Since I have been away from you all for a couple of weeks, this week will seem a little fractured, as a lot of Magical things have happened to me in the last two weeks. So strap yourself in for some fractuous reading.
Grand Prix: Seattle Thoughts
I had an absolute blast during the time I spent out in Washington for the Grand Prix. We started the trip with a two-day drive, and it just served to remind me that road trips are still a good time, even when you’re 30-something and it’s not some “wacky idea” cooked up at 11 o’clock on a Friday night, just because you want to see what Indianapolis looks like. We stopped the first day in Salt Lake City and lucked into getting to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice for their weekend radio broadcast. It’s pretty impressive, as far as choral displays go – of course, the whole time we were sitting there, I kept expecting them to break out into the Champions’ League song. (That joke may be relevant to exactly five readers.) [You’d be surprised… – Craig.]
Day 2, we arrived in Olympia. The only thing I learned from this is that Oregon is a frikkin’ long state. We spent a few days in Olympia (and attended a Halloween-themed birthday party for a five-year-old) before heading out to the Olympic peninsula. The missus did a lot of photo shoots; I worked from the hotel room to try and avoid taking too much vacation time. We ended up back in Seattle before the weekend.
I got cupcakes.
Okay, that deserves a little more information. One of the best things about Seattle is that, for whatever reason, they have a plethora of designer cupcake shops. The one I personally favor is Cupcake Royale in Ballard. Now, you may say, “Dave, paying $2.50 for a CUPCAKE is outrageous.” And sure, I can agree with you on principle. But once you have one of these cupcakes, you will be trying to figure out how many you can eat in one sitting before the sugar forces you into a coma. And, to top it off, when it gets closer to closing, they go into closeout mode, where you get six cupcakes for $7.50, making it seem like a much better deal. I ate those cupcakes all weekend long.
I played Green/White “Golden Fatties” at the GP, and I felt good about the choice. I expected there to be a lot of Faeries, since it seemed like the introduction of Swans at GP Barcelona would push the metagame into a situation favorable for those little flying rodents. That matchup seemed decent, and better after boarding. The Swans matchup was… iffy. We did the best we could with the sideboard choices, but it really came down to applying early pressure – if you did, and you could find a tiny piece of disruption to hold them off, you might be able to deal them 20 before they could find their pieces.
I played, in order, Green/Black Not-Elves Aggro, Green/White Tokens, Swans, Blue/White Reveillark, Blue/White Reveillark, and Red/Black Aggro before dropping from the tournament at 3-3. I’m not overly sure what this says about the metagame – especially considering that Swans and Faeries were at the top tables during Day 2 – but I still feel really like this format is very diverse. The card quality gives a lot of options, and people always like options.
On Day 2, I was lucky enough to score a gig doing coverage. I really enjoy doing coverage, probably mostly because I don’t have to make stuff up. Seriously though, it’s interesting to watch how high-level Magic players’ minds work; I often find that I would not make the same choices that they do, which speaks volumes about my skill level. I had to actually stop watching what was in peoples’ hands because I would become consumed with figuring out the right play, and thereby not focus on the match.
The drive back was uneventful. It was nice to have a car, though, as it made it easier to transport back all the goodies we picked up. And if anyone has a source for Chester’s Puffcorn (cheese flavored), I have been trying to find more bags since we stopped at a random truck stop and picked up a bag. Those things just melt in your mouth.
Pro Tour: Honolulu Thoughts
I watched most of the webcast of the Top 8 from Honolulu with more than a passing interest, due to the fact that I actually KNEW someone in this Top 8 – Conley Woods, who is another Colorado Magic player, and who obviously has a great deal more skill at this game than I do. I will admit to shutting it off once he lost. (That mulligan to 5 in the final game was heinous.) I mean, I like watching Magic just as much as the next guy, but I’ve been gone for two weeks and I’m still not caught up on my soap operas.
I find it a little sad that, really, this environment existed for one tournament and will never be heard from again. Due to the elongated Standard Qualifier format over the summer, we aren’t going to have a chance to explore Alara Block Constructed any further than what the pros did for Honolulu. I mean, we COULD, but it seems like an exercise in futility, and I already experience that every time I take the stairs “for health reasons.” It seems like the only thing this Pro Tour will do for Constructed is serve as a starting point once Zendikar approaches and we finally get this whole Faerie nonsense behind us.
M2010 Thoughts
Thanks to the PT, we now know that White Knight will join his Alpha counterpart in Magic 2010. While Black Knight has some relevance due to the fact that he’s pro-Path-to-Exile (see: Goblin Outlander), I think White Knight is actually more relevant, or at least he will be while Faeries and Black/White Tokens are still around. Immunity to all of Faeries removal, plus the ability to slide past Bitterblossom tokens, seems like a pretty good deal. The only thing that’s preventing him from being an auto-include in something like Black/White Kithkin is that pesky creature type line. Although any base-White deck that pumps with Glorious Anthem and Ajani will love him.
Of course, thinking about M2010 makes me think about all the good cards that will undoubtedly be leaving Standard when the sets rotates in the middle of the summer. With M2010 only being half reprints, it only leaves about 25-30 cards available as reprinted rares — 4 or 5 in each color. It really seems like it would cut back on the amount of space available to reprint “let’s see what happens” rares like March of the Machines or Warp World, two cards that I’ve enjoyed over time and that I was happy to have a second shot with in Standard.
So it’s more crucial this year to look and see what’s leaving (again) and get one last potential run with them.
I was sitting near a player who was running Angelic Chorus ($2.50) at the Grand Prix. I had forgotten that it was reprinted. I used to run a “Wall deck” that centered around Angelic Chorus and Lifeline, as well as (obviously) walls with a large toughness. The deck also ran Radiant’s Dragoons, which was a huge life swing each turn, as you’d just opt not to pay the Echo, and get them back with the Lifeline each turn.
The problem with Angelic Chorus is its five casting cost. You’d really need to be able to set up a decent defense before dropping it, and even then it becomes more of a “lose less” card — yeah, you’re getting up to 80-90 life, but you still need to figure out how to kill your opponent.
Creatures (18)
Lands (24)
Spells (18)
Rare Cost Summary:
Wall of Reverence ($5.00 x 4 = $20.00)
Twilight Shepherd ($2.00 x 2 = $4.00)
Angelic Chorus ($2.50 x 3 = $7.50)
Sigil of the Empty Throne ($1.00 x 2 = $2.00)
Beacon of Immortality ($2.50 x 1 = $2.50)
The win condition I went with was Sigil of the Empty Throne plus enchantments; I already knew I was going to have SOME enchantments, so why not push that subtheme a little? The singleton Beacon of Immortality is to prevent the inevitable “loss by decking” that you could presumably run into with this deck — although I suppose some number of Mistveil Plains in the manabase could also work.
This deck could really use Mobile Fort. I never thought I’d say THAT.
I’ll probably take the next few weeks and go through the list, finding cards here and there that I might miss. Play some of them at FNM. I already know I’m working on a new Warp World list that will probably show up in the column in a week or two; I want to get some testing in with it in the off chance that I get a funny hair in my ear and play it at the PTQ in a couple of weeks.
So what are YOU going to miss from 10th Edition? What do you think is staying? Chat it up in the forums. Next week I’ll be back with more M2010 thoughts, more Standard thoughts, some ideas on a new column title (I didn’t forget!), and who knows what else …
Until next week…
Dave
dave dot massive at gmail and facebook and twitter