I used to cast Mahamotti Djinn

I started playing Magic right around the time that Fallen Empires was released. 

I remember this very clearly because the local comic shops were pimping these booster packs hard and I, not knowing much of anything about card quality, strategy or deck building, bought as many of those packs as I could afford. 

Deep Spawn was the first rare I got. Or I THOUGHT he was my first rare, I don't actually know what else I got in that pack, 7th grade me was so excited by this 6/6 Lobster that I just KNEW it was the hard to get one. 

The same store that sold me a pile of Fallen Empires also had boosters of The Dark, Revised, Legends and something called Beta. I knew the Legends and Beta packs were really good because they were a lot more expensive than the packs I was buying. I didn't yet know anything about the "Power 9" much less what a Mana Drain or a Karakas was but those old-looking packs had a mystique to them that stuck with me. 

Eventually I convinced my Dad that we should go to a different card store and get a pair of Starter Decks. You know, 1 for me and 1 for him, so we could both play Magic. I thought I was so smart at the time, duping my Pops into buying twice the cards when I knew he wouldn't want to play with me more than a couple of times. Obviously Dad knew what was up but played along, he even managed to look interested as I clumsily tried to explain how to play when I barely grasped the difference between an Instant and an Interrupt. 

I don't remember ALL of the 6 rares from those 2 Revised starter decks but I do remember 2 of them. Roc of Kher Ridges was one of them and I remember wondering why he was a rare when I could get a perfectly good Phantom Monster at Uncommon. The other memorable rare was Mahamotti Djinn. This guy was HUGE and he could FLY! From the minute I saw Mahamotti Djinn I was set on playing Blue and luckily my buddy was not a fan of the color and traded me another Djinn for a bunch of things I don't remember. I didn't care what it took, I was getting another Djinn!

I know my early Magic days were pretty similar to other folks. I crammed all of my Blue card into a pile with all of Islands I could find and called it good. I didn't win a lot of games but I sure did love playing. It helped that all of my friends that also played were just as terrible at every aspect of the game as I was, we were blissfully ignorant of things like a Mana Curve or Combos. Magic was simply sitting in a circle during Gym class and watching out for the teacher like hunted meercats on the savannah. 

Then one day things changed dramatically. 

There was this kid that I didn't know very well. I don't know if he was new to school or if he just happened to notice my friends and I playing cards but he came over, asked to play and promptly killed us all with a deck full of Lightning Bolts and Chain Lightnings. None of us had ever even even CONSIDERED playing nothing but burn spells. This was a absolutely crazy, I mean where did this guy get so many of the same card, was he just buying a ton of packs? I'd never ever SEEN a Legends card before, much less this crazy one with a million words. 

We all died in a flurry of 3 damage spells. Multiple times. It was awesome. It was MIND BLOWING. I spent a bus ride to the zoo late that week talking to this kid (I can't remember his name, I am horrible) about Magic and how to do what he did. How to BUILD a DECK. Up to that point I hadn't given much thought to what my cards did with each other, how they interacted with each other or other people's cards. I was just piling my big guys into a deck and shuffling in all the Islands I had. Season with a couple of Phantasmal Terrains (gotta let those Sea Serpents attack!) to taste. Magic Kid changed all of that. 

The first thing he did was trim my deck down to 40 cards. This was the recognized lower limit at the time according to him and you always wanted your deck to be as small as possible. It's kind of insane to me that an kid in 7th grade was able to unshakably convince me that the smallest deck is the best but it has stayed with me all these years. Magic Kid fiddled with my deck for a while and eventually handed me my new deck. I'm pretty sure it was something like this:

6 Ornithopter
7 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
1 Lord of Atlantis
7 Unstable Mutation
1 Psionic Blast
2 Power Sink
15 Island

 First of all I was blown away that this dude was just GIVING me cards. Didn't he know Ornithopter was a FREE TO PLAY creature? Why would he just hand these over to me?
Second I was kind of pissed that he wanted me to play Unstable Mutation on my own guys. Didn't he know it would eventually kill my guys? The last thing that dawned on me what that my Mahamotti's were relegated to the extras pile. How could this be right?

It didn't take long though to realize how quickly this deck could kill an opponent. I got to play some games with Magic Kid and I even managed to win some of them. It seems attacking for 4 or more on turn 2 is a pretty good bit better than maybe attacking for 5 on turn 6. 

He suggested getting more Psionic Blasts if I could and that Counterspell would be better than Power Sink if I could get some of those. I was kind of puzzled, how did Magic Kid know all about these cards if I hadn't seen them? It would be a while still before the internet was common and I didn't know anyone outside of school that played Magic at all. 
Apparently Magic Kid's brother played with some of his friends a lot and they were kind enough to share their information. 

It's crazy to me to think about how my perspective on magic cards has changed over the years. I can still remember writing an actual letter to my best friend because I opened a pack of Ice Age and pulled a Scaled Wurm. It was exciting enough to me to lick a stamp and seal an envelope. We're talking about a 7/6 for 8 mana here. My rare in that pack? Necropotence. TLDR, sweet art though!

These days the vast majority of my interest in Magical Cards is based on whether or not it will see tournament play. Sometimes the little kid in me can take over for a while but before long he's shouted down by the sensible person who would rather win than do something super cool. I'm not sure if that's for the best.

Brewing and then Copying

Magic 2015 is mostly here!

As is usually the case when a new set comes out, I have spent the last few weeks brewing all kinds of different ways to try and attack the upcoming Standard format.

Realistically, I know I won't have the time to put into figuring out a broken deck much less actually test it sufficiently. This has not ever stopped me from evaporating free time before and it will not stop me from doing it again when Khans is released in September. 

Some perspective: Every time a new set comes out a local shop holds a Standard tournament where the winner gets a playset of the new set. This is insane value and I have been lucky enough to split the finals of this tournament two times. 

You would think that this is what motivates my brewing, but no. Both times I have been successful at these events it has been with a very stock version of a deck the internet provided me with. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to net deck, but my goodness would it feel good to succeed with something I could call my own!

That is what pushes me to draw up lists on paper for weeks before a new set comes out, that is why I have endless files in my deck builder app with old cards as placeholders for the new ones.

So here are a few brews for you to sink your teeth into. This is probably the only place they'll see the light of day so me kind. 


Brew 1: Junk Standard that wishes it was Modern

4 Pack Rat
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Reclamation Sage
3 Scion of Vitu-Ghazi

2 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

3 Advent of the Wurm

4 Abrupt Decay
4 Selesnya Charm
1 Golgari Charm
1 Putrefy
4 Thoughtseize

2 Mutavault
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
3 Temple of Malady
2 Temple of Plenty
3 Llanowar Wastes
3 Caves of Koilos 


 This list is evidence of one of my biggest brewing problems. I spend a lot of time brewing for Modern and I tend to try to shift decks from that format to Standard. Typically this isn't the best plan because the formats are VASTLY different but I'm eternally hopeful that it will work. 

In this case we have a lot of cheap threats along with a lot of cheap answers. Voice of Resurgence is underplayed and pretty decent against the Black decks, plus you have Scion and Wurm to give you some late game punch. Pack Rat + Thoughtseize gives you some free wins and the removal package feels like it can answer most things. 

Some things to think about are: whether or not Scion is better than Blood Baron here, can this deck actually afford to play Mutavault, and can this deck ever beat an Elspeth?

I'm actually going to build this thing at some point to see what happens. 


Brew # B: SLIVERS! (Obviously.)

1 Striking
4 Galerider
4 DIffusion
1 Venom
3 Leeching
4 Manaweft
4 Predatory
1 Belligerent 
1 Blur
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Syphon
1 Bonescythe
4 Sliver Hivelord
1 Thorncaster
1 Constricting
1 Megantic

4 Chord of Calling

4 Sliver Hive
4 Mana Confluence
3 Breeding Pool
3 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mutavault
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
3 Yavimaya Coast
 


This is a fairly obvious deck that I think a lot of people will or have already built. I think it's actually worth looking at Slivers because a lot of people will try to make it happen and it makes sense to know what the deck is capable of. 

We're playing 4 of the most important ones and 1 of the rest. 3 Leeching because I don't think you actually want to DRAW 2 of him but you'd like to be able to find a second or third one with Chord. 

Some of them I'm not sure you actually need in the main deck. Striking is largely redundant when we have Bonescythe but him costing 1 could matter. Belligerent is in a similar spot since Galerider will usually be better at getting your dudes through. I have kind of a soft spot for Thorncaster but Bonesplitter may just do that job better. 

I built the manabase with all base-green lands leaning harder on Blue after Green. I like Mutavault in the deck but it feels real awkward with Hivelord. 

Speaking of Hivelord, this guy is super sweet but I can't decide how many I'm supposed to play. Seems smart to start with 4 and go from there. 



Brew 3:  Bant Flash

4 Hushwing Gryff
3 Horizon Chimaera 

3 Quicken
3 Syncopate
4 Void Snare
4 Azorius Charm
2 Selesnya Charm
4 Dissolve
2 Divination
2 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Advent of the Wurm

4 Breeding Pool
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple Garden
4 Temple of Enlightenment 
3 Temple of Mystery
2 Tempe of Plenty
4 Yavimaya Coast

This one is real rough and real bad. Sometimes a new card hits me at the right angle and I just can't get out of my mind that it's going to be good. This is the case with Hushwing Gryff. 

Trying to cast Advent of the Wurm in some kind of control deck has always been kind of the dream. We got to live it for a little while with Snapcaster Mage but even then it wasn't really good enough. Why I'm pushing myself to think it will be better now I honestly don't know. 

Void Snare gives us another card that we're happy to Quicken and maybe makes that card worth the slots?




I'm wrapping it up for today. I hope that gave you a somewhat interesting peek into my brain and how many less-than-good decks I go through before I land on anything reasonable. 
 


 

Killing People and Sometimes Making Them Mad

I am not dead, I've just been lazy.

In an attempt to find my writing groove again I'm here to talk about Magic, playing Magic and also possibly winning at Magic. 

You see, it's been a rough couple of months for me Magic-wise. After co-winning a big tournament just after Journey Into Nyx released my competitive results have been middling at best. Unfortunately, I can't blame my lack of success on anything but my own inability to stick with a deck that wins and ride it out.

You see, I'm decidedly a Spike (competitive, winning matters the most) with a hard to ignore Johnny (likes to do cool things) streak. This combination is pretty tough to live with since the Johnny leads me to try new decks all the time in search of elusive cool new experiences but the Spike still despises losing almost more than anything. 

If I were more of a Spike it would be easy to simply play the best deck, learn it well and benefit from the experience. 

If I were more of a Johnny I would be content with the fun of playing new decks and seeing interesting interactions. Winning would be a secondary goal entirely, a nice bonus if it happened. 

Instead I've been sort of torturing myself with all of these brews and ending up on the low end of the tournament results, if I even managed to finish the events to begin with. 

This all sounds very grandiose and overblown, especially since the majority of the tournaments I've been to have been local Wednesday or Friday nights, but I get to play so little Magic that these events are important to me. It can be extremely frustrating to spend several days building up a deck in my mind only to lose the first 2 rounds of Wednesday Night Magic in frustrating, helpless fashion. 

Now I know the actual solution to this is to spend time play testing these brews before, during and after W/FNM. Get the bad ones out of my system when there's actually nothing on the line rather than mostly nothing. Find the promising decks, tweak them and know what the hell I'm doing before battling Tier 1 decks for store credit. 

As I said before though, I am lazy. But I'm working on it!


So I've rambled on quite a bit here and complained about my own problems. Here's where the actual story begins. 

2 weeks ago, after a frustrating Modern Wednesday in which my last-minute deck choice led me to the usual 2-2 tournament results, I got home and in a fit of MCDonald's-fueled inspiration dismantled every deck in my office. No more Black White Auras. No more Pyro Loam. No more Mono-Green Devotion. 

I assembled 2 decks and decided they would be my focus for at least a week. I wouldn't take them apart, build a new deck or even look at tournament results until I'd played at least a couple of tournaments. 

Now obviously I didn't stick to all of that. Work is long and there are certainly stretches of time where I'm going to look at deck lists. 

BUT! I did stick to the same Standard deck for 3 tournaments in a row. 

Here's the list I started with 2 weeks ago on Friday:

Boss Sligh

4 Akroan Crusader
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Legion Loyalist
4 Foundry Street Denizen
4 Ash Zealot
3 Rubblebelt Maaka

4 Dragon Mantle
4 Madcap Skills

4 Titan's Strength
2 Shock
2 Lightning Strike

17 Mountain


Sideboard

4 Skullcrack
1 Blinding Flare
1 Peak Eruption
2 Magma Spray
1 Lightning Strike
2 Eidolon of the Great Revel
1 Searing Blood
1 Harness by Force
1 Mizzium Mortars 
1 Mutavault



Now this deck is pretty far from my usual comfort zone. I tend to gravitate towards decks that kill my opponent's creatures, stop them doing whatever it is that they'd like to be up to and eventually get around to winning the game. 

This has been generally Sphinx's Revelation decks but has also bled over into some Black Devotion decks that I likely misplayed horribly. 

So back to the deck, this is Tom Ross's's's (esses) SCG Invitational-winning Standard deck and I think it's actually a pretty difficult deck to play correctly. I mean, there will be games where your opponent has a slow draw and you just triple 1-drop them into the ground. But there will also be games where they kill your first 2 creatures and you have to make every card matter. 

I played the list above on the first Friday night and ended up going 3-1, losing to a Jund Monsters opponent who had actual 5 removal spells in game 1 and who played Mystic > Courser > Disciple in game 2. I don't think the Jund Monsters matchup is particularly good or bad, but I certainly wasn't winning that one. 

I fought the urge to give up on the deck right away and played it again on this Wednesday to a 3-0-1 record, drawing with Hexproof in the last round.  Small sample size not withstanding, I could feel myself getting more comfortable with the deck. I was making plays that I wouldn't have been comfortable with from the get-go and managed to defeat some quality opponents on my way. 

I was particularly proud of myself for putting an opponent on Bile Blight and not walking a pair of Rakdos Cacklers into the spell, instead casting a post-combat Ask Zealot. Not exactly intuitive play there but I'm fairly confident it was correct. 

This past Friday I stuck with deck again, making a minor change to the sideboard after seeing a couple of other people running Red, and again managed to not lose a match. Friday's tournament was very small with only 12 people, but I went 3-0 after getting paired down in the final round while the other undefeated players intentionally drew. 
My sideboard change ended up paying off when my first round opponent was also Mono Red and I got to use the Electrickery that would have been a Peak Eruption. 

I won't get to play Magic this Wednesday, instead I'll be watching The Dear Hunter perform after eating some Rosemary Cornbread at the House of Blues. 

I'll certainly be playing Sligh again on Friday though, hopefully killing people but hopefully not making them mad. At least not too mad.