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!
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