Limited Understanding

Clan Check.

2008-11-17T21:59:00.001-08:00

Who's all still in this clan?

I miss everyone :(

Where's hatter?

Everyone who's interested in preserving our clan post a reply please =)

First Shards Draft

2008-10-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

This was my very first Shards draft, and I got first place! I ran the Naya shard colors, and found that the combination of burn and fat creatures works quite well. The Ranger of Eos was always useful for grabbing my squire and the wild nactl. whcih was always a 3/3 for one mana. All the .five mana creatures were amazing; I got really lucky with 3 rakeclaws, and with a pick 3 wooly thoctor. What I found worked well was attacking with one big creature, letting it get big with exalted, and targeting my opponent with Soul's Fire. I finished off a lot of games with burn.

First Opponent: Played red, black, blue, and white. He beat me the first game because he had the mythic Prince of Thralls demon, and two heralds to look for it. He got it into play for free. He had 2 Blood Cultists, which were rediculous in play together. A Bull Cerodon was hard to beat, especially after Oblivion Ring removed my biggest creature, but my burn won in the end.

Second Opponent: Red, Black, and Green, but got mana screwed and conceded quicly both games. His best cards were Sprouting Thrinax, Branching Bolt, and Rhox Charger.

Third Opponent: Blue, White, and Green. He had a Bant deck, featuring Rafiq of Many, an indestructible 5/5, and a lot of creatures. We were 1:1 going into game 3, but yet again, burn won for me in the end.

This is an extremely fun set to draft, and I wish you all the best of luck. I hope to see more Shards posts for some new ideas!

First EEE draft

2008-08-22T22:41:00.001-07:00

This was my very first experience with Eventide - I thought it looked amazing as I was drafting it. But alas, I was completely owned by a 1505 rated player.......He was running mono white with Muchos Removal and life gain and the black/white liege that kills my crap. I didn't win a single game. I still don't know enough about Eventide to give any advice, and any experiences you guys have so far would be greatly appreciated =)

hey guys

2008-08-21T21:58:00.001-07:00

just wondering if anyone has played EEE yet, or SSE. I haven't had the chance yet, i've been working a lot lately. I would like to see some posts if anyone has been playing lately =)

Can someone help me a bit? ^^

2008-08-07T17:53:00.000-07:00

I'm having an off line tournament with some of my friends and I have to make a deck of 40 cards. We bought some boosters and after each round we open a new booster and so on. Can someone help me with making a good deck? I saved all card list in the MTGO .dek format for easy editing.

The link is http://www.typographist.com/cards.dek

The list is currently 96 cards but you can assume there are an infinite amount of lands and the minimum card count should be 40.

Also here's a screenshot of the cards....

GW Morselhoarder...again (it's fun!)

2008-07-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

GW with Morselhoarder combo, again. SSS draft, result: draft won.

2 Niveous Wisps
1 Ballynock Cohort
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Turn to Mist
1 Resplendent Mentor
1 Armored Ascension
1 Mass Calcify
1 Mirrorweave
1 Kithkin Rabble
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Wildslayer Elves
10 Plains
1 Seedcradle Witch
5 Forest
1 Wicker Warcrawler
1 Flourishing Defenses
2 Pili-Pala
2 Power of Fire
2 Mountain
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Somnomancer
1 Sinking Feeling

1 Morselhoarder

So this one is actually quite a bit worse than the last one, but I managed to take it all the way (and against some stiff competition too...). More importantly...It was fun. Once again the infinite possibilities are there (men, damage, and with the help of the wisps, infinite life) just waiting to pop out, but not disrupting the base of the deck too much. It's essentially a GW but with a more controlling type of game than my usual GW decks. My 2 drops were horrible in this thing, and I was a scared man. I did a lot of siding in of inquisitor's snare often actually for a pila-pila.

Match one was against a 1830's player playing mono green. His deck was pretty fast but also just laiden with fat at the end of the curve. He had the green intiate and loads of barkshell blessings, so combat was always a joy to anticipate. First game went on for quite a while, he hit me early, I stabilized, and eventually began cautiously hitting him with a pila pila supported by seedcradle witch for a few turns. He was down to like 10 when he attacked into me with a crabapple cohort...I had a bit of pressure, as he had his deus out for 2 turns now, and I'd been wisping it each turn. I ended up blocking his cohort with my finks, and seedwitched them he responded with the predictable barkshell, with conspire and support by the intiate on the cohort, I let the targets get assigned and on the stack, then, since I had flourishing defenses out...I cast mirrorweave at his wildslayer elves. I've never seen flourishing defenses trigger so many times, it was awesome. He scooped. Game 2 was over so fast...it was one green blurr. His deck worked effeciently and fast, just as it should, and I didn't have a very quick start. Token resistance, but it proved futile. Game 3 was a fair game, not too flashy, another game like the first, but without the crazy ending, just I begin hitting him, he stabilizes, he hits me some...then I mass calciify and win.

Match 2 was against a monored deck piloted by a guy in the low 1600's. We play 2 games, I win them both, but they were interesting exchanges. Both games basically were characterized by a struggle in the beginning followed by mass calcify for massive card advantage. The thing about mono-red, all those intiates really can set you up for a calcify pretty hardcore...because it encourages you to keep casting stuff. Still he was quick, and I had to do a lot of hard blocking (seedwitch takes one for the team early, that kind of stuff) to survive long enough to calicify. The warcrawler was a nice large man to hide behind.

Match 3 was against blue/white piloted by someone in the high 1700's. Game 1 I got an early faerie, then a morselhoarder, the cheered inwardly and waited for an opening (for him to tap out) before I went all combo. I got the opportunity by casting seedcradle witch, having it countered by repel intruders, and the casting sinking feeling and POF on the morselhoarder. He laughed, and let me play it out, it really didn't take too long to do all 17 points once you got a rhythm going.

Game 2 I just had a good opening, he didn't and he ended up scooping rather quickly.

So woot, last time I managed infinite men, this time I've managed infinite damage. Now I've got to get the life for the trifecta.

Until next time I'll be grabbing those 13th pick sinking feelings!

I attempt to go all tricksy hobbit...GW combo SSS Draft

2008-07-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

SSS Draft Comboilicious GW, resulting in an elimination in the final round.

1 Mountain

1 Power of Fire

1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Resplendent Mentor
1 Island
1 Somnomancer
8 Plains
2 Morselhoarder
2 Safehold Sentry
1 Flourishing Defenses
7 Forest
1 Sinking Feeling
1 Prison Term
2 Rune-Cervin Rider
1 Safehold Elite
1 Heartmender
2 Turn to Mist
2 Thistledown Duo
2 Farhaven Elf
2 Niveous Wisps

Well I posted a while ago that I had been beaten by a deck utilizing a morselhoarder combo, so I kept it in the ole playbook waiting for an opportunity. It happened tonight, so I decided to post the deck, and how it ended up playing out. I had the capacity for infinite men, infinite damage, and infinite life in one draft deck...so I was kinda excited to see what I could pull off. Incidently toward the very end I had an agonizing choice...A second sinking feeling very late pick...OR inexplicably....the prison term. I went with the term...(actually upset at having to make the decision this late in the pick order!) since it's just too good to pass up, but it would have made the combo go off a bit more reliably had I had 2 morsels and 2 sinkings. But Prison term was not something to pass up, the deck should function without the combo too! Indeed the prison would save my butt several times.

Match 1: Armigilion 1831 Green/White. Okay, so this should be a good test. My opponent is clearly skilled. Let's go. First game I get off to a good UW type of start, the deck just does what a good UW deck does, I lay down a duo, get the Faerie out, and have a hand full of more UW happiness. He's laying down threats like no tomorrow, but mine all fly. I outrace him. Game 2 was a horse of a different colour. We each set down early drops and good ground defense. I dropped resplendant mentor and began gaining a lot of life for a protracted stall. He eventually got rid of the mentor, but by then I was at 45 life. He started to get the upperhand a little, having 2 shields making indestructable fliers of two of his men, but he was still very low on life by this point and had to play a bit defensively. I had difficulty closing the deal though. After a while of move and counter move I finished him with one of the versions of the combo, infinite men. Here's the screenshot...was kinda neat.

Match 2: Aurean 1604 Red/Black. First game he hit me early, I stablized and hit him back, and ended up using my morselhoarders the old fashioned way, for beats. Couldn't quit use them to finish had to rely on one damage a turn from my faerie for the last 3 points. Second game he lead in with 2 early drops and a power of fire used on his turn to off an elf of mine. I had gotten a mountain with my elf, because I had my of POF in hand, and returned the favour with a POF on my safehold, taking out the POF'ed guy, and eventually everything else. I pluncked a morsel hoarder to get the chunky beats in, and saved my POF sentry from a chain flinger/Fate transfer with a Turn to mist on his flinger in response. So far so good, this match a good example of the pieces of the various combos doing just fine on their own.

Match 3: mysteriogi 1817, playing UW. We had a real knock down drag out tempo battle game 1, move counter move, down to 1 turn. He won. Game 2 was similar, he just inched me out by a turn again. It was a fun couple of games.

Overall, it seemed really positive. I never felt like the combo was taking away from the deck, but I suppose the denfenses and sinking feeling had the potential to do that. Defenses though was pretty good in that deck anyway, and fit the whole stall until you combo plan. Having multiple plans though was really important and made it kinda fun to play. I really wanted to go off more than once, but alas it was not to be. I think if I had 2 sinking feelings I would have.

G/w

2008-07-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Match 1: Sick_Variance 1712 G/R - we have very similar decks. game one we each were low on life, game stalled until I dropped Primus. Game 2 i get mana screwed and can't answer runes of the deus. Game three he makes a HUGE mistake which almost cost him the game, but then he recovered and killed me.

Sad day.

The deck was pretty bad though, I deserved that loss.

Mono G

2008-07-29T07:49:00.001-07:00

I started out picking white cards in this draft (When don't I?) but U/W was not being pitched my way at all. So, second pack i opened a Howl (Which I took over a spawnwrithe, good call or bad?) got passed a tower from above AND the 3/3 haste with wither and I started thinking about mono green, which I ended up running, splashing only for the witch.

I'm kind of worried about the lack of removal (Tower from above is the only card, and that's not "really" removal, and one destroy target flier in the board). So far it hasn't been a problem. (I'm waiting for final match at the moment)

Match one: Opponent is B/u (Bad option in my opinion, unless you're passed enough bomby uncommons) He doesn't know the game too well yet, under a 1600 rating, easily beat him in two games.

Match two: Opponent is 1831, also playing G/R. First game he doen't get to play a single spell (Mana screw) Second game he turn 2's a devoted druid but only puts out a second druid with it, and a hungry spriggan. I kept a hand with nothing until turn 4 (My mana curve SUCKS) and drop a wildslayer elves (3/3 wither guy) which holds off his turn 4 oversoul of the dusk (scary.) He doesn't want to attack into wither and lets me hold out long enough to drop a morsal hoarder and attach a ruins of the deus to it. i didn't know how double strike with trample worked vs the oversoul - my 8/6 deals 5 damage to the oversoul, and 3 trample to the opponent, then 5 to the oversoul and 3 to the opponent again. good to be cleared up. i still easily won after my slow start.

other than the mana curve and lack of removal, this deck seems pretty good. i ran 18 lands, which i hardly ever do, to try to accomodate for my fat curve (and I didn't get a single devoted druid)

I thought I'd give the initiates a try - they're surprisingly quite nice when extra mana is around. turning a wildslayer elves into a 4/4 means it can take on just about any creature in the set quite easily.

Morselhoarder

2008-07-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

I just got beat by this combo in draft. First time I'd come across it...thought I'd share.

Morselhoarder+Sinking Feeling+POF

Morselhoarder+Sinking Feeling+Flourishing Defenses

Eventide Excel Spreadsheet

2008-07-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a link to easy to reference eventide spreadsheet...I have it pre-sorted by colour grouping, and within that by rarity. Hope someone finds it useful. Actually, I lie, it's first sorted by rarity then by colour grouping, so you can look at all the commons at once, etc...

http://hatter.modo.googlepages.com/eventide.xls

U/W For the Win!

2008-07-23T06:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been forever, my english composition summer class has been taking ALL of my magic time :(

I didn't get a photo of my deck because took a second screenshot before I saved the one of my cards =\ I had to take the other shot becuase all of my cards disappeared during the sideboard phase; so if i lost i would have something to report for my troubles.

Anyways, the deck was blue and white, with a liege, a silkbind faerie, a steal of godhead + 2x thistledown duo and 2x repel intruders, the u/w witch, 2x turn to mist and some filler cards. performed very very well, only losing one game in the entire draft. back to back repel intruders vs a 1850 rated player (redcap and b/r liege both countered!) led to his concession and my victory. Man I LOOOOOVE shadowmoor

I'm still under 1800 - my goal is to get up above it before the end of the summer =) not that ratings really matter, but it would be kinda cool to be in the "good player" range ;)

i've noticed the clan is kinda slow, with the lack of posting and stuff. makes me sad, but i realize we all have other obligations than magic :( what do you guys think of eventide? did anyone attend the prerelease? what are cards (commons especially) we should be looking for when we start drafting the set?

Howlin' "Monogreen" with dirty RB splash

2008-07-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

"Howlin' Monogreen with dirty RB splash" (eliminated in finals)

2 Mountain
2 Howl of the Night Pack
1 Tatterkite
1 Tower Above
1 Knollspine Invocation
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Flourishing Defenses
2 Swamp
12 Forest
2 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Safehold Duo
2 Elsewhere Flask
3 Scuttlemutt
1 Foxfire Oak
1 Safehold Elite
2 Safehold Elite
1 Elemental Mastery
1 Incremental Blight
1 Sapseep Forest
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Farhaven Elf

Another interesting draft deck...I passed a howl pack 1 and was non-committal with some greenish things, couple of elites, 2 scuttlemutts, then got passed another howl...figured i had a good shot at tabling the other...so I picked it and decided to give it a go. The other one did table, so I had 2 howls after first pack, and some pretty hot accelleration/fixing. As you can see I decided to use some goodies that found thier way to me...Knollspine seemed nice with the high curve, and incremental blight is just altogether good, particularly if you manage to hit it with defenses out. The defenses may have been a bit of overkill, I was originally goin get all counter crazy with the 2 blowfly infestations I have in my sideboard and never ended up maindecking. Seemed a bit too much space, and the wrong colour to boot.

Match 1: Blue/Black (1620's)...He did quite well, his hand disruption was really annoying. Game 1 was really helped out by a pair of scuttlemutts keeping his fear and aura craziness at bay. Also playing the tatterkite immediately after his leech binder was very helpful in neutralizing it early on. At some point I howled for like 8 wolves and that tipped the scales somewhat. Game 2 ended quicker, he got an unmolested leech out early and it chewed through a sacrificial scuttlemutt, but after he used up his counters i put a respectable man down (marauders) and a bit later howled for 7 wolves or so.

Match 2: Monored (1623) Featuring Jaws of Stone, Grim Poppett, Demigod of Revenge, etc. Game 1 I kept laying threats, removed a couple of his with a blight, and the persist on the elite and marauders really soaked up a lot of his removal. When I finally howled, it was more than he could soak up. Game 2 I start with a mull, he stalls out at 4 mana and I kept laying threats then lived the dream with blight/defenses 3 for 1 + 6. The scuttlemutts helped out a lot. 3 scuttlemutts is just juicy. In case you're interested the pick for the 3rd scuttlemutt was kind of interesting, I wish I had saved it...suffice it to say I picked the 3rd one quite aggressively giving up some sauce on an early pick, what it was, I kind of forgot, as I'm tired. Hopefully I won't do anything too stupid next round.

Match 3: Mono White, Godhead(1743): Game 1, I start on a mull on the play...my original hand was perhaps workable but very risky. Hand 2 was definitely better. I get him down to 1, but he's able to slip a 6 point hit with a steel of godhead and get out of range...then stabilize with godhead of awe. He suckered me into using the scuttlemutt quite nicely. Game 2 knollspine ends up getting me out of a bad godhead situation and I eventually set up for a big howl. Game 3 he goes postal using his tools, spiritual procession, good early creatures finishes me off with a nice ascension and swing for 10+2. A fun match.

URW SHM Draft, now you see it...

2008-07-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post something, as it has been a while. I just finished an interesting little draft...

"Now you see it..."

1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Safehold Elite
1 Merrow Grimeblotter
1 Turn to Mist
2 Turn to Mist (3 total, one was foil...that's why it listed it this way)
2 Parapet Watchers
1 Mistmeadow Witch
1 Briarberry Cohort
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
6 Island
5 Plains
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Furystoke Giant
6 Mountain
1 Mercy Killing
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Puca's Mischief
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Leech Bonder
1 Somnomancer
1 Oona's Gatewarden

So this one came out pretty nice, and was a lot of fun to play. So many cards worked well together. I picked up a really late Puca's Mischief pack 1, and opened a furystroke pack 2. I really tried to play these two cards up as much as I could. Thus, I played 3 turn to mist and managed to get a mistmeadow witch. Most games turned into Puca's Mischief "in and out" or Furystroke "in and out". Turn to mist is such a nice card on its own, but it is fairly broken with puca or furystroke, having both just gave a really nice consistency. From there I tried to keep it really simple, played a lot of creatures with a minimum of other spells beyond the mists. I had 2 puncture bolts, but only played one, and I also put up mercy killing...it can really be nice with Furystroke, either as a way to "bounce" the fury stroke...or just to set up more creatures eot for an upcoming furystroke, or in a pinch to get rid of something really annoying on the other side of the board. The support creatures weren't ideal...but they did the job. I'm sure I was giving some odd signals left and right drafting 3 colours as evenly as I did. Manabase wasn't too bad. I had a few mulligans because of it, but it worked out. The read isn't really needed until late game, but unfortunately you need 2 mtns for 2 out of 3 of the spells so I needed to play it as a major colour. The blue was definitely a bit more important than the white, hence the 6-6-5 breakdown.

Match 1 was a lot of fun. He was playing UW, and had a godhead of awe, which really mixed things up a bit. The first game he had me pretty low, and then I stablized with a Puca's mischief and a mistmeadow witch. It was difficult, as he had the godhead and I had no way to steal it...but I eventually got enough blockers to settle the situation down. Second game he had the godhead again nice and early and set it up with a steel of the godhead (good enough place as any to put it), but i misted it...beefing up my thistledown duo and making him flying so I could block and kill his other flyer...and then I mercy killed the duo before the godhead came back as I had furystroke ready. From there I had Mistmeadow and proceeded to blink the furystroke as many times as needed keeping 4 mana open to protect the combo.

Match 2 was against a WG deck, and the turn to mists tended to be great on their own since he was playing 2 copies of the WG aura. 1 game I believe was a puca, the other a furystroke.

Match 3 was against an excellent player playing RG. The first game wasn't very fancy...no combo stuff. The turn to mist just ended up giving me the tricky edge I needed to outrace him with flyers...but it was down to the wire and there were some interesting plays. I really enjoyed that first game. Game 2 I stood up to the intial fury, and set up puca/mistmeadow which he attempted to disrupt with that cinder that lays the -1-1, but I had the turn to mist to save it with and he scooped.

So if you ever pick up a Puca or a Furystroke...aggressively go after those blinkers....It's a lot of fun.

Eventide Prerelease Part 2

2008-07-14T10:01:00.000-07:00

Ok so here's my second flight at the Eventide Prerelease (removal is underlined, bombs are bolded)

White: Recumbent Bliss, Balleynock Trapper, Patrol signaler, Ballynock Cohort, Order of Whiteclay, Kithkin Zealot, Endure, Kithkin Shieldare, Prison Term

Blue: Merrow Levitator, Razorfin Abolisher, Wilderness Hypnotist, Merrow Wavebreakers, Prismwake Merrow, Parapet Watchers, Drowner Initiate

Black: Smoldering Butcher x2, Sickle Ripper, Corrosive Mentor, Soul Reap x2

Red: Hothead Giant, Mudbrawler Cohort, Bloodshed Fever, Cinder Pyromancer (Which does not hit creatures! This is nowhere near as good as the Prodigal variety)

Green: Monstrify x2, Crabapple Cohort, Roughshod Mentor, Nettle Sentinel, Gleeful Sabatoge, Savage Conception x2, Wickerbough Elders, Aerie Ouphs, Farhaven Elf

W/U: Turn to Mist, Silkbind Faerie, Mistmeadow Witch, Glamer Spinners

U/B: Gravelgill Duo, Memory Sluice, Scarscale Ritual

B/R: Emerstrike Duo, Scar, Fists of the Demigod, Traitor's Roar

R/G: Firespout, Manamorphose, Giantbaiting, Loamdragger Giant, Gutteral Response

G/W: Old Ghastbark, Kitchen Finks, Raven's Run Dragoon, Heartmender

W/B: Batwing Brume, Beckon Apparition, Bloodied Ghost, Unmake

U/R: Noggle Ransacker, Inside Out, Riverfall Mimic, Clout of the Domines x2, Stream Hopper

B/G: Deity of Scars, Sapling of Colfenor, Drain the Well

R/W: Battlegate Mimic, Duergar Assailant, Fire at Will

G/U: Fable of Wolf and Owl, Trapjaw Kelpie, Gilder Bairn

Colorless: Grim Poppet, Scarecrone, Blight Sickle, Shell Skulkin, Chainberaker, Elsewhere Flask, Blazethorn Scarecrow, Lockjaw Snapper, Hoof Skulkin, Antler Skulkin, Gnarled Effigy, Fang Skulkin, Scuttlemut, Sapseed Forest

I knew that 10 scarecrows and scarecrone was gona be good but that didn't help me choose colors. I decided to cut red because firespout is easily splashable and nothing else was really very good. I was sad to lose double U/R aura but I only had 3 U/R creatures to but them on. After my first round of cuts I was left with

White: Recumbent Bliss, Balleynock Trapper, Patrol signaler, Ballynock Cohort, Order of Whiteclay, Endure, Duergar Assailant, Fire at Will, Prison Term

Blue: Merrow Levitator, Razorfin Abolisher, Wilderness Hypnotist, Merrow Wavebreakers, Prismwake Merrow, Parapet Watchers, Inside Out

Black: Smoldering Butcher x2, Sickle Ripper, Corrosive Mentor, Soul Reap x2, Emerstrike Duo, Scar

Green: Monstrify, Crabapple Cohort, Roughshod Mentor, Nettle Sentinel, Savage Conception x2, Wickerbough Elders, Aerie Ouphs, Farhaven Elf, Manamorphose

W/U: Turn to Mist, Silkbind Faerie, Mistmeadow Witch, Glamer Spinners

U/B: Gravelgill Duo, Scarscale Ritual

R/G (Splash): Firespout

G/W: Old Ghastbark, Kitchen Finks, Raven's Run Dragoon, Heartmender

W/B: Batwing Brume, Beckon Apparition, Bloodied Ghost, Unmake

B/G: Deity of Scars, Sapling of Colfenor

G/U: Fable of Wolf and Owl, Trapjaw Kelpie, Gilder Bairn

Colorless: Grim Poppet, Scarecrone, Chainberaker, Blazethorn Scarecrow, Lockjaw Snapper, Hoof Skulkin, Antler Skulkin, Gnarled Effigy, Fang Skulkin, Scuttlemut

At this point I though for a long time. I decided my deck would have a green base but I couldn't decide on the other colors. Finally I decided that white could be splashed for the bliss and witch and I gave up on order of whiteclay which I think is overrated, so I made another round of cuts (I did keep the potential for prison term open just because I have a lot of mana fixing)

White (Splash): Recumbent Bliss, Balleynock Trapper, Prison Term

Blue: Merrow Levitator, Razorfin Abolisher, Wilderness Hypnotist, Merrow Wavebreakers, Prismwake Merrow, Parapet Watchers, Inside Out, Turn to Mist, Silkbind Faerie, Glamer Spinners

Black: Smoldering Butcher x2, Sickle Ripper, Corrosive Mentor, Soul Reap x2, Emerstrike Duo, Scar, Bloodied Ghost, Unmake

Green: Crabapple Cohort, Roughshod Mentor, Nettle Sentinel, Savage Conception x2, Wickerbough Elders, Aerie Ouphs, Farhaven Elf, Manamorphose, Heartmender, Kitchen Finks , Raven's Run Dragoons

W/U (Splash): Mistmeadow Witch

U/B: Gravelgill Duo, Scarscale Ritual

R/G (Splash): Firespout

B/G: Deity of Scars, Sapling of Colfenor

G/U: Fable of Wolf and Owl, Trapjaw Kelpie

Colorless: Grim Poppet, Scarecrone, Chainberaker, Blazethorn Scarecrow, Lockjaw Snapper, Hoof Skulkin, Antler Skulkin, Gnarled Effigy, Fang Skulkin, Scuttlemut

Now I had to decide on the second color of my deck, Black or Blue? It was a hard choice between the power of Fable of Wolf and Owl and the splashable Mistmeadow Witch versus the Diety of Scars and the Sapling of Colfenor plus the power of removal in soul reap x2 and unmake. In the end I went with black. I also splashed white and red for additional removal and I was very tempted to go into 5 colors for witch but it was too much of a strech IMO. I was esentially G/W/B/r in the end. I ended up with this...

My Final Decklist:

Creatures 14:
Balleynock Trapper
Heartmender
Kitchen Finks

Scarecrone (Very good with Grim Poppet)

Grim Poppet (Very good by itself)

Deity of Scars

Sapling of Colfenor

Chainbreaker

Scuttlemutt

Wickerbough Elder

Farhaven Elf

Aerie Ouphs

Spells 9:

Unmake

Manamorphose
Soul Reap x2
Turn to Mist
Firespout

Recument Bliss

Fire at Will (A bit of a strech but its really good)
Prison Term (Yay for shaky mana bases
Savage Conception

Lands 17:
Forest x7
Plains x5
Swamp x 4
Mountain x1

The deck did well goin 3-1 in matches and 7-3 in games. Despite the seemingly overstreched mana base the only card I ever had trouble playing was the demigod. Hope my insights into sealed deckbuilding help a few people. I am not sure I had the correct build but I like what I ended up with, how would you have built with this pool?

The one and only
-Squest

Eventide Prerelease

2008-07-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

So I went to the Eventide Prerelease. Lots of fun, I would recommend it to anyone, new or experienced.
Anyway, I participated in 2 flights (Sealed, Shadowmoor Tournament pack+3 eventide boosters)
So here's how it went
_________________________________________________
Flight 1
I look at my rares first I have Polluted Bonds, Isleback Spawn, Evershrike, Boartusk Liege and Necroskitter. The skitter is a card I have wanted to try since I saw it spoiled on MTGO Salvation and of course the Liege is amazing.
The rest of my pool is
White: Niveous Wisps, Balleynock Cohort, Kithkin Spellduster, x2 Suture Spirit, Apothecary Initiate, Strip Bare, Kithkin Shielddare
Blue: Wilderness Hypnotist, Idle Thoughts, Parapet Watchers, Merrow Wavebreakers, Oona's Grace x2, Dream Thief x2, Merrow Levitator, Talonrend, Cerulean Wisps, Briarberry Cohort
Black: Smoldering Butcher x3, Beseech the Queen, Gloomlance, Sickle Ripper, Aphotic Wisps, Ashenmoor Cohort
Red: Boggart Arsonists, Hothead Giant, Outrage Shaman, Intimidator Initiate, Pyre Charger, Puncture Blast x2
Green: Gleeful Sabotage, Monstrify, (Which BTW is a sorcery, I saw 3 seperate people try to play it as an instant) Crabapple Cohort, Hungry Spriggan
W/U: Plumeveil, Zealous Guardian
U/B: Wasp Lancer, Gravelgill Duo, Fatetransfer
B/R: Torrent of Souls, Traitor's Roar, Poison the Well
R/G: Mudbrawler Raiders: Runes of the Deus, Firespout
G/W: Shield of the Oversoul, Medicine Runner, Reknit, Raven's Run Dragoons, Barkshell Blessing
W/B: Beckon Apparition x2, Harvest Gwyllion x2
U/R: Unnerving Assault, Stream Hopper, Nucklavee, Noggle Bandit, Clout of the Dominus
B/G: Drain the Well, Rendclaw Trow x3, Hag Hedge Mage x2, Desecrater Hag, Woodlurcker Mimic, Noxious Hatchling
R/W: Battlegate Mimic
G/U: Groundling Pouncer, Slippery Boggle
Colorless: Lurebound Scarecrow, Wingrattle Scarecrow, Blight Sickle, Wicker Warcrawler, Revelsong Horn, Antler Skulkin x2, Elsewhere Flask

Wow! SHM-EVE has a lots of possiblities with all those hybrid cards. After staring at my 16 piles blankly for about 5 minutes I went to work. I find that the easiest way to deal with SHM-EVE is to decide which colors you WON'T be in rather than the other way around. I started looking at my piles and white seemed prety weak, Spellduster, Cohort and Suture Spirit aren't bad but they are nothing to write home about and while anteler skulkins are solid I didn't have many white creatures. In term of hybrid only Plumeveil, Battlegate Mimic and Shield of Oversoul really need white and although Plumeveil and Shield are both very good they can't make up for this color's lack of depth. So I cut white and moved all W/X hybrid cards into color X's pile as well as cutting unplayables like so

Blue: Wilderness Hypnotist, Idle Thoughts, Parapet Watchers, Merrow Wavebreakers, Oona's Grace x2, Dream Thief x2, Merrow Levitator, Talonrend, Cerulean Wisps, Briarberry Cohort, Zealous Guardian, Plumeveil
Black: Smoldering Butcher x3, Beseech the Queen, Gloomlance, Sickle Ripper, Aphotic Wisps, Beckon Apparition x2, Harvest Gwyllion x2
Red: Boggart Arsonists, Hothead Giant, Outrage Shaman, Pyre Charger, Puncture Blast x2
Green: Gleeful Sabotage, Monstrify, Crabapple Cohort, Hungry Spriggan, Shield of the Oversoul, Medicine Runner, Raven's Run Dragoons, Barkshell Blessing
U/B: Wasp Lancer, Gravelgill Duo, Fatetransfer
B/R: Torrent of Souls
R/G: Mudbrawler Raiders: Runes of the Deus, Firespout
U/R: Unnerving Assault, Stream Hopper, Nucklavee, Noggle Bandit, Clout of the Dominus
B/G: Rendclaw Trow x3, Hag Hedge Mage x2, Desecrater Hag, Woodlurcker Mimic, Noxious Hatchling
G/U: Groundling Pouncer, Slippery Boggle
Colorless: Lurebound Scarecrow, Wingrattle Scarecrow, Wicker Warcrawler, Elsewhere Flask
Next I tried to cut a second colors, looking at red I saw that firespout, and puncture blasts could easily be splashed and nothing else was really all that good. I am sad to lose some power on the runes of deus and the liege, as well as the chroma power of outrage shaman, but those cards just weren't enough to build a deck around. After my second round of cuts I am left with the following cards

Blue: Wilderness Hypnotist, Idle Thoughts, Merrow Wavebreakers, Oona's Grace x2, Dream Thief x2, Merrow Levitator, Talonrend, Briarberry Cohort, Plumeveil, Noggle Bandit
Black: Smoldering Butcher x3, Beseech the Queen, Gloomlance, Sickle Ripper, Harvest Gwyllion x2
Red (Splash): Puncture Blast x2
Green: Gleeful Sabotage, Monstrify, Crabapple Cohort, Hungry Spriggan, Shield of the Oversoul, Medicine Runner, Raven's Run Dragoons, Barkshell Blessing, Mudrawler Raider's
U/B: Wasp Lancer, Gravelgill Duo, Fatetransfer
B/R (Splash): Torrent of Souls
R/G (Splash): Firespout
B/G: Rendclaw Trow x3, Hag Hedge Mage x2, Desecrater Hag, Woodlurcker Mimic, Noxious Hatchling
G/U: Groundling Pouncer
Colorless: Lurebound Scarecrow, Wingrattle Scarecrow, Wicker Warcrawler

Blue has a bunch of great cards but B/G has a great hybrid combination going. Do I go B/G or B/G/U and should I splashe red?
After a lot of pondering I finally decide that IMO while Blue has a lot going for it, B/G will make a more consistent deck so I cut Blue leaving me with the following

Black: Smoldering Butcher x3, Beseech the Queen, Gloomlance, Sickle Ripper, Harvest Gwyllion x2, Wasp Lancer, Gravelgill Duo, Fatetransfer
Red (Splash): Puncture Blast x2
Green: Gleeful Sabotage, Monstrify, Crabapple Cohort, Hungry Spriggan, Shield of the Oversoul, Medicine Runner, Raven's Run Dragoons, Barkshell Blessing, Mudrawler Raider's, Groundling Pouncer
B/R (Splash): Torrent of Souls
R/G (Splash): Firespout
B/G: Rendclaw Trow x3, Hag Hedge Mage x2, Desecrater Hag, Woodlurcker Mimic, Noxious Hatchling
Colorless: Lurebound Scarecrow, Wingrattle Scarecrow, Wicker Warcrawler

I decide that since I have Neckroskitter and a lot of good black cards with wither I should focus on that and that leads me to splash red for the puncture blasts which are insanse with 'skitter on the board.

My final 2 questions: Should I run the liege even though I have no red creatures (yes, glorious anthem with a body is still really good) and what will my mana base be (check the decklist)

My Final Decklist:

Creatures 15:

Neckroskitter
Rendclaw Trow x3
Smoldering Butche x3
Hag Hedgemage x2
Desecrator Hag
Boartusk Liege
Wicker Warcrawler
Noxious Hatchling
Sickle Ripper
Woodlurcker Mimic

Spells 8:

Fate Transfer
Puncture Blast x2
Fire Spout
Barkshell Blessing
Gloomlance
Beseech the Queen
Torrent of Souls

Lands 17:

Mountain x4
Forest x5
Swamp x8

I ended up going 2-2 which means no prizes :( but I still had a blast

How would you have built with this pool? Would you have included Blue, or splashed Red. Do you think the liege is too clunky? Tell me what you think

Still an inquiring mind, still wanting to know
-Squest

P.S. Later today or tomorrow I will post my second flight's pool and deckbuilding process

Sluishie III?

2008-07-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

1 Inkfathom Witch
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Faerie Swarm
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Zealous Guardian
2 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Silkbind Faerie
13 Island
2 Leechridden Swamp
2 Somnomancer
1 Biting Tether
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
2 Swamp
2 Drowner Initiate
1 Steel of the Godhead
2 Memory Sluice
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Watchwing Scarecrow
2 Gravelgill Duo
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Briarberry Cohort

Sideboard
1 Sootstoke Kindler
2 Disturbing Plot
1 Sootwalkers
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Corrupt1 Swamp
1 Repel Intruders
1 Sinking Feeling
1 Strip Bare
1 Gloomlance
1 Toil to Renown
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Torpor Dust
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Scrapbasket
1 Deepchannel Mentor
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Poison the Well
1 Spell Syphon

(yes 41 cards, 40 was good but 16 land scared me a little so another island went in swamps and 2 leechriddens seemed to be a good test whether it helped the long stalemates)

Round 1: opp. dagavnor 1732 UW

Game 1:Game end up not drawing a sluice at all, but managed a few attacks turn 4 and 5 with helmed gravelgill duo until it gets consigned. Got initiate late and got his deck down to 10 by the end when oona hit the board turn 11 and he conceded. He didn't help himself by playing blue spells to help aid my mill.

Game 2: initiate out turn 1, turn 2 oona's gatewarden (mill plumeveil away :) his turn 3 last beath the initiate, good move on his part since I get sluice turn 5. It turns into a flight fest with no one attacking. He's got 2 cohorts, mistmeadow witch, and cem. puca mainly. I've got a fat swarm, gatekeeper, cohorts, and 2 gravelgill's and ferw others waiting out the turns or another initiate or sluice. Worried not too much about witch tricks since he's yet to reach 8 lands (7 on turn 11). I draw oona, no counter and again concession.

I am seeing that this deck takes away a lot of cards that may be good or might be bombs (lands are good to mill early too if get them mana screwed that way, but it still counts as a card later on also). There usually isn't a rush for the sluice to be played. I held out 3 turns to get all critters on board enough to defend myself while I tapped 2 of them (with thankfully not up to 2 a turn).

Round 2: opp. spellstopper 1617 WG

Game 1: He starts quick with t3 ballynock and t4 rune-cervin rider. I stablize t4 with barrencrag and t5 gravegill axegrinder followed by swarm t6 (4/4). Then he pull a painters servent for green, slaps a shield of oversoul on balllyknock. Can't combat that once he turnder to mist my swarm (only flyer).

Game 2: Found out he was playing WG (after seeing all plains and W cards game 1). He mulls once, I get t1 initiate and go to work. t4 mill painter servant thankfully. Wainting with oona in hand and to draw a sluice hopefuly to make it quick before he cranks out the fliers. I trade my sommomancer for his hexhunter to get out the torpor dust on ballyknock Got enough land (including 2 leechriddens on board with gatewarden and duo) to mill with each cast.

He mists his ballyknock and hes sitting 7 life 15 in library and I top biting teeth for his ballyknock. Have been noticing swamps being milled and he finally gets one for his urchin. Too late for him. Drawing cards isn't going to help him. Oona hits and he plays it out concedes at 1 in library and 4 life.

Seems his aggro deck or nothing so far with not too many bombs in the graveyard, but still a solid under t7 kill deck.

Game 3: I start with a mull. He seems to have gone WB and gets me down to 12 before i can stabilize. He shields his hexxhunter and recklessly attacking all out gave me a chance a few times to get rid of his black critters to hopefully get my helm out on gravelgill in hand, but cast scuttlemutt after attack :( Soon after he pumps out more critters than me and I am overrun. No milling (or oona) usually means no win almost it seems this round.

Anyone know what else could be tweaked or added? This build I think would work 7 out of 10 times unless your against an aggro deck and can't stabilize. Let me know what you guys think.

WB does it...

2008-07-06T21:59:00.000-07:00

1 Mistmeadow Witch
1 Consign to Dream
1 Glamer Spinners
1 Tatterkite
2 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Leech Bonder
8 Island
1 Somnomancer
8 Plains
1 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Repel Intruders
1 Drowner Initiate
2 Steel of the Godhead
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Prismwake Merrow
1 Safehold Elite
2 Watchwing Scarecrow
1 Turn to Mist
1 Ballynock Cohort
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Last Breath
1 Briarberry Cohort
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Mercy Killing

Sideboard
2 Whimwader
2 Illuminated Folio
1 Inescapable Brute
2 Cerulean Wisps
1 Boggart Ram-Gang
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Strip Bare
1 Cinderbones
1 Mudbrawler Cohort
1 Dream Salvage
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Farhaven Elf
2 Last Breath

Round 1: Opponent also playing WB. First game he got mana screwed 3 lands on turn 6. I got fliers out and over his defenses too quick for him to react. Second game surpisingly came down to the single initiate I got (late pack 3 also) to ween him down to deck out. Positive notes on sideboarding was I found sb in 2 whimwaders for liege and killing (never got to cast it) and it helped greatly. Puca's mischief is just annoying BTW especially if both players are playing WB.

Round 2: Opponent played UB (saw splash of red), and didn't seem to have a good build. Mana screwed 3 lands in 8 turns in game 1 (de javu). Again sb in the whimwader for liege (again couldn't cast at 2 plains again) and fliers proved to win both games. Game 2 he got mana flooded and i got out Leech bonder+godhead (makes sure you get your attacks through and unload your counters). Great synergy with glamer spinners to migrate godhead from bonder to merrowsight when it got blocked to oust another blocking creature. Bounce and tricks but nothing too fancy seems to get it done.

Round 3: opponents playing RB deck. Again running into mana porblems game 1 for opponent and running out of gas to keep up with fliers. Game 2, I can't race him down quick enough against his power of fire macabre guarding. Last turn beofre i had him at leathal damage with thistledown w/ godhead he uses kindler on freshly cast oona. Game 3 he triple mulls and I just roll over 5 turns and done. I really did end up liking this deck build very much :)

Moral of this draft: I see at least 4 games I win 80% due to their bad mana, but I look at mine with just 16 and it seemed to work out except for getting 3 plains for the liege and all my mana was fine. Need to pay attention to the mana costs and ratio more closely whether to go 16 or 17 lands. Also, watchwing scarecrow has grown on me a bit this draft.

Experiments with "sluishie" Part II

2008-07-01T22:27:00.002-07:00

SHM Draft, "sluishie" Monoblue, result: eliminated in second round.

2 Whimwader

1 Consign to Dream

1 Faerie Swarm
1 Painter's Servant
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Leech Bonder
17 Island
2 Cerulean Wisps
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
2 Parapet Watchers
2 Drowner Initiate
2 Memory Sluice
2 Curse of Chains
1 Torpor Dust
1 Oona's Gatewarden
2 Spell Syphon
1 Flow of Ideas

Sideboard
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Whimwader
1 Dream Salvage
1 Sootstoke Kindler
1 Zealous Guardian
1 Ember Gale
1 Cursecatcher
1 Demigod of Revenge
1 Safehold Sentry
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Spiteflame Witch
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Strip Bare
1 River's Grasp
1 Torpor Dust
1 Heap Doll
1 Gloomwidow's Feast
2 Emberstrike Duo
1 Safewright Quest
1 Put Away

Match 1: Ratava, Mono-White, 1620

Game 1 I did the old fashioned way. Damage. Nice that this deck can actually do that. Painter's Servant is nuts in this deck. My Faerie swarms are huge, my siphons become hard counters, intiates go bonkers off every spell either mage casts, Whimwader gets in there, Oona even goes hogwild when every card in there deck is blue, including the land. I side out the cantrips for additional threat reduction, as he seems to enjoy casting Spectral Possession twice a game. Actually quite quick, a lot nastier than my last sluishie opponent.

Game 2: He goes nuts on me with turn 2 elite, turn 3 and turn 4 spectral possession. Very hard to recover. He continues laying down threats after that as well.

Game 3 ended on turn 5. It was one of those crazy hands. Turn 1, intiate. Turn 2, intiate...mill for 2. Turn 3, sluice for 8 mill for 4. Turn 4, sluice for 8 mill for 4. Turn 5 gatewarden, mill for 4. I could have outraced a godhand in RB or RG with that hand. Like I said, if you could get 3 intiates and 3 sluices this deck would be insane. So far I like this version a lot better. But Monowhite really isn't that disruptive.

Match 2: Dmatthews, Monogreen, 1798

Dmatthews beat me handedly in 2 games. His deck was fast and I didn't get the right disruption in time. He abused a lot of untapping mechanisms... presence of gond, drove of elves (untargetable, quite nasty), rhys the redeemed, he was quite good at amassing a hugy army rather quickly. Spice that with severe beaters, and it was quite agressive. I just couldn't handle it.

Noted: Mudbrawlers is a beating for Monoblue, I mean there are lots of ways of dealing with it...but still.

I'm guessing he'll go on to win the whole thing, so I'm not too dissapointed. I'll save this deck...msg me online sometime and play me with a draft deck, I'd love to try it out again.

So far I'm not overly bullish on the whole thing as an archetype. I think it works better as one of those things that evolves rather than is forced. I wouldn't go whole hog into forcing it at the expense of pathways that could lead to more traditional victory, but I wouldn't mind picking up the occassional initiate or sluice when they come my way if there's not a strong pick in the pack...and if you're in colour and you pick up 2 intiates or sluices in pack 1...I'd consider going for it. Overall, at least I got to 2nd round and got beat by a proper deck.

End of Sluishie Experiment for today, I'm bushed.

Experiments with "Sluishie" Part I

2008-07-01T22:27:00.001-07:00

Okay, so after getting beat the other day by a decking deck "Sluishie" I decided to give it a whirl so I could learn a few things. I decided to "try" and see what building and playing the deck taught me.

First of all, the draft didn't go so well. I didn't "commit" until pick 5 of the first pack. Once I did, I didn't find as much as I wanted. However, I was able to get together some useful data, and actually won a match, so it wasn't that expensive a lesson. I learned a lot.

The deck...

1 Flow of Ideas
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Thistledown Liege
12 Island
2 Ghastly Discovery
1 Cursecatcher
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Wanderbrine Rootcutters
5 Swamp
1 Parapet Watchers
2 Sinking Feeling
2 Drowner Initiate
1 River Kelpie
2 Memory Sluice
2 River's Grasp
1 Torpor Dust
1 Turn to Mist
1 Spell Syphon
2 Briarberry Cohort

Sideboard
1 Dream Salvage
1 Moonring Island
1 Chainbreaker
2 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Devoted Druid
1 Seedcradle Witch
1 Swamp
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Blight Sickle
1 Sinking Feeling
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Advice from the Fae
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Cinderbones
1 Pale Wayfarer
1 Aphotic Wisps
1 Emberstrike Duo
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Last Breath

Okay, first off I learned I didn't even build it right from what I had. But I was sorta reaching for straws. First of all, I should have given redcap a chance, even though it was BB. Second of all card draw is really important a advice from the Fae should have been included. The sinking feelings were really terrible anyway. I usually always added another creature during the sideboard as well.

The first match I won in 2 games against a mono-white deck. It was kinda fun, because the deck did what it was supposed to do pretty well actually, despite it being a kinda depleted version of what it could be. I also got a feel for what was important and what wasn't, what worked and what didn't. It also feels awesome to deck someone in draft, particularly with this thing, since its generally when they expect to be killing you next turn.

Card draw is critical. Flow of Ideas can be a you win card. If you survive to late game and cast it, you can often win on the next turn.

It's not crucial to have an intiate in play, and if you only have 2 you have to hold them back sometimes or at least play them when you can be assured of using the ability a few times, which means mid to late game. Against mono white I could lead with it...and against an opponent with blue in their deck I'd lead with it...but not against say, red/black or red/green. The thing to remember about this is....1 intiate + 1 other creature + 1 sluice = 10 cards off the top. That's alot. Just surviving to the late game takes about 15-20 cards off thier deck, not counting sluice or intitate. That's not bad. Just with 2 intiates and 2 sluice I was able to deck someone twice in a row. My deck was horrible too. With a good build this type of thing has potential. Here are some of my thoughts, and I may try this again...because its interesting...

Most of the deck isn't that much different from standard monoblue, UW or UB. If you are in these colours anyway from the get go...switching to a more sluishie configuration isn't that hard. If you can nab like 4 intiates it would be sick. If you can nab 3 sluice....that's just juicy. You can fill the rest of the deck with reasonably good cards...

Aethertow...really good. Wish I had some.

Consign to dream...quite good fairly easy to get. Wish I had some.

Scuttlemutt....quite good. Wish I had some. This guy ramps mana (you're gonna be hungry for it), helps consign to dream, and does what scuttlemutt does...gets jiggy with colour all over the place.

Topor Dust...quite good and easy to get. Wish I didn't just have 1.

Parapet Watchers...The house. I wish I had more.

Untappers...really good with ghastly discovery and conspire. Silky is pretty important.

Oona Gatekeeper....Awesome. Didn't have any of these either. The 1 cc is important because it works well with intiates and you get them out in a pinch with little mana to enable conspire on sluice.

Now here's the thing. You want lots of creatures. Don't load up on tricks so much that you run out of defense. The thing is you need for conspire and such too. Sluice without two creatures in play is pointless. Advice from the Fae is really nice for getting what you need, and if you can possibly have more creatures to boot, its awesome.

I'll try to get a better list sometime, but give it a whirl if you see an opportunity at the pieces early on and you're in the right colours anyway.

Area 51

2008-07-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Area 51. I'll put up things like polls and discussions that don't fit into the typical "tournament report" category. Also stuff I can't think of yet may go into this section, maybe.

Check it out. Try back later to see if it's still totally useless.

(note: a re-did the poll, so if you voted on July 1, 2008 re-vote)

First topic: Shadowmoor commons.

Bad Deck Wins (Great Gameplay Lessons at the Bottom of this Post)

2008-07-01T11:35:00.001-07:00

Well I wanted to try a deck based around the tap/untap shenanigans of power of fire and presense of gond. The deck ended up being a total train wreck and for future reference power of fire=amazing, devoted druid=amazing, presense of gond=not amazing.

Here's the list

5 Mountain
1 Power of Fire
1 Consign to Dream
1 Merrow Grimeblotter
1 Burn Trail
2 Silkbind Faerie
1 Mossbridge Troll
2 Presence of Gond
1 Leech Bonder
4 Island
2 Devoted Druid
1 Plains
1 Morselhoarder
2 Crabapple Cohort
6 Forest
1 Pili-Pala
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Puncture Bolt
2 Scuzzback Scrapper
1 Scrapbasket
1 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Safewright Quest
1 Roughshod Mentor

Sideboard
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Inescapable Brute
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Forest
1 Lockjaw Snapper
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Safehold Duo
1 Loamdragger Giant
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Blazethorn Scarecrow
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Safehold Elite
1 Strip Bare
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Gloomwidow's Feast
1 Deepchannel Mentor
1 Gravelgill Duo
2 Crimson Wisps
1 Revelsong Horn
1 Briarberry Cohort

Match 1: I don't remember this match very well, i think i'm mentally blocking it. I was paired against a 1566 rating and we both had horrible decks and made multiple play mistakes. I do remember he had blowfly infestation and that it kept wiping out both sides of the board as I put -1/-1 counters on his creatures via wither. I managed to eek out ahead. (P.S. I do recall wanting to concede at one point but I stuck it out and got 2 lucky topdecks, don't give up if ur behind)

Match 2: This was one of the most odd matches i've played in my life. My opponent is around 1730 playing a U/some other stuff (I think black and red) deck with plenty of card drawing including flow of ideas but no bombs
Game 1: My opponent seems distracted and makes multiple play mistakes walking into combat 2-for-1's even when the I have no relevent cards in hand (although leech bonder does make math tricky). A game he should have won easily turns into a fierce battle where he outdraws me nearly 2 to 1 but continues to screw up combat. Finally he starts focusing and finishes me off after a 25 minute battle.
Game 2: I open with a hand containing only an island and green and red card. I somehow draw into a forest and plains and druid myself into a turn 3 marauder. He stabalizes and we have a nice chat about eventide previews and the state of magic, he is a really nice guy but easily distracted. I pull off more leech bonder tricks and he draws more cards. I lack the mountain for power of fire and the game goes back and forth as I try to draw the pivitol red mana source. Unfortunately for him, my opponent makes the novice mistake of only thinking about life totals as a way to win. When he drops an elsewhere flask he is shocked to lose by drawing from an empty library, guess that blue card drawing isn't so great after all.
Game 3: As I said my opponent hasn't been paying attention to alternate win conditions, I on the other hand have been closely watching the clock and after 2 long games my opponent starts with only 48 seconds left. I feel bad for him but he is a big man and admits that he wasted too much time before he concedes (admitting a mistake is the first step to fixing it)

Match 3: My opponent is around 1660 playing G/R
Game 1: I open a hand of 2 forest, plains, mountain, island, devoted druid and power of fire. I keep figuring this deck needs some luck to win and I really have to pull of the power of fire combo. I have amazing luck and I topdeck marauders into crabapple cohort into leech bonder+power of fire. He concedes on my 5th turn.
Game 2: I open with devoted druid into turn 3 crabapple cohort. He concedes and I WIN THE DRAFT!

I learned a lot from playing with this deck so without further ado...

Lesson 1: Never give up, if you have even the slightest chance to win go for it, sometimes you just get lucky

Lesson 2: PAY ATTENTION! If you get overconfident and walk into your opponents traps you can turn an easy victory into a rout. Also paying attention to the game state includes cards in hand, cards in library, card in graveyard, time of the clock. You need to take everything into account not just what's on the board. As you get better you should even take into account what you can expect in your opponent's hand based on cards in the block, card you've seen in their deck and cards you passed in the draft, as well as their behavior on previous turns. How does your opponent tap mana? Did you pass a powerful combat trick in their colors? It's a skill I'm still working on and one that no one ever really masters but it can't hurt to try
O, and on the matter of the clock, you should never lose on time. I almost always notice other people playing slower than me and I have one major suggestion, use the hotkeys. If you don't know what the F2-8 hotkeys do check out the begining of the article at this link. Actually you might want to check out Momir too, its a fun format that Hatter and I love to play (or at least I love to play it and I've played Hatter before)

Lesson 3: Don't let your emotions get to you. This goes along with lesson 1 because the biggest mistake people make is getting frustrated and conceding early. My opponent had no reason to conced in Match 3 Game 2 and in fact my hand was void of usful cards after the cohort so he might have won.

Lesson 4: Go for solid decks not flashy decks. Even though this deck won it was pure luck. I would have been much better off with a deck that had a solid curve and aggresive drops instead of some zany easy to disrupt combos. Of course this deck was a unique situation because I just wanted to try out a specific style of deck whether it was good or not but in general consistent>powerful

Well I hope that helps you guys.
-Squest, signing off

I lost again.

2008-07-01T11:12:00.001-07:00

Lost to 1800 something first round in an 8-4 queue. We were 1-1 but I blew it final game...targeted his ashenmoor liege with my somnomancer accidentally, lost 4 life and he swung for the kill. *Sigh* I was distracted and lost two matches today because of it. No more today for me...

Happy Canada Day!

2008-07-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

B/U deck cant keep speed with G/W

2008-07-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

I thought it was a pretty strong build.

Game 1 I lost to a horrible misplay. I beseech the queen for an island, only to recall that I already played a swamp. So I have six swamps in play and i can't play my island. If i could have played the island i would have consigne to dreamed his wil leaf liege and three for two'd his attackers and went on to probably win the game. But that never happened :(

Game 2 I didn't get my fourth land until turn seven or eight, and only had one swamp. And I played off the mulligan. So yeah, i was crushed. My opponent did have a pretty good, aggressive G/W build with at least a couple bombs. Oh well, win some and lose some.

SHM draft UB (3-0)

2008-06-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a trend, Mono Red and UB are my two favourite colours. I've done well with UW and GW but I find my decks never quite compare with what i draft in UB or Mono Red.

The Draft.

Yes this deck is strong. No I'm not a lucksack who opened the packs. My first picks from each pack were: Godhead of Awe, Thoughtweft Gambit, Leech Bonded.

I started off in UW, however quickly delved into UB when inkfathom infiltrator was passed (its a fantastic card)

The final pack pays incredible dividends for my cutting off blue. 6th pick Wasp Lancer, 7th pick Ghastlord of Fugue and two helm of ghastlords get passed, but I believe are hated out before they can table.

I like parapet watchers, it gums up the ground versus land creature decks (GW, RG etc) and totally screws with combat maths, not only that but it makes hiding open mana for tricks not seem so obvious, especially if you're keeping your 4 aethertow mana open and he has a 6 power creature out.

Why UB is nice.

I believe it has to do with the strong U creatures and spells combined with the evasion of flying and removal (River's Grasp, Blight, Gloomlance, Biting Tether, Curse of Chains, Turn to Mist, Aethertow, Consign to Dream and if desperate, Sinking Feeling). With these you can almost always table some kind of control back to you. And what fantastic control, you can make them discard, you can tap down their critters, you can timewalk them, remove enchants, save your own creatures, the list goes on!

UW and GW decks are difficult to play past turn 10 as they have very low toughness creatures, and lots of competition, people love playing mono white, blue players steal your picks, and green players steal everything. That said, they also have the two most powerful enchants.

Matches (2-0 2-0 2-1)

Match 1 vs. Lepauli 1733 rated Green White enchant fest.

Game 1:
River's Grasp his turn 5 Ghastbark to see his hand, I'm shocked. Shield of Oversoul, Shield of Oversoul, Armored Ascension. I feel like I've literally dodged a bullet. I make him discard his only relevant creature and bash to the face with Wasp Lancer, Wingrattle Scarecrow and my 3/3 Leech Bonder (who is basically 2 lots of removal due to the number of crazy 1 toughness creatures).

Game 2:
He concedes at 13 life (which starts an interesting trend) with the board showing Wasp Lancer, Leech Bonder and Wingrattle Scarecrow. Once again he can't cast anything as the board is removed by Bonder, and flying is impressive in SHM as it is very rare.

He has Wooded Bastion. Must be nice.

Match 2 vs. Penumbra 1571 rated with Green White enchant fest.

My opponent concedes at 16 life on turn 6, im on 14 life . The board is Kinscaer Harpoonist, Wingrattle Scarecrow and Inkfathom infiltrator. I'm holding Ghastlord of Fugue, Wasp Lancer, Prismwake Merrow and Gravelgill duo.

Another classic 'interaction' was a major misplay by my opponent, which I have done before:

Board is Mistmeadow Skulk and 3 lands. He taps 3 and then slowly untaps. Well it could be a bluff, but more likely it's an enchant. Instead he passes the turn and casts Wildslayer Elves turn after.

I'm holding River's Grasp with the mana to play it, but I wait, attacking with my evasion fliers.

He gets one attack in with his Shield of Oversoul protected Wildslayers before I 2 for 1 him with River's Grasp.

In fact my biggest fear is early aggro before i can get all my 3 drops online. This seems unfounded as by the time I get my guys online, my opponents weenies are generally irrelevant.

Match 3 Finals vs. PlusEV 1747 rated UW with TRICKS

Game 1: Win with overwhelming aggro, Ghastlord just cuts off his defense and River's Grasp and Leech Bonder slowly but surely remove his board.

Game 2: It's a close game, and my Leech Bonder is surprised by a Plumeveil... Which utterly annoys me as all my critters are flying.

I die when he is at 4 life. He has a 6/6 Faerie Swarm and a Cemetery Puca copying my Wasp Lancer.

I made a big misplay here, He attacks with Kinscaer harpoonist and 5/5 Faerie swarm, I'm at 7 life and I've got Wasp Lancer as my only blocker. I choose to block faerie swarm to reduce damage, but I end up dead on the board as he still has his Kinscaer which can stop my blockers and now he has a Wasp too using his Cemetry Puca.

Let this be a lesson to myself that life totals only matter when you're at 0.

Game 3:

12 turns.

He has many tricks, including verbal.

When I cast Leech Bonder he mentions his dismay with how much he hates that card on turn 3.

Leech Bonder gets surprised blocked by Plumeveil again.

From then on I refuse to read any of his text.

Godhead of Awe pops out, but he Consigns it to Dream. I actually never cast it again for the rest of the game, as my critters are stronger than his.

I stabilise at 12 life with two fliers out, and I trap his fliers down with curse of chains and torpor dust.

In the end I River's Grasp his Cemetary Puca and take his second Consign to Dream.

Then I Flow of Ideas for 6 cards.

Lesson learned here: Take your time to consider your options and never listen to an opponent trying to be nice. Flow of ideas is a great card, I'm glad it tabled back to me!

A conspired Aethertow later, and I'm the proud owner of my 4th Reaper King Avatar!

It's been a great release season and I've been humbled and been victorious, I sometimes feel it's a little bit swingy with the enchants, but long term, skill will last out as always!

Cheers

AAZipzop2

SHM draft Mono Red Finals (2-1)

2008-06-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

Won within 10 turns in nearly every game it played!

The finals went 2-1

I played GWr ramp deck.

Game 1
He pulls out Ghastbark turn 3 with Shield of Oversoul coming in on turn 4 due to some devoted druid shenanigans.

Game 2
I steam roll in him in the second game with multiple conspired burn trails and continuous spamming of intimidator initiate, which you want 1 or 2 of in any mono red aggro deck.

Even with his turn 2 Safehold Elite, turn 3 Shield of Oversoul.

Game 3
6 land hand
5 land hand
2 land hand with a burntrail in it.

The story ends rather quickly. It happens!

I made one major pick mistake thought, I took a corrupt over another mudbrawler cohort.. Those things are nasty with either intimidator or bloodmark mentor!

Most times i did actually sideboard in swamps and some black cards to deal with enchants or to get extra damage through, specifically Niveous Wisps.

Enemy Colours! Sound the Klaxxon! RW Wins! (saved)

2008-06-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

SHM Draft, RW, June 30, 2008, result: won draft

8 Mountain
1 Power of Fire
1 Barkshell Blessing
1 Burn Trail
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Somnomancer
9 Plains
1 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Pili-Pala
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Windbrisk Raptor
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
2 Watchwing Scarecrow
2 Scuttlemutt
1 Turn to Mist
2 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Last Breath

Sideboard
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Consign to Dream
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Guttural Response
1 Thoughtweft Gambit
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Fate Transfer
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Plains
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Goldenglow Moth
1 Rune-Cervin Rider
2 Torture
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Bloodmark Mentor
1 Torpor Dust
1 Deepchannel Mentor
1 Safewright Quest
1 Oona's Gatewarden
2 Briarberry Cohort

This was an odd draft. Knew I was in white, possibly blue...kept options open for red (first pick was redcap, which i thought would be interesting with cards like turn to mist or even barkshell blessing. I got to use the former but not latter). It's not too flashy, that's for sure. I was leaning toward WU until 3rd pack, but hedged my bets a bit. Blue just wasn't coming in impressive amounts. Still I at least had cohorts hanging out. Then 3rd pack I managed to snag a power of fire, and decided to take advantage of it, since there are a lot of good targets in the deck available (pila, butcher, skulk, slikbind faerie, puresightmerrow...). I like the deck, had some neat interactions...snare is just cool with 2 scuttlemutts. Got me thinking about the possibility of even running high snares with red lace/haste cantrips in opposing colour...But scuttlemutts was a bit classier in that regard...they came in handy all over the place, and allowed for help in powering out the big butted bird...which once sing handedly turned a game around for me against a skilled opponent in the first round...

Some observations: There was a lot of interesting play I noticed. I realized a big mistake I made in blocking in a game I eventually won anyway, but it doesn't make the mistake any less notable. Opponent attacks with a 6/6 deus and a 4/4 first striker...I have 2 of my watchwings hanging out and the duo available. I had the barkshell, and was focused on taking out the deus, and I suppose too much on protecting the duo. I double blocked with the 2/4's and used the barkshell, when I clearly should have triple blocked...I would have inevitably ended up not losing a man with the barkshell after damage was assigned. There were so many times when scuttlemutt on the board changed the dynamic of the game. This card is IMPORTANT to any deck. It just opens so many possibilties in this format if you pay attention. 2 mutts saved my butt quite a bit. Also, on the power of fire...I found it a lot more effective holding it back and waiting for the proper moment to use it...with all the powerful auras in this set I really think timing is critical...a rushed aura be it aura of fire or steel of the godhead just ends up reminding you why auras are traditionally so bad. What's cool about this set is, these are powerful, powerful auras and when you play it right they are soooo much better. I was very guilty of slamming a few down early, but I've been making a point to alter this...and it's really helping. One game in particular during the first match I remember really working on drawing out my opponents removal before placing the power of fire...and it felt good because it worked, and he had it...and it lead to a game win.

Match one was a skilled opponent, but I don't remember too much but I believe it was UB with a splash of red for burn and POF. (POF on Merror Grimeblotter is a troubling prospect, one game came to an end that way.) It was close and very enjoyable match, he played quite well and I think I did pretty good myself.

Match two was against a red/green aggro with the deus. Steel of the godhead and fliers really featured highly in the success.

Match three was against GW and featured a highlight of placing shield of the oversoul ON HIS Oversoul of the dusk. Mighty, mighty indestructable flying protection from everything man. Unfortunately for him, i was just out racing him and gaining life.

Thistledown duo is a really, really good card. Its up there in my top 5 commons.

Silkbound Faerie, Power of Fire, Thistledown duo...?

U/W/g

2008-06-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

I just drafted this deck and i'm playing it right now. The draft consists of 4 players over 1800 and only 1 person under 1700, i've never seen so many good players in a 4-3-2-2 before. I want to know what you guys think of the build, especially the green splash. I did it to add some aggression, the curve is very low and I wanted some heavy hitters to keep the tempo fast, plus green gives me great artifact/enchant removal and I snagged one destroy target flying critter card for the sb.

I will edit or reply to my own post with a report as to how it performed. Match 1 I owned 1840 blue white deck with multiples of the untap to tap target critter faerie, went 2-0 on him ^_^

0-1 sss Draft

2008-06-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Well, this deck is pretty bad. It was influenced by that article rating power of fire as the top common. I only had one copy and still ran it because of the untap critters I had. Splashed a couple of forests and a couple of islands for witch abilities, which i'm a huge fan of. But the deck was slow and I got mana screwed (not color screwed, but i didn't draw lands) and then horribly flooded game two, plus my opponent was competent and had an impressive build.

I did end up winning the draft immediately following this horrible loss. I had a really powerful build, mostly black with 2 ashenmoor gourgers, 2 of the 2/1 unblockable for 2 u/b mana, and sygg, amongst other powerful cards. i didn't take a printscreen of that one but there wasn't much skill involved in piloting the deck to a win, i just happened to get a twisted amount of bombs.

I'm really enjoying shadowmoor drafts, this is my new favorite set ^_^

SHM draft BW (0-1)

2008-06-28T23:02:00.001-07:00

A little weird, but high on powerful bombs in the face of mirroweave, sheperd and corrupt. I wanted to try out enemy colours as I felt the bombs I had could easily support it.

I win the first game easily with all the mana I need to power out my creatures, blight and shepered, I lose the second to colour screw (7 plains, 1 swamp with blight in hand and a draw of a sheperd 1 turn too late), I lose the third to mana screw with only 3 lands out by turn 8.

The mana base could probably be tweaked to help those early stallers get out (2 safeholds and 2 ballynocks are pretty good stallers imo), but I feel the deck was really quite strong and was very dissapointed to lose first round to a deck that I felt was just not that good (he ended 0-2 in the second round)

Cheers,

AAZipzop1

SHM draft UW (3-0)

2008-06-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

The only thing I would change would be to take an island out for a plains. Too often I would be sitting on 2 plains and be holding Wilt-leaf Liege.

Spectral procession + Wilt-leaf Liege wins games. Wicker warcrawler is a 6/6 on turn 5, nothing to laugh at in a deck with mostly weenies.

Initially I was in mostly U with some W, but on opening the Liege in pack 3, I was well placed to aggressively draft some W and WG creatures.

This deck only dropped one game to a Puca's mischief, man i hate that card.

Cheers

AAZipzop2

SHM draft UB (3-0)

2008-06-28T21:38:00.000-07:00

This deck won most of it's games and won the draft.

River's Grasp is a complete blowout if you are playing UB. It's basically tempo stopper, removal, thoughtseize and bounce all in one go.

It's 1st pickable material

Cards of note:

Sygg: Either they blow their burn trail on him (in which you just traded a two drop) or from turn 3 or 4 onwards you get to draw 2 cards a turn.

Wingrattle Scarecrow: 2/2 flying persist for 3 colourless, is fantastic, don't let it table, because it won't.

I'm not sure fear is that useful as evasion in this format due to the huge number of artifact creatures and hybrids.

Cheers

AAZipzop1

SHM Sealed end result: 3-2 (9pts)

2008-06-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

9 Mountain
1 Mudbrawler Raiders
1 Valleymaker
1 Curse of Chains
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Jaws of Stone
1 Sootwalkers
1 Scuzzback Marauders
2 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Illuminated Folio
1 Grief Tyrant
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Flame Javelin
1 Somnomancer
1 Knollspine Invocation
1 Scuzzback Scrapper
2 Burn Trail
1 Safehold Duo
1 Oracle of Nectars
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Old Ghastbark
8 Plains

Sideboard

1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Manaforge Cinder
1 Rite of Consumption
1 Drove of Elves
1 Put Away
1 Medicine Runner
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Repel Intruders
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Whimwader
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Poison the Well
1 Giantbaiting
1 Revelsong Horn
1 Scrapbasket
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Devoted Druid
1 Lurebound Scarecrow
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Memory Sluice
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Plumeveil
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Ã†thertow
1 Traitor's Roar
1 Safehold Sentry
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Pili-Pala
1 Raking Canopy
1 Cinderbones
1 Manamorphose
1 Faerie Swarm
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Pale Wayfarer
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Mystic Gate
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Barkshell Blessing

Match 1: During deck construction PGqsilver approaches me about joining the clan, I say sure. Wouldn't you know it...my first match is him. He trounces me. I mean, it was embarassing. I misplayed...for some reason i sided in mystic gate...even though it was strictly worse than a plains for me...something that became all to apparent the next game. But it was all good, I was introduced to PGqsilver and his powerhouse of a deck, piloted far better than mine was out of the gates. Gave me a quick wake up call. He went on to do very well, but that is another story...(hint, cough, post, cough)

Match 2: I don't remember. Isn't that terrible? Now that I think of it, this was a RB deck with two demigods of revenge. Yeah, I'm just lucky I didn't see them both in the same game. I didn't think I'd even bother posting this one as of yet...such was the beatings that PGq dished out. But the deck was beginning to perform...I didn't feel quite so bad with it.

Match 3: Back and forth, the 2nd game he gets me down to 1, I stabilize back to 60 and knollspine out with 0 cards left in my deck. The order of nectars really begins to shine.

Match 4: I may have gotten match 3 and 4 mixed up. I don't know. Did I mention I'm awful tired?

Match 5: GWr deck. Beautiful mana base supported by 2 of the fetch elves. His deck is solid and aggressive. Features 2 of the seedwitches...all I remember last game was persist elf, killed it. next turn 2/1, next turn persist elf again, i knollspine in this time. Next turn i have 4 lands and 3 2 cc spells in hand. I only really want to pitch 1 but will do 2 if he barkshell blessings...he does, so i pitch a second one in response, whereupon he barshell blessings...again. Good god man. Then he lays a seedwitch. I untap, kill it. He throws down seedwhich 2...and rolls in. Man it was good times. I felt like I was playing against constructed game 2. I'm so tired that probably didn't even make much sense. Why do I always do this to myself with sealed?

9 points end result, casual SHM Premier event.

Feel free to comment on my build. I found it quite difficult. I'm not sure what I'd do different...I must say that against all odds that little 1/1 in there ended up coming in quite handy a lot of times...I put him in instead of the 2/2 for the additional body to enable burn trails. The Folio was amazing, and saved my butt several times.

I ended up siding out snares in both the matchups I lost in...so there was probably something a little suboptimal about 2 slots being devoted to them maindeck, as good as they were in the other matchups. I suppose replacing one maindeck with the 2/2 would have improved my overall performance, the early game especially, where I was weak. This deck needs to survive the early game then take advantage of the late game bombs. I should have built it with this in mine, rather than just slumping it together without a defined plan. With that in mind...this build seems a better maindeck choice...but it's a toss up really. This is usually what I ended up with when I sided the snares out. I don't know what do you think I should have done maindeck? As to godhead of awe...I just couldn't justify squeezing it in there with my other late game bombs. Too much bombastic late game cards...My needs were in the early game...so i left it out. The plume veil would have been lovely, but I balked at the mana. Too hard to get early in the game when I needed it. I may add a picture tomorrow, but like I said...sleep needed...badly.

9 Mountain
1 Mudbrawler Raiders
1 Valleymaker
1 Curse of Chains
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Jaws of Stone
1 Sootwalkers
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Illuminated Folio
1 Grief Tyrant
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Flame Javelin
1 Somnomancer
1 Knollspine Invocation
1 Scuzzback Scrapper
2 Burn Trail
1 Safehold Duo
1 Oracle of Nectars
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Old Ghastbark
8 Plains

1 Barkshell Blessing

1 Safehold Sentry

Sideboard

1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Manaforge Cinder
1 Rite of Consumption
1 Drove of Elves
1 Put Away
1 Medicine Runner
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Repel Intruders
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Whimwader
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Poison the Well
1 Giantbaiting
1 Revelsong Horn
1 Scrapbasket
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Devoted Druid
1 Lurebound Scarecrow
1 Barrenton Medic
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Memory Sluice
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Plumeveil
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Ã†thertow
1 Traitor's Roar
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Pili-Pala
1 Raking Canopy
1 Cinderbones
1 Manamorphose
1 Faerie Swarm
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Pale Wayfarer
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Mystic Gate
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Parapet Watchers

2 Inquisitor's Snare

SHM Monoblack, sideways (saved)

2008-06-23T18:55:00.000-07:00

SHM Draft, June 23, 2008, Monoblack, saved, result: win.

This wasn't an easy draft. I was granted no monoblack bombs from the outset in pack 1, was passed no great joys. I was having difficulty with my place in the world...

1 Sootstoke Kindler
1 Beseech the Queen
2 Merrow Grimeblotter
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Corrupt
17 Swamp
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Cultbrand Cinder
2 Wingrattle Scarecrow
2 Smolder Initiate
1 Wasp Lancer
1 Incremental Blight
1 Scar
2 Aphotic Wisps
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Ashenmoor Gouger
1 Crowd of Cinders

Sideboard
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Slinking Giant
1 Disturbing Plot
1 Plumeveil
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Twilight Shepherd
1 Goldenglow Moth
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Kithkin Shielddare
1 Mine Excavation
2 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Watchwing Scarecrow
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Æthertow
1 Mudbrawler Cohort
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Put Away
1 Spell Syphon
1 Last Breath

...I passed a third turn corrupt...and when i got passed another one and a bit of other black, I began at least toying with the idea of getting into black..figuring if that first one came back around the time was quite ripe for it. I ended up with a really late crowd of cinders first pack and maybe a faerie macabre...but I was still hedging my bets a bit. The second corrupt never tabled. First pick 2nd pack I actually went with the twilight shepherd...thinking, hey...who knows...my black isn't solid by any means yet. White was not beyond possibility especially if I could back this bomb up with some other good support. But then the solid black three drops started coming, and I grabbed them and began to commit. The blight came to me first pick third pack...and it was a good thing too. As monoblack goes this was not exactly a shiny example of love. I also managed to get a beseech the queen third pack, which makes that corrupt/blight so much better. Dig for the corrupt or blight to win. I won't go too much into the play by play this time, but I will make some comments, as it was an interesting series of games, and the path to victory was often times quite interesting...

2 Aphotic Wisps! You know, this thing saved my butt in a game winning way several times in the course of the 3 matches. One was a beautiful kill on a really scary shield of the oversouled creature, one was getting my loch through for a surprise 9 damage kill in a very tight game. With 2 wisps I was able to just get in there several times when I otherwise wouldn't...and still keep myself drawing cards looking for my kill switches.

I sided out 1 grimeblotter pretty much every game for the gatewarden...just ended up being better in so many ways. Shoulda maindecked her.

Didn't use the helm once. Just didn't happen. Was really only in my hand once the entire 3 matches.

Intiates are so good in monoblack. Getting them out turn 1 is just nasty. If your opponent is in black, they are even better...Which is good, because it helps make up a bit from the lack of fear factor...

I'm really looking forward to the review game feature being re-instated. There were a lot of plays that would be interesting to go over. There were a couple of games that really could have gone either way.

Anyway, I thought it was a pretty good result from a monoblack deck I just sort of stumbled into without being wacked in the head right away with some crazy black cards.

First Time I got to the Finals in 8-player constructed.

2008-06-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day I got to the finals in an 8 player constructed tournament!! ^^

Alas, I didn't win the final game but it was a great experience.

In the final game the deck that I was going against had Kavu Predator, Mogg Fanatic, Tarmogoyf, with a lot of burn spells. I was using a red/black Demigod deck and lost both games by a difference of a single turn.

First match: 2-0

Second match: 2-1

Third match: 0-2

The saddest part for the last match is that there were some problems with the Magic Online server and I couldn't sideboard for the second game (for the final match that is). But being my first time getting to the finals I still felt great! ^^;

Everyone have a great weekend (at least of what's left of it).

Mono Red Aggro SSS Draft (3-0)

2008-06-21T10:23:00.001-07:00

Speed Kills. Red Deck Wins (both games in 6 turns!)

4 packs and my shiny new Reaper King avatar would attest to that. So would two finals I lost to mono red aggro. It's been a long week, I lost nearly 50 points to crappy sealed deck opens (I won't whine, but opening 4 out of 5 rares as rare enchantments is not my idea of fun, Greater Auramancy, Runed Halo and Thought Reflection aren't going to win many games.)

I won both my finals games in 6 turns, I lost one to a painter's servant and long game beatdown. I ended up sideboarding into black to get my rite of consumption for anything he prison termed.

Game 2:
Mulligan to 5. Pili-pala, Power of Fire, Runes of the Deus, 2 Mountains.

Turn 2. Pili-pala
Turn 3. Power of fire on Pili-pala
Turn 4. Boggart Ram-gang (which he sticks prison term on.... your mistake is my win?)
Turn 5. drop more land and burn to his face while burning an Augury Adept out of the way.
Turn 6. Power of fire to his face, and Rite of Consumption my Ram-Gang to his face. I win on more than 20 life. Go red go. I'm holding Jaws of Stone as he dies too.

Game 3.

Mulligan to 6. Holding 2 mountains, Sootstoke Kindler, Gouger, Burn Trail and Ram-Gang.

Turn 2. Sootstoke kindler. Bash.
Turn 3. Hasted Ashenmoor Gouger. Bash. His Augury adept draws a swamp, err. great gain your 0 life.
Turn 4. Boggart Ram-Gang. Bash.
Turn 5. Boggart Ram-Gang #2. Bash. He's on 1 health. He has a 7/7 flier out with his painter's servant.
Turn 6. I don't even bash. I just Burn Trail to his face.

CrazyPants.Dek Loses

Every single opponent I faced had fancy pants enchants, fancy pants combos and fancy pants triple colour decks. Sure they beat me in the one game they assembled their crazy fancy pants tricks... In fact here is a list of crazy things that I had to beat:

1. Swans of Bryn Argoll
2. Swans of Brynn Argoll with double Steel of Godhead. 8/6 unblockable double lifelink. 24 life swing per turn.
4. Painter's Servant, Faerie Swarm, Spell Syphon (ever have to pay 4 more mana to cast a spell on turn 3? Or see a 7/7 flying critter on turn 6, in limited?)
5. Leechbonder, Cinderbones, Oona's Gatewarden, Mistmeadow Skulk and Kulrath Knight. None great by themselves, but together they equal = You can't attack. Or block. Who runs a deck wth all 5 of these cards ANYWAY?

Learnings (Nathan was right):

1. Focus on the good cards. I argued with my friend that Steel of Godhead and Shield of the Oversoul are first pickable. I actually got pretty annoyed. I realise I was wrong. I passed a whole bunch of them. I even passed Barkshell Blessings this time. You're right Nathan, I suck.

2. The first pack doesn't matter. I was in Red. and White. Yeh... Enemy Colours suck. But I had quality picks. I think playability over colour is important.

3. Pick for your sideboard. For me, I really high picked Gloomwidow's feast and Gleeful sabotage as I was light on removal and enchantment destruction is just necessary. I also picked up a rite of consumption and a spiteflame witch as ways of ending stalemates, as aggro decks can really suffer once you get into these situations.

I actually lost a number of first games, but instead of moaning, I would splash black or green. Green if they were flier, enchant heavy (i.e. vs. double lifelink swans) or black if they were stalled or had wither based decks.

4. Don't table power of fire. Thanks guys. Also, you never let someone 4th pick Jaws of Stone, not unless your first 3 cards were Foil Reflecting Pool, Reflecting Pool, Firespout. That I can understand, maybe.

5. Power of fire goes on anything, either you beat him to the face for 1, or beat his toughness 1 creatures to death, or he blows his removal on it. Double bonus points if you get it on your Pili-Pala.

6. Kill Leechbonder on sight.

Tough Picks.

Okay. I want to go through some of my really tough picks. I've bolded what I took.

1. Pack 1 Pick 7. Last Breath vs. Bloodmark Mentor vs. Gloom Widow's Feast. I take the Bloodmark, as its a definite in for any red deck, the others may table.

2. Pack 2 Pick 1. Witherscale Wurm vs. Kitchen Finks. I take the finks, GG is not something I'm willing to deal with at this stage. Not sure if this was a mistake. I figure finks is useable if I go white splashing red, or I go RG but in no way am I even remotely in mono green.

3. Pack 2 Pick 6. Wicker Warcrawler vs. Cultbrand Cinder. I take the cinder here because of it's removal capability and it turns on my two Tattermunge Duos... but Wicker Warcrawler is surely a scary turn 5 card. Mistake? Possibly, I also realise I will probably have lots of artifact destruction in RG and can deal with it (which turns out to be true).

4. Pack 3 Pick 1. Sunken Ruins vs. Ashenmoor Gouger. At this stage I only had 1 Gouger and Ram-Gang. So it would have made a lot of sense in mono red to take the gouger. but look I'm not arguing with 6 tix okay?

5. Pack 3 Pick 2. Silkbind Faeries vs. Murderous Redcap. Just kidding.

6. Pack 3 pick 3. Runes of Deus vs. Gnarled Effigy vs. Farhaven Elf. The elf helps me fix colour, helps me ramp. The Gnarled Effigy slowly but surely gets me out of stalemates (and has killed me before). Runes of Deus I can throw on just about anything in my deck. I haven't seen one passed yet, so assume someone else is hating or taking them. I take the Runes and start thinking about going mono red.

7. Pack 3 Pick 4. I'm pretty much mono red splashing for black or green for removal (which I'm low on). Deep Slumber Titan (I have two power of fires) vs. Crabapple Cohort vs. Torture. I like torture, its slow, but effective, and its a 3 mana way of getting rid of witches. I go for the fatty.

8. Pack 3 Pick 6. Illuminated Folio vs. Mudbrawler Cohort vs. Farhaven Elf vs. Shield of Oversoul. Mudbrawler bashes for 2 from turn 3. Farhaven is just sick. I take the folio, the reason being that in a stalled situation I can start drawing into answers. its 5 to cast, but only 1 to activate.

Out of all the colours, red is the colour where you probably don't mind showing your hand to the opponent... it's not exactly a subtle colour. Also with speed based aggro, you run out of cards in your hand really quickly.

9. Pack 3. Pick 9. Boggart Arsonists vs. Flourishing Defenses vs. Gloomwidow's Feast. Gloomwidow's feast is just sick. Pretty much every flier you throw this at will give you a 1/2 reaching spider. I already had one, and wanted to be mono red. So many scarecrows, so little time. Arsonist kills a warcrawler along the way.

By drafting what my neighbours weren't and reading the right signals, picking quality over weird combo bombs, I finally won my first SHM draft after a week of being smashed.

Just in case you were wondering:

Round 1. vs. UW
Round 2. vs. UWb
round 3. vs. UBw

Hrmm.

SHM Sealed GWr (saved) 4-1

2008-06-18T17:44:00.000-07:00

GWr Sealed (Result: 4-1)

1 Spectral Procession
2 Mountain
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Curse of Chains
8 Plains
7 Forest
1 Mass Calcify
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Last Breath
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Mossbridge Troll
1 Gnarled Effigy
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
2 Turn to Mist
1 Knollspine Dragon
1 Woeleecher
1 Raking Canopy
1 Gloomwidow
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Umbral Mantle
1 Firespout
1 Morselhoarder
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Rune-Cervin Rider

Sideboard
1 Memory Sluice
1 Mine Excavation
1 Medicine Runner
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Bloodshed Fever
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Spell Syphon
1 Traitor's Roar
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Mudbrawler Cohort
2 Blazethorn Scarecrow
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Gloomlance
1 Giantbaiting
1 Wicker Warcrawler
1 Scrapbasket
1 Briarberry Cohort
1 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Lurebound Scarecrow
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Last Breath
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Aphotic Wisps
1 Blight Sickle
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Chainbreaker
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Crabapple Cohort
2 Somnomancer
1 Faerie Swarm
1 Cultbrand Cinder
1 Kithkin Rabble
1 Pili-Pala
1 Torpor Dust
1 Flow of Ideas
1 Cinderbones
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Manamorphose
1 Safewright Quest
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Fracturing Gust
1 Emberstrike Duo
1 Wanderbrine Rootcutters
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Din of the Fireherd
2 Horde of Boggarts

Any ideas for alternate builds?

So yesterday I was in a draft, and I chumped out match 1. But something odd happened game 3. When it went to sideboard, no cards showed up. So I couldn't board. I shrugged and took a screenshot. I was actually going to make a small switch. Turned out to be a really good screenshot, because after I lost I sent in a bug report, and Wizards came through with the 15 dollar coupon. So I decided to buy a tournament pack and have another go at sealed. The result is below. (lesson to learn: screen shot the second something odd happens, just in case)

Match 1: Played a BU base with quite a lot of solid fliers. Also featured the lovely swans. MVP was definitely Firespout, which often went 3 to 1...sometimes 3 to 1 with a built in Ancestral recall. Other helpful cards in this matchup were the mistmeadow skulk, who kept getting in there for damage when no one else could. The Raking Canopy was beautiful, albeit kinda frightening with swans out. Any milling action he was undergoing was not making up for the offense I was laying in though, and it also helped me find curse of chains or Gnarled Effigy to help eleviate the problem somewhat. I sided out mantle and tattermurge duo for juvenile gloomshadow and a second last breath to deal better with his flying rush threat. I won both games.

Match 2: I'm consistently siding in the 2nd last breath over the umbral mantle. Probably will continue to that for the rest of the matches. I lost this in 2. One game I had a double mulligan, but both games he was strong from the start, and just had a faster deck than I did.

Match 3: I don't really remember. I was kind of afk for a while after it...though I know it went fairly quickly. Not too much to report other than I continued to side out umbral mantle. I won it in 2. I think I won one of the games with the dragon. I remember Firespout continued to spell victory, working it out so I got as much from it as possible each time I used it. No calcification projects as of yet.

Match 4: Opponent playing a GW based with quite a bit of sprinkling of colours, featuring a lot of scarecrows and the reaper king. 1st game I curved out a bit, but he recovered nicely after being knocked down a ways. I had my troll out, and began rarring into the red zone with it, taking out creature after creature. I had the Marauder/Woeleecher thing going on by the end of it...the woeleecher allowing me to weather a grim poppet with no real trouble before the marauder came out. On the kill turn he was nice enough to let me swing with tricked out troll and I took him down to -31 with a really big Marauder and troll supported by the liege. Game 2 I started strong and he never really got going. Liege/Marauder beats supported by spot removal and I must say I do love the 2 blinks. They are great against broken auras and it feels so nice to have one to protect your vital pieces with. In a pinch they remove what ails you from the situation for a round. Very versatile and useful spell. Nice to be able to have one consistently each game.

Match 5: UB featuring Oona Queen of the Faely Broken and Incremental Blight. He gives me quite a hurting, but luckily I get Calcification online a turn after the Queen. Game 2 he plays incremental blight, and saves himself from a gloomwidow and 3 1/1 flyers getting their liege on next turn. Instead I have to content myself with one flyer. But I keep throwing out threats and he doesn't seem to have the same answers. I win in 2.

So there you go, I managed another 4-1, good for 11 packs. The deck was certainly very helpful in this regard. 2 mass removals sure do go a long way. More credit goes to the spout than anything, but calcification is certainly is swingy when it happens. But it's useful to note that spout wouldn't have been nearly as helpful without the red splash. I laboured over the build for quite a while. The only thing I think I would change is swapping out the equipment for the second last breath. It's funny sometimes when building you get too caught up in what you'd like to have that you don't make the card for card value judgment that you end up sometimes making at the sideboarding stage. The duo was in and out of sideboard, but the evasion was important enough to maindeck, and he just usually got replaced by the juvenile when forests weren't in season across the redzone. Particularly if fliers were abundant on the other side of the board.

I've saved this sealed deck if you'd ever like to do some playtesting to work on sealed playskills and such, I'm always up for it if I'm not directly involved in something else. If I am, I'll be happy to as soon as I'm finished. Msg me when you see me on. I find it very useful in improving my play, plus it saves me from spending money.

I'm pretty tired, so no fancy pictures today. Sleep beckons.

UW (1st round KO) - Next time let the good deck win?

2008-06-18T02:15:00.001-07:00

I was actually knocked out 2-0.

I thought it was a well constructed aggressive number of control and win components.

In hindsight, I probably should not have MB'ed Advice of the Fae and perhaps used zealous guardian as a surprise thistledown duo or steel of godhead trigger.

I was beaten in the long game by a player who was also U, and had taken the flow of ideas I had passed (I expect this normally to table)

Well at least i opened a reflecting pool for my troubles. Sometimes you just can't win em all.

WG beatdown silly-style

2008-06-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Curse of Chains
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Twilight Shepherd
1 Resplendent Mentor
1 Æthertow
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Mass Calcify
1 Kithkin Rabble
1 Silkbind Faerie
10 Plains
1 Thoughtweft Gambit
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
6 Forest
1 Old Ghastbark
1 Mystic Gate
2 Barkshell Blessing
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Gleeful Sabotage
2 Thistledown Duo
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Shield of the Oversoul
1 Repel Intruders
1 Safehold Sentry
Sideboard
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Mine Excavation
1 Moonring Island
1 River's Grasp
1 Put Away
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Briarberry Cohort
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Morselhoarder
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Advice from the Fae
1 Reknit
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Wasp Lancer
1 Blistering Dieflyn
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Memory Sluice

It all started with 1st pick Rhys pack 1 and mass calcify pack 2 1st pick and Twilight Shepard 1st on pack 3. Got lucky to be passed the Mystic Gate 2nd pick pack 1. Almost Monowhite but enough green to make it worth it. "god" enchants were game winners as well as aethertow lethal attacks in 2 games. Only had to use Calcify once but had it on a few occasions. Surprisingly, Resplendant Mentor was a game saver against a t5 oversoul and 3 turns later (and a few other critters including "all green get trampler") came the deus, useless with my 6 white critters including the pack, ghastbark, and Shepard and 2 duos. Life got me back and fliers came to hold off the rune-cervien (as he was at 7 and couldn't attack). Finishing move was the gambit even though i just needed the blue spell for the 2 duos. End result a draft winner.

SHM Draft, UB (this time...with feeling!) (saved)

2008-06-16T17:59:00.001-07:00

SHM UB (this time...with feeling!) This deck is saved and currently in my stable of draft test decks. If you'd like to play sometime with one of your old draft decks, msg me and let me know. Sometimes it really helps when we make observations on each other's play. (Great idea AAZipZop2!)

1 Gloomlance
1 River's Grasp
1 Merrow Grimeblotter
8 Island
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Glamer Spinners
1 Biting Tether
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
2 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Inkfathom Infiltrator
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Watchwing Scarecrow
1 Grief Tyrant
8 Swamp
1 Faerie Swarm
2 Gravelgill Duo
1 Kulrath Knight
1 Wasp Lancer
1 Fate Transfer
1 Æthertow
1 Somnomancer
1 Inkfathom Witch

Rarity Breakdown: 1 rare, 12 uncommons, 11 commons + 16 basic land
Number of land: 17

Sideboard
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Wanderbrine Rootcutters
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Lockjaw Snapper
1 Prismwake Merrow
1 Torture
1 Fate Transfer
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Torpor Dust
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Cinderbones

I had a hard time on the build. I deleted most of the "chaff" from the sideboard so you could decide if you would have chosen the same build with what I had. It was hard leaving some of the cards out. I tried to get the curve a good as I could.

Shadowmoor draft, UB January 16, 2008 (result: eliminated in second round)

Match 1, UW, a nice deck: The first game was really close. The leechridden swamp ended up making the difference in a big way. I literally had exactly enough to kill him when I did, and if I hadn't he would have totally taken the game the next turn. A neat series of plays in the second game. He throws down a leech bonder, which really throws my hand's game plan (witch and wingrattle scarecrow are down, infiltrator and somnomancer are coming). I have a River's Grasp and use it after he takes out the infiltrator. I reveal an amazing hand. He's got a poppet, gnarled effigy, and a number of other good creatures and the land to get the poppet out on schedule. I decide on the leech bonder, trying to get as much damage is as fast as possible before the poppet hits. What was interesting was the turn before he went online for 7 mana. I had five mana open but passed the turn with several cards in hand. I knew he knew at the poppet, so I figured I'd represent a counterspell. I actually had my glamer spinner in hand, he attacked me, one of the creatures was 3/2 and could have been eliminated by the spinner, but i let it through, again trying to represent a counterspell. He declined to cast poppet instead throwing down the effigy. I eot'ed the faerie and swang with everything. This lead to me being able to race him (took 2 turns I believe)...if he had thrown the poppet down that turn, I'd have never had gotten him down to zero in time.

Match 2, Silversurfer82 1824 playing mono-red: The first game was over quicker than I can even believe. He's almost impossibly aggressive and quick. Intimidator intiate, Boggart ram, Ashmoor Liege, Craggenwick Cremator. I side out grief tyrant and fate transfer opting to give myself a better early game by adding a torpor dust and sickle ripper. Second game he leads with intimidator intiate, I with a somnomancer, then he power of fire's his man. Harsh. I throw down my wingrattle scarecrow, the only butt bigger than 1 I have. But he doesn't follow up with a big 3 or 4 drop. Phew. I get in 2 swings, miss a land drop, and lay down a wasp lancer. He then makes up for the deficit by t5ing a Deus of Kicking my Butt. All the while he's lapsing in and out for extended periods of time...undoubtably writing up his own account of this match, or yelling at his roomates, or playing poker online. Either way, with this deck he doesn't seemed worried about the clock...or me for that matter. I swing and lay a land, he swings and I torpor dust his deus to a more moderate level of butt kicking. It still hurts, but not as much as the Cultbrand cinder that he follows up with. It does my lancer in with the help of his good buddy the initiate with power of Tim. His clock is at 8:30, mine at 23:15 by this point. I imagine he may be engaging in some kind of unclean act while talking dirty about how he's wiping up some poor schlub online simultaneously. Or playing online poker. I swing feebly and lay down two sacrificial 1/1's that are at least making my man fly and persist. He boggart ram gangs then proceeds to tap two of his behemoths for a conspired burn trail crispifying my two remaining men, just in case I get frisky. He mosies over with a mere 3/6 deus. I throw down a token dude for lack of something better to do, missing another land drop and next turn he goes nuclear. Torrent of Souls followed I imagine by bone crushing laughter. I can't even chump block thanks to the intiate. I make him wait a minute or two while I type up my disgrace. I'm at -7, and loving it.

The Gun (living the dream) 2nd round SHM Draft

2008-06-16T10:22:00.000-07:00

That first image is turn 5. Turn 5.

That's what you get with a turn 2 Pili-Pala, turn 3 Presence of Gond.

I don't generally play giant baiting in my deck, however in this one, tapping two creatures is not a problem. I actually won that match with a conspired giant bait with his creatures tapped out.

I lost round 2 to some unfortunate mulligans (mulliganed twice first game and second game) and a very aggressive opponent who ended up winning the draft.

Overall I'm very happy with this build, I was lucky to already be in RG when i noticed the Gun cards floating around.

Next time round I'll share a more conventional finals round draft deck, that didn't win by being an overpowered deck, but by actually making the right decisions during play.

Cheers,

AAZipzop2

SHM Draft, UB (win)

2008-06-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

(I can save this deck if someone can trade me a cemetary puca.)

1 Curse of Chains
1 River's Grasp
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
8 Island
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Æthertow
9 Swamp
1 Glamer Spinners
1 Briarberry Cohort
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Watchwing Scarecrow
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Incremental Blight
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Corrupt
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Wasp Lancer
2 Thistledown Duo
1 Cemetery Puca
1 Torture
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Faerie Swarm

Sideboard
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Whimwader
1 Consign to Dream
1 Strip Bare
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Illuminated Folio
1 Flow of Ideas
1 Rite of Consumption
1 Disturbing Plot
1 Swamp
1 Poison the Well
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Memory Plunder
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Fate Transfer
1 Deepchannel Mentor
1 Aphotic Wisps
2 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Beseech the Queen

SHM Draft, June 15, 2008, UB. Result: Won draft.

Flying is good. Incremental Blight is good. Not too much to add. The games went well. I was glad I added the scarecrow and ditched the memory plunder at the last minute. Its a solid creature, and I needed a 14th. Pick 1 was the blight which i chose over the 4/4 unblockable ghostlord avatar dude.

SHM draft, Mono Black "electron" (win)

2008-06-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

I can save this if someone can trade me a Glen-Elendra-Leige.

1 Kulrath Knight
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Merrow Grimeblotter
1 Glen Elendra Liege
1 Fate Transfer
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Grief Tyrant
1 Corrupt
17 Swamp
2 Blowfly Infestation
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Torture
1 Cultbrand Cinder
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Incremental Blight
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Murderous Redcap
2 Oona's Gatewarden

Sideboard
1 Howl of the Night Pack
2 Power of Fire
1 Manaforge Cinder
1 Sootwalkers
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Wanderbrine Rootcutters
1 Manamorphose
1 Order of Whiteclay
1 Blight Sickle
1 Memory Sluice
1 Blazethorn Scarecrow
1 Gloomwidow
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Strip Bare
1 Tyrannize
1 Scrapbasket
1 Turn to Mist
1 Emberstrike Duo
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Dream Salvage

(17 lands)
SHM draft, June 15, 2008, Monoblack, result: Draft won

First match, 16something, WU: First game he had an early beatdown, i was holding back a little waiting for the 3 for 1 on incremental blight. Stabilized a bit, held things off somewhat, began to get low on life...corrupted for 10 to the dome after some intial hits from a couple of early drops. The rest was easy. Second game was very one-sided.

Second match: 1730 playing GR. First game the deck was working really well, got to use blowfly infestation together with fate transfer kulrath knight. I won fairly easily. Second game he had some unfortunate mana issues and conceded fast.

Third match: RB deck, first game went fairly typical, infestion+blight did their work. Second game was close. I ran out of gas quickly and my opponent kept poking away. I managed an torture, then put out a grief tyrant with 7 life. An incremental blight putting a counter on my own tyrant., left him with the 2/1 that can't have counters put upon it. He swung (5) I swing for 3, then he swung again (3) ...this time with a giant-baited 4/4 for the kill...fate transfer...8/8 tyrant time. I swing for 8. He swings over again for 2 and throws down a blocker. I top deck a beseech the queen, snag a corrupt and end it. Woot.

That was kind of fun, but it was an odd draft pod. The guy I played in the finals had to have been the only other guy in black. The first pack I was passed had the knight, an infestation...i wish i remembered what else was in that pack...but it tabled. I was in black by that point, but not settled on a second colour (most picks were black), I figured when it tabled the stage was set for monoblack. It seems to have worked out!

SHM draft, UW (win)

2008-06-15T12:12:00.000-07:00

SHM Draft, June 15, 2008 UW Result: Won draft.

1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Curse of Chains
1 Merrow Grimeblotter
1 Steel of the Godhead
2 Æthertow
1 Mistmeadow Witch
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
9 Island
1 Godhead of Awe
8 Plains
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Barkshell Blessing
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
2 Last Breath
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Prismwake Merrow
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Medicine Runner
1 Repel Intruders

Sideboard
1 Mine Excavation
1 Sootwalkers
1 Turn to Mist
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Toil to Renown
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Intimidator Initiate
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Ember Gale
1 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Barkshell Blessing
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Prison Term
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Gloomwidow's Feast
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Torpor Dust
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Spell Syphon

From the start, that was an error corrected in sideboard...somehow i didn't include prison term. I sided out barksheel blessing (in a heartbeat). Aside from that emabrassing mistake it went quite well. 2 out of 3 opponents seemed quite experienced, and it was a fun series of games.

Observations: Aethertow is so good. The aura's are just lovely. Get them down with an aethertow or two in hand...and you just keep them from doing anything about it. But aside from that last breath is really quite good too.

Also, didn't use godhead even once. The one time I drew it...I was beating down just fine without it, just held it in reserve.

My Second Event

2008-06-15T10:42:00.001-07:00

First match: The opponent was using a Blue/White deck and had Swans for both games that I couldn't kill and when the opponent enchanted it with a Godhead it was gg. However I did get the opponent down to less than 5 life in both games.

Results: 0-2

Second Match: The opponent disconnected and never connected. :P

Results: 2-0

Third Match: I was mana-screwed both games.

Results: 0-2

Forth Match: The opponent didn't respond for 10 minutes and was eliminated. T_T;;

Results: 2-0

Fifth Match: Finished my 5th match, sadly it was a really close game. My opponent was at 2 life and I was at 10 but a perfectly timed Firespout destroyed me. It was a lot of fun though.

Result: 0-2

Also thanks goto Hatter for giving me great deck building advice.

The final deck I used with Hatter's advice was like this:

My first Magic Online Event Experience

2008-06-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

This is the basic deck that I used for my first experience and every time I finished a game I would trade in a the 2 Tattermunge Witches for the Sootstoke Kindler(this is a really great card and won a game for me) and the Manamorphose. Also Wort the Raidmother was not as good as Thornwatch Scarecrow(Wither is really a good ability to fend off opponents creatures), Cinderbones though it has Wither is actually a defensive card and didn't help me win battles so I took it out for Torpor Dust(this helped me win a game). The Crabapple Cohort was at for the first 4 matches until I thought it would help and help it did. It's a solid critter that can save you in a hard place. I also played the Morselhoarder but I usually had trouble getting 6 lands out(it would be at 5 for an extended amount of time) but it is a solid card which provides more mana.

As for the MVP I would have to say it's the Boggart Ram-Gang with Runes Of Deus on it. Double Strike with Trample!

For my first Event I did 2-3 and got 2 booster packs so it was a nice experience. ^^

SHM Sealed 1-3, with rebuild. comments?

2008-06-15T07:51:00.000-07:00

7 Mountain
1 Blistering Dieflyn
1 Furystoke Giant
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Jaws of Stone
2 Swamp
1 Mercy Killing
8 Forest
1 Wicker Warcrawler
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Blowfly Infestation
2 Gloomlance
1 Inescapable Brute
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
2 Raking Canopy
2 Morselhoarder
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Power of Fire
1 Rosheen Meanderer
1 Loamdragger Giant
1 Foxfire Oak

Sideboard
1 Toil to Renown
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 River Kelpie
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Ember Gale
1 Put Away
1 Curse of Chains
1 Turn to Mist
1 Scrapbasket
1 Dream Salvage
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Whimwader
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Crowd of Cinders
1 River's Grasp
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Resplendent Mentor
1 Armored Ascension
1 Prismwake Merrow
1 Shield of the Oversoul
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Blight Sickle
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Chainbreaker
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Augury Adept
1 Prison Term
1 Somnomancer
1 Woeleecher
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Torpor Dust
1 Splitting Headache
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Safewright Quest
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Tatterkite
1 Dire Undercurrents
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Loamdragger Giant

Just putting this out intially. I made a bad call on mana. On sideboard after first round I decided to up the swamp count and cut a mountain dependent burn spell to increase my creature count. So I'm thinking on nixing 2 mtns for 2 swamps, then siding out

Match 1: My opponent 1770+ gets a bum break game 1, didn't submit in time. He lost. Game 2, he's paired his deck down quite sweetly and gets the jump on me all I have out is a wildslayer elf, runs me down to 2 and throws down a withered wretch. I respond by mercy killing his blue/black 2/2 hopped up on helm of the ghostlord, then laying flourishing defenses on my turn....wow. That worked...reallly well. I had so many elves it was sick...he was trying to kill the banshee after a turn and I wouldn't let him. I've been beat up by that banshee before quite a few times, it was great to serve some payback. I'm looking forward to hooking up with blowfly infestation in future matches. Talk about scary.

Match 2: No real craziness to be had. My opponent played well, walked me into a few chump moves...I have to get better at thinking long game. Although, I had a pretty brutal overall showing. I'm thinking the deck may have a shot if I keep to it and play a bit better. Example of a chump move I walked into: I have a bunch a big guys out, he has his Gnarled Effigy out and his one problem is my morsel hoarder who can unload onto the foxfire oak if necessary. Instead of double blocking his 2/2 with 2 of my wounded giants, killing one of them, i block with hoarder...and walk into a firespout i knew he had. He takes out my entire team. Which was terrible because i drew the artifact removal i had sided in next turn. The extra blocker would have at least helped quite a bit. Although, he was well prepared and in his endgame mode...he threw down the redgreen aura on a 3/3 mudbrawler raiders which got dicey quick. So he'd been planning this for a while (see...long game thinking...) while I was trying desperately to topdeck a
defenses, blowfly, or even a furystroke...which would have been less than great i guess becasuse of the firespout, but still.

Match 3: I come to grips with this deck just not having the fundamentals. I should have watched my creature base better...The 2 enchantment hate for flyers would have been better in the side. The glooms i think should have been taken out to solve the mana issues. I think that card has merit, but this deck needed creatures more than it needed that. Its a shame, it had wack potential, but i think my build and a few plays, but this time mostly my build cost me from doing better. I dropped after losing this match, but let me see what I'd have done differently....

7 Mountain
1 Blistering Dieflyn
1 Furystoke Giant
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Jaws of Stone
2 Swamp
1 Mercy Killing
8 Forest
1 Wicker Warcrawler
1 Flourishing Defenses
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Inescapable Brute
2 Juvenile Gloomwidow (+1)
2 Morselhoarder
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Power of Fire
1 Rosheen Meanderer
1 Loamdragger Giant
1 Foxfire Oak
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Raven's Run Dragoon

Sideboard
2 Raking Canopy
2 Gloomlance
1 Toil to Renown
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 River Kelpie
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Ember Gale
1 Put Away
1 Curse of Chains
1 Turn to Mist
1 Scrapbasket
1 Dream Salvage
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Whimwader
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Crowd of Cinders
1 River's Grasp
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Resplendent Mentor
1 Armored Ascension
1 Prismwake Merrow
1 Shield of the Oversoul
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Blight Sickle
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Chainbreaker
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Augury Adept
1 Prison Term
1 Somnomancer
1 Woeleecher
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Torpor Dust
1 Splitting Headache
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Safewright Quest
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Merrow Wavebreakers
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Tatterkite
1 Dire Undercurrents
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Loamdragger Giant

Interested in comments.

Mono Blue SSS Draft #1 (Finals)

2008-06-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

13 years.

That's how many years since I've touched Magic cards.

I even spent some time learning the new 6th ed rules. Yeah, I'm old.

I'm still getting crushed online. Apparently drafts aren't really for casual players, and you really shouldn't be reading the cards while drafting. So after trying to draft LLM without knowing the cards, I had my proverbial handed to me on a platter.

I quit LLM pain lessons and started drafting Shadowmoor at my local card shop.

Now let me share with you my first SSS draft online. I made the finals (!).

Like everyone, I think U/W is the most powerful archetype. I'm partial to steel of godheads and counter spells.

My preferred style is to draft the best cards in any colour, with preference to good blue cards, then I'll start cooperating with whatever my right guy is handing me, generally trying to force a mono colour, and hope my friend on the left decides to be friendly.

This particular draft was full of sharks, mostly 1800+ and 1900+ players. I actually preferred this, I noticed much stronger signals, and less hate drafting. I received one of my steel of godheads as late as 7th pick.

I won't go through every pick but here are my high ranked picks:

Inkfathom Infiltrator (this fellow is a turn 2 clock and won many games by his lonesome)
Steel of Godhead (Even on a lowly Silkbind's 1 power, this is a 6 life swing, every turn)
Consign to dream
Curse of Chains
Somnomancer (if you don't take them, they will not table. ever. and a steel of godhead somnomancer is no laughing matter)
Scuttlemutt (turns off enchants, mana ramps, this card is amazing)

Some commentary on spell syphon:

If you're in blue, this is your bomb.

Spell syphon is ridiculously strong, it's much easier to hide than 4 mana open for aethertow, and in this aggro format your opponents will tend to tap down often to throw their bombs out. Spell syphon for 1 is still a bomb if your opponent doesnt have 1 mana spare and when you are mono blue it's not as situational as with other decks.

Rounds 1 and 2 were vs. RB Aggro.

My first round was against a 1950+ rated player (D_STERN)

I won 2-1. With massive mana screw in my last game. I had 3 islands (from my starting hand) out for over 10 turns.

So how does a blue deck win with massive mana screw?

Turn 2 Briarberry Cohort, turn 3 Wasp Lancer, turn 4 Steel of Godhead.
He was on 2 life, when he tapped out to cast his Ashenmoor Liege (game winner if it resolved), I showed him a spell syphon, he considered for 2 seconds, and conceded.

You have no idea what it's like for a casual noob to stare down a 1950+ player and win.

The finals went 2-1, mana screw first game, stomped him down with a Steel of Godhead Somnomancer (8 life swing for 5 turns) for which he had no answers for, and then lost the final game to a pretty sick incremental blight. Damn that card.

And yes... I uncommon drafted the Kitchen Finks for 4 tix. :P

Cheers all,

AAZipzop2.

PS I have a zip file set of pics from my draft and picks, if you are interested shoot me an email at nornicle@gmail.com and I'll send you the file.

Current sealed, also will edit later =)

2008-06-14T19:20:00.001-07:00

Thoughts on picks?

SHM Sealed 2-3.

2008-06-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

1 Seedcradle Witch
1 Plains
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Ashenmoor Liege
3 Swamp
8 Forest
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Incremental Blight
2 Devoted Druid
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Gnarled Effigy
1 Manamorphose
1 Pili-Pala
1 Scar
1 Burn Trail
1 Sapseep Forest
1 Safewright Quest
1 Deus of Calamity
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Umbral Mantle
1 Heartmender
1 Silkbind Faerie
4 Mountain
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Oversoul of Dusk

Sideboard
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Ember Gale
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Medicine Runner
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Whimwader
1 Whimwader
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Crowd of Cinders
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Advice from the Fae
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Apothecary Initiate
1 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Repel Intruders
2 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Memory Sluice
1 Aphotic Wisps
1 Loch Korrigan
1 Corrupt
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
2 Fossil Find
1 Turn to Mist
1 Woeleecher
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Giantbaiting
1 Toil to Renown
1 Disturbing Plot
1 Dire Undercurrents
1 Wild Swing
2 Boggart Arsonists
1 Ghastly Discovery
1 Goldenglow Moth
1 Bloodshed Fever
1 Tatterkite
1 Zealous Guardian
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Thistledown Duo
1 Wanderbrine Rootcutters
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Rune-Cervin Rider
1 Loamdragger Giant
1 Barrenton Cragtreads

Result: 2-3. Thoughts: scar wasn't as helpful as I thought. The manabase actually worked quite well. Gleeful Sabotage would be a lot better as an instant maindeck. As it stands though, I think you still need some kind of answer maindeck to the crazy enchantment/artifact situation in sealed. Untappers are extremely good, particularly when they fly. I think the mantle should always get played in sealed. Seedcradle witch is such a beating. I'm not playing as long term as I should in sealed. I think I'm thinking too much like a draft, and I'm using resources for tempo when I should be using them for a winning strategy. Little cards like the 2/1 wither blocker help a lot of decks ruin tempo, while they develop a bit. A bit of air defense is fairly crucial too.

I really think the odd mana base in the end paid off. I won a lot of games on the backs of some of my splashed cards. The Seedcradle won me like a ton of games. It's amazing. I think with tighter, longer-term thinking play I could have done at least a bit better, so I'm going to work on that and let you know what I figure out.

Hatter

R/B bombs=New Avatar

2008-06-14T11:32:00.001-07:00

Click on the blank picture or go to http://www.screencast.com/users/squest/folders/Jing/media/2c6eb490-a93b-477e-9655-4f12a0aca7fe to view the picture of my deck

9 Mountain
1 Burn Trail
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Sootstoke Kindler
1 Sootwalkers
1 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Flame Javelin
8 Swamp
2 Blowfly Infestation
1 Torture
2 Elsewhere Flask
1 Wingrattle Scarecrow
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Cultbrand Cinder
1 Blistering Dieflyn
1 Ashenmoor Liege
1 Midnight Banshee
1 Incremental Blight
2 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Jaws of Stone
1 Emberstrike Duo

Sideboard
2 Manaforge Cinder
2 Loch Korrigan
1 Helm of the Ghastlord
1 Inescapable Brute
2 Cerulean Wisps
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Splitting Headache
1 Smolder Initiate
1 Curse of Chains
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Mudbrawler Raiders
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Fists of the Demigod
1 Cinderbones
1 Gravelgill Duo
1 Æthertow
1 Emberstrike Duo

1 Crimson Wisps

This potent R/B deck won me my first Shadowmoor draft. A note to anyone who has played mostly 10th Edition and is planning on trying Shadowmoor, the power level is MUCH higher. This deck focused mainly on the ineraction between the bombtastic incremental blight and midnight banshee, and the -1/-1 power of double blowfly infestation. Blowfly infestation is powerful but tricky, remember if your opponent has no creatures on the field the infestation can force you to hurt yourself. Also, elsewhere flasks are amazing, if you can pick up even one jaws of stone of corrupt they are worth it and flow of ideas and howl of the night pack go great with it as well. A final note, I frequently used crimson wisps as a sideboarded card against deck running the hybrid enchantments. They are very powerful but a single wisps can change the enchanted creature's color mid combat enabling a 2-0 trade. Anyway between the agression of boartusk liege and the massive amount of removal and bombs in this deck I was able to easily win the tournament despite a few play mistakes. Yay for a Reaper King Avatar!

A botched Shadowmoor Sealed (my first SHM sealed)

2008-06-14T07:01:00.000-07:00

Catharsis.

I'll post my cardpool, followed by what I played. I'll leave it up to you to post a reply with your build.

Pool:

1 Medicine Runner
1 Prismatic Omen
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
2 Mercy Killing
1 Sootwalkers
1 Devoted Druid
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Chainbreaker
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Corrupt
1 Crabapple Cohort
1 Demigod of Revenge
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Firespout
1 Morselhoarder
1 Intimidator Initiate
2 Tattermunge Duo
1 Tattermunge Witch
1 Foxfire Oak
1 Rage Reflection
1 Spectral Procession
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Blistering Dieflyn
1 Drove of Elves
1 Put Away
1 Sickle Ripper
2 Bloodshed Fever
1 Roughshod Mentor
1 Madblind Mountain
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Gloomlance
2 Gravelgill Axeshark
1 Briarberry Cohort
1 Armored Ascension
1 Grief Tyrant
1 Cinderhaze Wretch
1 Last Breath
1 Blowfly Infestation
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Blight Sickle
1 Inescapable Brute
2 Mine Excavation
1 Runes of the Deus
2 Spell Syphon
1 Hungry Spriggan
1 Æthertow
1 Somnomancer
1 Sootstoke Kindler
1 Tattermunge Maniac
1 Ashenmoor Cohort
1 Giantbaiting
1 Torpor Dust
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat
2 Rite of Consumption
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Tatterkite
2 Zealous Guardian
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Horde of Boggarts
1 Ghastlord of Fugue
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Kinscaer Harpoonist
1 Loamdragger Giant
1 Barrenton Cragtreads

My decklist:

8 Mountain
1 Medicine Runner
1 Prismatic Omen
1 Puncture Bolt
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
2 Mercy Killing
9 Forest
1 Sootwalkers
1 Devoted Druid
1 Wildslayer Elves
1 Chainbreaker
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Corrupt
1 Crabapple Cohort
1 Demigod of Revenge
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Firespout
1 Morselhoarder
1 Intimidator Initiate
2 Tattermunge Duo
1 Tattermunge Witch
1 Foxfire Oak
1 Rage Reflection

Shadowmoor sealed 4-1

2008-06-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

Maindeck

1 Mistmeadow Witch
8 Island
9 Plains
2 Biting Tether
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Gnarled Effigy
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
1 Order of Whiteclay
2 Turn to Mist
2 Woeleecher
2 Scuttlemutt
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Ballynock Cohort
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Safehold Duo
2 Consign to Dream
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Grim Poppet
2 Rune-Cervin Rider

Sideboard (basic lands committed to save room)

1 Savor the Moment
1 Put Away
2 Medicine Runner
2 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Dream Salvage
1 Jaws of Stone
1 Guttural Response
1 Elvish Hexhunter
1 Blazethorn Scarecrow
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Presence of Gond
1 Revelsong Horn
1 Scrapbasket
1 Prismwake Merrow
1 Cursecatcher
1 Memory Sluice
1 Viridescent Wisps
1 Aphotic Wisps
1 Blight Sickle
1 Giantbaiting
1 Chainbreaker
2 Runes of the Deus
2 Crabapple Cohort
2 Fists of the Demigod
2 Torture
2 Traitor's Roar
1 Pili-Pala
1 Strip Bare
1 Splitting Headache
1 Cinderbones
1 Boggart Ram-Gang
1 Manamorphose
1 Inkfathom Infiltrator
1 Wild Swing
1 Safehold Duo
1 Smash to Smithereens
2 Gravelgill Duo
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Hollowsage
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Bloodshed Fever
1 Parapet Watchers
1 Tattermunge Witch
1 Foxfire Oak

Sorry I haven't been posting. Report card time, particularly at the end of the year is pretty busy. It's good to be playing Shadowmoor though. I played 2 drafts last night and learned quite a bit from them and reading doodle's posts. I look forward to some more drafting this weekend, and will make a point to post. I also did one sealed before this...I really did horrible. I built wrong, which was the worst part. I may go and post the list, as a purging exercise. Sometimes its good to post a sealed pool, see how others would have done it, and I'd like to post a revised deck plan as well. But... on to this deck.

As I'm typing this I've just finished the first 3 matches, all ended in wins. It looks like this one is going well so far. The synergies in this deck are just fun to play. By the way, and this may be obvious or it may not be, but scuttlebutt is like soooo good in sealed. The mana accel and fixing opportunities aside (not too mention the grey ogre butt)...That last ability is a house. There are SO many ways to use it...it's scary. Sometimes it functions as straight up removal. It's a combat trick, it's a way to deal with those enchantments that thump so hard, it just messes with things a lot. I really loved having 2 of them in the deck. Order of Whiteclay and Silkbind Faerie make beautiful music together (even if you have to steal your opponent's faerie sometimes). I don't have to say anything about the bombs really, Rhys and Poppet... Except to say Poppet is abused so many hardcore ways by this deck its just sickening.

Playing currently...round 4

Okay round 4 was just a shame. I ended up making two very significant errors that cost me both games. His deck had the lovely Midnight Banshee, backed up by an agreesive mostly black curve, with some excellent spell support. Both games I attempted to deal with the banshee by removing it from game end of turn on my turn to avoid his upkeep. I probably did this 20 times in 2 games. First game I lost, because I needed to finally let it go off, as he had a blister dieflyn in play (lots of mountains and swamps) and he was going to kill me with it. For some odd reason I stole the Banshee...which of course meant it didn't go off during his upkeep. Thus sealing my fate. The second game, I no longer had the removal option, but just as he dealt with it, I finally had my poppet out...with a few counters on his creatures already, including the banshee (scuttlemutt is so cool). However...I didn't shoot the counters before the banshee effect occurred....and the poppet died instead of getting another lovely bit of ammunition. Don't play sealed tired...particularly when it set to casual as it takes FOREVER. Oh, fatigue. I had no idea casual went that long or I would have just waited for the next competitive to spawn. Anyway, his deck was quite solid, and despite my errors he could have easily beaten me. Play errors are just such a hard way to go down. But I'll own up to it...My play just wasn't as tight as it could have been these games.

Round 5 went real quick. My opponent was playing white blue as well and didn't have removal that was prepared to deal with my deck's "in and out" strategy. We played 2 quick games.

So I went 4-1, and won 10 packs. Not bad....I was so close to 20 though.... :)

Hatter

Another mono white deck

2008-06-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

This one took me to round two. I feel it was a very strong deck still but I lost to a fast red green deck with a 6/6 doublestriking trampler on turn five both games :( crazy lol. bounce and kill should be highly drafted in SSS cause any of the hybrid enchantments have potential to mess you up :(

I'm still waiting to see everyone elses Shadowmoor posts =)

Mono white gets me a Reaper Avatar =)

2008-06-13T07:57:00.001-07:00

This deck took me all the way. I always ended up siding out the islands because they kept getting in the way of casting oversoul of the dusk - which is one way to win games in a hurry. This deck was very strong, Steel of the Godhead is just broken. Shield of the Oversoul is pretty sick also. Ballynook Cohort is a 3/3 first striker for 3 mana, nothing to sneeze at in this set where pretty much every creature is a 3/3. I ended up siding in Inquisitors snare more often than not, and curse of chains is good too. I'm thinking that white is normally underdrafted right now, probably will change after a few people get crushed by Steel of the godhead. This is from last night at 2 in the morning so I don't have many of the details, sorry. Good luck everyone, i wanna see everybody elses SHM builds, post people ^_^

2008-06-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

Very weird deck. Very weird. I started blue with the first pick u/b liege. Then i was swaying blue white, but soooo much green was coming to me from all directions. I started taking green but didn't have enough to just toss the blue aside. Anyways, it managed to beat my 1900 rated first opponent (I'm between matches now)

Stars: Sygg - amazing for two mana

Devoted druid. he let me power out a turn three 5/5 (crabapple cohort) and gave me a turn 5 Grimm Poppet, who is also a star, lemme tell you. So basically, when i got a turn two devoted druid, i won the game. it's a great card.

I'm really not too confident in the deck, but we'll see how the next two round turn out. I still won two packs and a ten dollar land, so I'm happy =)

I love drafting with inflated pricing. This is my 3rd draft and each one I've gotten a ten dollar rare =)

2008-06-12T16:00:00.000-07:00

Shadowmoor drafts are up - I've played two of them so far. I was so excited to be playing the new set i forgot pictures >.< ......

this is an edit, i wrote a bunch of crap on here but then it disappeared =\

I'm gonna draft again and get pictures of my picks this time

Last two drafts:
First one, mono green. Lost round one to 1600 player.

Second draft: Mono black. Went all the way to finals and lost to 1884 player playing white blue. Mono black served well because i was allowed to run ashenmoor gouger and the 3/2 flier for 3 mana that's u/b with other cards that work good mono. Not sure if i think it's best, i'll try a dif. strategy next time. GL everyone

This Week in MODO

2008-06-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

My God...functionality is almost nil.

I've been in so many crashed events, I'm ashamed that I tried to enter so many.

It's not even Friday yet.

Where's the fast forward button?

:(

B/G Mortivore

2008-06-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

NOTE: TO SEE A PICTURE OF THE DECK CLICK THE RED-Xed SCREEN. IT LINKS TO THE PHOTO ON SCREENCAST

(I think this is a bit better than the last photo becuase at least you can see the deck it you deign to click, I'm still working on getting the large size display in the post itself)

2 Rampant Growth
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Gravedigger
1 Tangle Spider
1 Mortivore
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Dusk Imp
1 Mind Rot
1 Cruel Edict
2 Commune with Nature
1 Kavu Climber
1 Chromatic Star
2 Severed Legion
1 Recover
1 Avatar of Might
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Whispersilk Cloak
8 Forest
1 Stampeding Wildebeests
7 Swamp
1 Craw Wurm
1 Terror
1 Giant Spider

This is a typical B/G deck with big creatures and recursion. The mortivore is really the star here. Hatter has posted about its virtues before but let me reiterate how amazing this card is. Frequently a 10/10 or bigger in the late game it is one of the largest creatures in tenth and has regeneration. Not the best card in the set but pretty darn close.

Match 1 ShoopDaWoop (1748): It's a virtual mirror match, B/G versus B/G both aggresive with a bunch of large creatures.

Game one is very close and with the ground locked up it comes down to a race between his knight of dusk and severed legion (he has no other black creatures out so fear is active). Chump blocking from ravenous rats plus a whispersilk cloak on tangle spider let me squeeze in the last few points of damage, I was lucky he never drew removal that game. Also I managed to get the stampeeding wildabeast+kavu climber combo out that game. Its slow but lets me draw twice per turn in the late game so it can be quite useful.

Game two is rather interesting. He gets mana screwed while I get mana flooded. I hit hard early but llanowar elves helps him produce mana for a couple of cheap blockers. When he's at 8 I run out of gas and he starts dropping lands soit looks like the game will be turned around. However, a top-decked mortivore on my part come unanswer and my 9/9 regenerator quickly bring the game to an end

Match 2 Sunfish (1614): He's sporting an aggresive U/R/g deck featuring hurricane. I fear that I will get swamped with card advantage in the late game so I try to play aggresively

Game one: I get off to a slow start with my first play being a giant spider on turn 4. The ground gets locked up and I start bringing out big beater while he drops flying and other evasion in the form of viashino runner. A surprise guerilla tactics off a ravenous rats hurts me but whispersilk cloak comes through for me. Don't underestimate the cloak, its much better than protective bubble (a virtually unplayable card in llorwyn limited) not only becuase equipment has doesn't open up the kind of 2-for-1 chance and aura does but also because of the slower speed of the format in which unblockability can be a game ender

Game two: I get land screwed but luckily his deck is slow and although I miss two turns of land drops I am able to get back in the game with ravenous rats stoppings his lightning elemental. The game lasts a while and I finally get wildabeast+climber going and then drop the cloak. Faced with 5 evasive damge a turn and a free howling mine it looks like sunfish is out of it. However, a guerilla tactics off my rats for the second game in a row puts me at 2 life, and against a red deck that is an exteremly dangerous place to be. The turn before I can swing for game he draws sift. I wait with baited breath as he draws his three cards. He passes the turn and I breathe a sigh of relief as my clocked wildabeasts end the game

Match 3 Galldrian (1811): Just the rating makes me shudder but I will play my hardest against this W/B deck

Game one: I get off to a slow start once again (that seems to be a recurring theme this draft). However, double rats and mind rot rips apart his hand. I am drop craw wurms and avatar and his loxodon hierarch can only stop the avatar. My fatties bring the game to a quick end

Game 2: He puts unholy strength on a wild griffin and I am reduced to chump blocking with a recurring dusk imp (recover+gravedigger). I hope to outrace him when I drop craw wurm but he responds with mobilization! His powerful flyer quickly ends the game

Game 3: I find out I have no enchantment removal sb so i'm reduced to hoping he doesn't draw mobilization. When he drops mobilizatio turn 3 those hopes are thrown out the window. To make things worse I am stuck at five lands single black with a craw wurm, mortivore and severed legion in hand. Then, to add insult to injury he play skyshround prowler with unholy strenght and follows it with youthful knight+serra's embrace. That ends the game, although I do get to drop avatar for double green the turn before I die, a rare feat, so i'm considering this game a victory for me :P.

In any case I am very happy with how the deck performed. It was solid but it didn't have the synergy or raw power of my last few decks so I was very happy to make it to finals.

As always, I will include a question for thought with my post (well I've only posted twice so you wouldn't know what I always do but I don't like just talking about how a deck did, I like to ask others to analyze what I could have done better).

What do you think of the wildabeast+climber combo? It ties up a lot of land but drawing two card a turn is nothing to sneeze at (obligatory terrible pun: unless you're allergic to card drawing). Was wildabeast worth it in a deck with only 1 green creature under 4cc (the elves)?

Always inquiring,

Squest

B/R Grave Pact

2008-06-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

1 Orcish Artillery
1 Ghitu Encampment
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Bogardan Firefiend
1 Assassinate
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Grave Pact
1 Spitting Earth
2 Ravenous Rats
1 Festering Goblin
1 Bloodrock Cyclops
1 Essence Drain
1 Shock
1 Viashino Runner
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Recover
2 Looming Shade
2 Gravedigger
1 Earth Elemental
1 Prodigal Pyromancer
1 Terror
1 Incinerate
6 Mountain
9 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Mind Rot
1 Hill Giant
1 Highway Robber
1 Enormous Baloth
1 Contaminated Bond
1 Demolish
1 Rage Weaver
1 Spined Wurm
1 Sudden Impact
1 Rock Badger
1 Vampire Bats
1 Spineless Thug
1 Dusk Imp

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get my pictures any bigger. Fortunately, Hatter has shown me how to upload my text deck (Thank again hatter :D) so you can read that if you can't make out the cards (which is quite likely).

This draft brought up a lot of interesting questions that I will pose for the clan members to weight in on. First off, I included all playable cards (even marginally playable) in my sideboard with the deck. I am not sure if I had the right build so feel free to give me your opinions. (I am particularly unsure of my choice to play bloodrock cyclops over dusk imp).

Next, I was unsure of how much to focus on the grave pact. I put emphasis on including cards like mogg fanatic in the deck to give grave pact more power but was that the best choice? I don't know.

I also have several card in this deck whose rating I am unsure of. How highly do you guys pick

Mogg Fanatic

Rock Badger (No matter how many times I draft 10th I still have trouble pinning down exactly how good landwalk is)

Grave Pact (Requires heavy black commitment and works slowly but has the potential for massive card advantage)

Demolish (as well as creeping mold, stone rain and other land destruction spells and smash, shatterstorm and other artifact destruction spells. These are two categories of spells I never know how to rate and putting both on one card confuses me even more. In general I am curious about how highly people use different sideboard stragtegies e.g. artifact removal, enchantment removal, landwalk, land destruction etc.)

Ghitu Encampment (and the other manlands, how highly do you guys pick them)

Anyway, how did the deck actually do?

Match 1: I was matched against a relitively inexperienced play with a B/G deck that focused on life gain and big creatures. Unfortunately for me, while the life gain wasn't really dangerous to me (wurm's tooth is not exactly what I would call a bomb) the fatty part was since it ran both nightmare and verderant force.

Game 1: I get an aggresive opening and prevent him from sticking a creature on the board with multiple removal spells, an easy victory

Game 2: I get a pretty slow hand and am unable to kill him before he gets verderant force out. I don't draw a response in time and he takes the game

Game 3: I am forced to double mulligan on the play. However, the game seems in reach when he turns out to be land flooded and I get out pyromancer and artillery. He essense drain my artillary but I drop rats and firefiend and build up a defense. The game is at a standoff for a few turns but then he drop a 5/5 nightmare. I draw a third swamp and drop gravepact but I am a turn too slow to force the nightmare's sacrifice.

A disappointing ended to a deck that I consider quite good but you can't win 'em all. In retrospect I wonder if I should have sideborded for more speed an evasion in games 2 and 3, perhaps dusk imp. Tell me what you think, come on, inquiring mind want to know.

Black/Red with Cone of Flame and Mortivore

2008-06-07T17:09:00.001-07:00

I originally started with red and blue, then I snagged a mortivore and had a revcover from pack one so....i went with red black. I like this deck a lot - Two hate weavers were late picks and they are amazing, especially with the 2/3 red first strikers and viashino runner. Mortivore won me one game as a 14/14 regenerating killer of one creature per turn. Threaten is a good finisher also. I played against three players who were all decent (1650-1750 ratings), won the first two matches but the last was ridiculous. Opponent was back red and had every bomb card imaginable, including loxodon warhammer, which he got out both games and proceeded to beat my face. =(

Well, I'm always happy with winning three packs =)

B/R Discard takes me to finals

2008-06-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

Well, this isn't a very good deck....Head Games is a lot of fun though, it won me a couple games. round one I played someone with a decent rating. He had lots of counterspells and sunken hope with a lot of cards with come into play abilities. It was a decent deck, but with ravenous rats coming back to my hand every turn he couldn't do much to stop his hand from falling apart.

Match two was against a 1750 player with black white. He had a LOT of recursion cards - gravediggers and recovers and such. So I barely won game one, sided out all of the discard and put in fat green creatures and won game two - he got mana screwed......

Match three -1720- was also running black red, only he had much better cards - he easily won the first two games. Lots of burn, lots of efficient critters, terrors and whatnot, very solid deck. Pretty happy with the draft overall, three packs and a pain land is enough for me ^_^

MMM UB Rogues (classical)

2008-06-02T19:22:00.001-07:00

2 Dewdrop Spy
1 Thieves' Fortune
9 Island
2 Mothdust Changeling
2 Warren Weirding
1 Nevermaker
2 Moonglove Changeling
2 Stinkdrinker Bandit
1 Disperse
2 Morsel Theft
3 Latchkey Faerie
1 Oona's Blackguard
8 Swamp
1 Prickly Boggart
1 Noggin Whack
2 Frogtosser Banneret

MMM Draft, UB rogues, June 2, 2008, result: eliminated round 2.

Match 1: runnerjack 1555. Playing monowhite kithkins. The rogues did their work. Their beautiful, beautiful work. He had a double mulligan game 2 though. He also got a mutavault, so I can't feel very sorry for ole runnerjack. He'll probably net more tickets than I will. I took 2 mana burn second game for being dumb with a banneret out. I need to start clicking on the card and then the mana. I also need to read my cards. Didn't matter this time, but the next time it might.

Match 2: Bereavement 1670, I get a mull game 1, and it doesn't go well, and his aggressive red/green warrior deck is not helping things. Game 2 is a better hand, i have the goods, but his goods are better. Came down to a final attack backed up by 2 bolts to the dome, and I'm a turn too late. He tells me later he had 4 bolts...nice.

I think this deck was better than my last one, but in the end, that's not always what counts. GG Bereavement, you had me dead to rights.

Hatter

Bring on the Beef

2008-06-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

This is my first time posting on this site so lets hope it works. (O ignore the last blank post it was an accident sry).
Anyway this was a red/green deck that took me to the finals. Very strong creatures including all stars avatar of might and enormous balothX2
Originally I thought about going mono green with this deck but it wasn't making quite enough playable and I picked up a few good red cards in packs 2 and 3.
Giant growth is obviously great in a deck like this since gang blocking is not unommon with creatures of this size.
However, despite solid creatures and great removal and combat tricks I think the V.I.P. award goes to hurricane. Many people underrate that card IMO. I is not only a great defense again flyers (1-sided WoG FTW!) but it can also be used to force a draw you are losing but both players are low on life. Finally it can be used to burn out your opponent if you have more life than them. With the power level of flyers in 10th (especially the red dragons which are bombtastic) hurricane is a card I would not only be happy maindecking but a certifiable bomb, a great 1st pick IMO.
As far as the actual games I ran over a weak player in round 1 with spined into craw wurm plus lots of removal and accelation (rampant growth + mountain fetching+ spitting earth x3=solid removal and efficent acceleration). Round two my opponent was strong but couldn't deal with the size of my creatures. My favorite play was dropping an avatar of might after he blazed my enormous baloth :). I lost in a close match in finals to a U/B deck packing tons of removal and card advantage. Even so it was close and this deck is a testament to the power of a solid curve ending in a bunch of fatties.

MMM RU Burnin' Rogues

2008-06-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

RU Rogues? June 2, 2008 Result: Draft won.

8 Mountain
9 Island
1 Inspired Sprite
1 Notorious Throng
1 Nevermaker
1 Boldwyr Heavyweights
1 Lightning Crafter
3 Fire Juggler
2 Mothdust Changeling
3 Shard Volley
1 Latchkey Faerie
2 Latchkey Faerie
2 Dewdrop Spy
1 Thieves' Fortune
3 Sage's Dousing
1 Countryside Crusher

I know rogues is UB...yayaya...and I started that way. But I wasn't really getting much in the way of black 1st pack, i managed a bit of removal, and like 1 creature, but nothing too lovely, and people were passing some nice red 1st pack, although i ignored it. 2nd pack I was passed lightning crafter and spite bellows in the same pack and decided that guy at least wasn't in red and maybe it was time for a change. I was rewarded with enough removal to make the difference... (third pack brought more red) and I was anxious to try out the crusher. The heavyweights are a bit odd, and I figured I'd at least use them and report on their effectiveness. 3 lightning bolts and one guy that taps for lightning bolts. Sometimes you just gotta go with da burn and bump.

1st match: Noxemount 1619 playing mono white
First game went really, really well. I had threats and removed his. Second game, I was in trouble deep, he had a good early lead on me and reduced me to 3 before I could stabilize. I began amassing a flying army, and won the game with full style points ala a prowled notorious throng...such a tasty way to win. Thieves fortune helped a lot 2nd game getting me what i needed when i needed it. Heavyweights never entered the picture except once as one of the cards i didn't pick in a Thieves' Fortune and once as something I discarded to the inspired sprite.

2nd match: Demonic Attorney, 1552 playing UG
First game was tough, mulled twice into an unpretty hand and scooped after my opponent laid a nice curve out while i searched for a third land. Second game, deck obeyed me and played as it should, ended with a prowled notorious throng, again. Third game was a nice close game.

3rd Match: Captain America, 1739 playing GR
First game, I was terrified to cast it but I won it on the back of the heavyweights. He threw down beaters, I needed time, so I cast the heavyweights and he fetched a spite bellows. I was able to amass a standing army and airforce, and eventually prowl the notorious throng for the win, his land army stalled in the midst of my mighty 8/8. 2nd game, he threw down an early winnower patrol, put a counter on it, then smelled my dousing from the other side of the table and waited the extra turn to cast he paragon he revealed with it the clever bastard. I burned the patrol, cast a juggler then followed it up with the crafter. I guess he didn't have any removal, because he scooped right there.

So, heavy weights I'm still of mixed feelings about. I was terrified much of the time to cast them, but sometimes a big ole body is what you need, and they have to pull something mighty crazy, or you have to be in a position where you're low on life and the wrong kind of evasion could be svg. They really did save my butt that first game in the finals though. I would have loved a bit of bounce in the deck to make it a little less scary, but I didn't have any. By the way love the crusher especially with 3 shard volleys! Svg man. He never got real big for me, but was an efficient body that ensured my draws were nice a few times.

Hatter

R/G Warriors with Paragon

2008-06-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I won my first draft since I joined the clan...and I got my first mutavault. Yay!
There's nothing else very impressive about it, though. I was able to get a bramblewood and both warrior bannerets out and was able to put 4 creatures into play for 5 mana that all got counters. Early shard volleys worked well to kill my opponent's creatures in response to equipping them with Reins of the Veinstead. In the final round I played rogues and didn't think I was going to beat the Latchkey Fairy army...but Release the Ants with a Spitebellows top decked against little rogues is Amazing! Hence his concession and my victory. Muhahahaha. Good luck all!

RW MMM draft...I finally won one. Thanks doodle!

2008-06-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

1 Indomitable Ancients
1 Spitebellows
4 Sunflare Shaman
1 Coordinated Barrage
1 Swell of Courage
1 Brighthearth Banneret
2 War-Spike Changeling
1 Thornbite Staff
2 Rage Forger
1 Order of the Golden Cricket
1 Pyroclast Consul
4 Burrenton Bombardier
8 Plains
9 Mountain
2 Daily Regimen
1 Shard Volley

RW MMM Draft, June 1, 2008 Result: Won the draft (finally!)

Match 1: Opponent playing a mono green deck with some potent treefolk shannanigans going on. Unstoppable oak rolled over 1 game, and almost won him the third game (i had mulled into a one spell hand which didn't help) but loads of +1+1 counters won the day.

Match 2: Deck did what it was supposed to do. Now I'm thinking I mixing up these 2 matches, ah well. 2nd match i won in two. Opponent had a good deck and a 1700+ rating but also had a first game marked by severe mana difficulties.

Match 3: Played against an opponent who said he was somewhat lucky to get to the finals. We played two quick games, this deck was really cruising. I got to use shaman equip tricks. Fun. Doodle was right about the rage forgers, they are crazy, especially with re-enforce out the wazoo. Sunflares also worked a lot better with the re-enforcement. The +1/+1's really won the day.

Hatter

MMM again, RG

2008-06-01T14:52:00.000-07:00

RG shaman and trees and such... result: quick elimination.

1 Hunting Triad
3 Sunflare Shaman
1 Vengeful Firebrand
3 Game-Trail Changeling
1 Reins of the Vinesteed
1 Wolf-Skull Shaman
9 Forest
3 Pyroclast Consul
1 War-Spike Changeling
1 Earthbrawn
8 Mountain
5 Bosk Banneret
1 Shard Volley
2 Everbark Shaman

Sideboard
1 Fencer Clique
1 Roar of the Crowd
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Coordinated Barrage
1 Everbark Shaman
1 Fertilid
2 Fire Juggler
1 Stonehewer Giant
2 Seething Pathblazer
1 Walker of the Grove
1 Blightsoil Druid
1 Recross the Paths
1 Stingmoggie
1 Lunk Errant
1 Gilt-Leaf Archdruid
1 Kindled Fury
1 Pulling Teeth
1 Pack's Disdain
1 Deglamer

Alrighty, another foray into the wonderful world of MMM. I was pretty open to my opponents fliers. He was running mono white kithkin with soldier equipment beats. Lots of coordinated assaults and weight of conscience. First game I got out alot early, but died to fliers and equipment. Second game after 2 mulligans I was quickly dispatched in a tidy fashion.

Very low on removal again, sorta dependent on getting the elemental thing happening, which never really did.

Hatter

I start playing MORMORMOR

2008-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

June 1, 2008 Mor-Mor-Mor draft UW Kithkin/Wizard/Soldier Result: Eliminated round 2.

I won't post the first two drafts, they didn't go well at all, and were my first two attempts at this format. I can't imagine they would be very informative to anyone else. The third one went a bit better, and I'll post it here. I learned a lot from these 3 drafts, but still have quite a bit to learn, more than I doubt I'll pick up before Shadowmoor comes out and I abandon it for the most part.

1 thing I picked up, the power level and speed are ramped up quite a bit from XXX drafting.

1 Swell of Courage
1 Mutavault
1 Stream of Unconsciousness
2 Burrenton Bombardier
1 Wandering Graybeard
2 Stonybrook Schoolmaster
2 Fencer Clique
1 Burrenton Shield-Bearers
1 Sage of Fables
8 Island
1 Mothdust Changeling
2 Kithkin Zephyrnaut
1 Changeling Sentinel
2 Stonybrook Banneret
2 Veteran's Armaments
1 Diviner's Wand
8 Plains
1 Latchkey Faerie
1 Order of the Golden Cricket
1 Ballyrush Banneret

1st match:
prodigyrising 1700, who was playing a WG kithkin/elves deck with lots of combat tricks and removal (specifically coordinated barrage, weight of conscience, earthbrawn). I earned a healthy respect for coordinated barrage over the course of the 3 games. He had a zillion and used them well (i passed several, being inexperienced). I won the match, the armaments served very well, as did the swell.

2nd match:
sof3n, 1753, who was playing mono red elementals. My lord. Lots of brighthearth bannerets backing sunflare shamans, rage forger, vengeful firebrand, removal, it was quite brutal and effecient. I was reduced to a cinder quickly in 2 games.

Overall, I'm just doing what I typically do in a new format, learning the cards, seeing archetypes in action, noticing things. I was quite happy to win 2 packs and a mutavault really.

Hatter

Okay so, I have this obsession with Blue Black....

2008-05-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

And here's one more blue black deck from me. It lost first round to a very good green white red deck with an excellent pilot. He had land search with wayfinders (at least two) and rampant growth, lots of red burn, and pacifisms and ghost wardens with the white. I liked his build a lot. Game two I managed to get rolling with my deck and managed a win but the last game I double mull'd into a one land hand which i kept cause of terror and counsel. I managed to get every land drop up until four but he still had me dead turn six thanks to the 4/3 hasting giant :( Losing first round is no fun.

As for my deck - it wasn't the best. I should have run green black and played fast critters with all of the kill and some fat critters to finish it up. All of the green I picked was hated when there was nothing left blue or black worth running, so I obviously passed quite a bit of good stuff while taking the blue :( Oh well, live and learn.

U/B deck takes me to finals

2008-05-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here's another blue black deck (I know, i'm obsessed). Lost in final round to a very fast white red deck with pyroclasm AND cone of flame. First strikers with ghost warden in play are just good ^_^

B/g Big Bombs deck

2008-05-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought this deck would have been a lot of fun to play

I started G/R with first pick Troll Ascetic and second pick Orcish artillery - but red was dry in both directions fast. Instantly fast. I don't think I saw a single shock or incinerate all draft :(

Anyways, I started grabbing decent black cards and then ran into mortivore, and then evincar also - my two favorite black creatures in the same draft ^_^

Threw in a couple kill cards and a Commune with Nature to help find evincar or mortivore. Thought I had a pretty bomby deck. Well, it turns out nothing trumps the mana gods. Round one opponent was just under 1600 - but he got all of his land drops through turn five, and only two of my lands ever hit the board (kept a two land hand after one mull-didn't draw after that, died with only my scimitar in play). Game two I kept a four land hand, got to play a couple critters at least, but he had fliers and all I drew for the next six turns in a row were lands. land land land land land land. AHHHHH WELL

U/B Deck Sunday, May 25

2008-05-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well, here she is:

Critters (13):

2x Ravenous Rats

Cloud Elemental

Looming Shade

Severed Legion

Gravedigger

3x Highway Robbers

Aven Windreader

2x Mass of Ghouls

Ascendant Evincar

Spells (10):

2x Remove Soul

2x Terror

Assassinate

Councel of the Soratami

Recover

Sift

Soul Feast

Persuasion

Lands (17):

9x Swamp

8x Island

First Match was against a very good player, 1789 TimFu. He was running an efficient G/R deck. Game one he Wumpus'd in my Evincar which led to a fast victory. Game two he could have won possibly but I drew a terror to kill his stampeding wildabeasts and my severed legion was enough to finish him off. =)

Second Match --------- Never started. Modo shut down on me and when I logged back in it said I was dropped from the event *angry look* Now I'm waiting to hear for a refund so I can play again >.<

Overall I think it was a pretty good deck, enough kill and card draw to allow only 13 creatures. It wasn't the most amazing deck ever, but I'll take it =)

1st Place: Mono Green

2008-05-24T18:00:00.000-07:00

---20 Critters---

2x Llanowar Elves

2x Canopy Spider

Grizley Bears

Rushwood Dryad

Civic Wayfinder

2x Pincher Beatles

2x Rootwalla

Viridian Shaman

2x Giant Spider

2x Stalking Tiger

Stampeding Wildabeasts

Kavu Climber

2x Spined Wurm

---3 Spells---

2x Overrun

Recollect

---17 Forests---

Round 1: Opponent ran R/W/B randomness - I easily found an overrun and won two games without having to worry about a third

Round 2: Washku is my opponent: 1797 rating. R/W aggro, lots of cheap efficiant critters. I lost one game to mana screw and won a different game very easily with good tempo and an overrun. Game three was VERY close - he had a 7/7 Bloodrock Cyclopse (Had two arcane teachings on it) and I was at two life - he pinged my dome instead of my llanowar elf and allowed me to overrun for exactly lethal damage =)

Round 3: Opponent was 1677, had a fast G/R deck. I get mana screwed for a loss game one, he gets mana screwed for a win game 2. My openning hand has Overrun game three and it goes on to win the match. Four packs won ^_^

XXX Draft UB: Serra's Karmic Revenge

2008-05-24T15:49:00.000-07:00

XXX Draft UB, May 24, 2008, result: Elimination in finals.

1 Mind Rot
1 Aven Fisher
1 Essence Drain
2 Ravenous Rats
2 Gravedigger
1 Remove Soul
1 Dusk Imp
1 Phantom Warrior
1 Persuasion
2 Severed Legion
1 Spiketail Hatchling
9 Island
1 Spineless Thug
1 Leonin Scimitar
1 Mass of Ghouls
2 Boomerang
8 Swamp
2 Unsummon
1 Terror
1 Aven Windreader

1st match: Opponent was a bit inexperienced, playing a RW deck that didn't seem to get going. The GW deck played really well. Spiketail hatchling on turn 2 is really good, it happened both games and made a significant difference. Winning relatively fast gave me time between matches to post the last draft and get this one started.

2nd match: 1493, RG featuring kamahl. I mull into a barely passable hand with a lot of land. He hits me early as I put defense here and there. Kamahl finishes the deal. I win the next 2 without much trouble.

3rd match: deedubs, 1738 playing WB. Played 3 good games. However, I lost game 1 due to a misplay on my part. Simple not equipping an attacker with the sword for 1 turn when I should have would have won me the game and the draft as it turns out (he was at 1 when he won). Little things matter. Game 3 serra's embrace came back from my last draft to haunt me and I was pummeled in the end by a 7/5 vigilant, flying, juggernaut of fury and doom. Let that be a lesson: No topdeck glory goes without consequence!

Hatter

GW robble robble aggro

2008-05-24T15:32:00.001-07:00

XXX Draft, GW, May 24, 2008 result: Won draft.

1 Overrun
1 Treetop Bracers
1 Giant Spider
1 Craw Wurm
2 Rushwood Dryad
1 Stampeding Wildebeests
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Ghost Warden
2 Pacifism
1 Spined Wurm
1 Bandage
1 Suntail Hawk
1 Giant Growth
1 Viridian Shaman
9 Forest
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Rootwalla
1 Pincher Beetles
1 Serra's Embrace
1 Llanowar Elves
8 Plains
1 Tundra Wolves
1 Skyshroud Ranger

First match was uneventful, my opponent was obviously quite new to the game. The deck worked as it should, and my opponent put up some resistance (it had a lot of random cheap creatures, which was a nice set of obstacles to run around, but he also attacked way too much).

The 2nd match was also against an inexperienced opponent, and I won fairly quickly and easily. I mean its fun to win by tempo and all, but I wanted to figure out if this actually had legs. I used my overrun on one game for the first time this tournament. (the bug i reported earlier did not occur)

The 3rd match was against 1750+ opponent, whose name I don't remember. This was a good test, he played well and had a nice deck. I was exceptionally fortunate that I won game 2, it was quite close and I truly did topdeck like a bastard for the win (serra's embrace was literally the only card that would have won me the game...and he had me next turn).

Overall, for only having used overrun twice...I thought it did quite well. I would have loved to snag a warrior's honor in drafting, it would have been very good in here, but I didn't. The numerous one drops really upped the ante on getting out a swarm reliably and fast. Like I said though, a bit more support for that theme in the form of warrior's honor would have been far more effective than some of the lesser tricks. Treetops and the embrace made excellent late game break through for the win cards. A tree-top on a craw wurm sure pokes through well for those final points sometimes and is worthwhile...IF you reliably hit hard and early for a good bit each game. I was fortunate though I didn't hit a foil deck to this kind of thing.

2008-05-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

Here is my disgusting B/U Draft - It won. My highest rated opponent was about 1670, but regardless, I won the draft! wOOt! The deck isn't that amazing and if I were playing a fast red green opponent I would've been crushed. Onced it got rolling it was a house though. MVPs were Beacon of Unrest and terrors, unsummon saved me vs rhox also.

I really wanted to run the scimitar because I'm obsessed with it, but I didn't have many critters - only 12. I also wanted to run Boomerrangs because bounce is always nice. Any thoughts on the cards I ran would be appreciated - Thanks guys =)

XXX Draft GBrr with Draft Capture May 23, 2008

2008-05-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

XXX Draft, GB"rr" May 23, 2008 result: Eliminated Round 2.

Draft Captured! To view the actual draft picks click here.

2 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Giant Spider
2 Phyrexian Rager
1 Kamahl, Pit Fighter
1 Tangle Spider
1 Deathmark
1 Joiner Adept
1 Severed Legion
1 Spined Wurm
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Recover
1 Rampant Growth
1 Giant Growth
1 Forest
1 Razormane Masticore
7 Forest
1 Rootwalla
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Gravedigger
1 Kavu Climber
2 Grizzly Bears
1 Assassinate
1 Terror
2 Mountain
5 Swamp

Match 1: Arrguilesocks 1638 playing RBw. First game went fairly well, kept pumping out threats. Rinse, repeat. Deathmark out, zombie mob goes in. Game 2 went really well, and masticore raised its very, very ugly head. That guy is spicy.

Match 2: hirmus 1677 playing RU. First game he dominates from the get go with evasion and removal. I get my masticore out too late and he just bounces it. Deathmark out, imp goes in. 2nd game I manage to control things better, and end it with masticore. 3rd game is close, but he outraces me, I'm able to pump out Kamahl on time but can't get out of shock to the dome range. I lose with a damn fine pile of digital cardboard. On the up side, I'm able to sleep. Nice job hirmus, respect on the tight ru deck.

A draft capture...BG May 23, 2008

2008-05-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

This draft went pretty poorly, but at least I managed to figure out how to capture the draft.

To see the draft click here.

Hatter

Ugh. Worst RB ever, flames welcome!

2008-05-23T17:50:00.001-07:00

XXX Draft, RB, May 23, 2008. Result: Eliminated first round.

1 Stun
1 Mind Rot
1 Spitting Earth
1 Plague Beetle
1 Recover
1 Contaminated Bond
1 Thundering Giant
1 Phyrexian Rager
2 Incinerate
1 Nekrataal
2 Severed Legion
1 Kamahl, Pit Fighter
1 Composite Golem
1 Anaba Bodyguard
1 Assassinate
1 Wall of Fire
1 Viashino Runner
1 Duct Crawler
8 Mountain
9 Swamp
1 Looming Shade
1 Scathe Zombies
1 Demolish

I don't remember much only that it only lasted 2 games. Basically, I was in red banking on red green, but really wasn't getting too much green, and then I had a few tasty black cards swing by late and jumped. Ended up way short on playables. I was in the wrong colours. I think I better start paying more attention to signals and such on the weekend. That was just painful.

Hatter

GR Draft May 22, 2008

2008-05-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

XXX Draft RG, May 22, 2008 result: Eliminated in the finals.

3 Spitting Earth
1 Spined Wurm
1 Rampant Growth
1 Canopy Spider
1 Might Weaver
1 Rootwalla
1 Guerrilla Tactics
1 Shock
1 Overrun
1 Incinerate
8 Forest
1 Raging Goblin
2 Prodigal Pyromancer
2 Bloodrock Cyclops
1 Bloodfire Colossus
1 Viashino Runner
9 Mountain
1 Rock Badger
1 Uncontrollable Anger
2 Giant Spider

Match 1: Jon_Ma, 1705 GUb
Mulled on the draw. Nice and close first game, i think if I had played just a shade tighter 1 turn (I waited a turn to cast my collossus, wanting to have 9 so I could sac it right away in case he had removal also it would discourage an outright attack by him for an extra bit of damage...but i neglected to factor in that mirri he just cast had forestwalk. Derf. I might have been able to win it (would have been at i suppose 4 instead of 2, but i suppose that's still lethal to a rootwalla...still i would have hit him an extra turn with the cyclops...so yeah i blew it.) , but he played the better game and beat me after a close first game. It ended with an interesting play, I was at 2 after a colossus went off, and had cyclops hit him...he was able to get a rootwalla out with the mana to use it, i had overrun and guerilla tactics in play. So I cast overrun to see if he'd take the bait...i think he hemmed and hawwed, but in the end made the right decision. Game 2 mulled again, I hit him hard from the start, got him down to 10, kept him on the defensive until I was able to bring him to zero. Game 3 started with a nice hand, I brought in 3 threats, he brought out 3 removals. I managed to get him down eventually to around 12, and we stabilized a bit. The colossus changed things, i was able to keep attacking and he had to keep blocking poorly.

Match 2: 1600 WUbr Featuring: Blaze and Wrath of God. I'm not sure what the black was for aside from two unholy strengths i saw game 2 though. Kinda wild. We played two fairly quick games.

Match 3: LtDale, 1590. BW. Game 1 goes well, I hurt him early, and fill in the gaps at the end.
Game 2 starts, after a pause to welcome our newest clan member, sakic19. I stall out a bit and then use an overrun to clear out some of his creatures that are beginning to overtake board position (first strike ruining my cyclops' day)...and it seems to work well until he casts Reya Dawnbringer. What can I say, I wasn't expecting that. With loads of critters in his graveyard, including robber and a gravedigger, life is bad for someone with no removal on hand. Too bad, one of the many spitting earths would have done the trick. A game 3 in finals is always a good thing right? Game 3 he does very well keeping the graveyard recursion thing going and slathering on a lord of the pit. Big and Beefy wins the day.

I tried recording the draft with jing, but got caught up in the 5 minute limit. (only got as far as the first pack really) I can see I'll have to do it next time using the pause button a bit more. I'm gonna try to get a draft recorded and put up here at some point. If someone else can get a draft recorded and posted that would be terrific.

Hatter

XXX Draft, WU control May 21, 2008

2008-05-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

WU Control XXX Draft, May 21, 2008 result: Elimination in round 2.

2 Angelic Wall
1 Venerable Monk
1 Aven Cloudchaser
1 Mobilization
1 Ghost Warden
1 Pacifism
9 Island
2 Heart of Light
1 Sky Weaver
1 Wall of Air
1 Crafty Pathmage
1 Unsummon
1 Twitch
1 Cloud Elemental
1 Scalpelexis
1 Loxodon Mystic
1 Remove Soul
1 Aven Fisher
1 Spiketail Hatchling
8 Plains
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Skyhunter Prowler

1st match: 1493 with an RB deck featuring blaze. We played two games, and I suffered 1 damage in 2 games due to a goblin fanatic that went nutty to my dome after falling in battle. The walls and stall did its job, and he had very little defense against fliers. Hoping to keep some of this pace into match 2.

2nd match: The Dingo, 1776 (control UB). We both mull first game, him once, me twice, i'm on the draw. He controls the game well from the beginning, and I quickly die. Oh, and I scapalexis him revealing a warhammer...sigh...can't wait for next game. Ah yes, I mull to start again, this time just once. His deck is a hurricane. It's not just a hammer and cards, the thing just hums. It controls the vertical. It controls the horizontal. He proceeds to go all hulk smash with the hammer, I manage to beacon to 30 at one point, but he's the one that ends the game with his life total above 35. Thank you sir, may I have another.

WB May 21, 2008

2008-05-21T16:53:00.001-07:00

WB Draft, May 21, 2008, result: Eliminated in the finals.

Hey, I drafted 2 colours!

2 Loxodon Mystic
1 Wall of Swords
2 Gravedigger
2 Dusk Imp
1 Aura of Silence
1 Treasure Hunter
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Looming Shade
2 Steadfast Guard
1 Mind Stone
1 Severed Legion
1 Warrior's Honor
9 Plains
1 Ballista Squad
8 Swamp
2 Condemn
1 Pacifism
1 Venerable Monk
1 Terror

First round I won to some poor kid that didn't submit successfully. So no real victory there.

This is the first draft I'm posting and playing at the same time. I begin to write this in the considerable distance between round 1 and 2. I suppose the deck is okay, but I'm not too zonked about it. Wish I had committed to black a bit earlier. I was orginally going WG with a possible blue or black splash, but green dried up. Never fun when that happens. Green is a bad colour to suddenly lose. I'm worried this deck will lose gas late game. We'll see. As you can see I ran out of playables...or at least close enough to run aura of silence maindeck...which may not be horrible considering how I lost my last draft :)

2nd round opponent 1720 named Squest. He had an unfortunate first game, I think he drew nearly every land in his deck, and we played a nice close 2nd game. Squest then showed interest in the clan, and so we have our newest member! Welcome Squest!

3rd round opponent, 1807, The_Anti_Body, . First game went well, he showed some well placed removal and some impressive threats, including an icy. I was glad of two things. One, that I had played that aura of silence, and two, that I had drawn it immediately after the icy was played. Ballista made long-lasting by 2 gravediggers saved the day in the end. In the next game, i took some early damage and stabilized, but he lulled me in and I walked into it with a misplay that either cost me the game or made it happen a lot sooner. Basically I used my ballista when I shouldn't have, ignoring the icy on the board that allowed him to hit me with a flyer he otherwise wouldn't have gotten through with. Putting me in range of his beacon of destruction! 3rd game...i mull down to 5, not a great start...but then begin drawing a nice curve. I ran out of gas quickly as he showed off solid play, a cone, and an answer to my pacifism. He played better than me, with a better deck I'd say, and won. It was a lot of fun, and he's a nice guy.

GBr Draft May 20, 2008

2008-05-21T16:40:00.001-07:00

1 Overrun
1 Graveborn Muse
1 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Giant Spider
1 Phyrexian Rager
1 Mass of Ghouls
1 Arcane Teachings
2 Civic Wayfinder
2 Severed Legion
1 Aggressive Urge
1 Sylvan Basilisk
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Shock
8 Forest
1 Canopy Spider
1 Recover
1 Pincher Beetles
1 Looming Shade
1 Gravedigger
1 Grizzly Bears
1 Terror
1 Afflict
1 Mountain
7 Swamp

May 20, 2008 GBr XXX Draft Result: Eliminated in 2nd round.

I actually couldn't figure out how to best put together the last 4 or 5 cards of this thing. I switched around a lot during the sides, usually taking out the aggressive urge for a shock or assasinate. Here's the sideboard for your reference:

1 Assassinate
1 Mountain
1 Holy Day
1 Mountain
1 Crafty Pathmage
1 Stalking Tiger
1 Ghost Warden
1 Soul Warden
1 Bandage
1 Suntail Hawk
1 Plague Beetle
1 Raging Goblin
1 Shock
1 Swamp
1 Wall of Wood
1 Shimmering Wings
1 Serra's Embrace
1 Spirit Link
1 Reminisce
1 Aura Graft
1 Llanowar Sentinel

This is the draft I had the odd experience with the Overrun bug. I still won that game (2nd match), but it was quite odd to choose damage between me and his creature. He came back the next two games however to reveal a swackhammer, and proceeded to bludgeon me accordingly. I had little in the side to put in against the hammer, so I just dove in and tried to work through it. No dice. It's okay, I was due.

I'm interested to hear how people would have built it differently with the pool I had. I suspect some of you would have changed things.

Hatter

Bug Draft May 15, 2008

2008-05-21T16:21:00.000-07:00

XXX Bug Draft (result: won the draft) May 15, 2008

2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Giant Spider
2 Phyrexian Rager
1 Unsummon
1 Deathmark
1 Severed Legion
2 Festering Goblin
1 Thieving Magpie
1 Essence Drain
1 Verdant Force
4 Forest
1 Recover
2 Civic Wayfinder
1 Looming Shade
1 Gravedigger
3 Island
1 Aven Fisher
1 Clone
1 Nightmare
1 Terror
2 Spineless Thug
8 Swamp
1 Dusk Imp

Again, a lot of card advantage. I really like the curve, though the verdant force was a bit "forced" i suppose. I figured I could get away with it with 2 expanses, 2 wayfinders and all the card draw. Really, it wasn't that hard to get out.

Clone really is quite a lot of fun, particularly when its re-usable.

Not too much else to add.

Hatter

Overrun trample bug

2008-05-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it is tied specifically to Overrun, trample, or if it's just an odd bug that only happens from time to time...but yesterday I cast Overrun, swung, and every time one of my creatures was blocked, when choosing how to distribute damage I had a choice between the blocked creature....and...myself. Kinda took the fun out of it. I mean, it was still a one-sided wrath, but I shoulda killed him. Now I know trample doesn't always work like this, because I just got pummeled with the elephant swack hammer yesterday, and the trample worked just fine. I haven't used overrun for a while (despite it being in a recent deck...I never actually played it to the point where someone didn't just scoop), has anyone else noticed this? I was told it is a known bug....one of many.

Hatter

Hello fellow clan members

2008-05-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, this is just a test post to make sure people other than Hatter can actually use the boards - and it looks like we can =)

I'll post some of my drafts this weekend, don't think I'll have enough time to draft much if at all before then.

Good luck to everyone else on their limited events =)

Gur Unpretty XXX Draft May 15th

2008-05-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

1 Orcish Artillery

1 Mind Stone
1 Cone of Flame
1 Tidings
1 Elven Riders
1 Spined Wurm
1 Rampant Growth
1 Sky Weaver
2 Giant Growth
1 Might Weaver
1 Unsummon
1 Snapping Drake
9 Forest
1 Rootwalla
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Civic Wayfinder
4 Island
1 Hunted Wumpus
2 Kavu Climber
2 Aven Fisher
1 Llanowar Elves
4 Mountain
1 Rushwood Dryad

(17 land)

Gur XXX Draft May 15th Result: Won Draft

This deck was pretty solid. Lots of card advantage, plenty of ways to get at the mana, even though both red cards were double red. They never had a problem with mana, that is to say however, I always had the RR available, funny thing was I don't think I ever really drew the red cards. The rest of the cards won the matches fine without cone of flame shananigans. Not too flashy, but played out okay. Shrug, still not a very pretty deck though.

Hatter

Draft Posting May 19 2008 Hatter's Ugly GBr

2008-05-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

1 Spined Wurm

2 Canopy Spider

1 Giant Growth

1 Rootwalla

1 Essence Drain

1 Ravenous Rats

2 Gravedigger

1 Recover

1 Civic Wayfinder

1 Tangle Spider

8 Forest

1 Kavu Climber

2 Severed Legion

1 Terramorphic Expanse

2 Llanowar Elves

2 Composite Golem

1 Avatar of Might

1 Overgrowth

1 Blaze

1 Mountain

7 Swamp

1 Giant Spider

(17 lands)

4-3-2-2 XXX draft, May 19, 2008. Result: Won draft.

The overgrowth was unimpressive. I'm not normally keen on the card, but thought I'd try it out (being so top heavy), but ended up removing it for an additional creature or naturalize every match on sideboard.

Composite Golem is really a great thing when you are splashing for Blaze. He fixes your red mana, and provides a mana battery for a large blaze that doubles as a 4/4. I'll take that over a craw wurm for the same price any day. 2 Might be overdoing it. I certainly think I was a bit top heavy this time around. I don't know, personally I thought this deck was fairly ugly. I seem to be drafting a lot of ugly decks lately. Avatar of Might never got out on the reduced cost, but I never had an issue getting him out. Once out, he was a house. I think it's important not to force him out too early, it's much more effective once your opponent has run out of gas. Severed Legions remain a favourite 3 drop, and they draw fire really well. Shrug, this really is a pile. I'm happy to have done well with it :)

I was definitely competing for black in the draft, and wasn't sure on the third colour until pack 3 (blaze, obv...red had been virtually nil to that point). I was considering splashing blue just for the cantrip fliers and maybe bounce, or whatever came down the pike third pack (had some early picks in this regard).

Loading Draft Decks

2008-05-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

Wondering how to load your draft decks?

Deck Editor --> Load --> C: --> Documents and Settings --> [Your User Name] --> Application Data --> Wizards of the Coast --> Magic Online --> 3.0 --> Decks --> Tournament Decks

If you're having difficulty posting on here besides the simple replies, let me know and I'll authorize your account to post. Just email me @ Hatter.MODO@gmail.com.

Other Stuff

2008-05-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

If anyone is interested in picking up a game of Momir Basic sometime, just let me know if I'm online.

My supply of cards isn't too extensive, so I'm not really fielding any other format decks at the moment. If you're into something, I might make the effort to put something together, but cheaper is better. These days I usually just sell most of what I take from drafts off and feed the cycle.

Speaking of which, anyone have any advice for getting a good rate on selling draft rares/uncommons off?

Also: Yes the zero packs won in the clan screen is some kind of bug. It's okay, it's not like we're in major contention for the top any time soon.

Drafting Habits

2008-05-15T07:08:00.000-07:00

I'm currently drafting 4-3-2-2 tenth drafts. I'm basically waiting for Shadowmoor before drafting "in block" as I'm very out of practice for Lorwyn, and it doesn't seem to be a particularly good time to be "breaking into" an unfamiliar format.

What is everyone else doing?

Statement of Purpose

2008-05-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

This blog is for notes, gripes, plays, misplays, questions, answers, and observations related to limited play on Magic Online. Specifically, as it relates to members of the clan Limited Understanding.

Please feel free to post, even with trivia. Our clan is only as interesting as we make it. In the end it's not about how many packs we win, it's about helping each other improve over time and enjoying ourselves while we are doing so. To that end, please refrain from personal attacks and non-constructive comments.

Hatter