Evil BUG and the common cold

So I get into the office this morning ready to post the blog first thing to find that my PC has malware on it and wont do anything.  Our IT support has to come into the office and system restore the thing to like last week.  When I finally get onto my PC I have a billion things to do and have only now got to the point where I can put the blog up.  Karma's a bitch - if you write a blog about Evil BUGs expect to catch a cold!

Well folks seem pretty interested in Monday’s blog – that might have more to do with the location of the Sheffield PTQ on November 17^th than the content of my article though.  This weekend is GenCon in the states and the Magic world cup will be taking place.  Good luck from Patriot to the England team of Richard Bland, Marco Orsini Jones, Carrie Oliver and Manveer Samra, we are rooting for you guys!  The World Cup has standard, modern and block constructed as its formats and will no doubt highlight new decks and new ideas in this format with the release of M13.

Pick me, Pick me, Oh, Oh, Pick me!

No doubt standard will continue to be dominated by Delver of secrets, I find myself yawning just writing about it!  With the banning of Intangible Virtue and Lingering Souls the field should be more interesting there.  Modern seems pretty dynamic at the moment but modern Merfolk could well be a powerhouse with the new Master of the Pearl Trident.

Forward my minions, forward, kill the air breathers!

However this blog is not about the Magic World Cup but about my pauper deck list for Modern Pauper at FNM Relax on Friday 24^th August 2012.  I have nicknamed this deck “Evil Bugs” as it is based around the evil Phyrexian infect mechanic and uses the colours Black-Blue-Green which is commonly known as BUG.  Without further ado here is the list:

Evil Bugs – Modern Pauper

4 Evolving wilds

2 Teramorphic expanse

7 Forests

5 Swamps

5 Islands

23 Lands

4 Rot Wolf

4 Glistner Elf

4 Blighted Agent

4 Blight widow

4 Ichorclaw Myr

20 Creatures

4 Virulent wound

4 Rancor

2 Doom blade

2 Distortion Strike

3 Ground Swell

2 Mutagenic Growth

17 Spells

Sideboard

4 Spell Pierce

2 Mutagenic Growth

2 Unsummon

4 Plague Stinger

2 Naturalise

1 Doom Blade

Magic is a game about resources and using them to their greatest efficiency.  Everything in the game is a resource be it your cards in play, cards in hand or even your life.  Infect has an instant effect on one of these resources – your life, as it effectively reduces your life total to 10.  Doing 10 damage quickly is easier than doing 20, while mill strategies try to do 60 damage in the same amount of time.

So I kill stuff and draw you cards, what more could you want?

Infect and Rancor is just wrong, your only chance against a fast infect deck is to block its creatures and give yourself enough time to build up board presence that your opponent cannot deal with as there creatures are over costed for their base stats.  Rancor means that your opponents can block but they are still taking those points of poison damage.

Be thankful that you only have 3 months of Rancor and infect in standard!

Virulent wound is a great removal spell early game as it not only kills your opponents small creatures it gives them a poison counter as well all for 1 black mana. 

My favourite infect card other than Phyrexian Crusader.

I played Glen Goldsworthy at GP London in 2011 and he attacked me with a 0/1 Blight Widow.  I had the win on the table the next turn and elected not to block only to find he had a mass of instant buff spells to play on his seemingly harmless spider and poisoned me to death.  The combination of distortion strike and Blighted agent both take away your opponents chance to block anyway.  The sideboard allows me to go a bit more control and deal with my opponents answers to my deadly horde.

Scared of spiders?  You will be...

The worst thing about this deck is its mana base.  Running 3 colours in this format is not easy, multi lands tend to be uncommon or rare cards, and the bounce lands from Ravnica come into play tapped which sets you back by a turn anyway.  Running 6 fetch lands should hopefully answer this and allow me to both maximise my mana base and trigger the landfall ability on Ground Swell at just the right moment.

Landfall - letting you get cool stuff just for playing lands.

So that’s it for this week, next week we will have a look at the action at the World Magic Cup, more details on the Sheffield PTQ in November and a look at my deck list for the pairing of myself and Mark Smith as we take on two headed giant.  This Friday it is standard at FNM Relax, look forward to seeing you there.

Taking a trip to Ravnica

I wanted to approach this blog from a totally new direction to the other ones I have written.  Generally these blogs have looked at deck lists for things I am going to play or possible cards you might want to look at playing in EDH/Legacy decks etc.  Today I just wanted to jump on the speculation band wagon and look to what is happening in the next month or so with the game.

There is an element of excitement in the world of Magic the Gathering.  I remember something different about a year ago with the imminent departure of Squadron Hawk and Caw Blade in general and the up and coming release of Innistrad – the first totally flavour based set which we were told was full of Gothic horror.  Well that all turned out pretty cool – at least until Avacyn Restored when the good guys won and the monsters were forced into the background as we were assaulted by flights of Angels.

No one puts Grisel in a corner!

This time is different though.  Delver of Secrets and his best buddy Snapcaster Mage are not going anywhere in a hurry but rotation will soon be upon us and the excitement is not for something totally new, but for a repeat visit to somewhere that holds a deep fondness for long time Magic players – the plane of Ravnica.

Looking forward to a Fall wedding...

We first visited Ravnica 7 years ago and it is held to be one of the best blocks ever with a great storyline and great cards.  The boards are alight with speculation over what will be in and out of Return to Ravnica (RtR) and I thought I would have a look today on what we do and don’t know and also on what we can make an educated guess about.

You can't mention RtR without mentioning the Shock Lands.  I can see new players looking slightly confused when it comes to player's excitement at lands that come in tapped unless you pay 2 life (hence “shock” land).  

This tomb may be old and forgotten but it is still sells for $25/£16!

The shock lands are not just any old dual land.  Like the original dual lands these possess the basic land types of Plain, Island, Swamp, Mountain and Forest. 

At least we wont have the interaction of this and Primeval Titan in standard...

Therefore a card like Farseek which goes and looks for a Plain, Island, Swamp or Mountain can go and look for a shock land.

If there are no shock lands why not just a reprint of Rampant Growth?

As can Liliana of the Dark Realms +1 ability.  The inclusion in M13 of these cards has been seen as a strong indication that the shocks will return in RtR.  This expectation has also been fuelled by Mark Rosewater’s declaration that WotC are trying to reprint all of the “staples” in Modern – a new format introduced last year which includes all of the cards in the new card format that was introduced with 8^th Edition.

Is this a "Modern Staple"?

The sac lands from Zendikar also go and search for shock lands although paying 3 life for a dual land seems a little steep.  The shock lands are also very expensive on the second hand market which means they are a barrier to people wanting to play in the Modern format.

This is just a really cool name for a land.

Remand is another Modern staple that is highly overpriced for an uncommon card (£4).  The exclusion of Mana Leak in M13 could be seen as an indication that Remand will be reprinted in RtR.  However, it has a very strong interaction with Snapcaster which I find makes it questionable as to this getting a reprint in RtR.

Just when you thought it was safe to play without Cavern of Souls...

Snapcaster Mage and Solemn Simulacrum are both invitational winners cards.  Ravnica: City of Guilds has one of the most famous of these invitational cards in Dark Confident, or as he is more commonly know "Bob" after Bob Maher whose card it is.

"Hi my names Bob, or Bloody Obnoxious Bar... Person of dubious heritage."

Bob does see play in Modern but is more of a Legacy card.  At around £30 each a reprint of him - even at Mythic rarity would be welcomed by many.

One card we are confident will not see a reprint is Life from the Loam.  There are none of the old mechanics coming back and this is a card with Dredge on it.  To go into Dredge is a whole article on its own so lets just leave that one there.

Dredge - actually, technically, not playing Magic at all.

Another card pretty much guaranteed not to be in RtR is Glimpse the Unthinkable, but this solely because of it being a Blue Black spell as Dimir (the blue/black guild) does not return until Gatecrash.

Also known as Jace, Memory Adepts second ability.

Finally on the speculation express I would like to look at Doubling Season.  This card is just great and I love it.  It is a 5 mana cost enchantment which makes it virtually unplayable in standard.  However, it still retails for around £16, because it is an  EDH staple.

It is not how good I am, but how good I make everything else...

Doubling Season would quite possibly see play in the token decks which are currently popular - Hunt-master of the Fells now gives you 2 2/2 wolves when he comes in or flips, and lets not think of the interaction between this and lingering souls!  Having said that there is a problem with Doubling Season and the way it interacts with Planeswalkers - it makes them phenomenal! Doubling Season doubles the amount of loyalty counters that planeswalkers come into play with.  This means that quite often you can ultimate a Planeswalker the turn it comes into play which is usually very upsetting for your opponent.

RtR also brings with it a first for Sheffield.  We have never had a Pro Tour Qualifier (PTQ) in Sheffield before but we have one now!  On Saturday November 17th 2012 we have our first ever PTQ in Sheffield.  Due to the size of the event (there were 153 players at the last one in Manchester) Patriot Games is not really big enough so we have hired a venue for the day, and oh what a venue it is!

4 Star hotel - seems good!

For the first time I can reveal that the venue is the Mercure Sheffield St Paul's Hotel and Spa.  A spectacular ultra modern 4 Star hotel with an exceptional reputation for quality and service.  The format for the event is Return to Ravnica sealed.  If you play Magic in Sheffield and have never been to a big tournament before this is your chance.  The main event will be an amazing experience and the side events will please you and your pocket.  Full details will be announced soon but there will be special room rates and more available - some day all PTQ's will be made this way!

I will be back with more on Thursday this week and a new pauper deck list entitled Evil Bugs. Don't forget this Friday 17th August 2012 is Standard at FNM Relax, hope to see you there.

Black Sabbath and Red Green Agrro

Way back in the annuals of time during the Tempest block I used to play a deck I nicknamed “Mob Rule”.   This was partially because it played the card Mob Justice to kill you after spamming the board with a host of tokens and little critters. 

Oh look I have a bunch of guys - this is gonna hurt...

The other reason for this name drew it’s inspiration from the title track of the Black Sabbath album and I had the words of the song going round my head every time I would play the card with Ronnie James Dio belting out:

“If you listen to fools”

“The Mob Rules, the Mob Rules!”

This album cover just looks like it should be a Magic card.

Now you have a slight inkling of how my mind works, and this influenced my thinking when I first looked at the deck list and began plans to mod it for use at FNM Relax.  Here is the original deck list from the starter:

Mob Rule M13 Intro Pack –

1  Evolving Wilds

8  Forest

15  Mountain

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

24 lands

1  Arms Dealer

1  Bladetusk Boar

2  Dragon Hatchling

2  Fire Elemental

2  Flinthoof Boar

2  Furnace Whelp

3  Goblin Arsonist

1  Goblin Battle Jester

1  Krenko, Mob Boss

2  Mogg Flunkies

2  Reckless Brute

1  Rummaging Goblin

1  Torch Fiend

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

21 creatures

1  Chandra's Fury

1  Cleaver Riot

1  Fervor

2  Flames of the Firebrand

1  Kindled Fury

2  Krenko's Command

1  Ring of Valkas

1  Serpent's Gift

2  Titanic Growth

1  Trumpet Blast

2  Volcanic Geyser

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15 other spells

On seeing this I instantly started to make plans for using mass swarms of Goblins to come screaming across the board to overwhelm my opponent; Goblin Chieftain, Goblin Gaveleer (amazing with the red ring on it), Kuldotha Rebirth, Spikeshot Elder, Goblin Grenade etc.  Mono red goblins in standard again – it’s been a while due to the total lack of goblins in Innistrad but I figured I could build a tribal deck no problem, and then I got to the manabase and stopped.  This deck is not mono red, there are a few green spells in it so it has some forests.  Wolf run ramp and red/green agro have been major forces during recent times so it seemed that using elements of this deck would be a far better way to go and sent me in a totally different direction with the deck.  Red/green has a really good mana base which allows me to use the following:

4 Copperline Gorge

4 Rootbound Crag

3 Kessig Wolf run

2 Evolving Wilds

5 Forests

6 Mountains

24 lands

Block or Die!  No wait, block and still die!

Keeping with my rules of only changing 10 cards in the main deck I decided to remove the following:

1  Serpent's Gift

2  Titanic Growth

1  Trumpet Blast

1  Kindled Fury

2  Dragon Hatchling

2  Reckless Brute

1  Rummaging Goblin

My four mythic slots were easily filled with 2 Primeval Titans and 2 Hunt Masters of the Fells.

Say hello to my little friends!

Being able to go and get these creatures is very handy and Green Sun's Zenith does just that so I added 3 of those.

 Another copy of Krenko, Mob Boss seemed like a good idea as he helps to produce large numbers of goblin tokens and there are still enough goblins to support this. 

What a handsome chap he is.

I also decided to go full in with the creature agro and added 2 cpoies of Strangleroot Geist as my last 2 cards.  Which gives me the following Deck list:

1  Arms Dealer

1  Bladetusk Boar

2  Hunt Master of the Fells

2  Fire Elemental

2  Flinthoof Boar

2  Furnace Whelp

3  Goblin Arsonist

1  Goblin Battle Jester

2  Krenko, Mob Boss

2  Mogg Flunkies

2  Primeval Titans

2  Strangleroot Geist.

1  Torch Fiend

23 creatures

1  Chandra's Fury

1  Cleaver Riot

1  Fervor

2  Flames of the Firebrand

2  Krenko's Command

1  Ring of Valkas

3 Green Sun's Zenith

2  Volcanic Geyser

13 other spells

The only thing I now needed to do was make a sideboard.

2 Acidic Slime

2 Daybreak Ranger

1 Viridian Corrupter

2 Brimstone Volley

1 Beast Within

3 Pillar of Flame

1 Incinerate

3 Cavern of Souls

Red/green aggro/wolf run with a twist.  The Acid Slime is there for those pesky moorland haunts/swords and even birthing pods.  Day Break Ranger is really good at shooting delver.  Viridian Corrupter is a cheaper acidic slime for artefacts. 

Viridian Corrupter/Kessig Wolf Run is a win condition on its own.

Brimstone volley is there to kill things like restoration angel, Beast Within deals with everything but Mirrodin Crusader.  Pillar of flames for those nasty undying guys that wont lay down and a bit of extra burn in the form of Incinerate.  Finally 3 Cavern of Souls come in to make my men counter proof against blue.

This whole thing seems pretty strong and is the closest thing to a top tier deck I have played at FNM Relax.  Don't forget that this Friday 10^th August 2012 is extended, so rummage through those Alara and Zendikar block cards and see what you can find.  Look forward to seeing you there.

Livin' it large at the Magic Weekender!

Before we start I feel I have to mention that I think Mark Rosewater is reading this.  I note that he has stolen the name for his article today “Setting the Standard” from my first proper blog on 5^th July 2012!  Of course there is always the chance that “Setting the standard” is a fairly obvious pun, when you are talking about a game which has a format called “standard”.  Check out MaRo’s article here.

While on the subject of standard I will be blogging my deck list for the standard FNM relax on Wednesday this week but I wanted to do a slightly different approach from previous blogs today, especially as it is “Standard” week on the mother ship. 

On the 9^th June 2012 I decided to give Magic a rest for a while.  I was disillusioned with Avacyn Restored, especially in limited.  I also felt standard had become stale and was not worth bothering with.  I didn’t want to totally quit like I did in 2001, for 8 years, but I needed to get away from it all.  The full story of this can be found in an epic thread on facebook here.  From that decision has come at least to a point, the creation of FNM Relax, which seems to be going pretty well at the moment.

Last Friday we had 14 players for our first FNM Relax Legacy tournament and a great time was had by all (well nearly all Liz and Andrew felt it was still a bit too much for them but they were cool about it).  Apart from one person who didn’t quite get what we were doing, everyone de-powered their decks to produce a positive play experience for those attending.  Congrats to Adam Pollard and his Elves for winning in the final, seems your opponent's Show and Tell backfires when they play Hive Mind and you play Progenitus. 

These two added together spell ouch!

Friday quickly became Saturday and Games Day M13.  This was the first time I was going to a competitive event in 2 months and I really wanted to make top 8 as I wanted the Magmaquake promo (its soooo pretty....). 

Hi I have great art work and I kill things - what more could you want?

I have a thing for enemy colours, most notably green/blue but red/blue is there too.  I liked some of the things Rob Tinsley/Mike Boon and Sam Ro Fi did with their PTQ decks and decided to build my own Mono-Purple Wizards deck. 

Blue and Red make Purple Wizards baby!

I liked the idea of Talrand and getting value in the form of 2/2 Drakes for all the spells you play while he is around.  Augur of Bolas is just a great card for 2 mana, oh and there is Delver of Secrets.  Delver is terrible and easily the worst card in the deck it sits there and does basically nothing until in 4 turns time I can ponder to put an instant/sorcery in the right place so that it flips and someone kills it.  I have now done a search for wizards in standard and will be replacing this card with the infinitely better Wingcrafter in future which actually gives me flying wurm coil engines (oh my),  but I digress.

So much better than Delver of Secrets, here's to flying Wurm Coil Engines!

So I built a deck in my head and posted it on a facebook group to see what people thought, they didn’t get it but their comments were appreciated.  So I called the best person at Magic I know – my son Rob Tinsley and ran it by him, he really liked it but pointed out all the things that were wrong with it and told me to change a few cards and eventually I came to a deck.  So here is the list that I ended up playing and going 3 – 1 with on the Sunday:

3 Cavern of Souls

4 Sulphur Falls

1 Desolate Lighthouse

8 Islands

4 Mountains

20 Lands

4 Delver of Secrets (soon to be Wingcrafter)

3 Augar of Bolas

4 Snapcaster mage

3 Grand Architect

2 Talrand, Sky Summoner

2 Wurmcoil Engine

18 Creatures

2 Pillar of Flames

4 Vapour Snag

2 Mutagenic Growth

4 Ponder

4 Mana Leak

3 Rune chanter's Pike

2 Brimstone Volley

1 Devils play

22 Spells

Sideboard

2 Pillar of Flames

3 Gut Shot

3 Spellskite

1 Batterskull

2 Ratchet Bombs

2 Smelt

1 Grand Architect

1 Brimstone volley

The results were very good, I dropped turn 3 Wurm Coils, I swung with 11/7 first striking Wurm Coil engines, I got value out of my Grand Architect when it got Vapour Snagged back to my hand by tapping it for mana and playing a Pike.  I even got to beat Mike’s Delver deck 2-0 in the Swiss on Saturday (you know the guy who runs FNM Elite)!

This card has value - tons of value!

I only lost on both days to Grzegorz Fils, in the top 4 on Saturday and in the final on Sunday – I just couldn’t beat his deck before he dropped Elesh Norn and ruined my day!  Never mind if I get rid of that terrible delver thing I can make all my guys flying and kill all his men with my Magmaquake – seems fitting. 

Hello my name is Elesh.  I'm the personification of evil in white,

and I am going to ruin your day...

Thanks for reading will be back with more altered starter deck fun for FNM Relax in two days, and don't forget its extended this Friday – see you there.

Gold, Goals, Gadgets and Games Day

As you may have heard there is an Olympic games going on in London at the moment.  Like it or loathe it you can’t ignore it.  Every newspaper, news programme on the telly and general website of topical information is splattered with headlines about who did or didn’t win this or that gold medal (at this point the UK have won 2 Gold’s and 9 medals total).  It takes tremendous dedication and fanatical devotion to your sport to be an Olympian – winner or not.

Each competitor in the Olympics has a distinct goal – to be the best in the world at what they do, none of them compete to come second, and they want to win.  Ultimately in Magic we have the same goal, although we have the same goal but recognise there are stages we need to go through in order to get there – winning FNM, winning your first draft, top 8 in a PTQ, winning a GP, going to the pro tour all of these are steps along a very long road to achieving your goals.

In Magic we have an ongoing record of where we are at in relation to our various goals in the form of Planeswalker points.  These were introduced in September 2011 and replaced the old system of ranking.  The original announcement and information can be found here.  Wizards of the Coast have announced today on the mother ship that they are introducing a new gadget to go with your planeswalker points in the form of achievements.  Gamers like achievements, Microsoft realised this and have made it a key part of all games on the Xbox (including Duels of the Planewalkers, but I guess you knew that).  Now your planeswalker score card has a series of McDonald’s style slots for you to put your achievements into like this:

Initial details of this are available here, but the best bet is to go and view your own by inputting your DCI number here.

All of this brings me to M13 Games Day which will be taking place this weekend on Saturday and Sunday.  Firstly one of the achievements involves playing on more than one day/night at your local games store.  This weekend you have the chance to play Friday/Saturday/Sunday and kick-start your achievement rampage with a “quick hit”!  Patriot games have a pretty sweet games day format, we do both a standard tournament and a draft all for a mere £10 and there will be prize support for the draft.  As mentioned earlier in the week everyone gets a Mwonvuli Beast Tracker promo and top eight get a magmaquake promo which is both foil and very pretty.

The winner of games day will get a play mat with rather fetching Nicol Bolas art work and the fact you are game day champion emblazoned on it.

Games Day has a x2 multiplier for planeswalker points and tends to be pretty competitive but don’t let that put you off – always a good time to try that top tier deck out on people who will really appreciate it (delver anyone).  As a result I will not be putting my deck list up as I don’t want people to know what I am playing!  So here’s to a great weekend of Magic – I have already taken Monday off to recover.  Look forward to seeing you there.