Magic Online is a world of variety in regards to the number of different formats you can play. Ordinarily I talk mostly about Standard, and most weeks there will be the usual talk of such things, but this week I will also talk a little about cards that I think are somewhat underdrafted in RRG, and perhaps deserve a little table time with the other big guns. But first, results! This time with names! And exclamation points! Although, thankfully, the exclamation points are mostly confined to this paragraph only, because they are quite silly! See?
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Anyway, results! (gah!)
5-8
Heartbeat Combo (pardoboys)
Izzetron (PM_SyN)
Gruul Beats (svchy)
Eminent Domain (uHo)
3-4
Owling Mine (Aegis HK2)
Ruel Black/White (Erdbeben)
1-2
GhaziGood (Iluminatti)
Magnivore (jacques ICHAN)
5-8
GhaziGood (kairan)
Magnivore (Coomaster)
Green/Black/White Aggro Control (haoshiminmtg)
Blue/White/Red “Kamiel” Control (Pudmonkey999)
3-4
Heartbeat Combo (Bard_Taliesin (Heartbeat Combo)
Green/Black/White Aggro Control (Hegels Ghost)
1-2
Eminent Domain (Ridley)
GhaziGood (BigSnoop144)
5-8
Izzetron (AlexLerI)
Ruel Black/White (YELLOWMEAT)
Ruel Black/White (bobthedog)
GhaziGood (wojas)
3-4
GhaziGood (kairan)
Ruel Black/White (Phyrexian War Turtle)
1-2
Zoo (evanj5)
GhaziGood (WedUk)
5-8
Heartbeat Combo (islands are rad)
GhaziGood (kairan)
Magnivore (Bernis)
Ghost Dad (OathBound)
3-4
Ruel Black/White (AikTheOne)
Gruul Beats (svchy)
1-2
Ruel Black/White (The_Beast_44)
Heartbeat Combo (Dish)
(4x prizes managed to pull 154 players!)
5-8
Ruel Black/White (bobthedog)
Ruel Black/White (Decimator88)
Magnivore (Rip_kolm)
Boros and Burn Aggro (LankanProdigy)
3-4
Greater Gifts (?)
Ghost Dad (Kirushi)
1-2
Ghost Dad (Khaim)
Greater Gifts (mikeman29)
After a remarkable week of absolute anonymity and general back-benchery, it’s good to see that GhaziGlare has repackaged itself as GhaziGood and come out in force, basically swapping their Glare of Subduals for the Greater Good package that once languished in their sideboards.
I don’t know about you, but I enjoy watching metagames evolve somewhat. I’m sure if you rip into a tasty Flores article from times past you’ll be able to get a snapshot of what happened in any given season, but it’s not nearly as cool as seeing it unfold before your eyes. Especially if some new deck springs up in the middle of it all and blitzes the competition for a week or summink… that’s exciting stuff!
(No, I’ve never heard of it. What is this "going outside and enjoying the fresh air" stuff you speak of?)
Of course, now on to the price trends, but no exclamation points here. In fact, if I feel the need to use one at any time, I will write exclamation point instead. Also, I am going to bold either last week’s price or this week’s price, depending on which is higher, so you can see what is on the rise and what isn’t. Obviously, if the price hasn’t moved, neither price will bolded exclamation point.
Howling Mine 2-3 (2-4)
Pithing Needle 17-20 (20-22)
Umezawa’s Jitte 9-11 (9-11)
Oooh, look at that Needle drop exclamation point. This drastic reduction in the buy price for Pithing Needle can be attributed to the fact that there was a total of zero in the top 8 for Honolulu. Mike Flores is probably cackling away in a corner to himself, which is perhaps nothing out of the ordinary. I distinctly remember him telling the rest of the writing crew at our dinner table at the player meeting that Needle was awful because it did nothing, short of reduce Psychatog to a quivering heap in Extended.
Cranial Extraction 7-8 (7-8)
Dark Confidant 3-4 (3-4)
Kokusho, the Evening Star 6-8 (7-8)
Kagemaro, First to Suffer 6-7 (7-8)
Phyrexian Arena 2-3 (2-3)
Gifts Ungiven 4-6 (4-6)
Kami of the Crescent Moon 3-6 (3-5)
Keiga, the Tide Star 3-5 (3-5)
Meloku, the Clouded Mirror 5-6 (5-6)
Usually there’s no more than two tickets between the buy and sell price of a card, but the fact that Kami of the Crescent Moon is twice as much to buy shows that there are probably a small selection of people hoarding them in preparation of a future price hike. I’m not entirely sure that it’s a good idea, and I suspect that this time next week, or maybe the week after, we’ll see the sell price drop to match the buy price, not the other way around. The aggro decks are just to rampant to have the Owling Mine deck making too much more of an impact at this point, as evidenced by the fact that out of those five top 8’s above, it only appeared once, which is once more than last week’s results snap-shot. It could conceivably show up in Extended at some point though, if that metagame skews in such a manner.
Loxodon Hierarch 4-5 (4-6)
Ghost Council of the Orzhova 8-9 (7-8)
Rumbling Slum 4-6 (5-6)
Giant Solifuge 6-7 (5-7)
Burning-Tree Shaman 9-10 (9-10)
In reply to last week’s column, forum user BentFranklin helpfully provided us with rough prices for some of these cards before they rose suddenly after the Pro Tour. Apparently, Rumbling Slum stayed much the same, Giant Solifuge rose from 3-4, Burning-Tree Shaman went up from 7-8, and Ghost Council of the Orzhova sat at around 6 tickets. Keldeagh chimed in to report that the Ghost Council even opened at 4 tickets, but I suspect that everyone who had been part of the private testing groups leading up to the Pro Tour quickly snapped them up at that price, knowing full well that it was worth every dollar.
Arashi, Sky Asunder 5-6 (6-8)
Birds of Paradise 4-6 (4-6)
Greater Good 2-4 (2-4)
I was wondering why Arashi was so high in the past, considering the fact that it seldom shows up in decklists at a full set, usually more as a two-of. I guess everyone else is thinking much the same now.
Char 3-5 (3-4)
Magnivore 2-4 (2-3)
Wildfire 2-4 (2-4)
Char is a must have in any aggressive deck built on Red mana, and therefore is climbing a little. *checks collection* oops! I had better pick up a fourth one before they climb too much.
Isamaru, Hound of Konda 3-4 (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] 6-8 (7-8)
Brushland 5-7 (5-7)
Llanowar Wastes 5-7 (6-8)
Shivan Reef 10-12 (10-11)
Underground River 5-7 (5-7)
Yavimaya Coast 6-8 (7-9)
Karplusan Forest 6-7 (7-9)
Caves of Koilos 9-11 (9-10)
Adarkar Wastes 5-7 (5-7)
Sulfurous Springs 5-6 (5-6)
Overgrown Tomb 6-8 (7-9)
Sacred Foundry 6-7 (6-8)
Temple Garden 7-8 (7-9)
Watery Grave 6-8 (7-9)
Stomping Ground 12-14 (12-14)
Steam Vents 11-13 (10-13)
Godless Shrine 13-15 (12-15)
The Dual Lands and Pain Lands are fluctuating as usual. I get a good laugh out of the fact that the predicted prices for the Guildpact Dual Lands are pretty much reversed. Steam Vents being less than the other two, and the Godless Shrine being worth way more than the say, 5 or 6 tickets first forecast by some doubtful people.
Right, on to my suspect Draft advice exclamation point. When I first saw Ravnica, I was reminded of Invasion block (obviously). However, my first impression was that there was no way triple-Ravnica could be as much fun as Invasion, Planeshift, Apocalypse was. With only Ravnica in the picture, I feel I was mostly right. It was a format, but aren’t they all? Once Guildpact was thrown into the mix like a fistful of chocolate chips into cookie dough, I find that the format has become a whole heap more delectable. I can’t think of what Dissention will add to the mix for that metaphor though, what goes well with choc-chip cookies? Perhaps Dissention will be a nice, cool glass of milk. Mmmm…
*Cough*
Err, yes. RRG Draft. This format seems to be one in which you are well suited to play as many as four or five colors. With Ravnica on it’s own, you couldn’t branch out much further than three colors, but the diversity of the color fixers available now – otherwise known as the Signets and common double-mana bounce lands – mean that your mana base will end up capable of supporting four colors without even trying. Well, as long as you’re drafting these fixers at a reasonable level. For instance, I’m happy to pick them up as early as fourth pick, maybe third if the pack seems poor or it’s a particularly crucial one.
To explain how a Signet or bounce land could be crucial, imagine that you’ve managed to go right into Boros-based deck in pack one. You open pack two, and the best card in the pack by a long shot is a Ribbons of Night – which is understandable, because it’s a red-hot card in itself. Your first instinct would be to ship it and hope like mad that somebody doesn’t wreck you with it later. However, I think that a Ribbons of Night could fit nicely into a base Red/White deck, provided your deck isn’t super aggressive. Considering that you’re only a third of the way into the Draft, I think it’s reasonable to say that it’s a little early to be pigeonholing yourself like that. So, you take the Ribbons and now you’ll also be looking to grab any Dimir Signets and Aqueducts that fall into your lap within the next fourteen picks. This would also allow you to splash any other Blue or Black bombs that come your way, and pay for any Orzhov or Izzet related goodness you may pick up in the third pack.
With the willingness to diversify your deck in such a manner, I think that your Draft decks will become more versatile and effective, letting you also get a look at more bombs while you draft. Some point in the near future, I’m gonna try flat out drafting the three best cards in packs one, two, and three, regardless of their color, then grabbing any mana fixers and suitable dudes in the remaining picks and see how I go. If it works, then the deck would have something close to six to nine first-pick quality cards, and that can’t be bad.
Anyway, here are a few cards that I think are underdrafted.
Ethereal Usher: I’m pretty sure the only reason you draft it is to use it to tutor for your Helldozer or Vedalken Dismisser or whatever, but it does that so well that it’s worth grabbing on the way past. This one time I was also on the receiving end of its activated ability, so it’s not awful on it’s own, just a little… overcosted perhaps.
Dizzy Spell: Again mostly for its Transmute ability, but tutoring up Mark of Eviction or Disembowel is good times. I once first picked a Dizzy Spell in pack three, no lies.
Peel From Reality: I thought it sucked when I first saw it. Boy was I wrong!
Dowsing Shaman: It was a pretty good creature before Guildpact, but it’s simply ridiculous now that Magemarks are somewhat playable.
Stone-Seeder Hierophant: I still don’t get this one, but people I trust have been telling me that it’s quite silly with the bounce lands, and particularly good at powering out early fatties. *shrug*
Auratouched Mage: OMG unblockable. That’s right, unblockable. Last week I mistakenly said Infiltrator’s Magemark made the creature untargetable. I guess I think in terms of Constructed playable far too often, and creatures like Troll Ascetic have spoiled me in that area. Many thanks to Justin Cray for pulling me up on that one exclamation point. Anyway, Magemarks make this Mage good times.
Selesnya Sagittars: Too many people have been trying to justify to me not running it in their deck for whatever reason. I can’t imagine a deck that has both White and Green mana that wouldn’t want it. Even an aggressive deck would use it to hold off the counter attacks while the White flyers and Green fatties swing in for kicks.
Hissing Miasma: Just kidding, this card is awful. This entry is mostly directed at Benjamin Peebles-Mundy, who would have you believe otherwise.
Izzet Chronarch: This guy is awesome. It’s not Anarchist and it’s not Scrivener. Those guys are poor at what they do, mostly because your removal is seldom either all Instants or all Sorceries. The Chronarch judges your removal not by the speed in which it is played: it just gives it back to help you make for the wins exclamation point.
The Nephilim: They seem unplayable because they are four colors. The mana cost is a little difficult but not nearly impossible, to the point that if you are in those colors, you should consider the card on its abilities and power/toughness for four mana, regardless of its type more than anything else. Yes, this does mean that Witch-Maw Nephilim is, heh, some good.
And of course, The Magemarks: But I feel I have talked these puppies up enough already as it is.
Here is a random chat quote from a clan member of mine that made me laugh:
1:46 Rungee: I’m gonna drink you!!!!
1:46 Bottle Gnome: lol
1:47 Bottle Gnome: who are U?
1:47 Rungee: I am a mage at low life total facing a nasty burn spell!
1:48 Bottle Gnome: ok
Finally, as promised, the anti-climatic story behind the {e}.
When you make a smiley on Magic Online, you press Ctrl and “q” at the same time, and then follow it with the corresponding letter. For instance, “s” makes a happy face and “f” makes a sad face. If you were to select a line of text from the chat pane in Magic Online, copy it and paste it into a text document of some kind, the smiley will show up as {s} or {f} or whatever.
(I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this…)
People in my clan – Cymbrogi – have been frequent in their use of the {e} smiley, which is, in fact, a wee trophy. Someone would post in clan chat that they just came back to win games 2 and 3 of a match, or found a quarter under their chair or something, and three or four people would promptly post little trophies at them. It very quickly flowed over to our forum use, and we were all posting {e} at each other… and as you know, I have even been ending these articles with them.
In the lead up to Pro Tour Honolulu, the guys that were attending decided they should get T-shirts done up with the wee {e} on it, figuring it was a subtle nod to anyone else who also played Magic Online enough to know silly little arcane things like that. Here is a screen capture of Ben Goodman from his video interview available in the Pro Tour Coverage.
Anyway, take care, and I’ll catch up with you all next week exclamation point.
{e}
(obv)