Last week was a long, hard slog, with too much work, a nasty cold and no Magic. In short, exciting things failed to happen. What was worse was that I had already bought some online Tenth Edition packs, but the release events didn’t start until Friday. I knew the packs were there, and that I had to wait to open them. It was like being a kid two weeks before Christmas. The weekend, however, promised to be better. My goal was to play a lot of Magic, and to hit as many formats as possible.
First up was FNM. The format was draft — but no one was quite certain what we would be drafting. As people sign up, they vote: majority rules. This week the result was TSP block, with Tenth coming in second and Coldsnap collecting just one single vote. Of course, if I thought Coldsnap had any chance of winning, I would not have voted for it.
I got lucky straight away, in that my pod was exactly eight players. The other pod had nine players — and I hate byes and oversized pods. Nights with 21 players are the worst — pods of ten and eleven players. In the old DCI reporter software, you could force even, if unbalanced, pods. The new software doesn’t let you do that.
My draft pod was a mixed bunch. Our pod had a couple of kids, a couple players with pro points, and Chris Richter and I (Pro Tour experience, but as judges). The draft was a bit strange — I suspected 3-4 great decks, and 2-3 strange decks, and myself trying to wurm my way through the middle.
For me, the draft was not too hard. I busted a Sacred Mesa. I have learned not to pass those. (Okay, I did, once, at Nationals. It was a side event draft, and I also opened a foil Vesuvan Shapeshifter. I was actually looking for a Shapeshifter for my EDH deck, and it was a keep-what-you-draft draft. Needless to say, my Mesa won the finals of that draft, instead of me.) Anyway, this time I kept the Mesa, then got passed two Tendrils of Corruption in packs 2 and 3. I proceeded to cut White and Black, whenever possible — and to draft every removal spell in my colors. Apparently, people were fighting over other colors, or they valued cards like Knight of Sursi over Judge Unworthy — whatever. I got an insane deck.
My TSP Deck:
2 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Judge Unworthy (one foil, so there may have been two in that pack)
2 Ichor Slick
1 Sunlance
1 Saltblast
1 Fortify
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Sacred Mesa
1 Dawn Charm
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Cloudchaser Kestrel
1 Outrider en-Kor
1 Saltfield Recluse
1 Shade of Trokair
2 Whitemane Lion
1 Rathi Trapper
1 Deepcavern Imp
1 Benalish Calvary
Drafted but not played: 2 Zealot en-Vec, Mass of Ghouls, and a Slivers crew (Quilled, 2 Lymph, Spitting, 2 Poultice). I also had a Lumithread Field.
Round 1: Sarge
Sarge is one of the other gray-hairs who has been drafting for years. He is solid, and I would really have preferred to play round 1 against one of the kids. Sarge had a decent deck, but it was a bit slow and I killed him with Aven Riftwatcher and the Calvary. I did have one bad moment, when he hacked up my flier with a Lightning Axe turn 4, Madnessing out a Reckless Wurm. My Whitemane Lion turned a two-for-one into just losing the Calvary, but it was close thereafter. In the end, my removal wiped out most of his forces — but the match came down to me having to activate and swing with the Totem while he had mana untapped and two cards in hand. If either was a burn spell, I lost. They weren’t.
Round 2: Jasper
Jasper is consistent — he plays Red aggro. He played it at Nationals, he plays it at PTQs, he plays Red-heavy aggro in his Five-Color deck. I was not surprised when he opened with a turn 1 Mountain, but I did raise an eyebrow when he also suspended a Greater Gargadon. On the plus side, I had Slaughter Pact in hand. I was faster and trickier — and his big Empty the Warrens was no match for my flankers or the active Saltfield Recluse. Riftwatcher sealed the deal. Game 2 was déjà vu all over again.
Round 3: Richard
Richard was an unknown, coming into the draft. He was another older guy, whose son was playing in a different pod. I had pegged him as a random / new player, but he was undefeated, playing against good players. I had seen the end of his one game match against Jason Lemahieu. Apparently, Jason started the game with Essence Wardens on turns 1 and 2, and both players had Sprout Swarm going. As a result, I got to see most of Richard’s G/B/u deck spread out – and all of Jason’s. Richard won by decking. On the plus side, Richard’s deck looked slow and expensive, and I figured I could run him down fairly easily. I did. I was even getting the lucky draws: the turn 3 Deepcavern Imp, turn 4 Madness out an Ichor Slick — and there was even a good target for the Slick. I also killed a Sporoloth Ancient with flanking and a Slick. Good times. I won 2-0, 5-0 if you count the games we played for fun afterwards.
We redraft rares and foils at FNM — which means after the event, everyone turns in their rares, then we pick cards based on final standings. I won the pod, so I got first pick, ninth pick, etc. I got my Slaughter Pact back.
I wonder if the rare—redrafting, which prevents rare-drafting, is why I do so much better at FNM-style drafts than I do on MTGO? Hmmm — so raredrafting = suckage? Maybe I should think about that.
The draft ran quickly and we were done, including the rare draft, by about eleven. (We started at 7pm.) I decided not to try to get into another draft — I headed home and was in bed by a bit after midnight.
And up a bit before 5am.
I logged on to MTGO and signed up for a NIX TIX PE. The next one with open slots was at 6am. I took the dogs out for a run, trying to curb my impatience. I rode my bike a bit, took a shower, grabbed some breakfast, failed at curbing impatience, fidgeted, tried to write, etc.
I could drag this out a bit more — it sure felt like that Saturday morning.
Finally, the tournament started. I saw this:
1 Angelic Blessing
1 Angelic Wall
1 Bandage
1 Benalish Knight
1 Cho-Manno, Revolutionary
1 Ghost Warden
1 Heart of Light
1 Honor Guard
1 Pacifism
1 Skyhunter Patrol
1 Spirit Link
1 Spirit Weaver
1 Warrior’s Honor
1 Aven Windreader
1 Dehydration
1 Fugitive Wizard
1 Lumengrid Warden
1 Peek
2 Rootwater Commando
1 Shimmering Wings
1 Sky Weaver
1 Snapping Drake
1 Traumatize
1 Twitch
1 Unsummon
1 Afflict
1 Hate Weaver
1 Highway Robber
1 Mind Rot
1 Plague Beetle
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Recover
1 Severed Legion
1 Spineless Thug
1 Vampire Bats
1 Bloodrock Cyclops
1 Bogardan Firefiend
1 Cone of Flame
1 Duct Crawler
1 Furnace Whelp
1 Goblin Lore
1 Incinerate
1 Lava Axe
1 Lavaborn Muse
1 Raging Goblin
1 Rock Badger
1 Smash
1 Threaten
1 Viashino Runner
1 Blanchwood Armor
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Commune with Nature
1 Creeping Mold
1 Femeref Archers
1 Giant Spider
1 Kavu Climber
1 Natural Spring
1 Primal Rage
1 Rampant Growth
1 Root Maze
1 Skyshroud Ranger
1 Treetop Bracers
1 Viridian Shaman
2 Wall of Wood
1 Composite Golem
1 Demon’s Horn
1 Platinum Angel
I waited all week for this? Argh.
I could insert white space here, but I’m opposed to wasting paper — and someone, somewhere might print this out. Besides, sending all those white bits takes energy. If you really want to play the build-it-yourself game, just scroll slowly.
The build is pretty obvious, after all. Three colors are pretty much unplayable, unless you like playing without creatures.
I played R/G, with a splash. For me, the splash came down to Recover, a cantrip that can get back one of my all-to-scarce creatures, Dehydration (suboptimal) or Pacifism, or both Recover and Pacifism. Both seemed like stretching it, since the deck was heavily reliant on Blanchwood Armor and Cone of Flame, I decided to splash just the Pacifism off a single Plains.
Game 1 that came back to haunt me, when I had to play the Plains in play and my opponent killed it with Creeping Mold. I, of course, drew the Pacifism the next turn. That match was close, but Platinum Angel, Cone of Flame and Lava Axe, of all things, squeaked it out.
Match 2 was not close. On turn 8, with 18 cards gone from his library, my opponent had Merfolk Looter, 2 Aven Fishers, Aven Windreader, Phantom Warrior and a Skyhunter Prowler in play. He had also looted away another Prowler and a Skyhunter Skirmisher. I had trash — except for one decent creature, which he had Pacified. Game 2 he did it again, but this time I had also sided in an Island and a Dehydration. I drew them — but this time he had Serra Angel. I did not draw my Platinum Angel.
Match 3 can be summed up by a late chat:
Me: How are you not 2-0?
Him: I had connection problems last match.
His plays: Elf, Rampant Growth, Sift, Spined Wurm. Craw Wurm, Enormous Baloth (and when I killed the Baloth), Gravedigger. Plus double Terror, Essence Drain, Civic Wayfarer (maybe two) and Avatar of Might. And Loxodon Warhammer.
Game 2, I was doing everything I could to hang on, and I finally hit seven mana and drew my out. Platinum Angel hit the board. He had already beat me to six, and I had nothing left to fight off his monsters, but I had Creeped his Warhammer and got the Angel. I was also ahead on cards in library.
He untapped and cast Hurricane. That’s when we had the above-mentioned chat.
I dropped. 1-2 and you can’t make Top 8.
I’m really playing in these events to get cards for Constructed. I already own an Angel, and don’t see a single Root Maze as playable. Having ripped nothing for Standard, I wasted a little time playing Time Spiral Block Constructed. I am trying to find a deck that can beat Blue consistently.
Remember back when everyone was debating Blue verses Green last spring? Remember how people were saying Green was good, OBV, because Spectral Force was everywhere, etc. I argued that pure beatdown was a “stupid” strategy, as opposed to clever strategies in Blue. I also bemoaned the return of Stasis. I don’t really want to reopen that debate, other than to say that, if big Green beats is ever going to be a successful strategy, it should be now, in this block. Spectral Force and Tarmogoyf are the biggest fatties for their cost ever printed.
Okay, let’s look at the numbers. As of this writing, Wizards has decklists from four new PTQs: Little Rock, Milford, Montreal and North Carolina. Here’s the breakdown:
Heavily Blue decks: 21
U/G Tarmogoyf: 6
Mono-blue Pickles: 5
U/G Pickles: 5
U/B/x Control: 4
U/G/B Walk the Aeons: 1
Semi-Blue decks: 3
Reanimator: 2
Wild Pair Slivers: 1
Non-Blue decks: 8
Korlash Control: 1
G/R Tarmogoyf: 1
G/W/r Tarmogoyf: 2
G/W Tarmogoyf: 1
Mono Red: 1
Mono Black: 1
White Weenie: 1
Tarmogoyf is splashable, meaning that he fits nicely into base-Blue decks. Spectral Force is not — and it has appear in just a couple of Top 8 lists nationwide (out of the 200+ I have reviewed.) Best creature in Time Spiral Block? I think Vesuvan Shapeshifter nudges out Venser and Tarmogoyf.
Sunday, the local store hosted a Time Spiral Block Constructed tourney. Not much more to say. I can beat either U/G Tarmogoyf or Pickles — but not both.
Back to the Tenth Release Events. I had a chance to get into another sealed PE — and my pool was worse. I now am the proud owner of a Denizen of the Deep, a Tenth Edition Furnace of Rath, a Gaea’s Herald, and another March of the Machines. I also opened a Siege-Gang Commander, which was the only playable Red card. The only other Red cards worth considering were double Stun and a Duct Crawler. The rest was worse.
While I was waiting for the PE to begin, a chat window opened. Here’s the log.
hurriboy: dumb q but your the writer guy?
One Million Words: yes
One Million Words: more or less
hurriboy: cool gl . not a huge fan but your effort is appreciated
One Million Words: thanks
Ouch — damned by faint praise. My ego is a surprisingly fragile thing.
We chat a bit. I’m also typing in another window, so it’s a bit choppy. A little later:
hurriboy: lol are you
One Million Words: peter
One Million Words: I think
hurriboy: sry i remembered the onemillionwords from an old article
One Million Words: np
hurriboy: i am a fan then i like the judges view articles
One Million Words: thanks!
hurriboy: np lol NOW ill stop buggin ya
One Million Words: k – gl
Okay, I feel better now.
My pool was still crap, and I went 1-2 again.
It’s harvest time here. I should have harvested in the early morning, then played computer games during the heat of the day. Instead, I saved two TIX playing in NIX TIX events, then baked out on the tractor. Not smart — but then you already know that. I’m the guy who took Vesuvan Shapeshifter over Sacred Mesa, after all.
Sunday morning I could have gotten into an early PE, but Ingrid wanted to ride. We got on our bikes early. It had stormed the night before, and a lot of berries had blown off the choke-cherries. We kept seeing bunnies in the bike path, eating the berries. We also saw hawks, which eat the bunnies.
A couple miles on, we came to a fallen tree that blocked the path. I got off and snapped branches and lugged logs, and got the path half cleared — enough that we could ride around the obstruction. Later that day, I got out the chainsaw and cut up the log. Sure, clearing the path was probably someone else’s job, but I don’t know when the DNR, or whoever, would have gotten around to it. Maybe before the snows, maybe not.
Whatever — I was hoping a bit of above and beyond would generate good karma.
Here’s the next PE sealed pool:
1 Ancestor’s Chosen
1 Angelic Blessing
1 Angelic Wall
1 Aven Cloudchaser
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Heart of Light
1 Luminesce
1 Mobilization
1 Skyhunter Prowler
1 Spirit Weaver
1 Spirit Link
1 Treasure Hunter
1 Tundra Wolves
1 Venerable Monk
1 Wild Griffin
1 Youthful Knight
1 Aven Fisher
1 Aven Windreader
1 Cloud Sprite
1 Fugitive Wizard
1 Lumengrid Warden
1 March of the Machines
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Remove Soul
1 Shimmering Wings
1 Sift
1 Sky Weaver
1 Dross Crocodile (premium)
1 Festering Goblin
1 Highway Robber
1 Looming Shade
1 Lord of the Undead
1 Mass of Ghouls
1 Mind Rot
2 Phyrexian Rager
1 Plague Beetle
1 Spineless Thug
1 Stronghold Discipline
1 Vampire Bats
1 Blaze
1 Demolish
1 Goblin Elite Infantry
1 Hill Giant
1 Incinerate
1 Lava Axe
1 Shivan Hellkite
1 Smash
1 Spark Elemental
1 Spitting Earth
1 Uncontrollable Anger
1 Viashino Runner
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Blanchwood Armor
1 Craw Wurm
1 Giant Spider
1 Natural Spring
1 Overgrowth
1 Pincher Beetles
1 Rampant Growth
1 Recollect
2 Wall of Wood
1 Yavimaya Enchantress
1 Kraken’s Eye
1 Rod of Ruin
1 Spellbook
Yes — go Karma! That’s what I’m talking about!
You want white space — look, here:
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Enough. Scroll slowly.
First the cuts:
Blue is okay. It has two nice fliers, and the Looter. It also has Sift — a truly great card. That, however, is about it. Lumengrid Warden and Remove Soul are playable, but nothing spectacular. At best, Blue is a splash.
Black was a quick cut: this pool has no removal spells, unless you count Festering Goblin. Yes, Uncle Fester works, especially with the Lord of the Undead, but you really need a method of sacrificing him at will. This pool was suspiciously short of Nantuko Husks.
Green was tempting — but the fact that the creature base was sub-optimal hurt. Worse yet, it had only one mana fixer. That’s not good enough — even with Aggressive Urge and Blanchwood Armor.
Here’s what I played:
1 Ancestor’s Chosen
1 Angelic Wall
1 Aven Cloudchaser
1Aven Fisher
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Blaze
1 Hill Giant
1 Incinerate
1 Lava Axe
1Merfolk Looter
1 Mobilization
1 Rod of Ruin
1 Shivan Hellkite
1 Sift
1 Skyhunter Prowler
1 Spitting Earth
1 Treasure Hunter
1 Uncontrollable Anger
1 Venerable Monk
1 Viashino Runner
1 Wild Griffin
1 Youthful Knight
1 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Island
7 Plains
7 Mountains
I wanted to do a more thorough write-up, but MODO crashed a while ago. All the game replays are lost.
Boo.
Round 1: Chris Wu, Rating: ???
Chris had a nice deck — how nice I didn’t know until later. Game 1 he beat me down with some fast beats — especially a Nantuko Husk that offed my Angelic Wall, but eventually died to Spitting Earth (mainly because his other creatures were better.) He dropped me to three life before I stabilized — then I got out Shivan Hellkite and Ancestor’s Chosen. He managed to Assassinate the Hellkite, but I had Blaze and Incinerate in hand. That was enough to win, even though I messed up and forgot about the Samite Healer, which meant that my Blaze left him at one. Game 2 was even better: I rushed him and managed to kill him quickly via Blaze and Lava Axe. He revealed his hand — showing me a Pacifism, Incinerate, Assassinate and his own Shivan Hellkite.
Round 2: HTLK, Rating 1840
This was a tough match, against a very good player. My Sift, however, gave me more cards. We also both had Rods of Ruin in play — but an early Uncontrollable Anger on my Prowler made his trade backfire — and gave me an unstoppable force that kept the game close until the Hellkite showed up. Game 2 was, I believe, similar.
Round 3: Gaming Tim, Rating 1607
Tim was either new to MTGO or playing a new account — he was good. Unfortunately, he was mana-flooded game 1, and mana screwed game 2. There was no game 3.
Round 4: ???
This all came down to who won the initiative. I won, so he had to respond to my request to ID, rather than me responding to his.
Round 5: ???
Another match lost to the MTGO crash. I’m pretty sure I instigated the ID again. Whatever — a draw means we are a lock for Top 8, and I can spend the rest of the round harvesting onions.
No, that is not better than playing. It is better than losing.
Top 8 = a free draft. I took notes on paper, when I could. I don’t have DraftCap installed on my machine. I would, but procrastination is my best skill. (I’ll explain that later.) In the meantime, here are the picks that I consider controversial.
Pick 1: I started off wrong, I expect. I took an Aven Fisher over Spitting Earth and Phyrexian Vault. I have an irrational liking for Fishers, probably because it was great in Ninth drafts, but the card is not as good since Wizards printed Cloud Elemental at common. Spitting Earth is great, but I don’t much like Red, and Spitting Earth is not splashable. Fisher is. Vault is also great, but I tend to draft non-creatures too highly, so I often end up with too few creatures to use / abuse the Vault. I could also cut Blue in this pack, but not Red.
I don’t even remember the rare.
Like I said, I may have screwed up pick 1.
Pick 2: Femeref Archer over Stalking Tiger — and nothing else decent. Bad packs — which is what you get in free drafts.
Pick 4: Hill Giant over Lure. (I’m just not sure about Lure. I have almost always lost the creature to bounce or removal — but maybe that’s just my bad luck.) At this point, I was considering R/G, splashing the Fisher if necessary. The packs kept being empty.
Pick 5: Dehydration over Boomerang
Pick 6: Counsel of the Soratami over Hunted Wumpus.
Pack 10: Sleeper Agent tables, so I rare draft. I would have taken any removal, any creatures with a useful ability or anything worth anything – shifting colors at any point — but I saw nothing. This was just a terrible set of packs, for me at least.
Pack 16: HURRICAINE!! Time to rare-draft.
Pack 17: Craw Wurm over Terror and Incinerate. Once again, I was really torn. I was pretty heavily U/G, but either of the other cards is splashable. I felt I needed the fat, since I was extremely creature light (although I had one Spined Wurm.) I’m still wondering about this pick, however.
Pack 20: Ghitu Encampment over Counsel, etc. I wanted a copy for Constructed purposes, and already had the Hill Giant. Random bad card — but I though it might make a Red splash work. I’m much more vulnerable to rare-drafting online.
Pack 31: Mahamoti Djinn over Air Elemental, Terror, and Aven Fisher. This was a fine pack — I’m just sorry I could not have taken more cards.
Pack 34: Rootwalla over Ballista Squad. I was a bit short of creatures, especially at the three-drop, and did not have mana fixers. Another splash seemed poor — but Ballista Squad is sooo good. Another pick that I debated for the full time, and still don’t know if I chose wisely.
The pool I wound up with is decidedly unimpressive.
The deck:
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Aven Fisher
1 Blanchwood Armor
1 Cancel
2 Counsel of the Soratami
1 Craw Wurm
1 Dehydration
1 Femeref Archers
1 Giant Growth
1 Giant Spider
2 Grizzly Bears
1 Hurricane
1 Mahamoti Djinn
1 Naturalize
1 Pincher Beetles
1 Rootwalla
1 Llanowar Sentinel (over Rootwater Commando)
1 Rushwood Dryad
1 Snapping Drake
2 Spined Wurm
The leftovers:
1 Angelic Blessing
1 Commune with Nature
1 Composite Golem
1 Demolish
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Goblin Lore
1 Goblin Piker
1 Hill Giant
1 Ornithopter
1 Pyroclasm
1 Reviving Dose
1 Rootwater Commando
1 Scoria Wurm
1 Sleeper Agent
1 Stun
1 Wall of Fire
1 Wall of Wood
1 Wurm’s Tooth
Round 1: B4nJ0co
I lost the die roll. Then it went downhill. I mulliganed a one land hand into Giant Growth, Cancel, Aven Fisher, and lands. I drew lands. My opponent drew a Dusk Imp, a Pacifism for my Fisher, and a Terror for my Spined Wurm. He also played a Venerable Monk (which I could have Cancelled turn 3, but didn’t), and an Unholy Strength and a Wild Griffin. That was more than enough. I was dead before I could mount a defense.
Game 2 I mulliganed again, and dropped a turn 3 Rootwalla. He curved out nicely: Terror, Dusk Imp, Windborn Muse, Serra Angel. I had a Dehydration, but it was not enough. I did ask him if he minded not attacking me until I drew my Hurricane, but since I was at four life at that point, it was pretty academic.
I also played some Standard (trying out my one Treetop Village, which I never drew) and Legacy, but since 1) I learned nothing, and 2) Craig will shoot me if I don’t get this to him soon, so I won’t talk about that this week.
Next week I’ll be at GenCon, judging Dreamblade and trying to squeeze in as many RPGs, board games, and side events as possible. See you there.
PRJ
“one million words” on MTGO