I think I’ve sold my collection and rebuilt it over a dozen times since I’ve started playing the game. Prior to my drastic surgery almost two years ago, I had to sell of my collection and power cards to help with some medical costs on things. I think the next day, power cards and all the Vintage stuff in general began to skyrocket like it was nobody’s business.
Sigh.
I’ve finally struggled through trades and trades and a few kind friends (such as my pal Shaun Mack), to regain my collection. I have the ability to build any deck with sideboard in Type Two and Champions of Kamigawa block. My cards are far from pretty and most folks who who take a look at my cards I’ve played over a long time, tend to grimace at the waves my cards produce when you hold them horizontally. Despite their condition, they are the foundation of my past time enjoyment and all was calm.
Was. I say was, because Saviors of Kamigawa came out this weekend and once again I’m be back to scrambling to get the cards I want but convince myself I need, just to participate in the many Constructed events I play in. It’s a sick cycle, I tell you. If you’re like me and don’t really have the funds to just exhaust on picking up every card in sets of four, then the idea of the newest expansion being released comes with excitement and frustration. I have about ten to fifteen bucks a week I can spend on cards. That’s outside of the fifteen to twenty bucks I plop down for entry fees. I have fifty-five rares to sort through and decide what has potential to be played and what doesn’t. The uncommons and commons will come to me through draft and sealed decks and friends. Once you determine which of the fifty-five rares you need a playset of, you have to determine which ones to go after the quickest.
Pithing Needle for instance, seems to just be going up in value. The card has a sick ability and hoses several strategies in many Constructed formats. It’s an all around good card and thus it’s commanding a high price, because it’s in high demand. The problem arises when you don’t pick up on the value of a card, before the demand for it increases, which usually means everyone else is picking up on the value of the card. I was fortunate last set. I read the spoiler over on MTGSalvation and came across Umezawa’s Jitte and knew the card was headed towards the double digits. I quickly traded with several people to get a playset the week the set was released and over a period of trading with others, I recall trading a Disrupting Shoal, Higure, the Still Wind, Slumbering Tora, and four Samurai of the Pale Curtain for a set of Jittes. What a bargain for me, but I was fortunate in that scenario.
Where am I going with this? Bear with me.
I like Magic a lot. Really, I do. Today, I received my Player Rewards letter. I felt the nice thickness of the envelope and thought of all the neat things that could be inside. Textless Terror or even textless Oxidize. A foily and shiny Psychatog. Spirit tokens or goblin tokens or any token to use for my decks. Oh, and before I forget – textless Mana Leak! Yeah, I was excited. Textless Reciprocate was an option too. So I peeled open the envelope and sorted through the flyers for advertising and the letter to get to the goods.
Shiny foily Psychatog – there!
Then I scamper to the other sealed pack and open it up. Can you picture the glee on this fat man’s face? Can you see the glow coming off my face as I prowl into the pack? Can you? I open up the sealed package and to my wondrous eyes, I see, I see… I see.. this…
1 Myr Token
1 Rukh Token
1 Pentavite Token
3 Textless Reciprocate
Hot dayum! I’ve struck the mother load. Not!
How depressing is that? I should be happy I get free stuff like that and not complain. I should play in more events so I have a greater chance of getting the cards I want. I’m not inclined to follow that logic or go along with that. I’m a complainer at heart and I complain about things all the time, when I feel they deserve to be complained about.
Why should you care? You shouldn’t care, unless you feel the same, but I promise if you keep reading, then you’ll get a nice surprise.
Don’t scroll down.
Stop it!
Okay, so why no textless Terror? I wanted some for the sideboard of my Beacon Green deck I discussed last time. More than that though, I wanted at least one stankin’ textless Mana Leak. I gets none. I gets none. None I say.
Stop whining Richie and write something these people who pay for this, will want to read.
But I am or at least will be before this is over.
That’s me talking to myself, while I write this column. I’m strange that way.
Without further rambling, I present my list.
The Top Six Things I Dislike About Magic
(no this isn’t the surprise I promised for those who keep reading)
6. Because I like to build up to number one, we’ll start with six first. Have you ever gone to a PTQ and walked into the venue and seen a group of players sitting around who all seem to know each other? Sure you have, but what makes this group in specific, different than any other group you might encounter is this. They’re loud. Not a faux pas of loudness or a slight slip of laughter. Nope, this group is usually watching two people play a match and bantering about how bad both of the people are. What makes this even more strange, but still annoying, is that this tends to be a group of the better players attending the PTQ. Here are some of the things you might here if you listen into their loud discussion – not that you have a choice sometimes.
“Oh my Gawd! Spencer you are infinitely bad. You are the bad. He is pwning you!”
Then someone top decks a card or makes a huge play in this game and you hear something like this.
“D’ohhhhhhhhh! Spencer is such a mizertron. If you were a dinosaur Spencer, you would so be a rippersaurus rex after that top deck!”
I can’t type as many exclamation points on how loud these people are, because Ted would hate me, but trust me – it’s loud. It’s like this group of people and they’re on a mission to garner the attention of every individual in the play area, while trying to look smoother than swiss mocha. The thing that kills me about this is that others will crowd around them and encourage them to be louder and it seems the louder they get, the more the humor level drops.
Am I alone on this one? I’m sure many of you who frequent high level events like PTQs and such, can relate with me on this. Moving on.
5. I once sat down to trade with a guy from Knoxville who will remain nameless, so as to protect his identity. He wanted my Pernicious Deed and I wanted his Shadowmage Infiltrator. We sat the two cards out on the table from our binders and I offered a straight up trade, one for one. At the time, Finkels were worth as much as Pernicious Deeds, so before you drop your jaw and think I’m insane, I’ll point that one out. So anywho, I offer up the trade and he explains he values my mint Deed at five bucks and his Finkel at nine bucks. I felt puzzled by this, because at the time, most dealers were paying six bucks for Shadowmages and selling them for nine to ten bucks. Here I was talking to a guy who valued them at five bucks. I look back through his binder and notice he has an abundance of Deeds. I think for a minute and asked if he needed anymore Shadowmages and he told me he could use as many as I could part with. Then I asked how many Deeds he could part with and he said as many as I needed. I offer him four Finkels, which he had just claimed to value at nine bucks, for seven of his Pernicious Deeds. Seems like a fair deal for him, right? Not in his eyes. The tables turned when I offered him my Finkels, because he said he couldn’t value them more than four or five bucks.
You know the rest of the story. I can’t stand people with backpacks and trade binders who think they’re dealers. The dealers paid for a table and have a business they run. If you tell me my card is worth less to you, because you make a profit off of trades, then you anger me. You may never say these words and the scenarios may never play out like above, but the point of the matter, is that there are people out there who think that they have the ability to devalue your cards versus their cards, because they’re “dealers”. Get a table! Buy a business license! Then I might feel like you have the ability to offer me less.
Again, I ask. Am I alone on this one?
4. Crappy promotional cards make me mad. Reciprocate? Why? Why don’t you just send me a textless Terashi’s Cry? I mean really now. Pentavite? Why? When was the last time a deck in the Top 8 of a Standard event put a Pentavite in play? Is there coverage of a major event where Mike and Randy talk about how putting three Pentavite tokens into play was a strong move? No. No, there’s not. How about a Rukh? Let me go get some Obliterates and Rukh Eggs and go to town.
Break The Format.dec
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Rukh Egg
4 Obliterate
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Sakura Tribe-Elder
3 Kodama’s Reach
4 Magma Jet
4 Darksteel Ingot
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
3 Honden of Infinite Rage
1 Myr Matrix
11 Forest
9 Mountain
3 Gods’ Eye, Gate To The Reikai
Pentavus should be in there somewhere, so I can play my Pentavite token. Sarcasm aside, I really wish that better cards could be chosen to use as a promotional piece. It’s not like those in command, can’t determine what we would like to see foil and textless. Mana Leak was great and I endorse the hell out of it, but Reciprocate was bad. Can they not try just a little bit harder and give those who are dedicated to the game and play enough to get these tokens and such and fill Hasbro’s pockets, better promos?
Sigh.
3. Several years ago, there was a place called Daddy Jim’s in High Point, North Carolina. This shop was run by one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to know – Jim Bailey. Jim had the best prize support I have ever seen for a PTQ. Nine times out of ten, Jim was giving away a box per player to the top four or six and a half of a box to the rest. Outside of his wonderful prize support, Jim was just great to be around and always provided a good time.
If only great prize support existed everywhere you went. Greedy TO’s and event organizers are frustrating. Eight dollar entry fees and high “table fees” can leave a foul taste in anyone’s mouth, but when you run an event and give away less than fifty percent of what you take in on entry fees, well, that’s just upsetting.
2. Forums. They exist all across the giant world of netdom (is that even a word?). Forums for people who play Everquest. Forums for people who play Pokemon. Forums for people who like cheese. I guarantee you there’s a message board or forum out there for just about anything you can think of.
Now forums are not the source of my frustration. However, people who roam them to display how elitist and egotistical they are, do frustrate me. There are those that would spend their dying breath telling others how their decklists are inferior to their testing and that regardless of what you think, you’re just wrong. These people exist and pollute forums and message boards alike, dropping snide lines and rude comments that border on the whatever obscenity filters the forums allow. It’s frustrating and it’s senseless, but it exists and it bothers me.
I’ve always tried my best to help out younger players or new players, regardless of what skill level I think a certain player is at. Is it really that hard for some individuals to stop and take a deep breath, before they pop off a smart remark to someone offering their opinion? I don’t think so, but I find myself more and more in the minority. I’ve been a part of many message boards and discussion groups and chat rooms on this great game we all play and eventually I find myself coming across situations such as those I’ve mentioned.
I think the internet slang that has come about has its good side and its dark side. Jokingly telling someone that randomly lost to a Might of Oaks, that they got pwned is somewhat okay, assuming you know that individual and know they’re comfortable with you saying that. Watching a new player lose to a superior Constructed deck and calling them a noob, because they played a mono-Red burn deck, is not okay. Ben Bleiweiss wrote a piece awhile back about many of the things that frustrate me on this matter. Carl Winter also had a nice column up on the matter too. Although they both go into more depth about the situation by explaining episodes outside of forums and message boards, both pieces are wonderful reads and well worth the time.
Drum roll, please!
1. The number one thing that annoys me the most is that insane, repetitive, obsessive, continual, nerve wrecking card snapping sound that people who continually fan through their hands make. For the mercy of Bob Evans, it’s annoying. And that “snap” sound. You know the one. You can’t accidentally do it. It’s pure intentional. SNAP! My go? SNAP! I’ll activate Top. SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! Then they have to filter through their hand and fan it out and then slide it back together. Some people even hold the cards in this annoying fashion, where they use their thumb and middle finger on their right hand to hold the top and bottom of the cards and on their left hand they’ll use the same fingers to cradle and slide through the cards. Why? They don’t change. Your memory isn’t that bad. Most of the better players are the main culprits. Watch the coverage of some major events and just listen to that irritating snapping sound. It’s like listening to rubbing styrofoam or nails on a chalk board. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!
I’m going to walk away from the keyboard now and grab a nice cold drink.
I’m back. I feel better.
So you’ve read my frustrations and dislikes on the game this long. You’re expecting something somewhat special to be at the end, aren’t you? Well, fear not my loyal readers, for today I will present you with a small nugget of “tech” I came upon when trying to think of a good post rotation Extended deck. Before I give you the decklist…
Hey stop scrolling down already, sheesh! As I was saying, before I give you the decklist I would like for you to ask yourself a question. After the rotations, if you could play with Mana Severance – would you? KCI decks would be good stuff, wouldn’t they?
Goodship KCI
4 Skyship Weatherlight
4 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Fabricate
4 Pentad Prism
4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Serum Visions
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Thoughtcast
4 Talisman of Dominance
4 Chrome Mox
3 Duress
Lands
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
2 Ancient Den
4 Tree of Tales
Sideboard
4 Pithing Needle
4 Defense Grid
1 Duress
4 Echoing Truth
2 Stifle
Skyship Weatherlight? Who plays that? I do. A very overlooked card is what I consider to be a diamond in the rough. For the cost of four mana, you get to Mana Severance yourself and get two colorless mana out of the deal if you have the KCI in play. Here’s how the deck plays out on an optimal draw.
Turn 1: Tree of Tales, Chrome Mox (imprint Serum Visions), Pentad Prism (two counters)
Turn 2: Great Furnace, remove both counters from Pentad Prism, tap Chrome Mox for a Blue mana, Thoughtcast using the Blue mana, tap Tree of Tales for a mana, four in your mana pool, cast Krark-Clan Ironworks, sacrifice Tree of Tales and Great Furnace to KCI to add four colorless mana to your mana pool, play Skyship Weatherlight and remove all the lands from your deck, sacrifice Skyship Weatherlight and the empty Pentad Prism add four colorless mana to your mana pool to cast Goblin Charbelcher, sacrifice Chrome Mox for two colorless mana and KCI to itself for another two colorless mana, activate Goblin Charbelcher for the win.
That’s the “God draw” right there, but it happens and it happens on or before turn 4 a lot more frequently than you might expect.
What’s in the sideboard? Pernicious Deed is your worst enemy and so Pithing Needle and Stifle are there to take care of that. Defense Grid works well against Tog and U/G Madness and U/W Scepter Control. Echoing Truth is the answer to opposing Pithing Needles and the fourth Duress, which I would loved to have been able to use in the main deck, fill out the last spot.
I’ve only play tested this deck and haven’t used it any events yet to offer more solid results, but from the playtesting I’ve done, this deck seems to be lurking on the edge of insanity. I doubt my build is the best and I’m sure it could be tweaked some to your own liking. A few friends of mine have started converting the deck to a Vintage deck and have reported excellent feedback on the deck, so who knows. Unfortunately, I don’t keep up with Vintage, as much as I would like to.
A big thanks goes out to all of the people on mIRC over on #SCG who offered their insight and the great name contribution.
On one final note, I was recently inspired by Mr. Wakefield, to create a deck for a friend of mine who is just getting into Magic. I needed something that wasn’t too difficult for her to play and could offer a decent challenge. I decided to go with Jamie Wakefield Green deck, because it looked like a lot of fun. After slapping the deck together and giving it a few tries, it has performed well. In fact, last night the deck went 10-0.
Jamie, if you’re reading this – they LOVE it.