Patriot Games

Thursday 30 May 2013

Modern Living

So time has been a thing this week, there has just not been enough of it!  As a result this blog will have to be relatively brief and to the point.  I am still considering all of the ramifications of the rules changes announced last week.  I like the idea that you can't kill peoples generals in EDH with a clone spell, I also like the idea that Legendary creatures will be more playable in other formats.  Olivia is going to be a house from July 13th until she rotates out at the end of September.

Fear me mortals!

However the changes this will bring to Modern and Legacy may not be so welcome as the ability to abuse multiple Mox Opals may well show.  As for the change to Planeswalkers I am less than happy with the idea.  I suspect WotC reasoning behind it.  The introduction of the mythic rare in Magic helped to push the Planeswalker cards to new heights.  However, in recent times Planeswalkers have lost their shine somewhat and are not holding their value or seeing play like they once were.  The idea of them being able to exist on both sides of the battlefield at the same time may well push them back into the limelight.

I have a foil one of these, still doesn't make me want to play it...

Anyway before I get side tracked this blog is about Modern Masters which we have been seeing spoilers of all week.  I have great pleasure in announcing that there will be drafts happening next weekend at Patriot Games Sheffield of Modern Masters.  The will begin at 10 am on Friday 7th June 2013 and will fire off as we have a pod of 8.  There will also be a Modern Masters draft at FNM that Friday instead of the normal Return to Ravnica draft.

There will then be pre-arranged drafting of Modern Masters in the Gardner's Rest from 12 midday on Saturday - if you are wanting to take part in these you will need to "book" and give me your money on the Friday at the latest so that I can sort out the product with the shop.  

We will then have more drafting from 11 am on the Sunday at the shop again.  The drafts will cost £15 each and there will be no prize support, however the reduced cost of entry and the many wonderful things inside the boosters more than make up for this.

Please note you will not be able to leave the draft with any product until you have played at least 1 round of draft and the product will remain the property of Patriot Games until that time.  If you drop from a draft you will not be able to enter any further drafts that day.  So if you open a Goyf and a foil goyf you take the foil one and pass the other to the lucky son of a bitch sitting next to you.

A big thank you to Jim and the guys at Patriot for doing us drafts at this reduced rate, we really appreciate it.  I have to be back at work in a few hours so I am off to bed.  Oh one last thing, thanks to all of you as this will undoubtedly take us past the 10,000 hits mark since the blog started last July!



Monday 20 May 2013

Loading the Silver Bullets...

In case you have not come across the term "Silver Bullet" with regards to card games before I believe an explanation maybe required.  The term Silver Bullet comes from the old Werewolf movies where the only way to kill the wolf man was to shoot him with Silver Bullets.  This makes Silver Bullets a very specific answer to a very specific problem.  This happens in card games all of the time and results in things like Grafdigger's Cage which was supposed to be a silver bullet for Snapcaster Mage/Birthing Pod.


The problem with Silver Bullets is that they tend to be either too good or not good enough.  An example of this is Thragtusk - created as an answer to Snapcaster/Vapor Snag/Unsummon.  It has done such a good job of answering them that no one plays delver in standard and everyone is playing Thragtusk!

WotC have approached their new flagship eternal format of Modern with the Silver Bullet mentality at the forefront in the form of the Ban Hammer.  Following the initial Modern Pro Tour Wizards banned a whole lot of cards in Modern in September 2011, to prevent the turn 2/3 kill scenario of certain decks and the turn 4 Emrakul using 12 post.  Then in December 2011 they banned Wild Nacatl and punishing fire as these were felt to be unbalanced in the format.  We would go on to see more banning in the form of Bloodbraid Elf, Seething Song and Second Sunrise.  Last weekend saw the first Modern GP since Second Sunrise has been banned so Eggs was not on the menu.


The Sun ain't gonna shine anymore.

Magic players abhor  a vacuum and this has made Melira Pod a tier 1 deck and saw 3 of them in the Top 8 of GP Portland.  The question has to be asked if Wizards will now see this as too dominant and  we will see Birthing Pod on the banned list next?


What exactly do you do?  "I combo with Persist!"

One of the other Modern decks of note was Scapeshift - which goes and gets a whole bunch of mountains and kills you with Valakut the molten pinnacle.  Valakut was originally banned in Modern but Wizards decided that as a deck it would be fine.  If Valakut is "fine" I would like them to unban Bitter Blossom and Jace, the Mind Sculptor too.

Die to my mountains of power puny mortal!

Modern is supposed to be the answer to the tricky Eternal format and the Restricted list, but seriously how long do we have to keep paying for the mistakes of Chronicles nearly 20 years ago?  Now, with the imminent release of Modern Masters there is concern as to how much product is actually going to be available in the shops and if there will be any for people to buy.  Also with the 4 cards spoilt so far Tarmagoyf and Dark Confidant are the only ones you actually want to find in a booster and both have been printed as mythic rares.


Patrick's right from now on Bob will be known as Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg. 

Full spoilers do not start till next Monday for Modern Masters but at £6.29 a booster there has to be some concern over the value of the cards and if they are going to get banned as Bloodbraid Elf has already been despite being in the set.

I can't help but feel that the answer is to get rid of the Restricted list and do a massive print run set of Legacy staples and stick with a format which has had all of its teething troubles already.

I'll be back Friday with another blog and FNM this week is Standard, see you then.




Friday 17 May 2013

Crossing Borders...


The blog has had a funny turn this week.  I started to write a thing about Modern and then was told to expect 2 guest blogs so I kind of stuck it all on the back burner and did nothing.  Now, a little later than I expected here is the first guest blog from the one and only Joe Alexander - enjoy I know I did.

5.45

No, not the converted mana cost of my last dragons maze draft, but the time the alarm clock went off on 11th May 2013.  Last season Ian Richardson and myself made the journey to Cardiff to play in an RTR sealed PTQ.  Despite average results a great time was had and we said we would be back.

When word got round of cool trading, a very winnable event and the prospect of a good old road-trip  interest in this season's standard event quickly blossomed and by 6am on the morning of the event we had 13 people heading in cars to Wales. Well we would have if there had not been some technology issues, but by 6.30 we had 12 people heading down to Wales.

I can only report the journey to Wales from the perspective of our car, but highlights included discovering Avril Lavigne on Rob’s Ipod, a rendition of Gangnam style including the riding of an invisible horse and the complete incomprehension of the Welsh language by our resident Malaysian MODO machine Quinton “quinbot” Lip.

Although Quinton was unable to comprehend the need to write every place name twice in a language spoken by next to nobody and the amount of L’s and W’s needed he was able to quickly grasp some of the more bestial rumours put forward about the welsh by the English.

Once at the venue we were able to meet up with the rest off the Sheffield team and get our decks in order. For some members of the team this was easy than for others as Ash had intended to buy some key cards for his deck from a vendor, but ironically the Welsh shop was out of dragons so he spent the 30 minutes before the event trading into a playable deck.

Explaining to the Welsh why our motto is "Winter is coming"!


131 players sat down for round one of the event and after the first round things were pretty even across the team, with success and bad beats in equal measure. At this point things began to go wrong. At the end of round 2 the team regrouped around the room and news started to filter that everyone had ended round 2 with a record of 1-1. The only player who had avoided this was Ian, and Fabian (to nobody's surprise,) was still playing. Ian had found that smashing people in the face with red and green creatures was working as effectively for him as it had for missing team member Jimmy Wild in the month preceding the event.

A crowd began to gather around the only table still playing. Extra turns had been called and the board was close. Team Sheffield's representative, Fabian, playing his humanimator deck had 1 turn to win. With most of his combo in the bin, including an unburial rites and a angel of glory’s rise the odds were against him as he began to flip over cards from his grizzly salvage. A land and 1 of 4 cartel aristocrats in 5 cards.

First card over was a Cartel Aristocrat! 4 cards to show any land card, this would allow Fabian to go infinite and win in extra turns. Second card was a none land,

and the third...

And the fourth...

with encouragement from Rich Fuller Fabian picked up the last card without looking and slammed it onto the table, both he and his opponent knew that if he revealed a land he won the game.

But no. After 4 misses (at odds around 90% of hitting,) Fabian entered the draw bracket.

I feel that I should congratulate Firestorm games at this point. There play space is fantastic, although mainly geared towards tabletop gaming and having a bar at the back of the room is a super touch. It was after round 2 that I had a burger from the BBQ that was out back, and from a player perspective not having to leave the sight for some sustenance was a bonus.

My dreams of top eight (and I must have been dreaming to think I was in with a shot,) ended in round 3 when I was beaten by a stack of bad limited cards.

I should clarify, I was beaten by the 2nd place competitor at the PTQ in London earlier this year with his super synergistic U/B zombies deck. Using Bloodthrone vampire and Corpse Blockade as sacrifice outlets and Diregraf Captain and Blood Artists to gain advantage from the sacrificed creature he is able to loop Gravecrawler deaths for the price of 1 black mana. I did feel like I had a shot in the games we played, but my greed of playing a turn 4 Griselbrand when on 8 life only to have it killed when I could have left up an Azorius Charm showed that there is still gains to be had from playing synergistic decks rather than just powerful cards.

After round 3 some members of the team started to drop out as there left top 8 contention. Unfortunately drafts had not been announced so a couple of hours of trading faced those who had left the main event.

Trading in a new city is a main reason to travel to these events and many people came away with cards that they have not been able to trade for in Sheffield. I managed to build 5 cards closer to my legacy goblins deck by trading away some unplayed standard cards and also got a good portion of a new modern deck after having my last modern deck nerfed. The other advantage of trading in a new city is the little rarities you find that you have not seen before, such as Mark finding a foil Werebear.

Rounds 4 and 5 were the turning point for many members of the team, with people winning more and more, the drafts started so players who had dropped had more to do and the room was becoming a little less crowded and the business end of the event started to kick in.  Ian was still forging a path and Quinton and Rob had also found themselves in a stronger position.

The final 3 rounds saw some heartache for Ian as he lost his Win and in match round 7. The Final round also put Rob and Quinton against each other. After 7 hours of magic it would be back to playing a familiar opponent, who knew the other deck inside out.

A shout out has to be made to Mark, who not only drove one of the cars but also managed a winning record with a deck he had picked up less than 2 weeks before.

Having stayed and picked up prizes (which were heavily weighted towards winning records, which although a good way to encourage competitive play is heartbreaking for grinders such as myself,) we headed into Cardiff to find some food.

Our route took us into central Cardiff on a Saturday night, where there were plenty of sights to keep 12 men interested.

At this point we struck gold.

The Red Hot World Buffet is a hungry PTQ players dream.

I have no idea what this is a picture of...

As an all you can eat Chinese you can fill your boots before the long journey home.

But I don't like chinese I hear you cry,

Well what about Italian,

or Tex Mex

or Indian

or Sushi

With an Ice cream stall

And cake.

Joe Unleashed!


Everyone knows magic players like a 2 for 1, and with its mix of food the Red hot World Buffet offers the ability for a 6 for 1, and as its all you can eat it is a guaranteed blow out.

The bar was also a hit, selling cocktails as big as your head and the colour of screen wash (and according to some people at the table tasting about as good).  The milkshakes come in some interesting shaped glasses, the jelly and waffles taught us an interesting lesson in people proficiency at a variety of skills an Fabian managed to create the world most ethnically diverse sandwich.

Nana bread, with shredded duck, Hawaiian pizza forming the top slice, with a Sushi topper. Reviews were (surprisingly,) positive

Time to head home, but not before our primary school teacher started a game of tag which only ended when a unsuspecting woman got made “it”.

The journey home took a detour over the Severn bridge and at 3.30am when i arrived through my door I was still thinking about the standard breaking decks we had developed on the way home.
I don't want to give away all the secret tech, but i feel safe in saying that if Ian’s master biomancer/ legions initiative deck starts crushing the pro tour you heard it here first.

So we look towards Manchester, hope for the same good turnout and a little more success, and if anyone knows of an all you can eat buffet with a dragon in it let me know...

Thanks Joe for a cracking article - I will be back with the Modern blog and details of Games Day next weekend on Monday.  Have a great weekend and enjoy Pro Tour!


Friday 10 May 2013

A Busy Schedule

So Dragon's Maze is with us and a week of SCG open is behind us.  The new set does not seem to have effected standard massively - Junk Re animator is still THE deck that boasts the best win percentages - it now has Sin Eater main deck to take out those Cremates and other counters to unburial rites. Jund has added Sire of Insanity as its ability to top deck is far better than its opponents and at 6 mana it can cast everything.  UWR has added 3 copies of Ral Zarek - this may mean that he keeps some of his value and for the moment he is at $35 but no one seems to be interested at that price.


Is now a card in case you thought it wouldn't be...

So what is this blog about then?  I'm glad you asked - we are kind of busy for the next month or so in the Magic calendar so I thought it might be a good idea to bring all the stuff together in one place and let people know what is going on MTG wise.  I decided to just list everything chronologically first and then comment on events afterwards:



Date Event
11/05/2013 PTQ Theros - Cardiff
11/05/2013 Monthly win a box - Patriot Leeds
11/05/2013 Dragon's Maze win a box - Chesterfield
12/05/2013 Steel City Magic - Patriot Sheffield
17/05/2013 Pro Tour Dragon's Maze - San Diego Starts 5pm GMT
18/05/2013 Pro Tour Dragon's Maze - San Diego Starts 5pm GMT
19/05/2013 Pro Tour Dragon's Maze - San Diego Starts 7pm GMT
25/05/2013 Dragon's Maze Games day - Patriot Sheffield
26/05/2013 Dragon's Maze Games day - Patriot Sheffield
01/06/2013 PTQ Theros - Manchester
02/06/2013 WMCQ - Manchester
08/06/2013 Modern Masters release drafts
09/06/2013 Modern Masters release drafts
22/06/2013 Invitational Qualifier - Patriot Games Sheffield

So as you can see there is a lot going on in the old Magic scene!  There will be further details on the invitational qualifier in the next few weeks.  The Dragon's Maze game day will have the usual Standard/Draft tournaments each day and will cost £10 for the whole thing.


You need to have scored 300 Planeswalker points in the last year to qualify for the WMCQ - if you are unsure send me a message and I will let you know if you are qualified or not.  I hope to have the full details of Modern Masters drafts soon when we know how much product the shop is getting.

Spoilers due the week before release...

That's all I have time for - hope to be back next week if I have the time.