Insert Column Name Here - Behind The Eight-Ball Of MODO

Thank you, Magic Online, for making me stupid.

I mean, I can only blame you partially. Realistically, if I had the motivation and/or time to get down to the local card shop and sling some physical cards more often, I’d probably not be quite as dumb as I am today. But the delay…

…man, we gotta talk.

This whole “Wait a month” crap isn’t cutting it any more. I mean, I kind of assume you fine folks at Wizards want my money, so I can’t really fathom why you’re waiting so long to translate Planar Chaos cards into the rarified air of Magic Online.

Is it that you’re afraid of beta-testers leaking the cards? Come on, folks, I know you’ve gotten more protective of spoilers as of late, but the money you lose by a couple of thousand nerds patrolling MTGSalvation.com seeing the spoiler in advance can’t be more than the amount you lose by waiting so long.

Is it that you’re trying not to compete with the physical stores? Well, as the employee of a guy who works for a store that sells physical cards, I appreciate that, but I’m not sure how much that helps. Would the stores with Friday Night drafts really be hurt that much if you had Planar Chaos out in electronic form the week after it arrived in physical format? Would they become ghost towns, isolated and empty, with tumbleweeds blowing through because “WHEE, MODO, SO MUCH BETTER THAN REAL LIFE”?

My suspicion, however, is that it’s probably a little of Column A (leakage), a little of column B (non-competition), and a whole lot of problems in the whole process involved in getting the cards from the R&D department to the MODO department, then allowing them to test and program them appropriately. I can’t say, so of course this is all rampant speculation, but it’s hard for me to believe that a company like Hasbro can’t get the MODO releases out much closer to day and date of the physical release.

No, wait; this is Hasbro. I’ve dealt with them before. Maybe I can believe their incompetency. (For the record, I really like the people in the Magic department, but Wizards of the Coast as a whole is something I don’t particularly think of as a stellar corporation.)

I suspect that were it a priority, they could get their act in gear… And boy, I hope they do. Because I played quite a few games in the MODO Release Frenzy, but that’s after a Grand Prix and a whole bunch of real life games elsewhere, so I’m starting from behind the curve.

Gah. I hate this. Do you need me to tell you that Shaper Parasite is good? I can tell you what I’ve learned, and foster some debate, but I’m starting way behind the eight-ball.

Anyway. Here’s the deck.

Sealed Deck Pool

Ferrett Steinmetz

Test deck on 03-11-2007

Time Spiral Limited

Creatures (58)

Lands (2)

Spells (30)

White
Solid Playables: Amrou Seekers, Aven Riftwatcher, Benalish Cavalry, Calciderm, Dawn Charm, Errant Doomsayers, Griffin Guide, Pallid Mycoderm, Saltfield Recluse, Whitemane Lion

Wow. That’s some pretty good White. What is it with me and Prerelease tournaments and White?

That said, let’s talk about some of the new cards here?

Aven Riftwatcher has been surprising me lately, mainly because between Whitemane Lion and Stonecloaker, it’s tremendously easy to get it back into your hand, giving you a pretty decent blocker, an okay attacker (one that will almost certainly outclass anything anyone else will have in the air on turn 4), and eight life if you can bounce it once. The fading sucks, of course, but the life helps, so it’s quite nice.

Shade of Trokair, on the other hand, does not impress me, but I’ve seen a fair amount of people running it. It’s not flat-out terrible, of course, but for four mana, I think there are better deals, even with the whole Suspend thing. It seems to me that at the beginning of a set’s release, there’s always one card that everyone seems to like that I don’t, and eventually that card fades away into nothing, and I’m pretty sure this is that card.

Calciderm is extremely good… But not great. With the whole Suspend things there are a lot of cards that can outclass it in the late game, meaning that on turn 4 it’s awesome and on turn 8 it may actually be swallowed whole by something better. I’ll always run it, of course, but the number of times some regenerator or a Havenwood Wurm or a Durkwood Baloth ate my Calciderm whole made me think, “Hmm, not everything it’s advertised.”

The whole reason Blastoderm was all that and the bag o’chips was because it was paired with Red, which could burn stuff. White’s not quite so good at that.

Saltblast, on the other hand, is the kind of card that I don’t like on paper but I often wind up needing. I mean, it’s expensive, and it’s damn slow, but every time I’ve seen it I need it. White needs to kill stuff sometimes, and it’s often lacking in that capacity, so I always groan when I put it in and then do a little fist-pump later on when I get to use it.

Now let’s go for the extra-special bonus obvious section!

Whitemane Lion is awesome, a two-mana save-your-guy spell that puts a 2/2 dude into place. Saltfield Recluse helps out in combat. Pallid Mycoderm isn’t particularly great as an attacker, but as a fourth-turn blocker he’s totally awesome, able to endure endless 3/3 attackers. Sinew Sliver and Watcher Sliver are good if you have other Slivers. Dawn Charm really helps you win a combat race.

Blue
Solid Playables: Erratic Mutation, Looter il-Kor, Jodah’s Avenger, Shaper Parasite, Temporal Eddy, Tolarian Sentinel, Veiling Oddity

All right, Veiling Oddity. I did not like you. Then I lost several games to you, and I had to grudgingly acknowledge that you had some game in you. Because I kept watching my opponents plop him down on turn 2 as their first play and going, “Wow, what a dork. What if I kill all your creatures before then? What if you don’t draw enough creatures? You won’t be able to kill me then.”

But as it turns out, Oddity worked. Even if he only cast two more creatures, usually they were good creatures. And then he attacked for six points of damage, which I might be able to counterattack, but then we’d start getting into a tempo race which he would win because he got six damage in first.

So now I play with it. It doesn’t always make me happy, but it does help enough to put in.

Tolarian Sentinel, if you haven’t gotten the word, is suddenly a good card now thanks to spells like Reality Acid. But I liked it before that for Sealed; it wasn’t great, but in a slower environment it was often a way to save my critical stuff for later. Now I always play it.

Jodah’s Avenger, on the other hand, isn’t all that and the bag of chips. The problem is that Red spells aren’t all that threatening to a 4/4, so what it really wants is protection from Black, not Red. And even then, there are enough other spells in White and Blue and even Red that hamstring it; God, it’s embarrassing when Utopia Cloak neutralizes your Avenger, and I’ve had it happen twice. I’m not saying it’s bad — it’s awesome with a Griffin Guide — but it’s not quite as effective as it looks on paper.

And I’m not sure it’s worth a slot in the maindeck, but I like Wistful Thinking. I never use it on myself except in dire circumstances, but if you can wait until your opponent’s below two cards (and hopefully) tapped out — a situation often known as “the late game” — it will strip his hand and his next two draws. I like that.

I thought I’d like Aquamorph Entity a lot more, but it’s merely okay… Which isn’t surprising, since it’s so generic that now when I look at the card, it’s like meeting an old girlfriend at the mall. “What did I see in you?” I think, baffled. “Why in God’s name did I think you were anything special?” And now I look at the Entity and go, “Wow. Why did I think something that was only going to be one of two vanilla critters would be great?” And I don’t know.

Black
Solid Playables: Assassinate, Deathspore Thallid, Dread Return, Gorgon Recluse, Midnight Charm, Skulking Knight, Undertaker

As usual, there’s a lot of Black here, and not much of it is good. Even the “playable” cards aren’t ones I’m excited about — Assassinate’s terminally late, and Deathspore Thallid is a tad too slow.

Midnight Charm, however? Lord, how I love de Charm! The one damage is a nice quick shot for any x/1 that’s annoying me — which is, of course, blazingly apparent if you read the card, but there are so many troublesome x/1s in the format that I’m not quite willing to waste a Rift Bolt or a Cradle to Grave on that I like having a card that says, “Okay, you’re not going to kill anything else with me, so go nuts. Christ.”

Circle of Affliction? I’d like to think it’s good. It’s a cool card, and I like the reversal of White’ usual protect effects. But it’s probably crap, since you’re gonna take the damage anyhow.

Red
Solid Playables: Brute Force, Coal Stoker, Mogg War Marshall, Pardic Dragon, Prodigal Pyromancer, Rift Bolt, Stingscourger, Sudden Shock, Undying Rage

In the category of “I don’t know whether it’s a good card”: Aether Barrier.

The Red here is strong, but it’s lacking in actual creatures. There’s probably a case to be made here for an R/W build, but the guys here are so pathetic I’m not sure whether I’d want them (aside from the always-impressive Dragon). Then again, I can make anything impressive with the Undying Rage, so maybe I erred here.

In the category of obvious: Prodigal Pyromancer is good because it’s damage on a stick, and the Stingscourger can really clear the way for your guys to hit people in the face. Brute Force can surprise people in combat and allow your creatures to win combats that they would otherwise die in.

Green
Solid Playables: Aether Web, Ana Battlemage, Greenseeker, Herd Gnarr, Penumbra Spider, Thrill of the Hunt, Uktabi Drake, Verdant Embrace

Now what I’m not sure here is whether Utopia Vow is a good card. Yeah, it shuts down blockers and attackers, but the whole “get more mana” thing can sometimes be a mixed blessing. It’s been played against me five times, and two of those times it helped me, getting me out of manascrew or surprising someone during combat because “Whoops, you forgot I had an extra mana open, didn’t you?” And I haven’t had stellar success with it myself.

Maybe it’s good. What I’m pretty sure of, however, is that Groundbreaker isn’t a good card, because I’ve had it played on me in three matches and I won all three. I’m not pooh-poohing the 6/1 out of nowhere, but the reason Sligh loved the Ball Lightning was because they’d already done roughly twelve damage by turn 4 and were looking to lower the boom. In Sealed, which is slower, the 6/1 often isn’t quite enough, and the fact that it goes away is hard on the deck. It’s a Lava Axe, which may or may not be good enough.

Ana Battlemage, however, I love. I mean, I hate it. I’ve never played with it, but almost every time it gets played against me, it wrecks me. It seems innocuous, since neither affects the board all that much, but those kickers just seem to hurt a lot more than they do on paper… And even now, I’m not sure why.

Verdant Embrace, however, is such a powerhouse that even though this Green isn’t quite strong enough to survive on its own, I want to splash for a double-Green card. That’s not good.

And The Rest
Solid Playables: Chromatic Star, Mystic Enforcer

Is Intet, the Dreamer a playable card? Okay, it’s a dragon — a 6/6 that flies. So yeah, it should be in the playables. But it’s also three colors, making it hard to cast, and its effect isn’t particularly stellar, so I’m not sure I’d stretch my mana to put it in.

Okay. It’s a playable. Anything 6/6 that flies is. But this isn’t a bomb that I’d wreck my mana to get, y’know what I’m sayin’?

The Deck
So while, as I said, there’s a strong case to be made for going R/W/G, I went with Blue. My reasons were this:

1) It’s a new tournament. On strength alone I might go with R/W/G, but the Blue cards had more new Planar Chaos blueness. I knew that Shaper Parasite was good, but was Aquamorph Entity? Only one way to find out, and I already knew that Prodigal Sorcerer and Giant Growth were good in Sealed.

2) More removal. It sounds weird, but between the Whitemane Lion’s ability to bounce Shaper Parasite and Erratic Mutation, I was pretty sure I could axe more creatures with Blue.

3) Cool combos. Everyone told me that Merfolk Thaumaturgist and Saltfield Recluse were bombtastic together. I craved that combination of cards.

And man, I still think it shoulda worked out. Check this out:

2 Forest
6 Island
1 Mystic Enforcer
7 Plains
1 Amrou Seekers
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Benalish Cavalry
1 Calciderm
1 Calciform Pools
1 Celestial Crusader
1 Chromatic Star
1 Dawn Charm
1 Errant Doomsayers
1 Erratic Mutation
1 Griffin Guide
1 Jodah’s Avenger
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Merfolk Thaumaturgist
1 Pallid Mycoderm
1 Saltblast
1 Saltfield Recluse
1 Shaper Parasite
1 Temporal Eddy
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tolarian Sentinel
1 Veiling Oddity
1 Whitemane Lion
1 Wistful Thinking

The Wistful Thinking’s the only real controversial choice here, and again — I wanted to experiment. The Aquamorph Entity wasn’t good enough to quite make the cut.

Alas, I went a lowly 1-4, in an extremely frustrating set of matches. Because those losing four matches were among the best games of Magic I’ve played online, ever. Each game was incredibly close, a hard-fought battle where I lost the third game — and I got to the third game in every one — by mere inches, losing by four life every time.

This deck had power, and a good curve. The R/W build may not have been better, but this wasn’t a 1-4 deck by any means, and it was often the final topdeck or some power card from my opponent that settled it. I’m not trying to blame the luck Gods, but man. It could have gone either way in any of those four games, and it didn’t.

That’s Magic for ya, I guess.

The Weekly Plug Bug
This week on Home on the Strange, Tanner has a revelation about his life and how he’s screwing it up.

Signing off,
The Ferrett
The Here Edits This Site Here Guy
TheFerrett@StarCityGames.com