March 1st B & R List and one important update

With the announcement of the March 1^st Banned and Restricted List we have one very important change upon us. For reference:

“Announcement Date: March 1, 2008

Magic Online Effective Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2008

(After the regularly scheduled Wednesday downtime)

DCI Floor Rule Change Announcement: Extended Rotation

The scheduled October 2008 rotation of the Extended format, as listed in the Magic Floor Rules, has changed. Following the release of the set codenamed "Rock", the following sets will be leaving the Extended format: Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse, Odyssey, Torment, Judgment, and Seventh Edition. The rotation previously listed in the floor rules also included Onslaught, Legions™, and Scourge. These three sets are now scheduled to leave Extended in 2009. One years' worth of blocks will leave Extended with every fall Magic release, syncing up Extended rotation with Standard rotation.

For more information about this change and the reasoning behind it, see Devin Low's Latest Developments article for Friday, March 7 on magicthegathering.com.

There are no changes to the Extended banned list.

Standard, Vintage, Legacy, Lorwyn Block Constructed, Two-Headed Giant Constructed

No changes”

Formats are healthy, but let’s look at what decks will die in October 2008 and what decks will continue to flourish as it were.

Dredge: loses Breakthrough, Careful Study, Ichorid, Cephalid Sage, Cabal Therapy, Tolarian Winds, Cephalid Coliseum...basically their whole deck. See you in Hell dredge!

Rock variants: loses Pernicious Deed (this is huge), Vindicate (same), Destructive Flow, Cabal Therapy, Duress, Spiritmonger, Living Wish, Collective Restraint…they lose a lot of key cards but they aren’t quite dead, especially Doran.

Goblins: loses Goblin Ringleader, Goblin matron, Cabal Therapy

Blue Control Decks: loses Counterspell (a big hit), Force Spike, Psychatog (Tarmogoyf killed him anyway)…not too much of a hit. I expect blue decks will still be fine post rotation.

Combo: loses Cabal Ritual, Solitary Confinement, Invasion Sac .lands, Draco, Erratic Explosion, Burning Wish, Fire/Ice, Vindicate, Pernicious Deed…It has been nice knowing you combo!

Red Decks/Domain Aggro: loses Grim Lavamancer, Vindicate, Barbarian Ring, Terminate, Gaea’s Might, Armadillo Cloak, Firebolt, Lava Dart…nothing devastating, at least not for RDW, Domain took the biggest hit

Tron: loses Moment’s Peace…laughable.

Storm combo and Ideal both took big hits, Dredge will stay in its grave, Goblins loses its tutors and draw enigine, Rock decks and Blue decks took a hit but we will have to see what the future brings us (we have 2 sets yet to replace that which was lost), Red Decks will continue to Win, but Domain is no more.

What we will see:

I expect Tooth and Nail to come back, Death Cloud will still be around and kickin’, Affinity loses absolutely nothing! Doran/Junk and “The Rock”, Blue has Rune Snag or Mana leak to replace Counterspell, U/G or U/W Tron will still see play.

I think Glittering Wish will replace Living Wish, Mortify and Putrefy will try to fill the void left by the loss of Pernicious Deed and Vindicate.

The question is whether or not we will see some new “fetchlands” perhaps some enemy fetches that require 2 life instead of 1 life.

Also Just a reminder, The ICBM Open #2 has be rescheduled to Tomorrow at 10 AM, same location. Still 20 Proxy, still 20 dollars, come on out a sling some vintage cards if you're free.

CBG proves his point

Well, not to say I told you so or anything, but I did indeed tell you so. I went 0-3 at the ptq yesterday, losing 1-2 to Aggro Loam, 1-2 to monoblue (like Next Level Blue but without Tarmogoyfs) and 0-2 to Astral Slide. The deck was not the problem, except perhaps in the 3rd round, when I twice was one card off from a turn one kill, and I couldn't get the damn thing to cough up a burn spell. There were some interesting stories though and I got to play some more EDH and extend my losing streak through the entire day, casual and sanctioned. Oh! Also, I finished my EDHs, so i am 100% proxy free. Dealers are nice, if mercenary.

The deck is Blazing Saddles of Fury!

4 Blazing Shoal
4 Serum Powder

4 Myojin of Infinite Rage
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Fury of the Horde

4 Spark Elemental
4 Lightning Serpent
4 Raging Goblin

3 Shard Volley
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike


3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
10 Mountain

I didn't run a sideboard.

This is Blazing Saddles, sped up by including Fury of the Horde. Fury is pitchable to Shoal, so it improves your odds of getting something big to pitch to the shoal, but it's not dead alone.

Round 1

Game one I blast him for 12 turn one. He stabilizes with a couple Wall of Roots and I am kind of wondering what he is playing, until his friend walks by and he points to his board and says, "No second red." So I put him on Aggro Loam with Countryside Crusher. I burn him out with Rift Bolt, Shard Volley, Shard Volley.

Game two I keep a hand which needed something (I think a red card) and I kept it since I had gone to six. He wasn't going to play anything relevant on turn 1 (no moxen) so I wasn't particularly concerned. I didn't draw what I needed until he had Crusher (tapped) and Wall of Roots in play (and I had 3 lands, what the heck am I doing with 3 lands). I had a Cajun and I thought I had enough to Shoal and Fury in the same turn. And I did. If I didn't cast the Lightning Serpent. Then, once I made that mistake, he of course blocks the Serpent with the Wall and I proceed to Shoal the cajun instead of the Serpent. Cause the extra 5 damage is totally more important than getting rid of the blocker. Sheesh. So he goes down to 5, then I Lava Spike. Then he Devastating Dreams for 4 and kills me.

Game three I keep a no lander. I rip it on turn 2, blast for 10 and proceed to not draw burn or further shoals. But he's playing around it. I am fidgeting in my chair and I realize that the floor feels slippery. The carpeted floor. I look down and there's three of my cards. I had dropped a couple cards in my lap when I was side shuffling between games and picked them up and put them back in my deck. Unfortunately, I had also apparently dropped some on the floor and missed them. So I called a judge and told him I had presented an illegal deck for game 3. I just conceded to my opponent, but this is not quite right. I should have actually sat there and had the judge enter the penalty and give me the game loss officially. This judge just ignored it because I conceded but they really are supposed to give me a game loss and if he was doing what he was supposed to, I would have started a game down in round 2 if I had conceded in round 1. So don't concede.

Round 2

Turn one blast for 12. Opponent playing monoblue. Turn 2 suspend Rift Bolt, getting Lightning Serpent Counterspelled. I assumed he didn't have it since he had let me bolt him down to 5. Oops. He was tapped out so I Lava Spiked him. Turn 3, he lays a Chalice for 1. Well frack. I just blew the two cards that avoid that (that would be Lightning Serpent and Rift Bolt). I die with him on 2. Incidentally, Fugie's Lightning Helix tech would have saved me here. One, because it's a 2, but also because he went all in to deal exactly enough with Meloku tokens. Helix over the top would have done it.

Game two. This was a moment I got to live in fear. When I put this deck together, I didn't think a monoblue opponent could do anything relevant turn one. So I let him go first. He lays Polluted Delta and says go. I lay Sparky, and put Shoal on the stack. He cracks the delta! Oh crap I forgot about Force Spike. He searches, finds an island, shuffles his deck, looks at me and says, "resolves." Whew. He lays a Tolaria West and I double Lava Spike to kill him turn 2.

Game three. I get him to two. I get a Gargadon down. I again play the card that I need to power my Fury of the Horde. He had Meloku and two mana, so he could have made double chump blockers for two gargadon attacks, but as it was, I just died. I need to test more.

Round three

I play against some fool playing Astral Slide. This is what happens when you punt yourself into the 0-2 bracket. He draws a bunch of Renewed Faiths, and I am a single card off a turn one both games. I had him as low as 3 game one and 6 game two. It's irrelevant though, as the games lasted too long. Once turn 3 arrives, I lose.

The End

Changes to the deck. Well, now I know what to run for a sideboard. If I did, it would look something like

4 Leyline of the Void
4 Shattering Spree
4 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Tormod's Crypt

I'd also change 2 Shard Volley and 1 Lava Spike to 3 Magma Jet. It's nice to have a little diversity of mana costs and the card selection doesn't hurt. Last, I'd go up to a full set of fetches. Your life total is almost completely irrelevant. I would not try to splash a second color. If I did, it would only be off Rav duals. Topdecking a land that doesn't produce red is stupid. Even stupider than topdecking a land at all.

Extended, maybe some grab bag

Well, I guess I am going to ptq this Saturday for only the second time ever. I am going to play a deck that has around a 10% chance of a turn one win. I have been following the extended metagame ever since Worlds, but I hadn't planned on playing any ptqs. The format is pretty wide open but none of the decks really excite me. Doran Rock is cute. Next Level Blue is great if you like control. Aggro is thriving, with R/B Goblins, Doran (5/5s on turn 2 are aggro), and Zoo being viable. Combo has several winning decks, with TEPS, Dragonstorm, Hulk, and you can probably throw Ichorid in there as well if it's not a category of its own.

I think a big part of the problem for me is that I am just not that excited by Constructed competition. So much preparation is necessary for me to play any deck well. So much of high level Constructed is pattern recognition. Correct play is very difficult. I have a tendency to go to a tournament unprepared and have to think through too many situations. This probably sounds like a complaint about the amount of time I have to prepare but really it is more complex than that. Even if I had the time to prepare a gauntlet of 5 decks and play sets of 10 with them, I wouldn't do it.

Oftentimes in Constructed, a matchup just feels unwinnable even when it's not. Maybe you are focusing on the wrong things in the matchup (who's the beatdown and whatnot). Maybe your main deck is four cards off and that dramatically changes the matchup. Maybe you're tired of thinking about Magic. Point being, I don't have what it takes to be great at constructed and if I don't, why the hell am I ptq'ing? I know I am not going to win on Saturday. My goal is to have fun. And the way I have fun is to do silly stupid things. Jokulhaups into Rakdos? Silly stupid. Counterbalance your Tribal Flames? Not silly, nor stupid. So I am playing a deck that either wins turn one, or dies horribly. I don't think I am going to play with a sideboard. The deck is perfect as is.

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I really liked the Richard Garfield (spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch) articles published on the mothership on Monday. I am talking about the Lost in the Shuffle columns from Issues 17 and 18. In them, Garfield (spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch) talks about political games and why he doesn't like them. This struck a chord with me because TS had spoken recently about his dislike for multiplayer FFA. I personally have really enjoyed the FFA EDHs lately and protested TS pretty vociferously, especially because he didn't really back up his argument at all. Richard (spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch) did though, and in a way which really affected my thoughts on the subject.

He brings up several characteristics of political games and describes them as bad, when I had previously thought of them as good. For instance, the incentive to lie low and appear weak in a political game is something that he really despises. I've always thought of that as a feature not a bug. He goes on in this vein for a bit and then he lays on the crux:

The result for me was discovering that most political games were, underneath the veneer, the same game, and that I was tired of playing that game.

And that's a really great point. It doesn't matter if you choose a scalpel or a hammer. It doesn't matter if your deck is terrible or awesome. All that matters is your political skill, and Magic should be about a more complete skill set. Otherwise, it's just complicated poker. Richard Garfield (spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch) is really smart.

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I like the idea of Two headed giant EDH. We'll see if we can't arrange something this time. Maybe the incentives for abusive generals is still too high. Numot is totally fair in FFA. Not so much in duel:) As I have proven. Multiple times.

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I have to get to Olde Fart. I love sealed deck. Stupid job.