Blog Updates

Apologies to any followers who have been getting multiple Blog updates over the last few days for old posts. I have been consolidating a couple of different blogs and blog posts so that all the blogs are a little more organized. Thank you for your patience.

Cheers,
Simon

Tips and Tricks - Part 1 (Cephalid Coliseum)

One of the best articles that I have read in 2014 was the following article by Frank Karsten:

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/frank-analysis-tips-and-tricks-for-modern/

These sort of Tips and Tricks are often told by players at events and lauded by commentators on stream. As my time to play Magic decreases I appreciate having these shortcuts in my back pocket to pull out when I do get the time to play. Some of the Tips and Tricks might be very straightforward but I think that those are also very useful as they will apply to more situations.

For Part 1 I wanted to make the Tip and Trick personal. To set the scene I was playing in my first PTQ back when dredge had become an extended deck around the time of Kamigawa Block. I was playing a totally outdated Pschatog deck because I thought it was cool/fun. I was also playing Gifts Ungiven with a tool box to deal with some of the more popular decks. I wasn't doing that great in the PTQ (shock horror for my first PTQ) though in round one I did force spike an entwined Tooth and Nail, so I was feeling pretty happy on the day.

Mid-way through the PTQ I get paired against a dredge deck and we split the first two games and shuffle up for game 3. We are on turn 4/5 of the game and he has just dredged almost his whole library and put a ton of Zombies into play. He has me more than dead on board when he extends his hand to say good game. I told him to wait and continued to play the game, I knew that at the very least I had a Silent Arbiter in my deck that could stop me losing. I play a cantrip on his end of turn (I believe a mental note), then I untap and draw a Cephalid Coliseum.

I was playing Cephalid Coliseum as an almost free roll to try and "thresh" up my pschatog. Only there is some more text on this little guy.

Card Text:

: Add to your mana pool. Cephalid Coliseum deals 1 damage to you.

Threshold — , , Sacrifice Cephalid Coliseum: Target player draws three cards, then discards three cards. Activate this ability only if seven or more cards are in your graveyard.

I asked my opponent how many cards he has in his library. He responds that he has 3 cards. I played the Cephalid Coliseum and targeted him with it, he of course lost on his draw step.

I think there are a couple of things to take away from this story:

1. Don't give up;
2. Play to your outs (and you may have more outs than you think);
3. Make sure you read what your cards do;
4. Life total is not the only way to win or lose at Magic.  

Cheers,
Simon

All copyrights Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Comments to Metamorphosis

Wizards of the Coast or Wizards of the Changing? With Magic's continued unrelenting growth we see Wizards again having to make some changes to the game. Thankfully this one seems to be for the better!

Wizards Announcement:

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mm/metamorphosis

Overview:

1.   Blocks will now be composed of 2 sets (as opposed to 3).

 

       a. This has been in the works since they tested this with Lorywn - Morningtide / Shadowmoor - Eventide.

 

2. Core Sets will no longer be printed.

 

3. Cards will be legal for approximately 18 months as opposed to24              months under the old system.

 

4. Block format will still exist but nobody will play it (actually that is no change).

Thoughts:

1.   This new system will mean that there are quicker rotations of standard legal cards (approx. 18 months v approx. 24 months). A likely consequence of this is a higher cost to play standard.

a.    More volatility in the metagame will mean a higher cost to play standard, though it likely brings more fun/enjoyment too.

                                         i.    Ex. If you bought mono black after it made its debut at the pro tour you could have bought the deck and played it for the rest of its time in standard and been very competitive with little or no changes. If the metagame shifts drastically from block to block which it will seeing as Wizards was willing to bet four pro tours on it changing enough to keep people tuned. Thus Standard players are going to need to invest more time and more money into each new block.

2.   The overall complexity of Standard should be increased since there will likely be more mechanics legal at the same time. This should again make Magic more interesting for well established players.

3.   Legacy only cards should come down in price quicker since they will rotate out of standard quicker.

4.   Core sets were a good outlet for reprints to help stabilize the market and reintroduce mechanics that Wizards might not have wanted to base a whole block off of but are good enough for a small sampling of cards. Take Chord of Calling for example, if it wasn’t reprinted in a core set then you either have to reintroduce convoke as a block mechanic, reprint the card in modern masters or other sealed product or simply not reprint the card.

5.   I don’t draft much anymore and my drafts are generally limited to conveniently located pre-releases, PTQ’s, and GP’s. Thus having the age old lessons learned from drafting many core sets I have been able to stay competitive despite not keeping up with all formats. I will miss this, though this would be a terrible reason to keep core sets.

6.   Could complexity creep hurt new players? Core sets were nice in their simplicity but I don’t have an accurate gauge on how Wizards is trying to get new people into the game; presumably this mantle is being taken up by Duel of the Planeswalkers and its ilk.

7.   I have seen some players comment that Wizards may be willing to print more powerful cards because they will be legal for less time. I personally do not think Wizards will go down that road due to the knock on effects of Modern/ Legacy.

I am guessing that the clarity with which this announcement has been made should make it a lot more palpable to the community. I guess Mark Rosewater is Wizards Steve Jobs. Maybe they should put him in charge of all of the Magic Online change announcements as well...

Cheers,
Simon

SCG Dallas August 2-3 2014 - Legacy Winner Report Shane Remelt

Hello all! Some of you may know me already from events in and around Texas, and I'm sure others may have met me elsewhere on the SCG circuit. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Shane Remelt and I recently squeaked into the SCG Dallas legacy open top 8 with an “impressive” record of 6-0-3 with my U/W/R Miracles list. Despite having 3 unintentional draws in the Swiss rounds, I made top 8 by a marginal .18% tie breaker and three rounds later managed to take down my second open. I plan on briefly touching on my path to victory, as I stupidly did not take notes and unfortunately have a memory like a gold fish.

This is where I tell you that this is the first article and tournament report I have ever written….so be warned...... eh let’s just get right into it.

Round 1 – BUG Control

            I call this deck “control” because it's BUG delver sans delver but with more than one Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Game one ended with me dying to an unchecked Creeping Tarpit and Deathrite Shaman thanks to not finding one of my many ways to remove them. For game two we have about twenty-five minutes left and we begin another grind fest that involves me resolving a Jace that is in brainstorm mode and many sweepers being cast. During this second game a friend walks over and quietly watches me struggle to stabilize the board so that Jace, the Mind Sculptor can start putting in work to win the game.  With less than thirty seconds left on the clock I win the second game and we both acknowledge the unfortunate truth and draw. My friend who came over to watch my match later informs me that he believes my opponent seemed to be intentionally playing slow to get a 1-0 victory. After hearing this it dawns on me I should have probably spoken up about the slow playing as I cannot afford to lose games in this fashion.  This is the first of my three unintentional draws of the day, helping to create an unfortunate sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that lasted throughout the day.

0-0-1

Round 2 – RUG Delver

Worried because I am now in the draw bracket and will likely play mirror matches all day, I sit down across from my second opponent who thankfully was not on playing land go. I easily 2-0 this match thanks to a quick game one where I luckily blind flip a terminus on double delver and then run out a Jace protected by Force of will. In game two my opponent plays the dreaded goose but I get the Counterbalance + Top lock going and eventually sweep the goose with a supreme verdict while locking out my opponent for the rest of the game.

1-0-1

Round 3 – Mono Red Burn

A surprising Sulfuric Vortex game one came down for my opponent on turn three after I tapped out to play a Counterbalance. Now the pressure is on me to close this game out before I die to a busted three mana enchantment, I eventually find entreat after a couple of shuffles and with the help of my opponents vortex kill him in one swing. The following game was an interesting one to say the least. I quickly assemble voltron (Counterbalance + Top) and proceed to lock my opponent out of casting most of his spells. I have to force a Sulfuric Vortex when I am unable to find a three cmc spell on the top of my library for Counterbalance, then my opponent slips an Ensnaring Bridge into play which forces me to switch up my game plan again. I thought about digging for the Disenchant I boarded in to clear the way for entreat but instead I decide to go on the Jace fate seal plan and just sidestep his bridge altogether.

2-0-1

Round 4 – BUG Delver

This match was sort of a blur but I do remember going to three games and that they final two games were decided by Jace doing what he does best.

3-0-1

Round 5 – High Tide

First feature match for the day. As I sit down I notice that my opponent looks familiar and realize I may know him from a previous event. I couldn’t pin point what he was last on and just introduce myself as normal. I lose the die roll and see him play turn 1 island go. Immediately I think he is on miracles and start to mentally brace myself for a grindy game. After a few turns with me resolving a top and him continuing to play islands and cantrips, I come to the conclusion he is likely the high tide player I heard someone complaining about a couple rounds ago. My hand includes Jace, force, brainstorm, and a terminus. I decide to put the pressure on and try and resolve my Jace, he tanks for a bit and says it's fine and ships priority back to me. I immediately brainstorm with Jace and pass the turn. At the end of turn, my opponent casts an Intuition and grabs a trio of High Tides. This confirms my suspicions and I fear the worst as my opponent untaps with a grip full of cards and easily goes off through my lone force of will. Before we start game two the judge ushers us over from the fake feature match area to the backup cam area. I board in all of my red blasts and meddling mages and start to shuffle up. This game went much more favorably. My turn two meddling mage named hightide and a couple of red blasts caused enough trouble for my opponent for him to die to the grizzly bear. With fifteen minutes left on the clock we prepare for the final game and resolve mulligans. Both of us keep seven and proceed to play draw go for a few turns until I tap low for a counterbalance that meets an untimely demise to a swan song. When I pass the turn I realize that I’m in trouble if my opponent tries to go off as the only mana I have untapped is a lone Volcanic Island. Staring at my grip full of counterspells that aren’t Force of Will, I sit patiently as my opponent resolves a couple Hightide’s and proceeds to begin going off.  A Few spells and a Timespiral later we refuel our hands with mine now including a Red Elemental Blast and Force of Will + blue cards. I try my best to counter the spells that seem important but end up losing the war to a huge Flusterstorm. After the dust settles my opponent resolves a Blue Sun's Zenith for some number above ten causing me to start shitting figurative bricks. When the judge announces that time is up and we will be on turn zero, I just accept my fate and start to give up mentally until… I hear one word I didn’t expect from an opponent who just drew a million cards... Go... I asked if he indeed did say go and after it was confirmed he went to cleanup and I immediately untap and plop down the counterbalance that was gifted to me from his timespiral. We pass turns and I pick up my second draw for the day.

3-0-2

Round 6 – BUG Delver

After such a long match from the previous round I sit down realizing I need to play tighter as I can't afford any losses in order to still make top 8.  Having played so many bug decks I can't remember the exact details of this game but I know it included such hits as entreat the angels and Terminus making guest appearances in game one. Game two Jace took over the game and raced a Lili in usual fashion.

4-0-2

Round 7 – Darrin Minard – Blue Lands

I actually know this guy! A friend that I’ve met from battling at so many opens, Darrin is a nice guy that has made a respectable run on the SCG open circuit. We shuffle up and get right into our match while catching up with each other. I have no idea what Darrin is playing when he leads with a Savannah as he is usually on something similar to what I like to play. I assemble the Counterbalance plus Top to lock him from playing any spells and easily take game one thanks to a Jace that goes aggro. During game 1 he successfully gets a Dark Depths token into play but thanks to a Terminus I was able to take care of it. I mostly figured out what he was up to but still a little confused so I try to board appropriately. I thought he was on some kind of lands deck playing Living Wish but he also cast a suite of blue spells to help dig for his combo pieces. Game two Darrin gets a quick Dark Depths token into play and protects it by forcing my Terminus during his upkeep. Having a 20/20 in play with no way to stop it we move on to game three. I remember thinking if I should board out the Rest in Peace’s I brought in game two because I didn’t see a single Life From the Loam in either game. Turns out he was indeed playing Life from the Loam and I get punished a bit when he is recurring the Dark Depths combo on me to fight through my removal. Thankfully because the game dragged on for several turns I get enough mana to cast a large enough entreat to chump for a turn and kill Darrin in two swings.

Round 8 – U/WR Miracles

I really dislike playing the mirror. My opponent was a nice guy and his deck was sweet looking with a huge chunk of it being foil, but that didn’t change how I felt about this match. Game one he gets Counterbalance out but no Sensei’s Divining Top and starts to fall behind in the land race. Luckily for me his blind flips aren’t hitting when I’m casting spells and after some countermagic I’m the first to get a Jace down. I use my Jace to try and pull ahead but the next turn he draws the much needed second white source and casts a timely council’s judgment to dispatch my JTMS. Somehow I manage to sneak in a Top that helps find me an Entreat to climb back in and win the game. The second game was kind of brutal for me. Multiple Flusterstorm’s won the counter wars, leaving me staring down the Counterbalance lock + Jace. Seeing the writing on the wall we move onto game three. My opponent and I exchange cardboard blows until he is left with counterbalance + top to just my top and multiple lands. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting to resolve an entreat the angels that I had been floating for multiple turns, I get to bait any remaining counter magic by running out a Jace that is super unprotected. My patience won this game by providing me the turns needed to resolve a lethal entreat while his resources were depleted.

5-0-2

Round 9 – Austin Williams - BUG Delver

At 6-0-2 I sit down across from a friend from Houston who unfortunately got paired down against me and was forced to play out his last round. We play out three super grindy games that force me to go to time again in turn dashing my hopes for making top 8. I jokingly ask if he would like to concede to me but we both know that isn’t going to happen with him sitting at 7-1-1 and I wish him good luck in the top 8. Now here is where I would end this report and talk about how I got 10^th place or some subpar finish.

6-0-3

*BUT*

As I start to walk out of the convention room while they were announcing the top 8 I hear Austin’s name for 7^th place and applaud as I’m glad one of us made it. At this point I’m assuming the judge is muttering something about who made  9^th place on breakers and as I hear my name I continue my trek outside until someone stops me to say congratulations. My response was of surprise and disbelief that I had somehow managed to squeak into top 8 at 6-0-3. Little to my knowledge, instead of safely drawing in to top 8 my quarter’s opponent tells me he played for seating and CRUSHED his round 9 opponent. I guess this is just life doing me a solid for when I went 9-1-1 at the North Carolina open and made 10^th on Breakers.

Top 8

Quarterfinals – Paul Hargrove - Dredge

Thanks to this guy I made it in to this top 8! He informs me he doesn’t play legacy too much and picked up dredge because it’s pretty powerful. Paul seemed to be pretty happy he made top 8 but for someone who just started playing Legacy, not drawing into top 8 seems insane to me. But I have him to thank for this win and we get started in our match.

This match was covered by Tom Ross on SCG and I will let him tell the story as his coverage is better than my memory.

http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/quarterfinals_paul_hargrove_vs.html

7-0-3

 Semifinals – Noah Cohen – BUG Delver

Another BUG delver match ugh… Going into this tournament I really disliked playing against this deck and “luckily” for me this is the 4^th time so far playing against BUG delver and the 5^th BUG deck overall today. Both games one and three aren’t very interesting and go about how all of the BUG vs. miracles matches go with me taking them both. But for game two I made some interesting plays that I would like to recap. We board for game two and I bring in the usual supreme verdicts that I love so much in matches that involve daze. During a complicated turn deep into game two I’m facing down three creatures (Vendilion Clique, un-flipped Delver of Secrets and a Tarmogoyf) during my opponents combat step with just my top and two untapped lands up. My untapped mana looks like one fetch land and one Plains. From a previous top activation I know I have a Terminus floating and decide to go all in on it during combat. I tap top to draw and flip Terminus to which my opponent starts to tank super hard on my play causing me to think he has some kind of soft countermagic. With a Wasteland untapped Noah is considering countering my terminus somehow with his single Daze (that at the time I didn’t know about) in his hand. I ask him if the miracle trigger resolves and he says no and then tries to Wasteland my fetch land in response so I can shuffle away my top. I take the bait and shuffle away my top and go and get a land. Then when priority is passed back to Noah he lets my terminus resolve. Now I’m thinking “Wait a second why didn’t Noah just let the miracle trigger resolve forcing me to pay the cost and then in response Wasteland my fetch land to force me to sacrifice or just let it die but in either scenario he can then Daze me as I am now tapped out?” My plan here was to bait out a Daze so I can resolve the Jace I wanted to play after I cast a Supreme Verdict if this Terminus doesn’t resolve. By him not playing the “I Wasteland your fetch, Daze you in response” game I assume he doesn’t have a Daze to save three of his guys and decide to slam Jace. Well sadly Noah either didn’t know he could daze my terminus there or I got next leveled because he promptly dazed my Jace and from there I start to tumble down hill and eventually lose this game. Game one and three was won but like I said earlier not very exciting.

8-0-3

Finals – Austin Williams – BUG Delver

I meet Austin again in the feature match area but this time there is no timer to stop me from winning this match. With both Austin and I exhausted from such a long weekend we go over each other’s deck lists and both notice some interesting card choices. All three of my opponents in the top 8 had to ask a judge for the oracle wording on Tsabo’s Web, and due to its lack of popularity I can’t hold it against them. In Austin’s list I noticed he was playing stifles in place of more Hymn to Tourach’s and Liliana of the Veil’s. Oddly I didn’t see this earlier in round nine when I played him and was not thinking to play around him stifling my miracle triggers previously. With my 6^th overall BUG match of the day I’m pretty much just thinking about how much work is going to suck tomorrow morning at 8am and want to end this as quickly as possible to get started on our four hour trek home. It is around 11:30pm and I realize I am probably not sleeping until tomorrow afternoon. Austin doesn’t make it easy for me but I somehow managed to 2-0 him this time thanks to my man Jace, the Mind Sculptor and his crew of angels.

9-0-3 – Woo Undefeated!

The Deck

Creatures (3)

·         2 Snapcaster Mage

·         1 Vendilion Clique

Planeswalkers (3)

·         3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (23)

·         4 Island

·         1 Mountain

·         2 Plains

·         2 Arid Mesa

·         4 Flooded Strand

·         1 Mystic Gate

·         4 Scalding Tarn

·         3 Tundra

·         1 Volcanic Island

·         1 Karakas

Spells (31)

·         4 Sensei's Divining Top

·         3 Counterbalance

·         4 Brainstorm

·         2 Counterspell

·         4 Force of Will

·         2 Spell Pierce

·         4 Swords to Plowshares

·         1 Council's Judgment

·         2 Entreat the Angels

·         1 Ponder

·         4 Terminus

Sideboard

·         1 Pithing Needle

·         1 Tsabo's Web

·         1 Izzet Staticaster

·         2 Meddling Mage

·         2 Rest in Peace

·         2 Disenchant

·         1 Pyroblast

·         2 Red Elemental Blast

·         1 Vendilion Clique

·         2 Supreme Verdict

 

First let me start by saying that I have helped put this list together by getting idea’s from Joe Lossett, Joe Bass and Philipp Schonegger’s miracle builds. Without their creativity I wouldn’t have arrived at what I have today. I like to pour over lists and take what I like from each one to make something more suited to my play style. I’ve always liked not losing to wasteland so when I came across Joe Lossett’s deck I felt he nailed the manabase with playing the mainboard Mountain. As I mentioned in the coverage interview I would possibly cut some number of Spell Pierces for more ponders. Other than that I was pretty happy with the list mainboard. You can tell how much I hate losing to Wasteland because I’m playing Disenchant over Wear//Tear just for the ease on mana requirements. When I would need my red mana early but didn’t want red mana just yet I would dread having to go get my Volcanic Island or worse the singleton Mountain. As for Tsabo’s Web…. Well I think it’s good vs. Death and Taxes and Cloud Post decks, but I’ve yet to get it in play vs. them so I’m not really sure how good it is.

Props -

To Paul Hargrove for crushing his last Swiss round to let me into top 8 unintentionally.

My LGS Will Power Gaming along with my friends for loaning me cards.

 

And Travis Gewinnen Sheen for hooking me up with some peanut butter sandwiches when I was fading due to hunger before the finals.

Slops –

Drawing matches where I could possibly have won due to me not time checking my opponents by saying something or notifying a judge.

The misplays I make when I’m inpatient.

If you have made it this far, thanks for reading!

-Shane Remelt-

Ravnica Block and M14 Rotation

Now is the time to start getting rid of your Ravnica Block and M14 standard cards!

The prices (eBay, Buylists, MOTL, and Trade Binders) are still quite healthy for many of these cards and we are going to see a lot of their value drop off as these cards approach rotation. If you are going to be playing in multiple big events (GP's and SCG Opens) then you probably need to hold on to at least 2 decks worth of standard cards to account for fluctuations in the metagame (Mono U v. Mono B). If not, I would recommend going down to just 1 standard deck for the time being. This will alleviate some of the hurt from losing value on rotating cards. Going to one deck shouldn't be too big of a concern for most people; as the stagnant standard format has pushed many people into 1 deck for the last several months.

-Cheers-

SCG Dallas (Standard Mono Red 47th, Legacy BURG 32nd)

Well SCG: Dallas was not as successful as I was hoping but I still made the money both days (Standard Mono Red 47th, Legacy BURG 32nd).

Here is what I ended up playing:

Standard Decklist

Maindeck:

 

Creatures (28)

4 Firedrinker Satyr

4 Foundry Street Denizen

3 Legion Loyalist

4 Rakdos Cackler

4 Burning Tree Emissary

4 Firefist Striker

4 Ash Zealot

1 Frenzied Goblin

Lands (17)

17 Mountain

 

Spells (15)

4 Madcap Skills

4 Lightning Strike 

3 Shock

4 Titan's Strength 

 

Sideboard (15):

 

4 Searing Blood

4 Skullcrack

1 Mizzium Mortars  

1 Stoke the Flames

1 Seismic Stomp

1 Harness by Force

1 Shock

1 Electrickery

1 Legion Loyalist

Round 1 (Drew) - GW Aggro

Win

Round 2 (William) - GB Devotion

Win

Round 3 (Peter) - Burn

Loss

Round 4 (Neil) - Mono Red

Win

Round 5 (Justin) - Esper

Win

Round 6 (Avery) - Burn

Loss

Round 7 (Marcus) - Bant

Win

Round 8 (Edna) - GW Aggro

Win

Round 9 (Conrad) - GB Devotion

Win

Round 10 (Alec) - Hexproof

Loss

Round 11 (?) - Mono Black Devotion

Win

The list performed very well over a long 11 round day. If I were going to play in the event again I would gladly play the same list. The stoke the flames in the sideboard was very speculative and I didn't bring it in too many times throughout the day but the 1 main deck frenzied goblin was excellent. I often sideboarded him out so I think that 1 is probably the correct number as he is not effective in every matchup.

The 3 rounds that I lost all went to 3 games. Against burn I flooded out in game 3 to lose both rounds. I ended both games with 8 & 9 lands in play. This is pretty unfortunate since I believe burn to be a pretty good matchup.  Against Hexproof I think I slightly misplayed and got punished by his powerful cards.

Legacy Decklist

Maindeck:

Creatures (13)

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Nimble Mongoose
2 Tarmogoyf

 Lands (18)

3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tropical Island
2  Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Taiga
4 Wasteland

Spells (29)

4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Spellsnare
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Ponder

Sideboard: 15

1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Submerge
1 Forked Bolt
2 Ancient Grudge
3 Golgari Charm
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Thoughtseize

Round 1 (Trey) - Shardless BUG

Win

Round 2 (Jonathon) - Storm

Win

Round 3 (Trevor) - RUG

Win

Round 4 (Noah) - BUG

Loss

Round 5 (Trey) - MUD

Win

Round 6 (Stephen) - Lands

Win

Round 7 (Paul) - Dredge

Loss

Round 8 (Rudy) - Jund

Loss

Round 9 (Benjamin) - Charbelcher

Win

My legacy pairings are pretty interesting. I think the only major decks that I didn't play against were DNT and Miracles.

I will update with a brief summary of my rounds later this week.

-Cheers-