Magic Online Musings: This Week on MTGO #22

What’s Black and Blue all over, and even a little Red in places? Thankfully, it’s not my arse* after the

Prerelease, but the deck I played. For some reason, it seems that attendance was down across the board for the Coldsnap

Prereleases. I’m sure there was an exception here or there, before you head off to the forums with your flaming

pitchforks and lion-taming chairs, but the drop in turnout does seem pretty widespread.

This meant that we had plenty of judges available, so that when I sidled up to our Tournament Organiser Chris and

asked if he would mind terribly if I entered the first flight instead of judging it, he naturally said “goooo!

dribble, dribble”

After clearing up the misunderstanding where I mistook Chris’s adorable widdle six month old son Blair for a

T.O. slash Level 3 judge, I sat down to build my deck from the following card pool.

Coldsnap Sealed Pool

blisterguy

Test deck on 07-16-2006

Ravnica Limited

Creatures (45)

Lands (6)

Spells (24)

Wait! This isn’t Monday, this isn’t the Ferrett’s weekly column!** What is all of this In Real

Life Limited hooplah? Bear with me ladies and gents, I won’t dwell on this long. Basically, I tried to build an

efficient build around my two nuts rares, the Void Maw and the Garza Zol, Plague Queen. Going with Black, Blue, and Red

also gave me some wee flyers, some good burn and a couple of unblockable Zombie Mushers, which spent the day being quite

ridiculous. This is what I ended up playing.

Coldsnap Sealed Deck

blisterguy

Test deck on 07-16-2006

Ravnica Limited

Creatures (16)

Lands (18)

Spells (6)

I’m not too proud to admit I made a mistake or two while building the deck. For instance, I misread Deepfire

Elemental and assumed it was basically an obese Mox Monkey. If you look at the card, the first line of rules text says

“XX1: Destroy target artifact or…” which when you start reading, makes you think of the Gorilla

Shaman. When your eyes scan down naturally to the end of the second line of rules text, you basically miss the word

“creature” and assume it is just the same. I know I’m not crazy here, because several other people at

the prerelease had the same experience apparently. The worst bit was the fact that I sideboarded him in as added fat a

couple of times, and still failed to spot its awesomeness. The other card I sideboarded in often was the Rune

Snag, which succeeded in Countering countless large beasts and sorceries that threatened my very existence at the table.

Cards that were questionable in making the cut were the Phobian Phantasm and the Balduvian Fallen, who both showed

promise in the choking my game plan with their Cumulative Upkeeps approach to Magic. The Balduvian Fallen at least

seemed like it would take the opponent down pretty quickly if unanswered now and again, but the Phobian Phantasm was

surprisingly ineffective. The pure Black Upkeep cost meant it wasn’t hanging around long enough to really do

anything that may resemble smashing face. Thankfully, sideboarding did in fact save the day, and despite seeming to lose

a game in every match I played, I ended up going undefeated by repeatedly turning my flyers and Mushers to the left and

subtracting numbers from my opponent’s life totals.

Speaking of winning, let’s take a peek at what has been winning at Standard on Magic Online in the last week.

But lo, what is this? ‘Tis a sample from the mailbag from Winged-Weasel from the StarCityGames.com forums.

I have a question/suggestion for you. You may have addressed this in a previous iteration of your column (as I

said I have only started reading recently). Is it possible for you to list the tournament number or date/time or some

other identifier of the tournament that each deck is from?

Possibly in the form:
Current listing method
Tournament # X
Top 8

Tournament # Y
Top 8
etc.

I realize this could be a fair about of extra work depending on your method for tallying up the Top 8s. I just

have found myself sometimes unable to locate some of the decks that have made the elimination rounds by searching the

replays.

Is this viable? If not, no big deal, I just feel it would be a great asset to be able to go directly to the

tournament in question to take a look at the decks. Thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to write to me Winged-Weasel! Yes, you are right. Listing the tournaments individually

would mean extra work, but more importantly in my opinion, it would fragment our view of the overall results. As you

know, I lump all of the results together to give you the total number of times a given deck archetype made it into a

Premier Event Top 8. This helps to show the popularity, or lack of therein of any deck in the field at a glance, which I

think is slightly more important than being able to see if we could follow trends from one Top 8 to the next. Here are

the results.

9 (10) Ninja Stompy (Green/Red/Blue Aggro Control)
9 (6) Blue/Red/Green Urzatron
7 (5) Simic Aggro Control (Blue/Green)
7 (4) Magnivore (Blue/Red Land Destruction Control)
6 (9) Zoo (Green/White/Red Aggro)
5 (10) Izzetron (Blue/Red Urzatron Control)
5 (1) Blue/Black/White Reanimator
4 (4) Hand in Hand (Black/White Aggro Control)
4 (1) Heartbeat (Heartbeat of Spring/Early Harvest Combo)
3 (1) Izzet Control (Blue/Red Control)
3 (4) Boros Deck Wins (Red/White Aggro)
2 (0) Selesnya Aggro Control (Green/White Aggro Control)
2 (3) Orzhov Husk (Black/White Aggro)
2 (0) Black/Red/White Control
1 (3) Hierarch Control (Green/White/Black Control)
1 (2) Simic Snake Aggro Control (Green/Blue)
1 (2) Dimir Control (Blue/Black Control)
1 (2) Firemane Control (Blue/White/Red Control)
1 (1) Dovescape (Green/White/Blue Aggro Control)
1 (1) Gruul Beats (Green/Red Aggro)
1 (0) Green/White/Black Greater Good Control
1 (0) Blue/Green/White Aggro Control
1 (0) Black/Red/White Aggro Control
1 (0) Blue/White/Black Control
1 (0) Green/Red/White Control
0 (4) Rakdos Aggro (Red/Black)
0 (2) Azorius Control (White/Blue)
0 (1) Ghost Dad (Black/White)
0 (1) White Weenie
0 (1) Green/White/Blue Glare of Subdual
0 (1) Green/Blue/White Control
0 (1) Green/Blue/Black Aggro Control

Surprise Mailbag elbow-drop from januseyes, from StarCityGames.com forums!

(Thunk!)

10 (6) Izzetron (Blue/Red Urzatron Control)
6 (8) Blue/Red/Green Urzatron

I’m curious as to why more Tron players seem to be going with the R/U version – or why the R/U version is

proving more successful than the (generally regarded to be) superior R/U/g.

Thanks for dropping me a line, januseyes! I have to admit, I was a little surprised by those results too, and as you

can see from this week, things are swinging around to the way you and I both assumed they would, with straight Izzetron

trailing behind the splash-Green version by 9 positions to 5. As to why it can be the other way around, there can be

many different reasons, of which not nearly enough of them involve chocolate.

Some people might choose to play only two colors over three in a deck to add some resilience to cards like Blood

Moon (and in some older formats, Back to Basics). The problem here is that Izzetron typically runs around 11 to 12 lands

that tap for colored mana, while the rest pump out the good, clean colorless stuff. This means that Izzetron is just as

vulnerable to having its mana compromised as a three-color version. Another reason might be that some people perhaps

fail to see the benefit derived from running Simic Sky Swallower over Keiga, or vice-versa. I guess time will tell on

that front at least.

And from Sebio10

Looking back through your previous MTGO articles I was able to find a decklist for Sea Stompy (Week #9).

However, that listing is one from PT: Honolulu and does not include any Dissension cards. As Sea Stompy is one of the

decks that is putting up consistently good numbers, and seems to be one of the few decks that can consistently beat Tron

Wildfire of all colors, I was wondering if we could get an updated list. If that’s not possible, then maybe a short note

on the trends that you have seen in the deck.

The things I’m most interested in: are people are using Trygon Predator plus Jitte, or are they using

Burning-Tree Shaman and Moldervine Cloak? Are the majority of lists running Silhana Ledgewalker or are they sticking to

Dryad Sophisticate? Are people maindecking any Rumbling Slums? Lastly, I’d like to see what you think the most common

burn package for the deck is. Are people still using Electrolyze? Or have they replaced it with Char?

This is a deck that I feel has been doing pretty well lately and one that I feel deserves a little bit more

press than it has gotten thus far. Seeing as you are one of the only ones that regularly covers Standard for this here

website type thingy, I figure you are probably the best one to ask to give it a little more press.

You’re right, Sebio10 from Starcitygames.com forums! Yes, the Ninja Stompy deck has been steadily growing in

popularity. I shall see if I can’t dredge up a decklist or two to write about neck week. It seems that most builds

are running the Trygon Predator to help them win the war in the battle for Jitte supremacy. Anyway, that’s enough

about that, let’s throw the price tracking list up for people to have a wee nosey at.

The numbers shown, for instance, as 2-4 are the price people are buying the card for, followed by the price

people are selling the card for. The prices shown in parenthesis, like this (2-4), are the prices from last

week. If a card and its prices have been bolded, it’s because there has been a change in price from the week

before to help you differentiate those cards from the others that are a little more… static in their

movements. Card prices are in Tickets, because that’s what most people buy and sell with on Magic Online. Also

note that prices can fluctuate based on the time of day as well, depending on just how many people are online selling at

the time. Due to my uniquely antipodean location down here in the Pacific, and my tendency to hold down a regular nine

to five job, the prices below end up being more of a general indication of what’s going on than an exact science.

Pithing Needle 16-17 (15-18)
Umezawa’s Jitte 7-8 (7-9)

Vampiric Tutor 20-28 (20-28)
Cranial Extraction 4-6 (4-6)
Dark Confidant 3-4 (3-4)

Meloku the Clouded Mirror 3-5 (4-5)
Keiga, the Tide Star 3-5 (3-5)

Simic Sky Swallower 6-7 (6-8)
Voidslime 5-6 (5-6)
Giant Solifuge 3-5 (3-5)
Loxodon Hierarch 3-4 (3-4)
Burning-Tree Shaman 3-4 (3-4)
Ghost Council of Orzhova 2-4 (2-4)

Birds of Paradise 4-5 (3-5)
Heartbeat of Spring 2-4 (3-4)
Early Harvest 3-4 (3-4)

Demonfire 4-5 (4-5)
Wildfire 3-4 (3-4)
Magnivore 2-4 (2-4)

Wrath of God 9-11 (8-10)
Paladin en-Vec 5-7 (5-6)
Yosei, the Morning Star 3-5 (3-5)

Breeding Pool 14-15 (14-16)
Hallowed Fountain 10-11 (10-12)
Shivan Reef 8-10 (9-10)
Steam Vents 8-10 (9-10)
Blood Crypt 8-9 (8-9)
Godless Shrine 7-9 (8-9)
Stomping Ground 7-9 (7-9)
Yavimaya Coast 6-8 (5-7)
Caves of Koilos 6-7 (5-7)
Watery Grave 5-6 (5-6)
Temple Garden 5-6 (5-6)
Overgrown Tomb 5-6 (5-6)
Adarkar Wastes 4-6 (5-7)
Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] 4-6 (5-6)
Sacred Foundry 4-6 (5-6)
Llanowar Wastes 4-5 (4-5)
Karplusan Forest 4-5 (4-5)
Underground River 3-5 (4-5)
Brushland 3-5 (3-5)
Sulfurous Springs 3-5 (3-5)

It’s always nice to see that the newer Ravnica Block Duals are slowly dropping down to a more manageable

price. Other than Steam Vents, which is excepted due to it being in a bunch of good decks, it seems that the Guildpact

Dual Lands are at least now down to around the same price as the Ravnica ones.

Anyway, I’d best be off once more. I’ll catch you all next week!

(blisterguy)

{e}

* Arse is so much the better word than “ass” it’s not even funny. Well, except that it is, which

is why it’s the better word.
** Although it has footnotes, so you could be mistaken.