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[thatmagicplayer]

Recent thoughts about the magic community 2014-10-31

So,

I was woken up this morning to my phone going off. I picked it up, and got to hear all about how Jarred Boettcher was added to the list of players that wizards has banned. His sentence is four years as it stands (Read more about this event here http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/2013-2014-rookie-year-title-revoked-2014-10-30)

Personally, i've never been a fan of Jarred Boettcher as a player. He has piloted some very interesting decks with a good amount of skill (Ad nauseum in modern for example), but has always seemed to just not be a good dude in general. So hearing that he got the axe this morning came as both a relief, and a surprise. It almost seems like wizards is a little ban happy in this fall season.

Don't get me wrong, its great that we are able to review footage and be able to clean up our community. These professional players are idols for many of us amateurs, and something to try and aspire to. Being able to have idols that are worth looking up to is great. This just makes me wonder how many other players that i respect could be under investigation. And how good is the system that they use to investigate players that they suspect?

For example, i heard a story yesterday from a buddy about a Taiwanese player that was banned for two months after pro tour Ravnica for writing his opponents life total down wrong (He had his opponent at 2 life less than he actually had). How do they know that something like this was truly intentional? And how much proof do they need to drop the ban hammer on someone?

Anyway, moving on to happier topics. I ended up being able to go and hangout at the Star City Wochester open on Legacy Sunday, and hooooly smokes was it everything i wanted it to be. We were able to hang out with Feline Longmore for a while, and she was pretty awesome in person. After awhile, we did a draft and i hit the trade tables, to walk away with 247 dollars in store credit. I ended up using it a few days ago to acquire a few hard to get pieces for imperial painter. Thanks SCG :D

Other than that, it's been pretty normal recently. No real events coming up that i'll be going to or watching. Other than GPNJ that is, im super pumped for that. Should be really great to see a lot of the top players participating in my favorite format in magic

-Andrew

[thatmagicplayer]

The Return 2014-10-20

Hello again, it's been awhile. So why not pick up where i left off!

For those that haven't read any of my past blog entries, my name is Andrew Giles, and i enjoy the competitive magic scene. I'm an avid collector, and a decent player i think. So let me fill you in on recent events.

Last Saturday (The 18th) was Khans of Tarkir gameday at the store i work for (Myriad Games). And since i was fortunate enough to have the day off, i thought id come in and play with some of my magic regulars. The Tournament was very good, things went smoothly, and i tied for top 4 which was great. Let's talk about the deck, shall we?

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/20-10-14-mono-black-devotion/

I'll give a little backstory on how i chose this list. Two weeks prior on the 4th, there was a TCG player States event at another local card shop. Wanting to see what the new standard would hold, and relishing in the loss of Pack Rats, i headed on over with two lists. One was mono-red burn, and the other was Black/White warriors. After some consulting, i went with mono-red burn. How could this go poorly? I thought with my sleep deprived brain. Im playing creatures for the first 3 turns, and they're still scrying and waiting with their triple lands. I get a few turns of free damage on them, and then burn spell to get up and over their creatures. Absolutely perfect plan. The only two creatures that would confidently crush my list, were Sylvan Caryatid, and Courser of Kruphx.

And thats exactly how that went down.

It was three rounds in a row of Them: Land go Me: Firedrinker Satyr go Them: Sylvan Caryatid go Me: Welp...attack for raid triggered War Name Aspirant go Them: courser of kruphix go Me:...Rabblemaster? pass? Them: Seige Rhino/Polukranos

This happened every single game. I went home a discouraged 1-3 that day. Because running small things into big things does not win me any matches. So now understanding that standard is in a constant state of Midrange, i got a list from a buddy for Blue Black Control. So on the same weekend as Pro Tour Honolulu, i sat at the Star City States event ready for action against all these Seige Rhinos and assorted Fatties. And then proceeded to get rocked for three hours. I left again with a 0-3 record with enough time to enjoy the afternoon playing Betrayl at House on the Hill with some good friends (Amazing game)

So the question was, Is standard worth Playing? Are we better off now then we were with packrat, and Sphinx's Rev, and Supreme Verdict, etc. Is standard better? Or just as bad but different. It was hard to tell, and with gameday coming up, i knew i only wanted to have fun with standard. So i sat down, and forged up devotion.

Gary (Grey Merchant) Was a very influential card in the Mono-Black list prior to rotation, and had its hand in flipping many losing situations. Even the mirror matches usually came down to who could cast the most Gary's throughout the game. So why not jam them in the face with a huge gary and whip it back for the win?

Some of you may be looking at the list and wondering why Pain Seer is in it. And honestly i dont know. I went through all of the two drop black creatures that i felt would have a good hand influencing the theme of the deck and support the wincon, and he just kinda fit the bill. Most of the time i will say, i flipped a murderous cut or a leeches and almost killed myself, but i sat at a confident 3-0-1 record going into top 8 2nd seed.

Leeches was also an interesting choice on the four drop slot. It's far from Desecration demon, but a 4/4 that grows with two devotion isn't terrible. And then being able to cast a bestowed Herald of Torment on curve, and swing with an 8/8 flying pile of disgusting seems pretty good. Then casting Gary or a Whip with murderous cut backup on turn 6 keeps the deck very reliable and able to swing momentum back in your favour very quickly.

Overall i really enjoy this deck. Its a lot of fun to play. It has answers and can keep up pretty well vs Midrange, which most of the decks are turning out right now. However, standard is still new, and im not fully sold on the quality of Standard at this moment in time. We will have to see how this set molds the format.

If you have thoughts or comments, feel free :)

[thatmagicplayer]

Morning Coffee: 2014-05-25

Well, yesterday was the Journey Into Nyx Game day. 

And thats me, holding the Mat. Things went surprisingly well, and i only beat my opponent (A teammate at that) by 4.67% according to the Wizards Event Reporter. 

The matches were good, for the most part. The decks that i saw kicking around were Mono-Black, Mono-Red, Mono-Blue, Golgari Aggro, Golgari Combo, and U/W/R control. I was on the control deck with an American theme, and was glad to get a good amount of testing in with it. 

First round was against the Golgari Aggro deck. It was fairly strong, and i was definitely impressed by my opponents play. Thanks to a slew of options and ways to get around some of the more aggressive cards in the deck, i was able to squeeze out a 2-1 win.

Second round was against the other Golgari deck. This one was much different than its aggro counterpart. It had a nice constellation theme, and as soon as Grey Merchant was dropped, it was usually good game. I ended up losing that round 1-2, but i was glad to lose to a good brew.

Last round was against my teammate Chris, whom was playing the Mono-Black deck. When i say "The mono-black deck," i certainly mean THE mono-black deck. Thoughtseize, lifebane, desecration demon, packrat, underworld...you get the idea. Owen Turtenwald would have been proud. After losing game one, and getting two Supreme Verdicts Thoughtseized away in the first two turns, we moved into a very close and very tense game three. Hands were shook, and pictures were taken.

I have decided that for the upcoming Star City Open: Providence tournament next weekend, that ill be piloting the U/W/R deck. It still needs a little bit of work, like azorious charm and Keranos, but i am feeling confident that i will do alright. Here's the Deck.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/25-05-14-Ahp-uwr-control/

I think i would probably slide out either the Anger of the Gods or the two Mizzium Mortars for A keranos, or a couple of Azorious Charms. The sideboard also needs a little love, but that will come in time. For now ill be signing off, saying Happy Casting!

[thatmagicplayer]

You're welcome comfyboy

The Saddest Khajit - Created by Darren Geers

[thatmagicplayer]

Admit it, we all have that one thing. Some of us have several.

[thatmagicplayer]

[thatmagicplayer]

Journey into Nyx Pre Release 5/1

Okay, Okay, i know the pre-release was almost a full week ago, but its time i sat down and talked about all the amazing things that happened that weekend. SO, leaving work at two on friday, i had it dead set in my mind that i should be resting up for the long midnight ahead of me. But instead, i decided counter strike was a better idea. Silly me. So around 1030, i made the trek down to the Salem Myriad Games location, and met up with some friends to do our pre-release thing.

Fortunately, i had pre-registered in time and was able to play out of the White kit. Oh the chariot. Its tiny wings and bird songs helped carry me to a swift 3-0 before then dropping me on my head. The deck was a lot of fun to play. It was essentially your basic blue/white bestow deck, with a little more combat tricks thanks to some of the newer stuff. And pulling two banishing lights helped me to keep a lot of my opponents threats in check. I didn't really pull anything of immediate value (One of my friends pulled a thoughtseize, another a brimaz, and another a foil zenigod) but what i had was good enough to land me at 4-2 for the event.

So getting home from the ordeal, fighting consciousness all throughout the 40 minute drive, i plopped into bed at 830 for a nice hour and a half of sleep before i had to slam the alarm and hop up to make it to the Noon pre-release at the Myriad Games in Manchester. The first world problems of a magic player.

I had taken my name off of the white list some time before the event to give another person a chance. Plus, black was a very enticing choice for me, and i was so proud to play it. After a medium coffee, and some confusion on the organizers part, we began the rounds. I sailed swiftly into a 2-0 position thanks to my Black/Green constellation deck. But i will never know how well or not well i would have done. For alas, work called, and i had to fly on winged feet to work my 8 hour shift.

As for my opinion on the set, i think it has done a great job at really rounding out the whole theros block. It offers enough power and interesting cards that when ravnica goes out, it can stand on its own feet nicely. Also, totally building white/black hatebears for standard xD

[thatmagicplayer]

Morning Coffee: 4/5

So! last Sunday was the Double MIdnight Star City Invitational Qualifier, and overall it was a lot of fun. There were less people than i had anticipated, making my assumptions from the first one that i had attended. The first was at least 50 people, and for spectators it was standing room only. This was 17 people, so needless to say i was surprised. 

There was a lot of local talent in the room, some of the players that consistently do well at the events they participate, and a healthy mix of semi-casual players to make the event fun. 

The first match was under way, and i played against this other green black deck. Ya dont say. To be more specific, i was playing G/B Midrange, and he was playing mono black with a splash of green for cards like Vraska, Abrupt decay, and Scavenging Ooze. It was a solid deck, and our games ended up being pretty good overall, but he got me 2-1.

Round 2, i nailed the bye. Awwww yea. So i sat for the 50 minutes and watched this very interesting game between esper control, and a g/r deck that wasn't the monster build, but more of your typical aggro build. I was really impressed at this youngsters combat tricks and budget deck building. So many times he touched his opponent to 1 health, but then as esper does, it climbs back pretty quickly. The green red deck lost, but the match was a well fought one.

Round 3, i sat against a deck that most had thought finally faded into the distance; mono blue! And what works better against green creatures then the famous Tidebinder Mage. So needless to say, it was a rough game, but still ended losing 2-1. 

Round 4 i started a little discouraged. With two loses and the bye, my fifteen dollars was feeling a little wasted. And now, i get to play against a second G/B deck! For going into this tourney thinking "yea, im probably the only Golgari player here" i was totally wrong. Again though, we were playing totally different decks. I have a lot of respect for his, because it was Golgari Dredge. I had to spin and read Jarrad, but it was a really cool deck. Ended winning that one 2-0.

So now the standings are available, and im sitting pretty at 8/17. With one more round to go, i was on the bubble. And then comes round 5, and i sit against five colour Chromanticor. Long story short, i lost. BUT! i was able to get off Vraska Ulti for the second game win. So that drew a little attention to my third game loss.

Overall it was a fun event, got to meet a bunch of cool people and see a good variety of decks instead of the flavor of the week ones. Standard is still proving to be a format that im having trouble getting the hang of, or at least this rendition of it.

[thatmagicplayer]

Morning Coffee: 3/30

In about an hour, ill be making my way over to a Star City Invitational Qualifier event at a local comics shop called Double Midnight. If i hadn't mentioned before, the last IQ that i attended i won the first round and proceeded to rack up three loses in a row. So with my limited knowledge of the standard metagame and basing this deck very little off of recent successful trends, heres G/B Midrange!

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gb-midrange-30-03-14-2/

So an explanation behind this deck, or at least how it came about. Like most players in my local community, after the richmond tournament, modern has exploded in the shops. Shops are starting up modern tournaments like it never existed before. And let me say i am no exception. I've been attending as many as possible with my budget decks (Because shift leading does not allow for expensive magics). So standard has really fallen off the radar for me. In watching some of the richmond matches, i kept seeing G/B rock being played, and it looked insanely fun. So then i started thinking about golgari in standard, and it was all downhill from there.

Cards in this deck that i absolutely love, are Lotleth Troll, and Abrupt Decay. Theses two cards were major motivators for my decisions in this deck. My favorite combo has to be dropping a lotleth troll turn two, then scavenging turn three, dropping my hand for a trample swing, with mana enough to regenerate him. Then taking my sweet time devouring everything with the ooze until i have two massive creatures. I do realize that there is a lot of removal in standard right now, so just one or two big threats will be easily handled, but its a risk/reward situation like most single win condition decks.

Otherwise its got your staple array of aggro cards. Youve got your Desecration Demon, your Ooze, your Experiment One, and Reaper to remind people he is still a card. Vraska was kind of a flavor thought, as painful as that is to admit. She balances the mana curve and offers some later spot removal.

Some things i am quite worried about are Mono Red and other very fast decks, and of course Blood Baron. Being a majoritivly black deck, the only real ways i have of dealing with him are a fat Scavenging ooze, or a hail mary Mistcutter Hydra. So it will be an interesting tournament, no doubt. And ill try and keep up the standings throughout the day.

[thatmagicplayer]

Morning Coffee: 3/27

So i will start by appologizing for not being around to update on my post last week and how the modern event went. To give a brief summary, i went 2-1 and got second place!...out of 8. But still, was pretty stoked to have gotten that far with a black/white tokens budget list, especially with american control, splinter twin, and affinity running around.

So this week, having a somewhat better idea of what i was going into, i dragged a few buddies along and looked at trying something new and different. A friend (Jarred Farkas) sent me his modern theory crafted list and thats what i ended up with.

Red/Green Aggro

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/redgreen-aggro-27-03-14-1/

I feel like this list is fairly straight foreward. It really isn't hard to just play something and turn it left. What i liked most about it, was how people seemed to forget that hyper aggro is still a very easy to build thing in modern, but people still just try and combo out turn four or five. This deck can kill consistently on turn four or five :D

This sideboard was a little bit tricky, and looking at it now i was really scared of affinity when making it (Which is ironic because not only did i not play against affinity this week, no one that showed up had ever played it) The one thing all the artifact hate did help with however was Tron, which is a deck i had never had to face before. That thing was pretty hard to deal with, just watching card slam onto the table and wreck my junk.

For this week, i've been thinking of putting together a modern pox deck, but need to do a little more looking. Being the budget player that i am, it should at least raise a few eyebrows.

[thatmagicplayer]

Modern Tuesdays: 3/18/

So last night a friend of mine informed me that a local card shop is doing modern on Tuesday nights. And since watching the coverage of Pro Tour: Born of The Gods, ive been all about modern for the past month or so. The only things stopping me from really diving into the format are 1) My limited knowledge of the format as a whole and 2) my budget. 

So with Budget being the key word for the rest of this update, let me show you guys what decks i am pondering this evening.

R/Bu Pyro

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/rbu-pyro/

This deck was something i played for fun a few years ago, and just kind of fit in the modern block after some time. I love it honestly. I love the interactions with control/burn and the utility to compete with other tempo based decks. 

I like taking advantage of the cheaper phyrexian mana symbols in the deck (Gut Shot and Gitaxian Probe) to sneak in some extra tokens or damage. And being able to chump something with a token and cast a 3 mana lava axe on their turn with Brimstone Volley is something to really look forward to. The whole goal really is to outlast, keep ahead, and stay consistent.

One thing i cant stress enough about this deck (and the next one) is that they are budget decks. Scalding Tarn may make you think otherwise, but i got lucky awhile back and now i get to use them. Other than that, it is a fairly inexpensive deck that may or may not work. I guess we wll find out.

W/B Tokens

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/wb-tokens-18-03-14-1/

This one was in no way a creative stroke on my part. Craig Wescoe played a much better version of this deck at PT: BOTG and deserves all the credit on this one. Still though, its a fun swarmy little build that i've taken quite the liking to the more i play it.

Now the question is, which to play? I'm leaning more towards the tokens deck just because i have practiced it more and it feels more comfortable. Either way, ill let you guys know how it goes. 

[thatmagicplayer]

[thatmagicplayer]

Cube draft Sunday. Awwww yea

[thatmagicplayer]

And it was a good day

[thatmagicplayer]

abalidoth:

Archetype of Imagination makes Emrakul lose flying

*SQUIGGLES MENACINGLY ACROSS GROUND*

NO OKAY GUYS HANG ON

I’M GOING TO CONSUME THE ENERGY FROM YOUR PLANE

JUST… GIVE ME A SEC OK

or maybe it just tip on its side and start rolling around like a very lumpy wheel

*rumble rumble rumble rumble Emrakal fhtagn*

[thatmagicplayer]

Magic players will understand.