Patriot Games

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Deck building 101

I have started this blog about 4 times now and have not been able to capture the feel for the subject in quite the right way.  I've tried mentioning net decking and it's strengths and weaknesses, using your intuition to look for cards with natural synergy and several other tacks.  I was not happy with any of them so I have started again once more.

Deck building is an art form all of its own some people get it and some don't.  That is a fairly negative statement to start with but its true.  There are some really great Pro Magic players who can't build a deck for toffee!  Others, and I will name Mike Flores as a prime example here, are truly innovative deck builders whose ability as players does not reflect their understanding of card synergy and deck design.

Mike's knowledge and deck building skills do not translate 
to as many wins as they should.

So what can we do to make ourselves better deck builders?  There are things which we can ask themselves when looking at cards to put together which may help when it comes to building decks.  Rather than do a top ten tips list I am going to use a number of words to remember when building decks and hopefully this will provide you with a "formula" to use when building decks.



Lets take a look at the above card.  This card is a prime example of "value" with regards to mana cost against what it potentially does.  A 1 mana 1/2 guy is slightly above the standard for 1 mana which is good in itself.  Then we look at what he can do once he doesn't have summoning sickness; turn 3 Thraktusk - no problem, make your Lightning bolt say BR deal 5 damage to target player - sure thing, exile the snapcaster that you flashed in as a chump blocker and gain 2 more life - and why not?  This card is amazing it also stops the mad rush of Stromkirk Noble from getting in ad gaining +1/+1 counters (its not a human but an Elf - oh wait elves are like a deck or something I think).  Value is all about cards that "do" something other than just give you a man, mostly with Enter the Battlefield (ETB) effects.  Prime examples of these are Snapcaster Mage, Restoration Angel and of course the M11/M12 Titans cycle.


A card with obvious value...

So value is a card that costs about what it should but has extra benefits and is something we look for when we are building decks.  Not all cards that have ETB/keyword effects are worth playing.  Trained Caracal is a bad card but people keep including it in decks at FNM Relax, please don't.  Some cards have greater value in other formats than they do in standard, Deathrite Shamen is very playable in Legacy as an anti Tarmogoyf card among other things.


A game winning combo with Restoration Angel.

The second thing I want to look at is Synergy.  I looked up the definition of synergy and found this;


"Synergy is when two or more forces come together with a positive effect."

Kiki Jiki in combination with various other cards was a massively strong combo in the recent Modern GP where it would win out of nowhere and people found it very hard to do anything about it.  

Synergy is talked about a lot when it comes to Magic, not just in combo but for all decks.  Cards that work together can make exceptionally strong pairings and give you massive advantage against your opponent.  For synergy to really make an impact your deck has to have a purpose or plan, it needs to do something and for you to know in advance what that thing is.  I know that sounds kind of obvious right?  You would be amazed how many people don't know exactly what their deck does and lose games as a result!  Mike Boon tells a great story of a game he played one time at quite high level where he had to tell the guy he was playing how to play his deck!  If you have a clear idea what your deck does you should find it easy to build decks with synergy as you can recognise which cards will work with which in order to obtain your desired outcome with your deck.


Why do I see this card so much?

There are some cards which are the opposite of value and I just wanted to pick on one of them right now - Wayfaring Temple.  When you play this card the only creature you can be sure you will have is itself.  This means you are paying 3 mana for a 1/1 guy that comes in and does nothing.  If you have some guys or tokens in play he is bigger and should you be lucky enough to get him through to a player (he doesn't have trample so can be chump blocked all day) you get another token, as long as you had one to start off with.  That's a lot of ifs.  Good cards don't need ifs, they are good cards that get better if...  For the same price Centaur Healer gives you a guaranteed 3/3 creature and you get the incidental life gain of 3 when it comes in as well for the exact same amount of mana.  This fortunately goes into the next essential element of deck building - consistency.


Consistently good in so many things.

Thragtusk has been seeing high levels of play all over the place recently.  His synergy with Restoration Angel is obvious, chump block with him, flash in Restoration Angel, Target Thragtusk, Blink out get a 3/3 Beast, blink in gain 5 life and now have an extra 6 power on the table to swing with.  So how do we make sure that we can do this consistently?  Well 4 Thragtusk and 4 Restoration Angel make the likely hood of pulling off the above much greater.  Consistency is about far more than just putting 4 of each key card into the deck it is about every card in the deck getting you closer to winning.  In this case Farseek is your friend to ramp a bit and drop a turn 4 Thraktusk.  A turn 3 Garruk Relentless that gets flipped will help you go find the Angel or Thragtusk if you need them, and make your deck more consistent.


Sometimes the right common is the perfect piece of the puzzle.

In my Eldrazi ramp deck that I played in Standard when Rise was legal every card in the deck worked towards casting Emrakul and his Eldrazi buddies.  Explore allowed me to consistently drop a turn 3 Primeval Titan and go get those Eldrazi Temples/Eye of Ugin.

So next time you want to build a deck for FNM remember these words:


  • Value
  • Synergy
  • Consistency

That's all for the blog until after Christmas.  Mr Smith and myself will again be teaming up to take on all challengers this Friday in 2 Headed Giant at FNM Relax with a combination of Esper tokens and Bant Tempo.  So from all at Patriot Games Sheffield and the Magic team let me wish you;


Merry
Christmas
and a 
Happy New Year!

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Future Sight

So another week is with us.  Firstly let me apologise for the lack of a blog on Friday but work got in the way!  I will endeavour to bring you the blog on deck building this Friday instead.  Seems my Standard deck was very good on Friday as it won all 4 matches without loosing a game.  Sorry to Henry Hart who has apparently been beaten by me every week he has come along, what can I say the computer is not your friend Henry.
This Friday is Modern Pauper and I am playing a Bant version of my soldier deck from last time.  I have not got the full list yet but it may well have these fellas in it:

War!  What is it good for?

This is the last Modern Pauper event at FNM Relax as we go to full on Pauper from January.  Te soldier deck I played last time worked really well but it was very one dimensional and I decided that by going 3 colours I could have a lot more possibilities and make the deck far stronger.

That's enough about pauper and FNM Relax and I think it is time to look at what is coming up over the next few weeks.

This Sunday is a festive Steel City magic tournament with standard @ £7 and a draft later on in the day if standard went a bit wrong for you @ £10.  As always Mark will put up boosters or store credit in prize support.

I got one of these last time with my store credit...

FNM will continue over the Yuletide season with 2 Headed Giant on the 21st December 2012 and a fond farewell to extended on 28th December 2012 before it is replaced by Modern in the New Year.

Kiki Pod - just what we needed!

Our first FNM of 2013 will be Standard on 4th January with something very special the following day.  As you are well aware we had an invitational tournament in October which went down very well - for full details see here and here.  We have decided to do it again in 2013.  Here are the players who have already guaranteed their place in the invitational 2013;

Robert Tinsley
Andrew Mather
Daniel Cocking
Andy Sims
Mike Boon
Patrick Bateman
John Roberts
James Brook
Diarmuid Verrier
Grzegorz Flis
Fabian Quinn
Stephen Kay
Richard Tinsley
Adam Pollard
Matt Cooper
Owen Debenham
Matteo Orsini Jones


This year the entrants were invited based on their results in tournament's and on their contribution to the Magic community of Sheffield.  Next year there will be a chance for people to earn an invitation by being in the top 4 of a qualifier event, the first of which will be on Saturday January 5th 2013.  We will actually be running two tournaments that day with Standard starting at 10:30 am and Modern starting at 12:30 pm.  The price for each tournament is £5 with 2 boosters going into the prize pool for each player.  The top 4 from each event will receive an invitation to the tournament in October 2013 for a chance to be a member of Team Steel City Patriots and gain a sponsorship package similar to that enjoyed by the team members from this year.

But that is all for next year and we have not finished this one yet!  Patriot Sheffield will have a number of events over the Christmas break which look like this;

Thursday 27th December 2012
General casual play and testing for January 2013

Friday 28th December 2012 
EDH from Midday onwards and FNM from 6pm

Saturday 29th December 2012 
A festive Christmas draft at 11am full details next week


So there are many, many reasons to come play MTG at Patriot Games Sheffield.  See you soon.

Monday 3 December 2012

A Standard approach

So this week at FNM it is Standard, I didn't define FNM between Relax and Elite as both are Standard this week.  Standard is a funny format - I still think of it as "Type 2" from way back when, because they stopped us playing all of our sweet old cards.  I was one of the many who massively objected to my old cards becoming worthless and voted with my feet by quitting Magic.  As always though just as I thought I was out they pulled me back in!

So MTG is like the Mafia now?

However, type 2 has become the "Standard" way of playing magic and it has changed the face of the game and has created a more accessible way for people to enter the game to begin with.  Other than actual  limited, Standard is the most limited format in Magic - there is currently a total of 1,109 different cards legal in Standard.

However, it has to be noted that standard is the most open and diverse it has been for a number of years with no CAW Blade or Delver deck to be the defining deck of the format at present.

I didn't break standard - I am Standard!

I am not a massive fan of net decking but I thought it might be useful to look at the top decks from this weekends Star City Games Standard Open:

Naya midrange 1st place

Creatures (24)

4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk
4 Thundermaw Hellkite

Lands (24)

4 Forest
3 Mountain
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Clifftop Retreat
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Temple Garden

Spells (12)

4 Selesnya Charm
4 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Farseek

Sideboard

3 Angel of Serenity
2 Zealous Conscripts
2 Rest in Peace
2 Garruk Relentless
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Pillar of Flame
_______________________________________________________________________

We even have a playable dragon in Standard...


Jund Midrange 2nd Place

Creatures (14)

2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Thragtusk
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Olivia Voldaren

Planeswalkers (5)

2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Liliana of the Veil

Lands (24)

2 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
2 Cavern of Souls
3 Dragonskull Summit
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Woodland Cemetery

Spells (17)

3 Abrupt Decay
2 Ultimate Price
1 Bonfire of the Damned
3 Dreadbore
4 Farseek
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Sever the Bloodline

Sideboard

2 Deathrite Shaman
3 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Appetite for Brains
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Rakdos's Return
2 Slaughter Games
1 Cavern of Souls

So very good - try her with Basilisk Collar in extended...
_______________________________________________________________________


5 Colour Control 3rd Place

Creatures (10)

4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Thragtusk
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
1 Griselbrand

Planeswalkers (2)

1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Lands (26)

1 Alchemist's Refuge
1 Blood Crypt
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Hinterland Harbor
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Rootbound Crag
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden

Spells (22)

3 Chromatic Lantern
2 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Detention Sphere
1 Abrupt Decay
3 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Ultimate Price
4 Farseek
3 Lingering Souls
2 Rakdos's Return
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus

Sideboard

1 Door To Nothingness
2 Centaur Healer
2 Rhox Faithmender
1 Curse of Echoes
2 Rest in Peace
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Tragic Slip
1 Jace, Memory Adept
3 Duress
Will see more play come Gatecrash.
_______________________________________________________________________

B/R Zombies 4th Place


Creatures (29)

4 Blood Artist
1 Bloodflow Connoisseur
3 Bloodthrone Vampire
4 Butcher Ghoul
4 Diregraf Ghoul
3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Gravecrawler
1 Hellrider
1 Zealous Conscripts

Lands (21)

6 Swamp
4 Blood Crypt
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Rakdos Guildgate

Spells (10)

4 Brimstone Volley
2 Searing Spear
3 Tragic Slip
1 Flames of the Firebrand

Sideboard

2 Rakdos Keyrune
1 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Zealous Conscripts
2 Ultimate Price
1 Dreadbore
4 Pillar of Flame
1 Rakdos's Return
2 Sever the Bloodline

Brainssssssssssssssssssss!!!
_______________________________________________________________________

U/W Control 5th Place

Creatures (14)

3 Augur of Bolas
4 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Geist of Saint Traft

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Jace, Architect of Thought

Lands (23)

8 Island
3 Plains
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
2 Moorland Haunt

Spells (21)

2 Runechanter's Pike
4 Azorius Charm
4 Dissipate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Think Twice
3 Thought Scour
2 Unsummon

Sideboard

2 Detention Sphere
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Purify the Grave
2 Righteous Blow
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
3 Supreme Verdict

Card advantage and incidental life gain - Boo-Yaa!


This really is a massively eclectic mix of decks.  There is full on control, including the holy grail of Magic in 5 colour control as well as uber aggro in the form of B/R Zombies and the whole thing got won by Naya midrange.  The top 3 decks all ran 4 copies of Thragtusk who seems to be the right card at the right time just now.  With all these top tier possibilities I am looking forward to what we may see on Friday.

That's all for today but I will be back on Friday with the first part of an article on how to build a deck.  I know that there are a number of people at FNM Relax who have asked about this so I hope the blog will answer these questions.  Goodbye till then.

Friday 30 November 2012

Patter's Legacy (Part 2)


So here we go - Legacy on Sunday with the unlimited proxies, hope you have all been printing out those proxy cards all week.  Can I recommend www.magiccards.info  who have a proxy printing service built into the site.  To keep with the Legacy theme here is the second part of Patrick's Legacy article.

Key cards in legacy


So now we know just how many decks there are in the format. Lets look at some of the key cards that see a lot of play in various decks.

Force of will


Arguably the most important card in the format, countering something for 0 mana is hugely important, and makes a format that would otherwise be entirely about combo much more open.  Belcher going off turn 1?  Not with force of will!  It makes for a hugely depressing card to cast when you have to, losing 2 cards is a massive cost and almost always worse than paying mana if you can, but the option to continue playing the game is the most important option you can have, and force is the way to get it.




Brainstorm


This card is insane. Its instant, draws 3 cards, and lets you get rid of 2 irrelevant cards. Against discard, it lets you draw 3 cards, and protect your 2 best cards on top of your deck.  Against combo, it lets you draw 3 cards, or counter their spell with force of will.  This card is insane!



Wasteland


Is it a spell?  Is it a land?  It destroys target non basic land, in exchange for sacrificing it. It’s an iconic legacy staple, and it’s awesome.  Is your opponent’s mana base too greedy on the non-basic front?  Or is there a land you can kill to just destroy their game plan? WASTELAND!  Opponent kept a 2 land hand and missed their drop turn 3? PUNISH THEIR POOR MULLIGAN DECISION! WASTELAND!  Wasteland is hugely versatile and is massively influential, if your deck loses to wasteland, your deck isn't good enough for legacy.




Daze


Counterspells that cost 0 mana are generally good, and this one is no exception. It’s much less utilised than force because it sets you back a land (in a format where having 2-4 lands is generally enough to cast all your game winning spells, that’s a big deal) but it’s still a very potent card when you get to go first, as it doesn't set you so far back in that situation. Daze is generally utilized by very fast decks like merfolk which are trying to stop you doing anything relevant for just long enough to kill you, and have such low curves (with aether vials to gain even more tempo) that the lost land drop doesn't have a big impact. 0 mana counters are good in all decks with blue however, and you often see some number of them in people’s decks.




Tarmogoyf


Everyone who has heard of eternal formats has probably heard of tarmogoyf. He is the ultimate bear. If you are playing fetch lands and instants (i.e. if you are playing any format where tarmogoyf is legal) you are getting a creature so far above the curve it’s insane. There is a reason that he commands such a high value, generally the best cards in each type end up costing loads, Force of Will being the best counter spell commands a high cost, jace the wallet sculptor earned his name by being the best planeswalker, and tarmogoyf is arguably the best creature, at least that you can cast naturally.




Dark Ritual


Pay 1 black, get 3 black. There isn’t really anything better than that, it’s like a black lotus that you have to pay 1 mana for, that’s not a bad deal. Generally used in combo decks but some fairer decks like to use it to power out something big early.




Lion’s Eye Diamond


Want to play black lotus? Can’t afford the £500 price tag? This bad boy is black lotus, but you get to play 4 of it! FOUR! Woooow! Ok, so it has the downside that you have to discard your hand to activate it, meaning you cant cast a spell from your hand using it (the discard must resolve before you get the mana, so your hand is already empty when it makes it to your pool) but sometimes that’s what you want anyway. Activate lions eye diamond, flash back faithless looting, dredge 2 grave trolls, discard the grave trolls again, mill 1/5 of your deck immediately… seems pretty nice! It also gets used just after storm decks ramp into ad-nauseum, to generate the mana needed to cast tendrils of agony when you get to it.




Cabal Therapy/Hymn to Tourach


High value discard spells, Cabal therapy lets you make sick plays if you get a good read on your opponents, and successfully guess their decks (and hence what they have in hand), if you hit with the first cast, you usually can get a 2 for one by flashing it back, or better if they have multiples of a card.

Hymn gets 2 cards at random, this is invariably their best 2 cards, making it ridiculously awesome.




Swords to Plowshares


This is the removal of the format. Life is usually the least valuable resource in legacy, generally when you die from damage, the life gained isn’t going to turn the game around for you, with only some very specific exceptions (and those are usually found when you swords to plowshares your own guy… not ideal) swords is the best removal in legacy, and sees far and away the most play. If your deck plays white, you better have a good reason not to play swords!



Blood Moon


Red has mana denial, and in a format with really greedy manabases with only a few basic lands (if any in some cases) blood moon says “you have no lands now”.  It’s playable in modern too, and its power is even higher there (there is a lot less fixing that lets you fetch your basics in modern).



Lightning Bolt


Bolt your dude, Bolt your face, Bolt you, Dome you. These are some of the many ways players will describe paying 1 mana for lightning bolt. It’s the iconic burn spell, and it’s very good at killing things in this format (although it pays to be careful trying to bolt a tarmogoyf!  It doesn’t die till your bolt is in the graveyard, meaning it might not die if its toughness goes up!)  with the added bonus of being able to direct it at your face for the last bits of damage. Lightning bolt has the versatility required to make it in this format of cheap cards, and when it’s good, it’s really good!




Getting in to legacy

Here is what happens with legacy:
“Want to play legacy?”
“I don’t have a deck”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have £2000 to throw away on cardboard”
Sad Face.  why don’t you have £2000 to throw away on cardboard? Now I can’t crush you with my sweet sweet legacy cards!


Sadly, I can’t give you that £2000, much as I would like to make legacy a massive format with loads of players. Legacy is a problematic format, where the more people play, the harder it is to start playing. Wizards have made 2 big mistakes in their history making this game, the first was the printing of chronicles, which was a set containing many of the staple cards of the game, which prior to that printing were worth reasonable sums of money. Chronicles flooded the market with those cards and they instantly became worthless (and have remained so for the most part). 

This was mistake 1, and it cost them many players. Mistake 2, was the creation of the “Reserve list” this is a list of cards which wizards have promised collectors they will never print again, meaning it’s a safe bet that their value will only go up in the long term. Sadly for players, this means that cards like the Dual Lands, Show and Tell, Lion’s Eye Diamond, the power 9 and many, many more of the most expensive cards in legacy (although NOT force of will! very important for the future!) are never going to be reprinted ever again, the number in the world now are the number there will always be, and that means there is a hard limit to the number of people who can play legacy, and the closer we get to that number, the closer to infinity the cost of cards will creep.

There is every chance that in 20 years, if the reserve list doesn't change and magic is still going strong, the key legacy staples may well end up being a new kind of power 9. The prices marginalising players to the point that only a select few can afford to play the format with those cards. Modern is wizard’s plan to resolve this issue, but it’s a plan that will take years to come to fruition (modern is substantially weaker, and hence less fun)
In the meantime, there ARE affordable ways into legacy, and affordable decks you can play and be reasonably competitive with. To give you some idea of where to start, here are a few decks you can buy for under £100.

Elf combo

Allegedly, turn 1 llanowar elf is the scariest play in legacy. Personally, I find turn 1 kill you a little scarier. In any case, this deck can easily be playable for around £100, obviously you omit high cost cards like gaea’s cradle or natural order, but you can get to a perfectly playable version of the deck for a reasonable price. As many of the cards are legal in modern, this is a very transferable deck. Added bonus!



Affinity

This is the modern deck, but with artifact lands, there are a few differences, but again, reasonably priced and very playable for around the price mark we are talking. Obviously as the deck is very good in modern, its very transferable, always a bonus.



Dredge

There are 2 ways to play dredge, the way that has 4 lion’s eye diamonds and costs an extra £150, or the way that doesn't and is pretty affordable. Dredge has had a lot of painful hate printed recently, especially rest in peace, the strongest piece of graveyard hate that I can think of. Rest in peace unfortunately has a side effect of enabling a couple of combos, helm of obedience mill to kill you, and energy field solid lock to stop creature decks being able to attack you. This means there's a chance of running into maindeck hate, which is an added problem for dredge. Its still a very playable deck though, and if you want to play a combo deck, this is probably one of the better ones (having a 70%+ win chance against pretty much every deck game 1 is pretty sweet).



My advice

Now one of the problems with the above decks is that you spend your £100 and you have that deck. Yay.  Bored of affinity yet? Want to play a new deck? Well, shit! You STILL have to spend £2000 on cardboard!  There are several decks you can build for a reasonable price sub optimally, and gradually improve with incremental purchases, I will outline my suggestion below:

Goblins!

Goblins! I freakin’ love ‘em, and you should too! Why should you love them? BECAUSE THEY ARE GOBLINS! Isn’t it obvious? If you cut out the mana base and just buy the creatures, you can get a perfectly playable goblin creature base for about £100. Bam, goblin deck. Is it significantly worse without wastelands and rishadan ports? Yes. Is it unplayable? No! if you can afford badlands and cavern of souls (cavern of souls is going to be a 4 of in various decks of all formats, just buy them now if you haven’t already) then great, you have a deck that is very difficult for counterspell decks to beat, if you then spend £70~ a while later, you have your rishadan ports. Then a month before rotation, you sell your standard deck to mark Hammond at a steel city tournament and you have yourself a couple of wastelands friend! Suddenly that unattainable legacy deck is very attainable!

So many decks in legacy play wasteland, picking up 4 is the gateway to unlocking many affordable decks. Suddenly you can expand into a pox deck for around £100, suddenly pretty much the only thing standing in your way of merfolk is £150 worth of force of will. once you have force of will? suddenly the wonderful world of blue is your oyster! And the only expensive cards left are the dual lands! Trade in another couple of standard decks, and boom, you have yourself a couple of tundras. Next thing you know you’ve accidentally UW miracles and your mate playing elves hates playing legacy with you.  Well, shit. Sorry Adam!

Conclusions

Essentially what I have just described, is my path into legacy. I didn’t sell quite as many standard decks as I suggest above, and I went a bit quicker on it because I had a couple of good opportunities for reasonably cheap wastelands. But mark got a good chunk of my trade folders for tundras (and hopefully when I get a chance I will be doing the same again soon to get an underground sea or 2). The 2 most important playsets you will ever buy in legacy are your wastelands and your force of wills. Neither are on the reserved list, and if my thoughts on modern are correct, within 5-10 years force of will and wasteland will be playable in modern. I would hope it will be sooner, because they are fabulous cards to have in a format, they really make decks play fairly.

I don’t think its for nothing that they specified that all cards in modern masters are reprints of Modern legal cards. I think there is a good chance of Modern Masters 2 being released in a year or 2, and guess what, that probably WONT be all modern legal reprints. Of course it may be a way to print new cards exclusively for modern, but I would also not be surprised if it’s used as a way to reprint good cards from legacy into modern safely without upsetting standard or completely destroying their market rates and pissing off collectors.

Legacy is the funnest format. If you play magic, you should be looking for a way to get into it. Hopefully the above has given you some guide on the options you have to get some way into legacy. If you choose to go down the route of just getting one deck at a reasonable price and sticking with it, fair enough. By all means, especially as several of them are very interchangeable with modern, it is probably a smart investment in that regard. However, at the same time, if you play a few games of legacy and feel like that’s the kind of magic you want to be playing. Really look at whether you really cant afford it. I hope I have showed you it is possible with incremental purchases to get to quite a wide level of choice of decks to play in legacy.

Thanks for reading this huge expanse of text, or however many episodes it has ended up being.

Wow that was a blog and a half!  Great stuff, thanks again Patrick.  I will be back on Monday with a look at Standard and news of our Christmas Magic tournaments.

Monday 26 November 2012

Patters Legacy (Part 1)

Firstly let me apologise for not getting the blog up on Friday - working on a Friday looks like it is going to get in the way of things like that.  So here is the blog written by the dreaded "Patters" one of the members of the Steel City Patriots after the invitational.  He has written a blog on Legacy which is pretty awesome.  With out further ado I pass you over to Patrick Bateman.

When I asked Mr T(insley) (hereby known as “The Fool”) if he wanted me to write a guest blog for him, I wasn't really sure what I should write about. Should I try and give some deep insight into how to win more at magic? Should I try and lay out for you how I scraped through to the top 6 of the tournament based on my constructed play propping up mediocre limited results? Should I brag that I only lost to members of the top 6? Who the hell wants to read anything PATTERS has to say about playing magic? Screw that crap! The Fool told me to shut the hell up and write about legacy. Put me back in my little corner of the world where I happily play in my sand box with Owen, Alistair, Adam and John. The little world where I happily sit spinning divining tops and boring my opponents to death with free counter spells and ridiculous card advantage engines, sounds good to me!

Warning - chance of falling asleep to this card!

First thing’s first, what is there in legacy? The better question here is what ISN’T in legacy. Pick a card, its *probably* legal. There is a ban list of around 60 cards in legacy, and a card pool of somewhere around 13000, that’s a pretty big pool of cards to pick from! For reference, the full ban list can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=judge/resources/sfrlegacy

So now you know what legacy gives you access to, the next step is to establish what you can do with all these toys. The answer, of course, is play Stigma Lasher, Transcendence, Bazaar Trader combo! But for serious now, let’s take a look at some of the cool things you can do in legacy.

Think about it...
1.   Take your opponent to school!

One of the key cards in the current format (or at least, in the recent meta-game) and a recurring baddie waiting in the wings for when people aren't prepared for it, is Show and Tell. This powerhouse card costs 1 Blue and 2 Colourless (pay attention boys and girls, there may well be a start to a pattern here), and quite simply, lets you put an Artifact, Enchantment, Creature or Land from your hand onto the battlefield. Any. Emrakul? Sure! Omniscience? Why the hell not!
This wins you the game, quite simply, by having emrakul on turn 3 (often 2 due to some of the accelerating lands), pretty sweet! Having omniscience - allowing you to cast emrakul the same turn, get an extra turn, and kill your opponent - is even better. There is a reason Show and Tell costs £40 per card.

Oh look a busted card from the Urza block

2.    2 turns? Too slow!

Turn 1 kills sound like a pipe dream for even the most aggro of aggro decks. A hasty 1 drop with 20 power? Impossible! That’s 10 goblin guides all rolled into one! In legacy however, there are a few ways to get there.
The most famous turn one kill is the perennial Belcher deck. Named after the centrepiece card, Goblin Charbelcher, this deck’s plan A aims to cast mana acceleration to cast and activate Goblin Charbelcher. Charbelcher reveals cards from your library till it hits a land, and then deals damage to the opponent equal to the number of cards revealed, double if it’s a mountain. Charbelcher plays 1 land in the entire deck. Which it fetches turn one (if it doesn't have it already) with Land Grant. Cant reveal a land if there's none left in the deck, guess you’re dead!

Really no fun to play against.


       Look at all my beautiful robot minions!

Affinity was the bane of standard during mirrodin block. It was the biggest set of bannings ever to occur in a standard format, and the last (and biggest) mistake wizards of the coast made, before the banning Jace the Mind Sculptor and StoneForge Mystic last year. It’s so good, Skull Clamp is still banned in legacy, and most of the artifact lands are and forever will be (or at least, for a very long time will be) banned in modern.

I will play a land, that’s an artifact, I will play amemnite for free, I will play a mox opal, pay 1 for a spring leaf drum, play another memnite for free, play a cranial plating, pass the turn. I'm still alive and you finished your turn? Cool! Untap, play another artifact land, play another cranial plating, equip them both to my memnite and kill you! Obviously that’s an exactly perfect hand of 20 damage, but affinity swinging for lethal turn 3 or 4 is pretty standard practise. With Master of Etherium and Arcbound Ravager acting as extra copies of cranial plating, and thoughtcast for card advantage (draw 2 for 1 Blue… seems pretty good!) you aren’t running out of gas unless they have some interesting ways to stop you.

Not what Issac Asimov had in mind...


4.    Did you hear that Mr Frodo! We’re going to see the elves!

Elves, some people love them, others wish they played wrath effects. Elves quite simply either powers out a progenitus with natural order, protection from everything is pretty sweet when the majority of the removal in use in the format says target… plan B makes a little bit more sense, vomit out a multitude of elves, make infinite mana and use that mana to kill you. This combo mostly focuses on 2 key cards, nettle sentinel and heritage druid, with a couple of sentinels and a heritage druid, you very quickly build up infinite mana by casting all your elves, drawing cards each time thanks to Glimpse of Nature. Spending mana either on ezuri to pump your dudes up to swing for lethal, or on any of a number of other sinks to kill the enemy.
5.   
Insert random Elf pun...

        And when there’s no more room in hell the dead shall walk the earth…

Up until recently, this might have seemed like a strange strategy to the standard crowd, but putting fatties in the graveyard and then bringing them back to life has been a core strategy in legacy since long before I started playing. The entire strategy revolves around casting a card like entomb to put a dude in the bin, and then casting a reanimation spell, usually reanimate, animate dead, or exhume. The decks tend to have blue (remember that pattern I mentioned?)  for combo protection and card selection. Having a 10 casting cost fatty on turn 2 is pretty sweet, having a Griselbrand to draw 7 with is even sweeter…

This gentleman needs no introduction...

6.   That’s not magic, that’s masturbation!

Dredge, the ultimate graveyard strategy. The deck where if your cards aren't in your graveyard they are useless, and the deck that feels more like masturbation than playing magic. It’s universally hated by everyone but the people playing it, requiring a bare minimum of 3 slots in your sideboard and preferably a couple of cards even main deck that can have some interaction with it. Dredge basically works by sacrificing its draw step to dredge cards like golgari grave troll from its graveyard, milling its library in the process, this puts bridge from below into the graveyard and any narcomaeba onto the battlefield. Narcomaeba can then be sacrificed to flash back either cabal therapy to destroy the opponents hand, or the main plan A, Dread return bringing back Flame-kin Zealot, sacrificing creatures triggering your bridges, making a million zombies, which then get haste from Flame-Kin zealot, allowing you to swing for all of the damages and killing your opponent. Games 2 and 3 are a case of “do you have it?” with their graveyard hate, dredge can win through one or maybe 2 pieces of hate like relic of progenitus, particularly if they are used badly, they are cold dead to cards like rest in peace and leyline of the void though.

Fun things to do on your day off - Explain Dredge to someone who has never seen it...

7.    Stoneforge mystic? Nah, even with batterskull that will be unplayable!

So good it’s a 4 of in legacy, this tends to be an indication of something being too strong in standard. Stoneforge mystic + Batterskull almost immediately became a deck in legacy with the release of New Phyrexia. Both in a straight Blue White setting and with additional splashes of black for discard spells. The plan is simple, play stoneforge mystic, then either fetch Batterskull or Umezawa’s jitte, depending on match up or Who’s The Beatdown (url: http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/fundamentals/3692_Whos_The_Beatdown.html) and beat face.

So we are gonna print a load of these extra, and then ban it!

8.    Zig Zag Gobbo attack!

Goblins, they are the iconic mass of little red men. Somehow wizards managed to print enough good goblins that they have been one of the best decks in legacy for a very long time. Making use of the iconic wasteland, with acceleration in the form of goblin lackey and aether vial, consistency through goblin matron, huge card advantage through goblin ring leader, beat down with goblin piledriver, reach through siege-gang commander, and board control through sharpshooter (screw you elves!) goblins has ways to handle all manner of threats on the other side of the table. With explosive plays off a turn 1 lackey it can shut out decks without an answer to the turn 1 terror extremely quickly.

This guy is insane!

9    Darling its better down where its wetter take it from me!

Mermaids are cool right? Mermaids are totally macho! Swimming around, playing in steel drum bands, talking to crabs (TALKING TO!) that’s all super macho! Merfolk is a deck that’s based around killing you before you get to do anything fun. Casting a spell? Nah, ill stop you. Playing a non basic land? Nah, it’s wastelanded. Casting a 4 mana spell? You’re on -4 life, you aren’t allowed to cast spells anymore…

Put simply, this deck plays some dudes, those dudes are all lords. They pump each other and kill you. They are especially good at killing people with islands, because 8 of them give their allies island walk. Must be nice!

Not a Kumbaya in sight for this "Lord"

1  It’s a miracle!  That we  get to play any magic with you spinning that damn top all the time!

And so we come to my current deck. Miracles! Counter magic! Jace the mind Sculptor! All of the good cards! This deck is built around developing card advantage. Land tax gives you ancestral recall if you are on the draw, (land tax trigger, get 3 basics, cast brainstorm, put 2 basics back ready for land tax next turn… HOLY HELL!) as well as helping you keep up if you start missing land drops. Counterbalance gives you a soft lock to counter many of your opponents spells through changing the top card of your deck to match the mana cost of the card you want to counter. This is usually done with sensei’s divining top, but can be done by brainstorm at a pinch. Divining top also gives a huge advantage with miracles, allowing you to see them coming, delay them as needed, or use them at opportune times (terminus at instant speed seems pretty nice!) counterbalance lets you grind out card advantage by countering their stuff, jace gives you card advantage by letting you brainstorm without using a card, and the small tutor package of trinket mages and graveyard hate even gives you a decent shot game one against dredge! The deck is ultimately ending the game with entreat the angels, or a jace ultimate.
Because he is - that damn good!

1    Delver? But all the good cards rotate… damnit!

Turn 1 delver, turn 2 blind flip kill you. The story is the same in every format. Except in legacy the insect is joined by his bezzy mates lhurgoyf and mongoose (Tarmogoyf and nimble mongoose respectively) to obliterate everyone in a few short strokes. Heh heh, bezzy mates.

      John McCain.dec? Maverick Maverick Maverick Maverick!

Maverick is all about good dudes. Mother of runes blanks everything that tries to kill your dudes, tarmogoyf smashes face, insert all the other cards maverick uses here. The game plan of maverick is basically just play all your dudes - mostly moving up to knight of the reliquary for big fat fatties - and kill them with them, some maverick lists use stoneforge mystic, some don’t.

      There's no tea in this Tea-Cup, it’s just full of storm!

Storm decks are all about casting a million spells that do nothing, then killing you. They generally aim to make a few extra mana through cards like dark ritual or lotus petal, and then use that to ramp into ad-naseum for huge card advantage, cast a bunch more spells, and then cast tendrils of agony. Providing 9 or more spells have been cast this turn, you’re dead. Simple!

      Fire, I’ll take you to burn!

3 you. 3 you. 3 you. Burn is a deck entirely focused around casting as many lightning bolt-like cards as possible. With some cards giving more bang for your buck, but usually situational (like price of progress) the majority come down to 3 damage for 1 card. This deck is just about going as fast as possible for the 20, and making most of your enemy’s spells into nothing. That swords to plowshares must seem pretty useless when I'm not playing dudes!

      Honourable Mentions

Lands, Zombies, Enchantress, Pox, Death and Taxes, Bug, Prison, Cephalid Breakfast, High Tide, Nic Fit, Stax, Solidarity… so many more!

Well that is all we have time for right now.  the second half of this blog will be with us on Friday.  Don't forget that we have the full proxy legacy tournament on Sunday 2nd December and this Friday it is extended for the penultimate time in FNM Relax.  Ta ta for now...