Magic: The Gathering C/D

MTGO has a player of the year board? I guess I'm not surprised that it exists, more that I never knew about it.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mol/poy

it just tracks top 200 most QPs in constructed/limited

at the end of the year the top 150 people on each board get invited to a special tournament, the winner of which goes to the MOCS championship irl thing

man i really regret splitting all my QPs btw three different accounts, i had no idea that even existed

I'm almost wanting to pick up some Ajani's Chosens at release as they're guaranteed to be dirt cheap and Theros *might* be the long-awaited enchantment block.

New Garruk seems pretty nuts (that +1 is crazy and is maybe one of the best defenses that Elf mana ramp could get vs. Wrath effects) but the card just begs for Craterhoof and the two won't be legal together for long. On the other hand Primeval Bounty feels like one of those cards that everyone loves but no one plays with (see also: Momentous Fall).

Also - is Mutavault really confirmed? Seems like Theros should have to have some tribal aspects if so.

I knew about the MOCS tournaments, but I thought there was a threshold at which you get into a MOCS qualifier and that's all it was. Nice to know that CHRISTIAN LAETTNER has picked up a new hobby in his post-NBA life.

my understanding is that mutavault was 'confirmed' by the same anonymous source who had previously provided the text of maze's end a while before that card got officially spoiled. so it's some anon leaker with a one-card track record

frogbs - mutavault hasn't been officially spoiled but it's been confirmed by a couple of different sources with some credibility so its on all the unofficial spoiler lists

xp - or what cider said

i miss playing against karl the mailman malone or w/e that guys screenname was

CLYDE THE GLIDE DREXLER is the only one i see in dailies regularly

I don't remember the episode when EDDIE WINSLOW got drafted.

frogbs ajani's chosen doesn't seem to me like the type of card that would become pricy even if there's an enchantment theme in std.

the only m14 cards i am bullish on so far are the red ones - chandra's phoenix was good last time around and is cheap, ogre battledriver is a pretty good effect and is cheap, and even though it's an uncommon, young pyromancer seems like the real deal and could be one of those $2-3 uncommons pretty fast. the one non-red card i like is primeval bounty, but that's reliant on there being some sort of playable ramp deck, and it might turn out to just be outclassed by whatever's in theros.

pricy no, but it's the kind of rare that will likely sell on MTGO for 0.04 and may jump up if there are cheap, good enchantments worth playing. i'll probably spend 2-3 tixs on a flyer on that one.

anyone playing dotp 14?

AAAAAHHH YES I pulled off the Notion Thief + Whispering Madness combo on turn 5 of the last game in the finals of a draft...it was so worth handicapping my deck for those two cards
(also had to furiously look up whether or not Cipher was a "you may" b/c I almost decked myself)

trying to decide whether to run RG aggro, GWB rites, or BWR aristocrats in the ptq tomorrow. i don't have voices for the rites sideboard and don't really want to sell the farm to get them for one ptq, but it doesn't seem like they're that crucial, y/n?. i'm on a heavy spot removal sideboard plan because of that but i'm not sure whether that's better or worse than jamming healers or smiters and trying to block vs aggro. in a normal world the latter would be the default plan but ghor-clan rampager makes it difficult to ever get that 'virtual card advantage' by having bigger guys

RG aggro deck has performed the best overall but i had a bad testing session with it last night and i think it's exploitable by the players i'd face in the late rounds of a ptq. i'm still the most comfortable with it though. aristocrats is barely on the table since i need more practice with it, but i actually like playing heavily draw-dependent decks in big tournaments.

are people running gaze of granite for the aggro matchups or for the tokens/aristocrats decks? the interaction with that and fiend hunter seems awkward.

gaze is for lingering souls/aristocrats decks which junk rites really has a hard time with. i was running curses side but have now started running golgari charms. tbh i think that's just a shitty match-up and mostly try to to just fade it/get lucky

voice is a really good card so it's never terrible but junk rites doesn't need them at all. you can't grow the elemental that big and the red decks are all running pillar for it anyway. i actually like running fiend hunters to take advantage of the aggro decks leaning harder on pillar now. and you really don't need them against control since your match-up is already really good and you'd rather be running obzedats. if you're really worried about g/r i've been siding in trostani on mtgo and it's really good - i've seen a couple of lists that even play two - and playing abrupt decay main. i've also added putrefy to my sideboard.

i think g/r aggro is a better four round deck than a 10+ round deck but i may just not be very good at aggro decks. and yeah, i would recommend avoiding aristocrats decks unless you've played them a bunch also i don't think they're very good

my current sb as of last night is like
1 slime (i'm playing the build w 3 maindeck since control is back in full force on mtgo)
1 obzedat
2 sin collector (have 2 maindeck)
2 deathrite shaman
2 garruk relentless
1 trostani
1 sever
1 fiend hunter (have 2 maindeck)
3 abrupt decay
1 gaze of granite

i think this is servicable. i had a putrefy in there at one point instead of the fiend hunter, it was okay. i don't like sever vs fast aggro at all but it seems really good in the mirror and vs bigger aggro decks

i also jammed a bunch of games with the 4-color rites deck, i like it but without being able to play mana elves it just doesn't get rolling fast enough vs aggro. you need the turn 3 reckoner every time or you lose

yeah i like sever a lot against midrange decks and the mirror. i like the putrefy against jund and midrange, i don't really bring it in for the same match-ups that i have fiend hunter. my paper sideboard is here on my desk and it's:

1 abrupt decay (2 main)
2 acidic slime (1 main but should probably be two)
2 deathrite shaman
1 fiend hunter (2 main)
2 golgari charm
1 obzedat
1 putrefy
2 sin collector (1 main)
1 sever
2 trostani (am trying this for the 1st time tonight)

ended up playing RG aggro, finished 5-4 after a 3-0 start, about identical to my last 2 ptqs. deck was pretty good and my friend is currently heading to top 8 with it, i just couldn't get a fast hand vs junk rites a bunch of times

cider, how do you feel about RG aggro against Esper or American control? Any particular strategies you can impart?

I got ground down against several control decks last night and don't really have a good answer. If I didn't have a nut draw that could close out the game quickly I was basically dead. The only card that helped me in longer games was Domri Rade. Is it worth going 4-of with Domri rather than 2-of? Or is there any other way to bend the matchup in my favor?

Alternatively, I'm considering ditching RG aggro for a Jund aggro deck that has more resilient cards like Strangleroot Geist, Experiment One, Rancor, Varolz, plus Dreadbore to deal with the likes of Jace and Ral.

i had 3 domris in my sideboard for that matchup but i'm not convinced you need them. i board in skullcrack too but it's not great and i'm not sure you need that either. the important thing is to just be really dense on creatures, especially creatuers with haste.

the blue control decks are tricky to play against, you just need to practice a lot against them to get a feel for how far to extend. the more you play the matchups, the better your 'gut feelings' will get about whether they have a sweeper in hand etc.

skullcrack has been pretty useless for me. The challenge with feeling out the control decks for me is that it always feels like they have an answer whether it's a sweeper or just a constant flow of spot removal. It makes me feel like I just have to keep pushing out guys regardless in hopes that they'll run out of answers before I run out of dudes. Unfortunately, with Sphinx's that's pretty unlikely.

oh and if you want the actual matchups, i think esper is favorable, and UWR is somewhere between slightly and very unfavorable depending on how many midrange creatures they're playing (boros reckoners are troublesome, resto angels less so)

I definitely held up better against esper, but the UWR gives me trouble when it ramps up to Aetherling

managed to draft and win with another izzet cyclops/guttersnipe/flux deck. won two games with chemister's trick, which is a card I always wanted to play. in both cases it was just a more expensive downsize

i played chemister's trick a bunch during 3x RTR draft, it came around 13th/14th pick most of the time and was not that much worse than blustersquall when your deck needed that type of effect

Nice. I drafted a similar one yesterday with Melek, Biomancer, double Cyclops and a bunch of little aggressive guys like piker, double chainwalker and bomber corp. Chemister's trick was very good for me as a cyclops activator.

The top 8 for GP Miami has been very entertaining today

Finals on right now

i played chemister's trick a bunch during 3x RTR draft, it came around 13th/14th pick most of the time and was not that much worse than blustersquall when your deck needed that type of effect

yeah this seemed like it should be true to me yet I'd never seen it cast despite having played a ton of rtr and dgm

yeah that was a very exciting top 8 broadcast

i haven't drafted in over a week :(. i really like this format too although the last time i drafted i scrubbed out round one against a terrible five color deck with my focused, efficient g/w beatdown deck #nojustice #skillgame &c

cider, how do you feel about RG aggro against Esper or American control? Any particular strategies you can impart?

i've been playing jvl's u/w/r tempo list to some success and i think the cards that really matter are burning-tree and hellrider. domri rade is fine but not impressive, although i'm probably running above average on having renounce in hand when my opponent plays him. i think it's worth extending into a hellrider draw particularly game one. i actually won the finals of my fnm because the r/g player was too afraid of overextending into a supreme verdict i had revealed with my auger. i had an extremely slow hand with only M10/ISD lands and no counter magic and the extra time that his sandbagging threats gave me was vital, although he obv had no real way of knowing how my hand was composed.

gwb rites questions: do i go all slimes vs jund or do i still want thragtusks? do i cut unburial rites since they often have tons of ground seals in the sideboarded games?

Lamp, I suspect the fear of overextending is a trap for the RG aggro deck. Giving up some dudes isn't nearly as bad as giving the opponent a chance to ramp up for massive card draw.

cider: i've added putrefy to my sideboard for jund since the only card they can have that beats you is olivia. currently i board out mulch, rites, and fiend hunter (i think he's bad against jund's removal) and bring in sever, putrefy and obzedat. tbh i like slime for wolf run as much as like it for mana-denial, w/o olivia and wolf run jund can just never beat you basically

i can't wrap my head around whether new chandra is good or bad

its got essentially the same +1 as the last one, which was mildly effective 2 standard cycles ago but not in the current or previous one. so it's obviously all about the 0 ability, which is a weak form of card draw but historically any card draw at all has been good enough on a 4cmc walker.

i'm kind of surprised it isn't splashier even if it was good enough in their internal testing - i guess sorin lord of innistrad set a high bar for 'planeswalker that reads well but doesn't play too strong' and a lot of dumb people got burned pretty badly on that one preordering it for $50+

feel like it would be bad if it's 0 was -1, but as is it basically pays for itself w/ that ability. is the ultimate really that great tho?

like you almost need to build a deck around it

I think it's pretty good, and will see more play than any other Chandra (faint praise). Unlike Firebrand, there's always something useful to do with it. It maps close to what Domri does, but Domri is still better. Chandra's ultimate isn't great, probably not game-winning unless you build around it.

ultimate is not too relevant, its a hail mary if your opponent has some huge play e.g. angel of serenity. most of the time if you're stabilized with her in play you're just going to 0 for more cards

I'd like to see a mono-red deck with Chandra and the new Manabarbs. No one plays basics anymore.

pretty sure new manabarbs, like the old, is an effective sb card vs control decks but little else

what about some weird izzet chandra/ral deck

if that becomes viable I will play standard

Hmm that's a shame. I don't have much experience playing with Manabarbs but I thought it might be good against midrangey decks too. Does the fact that this one doesn't hurt you (in mono-red) make a difference?

I am certain some of my desire to see Burning Earth do well is my bitterness at the price of manabases in Standard

you can't afford to spend a turn not affecting the board against creature decks, especially when they can play a creature that gains life equal to the amount they lost from the manabarbs

also standard manabases are generally much cheaper now than in the past. dragonskull summit was a $10 card the first time around, now it's 3 and not even blood crypt is 10.

if you pick up standard duals while their set is still being drafted, you can get them for 1/3 to 1/2 the price they'll be the following season, sometimes it's even more extreme. i remember trading for seachrome coasts at only $4-5 during cawblade season when they were currently a 4-of in the most powerful standard deck of the past 10 years. a year later they were brushing $20 despite a much more color-balanced standard.

will we see shocks go up in price post rotatation? I assume the checklands will be gone at that point.

I'm wondering if this Manaweft Sliver will see any play. 2 CMC for any color mana is not bad.