Vintage thought

Hey Captain! I realize G is so much better for Gobs than B, but wow. This seems like, rilly good. Prowl is 1B with Warchief on the table. Or am I reading the rules wrong? Judge!

Gaea's might get where?

Is this really the Zach Stratton I'm thinking of? I haven't seen him at the store in a while, maybe he moved south. Or drove. Or maybe "Zach" and "Stratton" are actually pretty common names. Anybody know?
T

Incorporating Morningtide into Kraj

Okay, ya'll are probably going to say something snide, but I haven't looked at the full spoiler for Morningtide yet. I love writing about General Kraj though, so I am gonna open the full spoiler right now and take a look and see what goodies there are to upgrade my list. I've seen a couple of lords that give +1/+1 counters, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Green first

Bramblewood Paragon-1G, 2/2. Each other Warrior creature you control comes into play with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
Each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it has trample.

Here's something with potential already in the Bs. A 2-drop that gives a lot of my other creatures trample? Seems alright. I am fairly certain I don't have a ton of Warriors in Kraj, but the second ability makes up for that. Might be too small though for EDH.

Chameleon Colossus-2GG, 4/4. Protection from Black.
2GG: Chameleon Colossus gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is its power.

Well, that's just silly. Obviously has to go in somewhere.

Cream of the Crop-1G, enchantment. Whenever a creature comes into play under your control, you may look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that creature's power. If you do, put one of those cards on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

I am fairly certain that this is BBAR*. Especially when I can stack triggers to add +1/+1 counters before resolving this ability. How nice to cast a 28/28 GGT and get a free D Tutor from the top 3rd of my deck.

Earthbrawn and Hunting Triad-Earthbrawn is an overcosted Giant Growth and Hunting Triad puts elf tokens into play. However, they both have Reinforce, which allows me to add +1/+1 tokens at instant speed.

I don't think these make it, though maybe Hunting Triad gets the call. Combat tricks are just so bad in EDH (I'll trade a card for one of yours, then the dude dies to mass removal a turn later), and while the thought of Reinforce with Doubling Season on the table makes me feel dirty, I don't really need more ways to abuse Doubling Season. Nor do I need more ways to add +1/+1 counters to things without some other effect.

Fertilid-2G, 0/0. Fertilid comes into play with two +1/+1 counters on it.
1 G, Remove a +1/+1 counter from Fertilid: Target player searches his or her library for a basic land card and puts it into play tapped. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

Or I could just play Kodama's Reach. EDH may be casual, but 7 mana for 2 lands? No.

Reach of Branches-4G, Tribal Instant-Treefolk. Put a 2/5 green Treefolk Shaman creature token into play.
Whenever a Forest comes into play under your control, you may return Reach of Branches from your graveyard to your hand.

Virtual card advantage plus chumpies and Wrath insurance? Could get there. OTOH, we are sometimes casting Meloku with that mana, and our creature tutors don't get this. OTOOH, I do dredge quite a bit, even with only 3 Dredge cards. Hmmm...

So what do we have in Blue?

Mindspring-XBB. Draw X cards.

Yeah, I don't know if this is really better than the card drawing I already have. It's nice to refill in the late game, but it is so dead and overcosted early.

Sage of Fables-2U, 2/2. Each other Wizard creature you control comes into play with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
2, Remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control: Draw a card.

Gee, and I was just about to complain how bad the blue Morningtide was for Kraj.

Slithermuse-2UU, 3/3. When Slithermuse leaves play, choose an opponent. If that player has more cards in hand than you, draw cards equal to the difference.
Evoke 3U

This seems a little underwhelming at first, but it is a solid body, that can be evoked for good effect in a large game, that has a little Wrath insurance. Could get there.

Oof. Two or three cards at the most. How about artifacts? Dare I hope?

No. It's all Tribal. Hrmph.

Multicolor? Nope. Okay, then. Well, looking at numbers of cards from each set in my current Kraj, it looks like Morningtide is going to be pretty darn good for a small set. Both the +1/+1 lords should get in, along with Chameleon Colossus (although we'll wait until Timmy gets his and the price goes down), Cream of the Crop and maybe some sundry. Nice job, Renton!

*Broken Beyond All Recognition, derf.

Febuary 9th Extended PTQ at Misty

1. Is anyone planning on attending this?

2. I am also looking to borrow the following cards for this event. Any help would be appreciated.

2 Tolaria West
1 Steam vents
2 Flooded strand
3 Polluted Delta
11 Island
1 Breeding Pool
2 Academy Ruins

2 Venser, Shaper Savant

3 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Diving Top
3 Vedalken Shackles
4 Counterspell
3 Cryptic Command
3 Stifle
1 Pact of Negation
2 Fact or Fiction
3 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Spell Snare
3 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Pithing Needle


3 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Arcane Laboratory
3 Force Spike
3 Sower of Temptation

3. Any help would be greatly appreciated. And I will love you forever... unless you don't want me to... but than I will be sad.

A Vintage tourney report. Also. Kraj rulez!

As mentioned earlier, Fugie convinced me to go to a vintage tournament this Sunday. I had a fair amount of fun and my opponent's weren't total asses. So that was nice. I played R/g Goblins. This would be the fastest "fair" deck in the format. Unfortunately, there are a lot of "unfair" decks.

Round 1-I win the die roll and start on Wooded foothills, without a one-drop. Not sure why I kept. My opponent leads with fetch into Taiga/Mogg Fan. So he's R/G Beats and I am a little bit of a dog to him. Anyways, Goblins does what it does and I am ahead the whole game. I think the only point I took game one was the Foothills activation. Game 2, he is first and I keep a broken hand of lackey, Tin Street, Mountain, Emerald, Ruby, and something else. Unfortunately, he also kept a broken hand of mox, lotus, Taiga, Kird ape, kird ape, seal of fire. Couldn't fight through it, though I did get him down to 7. Game 3, he gets down double Goyf off a Strip, Wasteland and Taiga. The crucial play comes when I stingscourger one Goyf and fail to Waste his Taiga. I failed to recognize it was his only green source. he was able to play defense with the goyfs pretty effectively and eventually pulled it out on the 3rd extra turn. That's right, Gobs vs Beatz went to time. Oof.

Round 2-I lose the die roll and my opponent leads with Delta into Underground Sea, Brainstorm. Of course he takes like 2 minutes to resolve it. "I can't just put back one, hunh?" "Ha ha. No." Anyways, he's playing GAT and while he holds me off for a bit with a well timed Force on Will on a lethal Siege-Gang Commander, I eventually killed him after giving him a whole extra turn, in which he Yawg Willed and still didn't win. Game 2 is a little dicier since he gets 2 Dryads out, but I Wasteland, Wasteland, Strip Mine, which is handy, since I have 2 Aether Vials out. He concedes on one land.

Round 3-I win the die roll and keep a hand of mountain, ruby, vial, lotus, lackey, matron. I drop my hand on the table and say go. Then he kills me. Oh good! Storm Tendrils. I go first again the second game, but fail to mull to a turn one Pyrostatic Pillar. Then he kills me. Vintage rulez!

I dropped and almost bailed but our little playgroup wasn't doing so hot and we had enough for a four man EDH. Kraj Action Force! Kick Butt!

I got a Gemstone Caverns with a luck counter on it. Turn one Signet. Turn 2 land. Turn 3 Magus of the Future. Turn 4 start going nuts with the Magus and various and sundry. I get to the point where Fugie is very concerned about my board seeing how he has a Dimir Infiltrator and I have like 5 creatures. So he drops a Disk and swings at Tabasco. Now, Fugie could have swung at me, but he'd hurt in the crackback and he could have swung at Major Luck, but he'd hurt in the crackback, so he chooses to poke Tabasco for one. This upsets Tabasco, because Hot Sauce has done little but play a Megrim at this point. So despite the fact that I am the one whom a Disk would cripple, Tabasco cacks it on Major Luck's EOT. I proceed to get really silly with El Mago del Futuro and Life from the Loam and Fathom Trawl. Fugie is dead by the time Major Luck realizes he can Citanul Flute for Wrath of God (via Dimir House Guard) and my hand is so far beyond gas as to be comical.

After the dust clears, I Kraj and Major Dromars only to have them both Decree of Pained. So Tabasco has filled up his hand with gas thanks to Mind's Eye (which yes, should be in every deck) and my Ancestral Visions. And I have a Doubling Season in play. So on Major's EOT, I Gifts for Golgari Grave-Troll, Triskelavus, Regrowth, and Eternal Witness. He gives me the Regrowths, which I can use on anything in my graveyard, due to GGT having dredge and Triskelavus comboing with Academy Ruins. So I cast a 26/26 GGT, a 4/4 Phantom Nantuko, pump them both with my 8/8 Cytoplast Root-kin and say go. Tabasco plays Mindslicer and says go and Major Luck casts chumpies (to go with his Vedalken Shackles (5 islands) and passes to me at 2 life and with a single card in hand. I Ruins Triskelavus on my upkeep and cast it (as a 7/7) with 3 mana up. Major tells me I should win this turn and I couldn't figure out how. Until I attacked him with the Nantuko and Tabasco with the others. Then Major steals the Mindslicer to block with. I didn't see this solution at first because it depended on what the Major did. But there was a better solution which didn't require his involvement. I could have just created Triskelavite tokens and shot the Mindslicer so we all blow our hands. Then Major dies from the Megrim and I swing with the team to kill Tabasco. I am a bad player. The B&R team for CBG's basement has a close eye on Doubling Season. Have fun out there.

For Those of You That Probably Don't Care

At the T1 TK and Owen may or may not have split the finals (I don't know I left before they figured out what they were doing). Ash Ketchum finished 3rd and Tyler finished 4th. I scrubbed TFW scrubbed and I believe CBG didn't do much better.

On anonymity and this blog

It's so bizarre. I, and all my co-bloggers, post pseudonymously and yet, when somebody posts a comment with a pseudonym, I am possessed with a righteous fury, "Who is that person? And why do they think they can post here without giving a name?!?" Then I remember...and I am like, "Oh. Right."

I <3 EDH and a vintage update

So the constructed flavor of the month is Elder Dragon Highlander, that most casual yet powerful of formats. Wanna play Nath of the Gilt-Leaf and Unnerve together? Now you can. I have played against Fugie's Dakkon deck several times. It seems really really good, though extraordinarily susceptible to Jokulhaups. He plays a bunch of powerful nonbasics, in-color planeswalkers and the best cards from 3 colors. He has smoked the group with it every time I have failed to resolve Jokulhaups. The other day, he won a 6-man, having been Black Braids-ed down to a single permanent. It's that good. The thing that makes it really good though, is the deck doesn't stick its neck out. One of the decks was recursing Black Braids. Everybody ganged up. I cast a 14/14 GGT and got my head cut off. Somebody else cast Austere Command, Profane Command and Damnation. Gang tackle. I thought it was a fun demonstration of why the most powerful deck rarely wins in multiplayer.

I was playing Experiment Kraj that day. I had managed to misbuild the deck. Apparently, Experiment Kraj only gets activated abilities of each creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, not all abilities. Thank goodness for my neighbors Triskelion (and holy crap, do I need to get me one a doze...). I think it needs a little more of a toolbox approach, but man oh man, I think I played every Simic card from Dissension except maybe Simic Initiate. Also, random Keiga is just randomly good. The deck probably needs more Spikes. Those are all activated right?

Interest in the Wort deck has waned a bit. The goblin theme is a little random. The giant dragons are fun, and boy does B/R have a ton of massive board affecting spells. For whatever reason, I haven't enjoyed playing it nearly as much as the Kraj deck. Probably because Kraj has a bunch of neat, Johnny-ish interactions, with a very Timmy endgame. Giant Trolls! Oozes the size of your living room! See, here I am talking about Experiment Kraj in a paragraph ostensibly about Wort.

Anyways, so I am going to dip my toe in the Vintage waters this Sunday. I am going to a mox tourney with a simple to play if underpowered deck. It'll be fun to try something new but my expectations are low. I am going to be running R/g Goblins. Should I post my list? I guess it doesn't matter. It's not like people will metagame against me.

4x goblin lackey
4x mogg fanatic
4x goblin warchief
4x goblin piledriver
4x goblin ringleader
3x tin street hooligan
1x gempalm incinerater
1x stingscourger
4x goblin matron
4x aether vial
2x wasteland
1x strip mine
4x wooded foothills
2x bloodstained mire
3x taiga
4x mountain
4x thorn of amethyst
1x mox emerald
1x mox ruby
1x black lotus
1x lotus petal
1x mana crypt
2x siege-gang commander

I don't know if I should say who gave me the list. What is the protocol here? Anyhoos, testing tomorrow! Woohoo!

Morningtide Prerelease

After going 0-6 in cube drafting, Too Sarcastic does okay at the prerelease. I went with Major Luck and Scoop Phase. In our sealed pod we were all still in prize range by the last round, but we needed a win. Unfortunately Scoop and Major got paired against one another in the last round, so only one would get the packs (it was Scoops). Luckily those two agreed to split the prize either way, so there were no hard feelings. I lost the last round and finished 2-1-1, just of prize range. We all drafted trips Morningtide and I actually got to the finals with a controllish rogue/fairies deck, where I conceded to a fellow from MKE because we needed to get back on the road. So I ended up walking away with seven Morngingtide packs. We only need to rustle up one more Morngingtide pack (I'm looking at you Major Luck) to do a full 8 person LLM draft! Any takers? I'd like to do a draft sometime this coming week, because by next weekend, life is going to be crazy and I probably won't have time. Let me know if you are down and when you could do it!
T

56 Land.dec

I am totally playing this list at FNM

4 Countryside Crusher
4 Terramorphic Expanse
52 Mountain

Yes, I know he doesn't have trample. I love him anyway. Screw You.

Elder Dragon Highlander (Hideaway Drinking Game Variant)

What's better than Elder Dragon Highlander? Besides sex, smartypants. That's right! Drinking!

This probably works best for multiplayer FFA games. Duels probably won't meet the triggers enough. The game works just like normal, except there are 5 triggered abilities in the rules.

(1) Whenever a source deals 7 or more damage to a player, the controller of the source may pay 3. If that person does, the damaged player takes a drink.

(2) Whenever 3 or more creatures attack a single player, the attacking player may pay 3. If that person does, the defending player takes a drink.

(3) As long as a player controls 10 or more power of creatures, that player may pay 4. If that person does, target player takes a drink.

(4) Whenever a player is hellbent, any opponent may pay 3. If the cost is paid, the hellbent player takes a drink. Play this ability only once per turn.

(5) Whenever an active player has less than 40 cards in their library, any opponent may pay 3. If the cost is paid, the active player takes a drink. Play this ability only once per turn.

I hosed the green one a little since it is so easy to activate, can target any player and can be activated multiple times per turn. What do you all think? Awesome?