This past Friday I went to Magic Comics, as usual, to play at Friday Night Magic.
The last few weeks they've been running 2 events, 1 Standard and 1 Draft at the same time. There's a lot of folks who love to draft (I'm one of them) but not everyone can afford to spend they money every week and they understandably prefer Standard.
After doing so well on Wednesday with the 5 Color Control I was planning on doing Standard but ended up playing draft at the last second. I'm not sure what pulled me into the limited format, besides my absurd love of opening packs that is.
We ended up drafting 1 pack of M12 and 2 packs of Innistrad, something that the store has done a couple of times before. I'm personally not a huge fan of mixing sets that have no synergy but it wasn't my choice so I made the best of it. Another odd thing was we were split into 2 pods, one of 6 and one of 5 because of the number of players. All in all, it was still a hell of a lot of fun but it was unlike the drafts I've done on line.
THE DRAFT
I didn't open any exciting rares or foils which is always disappointing, especially since 1 guy got both a Foil Geist of St. Traft and a Snapcaster Mage while the other table had a Liliana of the Veil, but I did end up with a very good Blue deck splashing Green and Red.
I first picked a Mind Control and ended up getting passed a 2nd one not long after and quickly settled into picking up Blue Flyers after a brief dabbling into Green for a Jade Mage. There didn't seem to be that many exciting cards in other colors but the Blue kept on flowing.
Innistrad didn't change things for me although I did scoop up a Rolling Temblor and a Geistflame to splash for a little removal. Festerhide Boar and Somberwald Spider joined the Green Team and more Blue Flyers finished things off.
When I got to build my deck I had a solid, if unexciting, 40 cards with 17 lands to make sure I hit my big cards that I was sure would win the games.
Round 1 -
This was the fella from the other pod who pulled Liliana (yes, I know we're not really supposed to mix pods but the shop set it up) so I knew of at least one card going in that I had to be on the look out for. I don't remember meeting this guy before but he was definitely friendly and had some spiffy Lavender sleeves.
Good - I hit a solid curve in both games of mid-sized flyers that he had no answer to.
Bad - He suited up guys in both games with Furor of the Bitten, making them really big, really quick. Unfortunately he had to Fling one of his Furor'd fellas at my Stitched Drake to survive for a turn.
Outcome - Win, 2-0, thanks to my beefy flyers.
Round 2 - Cameron
This was another new guy to me. He was excited to first pick a Phantasmal Image as well as a Ludevic's Test Subject so I knew he'd have some of the Blue cards I passed. He was also very nice and a lot of fun to play against because he was very open about how certain cards made him feel!
Good - He was playing a mill myself deck with a Laboratory Maniac! I remembered passing him(and being sad when he didn't wheel) so I knew, as soon as he enchanted himself with Curse of the Bloody Tome, what my opponent was up to. He played a lot of nice stall cards to buy himself time and had no trouble getting rid of his whole deck fairly quickly.
Bad - After milling his last few card my opponent slammed down the Maniac and proclaimed "I win!" with a huge smile on his face. I'd been holding my removal spells and was able to Silent Departure the little fella twice then Mind Control him when Memory's Journey bought my opponent a couple of extra turns.
Outcome - Win, 2-0, once again thanks to my large flyers. I was actually pretty sad to have to win this match when my opponent had such a neat deck.
Round 3 - Brian
Brian is a member of a group of folks that shows up every few weeks and almost always drafts. I'd never played him before but I knew he was a competent player before we sat down. He was all smiles and definitely seemed to be having a blast.
Good - We played 3 very good, back and forth games with me churning out solid, mid rangey flyers and him landing big bombs. His whole deck was designed to pump up a Dungrove Elder and a Runechanter's Pike and it was pretty neat to see in action. In game 1 he never drew the Dungrove and I flew to victory. In Game 2 he drew Dungrove which ate one of my creatures every turn. In Game 3 I was able Mana Leak the Dungrove and won from there.
Bad - He had 2 Fogs in his deck that bought him a lot of time to ramp up to big threats. Game 3 ended when he swung all out and I realized the last card in his hand had to be a Fog. I swung for exactly his life total and Dissipated the Fog for the game and match.
Outcome - Win, 2-1, this was probably the most exciting match of the night and it felt like it could have gone either way.
Round 4 - Intentional Draw
At this point there was only 1 other undefeated and we drew it out after agreeing to split prizes evenly. I forgot to write down his name but I have been keeping up with him all night and he was obviously a good player.
The prize support paid for my draft which is all I could really ask for and I picked up some packs to bring home to the wife. Is there anything better than opening packs of cards with the woman you love?
Thanks for reading folks, I hope you'll check back again soon!
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
December 14 - Wednesday Night Magic @ Magic Comics in Slidell
I don't get to play in Magic tournaments during the week very often.
Work, Wife and Warcraft leave me struggling to balance the important things with the extra stuff. It's really a good problem to have, too many things I want to do, but it's a little disappointing to show up on Fridays and hear about the great games I missed.
This week I was able to sneak out and play on Wednesday at Magic Comics. The format was Standard and there were around 20 folks there all chomping at the bit to sling some spells.
I brought Gerry Thompson and Michael Jacob's 5 Color Control deck from the recent Star City Invitational with a couple of minor changes based on what I knew would be at the shop.
Here's my list followed by the changes:
Creatures
Sun Titan x 3
Phantasmal Image x 2
Elesh Norn x 1
Instants
Desperate Ravings x 4
Forbidden Alchemy x 4
Mana Leak x 4
Gut Shot x 3
White Sun's Zenith x 1
Sorceries
Ponder x 2
Day of Judment x 3
Unburial Rites x 1
Enchantments
Oblivion Ring x 3
Artifacts
Ratchet Bomb x 1
Pristine Talisman x 3
Lands
Island x 4
Mountain x 1
Plains x 2
Swamp x 1
Shimmering Grotto x 3
Ghost Quarter x 1
Sulfur Falls x 4
Glacial Fortress x 4
Seachrome Coast x 4
Blackcleave Cliffs x 1
Sideboard
Nihil Spellbomb x 2
Ancient Grudge x 2
Celestial Purge x 3
Phantasmal Image x 1
Ratchet Bomb x 1
Blue Sun's Zenith x 1
Dissipate x 2
Timely Reinforcements x 2
Day of Judgment x 1
The changes from the Invitational list were -1 Blue Sun's Zenith, -1 Pacifism, -1 Dissipate for +2 Day of Judgment and +1 White Sun's Zenith main deck.
I also swapped 1 Ghost Quarter in the sideboard for a 2nd Dissipate.
I changed it that way because the local players are much more aggro minded and I was sure I'd need a turn 4 Day of Judgment more often than I'd need to deck them with a big BSZ. I also dreaded having to explain WHY I can Pacifism a Hexproof dude and it wasn't relevant in the games I played before the tournament.
I got to Magic Comics about 10 minutes before the tournament and scrambled to pick up the Sun Titans and commons I was missing. Brian was a huge help, hooking me up with Elesh Norn and several tough to find uncommons like Timely Reinforcements, and I also scored a neat Squee deck box.
The shop lets regular players run a tab during tournaments and cash out at the end, something I was grateful for tonight as I'd failed to bring any cash with me. I racked up about $25 worth of product, sleeved everything up and got to shuffling as the pairing went up for round 1!
Round 1 - Frank - W/u Humans
Frank is a guy I've only just gotten to meet at the shop, he's an old school Magic player with a huge collection and all kinds of great stories about the game and a solid player.
Good - Day of Judgment and Ratchet Bomb worked over time in this matchup to handle nasty stuff like Geist of St. Traft, Honor of the Pure and Moorland Haunt tokens wearing Angelic Destiny.
Bad - Frank stomped me in game 2 with Geist into double Honor of the Pure for roughly 1 million.
Outcome - Win, 2-1, thanks to Sun Titan looping Ratchet Bomb to keep Angelic Destiny off of his tokens.
Round 2 - Brian - Grixis Control
Brian has been a ridiculously huge help to me as a new player with a limited collection, going so far as to trade for entire decks for me to buy at discounted prices. We both laughed going in to this match because we knew our 2 control decks would make for a long, drawn out set of games and lots of draw.go.
Good - White Sun's Zenith was an all star, making 9 cat tokens at the end of Brian's turn and then attacking for 18 in game 1 then coming back around when I was down to 2 cards in my library to finish it out. Our first game took right at 35 minutes, we each answered the other's threats as they came and I only won through careful play and Brian not knowing about WSZ.
Bad - Game 2 was much less interesting as Brian stumbled on Blue mana and wasn't able to answer a White Sun's Zenith for 4 after killing a Sun Titan on turn 5.
Outcome - Win, 2-0, largely on the back of a horde of Kitties.
Round 3 - Vincent - W/u Humans
Vincent was new to me but I'm sure he's been around before because he obviously wasn't new to the game. He was very cheerful throughout our match and never got discouraged no matter how things were going for him.
Good - Day of Judgement and Ratchet Bomb were again just ridiculous against his little guys, as was Phantasmal Image as a copy of Fiend Hunter. Elesh Norn eventually came out in both games to lock out his Haunt tokens and push through the damage.
Bad - Unlike Frank, Vincent was running Leonin Relic Warders and was able to gank my Talismans and Ratchet bombs a couple of times which was a bit annoying.
Outcome - Win, 2-0
Round 4 - Alex - W/u Humans
Alex is just a crazy nice fella who was easy going and friendly from the first second I met him. We played last week in a draft match where we both pulled upset wins out of our asses but didn't have time left to finish the round so it felt important to have a decisive victory in this one.
Good - I really felt like my deck was in control throughout the majority of this match as there was never a time when I wasn't holding multiple answers for anything he could do. Just like the other W/U games Day of Judgment was essential along with Ratchet Bomb to answer his little guys before they could finish killing me.
Bad - In game 1 Alex suited up a Haunt Token with Angelic Destiny to stand in the way of my Sun Titan. Had I not ripped a Ratchet Bomb to clear it out the giant Angel Spirit could have run away with the game. Alex also sided in a Phyrexian Rebirth against me and used it when Sun Titan, Phantasmal Sun Titan x 2 and Elesh Norn were ready to swing for the win. I was holding Unburial Rites and a Ratchet Bomb so it didn't end up mattering but that was fairly scary.
Outcome - Win, 2-0
Round 5 - Kyle - Illusions
At this point I was the last undefeated and offered a draw but Kyle wanted to play, I'm guessing his tiebreakers were very good and he hoped to end up in 1st with a win. I hadn't met Kyle before but he was super friendly, something I'm happy to say was true about everyone I ran into over the night.
Good - Between Gut Shot, Day of Judgment and Ratchet Bomb I was never in too much trouble in Game 1 from the tiny blue fellas. I also experienced the strength of Pristine Talisman as it halved the clock of his early Phantasmal Bear, allowing me to wait until he committed more to the board before Wrathing. It's a good feeling to have no fear of death when your opponent Vapor Snags Elesh Norn 6 times in the same game!
Bad - Aside from the Sextet of Vapor Snags, I also was run over by a curve of Bear, Lord, Image, Image backed up by 2 Leaks in Game 2. This was the only game where I stumbled a bit on colored mana, I needed to play Day of Judgment but couldn't get a second white producing land until turn 5.
Outcome - Win, 2-1
I finished the tournament in 1st place as the only one undefeated with Alex in 2nd and Brian in 3rd. Magic Comics paid out store credit all the way to 7th place which is really impressive. I put a large dent in my tab, squared up with the shop and headed home to get some sleep as it was 11:30 PM.
I really enjoyed playing the 5 Color deck and definitely intend to keep playing it for a while.
There's a tournament on Friday the 16th and then another one on Saturday the 17th which is a qualifier for a Grand Prix. I'll probably have to skip the Saturday one for family reasons but I'm excited to play again so soon!
Work, Wife and Warcraft leave me struggling to balance the important things with the extra stuff. It's really a good problem to have, too many things I want to do, but it's a little disappointing to show up on Fridays and hear about the great games I missed.
This week I was able to sneak out and play on Wednesday at Magic Comics. The format was Standard and there were around 20 folks there all chomping at the bit to sling some spells.
I brought Gerry Thompson and Michael Jacob's 5 Color Control deck from the recent Star City Invitational with a couple of minor changes based on what I knew would be at the shop.
Here's my list followed by the changes:
Creatures
Sun Titan x 3
Phantasmal Image x 2
Elesh Norn x 1
Instants
Desperate Ravings x 4
Forbidden Alchemy x 4
Mana Leak x 4
Gut Shot x 3
White Sun's Zenith x 1
Sorceries
Ponder x 2
Day of Judment x 3
Unburial Rites x 1
Enchantments
Oblivion Ring x 3
Artifacts
Ratchet Bomb x 1
Pristine Talisman x 3
Lands
Island x 4
Mountain x 1
Plains x 2
Swamp x 1
Shimmering Grotto x 3
Ghost Quarter x 1
Sulfur Falls x 4
Glacial Fortress x 4
Seachrome Coast x 4
Blackcleave Cliffs x 1
Sideboard
Nihil Spellbomb x 2
Ancient Grudge x 2
Celestial Purge x 3
Phantasmal Image x 1
Ratchet Bomb x 1
Blue Sun's Zenith x 1
Dissipate x 2
Timely Reinforcements x 2
Day of Judgment x 1
The changes from the Invitational list were -1 Blue Sun's Zenith, -1 Pacifism, -1 Dissipate for +2 Day of Judgment and +1 White Sun's Zenith main deck.
I also swapped 1 Ghost Quarter in the sideboard for a 2nd Dissipate.
I changed it that way because the local players are much more aggro minded and I was sure I'd need a turn 4 Day of Judgment more often than I'd need to deck them with a big BSZ. I also dreaded having to explain WHY I can Pacifism a Hexproof dude and it wasn't relevant in the games I played before the tournament.
I got to Magic Comics about 10 minutes before the tournament and scrambled to pick up the Sun Titans and commons I was missing. Brian was a huge help, hooking me up with Elesh Norn and several tough to find uncommons like Timely Reinforcements, and I also scored a neat Squee deck box.
The shop lets regular players run a tab during tournaments and cash out at the end, something I was grateful for tonight as I'd failed to bring any cash with me. I racked up about $25 worth of product, sleeved everything up and got to shuffling as the pairing went up for round 1!
Round 1 - Frank - W/u Humans
Frank is a guy I've only just gotten to meet at the shop, he's an old school Magic player with a huge collection and all kinds of great stories about the game and a solid player.
Good - Day of Judgment and Ratchet Bomb worked over time in this matchup to handle nasty stuff like Geist of St. Traft, Honor of the Pure and Moorland Haunt tokens wearing Angelic Destiny.
Bad - Frank stomped me in game 2 with Geist into double Honor of the Pure for roughly 1 million.
Outcome - Win, 2-1, thanks to Sun Titan looping Ratchet Bomb to keep Angelic Destiny off of his tokens.
Round 2 - Brian - Grixis Control
Brian has been a ridiculously huge help to me as a new player with a limited collection, going so far as to trade for entire decks for me to buy at discounted prices. We both laughed going in to this match because we knew our 2 control decks would make for a long, drawn out set of games and lots of draw.go.
Good - White Sun's Zenith was an all star, making 9 cat tokens at the end of Brian's turn and then attacking for 18 in game 1 then coming back around when I was down to 2 cards in my library to finish it out. Our first game took right at 35 minutes, we each answered the other's threats as they came and I only won through careful play and Brian not knowing about WSZ.
Bad - Game 2 was much less interesting as Brian stumbled on Blue mana and wasn't able to answer a White Sun's Zenith for 4 after killing a Sun Titan on turn 5.
Outcome - Win, 2-0, largely on the back of a horde of Kitties.
Round 3 - Vincent - W/u Humans
Vincent was new to me but I'm sure he's been around before because he obviously wasn't new to the game. He was very cheerful throughout our match and never got discouraged no matter how things were going for him.
Good - Day of Judgement and Ratchet Bomb were again just ridiculous against his little guys, as was Phantasmal Image as a copy of Fiend Hunter. Elesh Norn eventually came out in both games to lock out his Haunt tokens and push through the damage.
Bad - Unlike Frank, Vincent was running Leonin Relic Warders and was able to gank my Talismans and Ratchet bombs a couple of times which was a bit annoying.
Outcome - Win, 2-0
Round 4 - Alex - W/u Humans
Alex is just a crazy nice fella who was easy going and friendly from the first second I met him. We played last week in a draft match where we both pulled upset wins out of our asses but didn't have time left to finish the round so it felt important to have a decisive victory in this one.
Good - I really felt like my deck was in control throughout the majority of this match as there was never a time when I wasn't holding multiple answers for anything he could do. Just like the other W/U games Day of Judgment was essential along with Ratchet Bomb to answer his little guys before they could finish killing me.
Bad - In game 1 Alex suited up a Haunt Token with Angelic Destiny to stand in the way of my Sun Titan. Had I not ripped a Ratchet Bomb to clear it out the giant Angel Spirit could have run away with the game. Alex also sided in a Phyrexian Rebirth against me and used it when Sun Titan, Phantasmal Sun Titan x 2 and Elesh Norn were ready to swing for the win. I was holding Unburial Rites and a Ratchet Bomb so it didn't end up mattering but that was fairly scary.
Outcome - Win, 2-0
Round 5 - Kyle - Illusions
At this point I was the last undefeated and offered a draw but Kyle wanted to play, I'm guessing his tiebreakers were very good and he hoped to end up in 1st with a win. I hadn't met Kyle before but he was super friendly, something I'm happy to say was true about everyone I ran into over the night.
Good - Between Gut Shot, Day of Judgment and Ratchet Bomb I was never in too much trouble in Game 1 from the tiny blue fellas. I also experienced the strength of Pristine Talisman as it halved the clock of his early Phantasmal Bear, allowing me to wait until he committed more to the board before Wrathing. It's a good feeling to have no fear of death when your opponent Vapor Snags Elesh Norn 6 times in the same game!
Bad - Aside from the Sextet of Vapor Snags, I also was run over by a curve of Bear, Lord, Image, Image backed up by 2 Leaks in Game 2. This was the only game where I stumbled a bit on colored mana, I needed to play Day of Judgment but couldn't get a second white producing land until turn 5.
Outcome - Win, 2-1
I finished the tournament in 1st place as the only one undefeated with Alex in 2nd and Brian in 3rd. Magic Comics paid out store credit all the way to 7th place which is really impressive. I put a large dent in my tab, squared up with the shop and headed home to get some sleep as it was 11:30 PM.
I really enjoyed playing the 5 Color deck and definitely intend to keep playing it for a while.
There's a tournament on Friday the 16th and then another one on Saturday the 17th which is a qualifier for a Grand Prix. I'll probably have to skip the Saturday one for family reasons but I'm excited to play again so soon!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Getting Back on Track
I haven't posted in over a month despite playing Magic a minimum of 3 times a week.
I'm going to try and correct that while steering myself in a bit of a different direction than I'd originally intended for a few reasons.
1) BUDGET - I've found myself spending considerably more money on mtg than I'd planned to originally. I'm still not nearing the amount that I would probably like to spend, that's just impossible, but it's beyond the original goal of minimal purchases once a week to upgrade the same deck.
2) TIME - I've cranked back the amount of time spent doing other leisure things such as World of Warcraft and toy hunting in favor of mtg. I'm playing at home with Noelle and hitting the card shop more often. This means I won't likely write about every session.
3) ENJOYMENT - I'm having a blast with Magic again, even more so than I'd ever hoped to! I first figured that writing about my experiences would be more fun than the time spent at the event but I could not have been more wrong about that. I'm building friendships and just generally enjoying myself and I haven't felt the need to write like I wanted to.
With that all said, I still intend to post here around twice a week when I have things to say.
I'm nowhere near someone that anyone should be coming to for advice on how to play Magic or build a deck but I like to think I'm entertaining. Check back soon to see if that holds true!
I'm going to try and correct that while steering myself in a bit of a different direction than I'd originally intended for a few reasons.
1) BUDGET - I've found myself spending considerably more money on mtg than I'd planned to originally. I'm still not nearing the amount that I would probably like to spend, that's just impossible, but it's beyond the original goal of minimal purchases once a week to upgrade the same deck.
2) TIME - I've cranked back the amount of time spent doing other leisure things such as World of Warcraft and toy hunting in favor of mtg. I'm playing at home with Noelle and hitting the card shop more often. This means I won't likely write about every session.
3) ENJOYMENT - I'm having a blast with Magic again, even more so than I'd ever hoped to! I first figured that writing about my experiences would be more fun than the time spent at the event but I could not have been more wrong about that. I'm building friendships and just generally enjoying myself and I haven't felt the need to write like I wanted to.
With that all said, I still intend to post here around twice a week when I have things to say.
I'm nowhere near someone that anyone should be coming to for advice on how to play Magic or build a deck but I like to think I'm entertaining. Check back soon to see if that holds true!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Day 3 - Friday Night Magic @ Magic Comics in Slidell
Here it is folks, my first steps back into the world of real life Magic: the Gathering.
I'd dropped by the venue (Magic Comics & Hobbies) on Thursday (11/3) to buy the cards for my deck and to see if anyone was around who could offer words of encouragement or advice. I was lucky enough to run into the fella who organizes the card games at the shop as well as the owner. They were both extremely helpful and even suggested essentially what I had planned to do from the beginning: Buy an event deck and upgrade it along the way.
I had Friday off from work (I typically work Sunday - Thursday) and slept late. After eating dinner with my wife Noelle I was lucky enough to stumble onto a set of sleeves left over from my Lord of the Rings TCG years. I had a set of nice, green Dragonshields to protect my brand new deck! Sleeving up the cards brought me right back to the hours I used to spend test drawing in front of the TV. I probably drove Noelle right up to the edge of insanity with my constant shuffling as we watched 30 Rock. I'm just thankful she didn't feed my deck to the guinea pigs.
I'd dropped by the venue (Magic Comics & Hobbies) on Thursday (11/3) to buy the cards for my deck and to see if anyone was around who could offer words of encouragement or advice. I was lucky enough to run into the fella who organizes the card games at the shop as well as the owner. They were both extremely helpful and even suggested essentially what I had planned to do from the beginning: Buy an event deck and upgrade it along the way.
I had Friday off from work (I typically work Sunday - Thursday) and slept late. After eating dinner with my wife Noelle I was lucky enough to stumble onto a set of sleeves left over from my Lord of the Rings TCG years. I had a set of nice, green Dragonshields to protect my brand new deck! Sleeving up the cards brought me right back to the hours I used to spend test drawing in front of the TV. I probably drove Noelle right up to the edge of insanity with my constant shuffling as we watched 30 Rock. I'm just thankful she didn't feed my deck to the guinea pigs.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
The Deck
In order for me to play constructed Magic I needed to find a decent deck that wouldn't lead to my death at the hands of an angry wife.
I did some research, read some coverage to see what decks have been performing well to try and find a list without too many pricey cards. I also wanted to get something fairly competitive because if I ended up being frustrated I'd just run out and buy something else right away.
I ended up buying the Innistrad Event Deck Hold the Line for $25 along with extra copies of Champion of the Parish , Honor of the Pure , Elite Vanguard and Mirran Crusader to try and make it a little more powerful. All in all I spent right at $60 and ended up with a pretty powerful mono-white deck to bring to Friday Night Magic.
Here's the list, more or less, that I'll be playing for a little while:
Champion of the Parish x 4
Gideon's Lawkeeper x 4
Doomed Traveler x 4
Elite Vanguard x 4
Accorder Paladin x 4
Mirran Crusader x 3
Fiend Hunter x 4
Bonds of Faith x 4
Oblivion Ring x 4
Honor of the Pure x 4
Plains x 21
If I can get my hands on another Mirran Crusader and maybe some Ghost Quarters I'll wiggle some things around. There's not a ton of subtlety there, I play small guys and bash face, but I'll take advantage of anyone who stumbles on mana or gets a bad draw.
My next post will be up soon with some thoughts about my first tournament, Friday Night Magic, so check back soon!
I did some research, read some coverage to see what decks have been performing well to try and find a list without too many pricey cards. I also wanted to get something fairly competitive because if I ended up being frustrated I'd just run out and buy something else right away.
I ended up buying the Innistrad Event Deck Hold the Line for $25 along with extra copies of Champion of the Parish , Honor of the Pure , Elite Vanguard and Mirran Crusader to try and make it a little more powerful. All in all I spent right at $60 and ended up with a pretty powerful mono-white deck to bring to Friday Night Magic.
Here's the list, more or less, that I'll be playing for a little while:
Champion of the Parish x 4
Gideon's Lawkeeper x 4
Doomed Traveler x 4
Elite Vanguard x 4
Accorder Paladin x 4
Mirran Crusader x 3
Fiend Hunter x 4
Bonds of Faith x 4
Oblivion Ring x 4
Honor of the Pure x 4
Plains x 21
If I can get my hands on another Mirran Crusader and maybe some Ghost Quarters I'll wiggle some things around. There's not a ton of subtlety there, I play small guys and bash face, but I'll take advantage of anyone who stumbles on mana or gets a bad draw.
My next post will be up soon with some thoughts about my first tournament, Friday Night Magic, so check back soon!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Day 1 - Magic Online Innistrad Sealed
I decided to start off with a Magic Online Innistrad 4 pack sealed event.
Theoretically this put me on even footing with everyone else, we all opened 4 packs, we all built our decks. I don't have to fight uphill against opponents who've spent hundreds of times as much money as I have.
Of course some of the folks I played could have had a lot more experience playing with the cards than me or they could have easily been as new to the current state of MtG as I am!
My MODO name is Carny and I've been on there for quite a while actually, I've just never participated in many events.
I bought my event tickets and hopped into the queue to wait for the event to start.
This brings my tally of money spent on Magic to $16.00, the cost of 4 Innistrad Booster Packs.
The first thing I did when my brand new cards appeared in front of me was to sort them by rarity. No slow-rolling of the good stuff for me, I wanted to see a Mythic Rare staring back!
Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to score one of the crazy expensive cards but I was lucky enough to get 2 nice White rares!
Here's what I got out of the 4 packs:
White
Geist-Honored Monk
Angel of Flight AlabasterBonds of Faith
Avacynian Priest
Gallows Warden x 2
Midnight Haunting
Paraselene
Rebuke
Selfless Cathar
Spare From Evil
Spectral Rider
Urgent Exocism
Voiceless Spirit
Black
Corpse Lunge
Curse of Oblivion
Diregraf Ghoul
Manor Skeleton
Maw of the Mire
Skeletal Grimace
Stromkirk Patrol
Victim of Night x 2
Blue
Armored Skaab
Claustrophobia
Curse of the Bloody Tome
Frightful Delusion
Hysterical Blindness
Silent Departure
Think Twice
Green
Full Moon's Rise
Grizzled Outcasts
Kindercatch
Naturalize
Somberwald Spider x 2
Spidery Grasp
Red
Crossway Vampire
Feral Ridgewold
Harvest Pyre
Into the Maw of Hell
Nightbird's Clutches
Pitchburn Devils
Rage Thrower
Riot Devils
Tormented Pariah
Village Ironsmith
Artifacts & Lands
Clifftop Retreat
Stensia Bloodhall Foil
Cellar Door
Cobbled Wings
Demonmail Hauberk
Inquisitor's Flail
One-Eyed Scarecrow
Witchbane Orb
I had some trouble deciding on how to assemble my deck. I knew I was going to be playing the really nice white cards but none of my other colors seemed deep enough to support a whole deck. I tried the Black cards first since I had 3 really nice removal spells in Victim of Night x 2 & Corpse Lunge. There were only 3 creatures in black though and 1 of them cost 5, the same as my 4 big White guys! Green and Blue were both in just as bad shape as Black but without the appealing creature-kill-cards.
I finally settled on playing Red even though the creatures were less than exciting. Red gave me almost as much removal as Black and allowed me to play my fancy Clifftop Retreat dual land. It also helped a lot that the minimum deck size for this event was 30 cards, I doubt I could have found another 10 to play!
After a short wait for the rest of the players to finish building their decks, a wait that I spent typing up the beginning of this post, I was paired up with my first opponent. I don't know the protocol on posting people's MODO handles so I'm going to leave them out this time around, the last thing I need is to get on a stranger's bad side! I made a point to begin this match and each one after with a "good luck to ya!" and my first opponent popped right back with the same (although he was the only one).
My first 2 matches went wonderfully. I won them both 2 games to none on the back of my powerful White cards and my Red removal. There was one very close game, though, where a boosted Invisible Stalker almost took me out all by himself! I liked working out what my opponent was capable of and it felt really good to win that game at 1 life. I even got to make use of my Sideboard to swap in an Urgent Exorcism for my opponent's Spirit tokens.
My final opponent, the one who stood between me and total victory, ending up not showing up for the round. I had a decent hand ready of Cloistered Youth, Midnight Haunting and land but, after waiting for just under 10 minutes for him to decide about his opening hand, the MODO program kicked him out and declared me the winner. I was sad that I'd been robbed of at least 2 more games of Magic but, on the up side, I'd won enough packs to cover my next event and then some!
I had a lot of fun, it's always nice to win, and I'm excited about my next chance to play which will be Friday Night Magic at Magic Comics and Hobbies in Slidell, LA. This time I need to scrape together some semblance of a real deck without spending my entire paycheck!
WHAT I LIKED
$16.00
Theoretically this put me on even footing with everyone else, we all opened 4 packs, we all built our decks. I don't have to fight uphill against opponents who've spent hundreds of times as much money as I have.
Of course some of the folks I played could have had a lot more experience playing with the cards than me or they could have easily been as new to the current state of MtG as I am!
My MODO name is Carny and I've been on there for quite a while actually, I've just never participated in many events.
I bought my event tickets and hopped into the queue to wait for the event to start.
This brings my tally of money spent on Magic to $16.00, the cost of 4 Innistrad Booster Packs.
The first thing I did when my brand new cards appeared in front of me was to sort them by rarity. No slow-rolling of the good stuff for me, I wanted to see a Mythic Rare staring back!
Unfortunately I wasn't lucky enough to score one of the crazy expensive cards but I was lucky enough to get 2 nice White rares!
Here's what I got out of the 4 packs:
White
Geist-Honored Monk
Angel of Flight AlabasterBonds of Faith
Avacynian Priest
Gallows Warden x 2
Midnight Haunting
Paraselene
Rebuke
Selfless Cathar
Spare From Evil
Spectral Rider
Urgent Exocism
Voiceless Spirit
Black
Corpse Lunge
Curse of Oblivion
Diregraf Ghoul
Manor Skeleton
Maw of the Mire
Skeletal Grimace
Stromkirk Patrol
Victim of Night x 2
Blue
Armored Skaab
Claustrophobia
Curse of the Bloody Tome
Frightful Delusion
Hysterical Blindness
Silent Departure
Think Twice
Green
Full Moon's Rise
Grizzled Outcasts
Kindercatch
Naturalize
Somberwald Spider x 2
Spidery Grasp
Red
Crossway Vampire
Feral Ridgewold
Harvest Pyre
Into the Maw of Hell
Nightbird's Clutches
Pitchburn Devils
Rage Thrower
Riot Devils
Tormented Pariah
Village Ironsmith
Artifacts & Lands
Clifftop Retreat
Stensia Bloodhall Foil
Cellar Door
Cobbled Wings
Demonmail Hauberk
Inquisitor's Flail
One-Eyed Scarecrow
Witchbane Orb
I had some trouble deciding on how to assemble my deck. I knew I was going to be playing the really nice white cards but none of my other colors seemed deep enough to support a whole deck. I tried the Black cards first since I had 3 really nice removal spells in Victim of Night x 2 & Corpse Lunge. There were only 3 creatures in black though and 1 of them cost 5, the same as my 4 big White guys! Green and Blue were both in just as bad shape as Black but without the appealing creature-kill-cards.
I finally settled on playing Red even though the creatures were less than exciting. Red gave me almost as much removal as Black and allowed me to play my fancy Clifftop Retreat dual land. It also helped a lot that the minimum deck size for this event was 30 cards, I doubt I could have found another 10 to play!
After a short wait for the rest of the players to finish building their decks, a wait that I spent typing up the beginning of this post, I was paired up with my first opponent. I don't know the protocol on posting people's MODO handles so I'm going to leave them out this time around, the last thing I need is to get on a stranger's bad side! I made a point to begin this match and each one after with a "good luck to ya!" and my first opponent popped right back with the same (although he was the only one).
My first 2 matches went wonderfully. I won them both 2 games to none on the back of my powerful White cards and my Red removal. There was one very close game, though, where a boosted Invisible Stalker almost took me out all by himself! I liked working out what my opponent was capable of and it felt really good to win that game at 1 life. I even got to make use of my Sideboard to swap in an Urgent Exorcism for my opponent's Spirit tokens.
My final opponent, the one who stood between me and total victory, ending up not showing up for the round. I had a decent hand ready of Cloistered Youth, Midnight Haunting and land but, after waiting for just under 10 minutes for him to decide about his opening hand, the MODO program kicked him out and declared me the winner. I was sad that I'd been robbed of at least 2 more games of Magic but, on the up side, I'd won enough packs to cover my next event and then some!
I had a lot of fun, it's always nice to win, and I'm excited about my next chance to play which will be Friday Night Magic at Magic Comics and Hobbies in Slidell, LA. This time I need to scrape together some semblance of a real deck without spending my entire paycheck!
WHAT I LIKED
- Winning
- Feeling Challenged by 1 of my opponents
- Getting new cards online (I still have a pitiful collection)
- Not getting to play all 3 rounds
- Waiting between rounds (it took just under 2.5 hours to finish the whole event
$16.00
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
What's a Stangg?
Hi there!
I used to be a big time Magic: The Gathering fan.
I can still remember going over to my friend's house in 7th grade and learning, sort of, what all the different symbols meant and how you used them to fight other people.
I loved it, right from the start, and I hassled my Dad for a deck of my own until he drove me down to the local comic shop to pick one up. I don't think he even knew what he was buying, he just wanted to shut me up.
I convinced him to buy me 2 Revised Edition starter decks, 1 for me and 1 for him, so that we could play each other. I'm positive that my Dad saw through my thinly veiled attempt at extra cards but he bought them anyway. I had a motley collection of my own.
I played Magic at school, at church, at home and even online in a CompuServe forum purely by text.
For the next few years I searched high and low for all the info I could find, I wanted to be the best, to know everything there was to know about Magic.
I read InQuest, Scrye, The Duelist and any other magazine with the slightest mention of MtG.
For a while there I was probably spending just as much money on publications as I was on cards!
At some point, for some forgotten reason, I decided to play the new Star Wars CCG and I fell in love with it even though I know I barely understood how to play. Over the next year I moved away from Magic and found a local group that played SWCCG. I played Decipher's Star Wars game and then their Lord of the Rings game when that came out. I loved both games and still have some of my favorite memories tied to them.
When organized play for LOTR ended I moved on to Upper Deck's comic book themed VS System and played on the Pro Tour for several years. I even made money playing VS as UDE threw money hand over fist at the game to try and lure players over from other games. I got to play against some well known Magic players like Brian Kibler, Jon Fiorillo and more that I've since forgotten. It was a really amazing experience to really like you were one of the best in the world at something and I made friends with people that I'm still in touch with on Pro Team DeckTech.
Eventually the money ran out for the VS System and as soon as the cash payouts disappeared so did the huge turnouts for the big events. I sold off my cards, figuring that my days of CCG's were over, and started to play World of Warcraft. There was a month or so where I dabbled in the local Magic scene but I never felt like I was wanted there and so I quickly retreated back in to WoW.
That catches us up to today. I'm a 30 year old, happily married man who plays World of Warcraft, collects toys and like to write about his nerdy hobbies. I still read about MtG every day on the web and I still get little urges to pick up the game every once in a while, to see what things are like out there, to see if I still know how to play card games like a pro.
This blog is going to follow me as I dip my toes in to the New Orleans area Magic: The Gathering scene as a guy who hasn't sat down at a gaming table in a very long time. I'm hoping it'll be interesting but, at the very least, it should be pretty funny to hear about how badly I get my butt kicked every game.
I'm going to keep track of how much money I spend, truthfully, and I don't plan for it to be a whole lot. I'm not expecting to be the best Magic player in town but I do wanna enjoy myself while I get beaten mercilessly.
The thing I'm the most interested in, scared by and have the least knowledge about is the kind of environment I'll be jumping in to. In the past I've found Magic players to be the most unpredictable demographic to predict. I remember far more jerks than friendly folks but there have been helpful and nice people too. I just don't know if I'm going to be welcomed or treated as an enemy from the get-go.
So check back soon if any of this sounds interesting to you. If there's anything extra you'd like me to talk about please comment here or on Twitter @rexplode and I'll do what I can to work it in.
Oh yeah, if anyone has any suggestions for me about how to go about this process for God's sakes please help me.
P.S. - Stangg
I used to be a big time Magic: The Gathering fan.
I can still remember going over to my friend's house in 7th grade and learning, sort of, what all the different symbols meant and how you used them to fight other people.
I loved it, right from the start, and I hassled my Dad for a deck of my own until he drove me down to the local comic shop to pick one up. I don't think he even knew what he was buying, he just wanted to shut me up.
I convinced him to buy me 2 Revised Edition starter decks, 1 for me and 1 for him, so that we could play each other. I'm positive that my Dad saw through my thinly veiled attempt at extra cards but he bought them anyway. I had a motley collection of my own.
I played Magic at school, at church, at home and even online in a CompuServe forum purely by text.
For the next few years I searched high and low for all the info I could find, I wanted to be the best, to know everything there was to know about Magic.
I read InQuest, Scrye, The Duelist and any other magazine with the slightest mention of MtG.
For a while there I was probably spending just as much money on publications as I was on cards!
At some point, for some forgotten reason, I decided to play the new Star Wars CCG and I fell in love with it even though I know I barely understood how to play. Over the next year I moved away from Magic and found a local group that played SWCCG. I played Decipher's Star Wars game and then their Lord of the Rings game when that came out. I loved both games and still have some of my favorite memories tied to them.
When organized play for LOTR ended I moved on to Upper Deck's comic book themed VS System and played on the Pro Tour for several years. I even made money playing VS as UDE threw money hand over fist at the game to try and lure players over from other games. I got to play against some well known Magic players like Brian Kibler, Jon Fiorillo and more that I've since forgotten. It was a really amazing experience to really like you were one of the best in the world at something and I made friends with people that I'm still in touch with on Pro Team DeckTech.
Eventually the money ran out for the VS System and as soon as the cash payouts disappeared so did the huge turnouts for the big events. I sold off my cards, figuring that my days of CCG's were over, and started to play World of Warcraft. There was a month or so where I dabbled in the local Magic scene but I never felt like I was wanted there and so I quickly retreated back in to WoW.
That catches us up to today. I'm a 30 year old, happily married man who plays World of Warcraft, collects toys and like to write about his nerdy hobbies. I still read about MtG every day on the web and I still get little urges to pick up the game every once in a while, to see what things are like out there, to see if I still know how to play card games like a pro.
This blog is going to follow me as I dip my toes in to the New Orleans area Magic: The Gathering scene as a guy who hasn't sat down at a gaming table in a very long time. I'm hoping it'll be interesting but, at the very least, it should be pretty funny to hear about how badly I get my butt kicked every game.
I'm going to keep track of how much money I spend, truthfully, and I don't plan for it to be a whole lot. I'm not expecting to be the best Magic player in town but I do wanna enjoy myself while I get beaten mercilessly.
The thing I'm the most interested in, scared by and have the least knowledge about is the kind of environment I'll be jumping in to. In the past I've found Magic players to be the most unpredictable demographic to predict. I remember far more jerks than friendly folks but there have been helpful and nice people too. I just don't know if I'm going to be welcomed or treated as an enemy from the get-go.
So check back soon if any of this sounds interesting to you. If there's anything extra you'd like me to talk about please comment here or on Twitter @rexplode and I'll do what I can to work it in.
Oh yeah, if anyone has any suggestions for me about how to go about this process for God's sakes please help me.
P.S. - Stangg
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