Guess
4 Faithless Looting
2 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Dragon Breath
2 Dragon Fangs
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Duress
2 Flame Slash
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Sandstone Needle
4 Evolving Wilds
5 Mountain
3 Swamp

I'm missing Lotus Petals and Manamorphose, which are surprisingly expensive online.

So the idea is to draw cards like crazy, throw an Eldrazi and Dragons Breath in the graveyard, play an exhume and then attack on turn 2-3, which usually shuts them out.  They cant even chump block if you give it trample.

The other option is to run out the zombie fish.  A 5/5 for B is pretty impressive on turn 1-4, but after that it will generally just trade with two guys.

The duress/flame slash are concessions to Delver.  This deck has serious problems against any deck with counterspells.  Even if they don't have a threat out, it feels real gross to have 4 permanents when your opponent has 9 lands and a full grip.

Anyway, I might be playing some magic this weekend (in real life! gasp!) so we'll see how it goes.  Maybe I'll eventually do a daily.  That could be fun.

So hopefully more updates to come!

Super Budget Modern: Zombie Hunt

How do you feel about a deck that only runs a few nonlands?  And we're not talking about legacy.  This is for modern, and probably the cheapest deck possible.

Zombie Hunt
(bare bones)
4 Zombie Infestation
4 Treasure Hunt
24 Island
24 Swamp
4 Reliquary Tower

The idea is simple, you mulligan VERY AGGRESSIVELY into a hand with treasure hunt (AND hopefully Zombie Infestation).  When you play treasure hunt, you will draw most of your deck and then you can discard a lot of cards and make an army.  Hopefully, you will have drawn a Tower so you can do this on your opponent's end step and avoid a sweeper.

This deck, if you buy all 12 of these cards, comes to a grand total of .032 tix on mtgo.  That's right, 3 cents.  Is the deck great?  No.  You have to mulligan A LOT.  And with one hand disruption or counter from your opponent, you are probably just incredibly dead, since you will just draw lands for infinite turns.

Most people recommend playing 2 Zombie Infestation and 3 Treasure Hunt.  Playing a turn 2 Infestation and then going turn 3 treasure hunt, reveal Zombie Infestation is gameeeee overrrrr.

So!  There's that, but you can put a bit more money into the deck.

4 Contested Warzone

This will let you attack for lethal even if you didn't manage to draw enough cards for 10-11 zombies.
4 Halimar Depths
4 Temple of Deceit

Yeah, so library manipulation when so much of your deck is useless is probably irrelevant, but who knows, it could matter.

4 Radiant Foundtain

Probably more of a sideboard card against burn and aggressive decks.  You don't want TOO many colorless lands in your deck.  It would be real gross to mull to three of "Zombie Infestation, Treasure Hunt, Reliquary Tower" and then your top few draws are colorless lands.

U/B Lands

yeah, obviously.  Better than basic lands when it's very critical to play out your cards by turn 2 and 3.

Other options:

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (turns your colorless into swamps, shrugs)
Blinkmoth Nexus + Mutavault - extra damage.  If the colorless lands aren't an issue, but the real question is, if you own these cards....why are you playing this deck?

I think this is a decent deck for someone trying to get into modern to explore the format.  I've never seen anyone take down a daily with this, so I probably wouldn't take it to a tournament.

So - more posts to come.  Take it easy, guys.

Are You Ready for Standard? What about Modern?

Greetings again everybody! Stephen here, taking a short break from Cheerios to bring you a standard decklist that I would definitely take to a large event that I have had some success with so far.  Granted, I don't normally play the most aggressive standard lists, but I do enjoy standard.  However, I got tired of people sitting being Icefall Regents and Ojutai's all day, so I decided to play an even slower game than they are, which is exactly how I like to play Magic.
So, let's not waste any more time and get right down to it, the decklist:

4 Color Control // aka Not Green: -Stephen D.
4 Dissolve
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Crackling Doom
2 Ultimate Price
2 Bile Blight
2 Utter End
2 Crux of Fate
3 Dig Through Time
2 Treasure Cruise

3 Jace, the Living Guildpact
3 Narset Transcendent
2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

4 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Mana Confluence
1 Nomad Outpost
3 Mystic Monastery
1 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
3 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Plains

SB:
1 Dragonlord Kologhan
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
2 Haunted Plate Mail
2 Negate
3 Rending Volley
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Disdainful Stroke'
2 Bile Blighht

Yes. Yes! YES! This deck DOESN'T DO ANYTHING.  You sit back and kill creature after creature, regarding of whether you play your instants at sorcery speed or not.  You just keep killing everything they throw at you.  The pinnacle turn is turns 4-5.  Typically you sequence your many many different lands to cast a removal spell and jam a 4 mana walker on turns 4 or 5, and then you basically never slow down.  How most of my games go, (and this is normally the case with a whooping 27 lands with only 3 fetches), is that you play scry land into scry land into untapped land, removal spell, scry land, removal spell, tapped land planeswalker.  That's right.  On turn three you either counter or kill something, then do the same thing on turn 4, and typically jam Jace on turn 5.  Then you essentially sculpt your draws for the rest of the game and take over.

Some notes and thoughts.  First off, I have no idea why people aren't playing Jace right now.  He does everything a control deck needs right now.  No one wants to be drawing Bile Blight against another control deck, and no one wants to brick 4 turns in a row because of the all the additional lands we end up playing as control mages.  Jace easily solves both of those problems by sifting through the top cards of your deck and dumping the chaff into the graveyard to be delved away by our draw spells.  And yes, this deck flies through cards.  Jace and Narset make and undeniable combination of drawing cards.  Simply put the card you don't want into the yard and reveal the spell off of Narset.  Once you've dumped enough garbage, feel free to start giving Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, or if you need your opponent to do nothing on their turn, Crux of Fate with rebound.  Having the two together with the near unlimited amount of removal makes sure that any midrange deck is going to have a lot of trouble getting through you.

Aggro decks do pose a threat, but that is the reason for all of this removal in the first place.  We don't want to lose matchups simply because we can't interact, so I've made sure the removal is as close to the ground as possible without straining the manabase much harder than it already is.  So far, I've been able to best Reanimator strategies, opposing Control decks in both Esper and Blue/Black flavors, Abzan decks, Heroic strategies, BUG Walls (which is a very real deck mind you), among others.  Most other plays cannot sit back for too long, and considering how many times you will cast a one mana Treasure Cruise with Rebound, you will find that you hardly ever run out of cards without quickly filling back up.

To be fair, you need to be able to sequence your cards properly and be prepared to sacrifice a walker for the greater good.  Fog is a real magic card, and even though we sometimes pay 4 to 6 mana for a fog now-a-days, winning the game is still better than losing.  Jace also has the unique ability to Boomerang almost anything.  Don't be afraid to Boomerand that Siege Rhino so that you can counter it on the way back down.  That is an effective Time Walk, so take advantage of it.

Hope you guys are able to try that list out if you have the cards to do so.  It's a blast: just try not to go to time, haha.

As for modern, while I did take a 3rd place finish with Cheerios, I will likely be setting it down for a little while.  I will still be searching for more cards to change the overall weaknesses of the deck, but  as it stands, there is very little wiggle room, and the populace seems to agree that Monastery Mentor was the correct call to up the threat level of the deck.  I want to go more in on the Paladin, but that doesn't seem to be the case, and until another set gets printed, I don't know if there truly is any more innovation that can come to that list, but I may be wrong, and if I find something I will surely let you all know.
That doesn't mean I won't be playing Modern though.  Currently, there is another list that I am beginning to do my research, theory-crafting, and will be testing soon enough.  This next list is also just as non-interactive as the cereal in some respects, but I have other minds with me on this one.  This list is going to be a blast as well, and once I have a good theory as to my starting 60, I will surely post it here for you guys to see.
Sadly, I will not be jamming game this coming weekend. I will be off to visit my father, so I won't have much to put here regarding Modern from this weekend.  I'll most assuredly be playing Modern next monday, so I'll have some modern news for you guys then.

Until next time my friends.  May the dice rolls be ever in your favor!  (totally inspired by Hunger Games... totally like that phrase now)
-Stephen

More Cereal: And Also, Thoughts Moving Forward

Greetings again all! Stephen here with some more intel on the Cheerios archetype today, along with some thoughts moving forward about things that I will be posting about, and what other formats that I may be writing about.  Exciting!

So, as we all now from my last post, I did make 3rd place in States with Cheerios.  What I did not expect was that the list would be featured by Gerry Thompson, titling the article as "The Best New Modern Combo Deck?", which feels great on the inside, but I honestly will never be able to take all the credit.  I noticed that there were others doing something similar to me, and I feel that while I did take it to the next level, there needs to be more innovation for it before the next big event.  What this means moving forward is that people will expect this deck and make it even harder for us to go for it in the early game.  We don't have the disruption to fight through everything, so something has to give, and while I don't know what it is going to be yet, you can be sure that I am going to try and find out.

As for my local meta, everyone is hostile towards Cheerios.  This means that I have to wait for someone to tap out and go for it, or basically what for 4 mana, Muddle, and a Paladin to be sitting in my hand, which isn't exactly the best idea I've ever had.  My locals will simply mulligan into a hand that can beat the Paladin and keep it, knowing exactly what I am trying to do.  Honestly, I don't blame them. This deck is fast, but it makes for some very negative playtesting, as that is not likely to happen in a true tournament environment.  In fact, I ended up playing standard last night instead of Modern, to the anger of the folks who questioned why I wasn't going to play in a format against decks like Burn, Zoo, Twin, Scapeshift and U/W/R Control... easily the most hostile matchups, haha.  In a large event I would do it, but here with 7 others, not likely.

Back to the cereal though, there is some wiggle room, some might say, to the deck now.  I have found ways to sideboard up to 6 cards out for some matchups, but were the real weakness lies is really just removal.  There is so little we can do about it, that I want to try and shore up that weakness as best I can.  Silence does the job well, but that leads to us having a 2 card combo, which is a little off-putting. It's the reason I went to Mentor in the first place.  However, it may be necessary moving forward for the Twin matchup and the Burn and the like.  I've also been toying around with the idea of Leyline of Anticipation, and playing the entire deck at instant speed.  While this shores up any weakness, in a sense, we end up only having a 6 card hand, and that is looking at best case scenario, haha.  Other types of protection include Spellskite, but we must remember that Spellskite is an artifact, and does go right back up to our hand when we cast Retract, so that's a bit of a no-go.  Path may end up in the board as well, simply based on how gross Eidolon is against us.  In the future, a good deal of research and testing will need to be done to ensure that we have an optimal list, especially for GP Charlotte.

Cheerios aside, I have been playing 4 Color Control in standard, because playing Narset with Jace is simply busted, and having only 3 win conditions in the entire deck is like playing with fire.  The deck is only ever truly hindered by its mana production, but I think I have that one down.  As the deck is currently not sitting next to me, I shall have to post that list a little bit later on.

Also, I have YET ANOTHER Modern deck that is in the works.  Travis, our main man, remembers the days of being 'Van Lunen'd' by Allies.  Well, I'm willing to play Allies again, this time in modern.  As a deck with only one creature type, Cavern of Souls seems like a great place to start, along with the Shock/Fetch mana base.  Aether Vial also seems very good here.  But what makes the deck truly tick? Hardened Scales.  Every ally now gives itself 2 counters, and gets 2 counters when another ally comes into play.  This makes for some very large creatures, very fast.  I'm still working on the exact configuration, whether or not to play Vial, Collected Company or Lead the Stampede, etc.  Will be posting that list in the future too.  Hell, my next article will just be a bat-shit ton of decklists, haha.

As always, I want to thank you guys for checking out the blog.  Humble beginnings for humble people just looking to write about what we love.  Be prepared for more Cheerios updates, modern updates, and even from me, Standard updates.  Also, feel free to let us know what you think in the comments.

Thanks again!
-Stephen D.

Artifact Dredge

I like synergy.  And crazy combos.  Maybe that's why I've always gravitated towards Extended/Modern.  Don't get me wrong, attacking is great and all and I usually play aggro in standard but I always have a soft heart for doing degenerate things.

Something I've been messing around with on MTGO:

11 Swamp
1 Crypt of Agadeem
4 Darksteel Citadeel
4 Chromatic Star
4 Ichor Wellspring
4 Vault Skirge
2 Memnite
4 Springleaf Drum
2 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Rotting Rats
4 Dregscape Zombie
4 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Salvage Titan
4 Gurmag Angler

This deck began as an idea from Travis Woo (credit where credit is due!).  I think the interaction between dredge and Salvage Titan is super cool and this deck a lot of possibilities in the early game and then the fatties start coming down late game.  I like it when decks aren't entirely linear.

The only problem is that Stinkweed Imp is the only good dredger.  I really hate Golgari Thug but it's a necessary evil.  Bloodsoaked Champion is kind of a budget Bloodghast (as is Dregscape Zombie) but also the 1-drop slot is kind of lacking in this deck.

Sometimes you can just plop down a turn three Salvage Titan and draw three cards.  It happens.  And, other than Path to Exile, you have insurance to return it to your hand from graveyard.  Travis Woo was running Demon of Death's Gate over Gurmag Angler and I was annoyed that the Demon is full ticket on MTGO (when it's played in virtually no deck).  I think the demon is cool, but when I feel like that's a card that just rots in your hand a lot of the time.  I would never play it against burn unless they mulligained to 3 or something.  And even then man.

Unfortunately, the deck kind of lacks a punch.  If your opponent isn't a creature deck, your clock is kind of irrelevant to them.

I've thought about expanding the Crpyt of Agadeem package and then putting some cyclers in the deck.  But then we start moving away from the focus of the deck and it becomes something else entirely.

Tournament Report: Standard

Hey guys,

I played in a small standard FNM and got 4th, I went 3-1.

I played a version of red deck wins and I was more-or-less pleased with the results.  My version was not optimal, I only had 3 Zurgo and I still only have 2 Wild Slash.

So the matches

Round 1: Temur Midrange
Game 1: I have an incredibly aggressive start and he scoops by turn three.

Game 2: I don't come out of the gates as hard and Atarka comes down turn 6 and I am d-e-d, dead. (yes, the misspelling is intentional)

Game 3: I mull to six and I feel like this could be rough for me, but he doesn't have Anger of the Gods or Hornet's Nest and after having to fetch twice, a Stoke the Flames puts the game away for me.

1-0

Round 2: WALLS

oh, god, what a nightmare this was.

Game 1: I get him to 12, but he has two natural Rams and starts running out more walls.  He finds the enchantment and I die.

Game 2: It's rough but a War-Name Aspirant and TRIPLE Stoke the Flames gets there for me.

Game 3: So, even though I have a War-Name Aspirant with the +1/+1 counter, he has too many walls and all of them are attacking for 6 with vigilance.

1-1

Round 3: Abzan (with red)

This one was pretty uninteresting.  Games 1 and 3 I mostly just run over him and game 2 he has Drown in Sorrow followed by Rhino, Rhino.

2-1

Round 4: U/W Gain all the Life

I don't really know what this deck was, but it had me sweating the entire time.

Game 1: He didn't do that much, but gained a lot of life and he even played a turn two ram.  Mainnnnn?  I dealt like 27 damage that game and got there.

Game 2: I think I did between 40-50 damage.  He had two rams, several lands that gain life when they come into play.  TWO U/W commands, a couple wraths and an Elspeth.  I was never really in danger but running out of gas was the real concern.  The only thing I thought that was odd, was a wrath that I baited out of him.  I had two goblin tokens, a firedrinker satyr and a foundry street denzin to his three elspeth tokens and a ram and he chose to wrath.

Some observations:

Hordling Outburst: this card was shit.  Maybe the meta in my shop is more midrange and control, but this was just awful.  I found myself hoping it was Rabblemaster every time.

Wild Slash: also awful. 2 was a good number to have because I never wanted any.

War-Name Aspirant: this card was doing so much work!  I was playing two main and one in the board and I found myself always boarding it in.  I might have to try and play a full set in the main.

Searing Blood: meh, this card was also pretty underwhelming.  Probably have to be situated against aggro decks for it to do anything.

Firedrinker Satyr: people have been saying to cut this card now, but I think it's been performing fine.  Yeah it's not as good against red decks, but against everything else it's decent.

Dragon Fodder: wow, this card felt crappy.  At best, it pumped Foundry Street Denizen for two.  Worst...was the rest of the time.

Lightning Berserker: I ran three of them and I was not disappointed.  They were alright in the midrange matchups.  I think in those, you need to cut the number down to 1 or 2.  But good god, was this a house against control.  They can't tap out in the mid to late game or it just becomes a lightning axe.  take 4-6 damage!  And then it bounces back to your hand.  wHAT fUn WE'lL haVe.  Okay.

That's all for now, maybe some more tournament reports, we'll see.