Planeswalker’s Paradise

Last weekend I attended a Pro Tour Qualifier in Portland.  The upcoming pro tour is in Austin, which happens to be my hometown, so the prospect of winning some free airfare to see family and friends was tantalizing.  I managed to get into my first top 8, coming in at 5th place overall.  You can see the decklists here.

Before reviewing the matches I should talk about my deck.  It’s basically Jund, an archetype with so many variants floating around that there is no definitive list.  My version is an aggro engine focused on speed, fueled by Noble Hierarchs.  The goal here is to play a Boggart Ram-Gang on turn 2, attacking for 4 thanks to the Hierarch’s exaltation.  A turn 3 Bloodbraid Elf is pretty nice too.

The Hierarchs, while unusual, are not nearly as strange as the inclusion of Sarkhan Vol.  Despite being in high demand following his initial release, Sarkhan has rarely been played, probably because he doesn’t seem to fill a clear role in any Type 2 deck.  On a whim I tested him out and quickly decided he was there to stay.  His first ability is better than I originally thought: +1/+1 can make all the difference in combat, and haste isn’t bad either.  Surprisingly, his second ability actually isn’t as relevant as the first, but when it’s good…it’s great.  Stealing a blocker for a huge damage swing can easily win games (I’m looking at you, Chameleon Colossus).  Sometimes you just need a Threaten!  His ultimate ability may seem irrelevant, but the scare factor is worth it, which brings me to the final reason for including Sarkhan Vol:  nobody knows how to play against him.  People ended up being so afraid of his ultimate ability that they would waste precious resources trying to kill him, when they might have won if they had focused on killing me instead.  Sarkhan Vol creates a complicated gamestate that most players aren’t used to, resulting in more opportunities for the opponent to make a mistake.  That advantage is nothing to scoff at.

Another strange choice is a singleton Puncture Blast, with two more in the sideboard.  While testing it out some people became angry with me, saying that only an idiot would play it over the clearly superior Magma Spray.  It’s true that Magma Spray is the most efficient weapon against Kitchen Finks, but Puncture Blast is also capable of dealing with two huge threats to my deck: Chameleon Colossus and Great Sable Stag.  Furthermore, Puncture Blast is so rarely played that nobody ever sees it coming.  Finally, it’s never bad to cascade into since you can always direct it at their face.

Two Hell’s Thunder in the sideboard was another attempt at surprising my opponents, but they were rarely sided in and never saw play.  I’d say it was a failed experiment, soon to be replaced with Pithing Needles.

Now that you know the how and why of my deck, I’ll move on to the match reports.

Round 1:

My first match was against B/R Aggro, with Demigods of Revenge.  I thought I had him in our first game, getting him down to 2 life while I sat comfortably at 11.  He managed to topdeck a demigod bringing a second back from the graveyard, and then topdecked a third on his next turn…woe is me.  In game 2 my first-turn Hierarch was aborted by an timely Lightning Bolt, and a third-turn Ram-Gang met the same fate.  I kept playing creatures and he kept burning them, but in the end the cascaded card advantage was on my side and I won with 14 life remaining.  The third game was a close one, with both of us down to 4 life.  If he could topdeck another Demigod or Flame Javelin it would all be over…but I managed to play a Bloodbraid Elf first, cascading into a Hierarch for the 4 damage I needed to win.  It seems the B/R decks can easily stall any early game advantage I seek to gain, but Putrid Leeches are the MVP card here, easily evading most of their removal.

Round 2:

My first, and thankfully only match against 5 Color Control was a pitiful one.  My deck’s speed might seem advantageous against control, and indeed it is, but I pretty much have to get that ultimate draw to have a real chance.  In our first game I managed to get him down to 6 life before he took control, cruelly, and everything went downhill from there.  In the second game he fell to 9, but I didn’t see any of my 3 sideboarded Anathemancers, which might have sealed the deal.  Walking away with my first loss of the day I felt a bit disheartened.  There were 6 more rounds to go and if I was going to make top 8 I couldn’t lose any of them.

Round 3:

At first I thought I was playing against one of the new Elf Combo decks, which would be advantageous to me given my plethora of removal.  However, it quickly became apparent that he was actually playing B/G Elves, which has always been a difficult matchup for me.  In our first game I had all the removal for his early creatures, and from there he just couldn’t keep up with the cascaded card advantage.  The second game was creature dominated with almost no removal showing up on either side.  It was over when he got a Chameleon Colossus out and I couldn’t draw any of the 1 + 2 sideboarded Puncture Blasts.  In our third game things started off scary enough, with him revealing Colossus to untap his elf lands.  I had no Puncture Blasts, but he was stalling with two lands and a Llanowar Elves.  At this point I drew a Maelstom Pulse and faced an interesting decision.  By now he had a Wren’s Run Vanquisher and an Imperious Perfect in play, both of which being juicy targets.  However, if he drew a land next turn he’d be able to play his Chameleon Colossus, and I couldn’t afford to deal with that and gamble on drawing a Puncture Blast, so I Pulsed his Llanowar Elves.  I believe this was the right choice, as he did indeed draw a land, but had nothing to play.  We continued to exchange blows and he failed to get his fourth land, giving me enough time away from the Colossus to finish him off.

Round 4:

A mirror-match…sort of.  His deck is also from the Jund archetype, but his version has mainboard Anathemancers and Broodmate Dragons, both of which pose a pretty big threat.  I absolutely had to rely on my greater speed in this matchup, and it served me well in a very close first game.  Puncture Blast came in handy here, eliminating his Kitchen Finks and allowing me to steal the win just in time to escape an unearthed Anathemancer.  The second game was also a close one, with his Anathemancers dealing the final blow after a successful Broodmate Dragon airstrike.  In our final game I managed to summon the aid of Sarkhan Vol.  Granting my creatures +1/+1 and haste was extremely significant in the battle against an almost identical army, allowing me to pull through for the win.

Round 5:

My opponent seemed vaguely familiar, and he felt the same way about me.  After a minute or two of shuffling we both remembered that we had played against each other at a PTQ about a year ago.  The bond that forms between planeswalkers is an interesting one.  In our first game I mulliganed to 6 and decided to keep a risky hand.  With a second turn Stonybrook Banneret it became abundantly clear that he was playing one of the many new takes on the Merfolk deck.  I didn’t draw any sources of non-green mana, and could do nothing as he quickly and relentlessly destroyed me.  I did have one advantage going into the second game — he had no idea what I was playing, and thus didn’t know what to sideboard.  I, on the other hand, had all the information I needed.  In our second game I kept a removal-heavy hand, and was able to negate all of his early Merfolk, setting me up nicely to take back card advantage with cascade.  Our third match was a close one, relying heavily on me drawing into Jund Charm and Volcanic Fallout, but in the end it was Chaotic Backlash that won me the game.  Sarkhan Vol was instrumental in the last two games, as he not only confused my opponent, but allowed me to steal some Merfolk Lords for the win.

Round 6:

Here I faced Faeries, particularly the new version that splashes red for Firespout and Lightning Bolt.  This seemed pretty scary to me, as the deck has several ways to deal with the usual Faeries hoser, Great Sable Stag.  Our first game started well enough, with my opponent playing not one, but two Bitterblossoms.  I’ve never thought that to be a good strategy, as taking 2 damage a turn is just way too dangerous.  Indeed, I thought I had this game, but when the crucial moment came I could only get him down to 1 life, and then he swung to take me from 12 to 0.  Discouraged, but not defeated, I consulted my sideboard, putting in another Great Sable Stag despite their newfound vulnerability.  The next two games were in my favor as once again Sarkhan Vol came to the rescue.  He stole a Mistbind Clique for the win in the second game, and pulled off something even more satisfying in the third.  During a long stalemate I managed to cast the planeswalker and start adding counters, at which point my opponent could do nothing but waste Lightning Bolts trying to forestall the coming draconic tidal wave.  At that point I topdecked a Great Sable Stag, who now had +1/+1 and haste…a match for a mutavault any day, even with the aid of Scion of Oona.  If that weren’t enough, I soon topdecked yet another Stag and swung for lethal damage.  He activated his Mutavaults hoping to forestall the coming Stagvasion, at which point I played Volcanic Fallout before blockers could be declared, clearing his board and sealing the deal.

Round 7:

Here I faced another R/B deck with Demigods.  His deck seemed similar enough to the one I fought previously, but this time around I managed to take my first sweeping victory.  In both games he managed to get multiple Demigods out, but was in such a precarious position that he had to keep them back for blocking.  Maelstrom Pulse was indispensable here, as was Sarkhan Vol, who bravely took a Demigod bullet for me.

Round 8:

I was now “on the bubble”, meaning that I was on the cusp of getting in the top 8.  I suppose this is why my final round was a “feature match”.  Everything proceeded as normal, except we had a judge sitting next to us in addition to someone taking notes on our games.  This was my second encounter with Faeries plus a splash of red.  Troublesome, but as I had recently learned, manageable.  In game 1 I got the drop on him with a Ram-Gang ramming for 4 right away, which he quickly responded to with a Firespout.  He continued to match my creatures with removal, but eventually ran out of steam.  Game 2 saw very few plays on his end as he got stuck without a source of red mana, and I won without taking a single point of damage.

With 7 wins and a single loss under my belt, I ended up getting second place.   Ten hours of Magic can really take it’s toll on you, and I was very fatigued both physically and mentally.  I couldn’t rest now though, and soon enough I was back in the fray.

Top 8, Round 1:

Kithkin…my nemesis.  He won the roll — already a bad sign — and unloaded as relentless an assault as his deck could produce.  Cascade and Jund Charms kept me in the game longer than I thought possible, but in the end he had the cards and I didn’t.  The second game was nothing short of epic.  For the first time today, Sarkhan Vol actually managed to summon forth his dragons.  My opponent could have easily prevented this, but since he wasn’t used to the card at all he completely forgot about the final ability, and could only stare in shock as I unloaded my dragon tokens.  It might seem like I couldn’t lose after that, but he had an army of pumped up flying tokens of his own, in addition to 3 Forge-Tenders and a slew of groundlings.  If I attacked with all my dragons I wouldn’t have enough blockers to prevent a lethal onslaught, so all I could was nip away at him while we both accumulated more creatures.  It was during this very long and mentally taxing stalemate that I made a few egregious errors.  At one point he attacked with all of his Forge-Tenders, as their protection from red made them essentially unblockable.  We both had so many creatures in play that he failed to notice I had a Putrid Leech that could indeed block and kill one of them…the problem is that I failed to notice this as well.  He didn’t make that mistake again.  At one point I topdecked a Maelstrom Pulse and without thinking played it on one of the Forge-Tenders.  It was only after I had declared my target that I realized he could just sacrifice the targeted-Tender in response, saving the rest.  Eventually my mistakes caught up with me and he had an army of fully pumped Figures of Destiny, for which the Maelstrom Pulse answer never came.

In the end it was fatigue and hastily-made plays that spelled my doom.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this, it’s that no matter how tired, impatient, or excited you are, you should always take a moment to think carefully about a play before you make it, regardless of how obviously correct it may seem to your mind at the present moment.

I walked away with half a box of Shards boosters (Shards? Ugh) and a cool pin that says I got into a PTQ Top 8 (awesome).  That night I shared stories from the event with my friend while we played booster wars with my winnings, opening an unusual amount of mythic rares (all bad, except for Rafiq).

Despite punting my last game, I feel like I’ve made a major breakthrough in the game of Magic.  I’ve been to a few large events before with no real success, and I have to wonder what was different this time around.  One important factor was playing with a deck I not only like, but am very comfortable with.  Luck and skill also played their parts, but one thing in particular stands out:  an undeniable advantage came from the personal spin I put on my deck, taking the PTQ metagame by surprise.

Thanks for reading, Planeswalkers.  Before I go I’d like to give props to my MVP card, none other than fellow Planeswalker Sarkhan Vol!

The first thing I’ve noticed about M10 drafting is that it is more difficult than it appears.  Coming straight from the multicolor madness that is Shards of Alara, I was expecting an easier time judging picks and deducing the colors of my neighbors.  It turns out that M10 is as challenging as any format.

White:

With hardly any unplayable rares and a goldmine of common and uncommon removal spells, white might just be the best color.   As a main color it can provide you with a fast, relentless aggro deck.  As a splash it gives you all that good removal plus some late-game bombs.  White cards that should see more play:  Siege Mastodon and Safe Passage.  5 mana for a 3/5 pachyderm might seem painfully vanilla, but it can survive combat with almost every other creature in the set.  The quality of Safe Passage is a bit more obvious, yet it also sees little play.  I can’t understand why, given its extreme versatility:  you can fog, you can prevent a lethal Fireball/Consume Spirit, and you can cast it during combat to kill their team while preserving yours.  Most people walk right into it, and only one opponent of mine has ever seen it coming.

Blue:

On M10 release day, a complaint I heard around the room was that blue is terrible in this set.  Given all the nigh unplayable blue cards they printed, I can understand their sentiments.  Seriously now, Convincing Mirage?  Cards like this need to stop being made.  There has only ever been one good card like this, and that’s only because there were islandwalking merfolk to support it.  Despite all the garbage cluttering blue’s halls, it has some amazing creatures, and three counterspells to choose from.  This makes it possible to draft a good control deck, but since the quality is spread so thin, you’d better be several seats away from anyone else going blue.

Black:

Thanks to a ton of quality removal, black is easily the next candidate for best color.  Consume Spirit and Tendrils of Corruption are amazing, but require a heavy commitment to swamps.  This isn’t as much of a problem as it might seem.  Even if your swamps are diluted by a splash of some other color, your swamp-specific spells will still be great…just be careful not to add more than a splash.  Like white’s Siege Mastodon, don’t underestimate the playability of black’s vanilla creatures.

Red:

With access to powerful direct damage spells that can outright win you games, red is a very attractive color.  However, it’s also dangerous to draft, and some are calling red a “trap”.  The main problem is that many of the good red spells require only one colored mana, meaning that anyone can greedily take your Fireball and splash a few mountains for it.  However, if you decide to draft red as your main color, you’ll probably have easy access to all the cards that have two or more colored symbols in the cost, in addition to Seismic Strike.  Another incentive is that you’ll probably be able to get Goblin Piker and Sparkmage Apprentice as late picks.  It’s easy to see cards like Goblin Piker as strictly bad, but remember, this isn’t Shards anymore!  Cheap vanilla creatures are actually pretty good in M10, especially when complemented by all of red’s cheap removal.  Sparkmage Apprentice is another early drop, and its ability kills quite a few relevant creatures.  It may turn out that red isn’t as much of a trap as people make it out to be, and furthermore that attitude might make the red draft deck even more viable.  Just remember to proceed with caution.

Green:

With access to two common mana fixers, green makes an excellent base for a consistent 2 or even 3-color deck.  Clearly this isn’t the only reason to play green, as it is bursting with powerful creatures.  Centaur Courser can beat back almost all the 3-mana creatures in all the other colors, and if you’re lucky enough to get a Llanowar Elves in your opening hand you’ll be dropping that on the second turn.  Another amazing common is Giant Spider — with the magic power/toughness of 2/4, it can deter almost any attack from the air in addition to fending off most ground attacks.  Underplayed cards:  Regenerate and Nature’s Spiral.  Regenerate can be a pseudo counterspell, negating the effects of a Doom Blade, and it can also be a removal spell when used as a combat trick.  Like Safe Passage, people rarely see it coming.  Nature’s Spiral is something I hesitate about, given that it doesn’t do anything by itself, but once again it’s versatility that makes it good.  It can bring back any number of useful things, be they relevant creatures or crucial removal.  Given the huge amount of artifact/enchantment destruction found in M10, it’s not unlikely that you’d find yourself bringing back Pacifism for a second go.

Artifacts and Lands:

While it largely depends on the deck you’re drafting, the equipment artifacts seem pretty solid.  Gorgon Flail is a bit lackluster, but it combos well with certain cards.  Having your Alluring Siren make their important creatures attack into your deathtouch-wielding walls and weenies seems pretty good.  Magebane Armor is obviously nice, but not always first-pickable.  Speaking of which, Platinum Angel seems like an obvious first pick, but is it really?  Given how expensive it is, it may not be worth it if you’re drafting a fast aggro deck.  Furthermore, there is so much artifact destruction floating around that almost everyone is bound to have some in their sideboard, if not main.  Rod of Ruin seems too costly for its own good, but it’s better than you might think.  A permanent that sticks around and kills weenies while chipping away at life totals?  It might not make the cut in every deck, but it has turned out to be a lot better than I originally thought.  Terramorphic Expanses are just about the only mana fixing you’ll get if you’re not playing green, and even then you should value them highly.  As for all the dual lands, well, there’s not much to be said.  Most people will take them for their monetary value, and it’s obvious that you should take them if they’re relevant to your colors.

That’s all for now fellow Planeswalkers.  Good luck, and draft well.

Even in my early days of Magic, it seemed to me that buying boosters for a core set was pointless, as the good rares were scarce and everything else wasn’t even worth playing.  By the time I started going to sanctioned events, 10th Edition had come out and once again I was dissapointed.  My experience with sealed was boring and drafting was equally lackluster.

Then came M10.  New cards in a core set?  I like the idea, but as I’m sure you’ve all noticed the High Wizard Council pulled a fast one on us.  Several of the “new” cards are nothing more than reprints with different names.  Some are actually slightly different and even cooler, such as Doom Blade.  Most are completely unchanged, or in some cases strictly worse (I’m looking at you, Borderland Ranger).  I can forgive this though, because there are quite a few interesting new ones, and the choice of old ones pleases me as well.

The most pleasing aspect of M10 by far is just how fun it is for limited events.  While I’ve enjoyed my share of Shards of Alara drafts, it just feels way too fast and overpowered.  To quote Planeswalker Ryan, “Alara Reborn has a series of common 2-mana creatures that are usually 3/2 with good abilities…and some of them are considered ‘bad’”.  M10, on the other hand, feels like a classic kind of Magic.  A kind of Magic where Grizzly Bears are awesome again.

Sealed was satisfying, and drafting is even better.  The best thing about M10?  I actually find myself wanting to buy packs of it so that I might open one of the many good, playable rares!  What a weird feeling…

Tune in next time fellow Planeswalkers, as I’ll be sharing the strategies I have gleaned from drafting.

After an epic (ie: peaceful) Amtrak train ride, I found myself in a huge room full of fellow planeswalkers preparing for the fight of their lives.  With the main event starting tomorrow, I signed up and spent the rest of the day participating in grinders and other side-events.  I also spent my time going around to all the dealers seeing how much I could get for certain cards that will soon be useless to me (I’m looking at you, painlands).  I managed to make some good deals, and I even sold one of my altered cards!

Before I knew it tomorrow had come, and I was anxiously awaiting the first match.  Thankfully it was faeries (never thought I’d say that…) and after an uneventful couple of games I awaited round 2.  Here I was introduced to my nemesis, BG Elves.  Our decks actually share quite a few cards, but BG Elves is faster and has several things that I just can’t deal with.  Shaken, but not deterred, I went to round 3 hopeful…only to lose once more to BG Elves.  Round 4 was no better, and after my third loss for the day I decided to drop.  Maybe I just got unlucky, but it seems that Jund Ramp was not the choice for this metagame after all.  I didn’t mind losing too much, as I was able to fully enjoy the rest of my stay at the GP.

I can safely say that even if I had not wanted to play in the main event, the Grand Prix was worth going to.  The side events were a lot of fun, and I got to meet several MTG artists who, in addition to signing my cards, graciously provided me with advice for an aspiring artist.  Mike Dringenberg was particularly friendly, and took the time to really talk with me.

Of all the side-events I played in, I think the most interesting would have to be the “Mustachevitational”.  An Alara block sealed tournament open only to those with mustaches, it proved to be a hilarious and thoroughly fun event.  I didn’t win, but it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing Magic.  Almost every game I played was exciting and interesting.  Best of all, everyone was laid back and having a great time.  You can see me immortalized in the second photo of this article (I’m the one with long hair).

We had a very special guest on the third day of the GP:  Richard Garfield himself!  Like the artists, he was friendly and signed some cards for me.

What can I say?  I love forests, and they’ll be around forever.  I also gave him a blank proxy card, asking him to create whatever he wished.  My forest-theme must have inspired him…

Not exactly a gamebreaker, but it’s definitely cool!  You can bet I’ll be adding my own art to this soon.  There was one more card he signed for me, and well, I just couldn’t resist…

I’m sure it will be worth millions on ebay someday.

Between preparing for Grand Prix Seattle and my other Planeswalker duties, I’ve found the time to work on altering cards.  Here are the fruits of my latest endeavors:

In case you couldn’t tell, that’s a Japanese Spectral Procession.  Imperfections in color which are negligible to my eye become apparent under the scrutinizing gaze of my scanner.  Hopefully I can learn from this.

Once again the scanner is cruel, but I think I’ve improved with this one.  With this Path to Exile I’ve also decided to start signing my initials at the bottom of the card, instead of inside the text box.  It just seems better that way.

I’ll be back in a few days with a detailed report of Grand Prix Seattle.  Good luck Planeswalkers!

I was looking through a trade binder the other day when I noticed some very peculiar cards.  It appeared as though the art was leaking outside the usual boundaries, filling up the entire surface of the card (leaving the necessary information intact).   At first I thought they were promos of some kind, but the owner informed me that they were customized cards, made by a local player.  Inspired, I decided to break out some acrylics and make a few of my own, starting with a Woolly Thoctar:

I had a hard time matching my colors to that of the card exactly, and working in such a small and precise area was certainly a challenge.  Note to self: get a magnifying glass.  I then turned my attention to a Hellspark Elemental…

Given the stark nature of this card’s color scheme, I had an easier time preparing my own palette.  I’m still having difficulties getting a perfect edge against the borders, and mistakes are difficult to correct.  My third and final attempt today was a Putrid Leech:

Again, getting the proper colors was difficult, but I had a lot of fun with this one.

I was pretty excited after finishing these, but would they be tournament legal?  This article answered my questions nicely.  I haven’t painted over any of the card’s relevant information so there won’t be any confusion over what the card is and what it does, and since I’m only using a thin layer of acrylic paint the difference in thickness is too minuscule to enable cheating.

You shouldn’t have any problems using these cards at sanctioned tournaments, but the official ruling is that it’s up to the head judge, on a per-event basis.  If you plan on using altered cards, be sure to check with the head judge ahead of time and bring backups just in case.

That being said, contact me if you’d like to comission a custom card.  Pricing is not concrete yet, but I plan on charging from $5 to $10 per card, on top of the vaule of the card in question.

It’s high time I wrote an article about Firespout.  When Shadowmoor was released practically everyone messed their planeswalker robes over this card.  Perhaps the High Wizard Council was trying to help us balance things out after they realized Faeries were too powerful.  Firespout unfortunately did little to upset the Faerie dominance and has generally been forsaken in most decks that could play it.  Nowadays we have this ridiculous card:

So it does one less point of damage and it’s slightly harder to cast, but it damages players, can’t be countered, and is an instant!  Yeah, I can understand why people would play this over Firespout in a heartbeat.  I, however, choose to have both weapons in my current deck, and I think you should too.  Consider the threat of Black/White Tokens, which may very well be the best deck in Standard right now.  This is a deck that has been consistantly showing up in Top 8s everywhere, with plenty of 1st place wins.  If you’re playing in a highly competitive Standard event, odds are you will see this deck.

You may be wondering what the big deal is.  After all, can’t you just clear all their tokens away with your unstoppable Volcanic Fallouts?  In a perfect world, yes, but this is probably what you’ll see when playing against Black/White Tokens:

With Ajani Goldmane putting counters on creatures, plus Glorious Anthem pumping them up, you’re often going to be in a position where suddenly you’re facing an army of 3/3 tokens.  Sure, you could play Volcanic Fallout in response to them using Ajani’s counter-granting ability, but will you always have it in your hand with the mana to play it?  What about games where they manage to get two copies of Glorious Anthem out?  They even have an instant speed answer to your “uncounterable” instant speed Fallout: Zealous Persecution.  Suddenly Volcanic Fallout doesn’t look so good.

This is where Firespout comes in.

It’s not an instant and it’s not uncounterable, but it does 3 damage, and that extra point can make all the difference against Black/White Tokens.  Dig out your Shadowmoor cards and give Firespout a second chance, because it might be the only thing between you and the token menace.

So much happened at Regionals yesterday that I just couldn’t fit it all into one post.  Let’s start with my MVP card:

In case you don’t recall, I was playing my own version of Jund Ramp.  I had a single copy of Banefire in my deck.  Drawing it may seem unlikely, but with cards like Rampant Growth and Civic Wayfinder thinning lands from my deck the odds improve.  On several occasions it was the only thing between me and probable defeat.  It’s not always a guaranteed win condition however, and in two games detailed in my last post I won only because my opponent mistakenly let my creatures through, dealing just enough damage to put them within Banefire range.

It seems that not blocking has become the rule of thumb in Magic, and for good reason: you’re almost always better served by your creatures if you keep them around to attack.  However, Magic is far too complicated to follow a rule like this unshakably, as evidenced by my Banefire wins.  In both games my opponents were in a position to block and still kill me the next turn, but they chose not to.  Their choices were not neccessarily awful, as they were probably trying to play around any number of spells they thought were in my hand.  Still, I am always surprised by this behavior: by then they knew what kind of deck I had, and could safely assume I was playing a Banefire or two.  I clearly had enough mana untapped to Banefire them if they took the damage from my creatures, yet they still chose to not block.  It’s important to note that these were not bad players by any means — throughout our games they made consistantly smart, appropriate plays that kept me on the edge of my seat.  I think the lesson here is clear: in a world of uncounterable spells that do X amount of unpreventable damage, blocking is good again.

After a harrowing day of Magic and mayhem, I’m finally back from Regionals.  I decided to go with something that I was comfortable with: my own strange version of Jund Ramp.  Expecting Kithkin and Token decks, I had a good deal of board wipers both mainboard and in the side.  My predictions proved mostly wrong as I ended up being surprised by the metagame: half my matches were against decks I had not expected to see at all.

Round 1:  After my opponent (Mr. Anders) dropped some vivid lands it became apparant he was playing 5 color control.  Considering my 4 mainboard Anathemancers, I was feeling pretty good, but it wouldn’t be easy.  Indeed, that game he had every Path, every counterspell, and even the dreaded Ultimatum he needed to seal the deal.  The second game was close, but in the end I lost due to a grievous error: I had 4 lands in play, with a 5th in my hand.  Also in my hand were some 6-mana spells, Cloudthresher and Broodmate Dragon.  Anders countered something of mine with Broken Ambitions, and after the clash showed lands on top of both our libraries, I opted to put the revealed Savage Lands on the bottom.  Bad choice.  I proceeded to not draw a 6th land until it was far too late to recover.  If I had kept that land on the top, I would have been able to cast a Broodmate Dragon on my turn, with him tapped out, and that might have been enough to send us to game 3.  Lesson learned!

Record: 1 loss.

Round 2:  A bad start, but since we’d be doing 8 rounds today I figured all I had to do was win the next 7!  Easier said than done, I know.  My next match was against Tom.  He didn’t do much the first round except counter as many of my spells as he could before going down without me losing a single point of life.  Game 2 went in much the same fashion, as I gained a good deal of life on the back of a Treetop Village + Loxodon Warhammer.  It was only at the end of this game that I realized he was playing Seismic Swans.  He told me Jund Ramp was his worst matchup, and I believe it.

Record: 1 win, 1 loss.

Round 3:  This time I played against Mike, who was piloting something quite unexpected.  It was pretty close to some of rarely played Grixis decks I’ve seen, as  it had Makeshift Mannequins, Mulldrifters, Shriekmaw, and…Igneous Pouncer?  Strange indeed, although he creamed me the first game with a hardcasted hasty elemental, all on the backs of Anathemancers.  The next two games were in my favor, as he just couldn’t keep up with my constant string of threats.

Record: 2 wins, 1 loss.

Round 4:  Somewhat bewildered by the last two unexpected decks, I felt somewhat reassured to see that my 4th opponent, Alvin, was playing something more recognizable — Boat Brew.  My reassurance quickly left as I faced down a true beating from flying tokens and Windbrisk Heights, apparantly one of the best cards in the format.  I felt a bit better after siding in even more board sweepers, but I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.  However, the second game ended up being just that, as I was able to keep him on lockdown netting massive card advantage from Volcanic Fallout and company.  Game 3 was an epic match indeed, leaving very little to luck.  That fact that I was going second this game was a pretty significant disadvantage, as I had a very small window of time to prevent his Windbrisk Heights from activating.  I had to grit my teeth and do things like evoke a Shriekmaw on a Spectral Procession token, but it paid off.  I was able to keep him at bay while I set up my own board, but things still looked bleak.  It came down to me having 4 life and him having 9, plus a Reveillark on the board with good targets in the graveyard.  I had only one chance, and I took it — I attacked and he didn’t block, bringing him down to 6 life…just within range of my Banefire.  Whew!

Record: 3 wins, 1 loss.

Round 5:  At this point I was feeling pretty good, as I still had a chance at the top 8.   This time I faced another Tom, also playing an unexpected deck…Merfolk!  Having several aforementioned sweepers mainboard, I wasn’t too worried — indeed, the first game proceeded without incident, as I consistently got 2 or 3 for ones thanks to Volcanic Fallout or Firespout.  Game 2 was going well enough, although he was smartly playing around my removal this time.  At one point he attacked with a 7/7 Wake Thrasher, and I, thinking I wanted to get further into the red zone with my Civic Wayfinder, did not chump block it.  This ended up costing me the game, and it is a lesson I will not soon forget.  Game 3 ended up being lost to a matter of luck.  I missed several land drops and aside from a Volcanic Fallout in my opening hand, I didn’t see any removal.  That being said, Tom played very well and earned his win, especially considering how scary this matchup is for the Merfolk.

Record: 3 wins, 2 losses.

Round 6:  My hopes for the top 8 were gone, but prizes were still a nice possibility.  Now I was facing Joe, a pleasant fellow I had played against on a previous occasion.  Unfortunately for me, he was playing the same deck now as he was then, something akin to the non-white token decks.  His was mono red and full of goblins, be they generated from a Siege-Gang Commander, Goblin assault, or even Draggon Fodder.  I thought I wouldn’t have a problem against it given all my board sweepers, but I couldn’t be more wrong.  He swept me out of the match with Furystoke Giant the first game, and decimated me the second with a ingenious sideboard choice: Goblin King.  Seeing as how I had basic mountains in my deck which were almost always searched up and put into play, he essentially had a constant army of unblockables that I just didn’t draw the removal for.  The final nail in the coffin?  Coat of Arms!  I just don’t think there was much my deck could do against his, although after my crushing defeat a friend revealed that I could have averted disaster.  After attacking me a few times with Goblin King powered Trasgos, I had played Primal Command to gain 7 life and search for a creature.  If I had chosen to bounce my own Mountain on top of my library instead, suddenly all his goblins wouldn’t be unblockable, and things could have turned out differently.  This is a good lesson to all of us: try not to get locked into always using cards in the same way.  The best way to play a certain card in a certain gamestate may be unorthodox and even apparently bad (bouncing a land to the top of your own library certainly isn’t very good, but it was probably the right play that game).

Record: 3 wins, 3 losses.

Round 7:  Tired and hungry, I trudged onward.  For round 7 I sat down with…another Tom?  Hmm, a lot of Planeswalkers named Tom around here.  Anyway, he was playing his own tinkered version of the Sanity Grinding deck, one that included Howling Mines, causing me to mistake his deck for Turbo Fog at first.  I fought to the very end, but most of my mainboard cards were simply irrelevant against his deck, and milled my library for the win.  Game 2, I sided in my Naturalizes, which actually ended up being gamebreakers.  The only reason I even had Naturalizes in my sideboard was because I couldn’t get all the cards I really wanted in there (ie: Thoughtseize).  Anyway, getting the benefit of the extra card from Howling Mine, then Naturalizing it before Tom could get the benefit himself?  Nice.  It certainly kept him from drawing what he needed until it was too late.  Game 3 was similar to game 2 in that his defeat was inevitable, but alas!  Time was called.  On the last turn I managed to get in for some good damage and Banefire him down to…1 life.  Frustrating, but not the end of the multiverse.

Record: 3 wins, 3 losses, 1 tie.

Round 8:  While waiting for the next match to start, I met up with Planeswalker Ryan.  Awhile ago he went out with a friend for food, and I had asked him to pick something up for me.  Well, now was the moment of truth, and I was graciously hooked up with a Colossal Burger.  Freshly fueled, I headed off to the 8th and final round, and it was the matchup my deck had been…hungering for.  No Toms this time. I faced Planeswalker Marshall, who was playing Dark Bant.  The first game was extremely close: I had a slow start and didn’t draw any answers to his 2 Noble Hierarchs, which bashed my face nicely before playing a Pancake-flipping Rhino.  I had the Shriekmaw answer to that, but still, I just couldn’t seem to set myself up fast enough under a barrage of exalted attacks.  Things were looking grim — I had a measly 3 life versus his 14, and he had more than enough lethal damage on the board.  Things ended up being a replay of my close game versus Alvin as I attacked with Toucan-Sam’s Nightmare…and he didn’t block!  This brought him down to 7, just within range of my Banefire.  Game 2 was where I got to break out some of my favorite weapons for the first and only time that day.  He had a slow start, one that he just couldn’t recover from after I Deathmarked his Hierarch.  He produced several good threats after that, but I always had an answer.  I don’t like winning through sheer luck (or in this case, through the bad luck of the opponent), but our first game was a true battle of wits, so I was satisfied.  Furthermore, Marshall and I casually talked throughout our games about Magic art and artists.  I was glad to see another planeswalker with such a fine appreciation for good land art (he had a nice collection of Japanese MPS lands).  Too often I see the social side of Magic shunned, with players being too serious to speak of anything other than the exact gamestate at  hand, or anything at all after the game is over.  Kudos to you, Marshall, for being a friendly opponent.

Final record: 4 wins, 3 losses, 1 tie.

I didn’t do that well, but I didn’t do that terrible either, coming in somewhere around 40th out of over 100 people.  That tie I suffered in 7th round effectively put me just outside of prize range.  I have no regrets, as I learned a lot about a local meta that I that had incorrectly presumed to understand.  Furthermore, despite misjudging the meta, I was content with my version of Jund Ramp, and I plan on tweaking it further for future use.

That’s it for now fellow Planeswalkers.  Be sure to tune in next time, as I’ll be evaluating cards based on what I learned at Regionals today.

Cascade: clearly cool.  Alara alliteration aside, which of these new cards are actually viable in standard?  The current favorite seems to be a certain Elf Berserker:

In terms of Standard, most Cascade cards either have unappealing colors/costs, or the inherent effects just aren’t good enough to be worth the random free card.  In this sense, Bloodbraid Elf is “just right” — A 4 mana investment cascading into anything 3 mana or less, all on a 3/2 hasty body, is a very attractive package.  It doesn’t exactly fit into any preexisting decks, but the elf may be good enough on her own to inspire some competitive new creations.  Consider the following scenario:  Turn 1 you play a tapped land, such as Treetop Village or Savage Lands.  Turn 2 you play a Rampant Growth or Fertile Ground.  Turn 3, you play a Bloodbraid Elf, Cascading into Boggart Ram-Gang.

Seems pretty good!  Now the obvious problem here is that you’re not always going to Cascade into a Ram-Gang, but that’s ok.  Getting a Civic Wayfinder, a removal spell, or even another Rampant Growth is nice.  Naturally you don’t want to cascade into things like Lllanowar Elves here, but a Ramp-style deck like this can get by without such cards anyway.

Bituminous Blast is the next favorite Cascade spell, although I haven’t seen people testing it as much as the Elf.  Like Slave of Bolas, I have to wonder if it’s worth it to spend 5 mana on killing a single thing in a format of good, cheap creatures.  While you may get lucky and pick up something good off the Cascade, it’s still a gamble, so how could this card be worth it?  The answer is that it’s an instant.  Killing a creature and cascading into something that’s 4 mana or less on the opponent’s turn is definitely powerful.  If you get a creature, for example, then you’ll be able to attack with it as soon as your turn rolls around.  In particular matchups, just having it in your hand even if you’re tapped out can be great.  Imagine playing against Faeries: during your untap step they play Mistbind Clique, a pretty solid way of making you lose.  In response you cast Bituminous Blast, killing the clique and Cascading a random card for free, all while making good use of the mana they were trying to lock down.  Awesome.

As Planeswalker Gump would say, “Cascade is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re gonna get”.  The primary way of dealing with this is to build your deck accordingly, making sure that anything you flip off the top is at least “ok”.  Easier said than done, as there are a lot of good cards that may make sense in your deck that suddenly aren’t good when you Cascade into them.  Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, just about anything with “X” in the cost…yeah.  Cascade is likely powerful enough to make losing these cards worth it, but only time (and a lot of testing) will tell.  There is another solution to the randomness of Cascade, as suggested by Planeswalker Ryan:

Liliana hasn’t been around in Standard lately, but given her obvious synergy with Cascade, perhaps we’ll see a comeback.  In the meantime I’ll be testing, as Regionals is just around the corner.