Incremental Growth

New blog - Drafting with fourouttheforty

2011-04-28T00:53:00.000-07:00

I don't know who still reads this, but you should switch over to fourouttheforty.wordpress.com for new content.

Bonus Assignments

2011-02-08T17:14:00.002-08:00

Bonus Assignments

You are in charge of a group of N workers, and you want to pay a one-time bonus to each of them. The bonus for each worker is an integer number of dollars. According to state law the bonus of the worker who gets the least should be no less than A, but no more than B. To motivate your staff, the bonus of the worker who gets the most should be no less than C and no more than D.

Workers tend to spend their entire bonuses on HackerCola. Each of them buys bottles of HackerCola until he runs out of money, i.e., until amount of money left is less than the price of one bottle. Workers are very individualistic and each of them uses his own money only, so they never pool to buy HackerCola. Unfortunately you don't remember the price of one bottle of HackerCola, but you are pretty sure that it is an integer number of dollars greater than 1.

Since you care about the working class you want to assign bonuses to workers in such a way that there would be at least one worker who would have some money left after buying as much HackerCola as possible regardless of the price of the bottle. Calculate the number of possible bonus assignments that fit this constraint. Two bonus assignments are different if at least one worker gets different bonus in each assignment. Since the answer can be large, calculate it modulo 1,000,000,007.

Input

The first line of the input contains one integer T, the number of test cases. Each of the next T lines consists of 5 integers separated by spaces: N, A, B, C and D.

Output

For each of the test cases print a line containing number of possible bonus assignments modulo 1,000,000,007.

Constraints

T = 20
1 ≤ N ≤ 10⁶
1 ≤ A ≤ B ≤ 10⁶
1 ≤ C ≤ D ≤ 10⁶

Example inputExample output

5
2 1 2 4 5
2 2 4 3 5
1 5 10 5 10
5 5 7 2 3
5 2 7 5 12

Studious Student II

2011-02-08T17:14:00.001-08:00

Studious Student II

You've decided to make up another string manipulation game instead of paying attention in class. Starting with a string composed entirely of 'a' and 'b' characters, you will iteratively apply the following operation:

For a string s of length len, choose indices i and j, where i < j < len. Choose a character c that occurs in the substring which begins at zero-based index i of string s and extends to the index j (inclusive). Replace all characters in s with zero-based index in [i, j] with a single instance of c to generate s'. Set s to be s'.

As an example of sequence of operations consider the string 'abba'. Some of the possible transformations are shown below. The substring being replaced is enclosed in square brackets.

[abb]a → [aa] → a
a[bba] → [aa] → a
ab[ba] → [abb] → a
a[bb]a → aba

The goal of your game is simple: calculate how many different sequences of operations you can perform. As this number can be very large, you decide to calculate it modulo 1,000,000,007. Two sequences of operations are considered different if they differ in length, or if they differ in at least one position. Note that the order of operations is a factor. The empty sequence of operations should be counted as well. Operations can be considered triples of (i, j, c) as described above, and these are the only values used when computing whether two operations are the same.

Input

The first line of the input file contains a single number N, the number of test cases. Each test case is written on a separate line, and contains a string consisting of letters 'a' and 'b'.

Output

Output N lines, with the answer to each test case on a single line.

Constraints

N = 20
1 ≤ len ≤ 60
s only contains the lowercase characters 'a' and 'b'.

Example inputExample output

5
ab
aba
aabb
ababa
bbbbb

Scott's New Trick

2011-02-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

Little Scott recently learned how to perform arithmetic operations modulo some prime number P. As a training set he picked two sequences a of length N and b of length M, generated in the following way:

a₁=A1
a₂=A2
a_i=(a_i-2 * A3 + a_i-1*A4 + A5) mod P, for i=3...N
b₁=B1
b₂=B2
b_j=(b_j-2 * B3 + b_j-1 * B4 + B5) mod P, for j=3...M

Now he wants to find the number of pairs (i, j), where 1 ≤ i ≤ N and 1 ≤ j ≤ M, such that (a_i * b_j) mod P < L, for given number L. He asked you to do the same to help him check his answers.

Input

The first line of input file consists of a single number T, the number of test cases. Each test consists of three lines. The first line of a test case contains two integers: prime number P and positive integer L. The second line consists of six non-negative integers N, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5. Likewise, the third line contains six non-negative integers M, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5.

Output

Output T lines, with the answer to each test case on a single line.

Constraints

T = 20
2 ≤ P <>P is prime
1 ≤ L ≤ P
2 ≤ N, M ≤ 10,000,000
0 ≤ A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5 < P

Example inputExample output

5
3 1
4 0 2 2 2 2
2 1 2 1 0 0
3 1
5 2 0 0 1 1
5 1 1 2 0 0
3 3
5 0 0 1 2 2
3 2 1 1 1 1
5 1
5 2 0 4 0 4
3 2 1 2 4 4
5 4
2 2 1 3 1 4
5 1 0 2 3 3

Startup LetsDivvy puts Craigslist ad for booth babe at college career fair

2010-10-28T13:38:00.000-07:00

A crash course in how not to promote your startup: put a job listing on Craigslist not for your actual company, but for a booth babe to work at a university career fair.

I found out about it this morning. When I went to look, they had edited their Craigslist post with an apology and their actual job posting.

Luckily, the person who sent it to me had the original cached. Here's a screenshot and the original text. Highlights include requiring a bikini and your own t-shirt since Letsdivvy apparently can't afford to provide their own t-shirt. The University of Washington has already given their opinion of this company.

EDIT: David, presumably David Parkinson, the founder of Letsdivvy, has been posting comments to this blog entry and requested that I update my post accordingly, so please check out his comments.

EDIT 2: A staff member at UW has posted a PDF of the original post as well. It looks much prettier than my screenshot.

We're attending the UW Science & Engineering Career Fair tomorrow, and we really want to stand out, so we need your help. We're offering $50 for 5 hours of your time. If you're looking for more, please let me know what your rate is. Please be ready to:
* Get yourself to the UW Bank of America Arena ontime.
* Walk around in a bikini top and whatever bottoms you think would look good.
* Walk around in a shirt that shows your cleavage.
* Talk to students and encourage them to check out the LetsDivvy booth.
* Stand behind our booth and encourage people to come over.

You should bring:
* Full bikini top and bottom
* Shirt that reveals cleavage
* Cute bottoms
* A shirt that we can make a LetsDivvy shirt out of (ideally you can come with one you make yourself). I.e. we don't have t-shirts so it's up to you and us to make a shirt.

This is a real JOB, and there is no funny business. We're a real company looking to attract more attention to our booth.

To apply:
* Please reply to this post with a face and body photo.
* Please send your phone number so we can follow up with you.

Our Product
LetsDivvy is the Internet marketplace for splitting things. It allows you split the cost of memberships, season tickets, and ski passes. We believe it will change the world by making products more affordable to millions of people, and helping businesses leverage fractional ownership to generate additional revenue. We’ve talked to hundreds of people on the street (literally) about this product, and seen encouraging results about people’s desire to use and more importantly, pay for our service. We’re pre-launch, but we’ll be launching soon.

Magic Online PTQ - 6/17

2010-06-20T11:40:00.001-07:00

I went 6-2 in the PTQ this past Thursday evening. Here are the replays:

R1 W vs. Turboland

R2 W vs. Jund

R3 W vs. Mythic

R4 W vs. UB Hedron Crab/Vengevine

R5 L vs. Jund

R6 L vs. Boros Bushwacker

R7 W vs. Next Level Bant

R8 W vs. Turboland

My Jund list

2010-06-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

And if your curious what I'm running:

4 Putrid Leech
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Borderland Ranger
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Vengevine
2 Siege-Gang Commander

4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Bituminous Blast
2 Eldrazi Monument

4 Savage Lands
4 Raging Ravine
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Forest
3 Swamp
2 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Doom Blade
4 Blightning
3 Royal Assassin

Things I'm consdering:
* I'm bringing Blightning in a lot, but I cut different things for it. Against Blue control decks, it's Thrinax, in the mirror it's Maelstrom Pulse, and I certainly don't really want it main deck against dedicated Vengevine decks.
* Royal Assassin may not be correct against Mythic, they may become some other removal spell. It's also kind of difficult to cast.
* Lightning Bolt is for Mythic, but it's not Forked Bolt because I'd rather have Bolt against Red Deck Wins, which is very much a deck online.
* Eldrazi Monument > Sarkhan the Mad in a fight, and it isn't even close. I could see running both, but definitely not the planeswalker over the artifact.

Summary of Standard season

2010-06-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

My Standard PTQ season has been extremely mediocre after Extended season:

Portland: 5-3, knocked out in 4th round of 8
Indy Regionals: 3-2 drop (8 rounds)
Seattle: 3-2 drop (8 rounds)
MODO PTQ 6/6: 4-4, knocked out in 6th round of 8
SCG 5K Seattle: 5-3 drop, knocked out of T8 in 7th round of 9, knocked out of money in 8th

All of these I played Jund, and for monetary reasons, I'd probably continue playing Jund. Plus I think the deck's still the most powerful deck in the format. And I'm more or less +EV in 2-man queues with the deck. Since putting the deck together, my online rating has gone from 1590 to swinging between 1650 and 1730, mostly in the 1690-1700 range. I guess at the height of my Magical powers, I was 1750-1800 in Limited, but still not even close to infinite, but I don't know what the gamut of ratings in Constructed is.

Anyway, I'm very comfortable with Jund and think I can keep tuning it to the metagame and put up good numbers and keep getting better with the deck. I'm not convinced it's super draw/cascade dependent because I know I'm playing very loosely. Will continue on with the PTQ schedule, and should probably get my Limited chops going too: I've drafted maybe 5 times since Standard season started, and all of the drafts have gone terribly!

This summer is the summer I actively get better at Magic, because although I think people regard me as a decent/not bad player, I'm really tired of losing to good players late in tournaments and would like to put up some damn finishes!

Online PTQs

2010-04-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

The eternal quest for a balance between Magic and social life has likely axed another PTQ from my schedule, so I think I'm going to commit to investing more in MODO cards and play in online PTQ's. Here are the ones I think I can do:

Sunday, 6/6/10   7AM PDT
Sunday, 6/13/10   3AM PDT
Thursday, 6/17/10   6PM PDT
Sunday, 6/20/10   3AM PST
Thursday, 7/8/10   6PM PDT
Sunday, 7/11/10   7AM PDT
Sunday, 7/18/10   7AM PDT
Sunday, 7/25/10   11AM PDT

Seriously, I'm going to do every single one of these.

End of the season, and start of Standard

2010-04-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

Extended is over, and I'm pretty sad to see it go. I 6-2'd the last PTQ with Faeries Thopter again, a deck which I've never had as much success as I have this season:

R1 W vs. Dark Depths
R2 W vs. Bant Foundry
R3 W vs. Dredge
R4 L vs. Jon Zoo (Scapeshift Zoo)
R5 W vs. Dredge
R6 W vs. Bant Foundry
R7 L vs. Dark Depths
R8 W vs. Blood Moon Zoo

I made a pretty subtle judgment error against Jon in Game 3 because, knowing that he had Scapeshift in hand, I auto-piloted and presumed that Scapeshift would take away all my life points. However, since he has Mountains in play, he doesn't have enough left in his deck to go for the full amount. The board is me with the Thopter Combo online at about 22 and five mana up, and him with lots of lands, a Knight of the Reliquary and a Scapeshift. He casts Scapeshift, and I tap 3 for Thirst for Knowledge because I think I'm just dead. I don't find Muddle the Mixture, and he sacs 4 lands to do 12 to me. He then plays a Sejiri Steppe to give Knight of the Reliquary pro Thopter Combo and attacks. I can gain 2 life, but I still end up about 1 short. What should have happened is me not tapping 3 for Thirst so I have more life to gain and I don't die. I'm bad.

So this is what my PTQ Puerto Rico season looked like:

EXTENDED Record Deck knocked out?
PTQ Seattle I 2-2 UG Scapeshift R4/8
GP Oakland 3-3-1 Bant Charm Zoo R5/9
PTQ Oakland 5-3 Bant Charm Zoo R7/8
PTQ Vancouver 4-3 Thopter Faeries R5/7
PTQ Boise 5-2 Thopter Faeries R6/7
PTQ Seattle II 6-2 Thopter Faeries R7/8
SEASON TOTAL 25-15-1 (61.79%)

I bested my win rate from last PTQ season, so this was my best PTQ season to date, but no blue envelope and no Top 8 pins yet. I think the deck mattered tons; it was a mix of raw power with it's sick T1 starts of Bob and Bitterblossom, and surprise with the Thopter Foundry combo jammed in there.

My rating is currently 1921, possibly 10-15 points higher if I can successfully hound a tournament organizer to submit a 16K sealed at a convention that I 5-0'd. This month I have two PTQ's, but I cannot attend Regionals and the cut off is the beginning of June. I have to get to about 2020 to qualify for Nats by then, and I'm thinking about booking a ticket and going right now even if I don't qualify. If I don't grind in there, I will have at least another PTQ to grind to add to the paltry three I'm currently slated for.

So I have the lofty goal of qualifying for Regionals off of rating this coming month. I think I'm going to book a ticket for Minneapolis to commit myself to it. If I don't make it, I will go to grind in. That next month will be a Star City 5K and another PTQ, then nothing for the rest of the season until Nationals in August and Grand Prix Portland in September.

I think I'm insane. I asked a couple friends who are in the GP/Magic jet set if I was insane. Response?

Yes (see: anyone who plays magic)

PTQ Boise

2010-03-21T22:14:00.001-07:00

I went to Boise this weekend for a PTQ and played Thopter Faeries again. The only change I really made was make an Island an Academy Ruins, which was never relevant, and make the Negate in the sideboard a third Damnation to shore up the Zoo matchup.

I went 5-2. I lost in Round 6 playing for the top 8, which makes me 0-5 lifetime in such situations.

More relevantly, in Round 1 I'm playing the stone mirror. I win Game 1, and Game 2 I keep a hand with Bitterblossom, Spell Snare and mana and nearly instantly keep. He plays a land and announces Thoughtseize. I think about what he's going to take, and of course it's the Leyline of the Void in my hand.

Huh?

Yup, that just happened. I was so tunnel visioned on seeing a Bitterblossom and Bitterblossom counters (which I thought would matter in the matchup) that I totally forgot to play Leyline when the game started! Of course, that game, he puts together the combo and wins. He wins Game 3 after that too.

I made excuses like that it was the first time I've ever had Leyline of the Void in my opening hand in a match. I don't know if it was my focus at the table or what that made me not think to start with that on the table, but whatever it is, it's probably the reason I'm 0-5 in getting into top 8's.

The rest of the day on my scorepad, in addition to writing "BPV" at the top of the page (ironic because PV doesn't do things like miss Leylines), but under it "SLOW DOWN". I went 5-1* after that abortion of an opening round.

You can console me all you want, but the player I want to be doesn't make mistakes like that.

Anyway, I'm behind the deck more and more now. I really think it beats everything in the format that isn't Zoo. You also have the rogue advantage of people not knowing your deck from the cards you play, tricking people into thinking you're straight up Faeries and then getting off the combo. I'm so behind the deck that I'm considering buying a ticket to Houston for the Grand Prix in two weeks.

* My results if you care:
R1 L Thopter Faeries
R2 W Brozek Deck Wins
R3 W Bant
R4 W Thopter Ironworks
R5 W Bant Charm Zoo
R6 L UW Thopter Control
R7 W Mono Red Burn

PTQ Vancouver

2010-03-09T01:43:00.000-08:00

So I went 4-3 in Vancouver with Matej Zatlkaj's Faeries Thopter deck. I should have probably been 5-2 if I weren't bad at Magic and possibly Top 8 if I had also gotten a little more fortunate in one match, but mostly because I'm retarded.

Anyway, I don't know what to play in Boise in two weeks. I'm expecting a similar metagame to Vancouver: very spread out ,so I'd like to play deck with power. Decks on the radar:

- Faeries Thopter, so long as I don't see a Zoo deck or Night of Souls' Betrayal, I think this deck beats everything else in the format.
- Zoo, also good against most of the format, but I don't have a clue in the mirror, for some reason. 0-2 in Oakland in the mirror, which seems to depend very heavily on deck construction since the game play seems straight forward.
- Into the Depths (GB Depths with Rite of Consumption) - I dismissed this because someone who played it said it wasn't good against random decks in the format, but it is pretty good against Zoo and Thopter Depths.
- Grixis Haterator - I'm willing to give the deck a try after seeing Gavin X-2 with it.
- Loucks Zoo - This deck looks like a great upgrade to Zoo.
- Bant - Also seems like a good alternative to Zoo.

Oakland... and mental blocks

2010-02-17T07:35:00.000-08:00

Oakland was a really fun weekend, hanging out with the Northwest guys I know, old East Coast friends, and making some new ones (at the expense of losing the credit card game mostly).

I ended up playing Zoo. I got a list from Dan Hanson in the middle of the week, started trying it out against some common matchups, and did some tweaking. Dan gave a suggestion on the mana base to help out with Bant Charm, but it ended up not being very good and I got that message from him that it would suck when I arrived back in Seattle on Monday. Oops.

So here's the list I played on Sunday in the PTQ (not certain about the fetches off the top of my head):

Bant Charm Zoo

4 Arid Mesa
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Marsh Flats
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Temple Garden
1 Blood Crypt
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
1 Plains

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Loam Lion
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Tribal Flames
4 Path to Exile
4 Bant Charm
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard:
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Meddling Mage
3 Damping Matrix
3 Ranger of Eos
2 Extirpate
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Bojuka Bog

Meddling Mage was serviceable, but it may be 4 Thoughtseizes instead, they were pretty bad against Scapeshift.

Anyway, the Grand Prix went pretty badly and isn't really worth talking, except for maybe the guy first round who was very rude to me after we drew and I wouldn't scoop a position he had stabilized. Who scoops Round 1?

The PTQ started out much better, though. Here's a small report.

Round 1 - Faeries (W) He presents 61 cards and when I ask him, he looks through his board and he says I should call a judge. Turns out he put 5x of a card in his deck while building and got a Game Loss. I appreciated him being honest, since I probably wouldn't have asked for a deck check if he had told me it was legit.

Round 2 - Teachings (W) I play against Seattle ringer Martin Goldman-Kirst and blow him out in two.

Round 3 - Boros (W) Kasey Koerber, another local Seattle guy, picked up the deck of the tournament. I knew this before hand but forgot and put him on Teachings and toss back the nuts against him (2 Lightning Bolts and a Path). I beat him in three. I don't think I'd play this deck unless it's a very small tournament that is extremely disconnected from the Internet.

Round 4 - Dark Depths (W) This wasn't a very pleasurable match, as he complained about every answer I had. At the end of the match, his wife came over and he started getting snippy with her. I decided to desideboard somewhere else before things got more awkward.

Round 5 - Dark Depths (W) This game went to three, and in Game 3 he mulliganed to a one-lander.

Round 6 - Scapeshift (L) This is for Top 8, and I lose in three. In Game 2 when he went off, I thought might have played land #6, Searched for tomorrowed, then played a Valakut for whatever reason, and Scapeshifted. I ask him to hold while I try to figure out what the first land he played was, and he got a little agitated in Korean which I didn't appreciate. The only way this is shady is if he has Valakut #2 in hand, but I ask him to flash his hand and he doesn't have it, so I just concede. I'm upset that I couldn't remember the game state well enough and had to put him through that.

Round 7 - Zoo (L) In with a win again. Game 1 I get burned out. I think I could have put him to two the turn before he plays two burn spells since that required him playing a Red dual land untapped, but I'm not sure. Game 2 I have to mulligan and draw zero Knights of the Reliquary to his two. Things get bad when he draws Jitte, and I have to quadruple block to kill one of his Knights and Bant Charm the other, leaving me with a Kird Ape (which should have been dead but he chose not to pump his Knight with the other as much as possible). The board is now him with a Jitte with counters and no cards in hand, and me with a Kird Ape and no cards in hand. I'm at about 9 and he's at 18, but at that point I couldn't ask for a better board. I really want to draw a Knight or my last Ranger of Eos or a Tarmogoyf or a Jitte, but my deck gives me lands and a couple of chump blockers once he draws a guy and Jitte's it up.

Round 8 - (Scoop) The top four tables draw, but I get paired up against Gabe Carleton-Barnes, a former Portland ringer transplanted to the Northeast. I scoop him in after seeing the four draws and there being zero chance of me getting lucky. It's like letting someone on the road change lanes ahead of you; you do it because you'd like someone to do that for you in the other situation.

This season makes one Grand Prix, and two PTQ's. My record is now 10-8-1 (10-7-1 if you don't count concessions.) That PTQ also makes me 0-4 in matches where a win puts me in Top 8. I don't know if this is because of skill level or I'm playing worse in the moment. I know against Scapeshift I kept a pretty bad hand Game 2, and by bad I mean awful: 2 Meddling Mages, 1 Qasali Pridemage, Forest, Hallowed Fountain, and some other card. I thought I could cast Meddling Mage, but I'm actually just retarded. And I already talked about my possible mistake in Game 1 against Zoo.

The fact is that in four shots at top 8, I haven't gotten there once. Hell, I'm measuring myself by shots at top 8 and not even pins. I think I just need an IV of ice water with me to calm me down, even though this time I didn't feel nervous, but maybe a little less risk-averse than usual.

I may play this list next weekend, but it depends on how much of a deck Elves will be. If not, I've got a great Faeries list I can get my hands on that would be excellent for such a metagame.

Ruthlessness

2010-02-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

I was bored on the plane Sunday night, my iPod was dead, and I didn't really feel like reading the book I had brought, so I scribbled at the top of a piece of paper "Fearless Magical Inventory 2010".

One of the things I wrote was that I'm not ruthless enough anymore, if I ever was. I don't find it pleasurable when players pout and complain about losing matches, so it almost gives me an excuse to not win. I feel like I should look forward to such situations, if my goal is to win.

It became very apparent last night in the finals of a draft at First Pick. My opponent was at three with a Sea Gate Loremaster active with another Ally. I ship the turn, and he draws a card, and then realizes his mistake and asks to activate Sea Gate Loremaster. I didn't really care, so I let him. He draws utter gas off of it and I get blown out from there.

Obviously I was upset, and I justified it to myself by thinking that I don't really care about getting more Magic packs, and that the stakes weren't that high. I was about to blow up when he wouldn't shut up about how nice I was, when in fact you probably shouldn't even ask for takebacks in the first place, but I just kept my mouth shut. I got over throwing temper tantrums when I was about 13.

Anyway, that incident is an absolute wake up call for me as a Magic player. I like the game, but I like it more when I am winning. I stay with the game because I still think I can win more often than I currently am, and being a nice guy to worse players won't help me win more.

I'll try to flesh out Fearless Magical Inventory 2010 more. It's definitely harder to come up with things, but I know for a fact that I'm hitting a wall.

Preparation, or lack thereof

2010-01-28T10:33:00.000-08:00

I have two weeks until Grand Prix Oakland, and I've been playing very little actual Extended matches. I haven't even been doing side-by-side testing, because of a lack of faith in it. When you can't figure out how Dark Depths beats Scapeshift when it's supposed to be a very good matchup according to people who actually play Magic, or similarly when you think Faeries can beat Burn, your methods may be flawed.

Also consider that there are a MILLION viable decks, unlike Standard where Jund was the big bogeyman and I was basically trying three or four decks to see if they beat Jund. I've come to the conclusion that if I pick out a top tier deck and come armed with a solid sideboard, I can do fine as long as I like my deck.

Add to the fact that Worldwake may not have added many cards to the format, except maybe the new Wasteland which only really nerfs Scapeshift, and I can just use the current metagame to figure out what the most powerful decks are.

I'm proxying four or five decks I could conceivably play:
- Steppe Lynx Zoo
- Faeries
- Aggro-Scapeshift
- Thopter Depths
- Red Burn

I'm bringing them with me to the prerelease this Saturday pretty early and battling anyone who will battle me. In fact, I'll probably be going to a lot of events just with these decks battling anyone who will battle me. I'm not interested in collecting data, but instead just finding a deck I "like", and figuring out how matchups go. I think all these decks are the most powerful decks in the format, it will just be a matter of getting comfortable with them and knowing the interactions.

I'll probably end up purchasing the cards for ALL of these decks and bringing them to Oakland and then making a metagame decision and adjusting my sideboard accordingly. Maybe in the meantime I will stumble upon a brew I like that has good matchups against most decks in the format and that people won't have a clue about, ala my Naya deck last May for the Grand Prix. (I went 16-5 with that deck that weekend. One poor match away from top 8'ing the PTQ!)

I've said it many times, but Constructed is hard...

Tracking and evaluating your performance, or lamenting over bad results

2010-01-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

A couple times today I started to write depressing pieces about how awful I am at Magic and how frustrating Constructed is. (For your information, I went 2-2 in the PTQ and 1-3 in the subsequent GPT with Scapeshift. My commentary will only be speculative, ask someone who actually did well.) I asked myself the question "Am I actually doing well in PTQs", and decided to track my performance.

I accumulated the records in all of the PTQs and Grand Prixs that I have participated in. That would be 23 PTQs and 5 GP's. Here are my results:

PTQ Yokohama (T1.x) - 1 PTQ, 3-3-1
PTQ Valencia (TSP Block Constructed) - 2 PTQs, 1-6
2007 Total - 4-9-1

PTQ Hollywood (T1.x) - 3 PTQs and 1 GP, 17-13
PTQ Kyoto (Shards Limited) - 4 PTQs and 1 GP, 14-20
2008 Total - 7 PTQs and 2 GPs, 31-33

PTQ Honolulu (T1.x) - 5 PTQs and 1 GP, 10-12-5
PTQ Austin (T2) - 3 PTQs and 1 GP, 16-13
Grand Prix Boston (M10 Limited) - 11-4
PTQ San Diego (Zendikar Limited) - 4 PTQs, 15-10-1
2009 Total - 12 PTQs and 3 GPs, 52-41-6

Unlike the Magic meme that went around a while back, I didn't put down what Top 8's I've had or anything like that because I don't have any. If out of dumb luck I were to Top 8 a major event and they asked me my major finishes, I'd write down "I've won FNMs" and that wouldn't be facetious in any sense.

I crunched the numbers for 2009 to look for any indication if I were "due" for a PTQ Top 8. Under the very strong assumption that a 52% win percentage is valid for every round of the PTQ, and that to Top 8 a PTQ you must win the first 6 out of 8 rounds (and ID twice) or otherwise win 7 of 8, I'd top 8 a PTQ 4.9% of the time, or once every 20 PTQs. Crunching these numbers further, the probability of not making a single Top 8 in the 12 PTQs in which I participated in 2009 is 54%. (For fun, the probability under such assumptions that I could win a given PTQ is 0.7%.)

The conclusion? Yes, I am getting better. I have played in more PTQs and Grand Prixes, and I have won more every year. I am still a mile away from Top 8'ing a PTQ. I think people (at least ones I'd consider friends) think I'm a competent Magic player, but would you have considered the Seattle Mariners a competent baseball team this past season?

Another alarming conclusion is that in 2009 my record is better in Limited than in Constructed. Maybe it's because I can afford to draft for fun on paper and online because of getting to collect/sell paper cards and because I'm close to breaking even drafting online. I guess I really need to re-evaluate my Constructed preparation.

My next major tournament, besides any GPT's that pop up in the area, will be Grand Prix Oakland in six weeks. I'm not sure if it will be more beneficial to take a break from Extended and Magic for a while or if eating and breathing more Extended will help me get there. The last two Constructed events I had the benefit of Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations on the East Coast to spend sitting on my computer bashing decks together on my computer. Without those now, do I start my preparation now, or figure out how to work smarter and not harder?

Quick hits

2009-12-13T00:48:00.000-08:00

I've been out of the country for a family issue, but I have had my laptop and been able to do a little bit of testing. Here's what I know so far:

Tezzeret is really freaking hard to play! For a million dollars, if I had to correctly cast Gifts Ungiven, I wouldn't be able to do it. Heck, for $100 if I had to split Gifts Ungiven correctly, I wouldn't be able to do it. Trinket Mage and the Transmute cards are also really hard to play because you can get so many things, and depending your list, if you misuse one of your tutor targets, you're screwed for the game. My plan is to proxy the deck up and just goldfish it tons to see what the plays are, without the pressure of real game situations.

Other than that, it seems like Rubin Zoo is the deck to beat, and I'm leaning toward something that outraces it. Probably not Steppe Lynx Zoo since that version of Zoo actually makes Punishing Fire pretty good, but more like the bogeyman from two years ago: Dredge. Tuning that deck will come to guessing how much hate people will be packing in their maindeck and adjusting the Dredge maindeck appropriately. For example, I think I want Darkblast to have some kind of answer to Gaddock Teeg. If I think people will be packing Ravenous Traps and Leylines, however, maybe I'd be better off playing Rubin Zoo or Tezzeret.

I also haven't touched sideboards yet. It seems that you can tune your sideboard to beat any deck in the format. Again, comes down to guessing what the metagame will be and what other adjustments decks will be making between now and the first PTQ (which happens to be Seattle this season!)

Still plugging along...

Let's talk about Extended and Testing

2009-12-07T11:09:00.000-08:00

I went 5-3 at States with Bram Snepvanger's Boros list. I was happy with the deck excpet that I'd probably make the Burst Lightnings into Earthquakes, which may necessitate swapping Teetering Peaks for Terramorphic Expanse to make my dudes more likely to live through it, but I like Kor Skyfisher too much to take it out for something else in that case.

One thing I'd like to do more of at the beginning of the season for Extended is side-by-side testing to play both sides of the matchup. It was great for learning the format because instead of trying out one deck for yourself at a time, you're trying out two. It's also important to know how the other deck plays to read into your opponent's plays. A valuable piece of advice I read back in the day on, believe or not, Team Academy was about how the writer (probably Andystok) couldn't beat a certain deck, so he switched to that deck and bashed it tons. Then he couldn't beat a deck that beat that deck, so he bashed that tons. But, then couldn't beat his original deck, so he switched, but now he could beat the deck he originally couldn't beat since he knew how it played and what it cared about.

Switching decks in playtesting is also a good idea for learning the format. It also takes the playskill skew out of the picture if you really want to learn what the matchup is actually like. But the common playtest partner will probably be reluctant to switch since he'd rather get as many games in with his deck than a deck he isn't going to play. With side-by-side testing, there is no skew. Even though you've seen the other hand, it makes you ask the question if playing/not playing into something is worth it.

I could also go as slow or as fast as I wanted when figuring out lines and plays, and I could learn about the matchups I cared about, rather than whatever the person at the store with a deck was battling. A lot of times I'd make a play from the other side of the Boros deck, and then switch windows to my Boros hand and blow him out the next turn, so I'd back up and make a tighter play and see if would change the outcome of the game.

Other logistical considerations for side-by-side testing is that coordinating games and playtest sessions is a pain when you or your playtest partners have real life to juggle, the awkwardness of discussing over MWS, and the time it takes to proxy up paper decks for live testing. I think I'd consider traditional live testing more of practice and side-by-side testing true testing and experimentation and discovery. I'm going to have a lot of time this week to bash the Extended decks from Worlds against each other, so I'll probably be keeping tabs here about what I learn.

For those interested, my gauntlet is Tezzeret, Rubin Zoo, Dredge, Hypergenesis, and All-In Red, as these were the decks that put multiple people into 5-1 at Worlds. With the exception of All-In Red, off the top of my head, I think these also all had representatives in the 6-0 bracket. The other decks I'll try but not necessarily consider part of the litmus test for other decks are Bant, Scapeshift, Dark Depths, UB Faeries, UW Control, and Mono-Red Burn.

Fear of Constructed

2009-12-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

When I sit down for most Constructed tournaments, I have a fear that I don't have in Limited tournaments.

Bad matchups scare the crap out of me. When your opponent can play his first land and you know you've only got a 40% chance of winning this game, that scares the crap out of me.

When your opponent can play a card that just ruins your entire plan like Kataki, that scares me.

When your opponent draws more relevant cards in a mirror match than you and you just lose, that scares me.

I've never had the same confidence in Constructed as Limited. In Limited, your decks are much more even, and you can plan for bombs, and you can attack and block, and you'll hardly ever be surprised by card choices. In Constructed, so much work happens before you sit down and draw any cards.

Tomorrow I'm playing Boros Bushwhacker at State Championships. I think I'm even to a slight favorite against Jund since you can blow them out and their mana can be really awkward, even though I am declining on Goblin Ruinblasters since I don't think deck can reliably get to four mana on turn 4 (the only turn where it's really good). The deck's also really good against GW strategies that try to beat Jund since you're just faster and they rely on Noble Hierarchs which you can burn. I really don't see an edge in the Jund matchup, and I've been playing that online since it came out. I like Boros because it can feel like a combo deck like UR Dragonstorm back from Standard. I've played a lot of games in side-by-side testing with it, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

I think afterwards I'll evaluate my preparation for this tournament and figure out what needs to change for Extended season. As of right now, I really prefer side-by-side testing to random playtesting since you can be much more methodical with what matchups you want to test and what data you want to collect, rather than being at the mercy of the person in your group you're playing against getting bored with a deck or wanting to battle the deck he's already decided on. I also like being able to backup and revisit different lines of play that you don't understand without bogging down a playtest partner.

Bobbie McRae

2009-11-24T19:59:00.001-08:00

I grew up in Raleigh, NC, and my weekends in high school usually included time at All Fun 'n Games in Apex, NC. Now, I sucked. I couldn't draft for the life of me, played loose as hell, and only came out ahead in Constructed because I was playing better decks than half the room since I used the Internet.

A fixture there was Bobbie McRae, one of the two women who ran the store. I went off to college a million miles away, but on my breaks home would find time to make a visit and draft, and Bobbie would always be excited to see an old familiar face.

I hadn't been to the store for probably the past year since my trips home had been much more serious with the health and the passing of my father, but I recently got a message from an old Magic baller friend from this time period about playing Two-Headed Giant this weekend at AFNG. (The last time he played was four years ago when I was home, he hadn't played for a year, and he asked me to play 2HG with him at the store also! How can I say no to an old friend?)

I went to the site for info about the tournament, and to my shock, the front page had a blurb that Bobbie had passed away this year to a long fight with cancer. I knew she had been sick, but she always seemed so cheerful when she was at the store that you wouldn't believe that she was undergoing treatment if you didn't hear it from someone.

I'm upset that the last time I saw her was probably over a year ago, but if she were still around, I'd thank Bobbie for being a part of my Magic experience and my growing up, and hope that she and those by whom she is survived are proud of her work sharing gaming with a lot of people.

My Grand Prix Wish List

2009-11-24T16:51:00.001-08:00

I guess it's almost Christmas time, so here's my Grand Prix wish list for 2010. The entire 2010 schedule is here. These are the one's I'm probably making plans for:

Feb. 13-14 Oakland, CA, T1.x
April 3-4 Houston, TX, T1.x
June 12-13 Manila, Philippines, T2
Sept. 11-12 Portland, OR, M2010 Limited
Oct. 23-24 Toronto, ON, "Lights" Limited

The North American Grand Prixs are pending the location not being somewhere awful, like GP Tampa or GP Atlanta. Oakland's close, and Houston and Toronto should be pretty awesome places to visit... right?

Random thoughts

2009-11-24T12:35:00.001-08:00

Skill with a stupid pool

"My pool was busted... but it actually took a lot of skill to play."

Someone got upset by this comment regarding the last PTQ. I mean, it's a kind of silly comment to make, but it has some merit. When you're deep in a Limited PTQ, you're going to play against really really stupid pools, pools as ridiculous as yours. So what becomes a factor? Being really bad at Magic. Sometimes the power of your pool will get you into the top 8, but it will happen less often if you suck.

Jedi Mind Tricks

I've also heard talk about Jedi Mind Tricks. LSV said it best in one of the clips from Worlds: it's not as valuable as playing correctly. Trying to "bluff" a combat trick when you're thinking ahead to attacks? Not that valuable if you ask me. You know what is valuable? Not giving away anything so he has no clue what you might have.

Looking weak when you've got a blowout trick? Poker Tells 101: if he's acting weak, he's strong; if he's acting strong, he's weak.

You know what's really more valuable than Jedi Mind Tricks? Learning to attack and block correctly. Or planning out your turns and pacing your spells appropriately. Or finding sideboard cards or unconventional plays that will give you an edge against an opponent's deck in Limited.

I certainly do not work on Jedi Mind Tricks at all. I make too many mistakes on the board that I would rather patch those up than make up for them with such a slight edge. I think you should too, you're hardly flawless. Those situations where it was your only out? Don't get in those situations in the first place!

Sideboarding

So I am an atrocious sideboarder in Constructed. Probably because I'm not very good at building my own decks. I mean, I guess I knew how to sideboard my "Bant Plus" deck since that was my baby for two months before the rotation, but any other net deck, I'm hopeless. I can guess what comes in, but can never figure out what comes out.

The problem lies in that you want a fully functional 60 cards for Games 2 and 3 and not just a pile. With aggro decks, if you're not just taking flat out dead cards, you could be messing with the consistency of the deck: less solid starts. This was the problem with sideboarding with Affinity; if you take out too many artifacts, you're not Affinity anymore.

So what's a player to do? I think you have to consider the role of the cards you bring in and leave in.

- If they're good in multiples or you will just dominate the game if this spell is cast, you want 4 in the deck. You'll start with the card in your seven in 40% if your games, 44% after your first draw, 48% after two, 52% after three, 56% after four, and 60% after turn 5.

- What about 3? 31% of the time you'll start with it in your 7, and by you're sixth draw you'll see it 53% of the time.

- Two copies? You'll start with it 22% of the time, and by your 11th draw, you'll see it 51% of the time.

- And the miser's copy? You'll see it by your 23rd draw half the time. Good luck with that.

Now there are things to be said for tutors and redundancy. Some analysis on mana curve is also probably warranted, so that you can actually cast spells and use your mana. Cascade probably throws things for a loop as well. I think these are the things to think about when you're considering what to take out in a matchup. When considering how to board, I like laying out the deck by mana curve to make sure that I still have a deck, and then thinking about how effective is having 1-2-3-4 copies of a sideboard or main deck card. Sideboarding is super hard for me, so I'm welcome to any other tips.

PTQ Portland damage report

2009-11-23T16:59:00.000-08:00

I opened a good pool in Portland this weekend, featuring such hits as Ob Nixilis, Marsh Casualties, Vampire Nighthawk, Burst Lightning, Disfigure, Hideous End, and double Quest for the Gravelord.

I think I did my deck justice by going 6-2. I lost round 3 in three games. I remember Game 1 was a blowout, and Game 3 I mulliganed to 5 to his 6 and was never in it.

I was knocked out of contention in round 6. I think Game 2 I was blown out, and in Game 3 I kept a two lander and got stuck on two for a couple turns and by the time I drew lands and cast spells, it was too late.

I managed to win the rest. Granted, my deck was pretty darn powerful, but I didn't feel jittery at all and was able to make pretty sound decisions. In Round 2 Game 2 I made an odd play involving a Crypt Ripper in hand that I thought about for a while where my opponent and a spectator were surprised I didn't haste him in there. I couldn't remember the board after the match, but I remember thinking about it for a while and being pretty sure of my decision.

In Round 4 after my loss, we go to Game 3 and I mulligan to 5, and evil thoughts enter my head about another two-in-a-row for me. I have to keep a hand of Gravelord, Geopede, and maybe three mountains? It was pretty bad and I envisioned myself getting blown out. I play a Mountain, he plays a Guul Draz Vampire and thankfully not a Lacerator. I rip a Swamp and play the Geopede. He plays a Surrakar Maurauders. I rip again and draw a Seismic Shudder, which was the most insane thing I could have drawn there. Gravelord, land, Seismic you to put two counters on Gravelord, swing? Absolutely insane.

So I thought I played one of my best PTQ's yet and still didn't make Top 8. I lost to really good decks and they had better draws than I did. I'd hate to play that card, so to speak, but it's hard for me to think back to any mistakes I made. So I think I'm doing the right things, just have to keep plugging away.

No online PTQ this weekend for me probably, since it's family time and all. I've started looking at possible decks for States. Manuel Bucher's Bant deck has caught my eye in the side-by-side testing I've done so far. Seems good against Jund, hopefully it doesn't blow against everything else in the field.

Drafting with fourouttheforty

2009-11-16T23:30:00.001-08:00

So I've been on a pretty hot streak the past week in 8-4's on MODO, with three 3-0's and a 14-4 record in the past seven drafts. I haven't really been trying to force anything, just been trying to play nice with my neighbors and then focusing on my play across the board. I've been trying to do one draft a day, and I've really been working on my concentration: no TV, no web surfing, no music. Who knew when there are no distractions, you play better? If I can keep this kind of focus in Portland this Saturday, I think I've got a shot, because I'm feeling really good about Limited right now.

Here's the last draft I did. I thought my deck was bad at first, but I 3-0'd.

Pack 1 pick 1:
Narrow Escape, Giant Scorpion, Carnage Altar, Paralyzing Grasp, Goblin Shortcutter, Shepherd of the Lost, Swamp, Journey to Nowhere, Emeria, the Sky Ruin, Vines of Vastwood, Ruinous Minotaur, Pillarfield Ox, Turntimber Grove, Gomazoa, Desecrated Earth

My pick:
Shepherd of the Lost - I have no idea if it should have been Journey. This card's pretty darn good though, and I at least think it was between these two.

Pack 1 pick 2:
Hellfire Mongrel, Blood Seeker, Highland Berserker, Hedron Scrabbler, Lethargy Trap, Goblin Bushwhacker, Sejiri Refuge, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, Swamp, Adventuring Gear, Kabira Crossroads, Giant Scorpion, Reckless Scholar, Savage Silhouette

My pick:
Adventuring Gear - I thought about Hellfire Mongrel, possibly also the Scorpion, but I've been in love with Gear so I went with the non-commitment pick.

Pack 1 pick 3:
Khalni Heart Expedition, Trailblazer's Boots, Magma Rift, Grazing Gladehart, Mire Blight, Zendikar Farguide, Swamp, Piranha Marsh, Shieldmate's Blessing, Murasa Pyromancer, Ravenous Trap, Molten Ravager, Cliff Threader

My pick:
Grazing Gladehart - I thought it's better than the 2/1 Cliff Threader, and Green might be open.

Pack 1 pick 4:
Whiplash Trap, Khalni Gem, Hedron Crab, Tuktuk Grunts, Vastwood Gorger, Spidersilk Net, Highland Berserker, Adventuring Gear, Oran-Rief Recluse, Plains, Nimana Sell-Sword, Electropotence

My pick:
Adventuring Gear - Took another Gear, seemed more powerful than the Highland Berserker, but maybe it could have been Nimana Sell-Sword? That's not a very strong signal in my opinion.

Pack 1 pick 5:
Into the Roil, Makindi Shieldmate, Graypelt Refuge, Quest for Ancient Secrets, Tanglesap, Ruinous Minotaur, Spreading Seas, Pillarfield Ox, Mountain, Stonework Puma, Eternity Vessel

My pick:
Into the Roil - This is a pretty powerful Blue card. It could have been Stonework Puma, since that will almost always make the cut to block Bladetusk Boars.

Pack 1 pick 6:
Guul Draz Vampire, Kor Duelist, Mountain, Piranha Marsh, Sky Ruin Drake, Goblin Shortcutter, Spreading Seas, Summoner's Bane, Cliff Threader, Narrow Escape

My pick:
Sky Ruin Drake - Went with the Blue creature to go with my previous pick. Shipped another Cliff Threader, but I really like Sky Ruin Drake.

Pack 1 pick 7:
Khalni Heart Expedition, Archmage Ascension, Seascape Aerialist, Soul Stair Expedition, Shieldmate's Blessing, Shoal Serpent, Plains, Beast Hunt, Hagra Crocodile

My pick:
Khalni Heart Expedition - Most relevant card in the pack, so it looks like we'll be trying a Blue-Green deck. Maybe we'll get some more fixing at play the Shepherd.

Pack 1 pick 8:
Ior Ruin Expedition, Stonework Puma, Plains, Quest for Pure Flame, Savage Silhouette, Hagra Crocodile, Teetering Peaks, Turntimber Basilisk

My pick:
Turntimber Basilisk - I think it's etter than Puma.

Pack 1 pick 9:
Narrow Escape, Carnage Altar, Swamp, Pillarfield Ox, Turntimber Grove, Gomazoa, Desecrated Earth

My pick:
Gomazoa - It's better than the Ox.

Pack 1 pick 10:
Hedron Scrabbler, Lethargy Trap, Sejiri Refuge, Swamp, Kabira Crossroads, Savage Silhouette

My pick:
Hedron Scrabbler - Most relevant card, and I've been playing it a lot, so it might make the cut.

Pack 1 pick 11:
Trailblazer's Boots, Mire Blight, Swamp, Shieldmate's Blessing, Ravenous Trap

My pick:
Shieldmate's Blessing

Pack 1 pick 12:
Khalni Gem, Hedron Crab, Spidersilk Net, Plains

My pick:
Hedron Crab - Are we going to get to Crab it up?

Pack 1 pick 13:
Quest for Ancient Secrets, Tanglesap, Mountain

My pick:
Quest for Ancient Secrets

Pack 1 pick 14:
Kor Duelist, Mountain

My pick:
Kor Duelist

Pack 1 pick 15:
Beast Hunt

My pick:
Beast Hunt

Pack 2 pick 1:
Scythe Tiger, Trapfinder's Trick, Baloth Woodcrasher, Swamp, Shepherd of the Lost, Timbermaw Larva, Jwar Isle Refuge, Beast Hunt, Paralyzing Grasp, Sadistic Sacrament, Burst Lightning, Explorer's Scope, Vampire's Bite, Disfigure, Kor Outfitter

My pick:
Baloth Woodcrasher - There's another Shepherd, but I went with the Green card that we're probably going to play.

Pack 2 pick 2:
Kabira Crossroads, Reckless Scholar, Hagra Crocodile, Goblin War Paint, Mold Shambler, Teetering Peaks, Brave the Elements, Forest, Vastwood Gorger, Nissa's Chosen, Inferno Trap, Kraken Hatchling, Ondu Cleric, Vampire Nighthawk

My pick:
Nissa's Chosen - Best card on color.

Pack 2 pick 3:
Disfigure, Spire Barrage, Kor Hookmaster, Pillarfield Ox, Paralyzing Grasp, Sejiri Refuge, Island, Timbermaw Larva, Scute Mob, Explorer's Scope, Soaring Seacliff, Vampire Lacerator, Quest for the Gravelord

My pick:
Timbermaw Larva - I guess this could have been Scute Mob, but I'm not sold on it yet. Paralyzing Grasp is also playable, but I think the Larva is more powerful than the Grasp.

Pack 2 pick 4:
Caravan Hurda, Seismic Shudder, Goblin War Paint, Crypt Ripper, Narrow Escape, Kraken Hatchling, Soaring Seacliff, Expedition Map, Quest for the Holy Relic, Caller of Gales, Armament Master, Forest

My pick:
Kraken Hatchling - Only relevant card. This deck might be kind of slow, so these guys might save us from getting blow us out.

Pack 2 pick 5:
Plains, Harrow, Vampire Lacerator, Quest for the Gravelord, Hagra Crocodile, Kazandu Refuge, Mold Shambler, Trapmaker's Snare, Teetering Peaks, Cliff Threader, Kabira Crossroads

My pick:
Harrow - Woo hoo, we really needed this one! Now we can splash for stuff like that first pick Shepherd.

Pack 2 pick 6:
Oran-Rief Recluse, Demolish, Kor Duelist, Noble Vestige, Merfolk Wayfinder, Molten Ravager, Grim Discovery, Cancel, Swamp, Beast Hunt

My pick:
Oran-Rief Recluse - Best on-color card.

Pack 2 pick 7:
Scythe Tiger, Magosi, the Waterveil, Slaughter Cry, Swamp, Tempest Owl, Murasa Pyromancer, Hedron Scrabbler, Zektar Shrine Expedition, Runeflare Trap

My pick:
Hedron Scrabbler - I thought Scythe Tiger was playable at first, but it's not.

Pack 2 pick 8:
Vastwood Gorger, Expedition Map, Surrakar Marauder, Teetering Peaks, Brave the Elements, Forest, Torch Slinger, Hagra Crocodile

My pick:
Vastwood Gorger - That's a late Torch Slinger, but we'll stay on color and play the fat that we could ramp up to.

Pack 2 pick 9:
Scythe Tiger, Trapfinder's Trick, Swamp, Timbermaw Larva, Jwar Isle Refuge, Beast Hunt, Vampire's Bite

My pick:
Timbermaw Larva

Pack 2 pick 10:
Kabira Crossroads, Teetering Peaks, Brave the Elements, Forest, Vastwood Gorger, Kraken Hatchling

My pick:
Kraken Hatchling - I like fat, but I've already got one of these and a Baloth Woodcrashers.

Pack 2 pick 11:
Pillarfield Ox, Sejiri Refuge, Island, Explorer's Scope, Soaring Seacliff

My pick:
Sejiri Refuge - Now we can play our Shepherd.

Pack 2 pick 12:
Narrow Escape, Quest for the Holy Relic, Caller of Gales, Forest

My pick:
Narrow Escape

Pack 2 pick 13:
Plains, Hagra Crocodile, Kazandu Refuge

My pick:
Hagra Crocodile

Pack 2 pick 14:
Merfolk Wayfinder, Beast Hunt

My pick:
Merfolk Wayfinder

Pack 2 pick 15:
Scythe Tiger

My pick:
Scythe Tiger

Pack 3 pick 1:
Demolish, Vampire's Bite, Ior Ruin Expedition, Hellfire Mongrel, Zendikar Farguide, Trailblazer's Boots, Zektar Shrine Expedition, Relic Crush, Cosi's Trickster, Bog Tatters, Plated Geopede, Swamp, Kor Hookmaster, Territorial Baloth, Blazing Torch

My pick:
Blazing Torch - We don't have removal, so I picked this.

Pack 3 pick 2:
Adventuring Gear, Greenweaver Druid, Nimana Sell-Sword, Gomazoa, Sky Ruin Drake, Spreading Seas, Journey to Nowhere, Seismic Shudder, Nissa's Chosen, Vastwood Gorger, Guul Draz Vampire, Seascape Aerialist, Pyromancer Ascension, Forest

My pick:
Journey to Nowhere - Since we have Harrow and Khalni Heart and the UW land in our pool, I can splash this.

Pack 3 pick 3:
Island, Giant Scorpion, Khalni Heart Expedition, Nimbus Wings, Vines of Vastwood, Island (FOIL), Shieldmate's Blessing, Shoal Serpent, Windborne Charge, Quest for the Gemblades, Soul Stair Expedition, Trapfinder's Trick, Feast of Blood

My pick:
Vines of Vastwood - Not sure how good multiple Khalni Hearts are, but I do know that this card is very solid.

Pack 3 pick 4:
Ior Ruin Expedition, Kraken Hatchling, Forest, Makindi Shieldmate, Spire Barrage, Tanglesap, Turntimber Grove, Kabira Evangel, Surrakar Marauder, Seismic Shudder, Harrow, Caravan Hurda

My pick:
Harrow

Pack 3 pick 5:
Joraga Bard, Tempest Owl, Mindless Null, Sky Ruin Drake, Kor Aeronaut, Nimbus Wings (FOIL), Lullmage Mentor, Bold Defense, Frontier Guide, Brave the Elements, Plains

My pick:
Sky Ruin Drake - Thought about Frontier Guide, but I think this is better.

Pack 3 pick 6:
Kor Outfitter, Cancel, Welkin Tern, Oran-Rief, the Vastwood, Bog Tatters, Mountain, Beast Hunt, Windborne Charge, Quest for Pure Flame, Scythe Tiger

My pick:
Welkin Tern - Another two drop.

Pack 3 pick 7:
Kraken Hatchling, Ondu Cleric, Grappling Hook, Unstable Footing, Goblin War Paint, Steppe Lynx, Expedition Map, Caller of Gales, Mountain

My pick:
Kraken Hatchling - Grappling Hook's pretty bad.

Pack 3 pick 8:
Shieldmate's Blessing, Shoal Serpent, Molten Ravager, Grim Discovery, Beast Hunt, Mountain, Celestial Mantle, Bold Defense

My pick:
Bold Defense - Messed this one up, should've been Shoal Serpent.

Pack 3 pick 9:
Vampire's Bite, Ior Ruin Expedition, Zendikar Farguide, Trailblazer's Boots, Relic Crush, Bog Tatters, Swamp

My pick:
Zendikar Farguide -

Pack 3 pick 10:
Greenweaver Druid, Gomazoa, Spreading Seas, Vastwood Gorger, Seascape Aerialist, Forest

My pick:
Greenweaver Druid - Definitely playing this to ramp to our six drops.

Pack 3 pick 11:
Island, Khalni Heart Expedition, Shieldmate's Blessing, Shoal Serpent, Trapfinder's Trick

My pick:
Khalni Heart Expedition - Guess it came back.

Pack 3 pick 12:
Forest, Makindi Shieldmate, Tanglesap, Caravan Hurda

My pick:
Tanglesap

Pack 3 pick 13:
Joraga Bard, Tempest Owl, Plains

My pick:
Joraga Bard

Pack 3 pick 14:
Mountain, Beast Hunt

My pick:
Beast Hunt

Pack 3 pick 15:
Caller of Gales

My pick:
Caller of Gales

Here's my final deck. The two hidden cards are 2 Sky Ruin Drakes. I left the second Khalni Heart Expedition in the side because two really isn't very good.

Blazing Torch also stayed in the side since I had removal with Journey and could stay in the game with Into the Roil, and I didn't really want to cut a creature or any of the other spells. I boarded it in against faster decks and decks with cards I really needed to deal with like Bladetusk Boar.

The other card I brought in a lot was Gomazoa for decks that had creatures I could easily remove, like two decks that had Vampire Nighthawk, and one of those decks having a Halo Hunter. I think I should've started it.

MODO event coverage

2009-11-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

Definitely had no idea this existed:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Digital/MagicOnline.aspx?x=mtg/digital/magiconline/whatshappening

Metagame bliss

2009-11-09T16:43:00.001-08:00

Interesting theoretical idea... I tried this on paper, but I messed up my algebra :/

Suppose a simple Rock-Paper-Scissors format with three decks (Rock, Paper, and Scissors) defined by W(RP), W(PS), and W(SR) (percentage chance of Rock beating Paper, Paper beating Scissors, and Scissors beating Rock). These are constant.

To keep this simple, define a perfect metagame to be one where each deck in the format has the same expected winning percentage versus the field. (I say keep this simple because we could determine decks likely to win a tournament with Top 8, which isn't as simple as a weighted average, at least with real examples.)

Now, given the definition of the format (win percentage of all three matchups), which metagames (% of the field for each deck) are perfect? What conditions for a format make a perfect metagame impossible? (Intuitively, a deck that doesn't have a weak matchup is one.) For formats that are not strictly Rock-Paper-Scissors, i.e. for each of the three decks in the format, the sum of the win percentages for its other two matchups is 100%, is a perfect metagame possible?

Go.

My love affair with Ondu Cleric

2009-10-28T12:53:00.001-07:00

And by love affair I mean chance hookup turned into a crazy psychopath who won't stop drunk dialing you. And that I apparently have not been able to get away from despite the mounds of regret the morning after/0-2 later.

But I have all these allies like Turntimber Ranger, Umara Raptor, Oran-Rief Survivalist, and Nimana-Sell Sword! They make each other awesome!

But how often will you draw them with Ondu Cleric? Probably not as often as you think. How often will you just have Ondu Cleric? More often than you think. And how good is Ondu Cleric by itself? Dreadful.

But I opened three Ondu Clerics!

Congrats, you made all your allies Loxodon Hierarches. Too bad Loxodon Hierarch was a 4/4 and Ondu Cleric is a 1/1.

Yeah, I way overvalue this card in sealed. Lifegain doesn't matter as much as I thought it did, especially when it's your T2 that you waste getting it online when it should be Kor Skyfisher or Plated Geopede. Those guys know how to battle, and are worth way more than a few life.

Restate my assumptions

2009-10-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

The PTQ in Seattle was a pretty good day if we're not talking about Magic. The suits were incredible, and the effort even more so as people were scrambling for clothing parts like they were scrambling for Constructed cards.

Magic-wise, I had a deck that I thought wanted to play White for Luminarch Ascension and good White guys, and I decided to pair it with Green for Allies and Turntimber Ranger to go with a Kazandu Blademaster and double Ondu Cleric. I considered Blue if I wanted to slow it down and really focus on getting Luminarch Ascension online, and then there was Red and Black for an extra piece of removal, but I stuck with what I thought mattered in the format and went with cheap beaters. I should post the pool as a MODO file so you can try out building it.

I started out 2-0, but then lost the next match in three and the following match in three also to knock me out. In the deciding matches, I got stuck on mana for key spells in my hand and then proceeded to get beat down. I was pretty sure my hands were keepable, but it sucks so much for me to blame a match on mana screw. A couple of people that I have relayed this sentiment to have said that while they agree using mana screw as an excuse for losing is a trap for getting better, it is a valid reason that you can lose because there were not lands at the top of your deck. I could get over this if I were a much more solid player.

The thing is, I haven't been doing great on MODO either in Limited. I think I overvalue White too much, as I don't remember the last time I didn't play it, nor do I remember the last time I started Red in a Sealed deck. I should try something different, or just start looking at the decks that beat me and re-evaluate what cards/strategies matter.

I want to start playing Constructed, but MODO won't pay out Zen for their 2-man queues yet. I liquidated a ton of M10 planeswalkers and things that are valuable but probably shouldn't be, like Lotus Cobra and Sorin Markov, so I can actually get the lands for the Jund deck. But the price on M10 makes it not worth it to grind 2-man queues yet. States is coming up in a little over a month, so I'd like to start evaluating if there are good decks that can beat Jund cascade. (I think I'd agree that there are decks that can beat Jund, but they suck against other decks.)

Passive cheating with Brian Kibler

2009-10-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

If you haven't watched the Pro Tour coverage, Brian Kibler won Game 5 of his Quarterfinals thanks to his opponent forgetting to destroy a permanent with his Angel of Despair after Hypergenesis. (You can watch Kibler's Game 5 on YouTube, starting at 3:50.)

The issue is that Angel of Despairs comes-into-play ability is not a may, so under the Tournament Rules, Brian is obligated to make sure the trigger is played. A local ringer who played in Austin had a similar situation happen to him when his opponent forgot to draw a card after an Ancestral Vision. In his tournament report, he mentions that he knows it's cheating, but then questions what you would do in his situation. As an extension, what would you do if thousands of dollars were riding on the match?

To be fair, it is entirely possible that Brian forgot just as his opponent forgot. Since it's a trigger, you don't name targets until someone has priority, not in the middle of resolving Hypergenesis. Or he could have known, and under the rules, if that was the case then he cheated for intentionally failing to maintain the game state.

I respect the game like you'd respect the game of golf: if you mess up, you own up to it and the penalty. It's the only way I can justify holding my opponent's to the same standard when they mess up and expect them to play the game honestly the way it is designed to be played. However, if my opponent messes up or is sloppy , the only punishment he can get, as an honest tournament player (and if he hasn't accumulated warnings), is usually a warning. I don't know anything about Kibler's opponent, but I'd trade a warning for a few thousand dollars.

If my opponent forgets to draw a card, he'll get a warning if I decide to call my opponent on it. He's either being careless or was going to try the how-can-you-have-that-many-cards-if-I-have-this-many cheat. And he'd get a warning if you have the heart to call a judge for forgetting to draw a card. Calling a judge for such sloppy play is so tedious and has little reward for you: what are the chances you accumulate three warnings in a match?

Could you modify the tournament rules for Magic to give opponent some incentive for your opponent's failing to maintain the game state? If you forget to draw a card, what if your opponent can call you on it and decide whether you get that card or not? If you forget a trigger, what if your opponent gets to play the trigger for you and Mindslaver-Time Stop you for the rest of the turn? It may require a lot more thought and language to create these kind of rules in the general case, but I don't entirely like to think of what Brian Kibler did in the top 8 (if he was aware of the trigger) as cheating.

P.S. Brian Kibler has ridden the Batmobile before.

Suit up for Seattle!

2009-10-21T10:40:00.001-07:00

Joe Timidaiski is an absolute baller. Despite having to go to a wedding the weekend of Grand Prix: Seattle, he was the brain behind the Northwest Magic community growing mustaches for the largest Magic tournament in the Pacific Northwest in history. And he's at it again.

From the Facebook group:

Hey everyone! Joe T had the AMAZING idea of Suitting up for this weekends PTQ. If you are going to the PTQ, wear your sunday best, and lets bring some class to Seattle Center.

If I ever get on the Pro Tour, I'm bringing a suit, but might as well start now. If you're reading this and attending the Seattle PTQ this weekend, you should totally suit up!

Foraying into Constructed on MODO

2009-10-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

I liquidated my set of Master's Edition II and my remaining M10 packs and ended up with a bunch of tix, so I decided when Zendikar came out I would build a constructed deck. I decided to buy the cards for Jund, so I built this:

4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Broodmate Dragon
4 Putrid Leech
4 Sprouting Thrinax
3 Bituminous Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Resounding Thunder
2 Terminate
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Blightning
3 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Swamp
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Savage Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
4 Jund Charm
4 Duress
1 Pyroclasm
2 Thought Hemorrhage

I didn't have enough for fetchlands, so I just replaced it with 2 Swamps and 2 Forests, and since I haven't played any Zendikar events yet, I don't have Goblin Ruinblasters so I just made them Anathemancers.

I started 2-man queues because there are no Zendikar events until tomorrow. Two-man queues are pretty awesome because you just have to win a little better than half your matches to have positive EV (about 57% right now since they're paying M10 and M10 sells for 3.5 Tix). And there are some really bad budget decks there too (that you might see kids play at FNM), so you can mise free wins that way.

One thing that is frustrating me is the freaking mirror match. I have no idea what the keys are and how to win it. Do you literally just have to Cascade better than your opponent? And freaking Sprouting Thranax, what's the proper way to deal with this guy? I figured that trading Thranax for Thranax is pretty good, Thranax for a Bloodbraid too? No idea. I'm boarding in 2 Thought Hemmorhage and I usually name Bloodbraid Elf if I hit it T4 or Bituminious Blast if I have a guy I don't want to die or something.

PTQ Boise damage report

2009-10-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

I went to lovely Boise, ID this weekend to try and snag an invite. I've done a lot of preparation for Sealed with the boxes that I bought and have a good feel for where a lot of cards stand in the format, and I've been playing pretty well in drafts I've been doing.

The PTQ was just over enough for seven rounds, so you could 5-1 and draw in, and then an X-2 could probably sneak in too. I open a pretty good pool and register this:

1 Steppe Lynx
1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Kazandu Blademaster
1 Kor Skyfisher
1 Cliff Threader
1 Kor Hookmaster
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Makindi Shieldmate
1 Reckless Scholar
2 Umara Raptor
1 Pillarfield Ox
2 Windrider Eel
1 Living Tsunami
1 Seascape Aerialist
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

2 Burst Lightning
1 Explorer's Scope
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Summoner's Bane

1 Teetering Peaks
1 Soaring Seacliff
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Mountain
7 Plains
7 Island

I had a Cancel and a Seismic Shudder to bring in from the board, and I was taking out Cliff Threader most of the time when I would board one of them in.

I actually drew my first round of the day against a local, who didn't seem awful but was playing awfully slow. At the beginning of the day I decided I was going to take some advice Alex West had given me and take my time, because getting a slow play warning and getting a draw is less bad than making a mistake and losing a match. I was taking my time, but my opponent was playing very deliberately and tanking too, and we ended up starting Game 3 with less than 10 minutes to go. We end up drawing, but it was a little ironic because while a draw sucks, I was in a very bad position in that game.

In Round 2 I mess up a race by messing up my math and losing to a crackback when he draws a land off the top for Landfall. I wasn't going to get knocked out by a loss, but I realized that I needed to tighten up right then. In Game 2 I was able to get double Umara Raptors online and a Windrider Eel active and won the race. Game 3 I won with Jar Jar Sphinx.

Round 3 I lose to Veen, who's a new Portland player, where I auto-pilot in Game 2 and let a Kazandu Blademaster resolve with Summoner's Bane in hand and mana up like I had planned before I shipped the turn. As scrubby as it sounds, I got distracted when he asked if he could use one of my dice as counters, and he puts the counter on and ships the turn while I stare at the counter in my hand. I ended up wasting a Burst Lightning in hand on it which could have ended up doming him out in a race.

At this point I realize I can't lose again. I had three carmates still in the tournament at X-2, so if I get paired down, I have people that will scoop to me, and I can ask for scoops anyway if I get paired down, which wouldn't happen for the rest of the day. In Round 4 I win a match in three and felt really really nervous and excited toward the end of the match even though I was winning a race that I probably couldn't lose. I don't think it made me play worse, but I definitely wasn't comfortable, so I tried to calm myself down between rounds. In Round 5 I play against a guy who punts Game 1 to me when he tries to Windborn Charge in combat instead of in his main phase (since it's a sorcery) that I would have been cold to. I win the second game when he stumbles on mana.

In the match that knocks me out of contention, I get blown out Game 1 by by Allies on Turns 2, 3, and 4. Game 2 is a blowout in my favor with double Umara Raptors and a mountainwalking Cliff Threader. In the third game, I was trying to race with a 3/3 Umara Raptor. I'm able to make some double blocks resulting in trading up with his guys, but his removal leads to a board where I have a 2/3 holding off three of his 2/2's with me at 11 and him at 9 and both of us drawing off the top of our decks, meaning someone's going to get lucky to win this game. He draws a Hideous End to kill my guy and then beats me for 3, and I lose the next turn. There was one play where I had a Reckless Scholar block a 4/2 because I just didn't want to take 4 damage and go to 7. It felt like it'd be too low a life total and if he draws much more removal I'd lose the game sooner as opposed to trying to loot probably only once more.

In the last round I blow out my opponent with Jar Jar Sphinx both games. I end up in the top 16 and earn a draft set. Mike Dipetrillo from our car top 8'd along with three other Northwest ringers, but he decided the Top 8 of a Pro Tour Qualifier was a good time to experiment with Hedron Crab. Still, he deserves congratulations for his first Top 8.

I started playing better toward the end of the day. In the second to last round where I got eliminated, I felt down after Game 1 and at the beginning of Game 3 when I thought I was going to lose and started feeling excitement when I thought I was going to get out of that match and had good board position, whereas I'd rather just be able to concentrate on the game. I feel I'm getting closer to being capable of making the top 8 of a PTQ. Winning an M10 Daily Event and then Day 2'ing and winning my first draft at Grand Prix: Boston at least showed me that at the very least I can get lucky and succeed, and has given me a little boost of confidence in my game.

It sucks to not top 8 with a deck that seemed really solid, especially since at the next PTQ in Seattle I'll need a deck that can win 7 of 8 matches (or even 8 of 9 matches) to make it to the draft. Of course, your only responsibility in any tournament is to win your next match, so I just hope I win Round 1 next Saturday.

Sportsmanship in Magic

2009-10-15T09:09:00.000-07:00

Claim: There is little to no sportsmanship in competitive Magic.
Claim: This is bad.

I used to think I was a good sport. In high school and my first year of college, the only time I got to play Magic competitively was at FNM and weekly tournaments, I didn't have the heart or the means to start PTQ'ing to the extent that I do now. I had a habit of shaking hands at the end of every match. I guess people at my store thought I was a class act, since I wasn't that good. (All Fun 'N Games in Apex, NC and Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh, PA for the random plug/Google hit.)

Then one FNM in college, I'm playing this guy from a group of friends from the dorm I lived in. I didn't particularly like this group because they were weird and just wasn't my kind of crowd, and I guess they didn't like me either because a friend who was invited to draft brought me along and I played the role of the ringer. Nonetheless, I'd like to think I was still respectful at the table. Anyway, it's Constructed and he's playing a Stuffy Doll-burn deck (before Skred), and I'm playing Dragonstorm. Game 3 he basically gets manascrewed and I get there. I extended my hand, and he gives me an absolute stink eye. "It's not fun to get manascrewed!"

To me, I offered the handshake gesture to thank him for playing the games of Magic with me, because I really like playing Magic, so I was offended. It wasn't like I just typed in "GG" before the winning play. But whatever, I don't like offending people, so from then on, I never offered my hand after a win but only after losses.

But there are people that don't even do this! They just acknowledge the end of the game, sign the slip, and leave. Maybe they think they didn't deserve this? Of course they deserved it! Either A) You made mistakes to cost you the game, or B) their draw was supposed to beat your draw, regardless of whether they made mistakes or not. Sure, people don't like losing to worse players or people who make mistakes, but it happens, and Magic will never change to the point where this cannot happen. Now I can understand at an FNM or friendly draft not extending the hand if the stakes are not particularly important, but at a PTQ or GP against strangers, for god's sake, offer your hand when you lose at least!

Another thing I hate is people complaining way too much about games they lose. I don't know that anyone likes listening to people complain about things as petty as Magic cards. So don't complain about bad draws or bad plays your opponent makes. The worst I've heard:

- After a game I played in a tournament that I won, my opponent turns to his friend next to him and says "I love it when my opponent still wins after he misplays." Apparently I didn't deserve this win, but I obviously did since my draw was so good. I got lucky? Sure, but that's why we shuffle the cards.
- I beat someone in a draft who got flooded. Sorry bud, I've been there. He went on about how his deck has so much removal, and even later on, he fans his deck out and shows me all the removal in his deck that would have ruined me. I get it, you flooded. But again, my draw was supposed to beat your draw that game. It would have been more injustice for me not to win that game with that draw.
- We went back and laughed this situation off in recounting, but a player in a Limited PTQ lost a match but decided to berate his opponent and tell him "You do not deserve this win." Honestly, if someone said this to me, my hand's going up for the head judge and I'm going to ask him why I should have to endure this kind of verbal abuse, especially when the match is over? If this isn't unsportsmanlike conduct, what is?

There are some things to be said for tilting your opponent in match, and there are some tactics for tilting that I don't think are very sportsmanlike than should be ruled as such. Magic should be about casting spells, attacking and blocking, and tight technical, not about being surly and witty. If I were a level 80 DCI judge, I'd make an effort to raise the level of sportsmanship in Magic, because I'm not particularly happy with it.

The best Magic compliment I've received wasn't for any kind of tight technically play, and I don't think I'll ever receive a comment for tight play that will top this one. In college I was back home at All Fun 'N Games drafting, and I played against a guy I played once back when I was in high school. When I first played him, he was a new player and wasn't very good, and I can remember him mulliganing to 6 being very upset, mulliganing to 5 being very upset, and looking at his 4 and just deciding to go on to Game 2. I just thought he was bad.

Fast forward to now, and he's gotten much better to the point of competency. We go to Game 3 and I'm mana screwed and he wins. After I shake his hand, he does the whole "Sorry about that" thing, and I tell him the obligatory "It happens". He then tells me that he was impressed with my composure and how years ago and maybe even then he would have thrown a hissy fit in the same situation, but that I was able to brush it off as part of the game.

Best. Magic compliment. Ever.

You Make The Play: Solution?

2009-10-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen the original post, I'll just repost the situation:

Him (W/R, 6 life, 2 cards in hand):
5/4 Highland Barbarian (2/1 and 3 +1/+1 counters), equipped with Blade of the Bloodchief
4/4 Tuktuk Grunts (2/2 with 2 +1/+1 counters)
7 land

Me (G/B, 7 life, 0 cards, on top of deck Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet)
2/2 Oran-Rief Survivalist (1/1 with 1 +1/+1 counters)
2/2 Vampire Lacerator
2/2 tapped Timbermaw Larva
3/2 tapped Guul Draz Vampire equipped with Explorer Scope
3 Forests
3 Swamps
1 Piranha Marsh

He attacks with his two guys. How do you block?

Here's what actually happened:
I double chump and his 5/4 becomes a 7/6. He plays a Kor Sanctifiers and destroys my Explorer's Scope, which is irrelevant. I untap and draw my Kalitas. I decide that I'm only going to give him one draw phase to get out of this one, so I attack with just my 3/2 Intimidate guy to put him to 3. The 5/5 comes down and my plan is to chump his two bigs and take 2. If he draws something like Journey to Nowhere, I can still chump the biggest guy and also let the 4/4 through and go to 1. I suppose the commons I'd lose to are the Red burn spells to my 2/2 if he equips his 4/4 first, but he has to draw those off the top, which is precisely why I attacked him to 3.

He drew Murasa Pyromancer off the top to burn my 2/2 and buff the Tuktuk Grunts off the Ally bonus and attacked for 7. Darn.

I started writing out on paper what the plays should be if he has certain hands, i.e. combinations of burn, guy, or non-burn removal. It was actually pretty darn complex and I couldn't bring myself to finish it all the way, and even what I did I stopped branching at the end of my turn and evaluated what the board would be.

What I realized is that such deep analysis, unless you are a really fast thinker (and I know people like this), cannot be done in real-time situations. Writing this play analysis out fully would have probably taken me an hour, how much would I tank if I really wanted to do this analysis?

This is where we must rely on heuristics and shortcuts: what is usually the right play in this situation? Play experience helps here; one of the best players I've met, in a conversation about the idea of Magic strategy guides ala Patrick Chapin, said to get better, said to get better "Just play more". Sure, a computer could compute the entire choice tree and find the right play, but you're not a computer. So much Magic strategy ends in generalizing statements like "You'll probably be in fine shape now" without really much quantification.

The point of all this was that maybe the kind of analysis I wanted to do, at least to the level of detail I wanted to do, was overkill, but maybe it's good to go through such analysis so that it becomes intuitive. I don't think I'm going to type up my notes on the play, I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader.

As for my conclusion about the play, I think the double block was right at a very cursory level, i.e. I lose to common burn if I let one guy through, but attacking with the 3/2 was wrong, in the case of what actually happened, and that untapping with the 5/5 will actually swing the board way in my favor: the 5/5 kills a big and gives me a big if he doesn't topdeck a Magma Rift or Journey to Nowhere right away, and I'd just chump with my 3/2 and 2/2 if he decides to attack so that I can take control of the board when I untap, and he really has to topdeck to take the game back. I guess I was thinking too much in terms of tempo and denying him draw phases and not enough about board advantage and inevitability.

Playing against douchebags

2009-10-12T12:41:00.000-07:00

I hate playing against douchebags.

I played against a guy at the Canterbury bar who, from observing previous interactions, is a huge douchebag. At an FNM which has a fair amount of kids, he berated a player who might actually have been a little slow, if not just nervous and awkward, for not knowing how rules in the game worked, saying/yelling something to the effect of "Learn the rules, son!"

Yeah, it's as awkward as you read it. I wanted to punch this douchebag in the face, and Zaiem did end up confronting him. But what can you do? Weird people are weird, and douchebags are douches.

Anyway, I had the displeasure of playing against him in this draft. In Game 2 he has Hagra Crocodile and some other guys, and I've got a Disfigure in my hand. He plays a land, and then sends his guys in. I haven't said a word, so I say "Okay, back up, in response to Landfall, I'll kill your Croc." He throws his hands up and goes "Fine!" like he was letting me get away with something. If we want to talk about rules, I never explicitly passed priority at any point, so I'm obligated to back the game up.

Now go to Game 3, and it's tight again. I have the lifelink dude and he had previously played a Punishing Fire. My lifelink guy blocked and I wrote my life change down, and he ships the turn. I draw and play a land, and this goes down:

Him: "Actually... when you gain life, I'll pay 2 to return Punishing Fire."
Me: (looks at the card) "This is a 'may' ability , and you've already passed priority."
Him: "When did I do that?"
Me: "When you said 'Go'..."
Him: "FINE. Well, if we're going to play like that, you never announced the life gain."
Me: (said something to the effect of Nice try, but was probably more polite than that)
Him: "FINE."

Again, if I were a judge explaining this to him, Lifelink is a mandatory ability, and even a static ability, so it's not like it went on the stack. What pissed me off even more was how upset he was getting.

First off, you're not the first person ever to miss a trigger and not get a takeback. Cry about it some more.
Second off, you're throwing a hissy fit in a bar. I think Magic can be more socially acceptable if it weren't for people like you.
Third off, you're making the game less enjoyable for me, your opponent. If this were a PTQ, then sure, tilt me. If I'm a newer player to this scene, I'm probably not coming back here thanks to you, because why would I ever want to play against someone like you?

A friend watched all this go down and after our villain got up, expressed her pleasure in seeing me be a jerk to him. No doubt, I was glad to beat him because he was a jerk, but I don't take much pleasure in playing the game the right way and my opponent expressing his displeasure because of it.

It's okay, you're a douchebag anyway. Go own some noob 14-year olds at FNM, weirdo, or whatever it is you enjoy about this game, because "learning from your mistakes" isn't it. I don't mean for this to sound like Gerry Thompson's Moron of the Week, but this isn't a case of being a jerk because you're on the Internet, but being a jerk and making people not want to play the game and giving people a false impression of the game.

Your first PTQ

2009-10-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine used to be a MODO ringer in high school, took a break from the game in college, but now is in the real world and wants to play more Magic with his copious spare time. He's been asking me what he should know before jumping into the shark-infested waters of Pro Tour Qualifiers.

I told him to read an article Zaiem wrote this for Channel Fireball, and I'm sure he's written it for other sites too: Tournament Mistakes.

The best way to get used to playing in PTQ's is... to play in PTQ's, so I was a little worried about overloading him with information. I think the right way to go about this is to go through my routine. I'm a little bit more of a nit than others, and all I have to show for it is a Day 2 of a Grand Prix, but if you're still curious...

Deck registration - Don't misregister your deck. Just don't do it. Be careful, count the cards you write down, count the cards in your deck/pool. That's all there is to it, but it's still bound to happen if you're careless. I misregistered my second draft of Grand Prix: Boston, and it probably cost me $200.

Pairings - Make sure you have the table number right, and also the guy's name. That way you can be sure you're in the right place and playing the right person when your opponent sits down. Sitting at the wrong table is Game Loss worthy.

Tardiness - If your opponent is not in his seat when the round starts, call a judge. Depending on the head judge, your opponent either has three minutes to show up or else gets game loss or he gets one right off the bat, but you should call a judge anyway so he knows to look for you when 3 minutes is up. Ten minutes is a match loss. You should write down the time from your cell so you know when to call the judge.

Shuffling and presenting your deck - I always pile shuffle my deck to make sure I have everything in my deck. It unclumps your deck and keeps you from giving up game losses for presenting an illegal deck. In Constructed, I also look through my sideboard to make sure it's correct before officially presenting, in case you get deck checked.

You have three minutes before each game to shuffle your deck. With sideboarding, it's a little wishy washy, but definitely after 3 minutes you should call a judge and let him know. He'll probably present right away when your hand goes up.

You should always shuffle your opponents deck. I start by piling his deck, and if he's short a card, my hand goes up for a judge because he's getting a game loss. I'd also shuffle his deck pretty well before hand.

Life totals - I'm more of a nit than others when it comes to this. I write down both life totals with every life change (so I always see the current life totals right next to each other), and make a note of where the life change came from, usually with just the initials of the relevant card. This way, if there's a discrepancy in life, then you have an accurate representation of the game. Of course, you shouldn't try to cheat like this, but you're basically protecting yourself from someone who tries to work you on life totals.

Hands - God almighty, make sure your opponent keeps his hands above the table at all times. If you see them dip, make him keep them up. A lot of players don't mean to do it, but this is why it's a way to cheat.

Being clear about the game state - Your opponent must always answer what phase the game is in, what cards are in what zone, must let you search his graveyard and count the cards in his hand or library, and relevant actions that have taken place (i.e. playing a land, casting a spell). There are some questions that your opponent is actually not obligated to answer, like the P/T of a creature, the number of cards in hand, but he must let you be able to figure it out. Most players, however, don't know that they aren't obligated to answer such questions and will do it anyway, so this is actually moot. I'm planning an article about why players aren't taking advantage of the Derived Information and communication guidelines.

Slow play - You can at any time call a judge and ask him to watch your game for slow play. You can also urge your opponent on if he's tanking for an unreasonable amount of time. Calling for a judge with two minutes to go in the round is pretty moot, so you can be vigilant about it. I usually keep an eye on the clock and see if we're making good time to finish three games: 15 minutes per game should be the pace.

A very good player has said that when he's tanking toward the end of the game, he will actually call a judge to keep himself honest with slow play. And by the way, pretending your thinking to take advantage of the time limit is Stalling and is considered cheating, but making actions to prolong the game and playing for a 1-0 win or 1-1 draw is fine.

Illegal game state and missed triggers - If you and your opponent fail to note a mandatory trigger, you will both get warnings for failure to maintain the game state. If you note the trigger that your opponent missed before it's too late (like forgetting to draw a card), you can call a judge and he will get a warning.

For upkeep triggers you don't want to forget, you can put a die or a pen on top of your deck. For upkeep costs, you can put tapped lands under the relevant card so you don't accidentally untap them.

Judge calls - You're entitled to appeal any ruling you get from a floor judge to the head judge. Do this if you think you got an incorrect ruling.

If you're receiving a lengthy ruling from a judge, you should write down the time the judge comes over, and then ask the judge for extra time. He may or may not grant it, but you can always appeal, and you know how long the judge call took because you wrote down the time.

Drawing extra cards - Drawing a card/extra card when you're not supposed to is a game loss. All I can say is don't do it.

Deals - You are not allowed to prize split *in exchange* for a draw or a scoop. You can prize split without a draw or scoop being a contingency. You can ask for a scoop or and ID without any agreement. If you get caught doing one of these things you're not allowed to do, you're getting Disqualified. If you want to be a jerk (i.e. the win will get you or a buddy into Top 8), you should call a judge when your opponent or someone you see does one of these illegal things before submitting their match slip. If you don't want to be a jerk, though, you can very firmly say "I cannot accept that."

Drawing into the Top 8 - If you've never done the math before, consult with someone who has done it before the final round to see if you should draw in or offer a draw to your opponent.

That's all I can think of. Feel free to chime in some more.

You Make The Play - Zendikar edition

2009-10-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

I drafted last night at the Canterbury bar, and while I could write about certain people (who on past occasions have also verbally abused children at FNM) throwing hissy fits, I'll write about a situation where I have absolutely no idea what the right play is.

This is Game 1 of a draft match and he's already drawn his card.

Him (W/R, 6 life, 2 cards in hand):
5/4 Highland Barbarian (2/1 and 3 +1/+1 counters), equipped with Blade of the Bloodchief
4/4 Tuktuk Grunts (2/2 with 2 +1/+1 counters)
7 land

Me (G/B, 7 life, 0 cards, on top of deck Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet)
2/2 Oran-Rief Survivalist (1/1 with 1 +1/+1 counters)
2/2 Vampire Lacerator
2/2 tapped Timbermaw Larva
3/2 tapped Guul Draz Vampire equipped with Explorer Scope
3 Forests
3 Swamps
1 Piranha Marsh

He attacks with his two guys. How do you block?

Drafting with Zendikar: Thoughts on invidual cards

2009-10-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

I drafted Zendikar three times this past weekend, and I really really like this format. You're almost always attacking and it seems way more tempo-oriented than M10. Your most important cards in the game cost 2 or 3, so mana screw doesn't hurt you as badly as it does in M10 or Shards either, and with landfall, you're almost never drawing dead.

There are some cards that I'm not sure how to evaluate. I've gotten mixed opinions from people I've talked to about these guys.

Scythe Tiger: Someone compared it to Mist Leopard in M10, which is pretty darn mediocre and a card I'm not really happy to have to start in that format. But if you think about how much mana you actually need in play vs. how much you need the actually land for Landfall and other effects, to me the sac a land hardly seems like a drawback. Turn 4 play a three drop and play this guy? Clear the board and now deal with a 3 power attacker and his friends? I like this guy.

Ruinous Minotaur: I had multiples of these in a Sealed pool but wasn't sure how great it was to have that many. In draft I can see building the right deck around him, but multiples in Sealed seems so awkward if this is a critical portion of your three-drop slot.

Vampire's Bite: Someone really liked this card. Seems bad to me. Your results may vary, but I think I'd only run this in an extremely extremely aggressive weenie deck.

Into the Roil: I love this card in this kind of format, it's like Temporal Eddy. I opened 3 of these in a pool, a couple of Blue evasion guys, and the Blue 5/5 flyer with Shroud, and wondered if it was worth maining the color for. I guess in Sealed they can keep you alive for a while until you get your good late game cards and then they're still good late. Good thing I saved that pool and I can try it again.

Kor Cartographer: I guess he's fine for enabling landfall, but you couldn't give him three toughness so that he impacts the board more than just trading with some dork? Don't know that I'd be happy having to play this guy in a draft.

Romanticising Magic

2009-10-01T10:53:00.000-07:00

I wish I had someone like Rich Hagon narrating my life. In fact, probably any British sportscaster would do, since they're the only people on the planet that could make me want to watch dart throwing on TV, but I think I'd prefer Rich Hagon. If professional Magic were shown weekly like professional football, it'd sound exactly like the PT Kuala Lumpur coverage with the dramatic play-by-play.

Anyway, I don't read a whole lot of Magic articles nowadays, but I did read this one, the story of a young British Magic player who recently ended a long bout with cancer. If they ever made a movie or documentary about what it's like to be a PTQ grinder (I'm not sure how I'll feel about I Came To Game. Being a pro's a little different than driving to PTQ's every weekend), it'd go a little something like this article. And Rich Hagon would beat out Morgan Freeman for the part of narrator.

"The lands continue to burn" - Zendikar Prerelease

2009-09-27T17:46:00.000-07:00

I went to the Seattle prerelease and played in one flight. I didn't open any power, but I'll talk about some of the cards I did open:

Harrow - Okay, I didn't know this card was an instant. How sick is it to Harrow at instant speed for your splash color and play a combat trick... not that Harrow isn't a combat trick already with landfall guys.

Punishing Fire - I made the mistake of splashing this with only 1 Mountain in my deck.

Relic Crush - Maindeckable in Sealed with all the Expeditions and Equipment and Journey to Nowhere?

Quest for the Gemblades - This card's really good, but maybe suited for a deck that actually had lots of two and three drops that want to trade early on, which my deck wasn't. It was never relevant.

Oracle of Mul Daya - Sick. Put spells to the top of my deck. Landfall twice a turn. Seems good.

Pillarfield Ox - I think this card's okay? I mean, he blocks stuff... good ol' Giant Spider.

Kor Cartographer - I don't know if this guy's that good. He accelerates and triggers landfall... but just doesn't seem exciting.

Kor Skyfisher - Awesome with a 1-drop equipment! And also awesome for bouncing lands for Landfall.

Will probably start doing Sealeds on Magic-League and stuff... anyway, that's all I've got on the Prerelease. This format seems fun!

Competitive vs. Casual

2009-09-24T00:14:00.001-07:00

I try to make non-Magic friends. I really do. It turns out one of my non-Magic friends is actually a Magic friend getting back into it, but he's very much a casual player and just drafted for the first time at a pub that does EDH every Wednesday and a draft every month. Now why did it take so long to figure out beer and Magic together is awesome?

One night this friend offered to cover my tab if I gave him some of the unopened Magic packs I was talking about. Just mised not paying a $20 tab! Anyway, I hand over 8 packs, and of course he cracks them on the spot.

His commentary was one of the most interesting things I had heard in a very long while. My eyes immediately shot to the rare every pack, and then I started thinking "Well, first pack first pick what do I take?" But he'd make comments like "Sweet, an Oblivion Ring, this card's pretty awesome!" or "Word, an Air Elemental, that'll be good in a blue deck." He cracked all 8 of those packs, and was genuinely happy that I gave him these packs at a discount (consider MSRP is $3.99 and even a draft set is generally $8).

Moral of the story: Every time Mark Rosewater writes on the Mothership about designing cards for different psychographics, he's telling the truth. People play Magic for different reasons. The commons you throw away after a draft could make up nearly an entire deck for another person, and people are sure to value cards differently than eBay. Drafting and Type II are not the be-all end-all for Magic!

Just an interesting tidbit I couldn't get out of my head.

Walking to San Diego 2009

2009-09-21T13:33:00.001-07:00

The Zendikar prerelease weekend is next weekend, and with that will be preparations for the upcoming PTQ season. For whatever reason, I wasn't into Standard last month... maybe it was only having one PTQ and not wanting to acquire cards that are rotating out. But now it's Limited season!

Here's the plan:
Sat October 17 - PTQ Boise
Sat October 24 - PTQ Seattle
Sun November 8 - MODO
Sun November 15 - MODO
Sat November 21 - PTQ Portland
Sun November 22 - MODO
Fri November 27 - MODO (pending)
Sun November 29 - MODO
Sun December 6 - MODO
Sat December 19 - PTQ Seattle
Sun December 20 - MODO
Sat December 26 - MODO
Sun December 27 - PTQ Rockville, MD (not sure, but I'll be on the East coast for sure for Christmas)

If you haven't heard about the MODO qualifiers, there are basically shootout tournaments that you have to 5-1 to qualify for the main event, which is the actual PTQ. These will probably be pretty difficult, but what would you be doing instead? Drafting. Seems like good practice and good way to examine your game in a high stakes situation.

Anyway, before Zendikar comes out on MODO, I'll be rocking Magic-League and reviving the M-L Sealed stats script. I'm also long overdue to look at some MODO replays of mine to tighten up my game and look for the right plays... right now I'm not taking the time to make the right play. Waaaaay too often I auto-pilot and start doing something and decide that something completely different would have been better. Probably a discipline thing.

If you had access to all the draft data you wanted...

2009-09-10T12:34:00.001-07:00

what would you do with all of it?

With Limited season fast approaching, I've been toying around with idea of creating a new site for improving one's Limited game collectively. The first phase would pretty much be a Modosharks-type deal, where you'd upload a draft file from your MODO directory, insert your comments for each pick, write a post-mortem and match reports afterward, and then others can comment on your picks and deck and such.

Ideally, I'd also like to do one for Sealed pools, but if you're like me, building a Sealed deck just from a text list of a cards is pretty impossible, so the next step would be to create a nice MODO-like interface for interacting with a Sealed pool within the browser.

The part that truly excites me is learning about trends in the format with large amounts of data. For Shards limited season, I had written a script that gleans Sealed decks from Magic-League's site and computed some simple stats. I'll be looking to rewrite this script, since I lost it :(

But then for draft, I'd like to start a repository of drafts to compute any relevant data that can be obtained. The idea would be to get people to install a tool that would upload to this site all of their draft recaps, in addition to drafts people post for review. (Don't worry, a draft won't be made public unless you want it to, so that people don't heckle you for messing up or drunk drafting or whatever.) Anyway, with hopefully hundreds of drafts at your disposal, what would be the relevant stats?

Here's my rough draft (heh, get it?) of what I'd compute:

- Average pick for a card/pack (1-15): pretty basic
- % of time picked when in pick 1-45: the idea is that your pick might change in pack 2 or pack 3.

From these you could filter to situations like this:
- In color: when the color of the card is your "main" (largest portion of your pool)
- Out of color: opposite of In color
- In W/U/B/R/G: when one specific color is your main
- In X/Y: when two specific colors are your main
- In X/Y/Z: when three specific colors are your main.
- (not sure how helpful four colors would be)
- With N in your pool: When you already have N copies of the card in your pool.

Leave comments if you have more ideas. Remember, all you'd have is the draft itself, not how they'd necessarily build it. Another problem with this idea is that the draft log doesn't tell you if it's an 8-4, 4-3-2-2, or Premier Event, so either each user specifies what queue they usually play in, or just mash them all together, which may not be all that terrible.

Anyway, this will probably be a weekend project while I wait for Zendikar to come out on MODO and I really try to Q again. By the way, I really should write about why I was so dispassionate about trying to qualify this month and played mediocre decks, and also reassess why I'm bad at Magic...

Setting Myself on Fire: Grand Prix Boston report (Day 2)

2009-08-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

(I wrote this on a train from Boston to New Jersey the day after, and I never got the flesh it out. I’m not gonna spend much more work on this, but I did get down the ideas that stuck out most in my head. In short, my deck Day 1 was really stupid and made it impossible for me not to Day 2, and after nearly every match, Joey, James Dykes, and my NC friend Harry berated me for playing so awfully and still managing wins.)

(This was my sealed deck: Trips Lightning Bolt, Overrun, Howl of the Night Pack, Baneslayer Angel, Lightwielder Paladin, Prodigal Pyromancer, etc. The guy who registered told me at deck building “Congrats on making Day 2.” I left Armored Ascension and Planar Cleansing in the board, along with Magma Phoenix and Inferno Elemental.)

Round 3 I play against a BWr deck. Game 1 he scoops them up on one land before he has to discard to 7. Game 2 goes on for 40 minutes and involved me holding an Acidic Slime instead of destroying his one Mountain which obviously had to be for the Fireball that killed something like 2 Soul Wardens, a Pyromancer, and probably a Piker. I casted a Baneslayer Angel, and it was Doom Bladed and Risen from the Grave. I lost the game from about 35, after making an all in with Wolf tokens and friends when I really should have just been more passive, looking at the clock. We go to Game 3 with about 6 minutes left and I’m fully expecting a draw, until a miracle happens after I present and chop his deck a few times.

Him: “Oh, I forgot this card too.” (points at a sleeved card in front of him)
Me: “……………. JUDGE!”

My friends were all watching my match and could not believe my luck. This should have been a draw at this point, which would be as bad as a loss. What a brutal beat, but this now means I’ve avenged my Grinder disappointment from the night before.

In Round 5 of the swiss, I played against a GB deck. I get absolutely blown out Game 1 by his curve and his Overrun. In Game 2 I elect to draw and am short on land, but luckily he doesn’t curve out and I can stay in the game. He played the 9/9 Shroud guy and had a Kelinore Bat, Warpath Ghoul, and a Child of Knight. I was chumping the big guy and holding down the other guys with Baneslayer Angel. I drew a Lightwielder Paladin and was holding two Lightning Bolts in hand with a Mountain up. He’s pretty much playing off the top of his deck, and casts Overrun. I start doing math, looking for something to Lightning Bolt, and if I do it right, I Bolt the Kelinore Bat, block the Ghoul with the Angel, block the Child of Night with the Lightwielder Paladin, take 12 and gain 5, which would have put me to not dead and with a pretty darn good board position. So you would think.

Me: (doing math)
Him: “I think this is it exactly. Does this resolve?”
Me: “It’s resolvesohwaitlightningbolt………. oh my goodness.”

And I wanted to set myself on fire, especially since there was a crowd. My worst fear in Magic: looking like a donk in front of others.

Round 8 I’m sitting at 6-1 playing my first of two shots at Day 2. Game 1 he floods. Game 2 I have an early board of Soul Warden and Griffin Sentinel, and he swings with a bear, so I block with Griffin Sentinel. He Giant Growths and then Harm’s Ways Soul Warden from Griffin Sentinel.

Me: “… absolutely.”

He continued to make really really weird plays, until one point where he Armored Ascensioned a guy, which I killed and with only Green up on his side I went for the Overrun. Joey can tell you better than I can how wired his hand was and that I had no business winning that game.

In my first draft of Day 2, there was a kid in his first Day 2 who probably wanted to crawl into a hole after a while. Before the draft, he was psyching himself up aloud to himself: “You can do this, you can do this.” He then proceeds to get called for looking at his pile in the middle of the draft, and then gets called for looking at the next pack ahead of the caller, garnering the head judge to stand behind him and tell him exactly what to do. Granted, I think at the player meeting they could have explained how the draft process works, since there will be players who have not Top 8 drafted or made Day 2 of a Limited GP. I played him in the first round of the draft, and it didn’t seem like he was very good either.

Just as I had told people who complained about their pools, tight play delivered me in that first draft. In Game 3 of the my second match I was staring down a Sphinx Ambassador and Air Elemental, with a Wall of Frost holding me back too. I had Prodigal Pyromancer, Gravedigger, and a Merfolk Looter I stole with Rise from the Grave, and my hand was Diabolic Tutor, Dragon Whelp, and Fiery Hellhound. I had 6 Swamps and a Mountain in play. I Tutor up for my Doom Blade… which I had already used on his Merfolk Looter! Joey was watching my match and saw me tutor for Mountain #2 to play Dragon Whelp and thought I was done.
Enter his following turn. I take 9 right in the face and he searches through my deck. The first card that came to mind was Bog Wraith, since I really can’t answer both that and the fliers, at least soon enough. He searches for a card, so I name Bog Wraith. DING DING DING! He flips over Bog Wraith. Next turn I trade Dragon Whelp for Sphinx Ambassador thanks to Pyromancer, take another 4 on the chin, and finally run out Rise from the Grave. My next draw after that was Whispersilk Cloak, and then a Looming Shade. He doesn’t draw answers off the top of his deck. Joey comes back and sees that the match is over. “You WON that game?!?!” and onlookers are just laughing at the Sphinx Ambassador on my side. Boards involving Rise from the Grave are almost always hilarious.

The last round of this draft I played against guy who said he was at Nationals last weekend on rating, so presumably he was not terrible at Magic, and did turn out to be a pretty solid player. I’d like to thank Whispersilk Cloak and Gargoyle Castle for getting me through this match and for 3-0’ing my first Grand Prix draft EVER. I played three Blue decks in a row, so Blue may have been over drafted, you do the math.

So let’s set the stage a little bit. I sit down at an 8-man draft pod. If I win this draft pod, I Top 8 a freaking Grand Prix. But if I just 2-0 and get an ID, I qualify for the freaking Pro Tour. Hell, if I win one of my first two matches, I win at least $200 playing Magic cards.

I play against Zach Efland, who is a Florida ringer. Game 1 he mulligans and I win, Game 2 I mulligan and he wins. (From my observations, you can’t win when mulligan more than your opponent.) Game 3 he mulligans (go observations!) but his Griffin Sentinel and Armorsmiths keep me from blowing him out of the water, even with Honor of the Pure. I keep thinking he’s baiting out Pyroclasm to cast something like Captain of the Watch, but he actually is drawing off the top. After my Pyroclasm, I made a questionable no attack when I could have traded for his last guy, but since I was putting him on Captain of the Watch, I held. I end up missing about four points of damage with Elite Vanguard buffed by Armorsmith, which would make me feel absolutely awful if he didn’t draw Platinum freaking Angel anyway. I didn’t see it Game 1 or 2, and my only out is Harm’s Way + Lightning Bolt, none of which I had in hand yet.

The next round they apply deck registration penalties. I drafted three red cards: Pyroclasm and Lightning Bolt were two of them, and I registered those. Wall of Flame was also in the pool, but who needs to register that? (sigh) The next round I play I blow the guy out in Game 2, but Game 3 I flood and he has Jackal Familiar beats. Yes, Jackal Familiar beats. I played three spells and didn’t draw red mana for Pyroclasm. Pretty sure I beat him in another Game 3, and I’m pretty sure my carelessness cost me at least $200. I want to set myself on fire. Twice.

The last round it says I have a bye, so I think that my tournament is done and I have to wait and see what the tiebreaker gods serve to me. I commiserate with Alex West as he goes to the mall to get a snack. As we head back to the site, I see I have a text from Joey saying that they keep calling me to the judge station. What could possibly go wrong now? It turns out that they messed up the pairings and mistakenly dropped someone from my pod. I sit down and play against the guy I played in Round 3 of the Swiss (it’s not awkward anymore since we talked earlier in the day when we saw we both Day 2’d). We agree to prize split $100-100 if the winner cashes, but since my tiebreakers are probably worse than his, I should have probably scooped at that point, but $100 isn’t worth potentially getting questioned and potentially getting banned just for the shadiness of it all (even though it was not a prize split on the condition of a scoop or ID). Anyway, I don’t really curve out and his deck ends up being pretty awful except for Mind Control, but he wins Game 1. Game 2 I win another weird one where I just beat him down with dorks. Game 3 I play loose as hell, and by loose I mean he Excommunicates my T2 Deadly Recluse, and I leave the board as is as say go. Without playing a land. Legitimate to him. NOT legitimate to me and everyone behind me, especially since I had a Razorfoot Griffin and another land in hand, making that Griffin very very late. The awful thing was he was at 2 for the longest time, and I would have to set myself on fire and jump through a window if I lost that game. I couldn’t even play Serra Angel because of Mind Control, and having not seen it and him having 10 cards left in his deck, it was not a risk I was about to take, and I was pretty sure the rest of his deck was bad.

So I avoid the 3-0 0-3 and end my first Grand Prix at 11-4. I check the standings to see if I cash… and I’m 69th. FML.

It’s definitely my best performance on results and the closest I’ve come to qualifying, but I played loose as hell in some matches on Day 1, but my deck didn’t let me lose, so I don’t know how much stock to put on it. I thought I played pretty freaking well in the first pod, pretty mediocre against Zack, and then horribly against my deck list and my counting skills. My focus was amazing until probably the last match since I didn’t really have anything to lose with our prize split. I didn’t even have to consciously do anything either, I was just in the zone from when time started. Maybe it’s just the simpler cards and lack of Algae Gharial-type triggers and I can focus on attacking and blocking. I don’t know what it was, but I want that to happen again.

Don’t know if another Grand Prix will happen this year. Minneapolis sounds like a terrible idea in November, and Tampa would be cool if it was actually in Tampa, but it’s in some town 40 minutes away. This GP was pretty awesome because were in the middle of Boston, which might be one of the coolest places I’ve been to. Too bad I had to play Magic cards on Sunday.

(Zaiem Beg tells me I'm very due for some material, and he's right. I have a lot of Magical things to reflect on.)

Grand Prix Boston, or I'm back to writing, I swear

2009-07-30T12:04:00.001-07:00

I'm traveling to Boston this weekend for the Grand Prix. Originally, the plan was to pick up a second bye off my Total rating in Boise, ID the week after a good (but not successful) weekend at Grand Prix: Seattle (starting 3-0 + byes via grinder, then 0-3, then a 7-2 at the PTQ the next day).

That was a wash.

Then I bombed my prerelease weekend to dip my Limited rating below 1800. So now I'm flying across the country with zero byes in hand. Time to get my grind on.

I don't think there's a whole lot of depth to this sealed format than others. There isn't a whole lot of card advantage to be gained by trickery in combat, and you really would rather save your removal for bombs rather than look for tempo. That being said, two drops are still important on the off chance your opponent doesn't establish a board early and you can blow them out with your Fireball or a Sleep. If I'm totally wrong with this, I'll figure it out in the grinders on Friday.

One thing that I think helped me play (for at least 20 out of 21 matches) my best Magic in Seattle was my focus. I read The Inner Game of Tennis, which is a seminal book in sports psychology literature dealing with performance anxiety. While about half of the content is dedicated to tennis, and a lot relates to anxiety affecting your physical state, a lot of the main ideas relate to your overall focus. The crux of the book is that there are two "selfs" to a player: one which tells the other how to do things, when the other half really doesn't need any assistance. The idea is to tune out the critical Self and let the Self do the work.

That's a pretty awful explanation, but I don't want to get too deep into it, and you really should just read the book. Anyway, I drew three points from the book that I apply to my Magic game that I remind myself of before major tournaments now.

- BPV. Be PV (or whoever you think is the best Magic player). The book talks about how people will watch a great Grand Slam final performance, and then get inspired to play well, and they do end up playing better! Assume the role of a great Magic player that you want to be.
- Observe, don't critique. Mistakes happen, but the match is not the time to dwell on them, because what matters is the current game state. Even after the match, recognizing the misplay is fine so that you don't do it again, but getting upset at yourself does you no good except ruin your mental state.
- Breathe. Focus on breathing. This is to keep your mind from wandering. The book talks about watching the approaching ball spin, which isn't relevant, but between points it recommends observing your breathing, mostly so you don't focus on bad things like an out. If you really have nothing to think about during the game, this is fine, so you don't think about your misplays, the luck of your opponent, some girl walking by, or how trashed you're going to get with your friends. And of course between games it also keeps you from dwelling on negative thoughts.

BPV. Observe, don't critique. Focus on breathing. This is what I think about in a tournament besides Magical cards.

I'll try to update some in Boston, and I think I'll Twitter. So if you happen to read this, wish me luck!

ACR Draft #8 - Esper

2009-06-18T10:11:00.000-07:00

(The weird number is for my own bookkeeping: I'm keeping my own log of every draft I do now.)

So I figured out how I want to do replays and commentary. Here are the games, please leave comments! (But be gentle, it's the first time the Intarweb has heard my voice.)

Round 1: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3
Round 2: Game 1, Game 2
Round 3: Game 1 (MIA), Game 2, Game 3

I can't find the draft record either (Where'd they go? I thought it was in C:\Documents and Settings\(me)\Application Data\Wizards of the Coast\Magic Online\3.0, but nothing's been recorded there for months!), so here's the decklist:
1 Court Homunculus
2 Darklit Gargoyle
3 Esper Stormblade
1 Ethercaste Knight
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Aven Squire
1 Ethersworn Shieldmage
2 Parasitic Strix
1 Brackwater Elemental
1 Frontline Sage
2 Cloudheath Drake
1 Glassdust Hulk

1 Path to Exile
1 Call to Heel
1 Excommunicate
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Resounding Silence
1 Traumatic Visions

1 Mistvein Borderpost
1 Arcane Sanctum
7 Plains
6 Island
2 Swamp

Relevant Sideboard:
1 Cancel
1 Bone Splinters

One comment: I boarded in Cancel a lot, so maybe I should have played that instead of Excommunicate (the card I boarded out most often).

Incremental Growth Reborn?

2009-06-15T13:31:00.001-07:00

So I haven't written anything about my Grand Prix. In short, with the three byes, I went 3-0 then 0-3. In the PTQ I lost my first round, won 7 straight, then lost playing for the Top 8. (I do have some interesting thoughts about playing for the Top 8, though.)

I went to Boise this past weekend and went an abysmal 2-4 with the same deck. I lost to a Five-Color Blood/Control player who Top 8'd and a pretty awful Doran player, and some other gems like a Makeshift Mannequin deck with lots of removal and Shriekmaw (fair enough) and Oona's Prowler and Beacon of Destruction as a win condition (not cool), and then another Naya deck (of course in the hands of a terrible player) with fatties like Blitz Hellion, Spearbreaker Behemoth, and Knight of New Alara, threatening to dome me with Brion Stoutarm and, wait for it, Minion Reflector. FML.

The moral of the story? Play an inherently powerful deck next time! My deck was probably fine against the metagame, but those random decks are actually pretty awful for my deck. The first one generates card advantage off of Makeshift Mannequin vs. my deck's zero card advantage and disruption. The second Naya deck has more fat than I do, so if I don't get a blowout hand, he's going to win most of the time if I go to combat, and his deck has reach with Brion Stoutarm. Especially in a place like Boise, I need to make absolutely sure I can beat random decks off the radar. Faeries and Five-Color do that for sure. I should have made a push to play Faeries.

Anyway, I won't be worried about playtesting Constructed for the next month, so until then there is Limited. I plan on doing more MODO reports on this blog, with draft recaps and also some videos of my replays and DVD-style commentary where I reflect on what I did, instead of the live commentary that is prevalent. I'll also have some more thoughts about my mental game, since I've been thinking a lot about it. It's good to be able to find the right play, but of course the goal is to find it in a timely manner every time.

Grand Prix Seattle, Day 0

2009-05-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

It's Saturday morning and the main event starts in about three hours, but THIS GUY doesn't have to worry about it until Round 4, because I won one of the meat grinder trials Saturday night.

The Life Aquatic with Kyle Boddy

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Gaddock Teeg
4 Woolly Thoctar
4 Dauntless Escort
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege

4 Naya Charm
4 Path to Exile

4 Forest
2 Plains
2 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Brushland
3 Karplusan Forest
3 Wooded Bastion
2 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Treetop Village

Sideboard:
3 Guttural Response
3 Aura of Silence
3 Cloudthresher
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Windborn Muse
2 Pollen Lullaby

No girls allowed

2009-05-20T23:56:00.000-07:00

Zac Hill's Star City Games article was about how Magic players play and act differently when a girl sits across from them in a tournament. So while it is relevant, I'd like to discuss a few issues involving the other chromosome and Magical spells.

Robin is a female Seattle player who is pretty well known among the First Pick Games crowd. She tells me a story about her Round 7 opponent, who is relatively known as well, trying to intimidate her, but justice prevailed and she won the match. Presumably, he thought he could intimidate Robin because she is a girl and presumably would not have the mental toughness to not pay heed to any of that, but it's also not unreasonable that a player might do that to everyone he plays against.

I happen to get paired against this player in the next round, and he's talking about what he played against, and makes a statement like "And then I lost to some girl last round" in a can-you-believe-that tone of voice, at which point I can make a judgment about his intentions in Robin's match. Justice does not prevail in my match, as I mulligan to four in Game 1 (but still make some mistakes) and keep a questionable hand Game 2 and lose.

If he had said "I lost to some scrub", I'd be upset because it was about a friend, but whatever, I'd move on. But the obvious prejudice, after hearing how he acted in the previous match, I found absolutely disgusting and has no place anywhere. If he had made such a statement and it weren't about a friend, I'd still think it's scummy and be a little upset.

While I'm talking about Regionals, I thought it was kind of funny hearing locker room comments about other girls playing in the tournament, when it wasn't exactly a locker room situation since they could be standing behind you watching your match. Maybe that's just me...

Anyway, wanted to jot those down while those encounters were still fresh in my head and there was a relative article out in the Magic article-sphere (was going for a blogosphere-type word). As for playing against them, I try to treat it like a game of MODO (like I'm trying to treat every game) where I don't see faces or even a person. Plus, it would suck to sit down at the Grand Prix across from a girl, start playing loosely because of it, then look at the result slip and say "Oh, YOU'RE Melissa DeTora", down a game and having to win two in a row against a ringer.

Someone took my deck!!!

2009-05-20T10:10:00.001-07:00

Okay, not really, but this list made Top 8 down in Portland:

Daniel Lopez
7th Place - Oregon - Portland
4 Ancient Ziggurat
2 Brushland
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Mosswort Bridge
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Reflecting Pool

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
3 Cliffrunner Behemoth
3 Dauntless Escort
4 Mycoid Shepherd
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Spellbreaker Behemoth
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Woolly Thoctar

3 Naya Charm
4 Path to Exile

Sideboard:
3 Anathemancer
1 Brion Stoutarm
1 Dauntless Escort
4 Gaddock Teeg
1 Naya Charm
4 Volcanic Fallout
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege

First thing I noticed is that the deck plays twice as few lands as I do... maybe I'm just a big chicken, but 22 lands gives me so many one-landers that I generally send away unless I have 2 Birds that I can cast off of it. I already have to mulligan tons with my list, although I would consider cutting one land for a three-drop.

Then, this deck is just filled with four drops and absolutely devoid of two-drops. In fact, let's look at the mana curve for creatures:

1cc: 8
2cc: 0
3cc: 11
4cc: 14

I do like some of the creatures he did play, like Cliffrunner Behemoth (although my deck will only trigger it's haste off of one guy, where he has a few more). Spellbreaker Behemoth doesn't have a very relevant ability, unless you consider being enormous an ability.

He runs Anathemancer in the side, which he can only cast off of Birds and Ancient Ziggurat. I have problems with running the full set of Ziggurats because it can't cast Path or Naya Charm. I like the idea of Brion Stoutarm to add more reach to the deck, as if Naya Charm weren't enough (against the Fog-ish decks, however...)

Anyway, he probably rode to the top 8 on those Naya Charms, as they are so good when you play creatures like these and they're tapping out to clog the board out every turn. Go go Naya Charm!

My Regionals

2009-05-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Regionals, and this is the deck that I've been tuning:

4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Gaddock Teeg
4 Woolly Thoctar
4 Dauntless Escort
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege

4 Path to Exile
4 Naya Charm

4 Forest
2 Plains
1 Mountain
2 Treetop Village
2 Ancient Ziggurat
2 Wooded Bastion
2 Karplusan Forest
4 Brushland
3 Fire-Lit Thicket

Sideboard:
3 Guttural Response
3 Windborn Muse
3 Cloudthresher
2 Behemoth Sledge
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Pollen Lullaby

This originally started as an idea of how to use Bloodbraid Elf, but he's not that good unless you can hit for 3 right away and not get chumped by a stupid Spectral Procession token, or worse, trade with a buffed Spectral Procession token.

I modeled it off of the Dark Bant deck, playing Woolly Thoctar instead of Rhox War Monk and Doran. A lot of decks can't deal with a Woolly Thoctar on Turn 2. I also chose to run some of the new GW cards like Qasali Pridemage and Dauntless Escort, and Gaddock Teeg (which shuts off Spectral Procession and Ajani Goldmane among others), and then obviously ran Wilt-Leaf Liege, which is insane.

Naya Charm ended winning so many games against BW Tokens that I ran the full set. Possibly this can go down to 3, as starting with two in hand isn't that great. I also ran 4 Gaddock Teeg in the main because it shuts off Spectral Procession and Ajani Goldmane, and gives you game against Five-Color Control.

I thought a lot about the mana base, trying to figure out how best to hit Woolly Thoctar mana on turn 2 and 3, and how to hit Naya Charm mana by turn 3. Because of Naya Charm, I'm not running the full set of Ancient Ziggurats. Plus, Ziggurat is pretty awkward with the Shadowmoor lands like Wooded Bastion.

The sideboard was a little bit thrown together, and there are changes I'd definitely make. Behemoth Sledge I actually didn't like in the maindeck because it's slow and it's really bad with Ancient Ziggurat when I need to play a threat. I bring it in against Red decks. The 3rd and 4th Kitchen Finks were also kind of just a throw-in, so I'm looking to put something actually good in.

I was hoping to play a lot of Tokens and Red decks, as I thought that's what the metagame was going to be largely comprised of. What ended up showing up was a more spread field, including various Jund flavors, Doran, Five-Color Control, and Faeries. Here was my day:

Round 1 (W) Five-Color Control - Game 1 I hit turn 1 Woolly Thoctar and have double Path. Game 2 he hits Hallowed Burial and takes control. Game 3 I stick Gaddock Teeg with Dauntless Escort backup and he can't do anything.
Round 2 (W) BW Tokens - Two absolute blowout games.

At this point we took a lunch break, and I was feeling pretty confident about the deck since things were going according to plan.

Round 3 (L) BG Rock - Game 1 I get eaten by two Cloudthreshers, I take Game 2 on the back of Naya Charm, and Game 3 I cannot deal with Garruk + double Chameleon Colossus.

After this round, they announce that there will be a delay, as the computer running the tournament ran out of batteries and corrupted the back-up file, and they had to manually reconstruct the tournament from entering the players in to manually pairing and entering three rounds of swiss. James Lee is a good man, and in that two hours we did a Cube draft (outside on the beautiful lawn on a beautiful Seattle day!). Someone needs to teach me how to Cube... I thought I would get out of the funk of losing my first two in a row in what seems like my past five premier-level tournaments.

Round 4 (L) Doran - I found out that Doran > Woolly Thoctar... also similar problems with Chameleon Colossus as the last round. So much for breaking the funk...

Round 5 (L) Five-Color Control - I messed up Game 1 not thinking about getting blown out by Volcanic Fallout (it ended up being a Pyroclasm, a miser's Pyroclasm at that), and throughout the match I kept attacking into Runed Halos for no reason... Joe let me off the hook a few times for being really freaking retarded, and I did hear about it at dinner.
Round 6 (W) - Jund Rock
Round 7 (W) - BW Kitkin - This plays similar to BW Tokens except they have one-drops and Wizened Cenn, so you can get blown out if you don't hit one of your three-drops very early on.
Round 8 (L) - Faeries - I mulled to 4 in Game 1 and still didn't play that well, walking into a Broken Ambitions on the threat that I drew. Game 2 I may have been tilting and kept 4 lands, a Treetop, and 2 Noble Hierarchs and don't draw much gas for the entire game. I'm not sure if this is a poor matchup or not, but I don't want to dedicate too many board slots for it.

So most of the matches I lost I can pin to not playing very well, which is good for my deck since I like it a lot, but bad for me since it means I suck. I would definitely rather play this deck for the Grand Prix than BW Tokens.

The mana's definitely a little weird and I had to pitch a lot of hands because of bad mana. If I add more painlands, however, I take a LOT of pain because of my color-intensive spells like Wilt-Leaf Liege, Naya Charm, and Woolly Thoctar.

While I'm very good against token creature decks that play a lot of dudes, I wasn't very successful against decks that play fat like Doran, Chameleon Colossus, and Cloudthresher. Unfortunately, my colors don't let me play a lot of great removal like Terror, but I do have Condemn, which is very efficient. I'd probably replace two Kitchen Finks in the board for 2 Condemns, just as Path to Exile #5 and #6.

Guttural Response could also become Vexing Shusher or Eyes of the Wizent, but with Guttural Response being just fine and Sanity Grinding lurking, that change probably won't happen. All the other cards in the sideboard are just fine. Pollen Lullaby had to be my favorite card of the day, almost more than Naya Charm.

I'll be running this deck next weekend at First Pick's cash tournament. I would recommend trying the deck against the field, there's nothing like a turn two Woolly Thoctar or blowing people out with a Cryptic Command-like tap-your-team effect from a green deck.

GPT Seattle Event Coverage - Federal Way

2009-05-11T00:23:00.000-07:00

26 people showed up in Federal Way to earn some byes for our hometown Grand Prix, and I wrote match reports on my laptop from round 3 onward.

Round 3 - Zaiem Beg vs. Grant Bolanos
Round 4 - Kent Ketter vs. Andrew
Round 5 - Ian Kendall vs. Josh Searl
Quarterfinals - Alex West vs. Blaine Rybacki
Quarterfinals - Zaiem Beg vs. Grant Bolanos, Game 3
Semifinals - Zaiem Beg vs. Alex West (Coming soon, I had to handwrite notes, so it will take more than a few minutes to write a report.)
Finals - Zaiem Beg vs. Kent Ketter

And you know what that means? I did the big 0-2 drop. I was going to play a homebrew Naya deck that I really thought had legs, but I could not finish the deck without Wilt-Leaf Lieges. Needing a deck to play, I was handed a Jund Ramp deck. I played like an absolute donk who doesn't know what his cards do in Round 1, and in Round 2 I lost to GW Tokens to not being confident in the hands to start. I feel like it's the wrong attitude to have but.... meh.

GPT Seattle at Federal Way, Finals - Zaiem Beg (BW Tokens) vs. Kent Ketter (BW Tokens)

2009-05-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

Kent won the die roll and started with a Windbrisk Heights and Zaiem started with a tri-land. Kent played a tri-land on his second turn, while Zaiem played a Fetid Heath and a turn 2 Tidehollow Sculler, revealing Spectral Procession, Glorious Anthem, Cloudgoat Ranger, Tidehollow Sculler, and two lands. Glorious Anthem was removed from the game.

Kent played the revealed Tidehollow Sculler, revealing from Zaiem two Cloudgoat Rangers and lands, and obviously took one of the Cloudgoat Rangers. Zaiem played a Windbrisk Heights and shipped the turn. Kent played a Spectral Procession and a Caves of Koilos and passed. Zaiem played a Mutavault and a Glorious Anthem on his next turn and shipped the turn with Arcane Sanctum up. At end step, Kent Path to Exiled Tidehollow Scullers to get back his Glorious Anthem.

Kent untapped and played a fifth land and his newly returned Glorious Anthem and attacked for 9, making the score 11 to 19 in Kent’s favor. In his second main, he flipped Ajani Goldmane from under his Windbrisk Heights and buffed his team to end his turn.

Zaiem played a land and tapped five mana for Cloudgoat Ranger and passed. Kent played his own Cloudgoat Ranger, buffed his team with Ajani, and attacked with his three Spirit tokens and Tidehollow Sculler. “I should probably block,” Zaiem said, and thought about blocks for a while. “Let’s not even pretend I can win this one,” Zaiem said after a few moments and scooped up his cards.

Kent leads 1-0.

Game 2

Zaiem started with two Arcane Sanctums while Kent went Plains, Fetid Heath, Bitterblossom. Zaiem played his Bitterblossom a turn late and missed his third land drop. Kent played a third land but passed with no action. Zaiem found his third land and curved out with Wispmare, destroying Kent’s Bitterblossom. Kent played a fourth land and still passed with no action. Zaiem now had Bitterblossom advantage, and played a Glorious Anthem, to which Kent responded with Zealout Persecution to kill a pair of tokens.

Kent hit his fifth land and as expected played a Cloudgoat Ranger. Zaiem attacked with Wispmare over the top and Kent took 2, then Zaiem played a fourth land and played Wrath of God. Kent played another land and Cloudgoat Ranger and shipped. Zaiem played a fifth land and played a Murderous Redcap, destroying Cloudgoat Ranger thanks to Glorious Anthem. On his next turn Kent attacked with his team of three Kithkin and Zaiem blocked with Murderous Redcap. Kent played Zealous Persecution, and took 2 damage, and the dead Murderous Redcap which traded with a Kithkin in combat killed another Kithkin on the persist. In his second main phase, Kent played a Spectral Procession and shipped the turn.

After going to 11 on his upkeep, Zaiem attacked with a Faerie and Redcap to take Kent to 13, then on his second main phase tapped three for Kitchen Finks (taking a pain) to go to 12, and also playing a Spectral Procession to finish his turn. Kent played an Ajani Goldmane, buffed his team and attacked with three Spirit tokens with two Reflecting Pools open. Two Spirits blocked two tokens, and Kent played Zealous Persecution to win the fight and get in for three damage.

Zaiem went to 8 on his next upkeep, and attacked Ajani with his entire team and killed it, then followed up with a second-main Spectral Procession. Kent attacked with his team of Spirits, which Zaiem blocked with tokens, Zealous Persecution be damned, but successfully traded. Kent played Kitchen Finks to go up to 15 and a Spectral Procession and passed.

Zaiem went to 7 on his next upkeep, and with no cards in Kent’s hand, activated Mutavault and sent in a Spirit, Mutavault, and Redcap to connect for 7, putting Kent at 8. Zaiem played a Windbrisk Heights afterwards and passed the turn. Kent drew his card and shipped the turn. Zaiem went to 6, and went in with all that he could (three Faeries, a Spirit, Kitchen Finks, and Redcap). Kent blocked Finks with Finks, 2 tokens with tokens, and let 6 come through, going to 2, and after Finks persist triggers, the score was 8-4 in Zaiem’s favor. Zaiem played another Spectral Procession and passed the turn. Kent drew his next card and began shuffling up for the third game.

Match tied 1-1.

Game 3

Kent mulliganed his seven, but kept his 6. Zaiem thought about his 7 and kept it. Kent played two Reflecting Pools then a Fetid Heath and a Bitterblossom. Zaiem opening went Reflecting Pool, Windbrisk Heights, Pool, Wispmare on the Bitterblossom. On Kent’s fourth turn, he played a Kitchen Finks and a Fetid Heath.

Zaiem played a fourth land and played Spectral Procession and beat over the top with Wispmare. Kent found a fourth land and played Glorious Anthem and beat with Kitchen Finks for four. Zaiem hit Ajani Vengeant, buffed his team and attacked for 8, putting the score to 16-13 Zaiem. Kent attacked with Kitchen Finks and a token took one for the team, and passed the turn.

Zaiem played a fifth land and played Murderous Redcap targeting Kent’s face for 2, putting him at 11. Ajani was activated and the team took Kent to 2. Kent played a Mutavault and tapped five lands for a Cloudgoat Ranger. He attacked Ajani with Kitchen Finks, killing the planeswalker, but then scooped up his cards with no way to win in hand.

RESULT: Zaiem Beg wins in 3 and earns three byes for Grand Prix: Seattle.

GPT Seattle at Federal Way, Quarterfinals (Game 3) - Zaiem Beg (BW Tokens) vs. Grant Bolanos (Bant)

2009-05-11T00:08:00.000-07:00

Grant beat Zaiem in two in the Swiss, but now in the elimination rounds, one game would decide who would move on to the Semifinals to play Alex West.

They both kept 7 cards and Grant started with Forest into Noble Hierarch. Zaiem made a Windbrisk Heights and passed. For their second turns, Qasali Pridemage came on the board for Grant, and Zaiem made a tap land and passed. A second Pridemage came online on turn 3 and Grant was able to beat for 5. Zaiem played a Mutavault as his third land but still had no plays. Grant beat for 5 again and then made Stoic Angel.

Zaiem played his fourth land and flipped Wrath of God from his hand to wipe the board, tapping his four lands as fast as he could, as fellow Top 8 competitor Paul Waite commented. Grant only played a Birds on his next turn and passed. Zaiem beat for 2 with Mutavault, and then played a Kitchen Finks on his next turn, threatening to turn the game around.

After a turn of nothing, Grant tapped four for Wilt-Leaf Liege and was able to attack for 1 with Birds of Paradise over the top, putting Zaiem at 11. Zaiem played a Glorious Anthem and attacked, to which Grant responded with Path to Exile on the attacking Kitchen Finks. Grant attacked with his Wilt-Leaf Liege and Birds of Paradise, and Zaiem played Terror on Wilt-Leaf Liege to take 0. Grant then played a Rhox War Monk in his second main phase and shipped the turn.

Zaiem asked how many cards Grant had in hand (none), then played Wrath of God and followed up with Kitchen Finks to go back to 13. Grant had no play, and Zaiem attacked for 7 with Finks and Mutavault, putting Grant at 10. He then played a Murderous Redcap to knock Grant to 7. Grant drew his card and played Dauntless Escort, which Zaiem end-step Terrored, and Grant scooped them up.

RESULT: Zaiem wins in 3.

GPT Seattle at Federal Way, Quarterfinals - Alex West (BW Tokens) vs. Blaine Rybacki (GW Overrun)

2009-05-11T00:07:00.000-07:00

Alex won the die roll and started with 6 cards. Alex played Reflecting Pool, and Blaine played Windbrisk Heights. Alex hit turn 2 Bitterblossom, and Blaine laid a Treetop Village on his turn 2. Alex made a second Bitterblossom but missed his third land. Blaine, however, did not miss his third land and played Dauntless Escort. Alex played a Mutavault and then Glorious Anthem and hit Blaine for 2, putting him at 18.

Blaine played another Treetop Village and Dauntless Escort and passed the turn. Alex made another pair of tokens and thought before attacking with three Faeries to put Blaine at 12. He then passed the turn to Blaine, who played a land and a Cloudgoat Ranger in his first main phase. He sent in his pair of Dauntless Escorts and Alex took 6 damage to go to 9, and then 7 on his next upkeep. Alex played Zealous Persecution and Blaine proclaimed his death.

Alex leads 1-0

At the beginning of Game 2, Blaine rolled his eyes and kept his initial 7, as did Alex. Blaine started with a Forest and Alex started with Windbrisk Heights. Blaine played a turn 2 Steward of Valeron and Alex played a turn 2 Bitterblossom. On his third turn, Blaine made a precombat Noble Hierarch and attacked with Steward for 3, then played a postcombat Wispmare to deal with the Biterblossom. Alex played a tri-land and played a second Bitterblossom.

Blaine played a Windbrisk Heights and another Wispmare as well to destroy Bitterblossom #2, then beat for 3 again. Alex missed his fourth land but played Kitchen Finks to go back to 16. Blaine declared attacks with Steward of Valeron and two Wispmares, and Alex declined to block. Blaine played a Wilt-Leaf Liege from under Windbrisk Heights during combat to get in for 8, then cast Spectral Procession and played another Windbrisk Heights and passed.

Alex hit his fourth land to cast the Wrath in his hand, leaving him with a persisted Kitchen Finks and two more life, to go up at 10. Post-Wrath with five lands, Blaine played Ajani Goldmane and gained 2 life to go to 22 and passed. On Alex’s next turn, he played a Reflecting Pool and attacked Ajani to put him at 2 loyalty counters, then played another Kitchen Finks to go up 2 more life to go up to 12. Blaine played a sixth land and opted to Martial Coup for 4, short 1 of activating its Wrath effect, then put counters on all of his tokens, and passed the turn.

Alex tapped four on his next turn and played Murderous Redcap to finish off Ajani Goldmane and shipped the turn. Blaine attacked with his four 2/2 soldiers, and Alex placed his two Kitchen Finks in front of them. Blaine flipped Overrun from his Windbrisk Heights, and facing 17 damage, Alex scooped up his cards.

Match tied 1-1.

For Game 3, Alex kept his 7 cards. Blaine mulliganed and then flashed a one-land five-spell hand and shipped again. He kept 5 cards. Alex started the game with two tri-lands while Blaine started with two Windbrisk Heights. Alex hit his own Windbrisk Heights and played a Bitterblossom on his third turn. On Blaine’s third turn, he completed three-of-a-kind on Hideaway lands but still had no action. Alex started generating Bitterblossom tokens and played Spectral Procession and passed. Blaine played a Treetop Village and matched with Spectral Procession himself and passed.

Alex hit his fifth land, and played a Glorious Anthem and a Zealous Persecution to wipe Blaine’s Spirits and beat for 12 with four guys. Blaine played his fifth land but had no play again. Alex now had 6 tokens in play with five ready to attack. He tried to go to attack step and Blaine evoked Cloudthresher to Wrath the board and make the score 18 to 6. Post-Cloudthresher, Alex played a Cloudgoat Ranger and passed. Blaine played another Treetop Village on his next turn and again, had no play on his own turn.

Alex played his seventh land and thought again, considering the blocks of Treetop Village and potential tricks on the other side, and then sent his team in. With only one blocker, Blaine had to take at least 6 damage, so he extended the hand.

RESULT: Alex wins in 3.

GPT Seattle at Federal Way, Round 5 - Ian Kendall (Jund Ramp) vs. Josh Searl (BWR Tokens)

2009-05-11T00:06:00.001-07:00

The top four tables intentionally drew, with a clump of players at 10 points. Ian Kendall was sitting at 7 points paired down against Josh Searl with 6 points, so Ian is playing for a chance to steal a spot in the top 8 on tiebreakers.

Josh started with 5 cards and played a Caves of Koilos. He missed his second and third land drops while Ian accelerated with Tower of Abundance into a turn 3 Kitchen Finks to go to 22. Josh found his second land and Terrored Ian’s Kitchen Finks on his attack step. Ian played another Kitchen Finks and passed. Josh missed again but had a second Terror to finish off the smaller Kitchen Finks. The score was 26-14 in Ian’s favor.

Josh found a third land and played his own Kitchen Finks to go to 16, but was Shriekmawed by Ian, and as a 2/1 chumped Ian’s 3/2 Kitchen Finks. On his next attack step, the third Terror finished off Kitchen Finks #2 once and for all. Ian played his third Finks to go to 30. Josh continued to take pain to cast spells, this time off of Spectral Procession.

Maelstrom Pulse dealt with the Spirit tokens and Ian beat for 6 with Finks and Shriekmaw. Josh found Reflecting Pool for land #4 and took pain again to play Tidehollow Sculler, revealing Banefire x2, Broodmate Dragon, and Lavalanche. He took Lavalanche and bemoaned being slow rolled. Ian drew and flopped another Lavalanche.

Josh: “Did you draw that?”

Ian: “No, I cheated!”

Ian leads 1-0.

For game 2, Josh kept 7 and decided to predict how many cards his opponent would start the game with.

Josh: “Uh oh, I smell the mulligan to 5 on the other side.”

Ian: “I’m gonna mulligan, hopefully just to 6. If I mulligan to 5, you’ll know it’s just because I’m being nice.”

Ian mulliganed and then, as predicted, mulliganed again. Josh rooted for the mulligan to 4, but Ian kept 5.

Josh lead off with a Vivid Meadow and Vivd Marsh while Ian lead with a Fire-Lit Thicket and a topdecked Treetop Village (with a wipe of his brow in relief). Josh played a turn 3 Kitchen Finks and Ian indicated another topdecked Treetop Village.

Josh beat for 3 and passed, while Ian played his own Finks, but missed his fourth land. Josh attacked and the two Finks got smaller. In his second main, Josh played a Murderous Redcap to finish off Ian’s Finks, and laid a Windbrisk Heights for his fifth land. Ian missed land but played Fertile Ground on his Treetop Village.

Josh beat for 4 to put Ian to 17, then played Bitterblossom for his next turn. With a Forest off the top providing five potential mana for Ian, he went into the tank, and tapped four mana for Chameleon Colossus and passed.

Josh made a Token and played a Path to Exile on the 4/4 Shapeshifter and beat for 4 to put Ian to 13. On Ian’s turn, he played a land, made a Garruk Wildspeaker, untapped two lands and tapped 5 mana to play Primal Command to bounce Windbrisk Heights and gain 7 life to go back to 20. Windbrisk Heights came back down, and Josh attacked to take down Garruk and beat for 1 with a Faerie token.

Ian played a tri-land and played Broodmate Dragon and passed. Josh Terrored the Dragon token at end step, and then beat with his team of Redcap, Kitchen Finks and two Tokens into the Broodmate Dragon, which blocked Kitchen Finks. Josh then played Siege-Gang Commander and sacked a Goblin to finish off the Dragon and passed. Ian played Infest the next turn to wipe the board and have Redcap ping him, then Ian beat with Treetop Village. Josh attacked and then played Spectral Procession. The score was 17-13 in Josh’s favor.

Ian played another land and beat with 2 Treetop Villages. The Spirit tokens ganged up to block the Treetop Village with Fertile Ground on it and took 3, and Josh wondered if that was a bad idea to trade Spectral Procession for the man-land and acceleration. Josh beat for 2 with Redcap and a Token, played a land and passed to make the score 13-11 in his own favor. Ian beat back with Treetop to put him to 10. Josh lost 1 and beat for 3 and then activated Windbrisk Heights to reveal a Spectral Procession and passed.

Ian was now staring down 7 1/1’s (three Spirits, three Faeries, and Murderous Redcap). He Maelstrom Pulsed the Spirit Tokens and beat for three again with Treetop Village and passed. After Josh’s next Bitterblossom trigger, the score was 8-5, now in Ian’s favor, who had no cards in hand. Josh played another Windbrisk Heights. He only attacked with 1 Faerie token, leaving back 3 and Redcap.

Ian drew and beat with Treetop Village and traded with Redcap and two Faeries. His draw was another Treetop Village to replace it. Josh made another Faerie to go to 4 and had to leave his team of three back. Ian put Trace of Abundance on Treetop Village in case of removal, attacked and took out his team, and passed. Josh played a land after going to 3 and passed. Ian passed his turn and Josh went to 2, attacked for 1 to 6, and passed. Ian played a land and passed. Needing a topdeck, Josh went to 1 and drew and revelaed a hand of Path to Exile and Bitterblossom. Only able to attack for 2 and with Ian at 6, Josh was dead on his next upkeep.

RESULT: Ian wins in two, and will have to cross his fingers to not end up in ninth place.

GPT Seattle at Federal Way, Round 4 - Kent Ketter (BW Tokens) vs. Andrew (GW Overrun)

2009-05-11T00:05:00.001-07:00

The top two tables intentionally drew, so the top table playing was a pair of X-1 players: Kent Ketter playing B/W Tokens, and tournament newcomer Andrew playing a version of G/W Tokens.

Both players kept their 7 and Kent started with a Windbrisk Heights and then another Windbrisk Heights. Andrew played a Brushland and made a Steward of Valeron on his turn 2. Kent made a Reflecting Pool and Glorious Anthem on his third turn. On his next turn, Andrew attacked for 2, laid a land, and made 2 more Steward of Valerons. Kent made Ajani Goldmane on his fourth turn and gained 2 life to go back to 20.

Andrew made a Wilt-Leaf Liege his next turn to pump his Valerons. Two Valerons killed Ajani and one put Kent back to 16. Kent made his fifth land on time and made a Cloudgoat Ranger. Andrew drew and served with his three Stewards again, which Kent took to go to 4. Andrew made a Green-White Borderpost and a Kitchen Finks to go up to 20 and passed.

Kent drew, went into the tank, and made Kitchen Finks to go up to 6 and shipped the turn without attacking. Andrew made a second Wilt-Leaf Liege and attacked with his set of Stewards and Kitchen Finks, and Kent scooped them up.

Andrew leads 1-0

Kent started with Arcane Sanctum and a Plains, while Andrew started with two Windbrisk Heights. Kent hit turn 3 Spectral Procession, which Andrew matched with his own Spectral Procession. Kent played a land and a main phase Zealous Persecution, wiping Andrew’s board and beating him for 6. Andrew played Knight of the White Orchid to fetch a Plains and with his land for the turn made Kitchen Finks to go back to 16. Kent beat for 3 with his Spirits to put Andrew back to 13 and he curved out with a land and Cloudgoat Ranger.

Andrew played his sixth land and made Wilt-Leaf Liege and declined to attack. Kent made a Glorious Anthem and beat with his Spirits for 6, putting Andrew to 7, and passed leaving up a Plains and a tri-land. After clarifying how Windbrisk Heights works, a botched explanation (apparently if you attack with three creatures, you can play the card from Windbrisk Heights for the rest of the game, according to GPT winner Greg Peloquin), and thinking some more, Andrew sent in his team and before blockers played Overrun and Garruk Wildspeaker from under his pair of Windbrisk Heights. Kent blocked Wilt-Leaf Liege with Cloudgoat Ranger and took 14. Back in his second main phase, Andrew realized that he would die to any crack back and scooped them up for game 3.

Match tied 1-1.

Andrew mulliganed one time, and then another time, and kept 5 cards. Kent mulliganed as well, but kept his 6. Andrew led off with Windbrisk Heights and a Forest and Kent played Arcane Sanctum then Windbrisk Heights. Andrew failed to find a third land on time, but Kent did and played Spectral Procession. Andrew missed his third land but played Steward of Valeron off the top of his deck.

Three tokens hit the red zone for Kent and a Glorious Anthem appeared from under his Windbrisk Heights to make it 6. He played his fourth land and passed. Andrew hit with his Steward of Valeron before playing Wrath of God to reset the board and hope to get back into the game. Kent made a Bitterblossom post-Wrath and played a tri-land for his 5th land and passed. Andrew found his fourth land in Brushland and went to 11 to make Spectral Procession, which Kent negated with Zealous Persecution at end step. Kent played a Mutavault and passed, ending the turn with the score 17-11 in his favor.

Andrew found his fifth land and made a Cloudgoat Ranger and passed. Kent beat with a token on his next attack step to put him to 9. In his second main, Kent made his own Cloudgoat Ranger and passed with two Reflecting Pools up. The score was now 16-9 Kent.

Andrew looked at his Windbrisk Heights on his next turn and played a second Windbrisk Heights and a Kitchen Finks to go back to 11. Kent went to 15 on his next turn, activated a Mutavault and moved to his attack step and swung with his team of Mutavault, 3 Kithkin Soldiers, Cloudgoat Ranger, and two Faeries, buffed by Glorious Anthem. Before blockers, he played Zealous Persecution to kill Andrew’s Kithkin tokens, and with only 2 blockers, Andrew was dead.

RESULT: Kent wins in 3.

GPT Seattle at Federal Way, Round 3 - Zaiem Beg (BW Tokens) vs. Grant Bolanos (Bant Aggro)

2009-05-10T23:41:00.000-07:00

Zaiem started the game, after keeping an “interesting hand” in his words, and lead off with a Windbrisk Heights. Grant play a land and said go. After Zaiem played another Windbrisk Heights, Grant played a turn 2 Gaddock Teeg, which in this matchup turns off important spells like Spectral Procession and Ajani Goldmane.

Zaiem played Knight of Meadowgrain but missed his next two land drops and Grant followed up with Dauntless Escort and Rhox War Monk. Zaiem played a Caves of Koilos and attempted to Terror Gaddock Teeg, but Grant sacrificed Dauntless Escort to save it. Zaiem played a Kitchen Finks on his next turn, and Grant added Wilt-Leaf Liege to his board of double Rhox War Monk and Gaddock Teeg, On Grant’s alpha strike, Knight of Meadowgrain and Kitchen Finks blocked Gaddock Teeg, putting the score to 30-6 in Grant’s favor. Zaiem untapped, and when Grant flashed a Path to Exile, Zaiem started to shuffle up for game 2.

Grant leads 1-0.

Game 2

Zaiem started with 6 cards and Grant kept 7. Grant played a Noble Hierarch on his first turn, and Zaiem responded with a Bitterblossom. Grant accelerated into a Turn 2 Rhox War Monk. Zaiem added Knight of Meadowgrain to his board along with a Faerie Rogue token and shipped the turn. Grant attacked for 4 with Rhox War Monk and played Pithing Needle naming Ajani Goldmane, and a Birds of Paradise. Zaiem attacked on his next turn for 3 to make the score 19-16 in Grant’s favor, and he shipped the turn. Grant served with Rhox War Monk and Zaiem chumped with a token. Grant played a Treetop Village (now with two on his side) and made a second Rhox War Monk. Zaiem attacked with one Faerie token on his next turn and made a Cloudgoat Ranger and three Kithkin.

On his next turn, Grant made Dauntless Escort and put his Rhox War Monks into the fray. Zaiem chumped with a Token and threw Cloudgoat Ranger in front of the other War Monk and tapped his Kithkin to trade. Grant played Gaddock Teeg in his second main and passed, and Zaiem did nothing on his next turn. The score was now 28-14 in Grant’s favor.

On Grant’s turn he activated two Treetops and attacked with the villages and a Rhox War Monk. Zaiem traded 3 tokens for a Treetop and a Faerie token and Knight of Meadowgrain for the other Village and took 3. Grant added a Noble Hierarch to his side and passed. On Zaiem’s turn he played a Murderous Redcap, targeting Gaddock Teeg. Grant considered the play for a while, perhaps whether Spectral Procession would follow, and let Gaddock Teeg die instead of sacking his Escort, and Zaiem passed. Score 29-12 Grant.

Grant attacked with Rhox War Monk and Zaiem chumped with a Faeries token. Grant played a Gaddock Teeg off the top and passed. On Zaiem’s turn he made Glorious Anthem and passed. Score 34-11 Grant.

Grant drew his card and shipped without attacking. Zaiem put a third Faerie into play (“First time in the game,” he commented) and got in with two Faeries for 4. He played a land and passed, with the score 30-10. Grant’s next draw and play was a Qasali Pridemage. Grant attacked with Rhox War Monk and Zaiem resumed chumping with Faerie tokens. In his second main, Grant popped the Pridemage to deal with Bitterblossom and passed. Zaiem drew and attacked for 4 again, laid a land and passed. Score 32-10.

Grant played an Island and this time attacked with Birds of Paradise for 2 in the air and passed. Zaiem declined attacking on his next turn, meaning Birds of Paradise couldn’t attack and neither could Rhox War Monk in fear of Redcap, so Grant passed, followed by Zaiem passing as well. On Grant’s next turn, he attacked with Rhox War Monk and Zaiem chumped with Redcap and upon Persisting targeted Gaddock Teeg. Since Zaiem’s Glorious Anthem meant Redcap was threatening to kill Gaddock Teeg, Dauntless Escort had to be sacked. Grant made a Rhox War Monk and passed. Zaiem passed his next turn, and Grant added Wilt-Leaf Liege, making his Rhox War Monks awesome, and sent them in. Zaiem chumped one of them and tried double blocking with a Mutavault and Faerie token, but goofed on the modified toughness granted by Wilt-Leaf Liege and lost his team. Zaiem passed, and on the next attack step, Zaiem flashed a hand of Spectral, Spectral, Wrath of God, and Ajani Goldmane that Gaddock Teeg had blanked.

RESULT: Grant wins in 2.

Prerelease Reborn

2009-04-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

I declined going to the GPT in Lacey (which, although it was 13 people, would not have been an easy GPT to take down, as the Top 4 was Greg Peloquin, McDoogle, Kent Ketter, and Dwayne St. Arnould), and instead went to the premier Alara Reborn prerelease.

I played in two flights: one with an absolutely sick base Naya deck:

1 Wild Nacatl
1 Cylian Elf
1 Naya Battlemge
1 Topan Ascetic
1 Jund Battlemage
1 Court Archers
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Rhox Brute
1 Gloryscale Viashino
1 Mosstodon
1 Deadshot Minotaur
1 Pale Recluse
1 Igneous Pouncer

1 Magma spray
1 Necrogenesis
1 Colossal Might
2 Sangrite Backlash
2 Resounding Thunder
1 Naya Charm
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Vengeful Rebirth (absolutely retarded)

2 Veinfire Borderpost
15 basic lands (I think it involved 1 Swamp, 4 Plains, 5 Forest, and 5 Mountain)

The match I lost I was tight on white mana both games. :(

The next sealed flight I thought was a very bad deck with infinite multi-colored bears, mediocre fixing that I needed to stretch for to get Terminate and Bituminous Blast as my only removal, but it had Battlegrace Angel. I 3-0-1'd that, thanks to drawing Woolly Thoctar mana like a champion.

It was interesting seeing the more casual players come out, asking questions like if deathtouch works on a guy with shroud. I've been so immersed in the competitive scene at places like First Pick where the large majority of players have/could have PTQ Top 8 experience. Charles Dupont made an interesting comment that he was baffled by how many people play cards and then don't know what's going to happen next, and that he couldn't fathom not thinking ahead to what's going to happen when the other guys plays removal/attacks/plays another guy. On the other hand, I'm sure a casual player wouldn't be able to understand why a competitive player would get so upset when an opponent gets lucky on a play that works less often than the optimal play if you ran it 100 times. It's a very clear distinction between playing Magic to win and playing Magic for fun/not trying to win.

If you're not playing Broodbraid Elf, you're wrong

2009-04-24T09:39:00.001-07:00

So I've tried a couple of ideas for new T2, all of which involve Bloodbraid Elf. The title of this post might be an exaggeration, but not by much. It is nuts.

There are at least a couple of honest beatdown strategies with the new set that aren't mid-rangey at all like Cruise and BW Tokens are. And by honest, I mean playing a 3/2 haste man on T2, or a 3/2 haste man on turn 3-4 that puts a 5/4 into play.

One good point about Bloodbraid Elf is the other hottest card in the set, Meddling Mage, might be the best solution to that card, spot removal be damned. Not sure what deck it can fit in, or if it fits into a new Solution type of deck.

In the deck I like right now, I want to make Knight of the Reliquary work, since tutoring Windbrisk Heights seems really good, but it is awfully shitty to spend your first three mana on a 2/2 when it could be a 3/2 persist or a 5/4. I wish there were fetch lands!

Anyway, I'll probably proxy up this pet deck for tomorrow's prerelease to battle anyone who's ready to battle. It's probably the end of the road for Kithkin as decks have gotten faster.

GPT Seattle at Games & Gizmos - Finals

2009-04-19T02:54:00.000-07:00

Finals: Martin Goldman-Kirst (Five-Color Control) vs. Michael Dipetrillo (Five-Color Control)

Michael led off the finals of the Grand Prix Trial with a Vivid Creek, as did Martin, and they began the classical Control-on-Control mirror match by playing lands and passing.

Eventually, Martin played an Esper Charm on his end step, and then had to pitch a Wall of Reverence at end step, which Michael sarcastically dubbed “Wall of Relevance”. After Michael evoked a Mulldrifter on his own turn, Martin played an Ajani Vengeant and started powering him up and stunting Michael’s mana.

With Ajani Vengeant at 6, Michael evoked another Mulldrifter and played a land and pitched Plumeveil, another very dead card. With Ajani at 7, Michael played a main phase Volcanic Fallout to keep it off his ultimate. Martin kept playing land and keeping Michael’s land tapped down.

With Ajani Vengeant at 7, Michael end step tried to bounce Ajani with Cryptic Command, which Martin responded with his own Cryptic Command. Michael Broken Ambitioned for 4, which Martin paid for. Michael revealed his own Ajani Vengeant off the clash.

Martin: “Awkward!”
Michael: “I’m keeping, heh.”

Michael played the top card of his library and legend ruled Martin’s. Martin responded with Broodmate Dragon on his turn which resolved and made a Red Dragon friend. Michael played a Plumeveil at end step.

With 6 cards in Martin’s hand, Michael made his own Broodmate Dragon, which Martin tried to Crytpic, but met Broken Ambitions (This Broken Ambitions was not as hot for either player as the last one.)

Martin made his 11th land with Michael with only 2 up, but he opted not to do anything. Michael went into the red zone with his team and Martin opted to trade, and both players started playing Draw-Go again.

With 13 lands, Martin resolved another Broodmate Dragon. All Michael did was end step Esper Charm to draw cards. Michael matched him on lands and made Wall of Reverence which was main phase Terrored. Martin attacked, did 4, and traded a token for a Plumeveil and passed, and Michael played another Esper Charm to try and win the card advantage war.

With no creatures left in play on his own side, Michael traded Wrath of God for Broodmate Dragon and the board was back at equilibrium and Draw-Go ensued. After a couple of passes, Martin yelled “Screw it!” and made a Wall of Reverence and started gaining life. On his next turn he made a Mulldrifter and filled up his hand. Mulldrifter got in for damage, putting Michael at 12.

Michael asked to Evoke a Mulldrifter and was allowed, and he passed the turn. Michael went to 10, Martin got slaphappy when he commented that he had 17 lands to Michael’s 18. On Mulldrifter’s next attack, Michael Terrored it. On his main phase, he played a Mulldrifter, and Martin drew end step off of Esper Charm, played Volcanic Fallout, putting the score to 23-8, and Michael opted to Esper Charm at his own end step, forgetting that it was his own turn still and had to discard down.

Martin played his third Broodmate Dragon and passed, and Michael responded with Wrath of God. On his next main phase, Martin put his hands to his head in thought and said “I have to do some math right now”, investigated Michael’s graveyard, but passed the turn.

It was Michael’s turn to “do math” and he decided to run out Cruel Ultimatum. Martin Cryptic Commanded, to which Michael responded with his own Cryptic Command. Martin thought, and made nine mana. “This is so hard, I have a headache!”, he said as he Brokened for 8 mana. Michael Brokened it back for 5, and Martin tapped all the rest of his lands to pay for it. Michael revealed a second Ajani Vengeant off the clash, and Martin milled. With Martin’s Broken for 8 on top of the stack, Michael Cryptic Commanded and checked the libraries (both had 11) and chose to tap Martin’s nonexistent team, eliciting laughter from the room.

Cruel Ultimatum finally resolved, putting the score 22 to 13 in Martin’s favor and a Broodmate Dragon back to Michael’s hand. With two in the grip, Martin played his own Cruel Ultimatum, which resolved. Martin got back his Broodmate Dragon. Martin evoked Mulldrifter, to go down to 5 cards in the library, and ran out the Dragon, and passed.

Michael Esper Charmed Martin to make him pitch cards and made his Broodmate Dragon and passed. Martin played his second Cruel Ultimatum, putting Michael to 3 and pitching his hand of Broodmate, Ajani, and Cruel Ultimatum, and muttered “I messed up!” Martin drew to leave one card in his library and attacked with his Dragons into Michael’s one creature to win.

(For rules buffs, what happens when you Cruel Ultimatum your opponent to 0 life, but you only have 2 cards in your library? The answer is at the end of this report.)

Martin – 1, Michael – 0

In Game 2, Martin mulled to 5. He attempted a turn 2 Scepter of Fugue, which got Broken Ambitioned and milled Story Circle and Wydwen. Michael Evoked Mulldrifter and passed, then Martin missed his third land. Michael Mulldriftered again, but it was Ambitioned on Martin’s 2 lands. Martin got his 3rd land but could not answer Michael’s Ajani Vengeant next turn, which kept his Vivid land tapped. Martin got to 4 lands but couldn’t prevent Ajani from getting to 8 counters.

Maritn slammed a Pithing Needle, and Michael asked “Naming?” and Martin quickly named Ajani Vengeant. He tried to Broken, but of course that’s no good. It didn’t matter because Michael had Cryptic to bounce it. Ajani destroyed Martin’s mana and even stuck around since he started at 8 loyalty counters. Martin asked him to reveal a Broodmate Dragon and he’d scoop. After conferring with a judge, Michael flashed the Limited bomb and Martin scooped up his one land.

Martin –1, Michael – 1

For Game 3, both players kept 7. Martin nailed a turn 2 Scepter of Fugue on the play this time and used his mana to make Michael start pitching cards. Michael attempted to refuel with an Evoked Mulldrifter, which Martin dittoed.

With Martin tapped out, Michael stuck a Pithing Needle naming Scepter of Fugue. Martin Evoked Mulldrifter with no lands up, and Michael went into the tank, considering a counter. He Brokened for 1, and Martin put an Esper Charm on the bottom and shipped the turn, indicating that he was indeed tight on mana. He tried Mulldrifter again, and indicated that he kept 3 Mulldrifters, three lands, and Scepter. Michael had another Broken Ambitions and won the clash, milling 3 of Martin’s lands.

Martin ripped an Island and passed the turn. Michael gassed up with Esper Charm at Martin’s end step. At Martin’s next end step he tried a Wydwen, to which Martin played Cryptic Command, but met Negate, giving Michael a path to victory. Michael stuck his seventh land and played Ajani Vengeant and started powering it up.

Martin drew and missed land again in much frustration. He hit his next land, and Michael Esper Charmed at end step. His next attacks put Martin at 11, and then 8. At end step, Martin tried to legend rule Wydwen, which met Broken Ambitions. On Michael’s next turn, he played Broodmate Dragon and Martin scooped them up.

RESULT: Michael beats Martin in 3 and earns the three-round bye at Grand Prix: Seattle.

(The answer to the rules quiz: You resolve Cruel Ultimatum in the order of the card: you draw your remaining library and your opponent is at 0, and you check based effects. You both lose at the same time, so the game is a draw. God forbid that happens in this mirror.)

GPT Seattle at Games & Gizmos - Semifinals

2009-04-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

Semifinals: Michael Dipetrillo (Five-Color Control) vs. Zaiem Beg (BW Tokens)

“You realize card advantage wins games,” Zaiem posited to Mike as he elected to play first. Mike sent back 7, then thought and also sent back 6. He quickly kept his 5. Zaiem made the first play with a Knight of Meadowgrain and got in for 2. His next turn, Zaiem attempted a Kitchen Finks, which was Broken Ambitioned by Mike.

On Mike’s turn, he summoned Ajani Vengeant and Lightning Helixed Zaiem’s only creature. Zaiem made three Spirit tokens on his turn with Spectral Procession. Digging for land, Michael evoked Mulldrifter, layed a tap land, and passed the turn.

With only one land up on the other side of the table, Zaiem played a Glorious Anthem and split his team up between attacking Ajani and Mike, putting Mike to 17. Michael played a Wall of Reverence and passed, ready to have Spirit tokens bounce off itself. Zaiem attacked for 4 to put Mike 13 and shipped the turn with 5 lands up. Michael drew and said go and started gaining 1 off of Wall of Reverence.

After another Spirit attack from Zaiem for 4, he hideaway a card on a Windbrisk Heights. Michael did nothing, went up to 11 then back down 4 to 7 on the next attack, and Zaiem followed up with a Bitterblossom from under his Heights. Michael continued to play land and ship the turn, then chastised himself for forgetting the Reverence trigger for the second time in the game. Zaiem attempted another Glorious Anthem, which was Broken Ambitioned. Zaiem then attacked for 4 again, putting Mike to 3.

Michael drew a Wrath of God off the top and played it, to which Zaiem sarcastically remarked “Okay, fine.” Zaiem played a land and said go. Mike made another Ajani Vengeant and Helixed a Faerie Rogue token, represented by a card from the game Bella Serra.

Zaiem made another token and attacked Ajani with a token, which met its end via Cryptic Command by going back to his hand. Zaiem then played a second Bitterblossom and shipped. After an end step Esper Charm to draw two, Mike used the last two counters on Ajani Vengeant to kill the remaining Bitterblossom token and passed.

Zaiem attempted an Ajani Goldmane which was Broken Ambitioned, revealing a Cloudgoat Ranger on the top of Zaiem’s deck and a land on Mike’s deck, which went to the bottom. Zaiem attacked with two Bitterblossom tokens, putting Mike to 4, and shipped the turn. Michael dug for answers with a Mulldrifter, which was Terrored at end of turn.

Zaiem went to his combat step to have his guys tapped down with Cryptic Command. On Mike’s own turn, he played a Volcanic Fallout, clearing the board, and then made a Mulldrifter. Mike was still at 3 while Zaiem now found himself at 8 thanks to Bitterblossoms and Volcanic Fallouts. A Glorious Anthem came on to the board for Zaiem’s next turn. Michael again filled his hand via Esper Charm, and on his own turn ran out Cruel Ultimatum and swapped life totals. Zaiem went to one, and when Mike Esper Charmed on Zaiem’s draw step to empty his hand, Zaiem scooped them up.

Michael 1, Zaiem 0

In the other Semifinal, Martin Goldman-Kirst beat Thomas Rolling in two games, so the winner of Zaiem and Mike’s match would have Five-Color Control waiting for them in the final.

In Game 2, Michael shipped his first 7 cards again.

Michael: “Yeah, let’s mulligan to 5 again…”
Zaiem: “Skipping 6, are we?”

After Michael kept 6, Zaiem made a Bitterblossom on his second turn, which was Celestial Purged on Michael’s own turn. Zaiem responded with another Bitterblossom and a Windbrisk Heights. On Zaiem’s next turn, another Windbrisk Heights came into play, followed by Burrenton Forge-Tender, which met Terror.

Michael missed his fourth land drop and shipped. Zaiem made a Marsh Flitter after attacking for 1. Michael missed land again, but had Volcanic Fallout to kill all of Zaiem’s tokens. Marsh Flitter survived, however, and got in for 3, putting Michael to 14. Zaiem made another Marsh Flitter and attacked with his team again, to which Michael made a Plumeveil in front of Marsh Flitter. Zaiem made a Glorious Anthem from under his Hideaway land and sacked a Goblin to the blocked Flitter to trade with Plumeveil and get in for 4, putting Michael at 10.

Michael hit his fourth land and used it to Cryptic Command Zaiem’s team on his combat step. The next attack step, Volcanic Fallout hit the board destroying Zaiem’s tokens again, and after the big Marsh Flitter’s attack, the score was 10 to 4 in Zaiem’s favor.

On Zaiem’s next turn, he attacked Michael down to 2 and ran Head Games out, which was Broken Amibitioned. Michael topdecked a dead Volcanic Fallout and facing Bitterblossom, Marsh Flitter, and a benched Mutavault, he scooped them up.

Michael – 1, Zaiem – 1

In Game 3, Michael opted not to complete the mulligan trifecta and started with seven cards, while it was Zaiem’s turn to invoke the Paris rule. Zaiem kept 6, and played a Burrenton Forge-Tender on his first turn and started to beat down with it. He attempted Tidehollow Sculler but met Broken Ambitions which milled among other things a Bitterblossom, Anthem, and Mutavault. After attacking on his next turn, he played a post combat Glorious Anthem, which was Brokened again, but this time he got to keep the Bitterblossom on top of his deck.

However, Zaiem opted not to run it out on his turn nor his next turn, as Michael kept playing land. After finding his fifth land, Zaiem “gave him something to Cryptic Command” and played the Tribal Enchantment, which resolved. Michael continued to play land until the score was 15 to 9, when he Terrored the BFT to set up Volcanic Fallout on his next combat step. Post-Fallout, Zaiem attempted a Cloudgoat Ranger, which met Cryptic Command.

At 11 to 7, another Cloudgoat Ranger entered the stack, and was Broken Amibitioned. Michael kept an Esper Charm while Zaiem had to think about keeping Ajani Goldmane. At end step, Michael filled up with an Esper Charm from hand and on his main phase put a Mulldrifter into play and looked fairly comfortable with all of the cards in his hand.

After his draw, Zaiem asked his opponent “Do you have Cryptic Command in your hand?” to which Michael quickly replied “Yep,” which he may have not expected, but regardless he played Head Games, which resolved, since he only left up 2 lands that could produce Blue. (Michael did indeed have Cryptic Command in hand.)

With a handful of Vivid lands, Michael drew and passed, as Zaiem went 9 life from Bitterblossom. “I punted this game, I thought he had a tri land” Michael lamented. He made Glorious Anthem, attacked for 2 and traded a token for Mulldrifter. “Wow, I’m dumb” Zaiem said as he made an Ajani Goldmane post-combat. “I guess I think he has Cryptic off the top every time.”

Michael played Wrath of God and followed up with Broodmate Dragon, his two post-Head Games draws. Zaiem went to 8, and made a Marsh Flitter. Ajani was activated and passed the turn.

Michael drew his card and sheepishly played a Cryptic Command off the top to tap his team. Zaiem sighed (in good spirits), tapped his board, and watched two 4/4’s go sideways and put him at 0.

RESULT: Michael beats Zaiem in 3

GPT Seattle at Games & Gizmos - Quarterfinals

2009-04-19T02:49:00.000-07:00

Quarterfinals: Martin Goldman–Kirst (Five-Color Control) vs. Dwayne St. Arnould (Black-White Tokens)

Martin won the die roll and kept his 7, as did Dwayne. Dwayne’s first play of Tidehollow Sculler was Broken Ambitioned by Martin, with Dwayne keeping an Ajani Goldmane on the top of his deck. Martin layed a land and said go while Dwayne made a Knight of Meadowgrain.

Martin ran out a Pithing Needle on his fourth turn, naming Ajani Goldmane. Dwayne attacks to see a Plumeveil enter play from Martin, which he Terrored before it could block. Martin ships his fifth turn with no land, and Dwayne attacks again into a second Plumeveil, which this time does eat Knight of Meadowgrain. Dwayne followed up with a Cloudgoat Ranger, which on Martin’s turn had his Kithkin friends Volcanic Fallout’ed.

Dwayne responds to the sweeper with a Spectral Procession, to Martin’s chagrin. Martin hardcasted Mulldrifter on his turn. Dwayne followed up with the Ajani Goldmane in his hand, but thanks to Needle, he shipped the turn.

Martin: “If you played that, that means you don’t have anything better to do.”
Dwayne: “Stop thinking logically.”

Martin made a pair of dragons of the Broodmate variety, while Dwayne could only ship the turn and eat 8 from the Dragons. Dwayne makes another Spectral Procession, to which Martin asked “Does that even do anything?” and played a Broken Ambitions. Martin left a Esper Charm on top while Dwayne left a Cloudgoat Ranger.

Martin’s dragons go into the fray and this time get chumped. Dwayne played his Cloudgoat Ranger and ships, as Martin end step drew with Esper Charm, and flashed two Cryptic Commands, drawing the scoop from Dwayne.

Martin 1, Dwayne 0

They both kept their openers for the second game. Dwayne laid a Windbrisk Heights and made a Knight of Meadowgrain turn 2, safe from Broken Ambitions this time thanks to going first. On the third turn, Knight of Meadowgrain got in and Dwyane made a Bitterblossom.

On the fourth turn, Dwayne attacked again with Knight of Meadowgrain and made a post combat Glorious Anthem, while Martin laid his fourth land. Dwayne’s next attack with a token and Knight put Martin at 11. Dwayne attempted a second Glorious Anthem, which drew a Broken Ambitions from Martin.

On his next turn, Dwayne asked if he could attacked, which made Martin pause.

Dwayne: “Am I dead?”
Martin: “No, you’re not dead. Just thinking what to do.”

Martin fogged with Cryptic Command, and Dwayne shipped the turn. Martin continued to lay land and say go. Dwayne asked to attack again, which drew out Volcanic Fallout, leaving only Knight of Meadowgrain, which put Martin to 6. Martin predicted a Cloudgoat Ranger, but Dwayne instead emptied out his hand and made a second Bitterblossom and Knight of Meadowgrain.

Martin ran out Cruel Ultimatum to go back to 11. Dwayne got in again, making the score 8 to 20. Martin made a Broodmate Dragon and a Pithing Needle on Windbrisk Heights, with three guys ready to attack for Dwayne. With Martin tapped out, Dwayne ran out Tidehollow Sculler, revealing Cruel Ultimatum #2, Wrath of God, Broken Ambitions, and two lands. “I think it’s a pretty hand,” said Martin, and Dwayne elected to remove Wrath of God. Martin played his second Cruel Ultimatum, and on Dwayne’s next upkeep, the score was 11-13 in Martin’s favor. All Dwayne did was make a Burrenton-Forge Tender and pass the turn.

On Dwayne’s next upkeep, Martin tapped down Dwayne’s team and drew with Cryptic Command. Dwayne laid a land and said go. Martin got in for 8, putting Dwayne to 5, and followed up with Ajani Vengeant to Helix his face, putting him 2 and effectively dead to his two Bitterblossom activations, ending the match. Dwayne then flashed the Mutavault under his Windbrisk Heights.

RESULT: Martin beats Dwayne in two.

Quarterfinal: David Lowe (Red) vs. Thomas Rolling (Green-White), Game 3

For their third game, David mulliganed down to 6, thought about it and kept. Thomas kept his 7. David made a Figure of Desinty off a Mountain, while Thomas made a Birds off a Forest. Thomas got in for 2 by leveling up Figure, and made another Figure of Destiny. Thomas drew, went into the tank. “It would be a terrible, terrible idea,” Thomas thought aloud, and off a Wooded Bastion, ran out a Noble Hierarch and a second Birds, wary of getting blown out by Volcanic Fallout.

It was David’s turn to go into the tank, before laying a land and declaring attacks with his two Figures. Thomas declined to block and tried to level up his 2/2 Figure to a 4/4 before damage, earning a Path to Exile in response. The attack put Thomas to 17.

Thomas laid a Windbrisk Heights, tapped 4 and made Ranger of Eos, getting two Burrenton Forge-Tenders, which may or may not be relevant against David’s Red deck. He made one of them and shipped the turn.

David tapped 5 on his turn to make Demigod of Revenge and got in immediately for 5, putting Thomas at 12. Thomas made Ajani Goldmane and strengthened his team, then got in for free with his Birds, Ranger, and Forge-Tender. After declining to block, Thomas revealed the Wilt-Leaf Liege under his Windbrisk Heights, knocking David down 10.

David drew and thought for a long while, presumably about what his paths to victory were at this point. In the meantime, Zaiem Beg won his match against Nash Foster in 3 piloting Black-White Tokens successfully against BG Elves. After thinking, David played an Ancient Amphitheatre and passed the turn.

David made his second Burrenton Forge-Tender and pumped his team up again, which drew a Flame Javelin pointed at Wilt-Leaf Liege in response. The newly made Forge-Tender took that Flame Javelin instead, making Wilt-Leaf a 5/5 and out of range of future Flame Javelins. Thomas attacked with the team, and David scooped up his lands in concession.

RESULT: Thomas wins 2-1.

In the remaining match of the quarterfinals, Michael Dipetrillo’s Five-Color Control deck beat Corbett Gray running Boddy Red.

GPT Seattle - Redmond damage report

2009-04-19T01:36:00.000-07:00

I ran Kithkin again, change the sideboard to be a little more reasonable, but didn't do much better.

Round 1 I played Martin playing Five-Color. I take Game 1, and Game 2 I make some bad plays when I didn't leave back Spirits instead of Kithkin tokens (because I was using playing card flipped face up/down), and Game 3 I get stuck on three lands with Elspeth and Ajani in hand.

Round 2 was super awkward. My opponent starts with a deck registration error, so gets a game loss. He sits down, shuffles a couple of times in 15 seconds and presents. When I'm done piling my deck, I pile shuffle his deck (as I do for any Competitive level event) and he's a card short since one got stuck in his library. The judge was writing up his first game loss and understands that this is the most awkward thing ever, and my opponent flips his shit, which was uncharacteristic since he seemed relatively even keel, but maybe not so much on a competitive level.

I won't get into the details of things he said, but he was very much on tilt and had to go take a walk before coming back and playing out the rest of the tournament.

Round 3 I played a GW beats deck. Game 1 I'm on the play and keep as my 6 Stalwart, Stalwart, two drops, a Spectral, and a Windbrisk Heights. It was pretty risky, but I figure after playing my tap land, I'd have plays on turn 2 and 3, giving me three draws to get another land (which is favorable) and still be competitive (may or may not be reasonable). Well, I didn't get there :/ Game 2 I end up getting beats on but he plays a bunch of dudes and my second Banefire doesn't come (had to use one to kill a Stillmoon Cavalier.)

Round 4 I rock the bye, which is great because my tiebreakers were pretty good among the 1-2's. Unfortunately, Martin loses his match and I enter the next round having bad tiebreakers.

Round 5 I play Travis playing Shamans. I start the first game:
T1, Goldmeadow Stalwart, revealing Wizened Cenn.
T2, Goldmeadow Stalwart, revealing Goldmeadow Stalwart; Goldmeadow Stalwart revealing Wizened Cenn.
T3 Wizened Cenn.

Elvish Visionary didn't get there :/

Game 2 he gets multiple Wolf-Skull Shamans and gets a bunch of dudes, and I run out a bunch of guys as well and an Elspeth, but get stuck on 4 with Cloudgoat Ranger sitting in my hand. He ends up with tons of tokens and guys and I'm mucking up the board with tokens. He has Leaf-Crowned Elder in play, checks his Wolf-Skull Shaman kinship first, revealing Rage Forger, then gets to play Rage Forger on approximately a thousand Shamans he has, and I can't come back.

Game 3 I blow him out.

The other X-2 match goes to time at the deciding game and the player with the highest tiebreakers is able to get his opponent to scoop (which I have my own opinions on how that went down), so I get sorried at 9th place.

Since I had my work laptop in my backpack from going from work to someone's place to crash, I decide to try my hand at this match coverage thing. It was pretty fun, and it's something I can stand to get better at too. I'll edit those and post them tomorrow. Long story short, two Five-Color Control decks fought in the final and one of them won while the rest of us lost for enduring it.

Format shift

2009-04-17T12:11:00.001-07:00

So I proxied a crap load of decks for testing tonight, only to realize at 2 am that after today, I will not need to test this format ever again, as Alara Reborn comes out next weekend. D'oh!

I definitely see a lot of new decks emerging. Red decks get a huge boost, Red-Green beats will probably be a serious deck, BGW Rock decks get some tools like the new Vindicate, and some deck out there will love to see Chris Pikula back in the format.

2009-04-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

Magic-League has received a notice from Wizards of the Coast's legal team to cease and desist using copyrighted material on their website and to stop promoting Magic Workstation and Apprentice.

Parts that confuse me:

- the name "Magic-League" infringes upon copyrights? No idea where that's coming from, and I'm sure they could fight that point if they wanted to.

- Stop distributing Magic Workstation? I believe it's marketed as a tool for playing ANY trading card game, doubt they can stop that. Good thing you can add new cards just by copying the spoiler file into Workstation. Take that, Wizards Legal.

- Here's a great clip: "... your bad faith intent to capitalize on the good will associated with Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® trademark, and pass your site off as authorized or associated with Wizards’ MAGIC: THE GATHERING® game"

CLEARLY spoken from a lawyer's rear side. So by letting people play Magic, Magic-League is harming the intentions of Wizards to... play Magic?

It's very obvious that the people at Wizards who make and love Magic would not stand for this, and they probably cannot comment on issues like this (just as I shouldn't comment on a certain Twitter tag that starts with an "#a" and ends in "mazonfail"). Hopefully the Magic-League guys figure out a way to appease these suits.

In other news, I also got a cease-and-desist order to stop writing on Magic cards with a Sharpie. If I want to play a game of Magic with Reflecting Pools and Bitterblossoms, I'd better start cracking my packs. I'm harming the goodwill of the game trying to tap all your guys and draw a card with a Sphinx's Herald.

"Holy Angel tokens, Batman!"

2009-04-13T10:47:00.001-07:00

Looking at my Google Analytics dashboard, I found that more than a couple people came onto my site looking for "brian kibler batmobile". Searching this, apparently this blog post of mine is the top search result when you Google that term.

Well, let the search end, I've found the picture:

You saw it here first on Incremental Growth... since the first time you saw that picture.

GPT Seattle, try 1

2009-04-12T01:52:00.000-07:00

So I ran Kithkin at the GPT today at First Pick, more or less as a testing session, since A) I had an unoptimal sideboard with only 1 Elspeth, and 2) I hadn't tested and have no idea what to board in and out.

So here's my deck

1 Mutavault
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Rustic Clachan
10 Plains

4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Cloudgoat Ranger

4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession
3 Glorious Anthem
4 Ajani Vengeant

Sideboard:
4 Reveillark
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Martial Coup
2 Banefire
1 Elsepth, Knight-Errant

This GPT was like a small PTQ: 46 people, 6 rounder.

Round 1 vs. Swans
Game 1 I blow him out. Game 2 I leave a kill on the board because I was afraid of Terror but of course Swans doesn't play Terror. Game 3 I blow him out.
1-0

Round 2 vs. Alex West playing Red Deck
He mulligans to five both games. Not much.
2-0

Round 3 vs. Bill Stark playing Sanity Grinding
Game 1 he's on the play and has answers for everything and it's essentially a blowout. Game 2 I'm lucky enough for him to not see any board control cards. Game 3 I mull to 5 and keep 2 Rugged Prairies as my lands. Luckily I get a Plains, but he's already Boomeranged my first land drop.

Max McCall pointed out that on a clash I opted to keep Elspeth on my deck when I couldn't cast it and didn't really want Elspeth in the game, and then on another clash the next turn I opted to send Path to Exile to the bottom because, well, I wanted land to cast Elspeth. I proceeded to get blown out by Plumeveil. At least I got the testing I wanted out of this tournament :/
2-1

Round 4 vs. Chris Kelly playing Sligh
I didn't get very good draws either of the games we played and he blows me out of the water. I think Game 1 I made a bad play that made me lose a Knight of Meadowgrain unnecessarily. Game 2 he plays infinite Terrors on my guys and I flood for a while looking for Burrenton Forge-Tender and he has Deathmark too. Gross... I really don't think this is a bad matchup for me either. He wants to play Goblin Outlander but he also needs to play Volcanic Fallout, so Goblin Outlander on the board = time to overextended a little more, and no Goblin Outlander means Knight of Meadowgrain's going to town.
2-2 DROP

I think the deck's fine, but I'll definitely be trying to get some serious testing in, because I really don't understand what cards are bad and even what cards are good in each matchup.

Bryan, a good Magic playing friend from summer '07, came back to Magic yesterday, and T2'd today. Good for him, except the deck he was playing in the finalwas, well, something you wouldn't expect and something I wouldn't recommend without some tuning.

At least I'll gain a few points from this...

Actual paper Magic

2009-04-06T15:52:00.001-07:00

I haven't played paper Magic since the last PTQ, and rather than sit at home and blow away dollars on 8-4's, I decided to actually get out, enjoy the unusually beautiful Seattle weather, and do a paper draft in Redmond.

I ended up 4-0'ing with a very odd Esper deck splashing Red for Blood Cultist and activating Vein Drinker. Here's what made the cut.

1x Grixis Illusionist
1x Zombie Outlander
1x Tidehollow Sculler
1x Esper Battlemage
1x Blood Cultist
1x Aven Windwatcher
1x Brackwater Elemental
1x Viscera Dragger
2x Fatestitcher
1x Tower Gargoyle
2x Dreg Reaver
1x Vein Drinker

1x Bone Splinters
1x Path to Exile
1x Courier's Capsule
1x Yoke of the Damned
1x Gleam of Resistance
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Resounding Wave
1x Kiss of the Amesha

1x Jund Panorama
1x Esper Panorama
1x Unstable Frontier
1x Mountain
4x Swamp
4x Plains
5x Island

(not sure about the mix of Swamps, Plains, and Island, but it was definitely 5-4-4)

So initially I thought the deck was pretty slow and would get blown out by a Bant deck pretty easily. Luckily, I did not play against a Bant deck, and against everything else the deck was pretty solid. I elected to draw every time I had the choice, since I was definitely a control deck and I thought my mana was atrocious, and the amount of removal I had, plus double Fatesticher + Esper Battlemage and Blood Cultist, made winning relatively easy in the late game, be it with Vein Drinker or Dreg Reaver.

A couple of notes about my actual play:

I started out writing down every card my opponent plays again, but then I noticed that as I was taking a note, my opponent would make a play and I'd instinctively say "Sure" without even considering the board and my hand. After that, I'd only write down cards when I truly had idle time, and then even only noted important cards like tricks and guys that actually change the board.

I'm still not finding the most correctly play fast enough. In my last game, I made a couple of not-so tight plays, but luckily my opponent didn't make me pay for them. Maybe I need to slow it down a little bit, but I think it was more a lack of concentration. I need to eliminate the number of times I say "Wait, that play was awful" immediately after I make plays. I do that a lot.

Anyway, for my efforts I got credit for at least three more drafts at Redmond, a sweet playmat, and foil Path to Exile #2. Magic is fun when you win. :)

How on earth is competitive Magic thriving?

2009-04-02T11:58:00.000-07:00

Got this link from Slashdot to a New York Times article about professional gamers losing their sponsorships and entering the real world, with pro gaming circuits like Championship Gaming Series and Cyberathlete Professional League folding due to the economy sucking. Apparently Major League Gaming is turning a profit, though.

But I've always wondered about these leagues' business models. How can you spend $1-2 million total on your elite players, dish out prize cash, and put on extravagant tournaments that probably cost more than Pro Tours (I've never been to a PT, but these MLG tournaments have a lot more lights, seating, equipment, and booth babes) all off of sponsorship money? At least with Magic it makes sense: when people take the game more seriously, they buy more Magic cards and play in more FNMs, PTQs, and MODO drafts.

It's a little confusing, with such bad times financially, that we are breaking attendance records in North America for Grand Prixs and PTQs, and that tournament organizers can turn profits on $5k tournaments and cruises. Guess it just goes to show what a great product Magic is. I know I certainly don't get positive EV from playing Magic, and I don't know too many people in Seattle that do, but we're still flying to Grand Prixs and even PTQs. I guess you can't do that with Halo unless you pay some people to show up and beat up amateurs, since you get nearly the exact same experience sitting your living room on X-Box Live.

Maybe it's also a little justice in the world. Competitive gamers don't exactly contribute much to society, so they shouldn't make more money in the long run than, say, teachers or policemen.

Thinking, thinking, thinking - the beginning of GP Seattle prep...

2009-03-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

In my estimation, here are the relevant decks in Standard:

BW Tokens
Five-Color Control
Kithkin
RW Cruise
Faeries
Esperlark
Bant strategies
Blightning (I think this deck's pretty bad right now, it only beats Faeries and Five-Color, and mostly old Five-Color lists at that)

Reveillark seems to be an extremely important card in this metagame. It's so hard to deal with that you either run it yourself, or you don't care about it. Generating lots of creatures also seems good, with Spectral Procession and Bitterblossom being awesome cards, which in turn makes Glorious Anthem another really important card for decks that go this route.

I think the beginning of this month I'll be running Kithkin. I know it's a favorite against Cruise, Faeries, and Red decks. It's certainly fast enough that it doesn't really care about Reveillark by the time it comes online. I also get to play Glorious Anthem and Spectral Procession, as well as other hits like Cloudgoat Ranger. The only deck I'm really worried about from the major decks is Five-Color Control, and at least there are tools to beat it. I'm also not sure how good I'd be against a T2 Rhox War Monk or Troll Ascetic.

The field seems like it will be fairly spread out, so tuning for the mirror past some sideboard cards seems unnecessary at this point. Stillmoon Cavalier seems like it'd be really good, but why isn't it in every Kithkin board?

Anyway, some initial thoughts I need to get down.

The end of a disappointing three months

2009-03-22T02:51:00.000-07:00

So I went 1-3 drop at today's PTQ running the Robots. I'm so awful at Magic, and I don't think it was necessarily preparation...

Round 1 vs. Kyle Boddy (Affinity) - Game 1 I draw the nuts and he doesn't. Game 2 he mulligans and I draw my hate.

Round 2 vs. Domain Zoo - Game 1 a Jitte gets online but I'm still in the game some how. I get attacked down to 2 with him having a Kird Ape and Tarmogoyf left on the board and I have an Atog and a fairly large Arcbound Ravager. He's at 2 and I'm at 10. He uses all his Jitte counters to attempt to kill Atog and I decline to sac one more land to save it because I was thinking I'd like the land to cast a creature I draw off the top. Stupid me wasn't thinking that I had just been put to 2 and when I fail to draw a creature I lose to a simple crackback. Basically denied myself a draw phase and possibly a win because he was out of gas himself.

I blew him out Game 2, then Game 3 he mulligans to 6 but has the absolute nuts on the play. T1 Kird Ape, T2 Tarmogoyf, after my T1 Thopter + Drum, T2 tap out for Plating, T3 I decline to block and he Might of Alara and Flames me. I finally blow out my hand full of guys on the next turn but he flashes me a second Tribal Flames. That game doesn't happen if I don't throw away Game 3.

Round 3 vs. Faeries - Game 1 I blow him out. Game 2 I try a very deep mulligan (may have been 4 or even 3) and obviously don't get there. Game 3 I keep an okay hand, play a guy T1, get my Plating Snared on T2, then get my second Plating Mana Leaked. I'm out of gas at that point but he is very hosed on mana and colors. I manage to get him to 1 until a very late Ancestral resolves and he gets Green Mana for Ancient Grudge and Tarmogoyf and I lose.

Round 4 vs. Reveillark combo - Game 1 he mucks the board up with Selkie Hedge-Mage and Reveillark and I basically can't attack without him gaining way too much life. Eventually he Chords out a Mirror Entity, and apparently Mirror Entity activated a million times for 0 with a Body Double and Reveillark means infinite bouncing and life. Game 2 he plays Kataki and I'm never in it.

And that was my PTQ and possibly the end of Extended for me. I'm slightly entertaining the idea of flying/riding to Boise but I don't think it's worth it when right now I'm absolutely begging just to go X-2 at a PTQ, something I have never done.

I feel like I'm having problems concentrating on my play at the table. I'll start doing something for my turn, then after I commit I realize there is a much better plan. I'd hate to slow down and plan out even more because I'm already a terribly slow player. I'm also really concerned that I don't mulligan correctly... I think I err to throwing away too many hands, and I probably average close to a mulligan a match in Constructed.

So I'm starting to concentrate on Standard, and this time I really shouldn't have any excuse not to figure this format out, with the crazy stuff that was happening in December and January for me and my general apathy for the previous two PTQ's. After next weekend, there's serious Standard every weekend except a couple leading up to the Grand Prix. I think I have it in me to not be awful at Magic, so we'll see how it goes the next couple months going into the summer.

Brian Kibler's return to the Pro Tour

2009-03-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at PTQ Top 8's and saw that the Dragonmaster himself and former commentator Brian Kibler took down a PTQ in Las Vegas. It reminded me of brianfanatic.com. (This archive doesn't have the really sweet background of a picture of him in the Batmobile after winning a VS System Pro Circuit.)

Start from the bottom and experience what it's like to be obsessed with a professional Magic player.

UPDATE: I found the picture :)

Lots of events added

2009-03-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

Been scrounging around Cascade Games (the TO for the Pacific Northwest) and Rogue Gaming (the forum for the British Columbia scene) for upcoming events. Check out the right side for lots of Grand Prix Trials for Seattle!

Also, at the PTQ it was announced that Grand Prix Seattle will be at the Tacoma Convention Center in, where else, Tacoma. It's about 40 minutes away from Seattle, and buses do exist between Tacoma and Seattle, so if you're interested in seeing the cool touristy things in Seattle like Pike Place Market and the Space Needle, no worries there.

Magic players/thieves who deserve to be ripped a new one

2009-03-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

Linked to this from Seattlite Bill Stark from GP Chicago: Thieves Among Us. I never knew such things were going on at Grand Prixs... a couple of the comments are worth reading too.

What have I been doing?

2009-03-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

Well, I certainly have been playing Magic...

Since Vancouver I've been playing lots and lots of MODO... and my credit card's use has been fairly light too, because apparently I know what I'm doing on MODO... After Vancouver I was in 1710's, middling between 1720 and 1770, and now I'm at 1773. I haven't been tracking my rating all this time, but here are the results of my drafts since my Sealed T8 that I feel jump started me.


3/8/2009 10:03:19 3-0 Jund 1773
3/7 SEALED PE  4-3
3/5/2009 8:49:37 0-1 Jund
3/5/2009 6:19:06 2-1 Naya
3/5/2009 4:48:28 1-1 Bant
3/4/2009 10:26:14 PM 1-1 Naya
3/4/2009 8:15:43 PM 3-0 Esper
3/4/2009 7:05:53 PM 0-1 Jund
3/3/2009 9:25:20 PM 3-0 Jund
3/1 SEALED PE  4-3
2/28/2009 10:24:18 PM 0-1 Jund
2/28/2009 12:34:58 AM 0-1 Esper

2/26/2009 10:42:00 PM 0-1 Naya
2/26/2009 9:53:41 PM 0-1 Bant
2/26/2009 8:04:22 PM 2-1 Grixis
2/24/2009 10:22:31 PM 3-0 Bant
2/24/2009 8:30:10 PM 1-1 Naya
2/24/2009 7:40:49 PM 0-1 Naya
2/22/2009 9:44:09 PM 2-1 Naya
2/22/2009 7:44:57 PM 2-1 Naya
2/22/2009 3:56:32 PM 1-1 Grixis
2/22/2009 3:16:32 PM 0-1 Jund
2/21/2009 9:49:57 PM 1-1 Grixis
2/14 SEALED 5-2, 1-1 top 8 draft

It's not much, and I'm not infinite, but it is kind of exciting considering that three years ago I didn't stand a chance at making the final of a 4-3-2-2 and couldn't draft worth shit with the CMU crowd.

PTQ Austin schedule posted for the Northwest

2009-02-25T12:27:00.001-08:00

Cascade Games has posted their dates for Pro Tour Austin qualifiers. The format's Standard, so it will be lots and lots of Standard this summer. The earliest PTQ is May 9th (before or after Alara Reborn?), and the Northwest gets theirs pretty late. And there is Regionals and Grand Prix Seattle smack in the middle. Here are the relevant ones for the Northwest, hopefully we get a couple more?

August 1 - Portland, OR
August 15 - Seattle, WA

A MODO update/self-assessment

2009-02-24T12:49:00.000-08:00

So last week I won 12 packs for T4'ing a Daily Sealed, plus I opened an Elspeth and some other things, so I had plenty of tickets to boot. I started drafting them last Saturday when I got home from Vancouver, in the 1710's. My results, all in 8-4 drafts, were 1-1, 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, 2-1, and I'm up to about 1730 I believe off the top of my head.

I feel like in this stretch I was getting kind of lucky and my opponents were getting rather unlucky, and that some of my decks aren't really stellar... but things like this haven't happened for me as far as I can remember: I always manage to find ways to give games away or make terrible mistakes, a few years ago when I was begging to hold ground above 1600. Maybe (gasp) I am actually getting better at Magic. Conflux events are starting this week, and I won't have an Extended tournament for three weeks after Standard for a Mox, so I'd like to dive into Limited and start picking my game apart again.

This week, however, I'm focusing on Standard and doing lots of side-by-side testing with myself (working blows) to get a grasp of the decks I want to play. I'm leaning toward RW Cruise, but that deck seems really popular, so then it might be Blightning Beatdown (which from testing for States, I don't think can beat Kithkin), Kithkin (which from testing for States, I don't think can beat Five-Color), or Five-Color (which I don't know much more about). If I do play Cruise, I want to make sure I can play the mirror match properly and have the cards necessary to be successful in the matchup, while not giving up a whole lot against Faeries... I think the Faeries matchup is very very close.

Short PTQ damage report

2009-02-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

I managed to get the cards for Affinity and got to play that in Vancouver. It was 100 people and over half of the field was American.

I copied the list that won Pittsburgh... except for the lands. I changed the maindeck cards in the stock Affinity deck that I had proxied for testing, changed the sideboard, but didn't pay attention to the fact that I didn't have Ancient Dens already in. Then for whatever reason I thought that's how the list was supposed to be, rationalizing "Oh, must be to flash back Ancient Grudge... I guess you can always Springleaf Drum for White."

.... HUH?!?!? <-- that part didn't happen until after Round 1, declining to board in Path to Exile in the mirror.

Anyway, with my horrid scrub deck and all, here's how it went:

Round 1 L vs. Affinity. Bad attacks/playing from not playing the deck for an extremely long time cost me the game.
Round 2 W vs. Mono Red Burn. Played a newer player
Round 3 W vs. Affinity. Ancient Grudge might get there.
Round 4 W vs. TEPS. Mull to 4 on the play Game 1 might get there.
Round 5 L vs. Naya Zoo. Kept a bad 6 Game 2 on the draw with a Blinkmoth Nexus and needing to draw into another land, and didn't get there. Game 3 he mulls to 5. Kataki might get there. Dwayne swears to god he wasn't mulling to it ;)
Drop.

I was more comfortable playing Affinity than I have in the past, and I don't see it getting absolutely hated out, so hopefully it will still be a good choice for Seattle, because I like it a lot.

I'm gonna be testing Standard when I can this week. Leaning toward RW Cruise or Blightning Beatdown. (Does this deck need to play Bitterblossom? Wouldn't I rather play a bear or pump my Figure on Turn 2?)

Limited > Extended apparently

2009-02-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

So there haven't been updates this week because, well, I haven't been playing much Magic this week. This weekend I did play a lot of MODO... I think I did about 5 drafts, won one of them, I think made the second round of 2 of them, and scrubbed out of the others... so 5 drafts became 8 packs :/

I just finished a ALA Sealed Nix Tix qualifier, and I T4'd. My pool had Elspeth and double Sigil of Distinction. I lost a match in three to a clutch Battlegrace Angel, and then lost my last match of Swiss to mana screw in the last game, but it didn't matter since my tiebreakers were very good.

In the draft, I was heavy Black and ended up Grixis. I played the person I lost to in the last round and won in 3, then lost in 3 to a Jund deck due to my deck not serving up Red mana. I'm up 50 rating points, and I'm qualified for a free ALA Sealed tournament Saturday... which means I'm even more unmotivated to make the trip to Vancouver this weekend.

Maybe if I had a larger collection on MODO, I'd be more into this current Constructed season, but I don't, which means I have to find real people to practice Constructed with, and I don't have the means or drive to do it during the week, whereas with MODO you can almost instantaneously draft. MWS is an option for Constructed, but it's actually pretty hard to find game on Magic League late at night on the West Coast.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I'm losing my drive to do well in this Extended format. I think I'd rather play Limited and keep getting better at Magic, because I still make tons of mistakes that just go unpunished in Constructed testing but would cost you prizes in a draft.

I'll probably write a report of this tournament this week, as I'll be looking through the replays for mistakes anyway.

Places to play Magic in the Seattle area

2009-01-29T15:59:00.000-08:00

I'll be back Saturday night, vegging out on football Sunday, doing real life Monday and Tuesday, then be gone for business the rest of the week, although business may include a playtesting session with the boys at UPitt...

If you happened to stumble across this page looking for Magical information about Seattle, Zaiem made a great post over on Northwest Magic (another site you should bookmark) about everywhere you can play Magic. Honestly, I was overwhelmed when I did this research in August before I moved, I don't think any other city has so much support for Magic.

In memory - Dante Duterte, 1/11/1950 - 1/23/2009

2009-01-23T21:40:00.000-08:00

I had to fly to the Philippines yesterday. My father, Dante Ibanez Duterte, passed away early this morning after a hard-fought battle with a brain lymphoma. He busted his ass my entire life so I could get where I am today, and I only hope I can do the same at some point.

Reconsidering the process

2009-01-21T09:33:00.000-08:00

So now that the ridiculous first three weeks of the Extended season are gone, I now have four and a half weeks to learn the format. I nearly did what I said I would do: pick a deck I know I'd like (Zoo), test it, and ride it out for these first three weeks. I did manage to win a Trial (an 11 person trial with two scoops...), but I chickened out at the Grand Prix and played a deck I didn't know very well and picked up three draws as a result.

So now these next five weeks, I'm actually going to learn the format, and play the best deck. Maybe right now it's Faeries or TEPS, but maybe in five weeks something else will emerge. Here's the remainder of my schedule:

2/21 - Vancouver
2/28 - Standard for a Mox
3/14 - Portland
3/21 - Seattle

Right now the best decks are Faeries, GB, TEPS, Affinity, with Elves, Zoo, and Mono Red Burn lurking. Maybe a deck like Zoo will transform and get ridiculous with Gaea's Alara's Might. But right now I'm not committing to a deck for a while and when it's time to buy cards I can choose the best deck and spend the rest of my time testing the tar out of the mirror. (Btw, I'm like 2-6 in the Zoo mirror. Vomit on myself.)

Damage report

2009-01-19T12:54:00.001-08:00

So Gavin Verhey made me chicken out of playing Zoo, so I run his GB Loam deck. Here's what happens if you weren't following:

Round 4 vs. Doran - D
Round 5 vs. Faeries - D
Round 6 vs. GB Loam - D
Round 7 vs. Swans - W
Round 8 vs. GB Rock - L, drop.

I don't know too many that have been satisfied with a record of 1-1-3. Maybe I was playing too slow, or maybe the deck needs to be jiggered with some aggro elements to win more matches in the Swiss.

Upset, I decide to go back to running Zoo, and adjust for what I perceived the metagame would be like in the PTQ based on the 2-0 bracket of Round 3 that I scouted out: tons of Faeries and GB decks. I throw 3 Dark Confidant back in the main, and I get to try out Proclamation of Rebirth (AWESOME) but decline to run Kitchen Finks in the sideboard thinking I can dodge aggro decks. Hmm, how did that one go?

Round 1 vs. Mono Red - L
Round 2 vs. UB Tron - W
Round 3 vs. Faeries - L (against a friend from NC, Game 3 he topdecks Explosives on my team, then after I Proclamation of Rebirth them back, he topdecks ANOTHER)
Round 4 vs. Mono Red - L

Grrrr that stupid burn deck.

So that was my Magic weekend.

Off to LA

2009-01-16T11:59:00.000-08:00

I'll be leaving Seattle around 3, getting into LA around 6. I might play in a trial just to get my feet wet. (By the way, I'm going to play Gavin's Loam deck.) Expect Twitter updates during the day Saturday and Sunday, and maybe posts after each day of play. By the way, no Twitter = don't wanna talk about it generally, if you're waiting for updates.

Cactus Aggro?

2009-01-15T10:13:00.000-08:00

Testing at First Pick with Peter, Joe, and Zaiem plus some help from Dwayne, Chris Lawson, and Charles Wong when they were not drafting, I decided to try the Blue Zoo deck. Here's what I tried:

22 aforementioned lands

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kird Ape
2 Figure of Destiny
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Kitchen Finks

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bant Charm
2 Flame Jab

Sideboard:
3 Proclamation of Rebirth
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Stifle
3 Gaddock Teeg

I thought about sideboarding on the bus to First Pick, and I identified the decks where you are the beatdown and where you are not, and sideboarded accordingly. I.e. if you are the beatdown, avoid taking out one-drops. Mogg Fanatic can still be good for 2-3 damage on turn 1. Adding Proclamation in those matchups makes it okay (those are generally the matchups where they have Wrath effects.)

So I'll try to run-down what I played against:
A couple against Dwayne playing Zoo - Played only a couple preboard and I drew excellently. Sideboard is where I get an edge because their Hedge-Mages are really bad. I can bring in Hedge-Mages, one or two Procs, and the Stifles. I have not tested this matchup thoroughly enough at all.

A set against Pete playing Faeries - Yuck, I have no idea where the edges are in this matchup at all. I got wiped 0-2 preboard, but we split 5-5 postboard. Combine this with a set we played before where I think I was up, and you have a pretty even matchup. The Stifles come in and shouldn't hit lands generally, only Engineered Explosives or counters. Proc is pretty saucy too. Teeg's a little worse against just Explosives, but I guess you have to fight Chalice. Bant Charm is great. Shackles is Bad News Bears for us. Couldn't tell you how to beat this deck. Just draw well. Flame Jab is not as good as I thought it would be in this matchup.

A set of preboard of Chris playing GB Loam - I tested this last night and got beaten pretty badly 0-2 pre then 3-5 post. I think this actually came out even, and the Flame Jabs were actually great against Tribe-Elders and then sitting there waiting to do more damage. I need to play around Death Cloud better. This is still a poor matchup, especially losing Jund Charm. Kitchen Finks is surprisingly good as they have to two for one to get rid of it, whereas you can trump their Finks with Bant Charm.

A few against Charles playing Mono Burn - About the same as I thought. Two Nacatls will win you the game. Otherwise, don't take damage from lands and just look to soak up damage. Bant Charm saves you from Magma Jets that set them up and Shrapnel Blasts for the win, but doesn't save you from Sulfuric Vortex like Oblivion Ring does. Maindeck Finks are really good too.

A few preboard against Charles playing Affinity - I think I won once. Bant Charm helps, but still slow. This matchup is still atrocious.

Those are my thoughts. I will probably play this deck, but GB is a back pocket deck if I chicken out still.

I am such a coward

2009-01-13T16:36:00.001-08:00

Spent the past thirty minutes at work thinking about Zoo... I independently thought up that Bant Charm is better than Oblivion Ring in the mirror by a mile because it can't be Duergar Hedge-Maged.

Bored at work, I went to Brainburst hoping to see a tournament report by Alex but instead happened on a little guide to Zoo with some ideas that may be worth trying.

Here's what I want to try:

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kird Ape
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Figure of Destiny

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bant Charm
2 Flame Jab

4 Flooded Strand
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Overgrown Tomb (I think you play this instead of Blood Crypt because it makes Bant Charm colors)
1 Plains
1 Forest

SB:
2 Proclamation of Rebirth (Probably better than Ranger, because you can bring it in against decks with board sweepers like Faeries, where you'd like to run out 3 one-drops but you know you will get wasted by Engineered Explosives.)
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
4 Kataki, War's Wage (maybe three of this and one more Hedge-Mage...)
3 Stifle
3 Gaddock Teeg

I'm about to chicken out of playing GB Loam because I think Engineered Explosives will cost me an arm and a leg at the event site (neither of the main shops that sell singles in Seattle has them, and Star City doesn't have them either). It will be easier for me to borrow or buy Flooded Strands, too.

No live testing tonight, but maybe some MWS, so I'll be giving this a spin to see if I like it or not. One thing I am considering is the difference in metagame between Day 1 of the Grand Prix with three byes and a PTQ. Less Mono-Red burn starting 3-0?

Can't stop The Rock

2009-01-13T10:16:00.000-08:00

So I tested last night with Zaiem and Dave Derrickson. I wasn't expecting to test because my apartment was (and still is) a mess and needed to be cleaned, and I was on-call (luckily I was not called), but who am I to turn down testing?

So of course I didn't bring any decks with me to the office as I left straight from work to U-District, but Zaiem luckily had Gavin's GB Rock deck that I was considering, so I try it.

This was all pre-board, I played some games against TEPS and won maybe once (Gavin said that matchup was indeed very bad), I played against Faeries and I seemed like a favorite, I played against some of the fringe decks from the PTQ Top 8 (GW Haterator... only took one game off of that, what a beating, and GWU control which seemed similar to the Faeries matchup).

I like the deck. It does powerful things. I think I will play it some more.

What to play at Grand Prix Los Angeles

2009-01-12T01:46:00.001-08:00

If you came here looking for what deck you should play next weekend at the Grand Prix, you came to the wrong place because I have no idea.

I went a very frustrating 3-3-2 at the PTQ with Zoo. I was mulliganing infinitely. Maybe I'm being too greedy with my sevens, is it wrong to send back hands with no one drops? What about clunky hands involving Steam Vents and a Blood Crypt, stranding a Wild Nacatl or leaving you with a bad Kird Ape? Here's what I played against:

Round 1: Zoo W
Round 2: Zoo L. Frustrating Game 2 when he peels Duergar Hedge-Mage for my Jitte and my Ring that was hiding a Tarmogoyf), then Game 3 a little rushed I pitch a controlling 7 and keep what may have been a bad 6.
Round 3: Faeries D. G2 I get a gift and he Cliques me after knowning the contents of my hand (double Jitte) from a Clique.... that was still on the board.
Round 4: Zoo L. Mull to 4 game 2. He kept a bad hand too but it took me too long to get there.
Round 5: Slide L. I blame myself for this not being a draw because I had called a judge twice on him for forgetting to draw and drawing off a cycle that he did not have the mana for, and in extra turns with a judge sitting at the table I miss my chance to nail him for forgetting to draw off a cycle but him remembering at end step. I knew I could probably nail him because I watched him play Round 1 and he was very slow and not as sharp with his operations.
Round 6: Martyr (Cactus Control) D. He was a slow player copying Zaiem and Jon's deck from BDM's article, but I wasn't going to push a slow play warning in the champions' bracket. That being said, this match is very bad and I managed to steal a game.
Round 7: Scrub, W. Bottom table.
Round 8: Dredge, W. Second to last table.

I went to time four times which I can pin on myself. In Limited I was speeding up too much then slowed it down and played better, but now I'm getting too slow presumably because I haven't tested as much Extended as I had Shards Limited with MODO and three paper drafts a week.

I tried running a modified Zoo (with Mana Tithe in the main) in the Magic-League master and was out of contention after round 4 and didn't win a single match in the following two rounds either. I'm not sure if I want to try Mana Tithe for more, (Think about it: how often does someone tap out against you for Firespout or Damnation or Thirst or Vendilion Clique or for pretty much anything? And what deck would you hate to be on the back foot against because you have to play an additional land to cast your spells?) but I still feel like I'm getting outclassed in power level:

Round 1 vs. Zoo L (I played G3 poorly, all my fault)
Round 2 vs. GB Loam W
Round 3 vs. Dredge W
Round 4 vs. All In L (terrible matchup)
Round 5 vs. Bubble Hulk L (pretty bad too if you can't stop Footsteps)
Round 6 vs. GB Death Cloud L (close but Krosan Grip gets me)

I played the deck in a couple of minis too. In one I beat Faeries then beat TEPS, and in the other I beat the same TEPS and I lose to the Burn Deck.

I hate blaming things on luck or mulligans or stuff like that, because I feel like I'm not good enough or flawless enough to complain about luck. Maybe the deck really isn't powerful enough to win a PTQ. Maybe I haven't put in enough hours.

Our Top 8 was 3 Faeries decks, 2 Affinity decks, TEPS, WG Haterator, and Uwg Chase Rare-ish kind of thing. (Call it Gifts Ungiven without Gifts Ungiven? That's what it looked kind of like.) Affinity beat Faeries in the final. A Pokemon World Champion won the spot over a man who has to date lost three matches in three events this season.

At the other PTQ this weekend in Louisville, Zaiem and Jon's Cactus Control creation took down a Blue Envelope beating Faeries. The rest of the top 8 was Burn, Affinity, GB Loam, Zoo, another Faeries deck, and TEPS.

So looking back.... maybe Zoo can still get there? I thought about Gavin's GB Loam deck. Even though Faeries is the best deck, that mirror would be mindnumbing and I don't think I could have it down pat in less than a week. I toyed with Affinity last week, but I'm also not comfortable running that deck, especially since you randomly scoop it to Turn 2 Kataki. GB is pretty good I hear against Faeries (better than Zoo is), so it made it tempting.

Twitter

2009-01-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

I set up a Twitter feed and widget for this blog. This way if you want to know how I'm doing in a tournament, I only have to text Twitter and not everyone who would conceivably want to know. I think this will be especially cool in Los Angeles, especially if I manage to make a run.

I think you can even it up to have Twitter text you with friend updates, so for right now, my user name is fourouttheforty.

Cactus Control

2009-01-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

Sooooo... the deck is out, but I don't like the name. Get A Life? I didn't think I'd say it, but I like Gavin's name: Cactus Control.

"Because when has a cactus ever betrayed you?"

What I have been learning

2009-01-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

So since the weekend I have tested at least a little bit every day this week. At the beginning of the week I was thinking about switching to Affinity, and I started with Ben Wienberg's list and modified it to put Thoughtcast for the Ethersworn Canonists, conceding a little to Elves, and then trying a few other things:

4 Tree of Tails
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers

4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
3 Atog
4 Frogmite
4 Master of Etherium
4 Ornithopter
4 Chromatic Star
4 Cranial Plating

2 Fatal Frenzy
1 Soul's Fire
4 Springleaf Drum
4 Thoughtcast

The lack of Myr Enforcer is weird, and I did get smacked in a set against Mono Blue Faeries. Atog seemed underwhemling in that matchup, as it doesn't give you the explosiveness that a Myr Enforcer for 1 would give you, so I think if I were to run Affinity I'd swap the Atogs for Myr Enforcer. Maybe Atog goes into the sideboard, I haven't thought enough about the sideboard to run the deck this weekend. Oh, and Jitte is especially bad for you in this matchup because it's more difficult to resolve a sac outlet, much less have a blocker for their Jitte-wielding Faerie. This is different than Jitte from Zoo because you can resolve an Atog and Arcbound Ravager and you can block with any Artifact man, sacrifice it and they do not get counters.

Some people think Master of Etherium is too slow for this deck, and I disagree with them. It gets past Spellstutter Sprite and Spell Snare and often will get around Vedalken Shackles. The card is a house. I could justify cutting 1 because it is a little expensive, but it is definitely good enough.

Also what scares me is this decks bad game against Mono Red Burn, especially since Smash to Smithereens main deck is apparently the new coolest thing.

So of course I'm coming back to Zoo. Here are the changes I've made so far:
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Plains
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Steam Vents
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Sacred Foundry

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Gaddock Teeg
2 Shadow Guildmage

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Seal of Fire
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard:
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
2 Ranger of Eos
2 Jund Charm

First off, getting flooded in the late game blows, so I caved in and cut a land. Seems okay so far...

Gaddock Teeg has been pretty darn good every time I cast him. Faeries' only ways to deal with it are Vedalken Shackles, in which case you might be able to burn them out, and Threads of Disloyalty, in which case you could try running out Tarmogoyf and comment them on their nice play. It turns off Repeal and Engineered Explosives in that deck, and he does beat down. He is also relevant against UB Tron, Elves, Affinity (turning off Thoughtcast), Death Cloud (turns off Damnation or draws out a kill spell which is not directed to your huge face-beating Tarmogoyf), TEPS and Swans.

That extra Teeg could also become a third Umezawa's Jitte. The way you lose often against Faeries is they stick an Umezawa's Jitte and connect with it, taking them out of range of a burn overload. I don't know if I'll have time to try both. What the extra slot is not going to become is a third Shadow Guildmage. It's good... but not great. It's good against Faeries and Elves, but against other decks it is very underwhelming and is often the first thing look to I take out after Game 1. I think I'm fine with 2 and would rather have a Jitte or Gaddock Teeg.

I need to reevaluate what comes in and what comes out from the sideboard, but I replaced the Ancient Grudges for Katakis again because Affinity is a large enough portion of the field and poor enough a matchup that I would be willing to run 4 slots just against it. Plus Ancient Grudge actually doesn't come in against a lot of other things. I brought it in for UB Tron and I think I overreacted to it, it's actually a pretty good matchup, especially if you stick Gaddock Teeg and especially now that I run three of those guys. I kind of want a fourth Duergar Hedge-Mage and a Kitchen Finks or Ranger of Eos may be getting cut. It will probably be a Ranger.

So those are the format-specific things I have been learning about the format... but am I getting better at Magic? After all, this is what this blog is supposed to be about.

- I'm not planning ahead and executing well-enough. When the game is seemingly lost, I'm not taking risks or giving my opponent chances to blow the game.
- I feel differently when I'm in pressure situations against good players. I felt this way in the T4 of the Saturday GPT and in the T2 against Alex of the Sunday GPT. Maybe that's just how I'm going to feel and I need to get used to it.
- Deck-specific... I'm forgetting to play land and then leaving myself open to Mana Leak, or being forced to Lightning Bolt myself because I didn't play a sac land the previous turn. Again, planning.

In chess there's a concept of strategy (or setting up for the late game) and tactics (making immediate plays to gain an advantage right now). I feel like Limited focuses on tactics: attacking and blocking, setting up two-for-ones with your tricks, setting up a clock. In a word, execution. And Constructed values strategy: what is my path to victory, what cards are worth fighting for, what do I need the board to look like in four turns, and even before you sit down, what do I want this deck I'm building to do. Planning.

At least that's what I have in my head, we actually had a discussion about the parallels of chess and Magic (I think chess is closer to Magic than poker is, but I'm a math-guy when I play poker, and I think I could write an entire post about chess, poker, and Magic). I think that's why you've got Limited specialists and Constructed specialists. I definitely feel a shift in the way I have to think about the game this season as opposed to last season, and the change is welcome (or else I'd get pretty bored with the game).

That's all I've got right now.

The Extended metagame according to Portland

2009-01-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

So I walked around the room Round 3 of the PTQ (since I was not playing anymore) and wrote down what decks I saw.

Top Tables (2-0 at the time)
6 Mono Red Burn
5 Zoo
3 Affinity
2 Faeries (I lump Mono Blue as Faeries even if you might call it Wizards... most Faeries decks were of this variety)
2 Tezzerator
1 Swans
1 Proclamation
1 GB
1 UB Tron

All Tables (presumably all decks not 0-2 drop)
12 Mono Red Burn
10 Zoo
10 Faeries
9 Affinity
7 UB Tron
6 GB
4 Swans
3 TEPS
3 Tezzerator
And then the fringe decks...
2 Proclamation
2 Bant
1 All In
1 Dredge
1 UW Cloudpost
1 Beach House
1 Mono Red Beats (think Arc-Slogger)

The top 8 ended up being
3 Mono Red Burn
1 Tezzerator
1 Proclamation
1 Zoo
1 GB Death Cloud
1 Faeries

In the quarters, Burn beat Burn, Faeries beat Zoo, GB beat Proclamation (in 108 minutes), and Burn beat Tezzerator. In the semis, Burn beat Burn and GB beat Proclamation. Burn beat GB in the Finals. (Congratulations Eric Shaller!)

PTQ Portland damage report

2009-01-05T09:54:00.001-08:00

We left Salem pretty late, decided to stop for dinner (Indian food twice in three nights... but doesn't beat Red Robin three times in one night), thought we wouldn't be able to make the trip up that night, but then ventured out anyway when it stopped snowing and started raining.

More tonight, as I am very late for work, but here are my results:
PTQ (97 players) - 0-2 drop
Sat. GPT (14 players) - 3-1 (received a scoop), lost in T4
Sun. GPT (11 players) - 3-1 (received a scoop in last round), received a scoop in T4, beat carmate Alex West in the final

Saturday the scoop was from Zaiem who likely could not make T4 (he maaaaaybe could have because there was an ill-advised ID at the top)

One of the scoops I actually lost but he scooped me in when his friend who was trying to get in lost (a little shady, more later), I received a scoop going into Game 3 in the T4 from someone who was not sure he was going.

I played Zoo all weekend, with a minor tweak to the sideboard to adjust for the metagame. (Since I was not playing Round 3, I took the opportunity to scout the room. That straw poll also comes later.)

This weekend I might be switching decks to a more positioned deck. In LA we may be playing something even more different. More on that... later. Real life beckons.

Domain Zoo in Extended: a little test run

2008-12-31T00:09:00.000-08:00

So I'm going to be playing Domain Zoo this weekend in Oregon. I decided on the deck a few weeks ago because I had a lot of the cards for it, and I knew that it would be a top deck and that it was very powerful, and I think playing a powerful deck is more of a sure thing that predicting the field, building a deck to beat the field, and then playing against the decks you were expecting to make up the field. I played in a Magic-League mini (8-man single elim) to try it out. Here's the list I'm running:

4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Windswept Heath
2 Stomping Ground
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Temple Garden
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Mogg Fanatic
2 Shadow Guildmage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Gaddock Teeg

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Seal of Fire
3 Oblivion Ring

Sideboard:
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Ranger of Eos
3 Jund Charm
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage

I tried cutting Dark Confidant because a lot of people don't like it, and I haven't noticed it being really amazing for me, and I wanted to try Gaddock Teeg. What has been really good is Tidehollow Sculler, even in the mirror because it tends to slow down as guys come onto the board.

Round 1 I play the mirror. I pretty much get blown out Game 1. I brought in the Finkses and the Rangers and took out 2 Seal of Fire, 2 Shadow Guildmage, and 2 Mogg Fanatic. The second game I get 3 Kitchen Finkses down and he floods. Kitchen Finks is really good. Point taken.

I bring in a Shadow Guildmage and take a Mogg Fanatic for tutoring because he'd be good at taking out opposing Kitchen Finkses. I Tidehollow Sculler and see an Umezawa's Jitte in hand, and then I'm able to stick a Shadow Guildmage with mana up for Lightning Helix to whatever he's about to equip. Then I get a Ranger of Eos down leaving a Steam Vents up, so now as long as I bounce whatever blocks Jitte (which will be Ranger of Eos every time), I'm good to go. He scoops when he realizes Jitte will not get counters.

Game 2 I had a bye, so I sat around for an hour really late to wait to play Magic. Game 3 I play against Faeries, which turns out to be the Japanese variety with Azami, Lady of Scrolls. He gets stuck on land Game 1. Game 2 I play pretty sketchily. I know he has Threads in hand from a Tidehollow Sculler, and I'm holding 2 Tarmogoyfs and Jitte on the board, so I run them out, he steals one, I equip and attack and he double blocks with a Mutavault and my Goyf, and I finish off my own Tarmogoyf. I think there was an Ancestral Vision ticking down, but still no reason to be that impatient. Game 3 I keep a very slow hand and he takes control of the game. I think for this matchup I need a 1 drop, then another 1 drop, bait an Engineered Explosives, then stick my good cards, like a Shadow Guildmage, Gaddock Teeg, Tarmogoyf with Threads backup, one drop + Jitte. This Japanese version doesn't make me want to bring in Slice and Dice or Jund Charm... the worst cards for me are Threads and Shackles, so Duergar Hedge-Mage I think is fine.

I'm agonizing over the Ancient Grudge slot. The people I was testing with the other day think it should be Kataki, since if Grudge is for Affinity, Kataki is infinitely better. I didn't like it because it was narrow. I think it may also need to be Ethersworn Canonist, because it comes in against All-In Red, a deck I am equally afraid of being blown out by and I currently have no board against, and it comes in against TEPS and Elves. I'll hopefully be testing all day Thursday, and I'd like to figure out how to play against Faeries, the mirror, and play a little bit against the fringe decks like All-In and TEPS.

PTQ Honolulu 2009 schedule ...... NOT POSTED!

2008-12-31T00:02:00.000-08:00

This is more of a trick to get people using Google to come here, because I know people will be searching for it since it seems to be non-existent on the mothership. So conceivably there could be a PTQ in your state but you may not know about it unless you're tournament organizer publicizes extremely well, or your tournament organizer has a web site and you are extremely web-savvy. (I asked someone who has said he wants to get more competitive at Magic and has the means to travel why he didn't go down to Portland a month ago, and he didn't know about it. To anyone reading this from the area... www.northwestmagic.com and www.cascadegames.com)

No more Shards Sealed! PTQ Portland damage report

2008-12-08T10:39:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was the Portland PTQ, the last PTQ of the season for most of us. I rode up with Zaiem, Dave Derrickson, and Chris Pauly on Friday night, so there wasn't a quiet moment the entire trip, for the better of course, and had some kickass Indian food at India House. I'm normally not a fan of Indian food, but man did this Indian food rock. The hotel room Zaiem and I stayed was entirely too cold.

The sealed pool I got back was similar to the PTQ pool from Atlanta, except no double-Mycoloth triple-Squire for me to get there with. It was very much GR and I splashed White for Naya Charm and Realm Razer. I kept siding in 2 Resounding Silences. Initially I just wanted to avoid color screw as much as possible, but splashing for 4 in a color isn't all THAT bad since other than the Charm and Razer, I didn't have Gold cards or double casting costs.

Round 1 I play against a girl who was clearly someone's girlfriend and was just tagging along.
Round 2 I lose to a Eugene player who made Top 8.
Round 3 I play against very chatty person and come back after losing the first one. Round 4 I play against Dwayne who's a Washington player who Top 8'd the Seattle PTQ. Our first two games were absolute epics, we played like 15 spells each game 1, then 20 spells each game 2 and I pretty much had his entire deck written down at this point. I play faster because I don't want to draw the third game, and he keeps a 2 lander game 3 and doesn't get there.

Round 5 I play Peter Beckfield, who has rallied the Seattle troops, so to speak, to come to Portland and steal this PTQ. If anyone deserved to win this one, he did. Game 1 he blows me out. Game 2 I blow him out with Realm Razer. I had played a Relic of Progentius in that game and cycled it in the midgame. Game 3 goes to the midgame and I stick a Realm Razer. I throw the lands to the side and see some extra cards in my sleeves. It turns out they were from the Relic of Progentius cycling from Game 2... I don't want to beat anyone dishonestly, especially someone I know, so I point it out and fill out the win for him on the sheet. He even offered to replay Game 3, but we both realize that it wouldn't be smart for whoever's in his seat if we're trying to Top 8.

SERVES ME RIGHT FOR NOT PILING GAME 3. I often neglect pile shuffling Game 3 because generally the clock becomes a factor, but this time it bit me. Chalk another loss up to being lazy.

The next two rounds the wheels fall off, and Round 8 I totally blowout a Blue Moon and a Bayou Burger at Red Robin. I left my credit card in the bill envelope, so not even that round ended without a bad beat story.

I felt pretty good after 3-1, but then I started thinking about how I have to win the next 3, maybe even 4 to top 8, and it started to feel really daunting, especially since I'd have to beat four really good players. I somewhat felt it in Atlanta when I started 3-0 then fell to 3-1 and realized I wasn't even halfway through with the tournament. Oddly, I didn't feel that when I started 4-1 in the Philadelphia PTQ, so maybe I'm more confident about Constructed formats than Limited, since I haven't had much success with Limited or even felt comfortable in the slightest sense about my skills until very recently. I've got to learn to have amnesia and just take it one match... or something.

So the PTQ season is over, but the next one is about to start! Here's my tentative schedule:

Jan 3 - Portland (GPT LA same day same venue)
Jan 10 - Seattle (GPT LA same day same venue)
Jan 16-18 - Grand Prix Los Angeles
Feb 21 - Vancouver
March 21 - Seattle
May 20 - Grand Prix Seattle (Standard... actually not sure if this feeds Honolulu or Austin)

I am not sure about GP LA right now, as while plane tickets are cheap, I don't really want to take a day off of work, which I can probably do, but would involve flying out Friday night and missing the trials, and flying back in Monday morning and going back to work from the airport.

I told Alex that I was going to qualify. Here's to only needing one!

Getting ready for Portland

2008-12-04T13:01:00.000-08:00

I've played a lot of Magic Online last week with Nix Tix and being confined to my apartment thanks to being on-call for work. (I did get paged in the first round of a draft and had to drop it though.) I have tons of replays I can go through and I've already started to note the mistakes I've been making. They range from "ticks", or really dumb mistakes that would make you slap your forehead, like forgetting to fetch or cycle at end step; bonehead mistakes that aren't the same as ticks, per se, but mistakes that just shouldn't happen if you're more aware, like tapping mana incorrectly when you were planning a second play, or walking into a trick you saw, or missing a point of damage, or not seeing a kill on the board; and then there are the high-level planning mistakes that could have altered the game in the long run, like not being aggressive enough in the early game, or playing a less-optimal creature for a particular drop, or playing the wrong removal on a creature.

The point is there are lots of things going wrong. While I cannot pinpoint patterns in them where I could just tell myself to stop doing X and I'll get rid of 90% of my mistakes, I think it's fine to analyze what you could have done differently. Tonight I will probably do a draft, and then go through as many more replays as I can and write down the mistakes and go over them on the trip Friday night to Portland.

I did my first Shards paper draft since Atlanta last night at First Pick at (finally!) managed to 4-0. Since Alara was released I had been running really cold at First Pick. I've done maybe 20 drafts at First Pick and cashed at maybe 4 of these... which, I'm pretty sure, is worse than flipping a coin every match.

Anyway, I drafted a Naya deck that had some pretty good cards like double Wild Nacatl and double Naya Battlmage, but also had some holes, like missing some bears and having to start Incurable Ogre (with nothing for it to activate) and Thorn-Thrash Viashino (without good things to eat).

I've started writing down every card I see again because I was forgetting them on MODO and then not knowing what to sideboard and also walking into them. I've started initialing damage sources on my score pad too, which I started in Atlanta. So WN is damage from Wild Nacatl, VS is Stinger, VD is Viscera Dragger... I also just felt a lot less pressure when I play against the best players. Normally I'm very afraid to make a mistake and I get very nervous, but I don't know if it was just awareness or getting used to playing against good people who are just computer screens to me or just watching better players in Atlanta, but I was way more calm, and I just focused on playing correctly rather than not blowing the game.

It was watching in Atlanta an old friend and former state champion from NC Orrin play that maybe inspired me to be more calm when I play. It was a game in the last rounds of Day 1, and he hardly said a word. I don't think I'm a real talkative player, but if eliminates a chance to get overexcited, why not? Of course, I don't want my plays to be unintentionally ambiguous as far as game state, but it was a little inspiring to see his operations. It's probably an interesting exercise to try to say as little as possible in a match and see if it affects your play and thought process for the better.

But anyway, it certainly felt different tapping the cards than it has all season, but I couldn't be convinced that I was actually outplaying people because so many of my games were blowouts or manascrew wins! I mean, that's the game my deck wanted to play, and I did tick a few times, like forgetting two counters on a Algae Gharial or tapping wrong so I couldn't run out a second guy or even represent a pump, but still... it's hard to objectively say that I went 4-0 and beat good people because I have gotten better. Again, why MODO is such a great tool because you can review the wins and see if you really did play optimally.

My Fearless Magic Inventory

2008-11-24T23:38:00.000-08:00

To prepare for the last PTQ of the season in Portland, I was going to start analyzing my MODO replays from the crapload of drafts and the Sealed from the weekend, since I am on-call this week and really can't guarantee I can sit down for a three-hour draft without having to drop and deal with a page, but replays are deactivated until tomorrow's downtime. Sucks that it's Nix Tix the week I can't play any Magic tournaments!

This list was inspired by Sam Stoddard's Misetings thread and subsequent article on Star City from a year ago. I wrote this at an airport on my way back from Atlanta, because I felt semi-inspired after the PTQ because I knew I was not awful but could definitely get better. I'll just copy-paste the document I have on my computer.

Some of these might not make sense as it was just brainstorming, and isn't in any kind of particular order of importance, so feel free to ask about them or make suggestions.

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Things I Do Not Like About My Game
Most Magic players at PTQ’s make tons of mistakes. The difference with professionals is that professionals don’t make mistakes; they win the games they are supposed to win, lose the games they are supposed to lose, and don’t throw away games they are winning.
- Antonino de Rosa

“Kai Budde could have won that game.”
- Masashi Oiso

All

I have to re-evaluate my plan every time I get the turn back, and end up playing too slow as a result.
I'll have a particular plan playing around a card, but then I don't switch plans when it's not right to play around that card anymore.
My mentality changes when I play against players that are a lot better than me, like Gurney, Jason, and Charles. I clearly played differently against Charles when I had no idea who he was.
If my opponent’s play fast, I try to keep up and end up playing worse as a result.
I don’t remember my plays well enough to re-evaluate games that I lose to find mistakes, especially if they are mistakes in planning or subtle mistakes.
When I want to win the tournament, I put too much stress on myself during the game to think clearly. I have to just concentrate on playing correctly instead of going X-1-1.
I bend the hell out of my lands when I play and tap them, so my shuffling is suspect. I should just lay down my cards normally.

Constructed

I don’t know how to sideboard when there aren’t obviously dead cards.
I really don’t know how to sideboard net decks as a result.
When I think of sideboarding, I think of specific cards instead of the strategy as a whole.
I don’t play Control decks fast enough to be confident in taking them to a tournament because of the mirror match.
I don’t play enough different decks in testing to be able to switch decks the day if the metagame suggests to.
I stick to testing one deck because of card availability, so it sometimes turns out that the week of the tournament that I realize the deck I’ve been playing is not a Tier 1 deck.
I don’t test the mirror match enough to understand how to win them.
I don’t adjust when net decks need to be adjusted and when they don’t. They are not always the optimal lists even if they top 8 a PTQ, but they also aren’t always awful.
I don’t know how to build my own decks, or I don’t know what strategies would be powerful or just underwhelming.
I don’t know how to play against Control decks or to play around counterspells. I always presume they have it.

Limited

Shards of Alara specific – I can’t stay disciplined to two colors and end up playing a bad mana base.
I don’t know when my deck can mulligan aggressively and when I can’t; I tend to mulligan aggressively all the time and I don’t know when keeping a one-lander is appropriate, or when my deck can't do better than what I've got
In general, I don’t know how to split my lands.
I give away my tricks when I go into the tank or tap my mana to consider playing it.
Shards of Alara sealed specific – I don’t know when it’s appropriate to build a greedy deck.
I don’t remember what cards are in my deck well enough and what cards I’ve picked in the current pack, especially pack 3, to evaluate the cards that I need.
On MODO, I don't block as tightly. I presume from their ratings that they make loose attacks, since I (correctly?) presume from their ratings whether I can bluff a trick by attacking.
I'm not good at new formats when I don't know all the cards., and when I don't know all the cards, I don't take detailed enough notes.

Cardboard crack goes digital again

2008-11-21T00:09:00.001-08:00

For whatever reason, I decided to download MODO again. It wasn't as slow... but I was only drafting and not a full premier event that would ruin my computer's memory.

So the second draft I did tonight was a 4-3-2-2 ALA draft and I make my way to the finals to play against David, who happens to be a Seattle player, a very good one at that. He has drafted an Esper deck, and I am running Grw Naya. Game 1 I blow him out, and Game 2 he blows me out.

Game 3 my first play is a Court Archers and his is a Tidehollow Strix off of a mulligan I believe. We're beating each other, and he misses land and plays out Obelisks, and I eventually put down a Druid of the Anima and a Cavern Thoctar. He plays out another Obelisk, swings, and after my draw, the board looks like this:

Him: 14 life, 4 cards in hand.
His board: 1 tapped Swamp, 2 tapped Island, untapped Obelisk of Bant, Esper, and Grixis. One tapped Tidehollow Trix.

Me: 11 life, Sigil Blessing, Branching Bolt, Welkin Guide, Resounding Roar in hand
Board: all untapped Court Archers, Druid of the Anima, Cavern Thoctar, 2 Mountain, 2 Forest, 1 Plains.

Tricks I've seen are Grixis Charm, Agony Warp, and Resounding Wave. I know he has another Tidehollow Strix in there and a couple of Sanctum Gargoyles.

I already used a Resounding Thunder on his Scavenger Drake. (Possibly should have been Branching Bolt, because I know he's a tight player, saw Branching Bolt from me, and the only ground guy I did see was a Tidehollow Sculler.) If he has nothing in hand, I've got the game with my two pump spells, but that ain't happening. I've seen Resounding Wave earlier in the game, but I don't see a whole lot of point in alpha striking. So what are all the possible courses of action:

I could attack with everyone. Send in for 7. If I pass priority at this point, if he chooses to bounce/kill Thoctar (I guess Bant Charm is a possibility... otherwise there are no cards in the format that kill it), I could use my two pump spells to whack him for 9. Or I could let him bounce it, he takes 2, and I run out Welkin Guide. Next turn I can attack again with a kill possible, but my board is definitely worse.

If he doesn't do anything, he will take at least 7, which is alright. I run out Welkin Guide second main as another guy.

I could play Resounding Roar on my Court Archers before damage. If he plays Agony Warp on what I pump, and I respond with the Sigil Blessing on it, he will take 12 if he targeted Druid with -3/-0, 13 if he -3/-0's the Archers, or 12 if he targets the Thoctar. So he'd go to 2.

If he bounces the Archers I target with the pump, I let him take 6 and play my Court Archers again, saving my Sigil Blessing.

I could also Welkin Guide the Archers. If he deals with the Druid, he takes 6. If he bounces the Thoctar he takes 4 and goes to 10.

I could attack with the Thoctar and something else. If I leave back the Druid, I can follow similar reasoning as above. If I pass and he bounces the Thoctar, I can run my pumps and whack him for 7, or whack him for 1 and run out the Thoctar. I don't think he will deal with the Archers if I don't do anything. If I Resounding Roar the Archers and he does nothing he takes 10, or he Warps it, and I can Sigil Blessing and he takes 10 (don't think it matters who the targets are), and I can make it 11. If he bounces the Thoctar I run it out again.

If I attack with the Druid instead, it's pretty much the same except I cannot add an additional 1, or if he bounces Thoctar I cannot play it.

What I chose to do is attack with just the Thoctar, and it got bounced with Resounding Wave and I replayed it. This analysis took me probably 15 minutes to write up, so I wasn't able to really figure out that attack with everyone, running out a pump on a smaller guy and having him take 8 from my two pumps if he bounces Thoctar or a lot if he kills my pump target seems better.

How the game runs out is he attacks, plays another Strix, which I decide I need to kill. I attack with just the Thoctar again and it gets Resounding Silenced. Plays a Cloudskate Drake, attacks for 2 again putting me at 7, I draw something irrelevant, then he Esper Charms and draws a Sigil of Distinction, I start chumping, and he draws Sharuum and I scoop them up.

I probably really needed to think it out a little bit more, even if it took a few minutes, since it is MODO. Maybe pencil and paper would have helped? Not sure. Good players can run through that fast. I need to learn to do that.