How to Top 8 without much effort

So I'm a luck sack (not a big surprise). For the second time in the last two plus years, I manage to top 8 at a release event at GU. I'd like to think is was pure luck, but having not gone to the Prerelease nor spending much time looking @ the set (I didn't even look at the preview cards until after the prerelese).

My success goes back to something Brian Bomberger once said to me, several years ago, at my first release event at GU. "Sealed deck is all about removal and evasion. Play as much or both as you can muster, and you should do just fine." Since then I've taken that advice to heart and have generally been able to build better then average decks with only average sealed pools.

Like the rest of life, being successful at sealed deck is about playing to the strengths that you have and learning from your mistakes (It also doesn't hurt to get a pool that lends itself to one stand out build). For the record, I did go 4-0-2 in the Swiss, but got hammered by Swiz in the finals by never seeing a two drop in either game (also note that in triple Eventide draft, Red-Blue on the play is amazing as it's mimic is unblockable and red has one mana removal for other mimics).

Well, until next time, may the mana gods not hate you.

EDH Holiday

Only have a few minutes for a short post.

This week's been especially bad. I didn't manage to make it down for Old Farte like I had wanted to but won't be able to go next week either (my grandmother passed away yesterday, so I'll be up in the Twin Cities for the funeral on Monday). The rest of my plans for this weekend kind of got kebashed as well. My folks had planned on coming up this weekend, but now I'll be heading up their way instead.

Well enough about me. I do agree that our group has gotten away from our roots in casual limited play and moved whole heartedly into EDH or bust. I admit that I am just as guilty of favoring EDH over draft. I also am more excited to see us moving back to more limited play. With that said, I am proposing that we go on an EDH holiday for the month of August. Please discuss this further @ CBGs on Sunday or in the comments, but I think that we need to take a break and give up the format for the month of August.

Until next time, may the mana gods not hate you.

Evaluating the Middle Tier of Playable Cards in Shadowmoor Limited

The Shadowmoor Release Tourney was this Sunday and it’s safe to say that at this point we all know what the amazing bomb common and uncommon cards are for Shadowmoor Limited. I could list them, but it would be boring. I also don’t care which is better, Kitchen Finks or Aethertow (But just to get the comments rolling, Finks is the correct answer). What I do care about is filling in the15-20 non-obvious cards of a Limited deck. And that requires knowledge of how playable the middle tier cards are. I will list bullet points for a few common and uncommon cards, along with my opinion of their playablility, if I have any. Unfortunately most of these cards will not simply be lumped into “playable” or “unplayable” columns. Our understanding of Shadowmoor tech has advanced beyond that stage already. When are these cards playable, and when would they be better in the sideboard? Comments, good sirs.

Trip Noose

This card seems like a boon in a removal-light environment; after all, it gets in any deck! So what deck really wouldn’t mind paying 2 a turn to neutralize the scariest creature across the table? What about a tempo-based beatdown deck, at the end of a race? Or a control deck, before stabilizing? To be honest I think this card is better than people think.

Repel Intruders/Torrent of Souls/River’s Grasp/Dawnglow Infusion/Firespout

Okay, Firespout is really a no brainer. But Firespout aside… Is there any one you would run with only ONE of the colors, not both? Dawnglow Infusion seems like utter trash (no disrespect, Stream of Life!) in any deck but a G/W one. And Repel Intruders is decidedly suboptimal if only blue or white comes to party. Maybe Torrent of Souls in a B/x deck? What about River’s Grasp in a U/x deck? I would lean toward yes for the former and no for the latter.

Leech Bonder

Was great for my controlling U/B draft deck, but I saw 0 copies of him played on Sunday. Is he just not fast enough? Even in sealed?

Gnarled Effigy

Too slow? Too slow. Sideboard only against control decks? Is there a time to be happy playing this in the main? It is removal, after all.

Merrow Grimeblotter

This card has gotten mixed reviews from every person I’ve asked. After playing two of them in a U/W draft deck, I tend to lean toward thinking they’re not very good. Yes, they will trade with a 4-butt (or a couple 2 power guys, which I hear there are a lot of in this format), but if they do, then they die and do nothing else. The best case scenario for Merrow Grimeblotter’s controller is for it to not be blocked because an opponent either a) has no large guys, in which case, congrats you’re winning anyway, or b) has The Fear and lets you plink away for 2 a turn, totally ruining their combat math on the swingback, in which case, congrats, you’re playing a donkey. But most players will simply double block or trade a bigger guy to force the ability to be used on the attack. And rightly so, since Merrow Grimeblotter’s less useful that way. I don’t like him.

Blowfly Infestation

Seems like one hell of a gamble, even in a deck that is built around it. But, grumble, grumble, it IS removal…

Reknit

Terrible combat trick? Or reasonable combat trick in a weak card pool? Is it ever correct to run it to specifically regenerate non-creature permanents? I hear there are a few enchantments that are worth keeping around…

Hungry Spriggan

Hungry? So hungry! This Sunday I heard probably three players with a losing record remarking on how amazing Hungry Spriggan is. And several players in that made Top 8 (Asshole Jason and Tabasco) told me that it was not at all good. It does, after all die to any removal. But it was great for me! (You have a Godhead of Awe? Heh. I’ll just race you with this common.) Does that make me…? Don’t answer that.

Giantbaiting

Again I have heard differing opinions here. Asshole Jason (who, after thrashing me took a look at my pool) was not a fan (“It’s basically a really crappy removal spell, or at best direct damage, but your opponent chooses which one.”) but I think turning a few 2 power dudes into a few 4 power dudes for the turn is just fine. I would run this in an aggressive R/G or R/B deck. Would I be wrong to do so?

Elsewhere Flask

Man, they like this card on the MTG podcasts of GP Brussels, but what does Rich Hagon know about playing Magics? (Answer: Probably more than I do.) It juices Corrupt and Jaws of Stone! It cantrips! It turns on both sides of Firespout (if you tap carefully)! It slices! Dices! Feeds your dog! Gosh, when DON’T you run this amazing bomb ass artifact that does not in any way affect the board on its own? There’s a reason they call me TooSarcastic, folks.

The Duos

I wanted to end with these because I think they illustrate well how difficult it is to evaluate card power in the abstract. Of course a player can safely run a Safehold Duo in a W/G deck. What about a W/R deck? A G/B deck? How many cards does a player need to activate a duo before it becomes worth adding? Asshole Jason and (I believe) The Captain were advocating that I add 2 Thistledown Duos and a Somnomancer to my W/G sealed deck to speed it up. This would have put the total blue cards to 6 (I was playing 2 Curse of Chains and a Silkbind Faerie already) and my white card total to 13. Asshole Jason (who was really quite nice the whole day- it’s just a nickname) argued that the Duo would often be a 3/3 for 3 mana, and sometimes have flying. But doing the math, I would draw a card to trigger the white half of Thistledown Duo (assuming I drew and played the Duo already) a little less than a third of the time. If I start with Thistledown Duo in hand (obviously the best case scenario) then I will statistically have only one other white card in my opener as well (this is on the play, again, the best case scenario for an aggressive deck). This just does not seem good enough. But after I failed to side them in I lost both the last two rounds*, so maybe I’m mistaken. What do you think?

T

*The final round against Captain Essex was particularly awful since after a quick game where he was manascrewed we had a marathon second game that saw both of us with surreal life totals (Me, 50. Essex, 90 something). I scooped after it was clear he actually could kill me (either with damage or decking) with the 15 minutes left in the round. In a hurried game 3 where Essex was ahead on the board he cast Last Breath on one of my creatures. I moved it to the removed from game zone… where a creature that he had Last Breathed in game 2 was still sitting. Essex told me to shuffle it in my library, but I called a judge, by which I mean THE judge, e.g. The Fugitive Wizard. Fugie gave a game loss to the player who presented as illegal deck (that would be me, for having only 39 cards), and it turned into a match loss, which put Essex into top 8. I seemed less concerned than everyone else (Essex was not happy to make top 8 this way, and I think he would have taken the last game by his own effort), but I was tired (and hung over) and was not too disappointed in having to go home just then. Fugie obviously made the correct call, and the only reason I called a judge in the first place was because I didn’t feel like forcing Fugie to DQ me by trying to cover it up, if things ended up badly. Just to muddy the ethical waters I bit, I will note that Essex was playing on Fugie’s dime, and any prizes that Essex won he agreed to give to Fugie. Just out of curiosity, if there were other judges available, would you have let another official handle the ruling, Fugie? Or should it not matter? At any rate, my only regret about the whole day is that I worked very hard to play tight Magic for four or so rounds and then had my effort wasted by my own thoughtless errors. I obviously don’t play in large tourneys often, because I don’t deal well with the fatigue when I am forced to play more than four rounds. I considered writing the whole post as a tournament report, but I realized that people are far less interested in the tragic tale of a player who can’t break .500 at a release event than in finding out things that might actually be of use to them.

Shadowmoor draft

We had a 10-man Shadowmoor draft last night and I believe a good time was had by all (though feel free to speak up in comments if that wasn't the case). I ended up 4-0ing with an aggro-ish nearly mono green deck. Pack one started me down the green road, with a second pick Kitchen Finks and multiple Safehold Elites. I kept taking 2-4 drops through pretty much the whole pack. I think the only non-creature card I took out of this pack was a Giantbaiting, which does a pretty good impression of a creature. Pack two presented the choice between Oona, Queen of the Fae and Boggart Ram-Gang. I ended up resisting a strong urge to hate the Oona and was rewarded a pick or two later with my second Finks. The only cards I ended up needed red for were the activation on Tattermunge Witch and Flame Javelin. The witch was a superhero for me.

Overall, my deck had the ability to produce a ton of damage very quickly and that seemed to be the case across several of the decks. I played separately from the rest of the crew for the whole night and at least one match was done in less than 15 minutes every time. There were certainly matches that went to time, but I really feel like aggro has a leg up in the format. That would be even more the case if not for Consign to Dream. There were five in our pool and man is that card ever a beating.

Let's see...don't draft mill. Or maybe I should say, if there's is a mill deck, Pseudonymous Drama Student didn't draft it. CMC 3 is the new 4. There are a ton of great creatures at 3. There are definitely controlling decks out there of wall-ish guys with untap effects. Time will probably show us how to draft them to beat aggro. If I am drafting control in the format, I am definitely on the bounce wagon, because Shield of the Oversoul is almost format defining. There are a ton* of solid GW drops at every point in the curve and indestructible fatties with flying tend to get there. I was always finding my Lorwyn drafts getting bogged down at 4 but had no such issues with Shadowmoor.

First was G/r, second was G/W, third was U/B, fourth was U/W, fifth was U/B/r, sixth was major_luck with I am not sure but U-something, seventh was G/W, eighth was R/B, ninth was U/B/R, I think, and tenth was the mill deck, which was base blue I believe.

*1-Elvish Hexhunter, Seedcradle Witch
2-Safehold Elite, Medicine Runner
3-Kitchen Finks, Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers

Theses are just the commons and uncommons.

Limited v. Constructed 2.0-A Cry for Help

So how's that "Get the ole Constructed rating up" initiative going, CBG? Well I am glad you asked. Since making that resolution, I have participated in one event and gone 0-3. This dropped my rating another 7 points, to a new low of 1511. I really am starting to get a little embarrassed by this. After 3-1'ing my flight at the prerelease, my Limited rating is back up to 1654, only 4 points shy of the 1658 I reached after ambushing Gaudenis Vidugiris for 29 points at the PTQ-KL last year*. I still feel a little bad about that, especially since he won out to make top 8 and I, uh, 4-4'ed. A 143-point spread. Ouch.

So like I said, I am getting a little embarassed, and I am asking for help. What should I play at FNM or SNM to get that Constructed rating back up? Will somebody please test with me? It occurs to me that I play Constructed games like Limited games and that is hurting me. What do I need to do to get better at Constructed? Help me Obi-Wan, you're my only hope!

*Incidentally, Gaudenis was a really nice guy and got horribly mana screwed game 1, and lost to a ridiculous 4 removal spell draw game 2. No disrespect intended or implied.

Winning Out

So the prerelease was awesome. This was actually the very first large set prerelease event that I have ever entered, barring the one time I got to do a 2HG with a very new player on Sunday. I managed to bum a ride with the Captain and Hot Sauce. We arrived at the venue at 8:45 am for the 9:00 start and there were already dozens of people lined up outside. We ran into Pseudonymous Drama Student, but he had preregistered and got into flight 1. By the time we made it to the front of the line, it was flight 3. We got our product immediately upon paying and started registering. This is awesome. Go go gadget prerelease. The prerelease foil, Demigod of Revenge reminds me of the Guildpact foil. That is to say, I can see why they ordered an alternate art version of this.

I am not going to list all the cards in my pool because I can't link, but I will say that I had some very strong RG, but not quite enough playables and decided to go with a U/W/b build instead. Here's the cards and the build I played...

G/W Hybrid - no green sources

Safehold Elite-1(G/W)-Persist. 2/2. A bear that comes back and chumps after he's been outclassed.

Raven's Run Dragoon-2(G/W)(G/W)-Can't be blocked by black. 3/3. Hill Giant with an upside. This is sealed.

White - Primary color due to this...

Armored Ascension-3W-Aura-Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each Plains you control and has flying. Blanchwood armor just wins games without evasion. 'nuff said.

Niveous Wisps-W-Instant-Target creature becomes white until EOT. Cantrip. I played it as a one mana cantrip. ymmv.

Safehold Sentry-1W-2W,Q:Safehold Sentry gets +0/+2 until EOT. 2/2. I had to have the captain remind me to play my bears. Never actually used the ability, but the threat of it held off attacks a couple times. Would play again.

Rune-Cervin Rider-3W-Flying. (G/W)(G/W):Rune-Cervin Rider gets +1/+1 until EOT. A shade with evasion. Very solid though I didn't draw him much.

Prison Term-1WW-Aura-Enchanted creature can't attack or block and it's activated abilities can't be played. When a creature comes into play under your opponent's control, you may attach Prison Term to that creature. I only played this once and managed to stick it on a Giantbaiting token (rtfc, gets sacced EOT). I was really curious how good it would be and didn't get a chance to really explore it because I failed to draw it much.

Inquisitor's Snare-1W-Instant-Prevent all damage target attacking or blocking creature would deal this turn. If that creature is black or red, destroy it. All kinds of good.

Steel of the Godhead-2(U/W)-Aura-As long as enchanted creature is white, it gets +1/+1 and has lifelink. As long as enchanted creature is blue it gets +1/+1 and is unblockable. Nobody played any of these hybrid auras against me. They are pretty much nuts if you can maximize them. The GW is insane, and the BR is br-don-ken. UW is okay. Didn't run into the RG or UB, but how bad could they be if they can give +2/+2?

Glamer Spinners-4(U/W)-Flash. Flying. When Glamer spinners cip, attach all Auras enchanting target permanent to another permanent with the same controller. 2/4. Okay, this guys is being played because he is a flash 2/4 flier. the ability is occasionally relevant.

Godhead of Awe-(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)-Flying. Other creatures are 1/1. 4/4. Yeah, she just wins games. Often a one-sided Wrath of God. Kills anything with a -1/-1 counter on it. I failed to lose a game in which I cast her.

Barrenton Cragtreads-2(U/W)(U/W)-Can't be blocked by red creatures. 3/3. Hill Giant #2.

Consign to Dream-2U-Instant-Return target permanent to it's owner's hand. If that permanent is red or green, put it on top of it's owner's library instead. The more I play limited, the more I love bounce.

Merrow Wavebreakers-4U-1U,Q:Merrow Wavebreakers gains flying until EOT. 3/3. A flying vigilant 3/3. This is costed correctly, which means there are times you are not going to want to run him. Decidedly mediocre for me all day.

Faerie Swarm-3U-Flying. Faerie Swarm's power and toughness are each equal to the number of blue permanents you control. Usually and evasive 2/2. Sometimes better.

River's Grasp-3(U/B)-Sorcery-If U was spent to play River's Grasp, return up to one target creature to it's owner's hand. If B was spent to play River's Grasp, target player reveals his or her hand, you choose a nonland card from it, then that player discards that card. Bounce, removal, coercion...what's not to like?

Inkfathom Witch-1(U/B)-Fear. 2UB:Each unblocked creature becomes 4/1 until EOT. 1/1. Yeah, this one is awesome. I was moderately surprised, but there's a lot of evasion in the set.

2 Gloomlance-3BB-Destroy target creature. Destroy target creature. If that creature was green or white, its controller discards a card. Unconditional removal, which I needed. Sometimes boarded one our for a Torpor Dust if my opponent's curve was low.

Watchwing Scarecrow-4-Watchwing Scarecrow has vigilance as long as you control a white creature. Watchwing Scarecrow has flying as long as you control a blue creature. 2/4. Scarecrows are the changelings of Shadowmoor. Very awesome in draft. I would expect them to settle in just below removal and bombs, though some are better than others. There is one which changes colors of things and fixes your mana and it's a 2/2 for 3. It is very, very awesome. Totally wrecked us in 2HG.

Lurebound Scarecrow-3-As Lurebound Scarecrow CIP, choose a color. When you control no permanents of the chosen color, sacrifice Lurebound Scarecrow. 4/4. A little marginal in sealed, but I think this is rather bomby in draft when you should be pretty close to monocolor.

Wingrattle Scarecrow-3-Wingrattle Scarecrow has flying as long as you control a blue creature. Wingrattle Scarecrow has persist as long as you control a black creature. 2/2.

Pili-Pala-2-Flying. 2,Q:Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. 1/1. Crappy color fixing is still color fixing. They seem to have really nerfed color-fixing in the format (at least among the cards I saw). I think you so need to really focus on using hybrid to the max. Pick two or three colors. If you have 3, avoid double costs on the border colors.

I also had a Mystic Gate which is the UW rare dual.

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Round 1-vs. UW control. I won game one on the back of a timely Godhead of Awe. He had a scarecrow that is a 6/6 for 5. It puts a -1/-1 counter on it at end of combat if it attacked or blocked. In other words, once Godhead was down, he couldn't do anything with his threat. Games 2 and 3 were very similar to one another, as he got down double 6/6 scarecrow both games. There wasn't a ton I could do about it and died. Only drew one Gloomlance and never saw the Prison Term. Not sure if that would have helped. It wasn't particularly close.

So my back was up against the wall right away, which I guess helped focus my efforts. The next round I was up against a guy who didn't do a whole ton but still managed to beat me game 1. Then, I killed him. Godhead of Awe totally got stranded in my hand with 4 UW sources and a swamp for like 3 turns. That mana cost looks easy, but one splash can kill it.

Round 3 was interesting in that I again lost game 1. I don't think my deck was nearly as powerful as some of the builds, but I think I had a pretty good grasp of operations management and that managed to get me there. I took game 2 on the back of Pili-Pala and Safehold Sentry. I had Godhead in hand and the mana to cast it, but his side of the board was empty and I didn't feel like playing into removal. He didn't cast anything for four turns and I took our slogan to heart. Sometimes all you need is a 1/1. Or a 1/1 and a 2/2. Anyways.

Round 4, I got paired up against a guy who must have had some amazing stuff that he didn't draw because I crushed him with Godhead in game 1, and a pantsed-up Glamer Spinners in game 2. Lifelinked, unblockable dudes with +1/+1 for each Plains are some good.

So, 3-1 and 6 packs. Hot. I think I agree with TS that the format is going to be pretty fast in general. I chose to play all day and never regretted it. Draft is going to be ridiculously fast, I think. There were people who were casting 4/4s on turn 3 and then pants-ing up for ridiculous evasive 6/6s all over the place. Thank goodness I lost my first round. Also, the dude who beat me round 1, totally went 3-0 and got paired up with the Captain in round 4. The Captain crushed him. Thank goodness for carmates. REVENGE!

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So then Pseudonymous Drama Student and I decided to pair up for the 2HG since Hot Sauce and The Captain were intending to do the same. We opened like fiends in GW, with Wilt-leaf Liege, the double stream of life, TWO Oracle of Nectars (2(G/W)-X,T:Gain X life.) Shield of the Oversoul (makes Oracle indestructible) and various and sundry, including 3 duals (one foil). The other deck was monored. Nice. Open. We thought our 3-0 chances were pretty good. We got our round 1 opponent down to 1. They bounced one dude to the top of the deck so we had to redraw it. Any guesses as to whether or not the top card was a burn spell when they killed us? We won rounds 2 and 3 handily. w00t for 3 more packs.

I hit up captain essex for 3 more packs so I have 4 sets total. All in all, a good take on the day. My tip: Lose in the first round and then win out from there.

A Speedy Note on Shadowmoor Sealed

I might as well throw this out before the Prerelease, in case I'm actually right. Is anyone else concerned about how fast Shadowmoor Limited formats are going to be? Judging from the cards we've seen so far, numerous color combinations have incredibly aggressive early drops at uncommon, moreso than any format I can recall. I assume the commons will be less awesome, but DAMN. Just looking at officially spoiled cards, Wasp Lancer, Ashenmoor Gouger, Tattermunge Witch, Inkfathom Infiltrator, Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers, Tattermunge Maniac, Plumeveil, and of course, Kitchen Finks, are all uncommon! Hell, Ballynock Cohort and the tempo machine Aethertow are COMMON! Will it all be over by turn 6? In sealed?! I know Evan Erwin is telling you to always draw in sealed, but I think this might be a format to be on the play. Think about a mono green draft deck with Tattermunge Witch and Maniac, Cavaliers, Finks and maybe a Wilt-Leaf Leige at rare. Don't worry about color fixing. You're mono. Just curve out, turn five Tower Above FTW. I personally will not be keeping any slow hands tomorrow, especially if I am on the draw.
T

The Unbearable Lightness of Being Captain Bondage Goth

As most of you know, I won a draft last weekend. Just saying.

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The Experiment Kraj EDH has been rebuilt. It is now Momir Vig. There is card drawing, a little bit of tutoring, some toolbox, and more card drawing. I think it is going to be good, as long as everyone doesn't kill me as soon as I flash a Dismiss. When I played against Captain_essex's Erayo deck, he pissed everyone off in very short order. Somehow I am going to have to avoid doing that.

Playing counterspells in EDH is a pretty iffy proposition to be honest with you, but it's pretty much the only answer UG has to Armageddon effects, so I am gonna roll with it.

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Let's talk about the morality of helping out the "enemy". I have discovered that Fugie and I disagree on a lot of things, which is fun, because he's not an asshole. Most people I disagree with are assholes*. He implied earlier this week that the Captain (no relation) and Hot Sauce shouldn't have been giving advice to some random who was about to play Fugie. Cappy said if Fugie couldn't beat a dude with his deck built right, he didn't deserve to win. I think it's a little more complicated than that. Players at sealed tourneys always get advice in between rounds about how they should be sideboarding and how the deck might be misbuilt. I don't think Fugie had a problem with this aspect of it. He seems to be hung up on the idea of our crew being a tight knit little group that supports one another. But I think it's entirely possible that you can support your homies and still give advice.

How did you get better? Did you figure everything out yourself? Card advantage? Who's the beatdown? Lifegain is trash (Except when it's not, thanks Faith's Fetters)? Wait to cast yr instants? Blocking is loose?

The first couple times I played sealed tourneys, I always showed my pool to the guys I played after the match and asked 'em how they would have built it. Seeing how someone else builds is critical to moving forward and getting better. Getting better is how you win. Winning (at least some of the time) is how to have fun. The person who likes getting pounded into the carpet and keeps coming back is a rare bird indeed. I guess what I am saying here is, advice is about community building. Defining anybody as "the enemy" and withholding information from them raises barriers. Magic as a community just doesn't need any more barriers. It is complicated, expensive as hell, unfriendly towards women, not electronic, and addictive. Do we really need clique-ish behavior on top of that?

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Meanwhile, back at the draft...

My favorite game was the last one, when I killed the Captain with a Shard Volley off the top (so lucky) and he looks at his scorepad, looks at me and says, "I didn't think you were going to win that." Neither did I, Cap. Neither did I.

*Yes, this is a comment about myself. My lack of opinion of myself is enormous. Or vacuous. Or something.

Edited for clarity after rereading Fugie's Monday post.

Limited v. Constructed

My Constructed rating, after the ptq fiasco? 1518.

My Limited rating? 1648. That's a 130 point difference. Can any of you claim a bigger margin? Maybe I should make it a goal to improve my Constructed play this year. Get that rating back up to 1600. Yeah, maybe not.