Good day to you all! First of all, I’d like to apologize for apparently coming across as a bit of an ass last week while talking about the values of the following rares on Magic Online. I didn’t mean to gloat about managing to pick up certain cards “before they were big.” I was hoping that it would help inspire you guys to look a little deeper when trying to figure out what is worth something now, and what might be worth something later. I mean, for every card I managed to pick up cheap, there are many more Wildfires and Magnivores I failed to pick up cheap and now have to pay premium prices for.
Anyway, let’s have a look to see if much has changed from last week. By the way, that weeks price will show up like (this).
Howling Mine 2-4 (2-3)
Pithing Needle 25-27 (22-27)
Umezawa’s Jitte 10-11 (10-11)
The sell price for Howling Mine has gone up a little, but the upcoming Pro Tour in Hawaii will have the final say as to whether or not it will skyrocket in value or settle back down at 2-3. The buy price of Pithing Needle has shot up to reflect that of the sell price, and Umezawa’s Jitte has sat at pretty much the same as it always has. I guess we won’t see much in the way of fluctuations for Jitte until such time as they stop printing the Rats Nest PreCon, or Jitte suddenly becomes out-classed by something else.
Cranial Extraction 7-9 (7-8)
Dark Confidant 3-4 (3-4)
Kokusho, the Evening Star 6-8 (7-8)
Kagemaro, First to Suffer 6-8 (—)
Very little movement here, but I have decided to add Kagemaro. That bad boy is asking a fair price right now, and it will be interesting to see if he can climb higher, or if he has already peaked.
Gifts Ungiven 5-6 (5-6)
Kami of the Crescent Moon 2-4 (2-4)
Keiga, the Tide Star 3-5 (3-5)
Meloku, the Clouded Mirror 5-6 (5-6)
Thanks Blue, no movement at all. Way to give me nothing to talk about.
Glare of Subdual 2-3 (2-4)
Loxodon Hierarch 4-6 (4-6)
Glare of Subdual, the “hot new poster card” from the World Champs, is slipping a little. Probably due to the fact that Wildfire decks have a pretty reasonable match up against the enchantment, and the fact that you can build perfectly good Green/White/Black decks without it.
Arashi, Sky Asunder 7-8 (7-9)
Birds of Paradise 4-6 (5-6)
Greater Good 2-4 (3-5)
Kodama of the North Tree 3-4 (3-4)
Greater Good is starting to dip noticeably, and while it looks like some people are willing accept 8 for Arashi, I also saw some people looking for 10 for it.
Char 3-4 (3-4)
Magnivore 2-4 (3-4)
Wildfire 4-5 (4-5)
Just Magnivore dropping slightly this week.
Isamaru, Hound of Konda 2-4 (2-4)
Wrath of God 8-10 (8-10)
Yosei, the Morning Star 4-5 (4-5)
Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author] 7-9 (7-9)
Brushland 5-7 (6-7)
Llanowar Wastes 7-9 (7-9)
Shivan Reef 11-13 (11-13)
Underground River 6-8 (7-8)
Yavimaya Coast 7-9 (7-9)
Overgrown Tomb 7-9 (7-9)
Sacred Foundry 6-8 (6-8)
Temple Garden 6-8 (6-8)
Watery Grave 7-9 (7-9)
Everything else seems to have stayed pretty much the same. I guess we’ll see just how much some of this can change in a week or two, once Guildpact has been released.
Now, on to the tournament coverage! Once again, I am going to do something slightly different. I am only going to cover one tournament, but in a wee bit more detail than usual. Hopefully, this will be good practice for my trip to Hawaii to help with the coverage there, but I suspect my senile old mind will forget what I talking about. Hey? Where are my dried frog pills again? The tournament in question was what appeared to be the biggest Standard tournament of the week. Held on Sunday the 19th and featuring triple prizes. This gathering gathered sixty-three individual players, and I bet they were all panicking just before they started, that a couple more would join and force them to play an extra round.
Quarter Finals
BollWeevil versus FryChikN – the White/Red aggro mirror.
Game 1 went “well” for FryChikN. You see, in Magic it can often be said that if one player draws and then plays way more lands than the other, then they also drew and played way too few of those fancy non-land cards. Thus, falling behind in the all-important card advantage race. FryChikN instantly fell behind by mulliganing to six on the play, so not only was BollWeevil up card, but would also be the first person to draw a new card. If we analyze the totals at the end of turn 1 – after FryChikN led with Plains, Isamaru, and BollWeevil matched it with Plains, Savannah Lions – the net result was that BollWeevil’s hand of six was sitting at a healthy 150% of FryChikN’s hand of four. However, if only say, four of the cards in BollWeevil’s hand have mana costs, then it seems somewhat closer in number, assuming that all of the cards in FryChikN’s also have mana costs on them.
That’s pretty much what happened. FryChikN’s cards all had mana costs on them, and therefore didn’t possess the card type land. So it probably didn’t matter that BollWeevil didn’t have as many business cards, especially when he actually had the mana to play the cards he did have, and when one of them was an Umezawa’s Jitte.
*Cough*
So where were all of FryChikN’s lands? Nobody is really sure of the answer in regards to game 1, but they were all out for everyone to see in game 2, and I mean all of them. Yeah, so it wasn’t a great Top 8 for FryChikN.
jono mizer and his Zoo versus thaumasiotes and his Critical Mass
Game 1:
jono mizer: I play monsters!
thaumasiotes: I play bigger monsters!
jono mizer: I play Jitte!
thaumasiotes: I play Meloku!
jono mizer: Yeeaaah, but I played a Jitte…?
thaumasiotes: Umm, true. If you keep drawing guys, you will probably overpower me.
jono mizer: Hey look, a guy… and another one… and another one… and ano~
thaumasiotes: K, whatever *right click, concede game, yes*
Game 2:
thaumasiotes: I play monsters this time.
jono mizer: They are small monsters, and because I have a Forest card, none of them are as big as my Kird Ape
thaumasiotes: Good point. I’ll Threads of Disloyalty that.
jono mizer: Ah.
thaumasiotes: and play a Jitte
jono mizer: Ah.
thaumasiotes: Mash!
jono mizer: I’ll play a Selesnya Guildmage.
thaumasiotes: Mash! Oh, and kill the Guildmage with the Jitte.
jono mizer: Of right. Hey, have you heard of rule 420.5e?
thaumasiotes: Remind me…?
jono mizer: I’ll play a Jitte of my own.
thaumasiotes: Whatever, mash!
jono mizer: You’re right, this mashing is getting me low on life. I wonder what I could possibly play with my Green, White and admittedly Red mana that could really staunch the flow of your weenies?
thaumasiotes: I call. There’s no way you could possibly be playing with Loxodon Hie~
jono mizer: I’ll play this Loxodon Hierarch.
thaumasiotes: Have I told you how much I hate you?
jono mizer: And this Jitte.
thaumasiotes: Because it’s really quite a lot. Meloku.
jono mizer: Char.
thaumasiotes: Yes, it’s a good thing I have my Miren the Moaning Well to prevent your Jitte getting out of hand. It looks like my residual Meloku-ites will finish you off.
jono mizer: Lightning Helix.
thaumasiotes: Gah.
jono mizer: Lightning Helix
thaumasiotes: Gah!
jono mizer: Mash!
thaumasiotes: Hey, that’s my line! At least I’m still drawing guys who can block and get Miren’d.
jono mizer: Mash!
thaumasiotes: Wait, I’ve run out of guys…
jono mizer: Mash!
thaumasiotes: K, whatever *right click, concede game, yes*
panapino verses gOOgs
This was a classic match up of Aggro on Control, and things played out just as you’d expect. panapino threw his Little White Men into the fray, and gOOgs built up his mana base with Dimir Signets and a similarly named Dimir Aqueduct. While gOOgs Tidings’d up some more cards, panapino managed to make it a nail-bitter by getting gOOgs down to the unenviable one life that nobody talks about, and everybody wakes up sweating about. I was literally on the edge of my seat, and not because I didn’t want to squish the cat behind me: I’m not above throwing that cat from any piece of furniture I wish to sit on. gOOgs had a full grip and panapino was playing off the top, but all it took was one single piece of burn to take him down. What could gOOgs use to stage a comeback quick enough to dodge the timely topdeck? The obvious answer is Meloku, but you can’t exactly tap out at the end of your turn to fill the skies with fresh meat if your opponent is grinning at you over a solitary unknown card. No, apparently the answer is none other than Kagemaro, First to Suffer, who was particularly keen to be Second to Suffer next to panapino. When you have seven cards in hand, Kagemaro delivers in three, and that’s how gOOgs got his comeback, with the help of course, of a timely Hinder.
Game 2 was fast and brutal. Despite a mulligan to five, panipino came firing out of the gates with two power beaters back up by strong burn. To quote gOOgs in his last turn:
10:51 gOOgs: sooo many ways to die
So in keeping with the tension, although the cat was no longer preventing me from utilizing my chair properly, these plucky players took it to the third. panipino appeared to come out a little slow, but the burn came thick and fast in three to four damage doses, taken only at the end of turn. To show he’s not just a one-trick-pony, panipino then Blood Mooned gOOgs’s fancy mana base, forcing him to reply on his Signets to get double of any color. Again gOOgs managed to get down a Kagemaro, and the turn before Kagemaro crushed, panipino tried for a Char for exactly the right amount of damage, but was one mana short of paying for the mana leak that ultimately ended his time in the Top 8.
thewheyguy up against rat8magic
If you’re playing White/Red aggro, you don’t usually want to play against a GhaziGlare deck. You’re probably thinking that the Wildfire decks are gonna keep it out of your way, or summink. If you were thewheyguy, you’re probably sigh in what can only be a crestfallen manner as rat8amge played out his turn 1 Brushland. thewheyguy played some guys, rat8amge played some guys but then topped it off with Loxodon Hierarch and a Kodama of the Three Bean Salad.
(Kodama of the North Tree is a big green thing. Hippies like green things, and they also like Three Bean Salad. Quod erat demonstrandum.)
thewheyguy showed he still had a trick or two up his sleeve by splashing out a Giant Growth on his Boros Swiftblade, but it wasn’t enough to stop rat8amge running him aground to take game 2.
Game 2 started a whole lot better for thewheyguy, who suited up a Leonin Skyhunter with a Moldervine Cloak and an Umezawa’s Jitte. Sadly for thewheyguy, the correct response is to keep those baskety eggs contained with a Glare of Subdual and the ability to crank out 1/1s with both Selesnya Guildmage and Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree. A Loxodon Hierarch made rat8amge difficult to burn out, and another Three Bean Kodama made it next to impossible.
Semi Finals
BollWeevil fights jono mizer
jono mizer came out fast with the Kird Ape, Forest combo, and upsized it with a Moldervine Cloak. By the way, is now a good time to mention that I won my Provincial Champs on the back of Moldervine Cloak? Probably not; I suspect the growth in popularity the Cloak has experienced has had nothing to do with me, sadly. Anyway, BollWeevil counteracted the Ape perfectly with a Paladin en-Vec, and then proceeded to wreck face with his own value added Umezawa’s Jitte. As long as the Jitte has enough friends, it’s quite the party animal, and unfortunately for jono mizer, the Paladin was not the only friend who showed up to partake in the beatings.
After having his Ape neutralized in game 1 by the Paladin en-Vec, jono mizer wisely decided to buff up his Selesnya Guildmage instead. When he went for the second Cloak, BollWeevil burnt two Lightning Helix’s to ensure he wasn’t tasting 8/8 for the rest of the week. Pretty soon, BollWeevil’s Paladin was making short work of jono mizer care of yet another Umezawa’s Jitte. Proving the point once again, that if you want to win a creature fight, you gotta bring a Jitte.
gOOgs and rat8magic up a tree
rat8magic did very little in game one, short of burning of a pair of Mana Leaks with his Jitte and a Wood Elves (he had no White mana at the time). gOOgs drew cards and dropped Kagemaro, and that was all she wrote. Actually, I have no idea what she wrote, but the players wrote the following:
12:51 gOOgs: lolls
12:51 Turn 9: gOOgs.
12:51 gOOgs: should i kill you?
12:51 rat8magic: ya
12:51 gOOgs plays Tidings
12:51 rat8magic: omgoogles
12:51 rat8magic: the goggles
12:51 rat8magic: they do nothing
Now that’s a big Kagemaro. In game 2, the same Kagemaro almost pulled the game back for gOOgs, who was facing a small Green army. Unfortunately, gOOgs was unable to hold off the Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree, and after a humorous little Faith’s Fetters on a Quicksand play, it was time for game 3. Not a very long story even shorter, rat8magic mulliganed to five and quickly succumbed to you… guessed it, Kagemaro.
Finals
BollWeevil verses gOOgs …Fight!
Despite BollWeevil starting out strong with an Isamaru and a Jitte, gOOgs – being a little shy on mana – made this play:
1:14 gOOgs plays Pithing Needle
1:14 gOOgs chooses Dakmor Lancer.
1:14 gOOgs: WOW
1:19 gOOgs: WOW
1:19 gOOgs: LOLO
1:19 BollWeevil:
1:19 Turn 4: BollWeevil.
1:19 gOOgs: good game.
1:19 gOOgs: wow.
gOOgs managed to put a matching pair of Last Gasps to good use, and slowly claw his way back into the game before sealing it with a Meloku. Game 2 was a different story. BollWeevil again started with a two power one-drop, and followed it with a Jitte, but doing that on the play is somewhat more potent than doing it on the draw. A few more one-drops, and a Hearth Kami on a Signet, and they were quickly moving on to game 3.
BollWeevil played a turn one Genju of the Spires, only to see gOOgs play out mana that included three Quicksands and a Signet. gOOgs tapped low for a Tidings which allowed BollWeevil to get in for another six before Kagemaro once again sat him down for a good talking to, which allowed a Volcanic Hammer to sneak on by as well. Just as gOOgs looked like he was going to take the tournament home in a bag on the back of Kagemaro, BollWeevil showed a game winning Char, but surprisingly scooped with the spell on the stack. I guess we’ll have to assume there was some kind of unspoken agreement there between friends…
So anyway, this time next week I’ll be winging my way to Hawaii to check out what hot new Standard tech there is to be found. For next week’s article, I’ll try to make some pretty unfounded and bold statements and all round awful guesses at what will and what won’t be played. Until then, look after you parents. It must be your turn my now.
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