Thursday, March 28, 2013

Missing another FNM

With it being Easter weekend and all, we're packing up the SUV, and meeting up with the in-laws.  5 hours in the care with a 3 year old who's watching Dora, Diego, Yo Gabba Gabba, and Blues Clues on repeat...which means no FNM for me #sadface, yes I just typed out a hashtag in a blog post #hashtag.  So last week was ok, 2-2 with the aristocrats, I think its time to change, so here are a couple of my upcoming deck brews I want to try...

This first deck, I really feel like for sideboard I want another Sigarda, at least two Obzedat's, a blind obedience, and some O-rings.  What are your thoughts?  I haven't really built a sideboard into this, but would love to hear more thoughts on it.

Main Deck 1


Main Deck
60 cards
4   Sunpetal Grove
4   Temple Garden
3   Plains
10 Forest
1   Gavony Township

22 lands

Arbor Elf
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Strangleroot Geist
Loxodon Smiter
Centaur Healer
Silverblade Paladin
Restoration Angel
Sublime Archangel
Wolfir Silverheart
Sigarda, Host of Herons

31 creatures
Rancor
Selesnya Charm

7 other spells



The second deck is one that I cannot take any credit for, its Gavin Verhey's "Everybody Lives" deck from an article on the mothership this week.  I'm not going to plagiarize his work but man, what a great article, this deck looks fast and nasty and I like it a lot!  This is a deck I want to run, and I can get behind it, it seems to be a lot of economy (except for the shocklands) and main staple for most standard players.  With the rotation on the horizon (trust me, October will be here before we know it), I really want to play some more Innistrad block cards. 


Main Deck 2

Main Deck
60 cards
4  Godless Shrine
4  Isolated Chapel
6  Plains
5  Swamp

19 lands

4  Blood Artist
4  Boros Elite
3  Cartel Aristocrat
4  Champion of the Parish
4  Diregraf Ghoul
3  Doomed Traveler
4  Dryad Militant
4  Gravecrawler
4  Rakdos Cackler

34 creatures




1  Blind Obedience
3  Immortal Servitude
3  Orzhov Charm

7 other spells


That's all for now, keep slinging and also thanks to all the new traffic from the Magic the Gathering Google+ group!


Monday, March 25, 2013

PAX East MtG Announcements!

So, this past weekend, there was this little show called the Penny Arcade Expo (or PAX) East.  Not to be confused with PAX Prime (Seattle).  Given that PA is based in Seattle and so is Wizards, they share a lot of info at their expos, showing lots of love and in some cases throwing an awesome party.  The big news this weekend was the release of several tidbits of goodies, first a sneak at a Dragon's Maze card, Ruric Thar, the Unbowed;


Also previewed were several pieces of art from Gatecrash, thanks to the wonderful team from tcgplayer  they got some good screens from the presentation and also have just posted these pics.  Also revealed were the mechanics about the pre-release and the guild packs:

Dragon's Maze will feature all ten guilds from Ravnica. In the prerelease sealed format, players choose their guild and receive a guild pack of the appropriate guild, but it can also support a second guild. Each player attending the prerelease receives the same promotional card, which can not be played in the sealed deck (as opposed to the prerelases to Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash). The draft format for Dragon's Maze also reverts to the normal format of drafting the three sets in a block in reverse order of their release, in this case Dragon's Maze - Gatecrash - Return to Ravnica.  Booster packs for Dragon's Maze do not contain basic lands. Instead each booster contains either a Guild Gate, a Shock land, or the mythic rare land Maze's End in the appropriate ratio of their rarities. The Shock lands have the appropriate expansion symbols of Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash, but the Gates are part of Dragon's Maze and have a Dragon's Maze expansion symbol making them part of the set and thus marking the first time cards other than Basic lands are printed multiple times within the same block.

Also shown were the 10 Guild Champions, again thanks tcgplayer!  Given a look at the promo for the pre-release which was Maze's End, and also revealed upon completing the maze each player gets a foil plains.

And lets not forget they finally revealed the next block names, codenamed "Friends", "Romans", and "Countrymen", are now Theros, Born of the Gods, and Journey to Nyx respectively.  A god based set, which harkens back to Eldrazi?  If I remember some of the old original concepts for MtG included some mythology but I could be wrong.  Theros, will be 249 cards so a large set, based on the set naming, I think we will see a large/small/large block.  Will we see the return of Titans?


Saturday, March 23, 2013

Grrr...Nerd rage!

So another FNM has come and gone.  I'm frustrated that I didn't have the best night, with a record of 2-2 with the Aristocrats, my losses came to a green/white aggro with mayor of avabruck, and some very lucky oblivion rings.  The other loss came in game 4 to a guy who has been running the same deck since AVR, tokens featuring favorable winds and Intangible virtue, so basically with no removal on my end I couldn't stop the onslaught of spirit tokens.  I guess I'm just ready to see some new stuff, so I may have to try the other store in town, as the meta at my store doesn't seem to be changing much.  That or I may switch to my red deck wins...

Friday, March 22, 2013

Well, It's Friday...so what are you running

First, let me apologize for the lack of posts, it was Spring Break, and that meant a whirlwind tour for my daughter of the Grandparents back home in Arkansas.  Did get to play a little Dining Room Magic, and hit up my old LGS and chat it up with the owner.

Another Friday is upon us.  Try as I might, I didn't get a new deck put together, but I have three ready and will probably wind up running The Aristocrats.  It's taken me 3-1 in my last two events, so I hate to trash it already.  But, with all the Junk/Jund Midrange thats been topping the charts lately, its making me think I need to try something new.  Have to see where the meta is tonight, most of the guys I play with do not brew a lot of new stuff regularly (every 3-4 weeks depending on how they play).

That's all I got for now...oh wait, I did come across this in my other feeds...



Shoutout to Frank at TCGPlayer.com for posting this, "(Frank) Straight from a slide at Pax East this weekend, check out this Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014 preview! Typically cards that make it into Duels of the Planeswalkers also represent cards from the latest core set. Could a printing of Shadowborn Demon be on the horizon? This guy seems like a pretty solid "Shriekmaw" once you meet his second condition."

As always any content posted on this blog is TM and Copyright to its original owners.

Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. © 2009 Wizards. All Rights Reserved.
This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This blog may use the trademarks and other intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast LLC, which is permitted under Wizards' Fan Site Policy.
For more information about Wizards of the Coast or any of Wizards' trademarks or other intellectual property, please visit their website at (www.wizards.com).

Thursday, March 14, 2013

No FNM This Week

Spending this week out of town with family, and although I brought my decks, I don't think I can sweet talk my mom into babysitting the toddler for 4+ hours while I go play cards.  I'll just have to hit it heavy next week when I'm back home.  Did get about 7 games in with all three of my decks and I actually beat my friend in every match, he played the same deck though (he's more into Vintage, Legacy and Modern; than playing Standard).  So I feel bad laying a beat down, but historically he's always beat me when we play, so I feel slightly vindicated.

That's all for now, and on a side note, if you're not watching The Walking Dead on Thursday nights in Black and White, you are missing out.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

M:tG > WSOP

After watching coverage the past weeks since starting this blog, I have noticed that Wizards has really stepped up their US coverage on Pro Tours.  They have a new camera that gives you a players hand view, which is awesome and something the WSOP has been doing for a long time.  While Magic doesn't have the payouts that a WSOP event has, it still has a lot of the drama, stress and it deserves some of that respect.  Which I why I think ESPN should partner up and showcase the tournaments like they do the WSOP events.  I know they aired a magic back in 1998 with coverage of Worlds.


I'll admit this was back in the day when espn2 was not well known and didn't get a lot of respect, a lot like ESPN8 from Dodgeball, "If it's almost a sport, you'll find it here!"  Given the popularity and that this is the 20th year of MtG I think we deserve better coverage, and guys, keep the mouth breathing sleepy judges off camera (GP Verona), it just makes us all look bad.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Boros Reckoner Wins

So, I've never been good at brewing decks, but I am good at taking others and making them my own.  SO everyone knows all about "Red Deck Wins" (basically an aggro mono-red deck that has a higher win percentage than most other mono/multicolored decks).  The premise is to get in fast and quick with lots of direct damage and a mana curve that allows you to drop a card every turn, so turn 1, Stromkirk Noble, turn 2, Ash zealot, turn three Boros Reckoner (maybe), into turn 4, Hellrider.  All the while being aggressive and turning your guys sideways every turn, like my LGS owner says, "you can't win if you don't turn dudes sideways."  Add in some flavor with Searing Spear, Rolling Temblor, or Brimstone Volley to deal direct damage to other creatures or directly to your opponent, the opponent being my preferred target, unless there is something that just scares the shit out of me on the board.  Another Sorcery that I really want to run is Mizzium Mortars, especially b/c I really want to overload it and deal 4 damage to every creature I don't control, but with a CMC of 6, you hope with this deck you never actually make it to turn 6, your goal is to be heading to game 2 by then, if you play it right and your shuffle is with you your continuing on to turn 5 Hellrider again, and swinging with 5 creatures thereby dealing 10 damage thats unavoidable directly to your opponent (thanks to Hellriders static ability of each attacking creature deals 1 damage to defending opponent).  If all goes well you should have the win here....

The key of course all falls into your draw, I have a bad habit of keeping bad hands, if your on the play you really should not keep a hand with 2 or fewer mana, Ideally you want 3 lands, a 1 drop and a 2 drop and then you should be able to fill in the rest.  Every time I say, oh I can get there, I never do and I regret it and then start looking at the library at the end of the match and am like oh man, the next three were lands.  I so would have had you...Whatever, you can't get there if you don't have it.  So check your hand, make sure you're pile shuffling between rounds and you should be good, oh and remember what you sideboard, it always sucks to go into a new round and realize you didn't take out your sideboarded cards.


I'll update this post later when I can add my current mono-red aggro deck.

Creatures (28)

Spells (9)

Land (23)






Monday, March 4, 2013

Spoiler Alert!



So apparently magic players have disposable incomes, and this garners coverage in Forbes.  Daniel Tack sits down with Doug Bayer, author of The Secretist and Magic: The Gathering creative team member.  The article is mainly about the creative forces behind the recent e-book releases, but there were two key spoilers that slipped out during the interview (more than likely intentional, but still spoilery).

"I think you’ll see a pretty clear relationship between the story and the cards in the Return to Ravnica block. One character in Dragon’s Maze, the elf healer Emmara, was given a card solely because I wanted her to be important in the story. Emmara has her roots in another Magic story, Agents of Artifice by Ari Marmell, and she became important enough in The Secretist that we decided she needed to make an appearance in the game."

"4) Will we ever see creative concepts like Kiora Atua or any of the other Duels of the Planeswalkers characters in physical card form?  Ral Zarek, who was first introduced as a character in Duels of the Planeswalkers, will definitely be making his card debut soon. It’s too early to reveal plans for any other characters, so I have to be coy, but I’ll say this—we never say never."

So there's just a bit of news, and I guess we need to start keeping up with Forbes for more MTG news.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Friday Night Magic - 3/1/13

So, I headed out to the LGS for FNM this week, with a new deck, I cannot take credit for it, I built Paul Rietzl's aristocrats deck that he and Sam Black put together.  I have to admit this is quite a powerful little brew.  I did make one modification, I  put the Obzedat, Ghost  Council into the main and removed the Cartel Aristocrats, and added one more card, Gather the Townsfolk.  Was super stoked to play, it's been about a month since I made it to an FNM, so I hadn't really seen what the meta was doing with the introduction of Gatecrash.  I saw several mono-red (red deck wins).  My night consisted of round one playing against a blue/black Augur of Bolas/Nephalia Drownyard brew that eventually had me milling out in game 2, but game three got really hasty and I dropped Falkenrath Aristocrat on turn four paired with Silverblade Paladin for the win.

As you can see, swinging for 8 each turn is awesome, and even better if you have a Knight of Infamy on the board as well (Exalted can be sneaky).

Game two was a random deck with blue/black/green and conjurers closet, which midway through the game we were informed my opponent was using wrong since he was trying to blink the same creature twice when he had to closets on the board.  Due to not calling it out I was unable to roll back his life total that thanks to blinking thragtusk 4 times was now 36.  So, this match went to game 3 and I pulled out a W 2-1 as his confidence got rattled after the judge called him out.

Game three was my only loss of the night, it was mono-black zombies, and I just couldn't keep up, between Blood Artist and Gravecrawler (who always comes back...).  I just wasn't fast enough or didnt have the right mana combination, or I would tap the wrong colors and be one short.  So it was a fast 0-2 loss on that one.

Game four was quick, went up against a Green/Blue (I say it was aggro, b/c man it was fast with all those mana dorks).  Running Champion of Lambholt and Infinite Reflection, I actually let this guy cheat and when he mirror imaged, I wasn't paying attention and his images came in with the counters on them.  However thanks to the ghost council and the Silverblade paladin, swinging for 10 each time was brutal.  Got the W, 2-1.

So that was my first FNM trying to do the blog, I will try much harder to have better notes on my opponents and maybe some pics from the evening.  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear em.

Keep your mana free and have a great week!

Oh and here's the link to the Aristocrats deck, and the other top 8 from Pro Tour Montreal


Friday, March 1, 2013

First Post!

Welcome to my new blog about Magic the Gathering.  I first started playing Magic when I was in college about 18 years ago.  Flash forward to 2011, I had a few friends who were playing, so I bought a couple of intro decks and some boosters to try to re-introduce the game to myself.  The basic mechanics were still the say, there were new keywords, I don't recall having so many phases, but I never played competitively, just hanging at the local comics shop.  We all got together and played a few games, then we did a Two-Headed Giant game.  This was totally new to me, Two-Headed Giant (often abbreviated 2HG or THG) is a multiplayer format in which teams of two people each face each other. This format is unique in the fact that players take actions as a team instead of individually.  Then late in 2011, I relocated from Arkansas to Texas, and after getting internet and TV, you take the next logical nerd step, you find your local Comics Shop!  Upon locating the closest one to me, I asked if they participated in Friday Night Magic, and was told they do indeed.  So I started going and have been trying to make it there every week.  This is also a great way to meet new people if your new to an area or just don't have a lot of friends to play (Magic) with.

So that all being said, welcome to the new blog, I will try to keep you updated weekly as I get out and play FNM.  We can discuss deck tech (something I wish I was better at), tournament, new combos, cards and the like. 

I hope you will stick around and become a vocal part of the blog, and I will do my best to keep you updated/entertained.

Jon


Legal Mumbo Jumbo

Wizards of the Coast, Magic: The Gathering, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. © 2009 Wizards. All Rights Reserved.
This blog is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This blog may use the trademarks and other intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast LLC, which is permitted under Wizards' Fan Site Policy.
For more information about Wizards of the Coast or any of Wizards' trademarks or other intellectual property, please visit their website at (www.wizards.com).