Magic: The Gathering C/D

cider it depends to an extent what version of junk rites you're playing - if you're playing a more graveyard-focused, combo-style rites deck with craterhoof than i think you have the option of just trying to be faster and boarding out anything that doesn't accelerate you into your combo e.g. midrange creatures. otherwise you bring in fiend hunters and abrupt decays and voice if you're running it, take out some mulches and a rites and any non-life gain midrange stuff and focus on surviving until you can grind them down with thragtusks. i've been playing a more value-based rites deck my sideboard right now is -2 mulch - 1 rite - 2 sin collector +2 decays +1 trostani +1 sever +1 fiend hunter. i've also moved fiend hunters main. centaur healer is probably worse than loxodon smiter, both are worse than fiend hunter and voice. if i had voices i would probably run two side over the trostani and hunter. i'm really willing to go to six with junk rites fwiw

sorry also -1 slime

ok that makes sense thanks - i feel like the 4-color rites deck is probably a better combo rites deck though so i may just stick with that

I went 3-1 at FNM this week with a similar r/g aggro deck that I'm pretty happy with. It's pretty amusing to watch your opponent try to Farseek into something and just blow right by them.

4 Rakdos cackler
4 stromkirk noble
4 firefist striker
4 burning-tree emissary
4 flinthoof boar
3 boros reckoner
1 Pyrewild shaman
3 hellrider
4 ghor-clan rampager

2 madcap skills
1 Mizzium mortars
3 pillar of flame
3 searing spear

4 stomping ground
4 rootbound crag
2 temple garden
10 mountains

Sideboard
2 Gruul war chant
1 Mizzium mortars
2 domri rade
2 electrickery
4 skullcrack
2 volcanic strength
1 tormod's crypt
1 forest

Probably will tweak the sideboard a bit, swapping out war chants and forest for something like mark of mutiny, but overall it worked well, especially the bloodrush dudes. Hellrider also ends the game very quickly. I found myself sitting around a lot on Friday because my matches were so short.

Funny how GP Charlotte set an impressive record number of players, and then Vegas completely blew it out of the water. So many people that 19 players went X-2 and won PT invites. Wish I had gone just to see how they fit that many people in one room. Also amusing is that in this tournament rare drafting might make sense. Let's say you're X-2 on the first draft of day 2 and you open foil Goyf (foils got left in the packs for this event). It's very average in the format, certainly not the best card in the pack, but that's more money than you're likely to win!

i am interested in how long it takes for a 'regular' gp to break 3000 players now - if the first theros limited gp wasn't in oklahoma of all places, i think that would have had a shot but as is i think it will happen next year

All the recent East Coast limited events have had pretty high numbers so we'll see 3000 sooner or later, but I think it'll still be a perfect storm of right location, right weekend, right format, etc. I'm wondering if Charlotte's then-record numbers were influenced by the Gold Rush envelopes they were giving out - couple of my friends said that was the deciding factor for them. Might explain why the attendance was so much higher than say, Pittsburgh.

anyone having success drafting 5-color? I've gotten into it lately but think I'd do better if I went in with the mindset of drafting it. A few observations:

1. It's easy to get 8-9 guildgates if you're open to taking all ten. Plus you can prioritize them because you can play pretty much every card you draft and thus you should always have 23 playables.
2. All of the 2/4 Gatekeepers are excellent, especially the black and blue ones...2 for 1s that slow the game down are excellent
3. Essentially my strategy for the DGM pack is to prioritize good removal/bomby cards, then gates, then gatekeepers, then try to pick up some cluestones with the last 3-4 picks
4. After that, you just pick bombs, more gates, mana accel type stuff, and anything that can either slow down the game or give you card advantage
5. Have fun?

yeah i don't really like doing the 5-color thing, the main reason being that i want to play with the actual spells from the DGM pack since they're the cards i've played with the least already in the format. if it's obviously open i'll do it but i won't force it.

most of my decks are 3-color tempo decks still with the occasional tons-of-5-drops-and-cluestones deck which can branch into 4 or 5 colors if necessary but it usually isn't

getting a booster worth 2 tix for going 2-1 in phantom sealed instead of 3+ tix has basically ground my mtgo to a halt, plus the full block sealed is awful to play anyway. i have been drafting occasionally but i have not really developed a good instinct for it. the 5 drop/cluestone approach is the only way i've had any success. i've tried 5 color but there haven't seemed to be quite enough bomby cards up for grabs to really make it worthwhile, on top of having to pass some in pack 1 to get your gates. also, whenever i have really lasered in on a particular guild and end up with what feels like a strong 2 color, maybe with a light splash, i seem to get totally hosed.

it's not so much about bomby cards as it is versatile cards that can mess up an opponent's plan, do multiple things, or create card advantage. the uncommons in DGM you look for are Putrefy, Turn/Burn, the 4/5 dude that fights something at random, Warped Psyche, Trostani's Summoner, Fluxcharger, Haunter of Nightveil, Woodland Crawler, Krasis Incubation, Sin Collector, Helix, Unflinching Courage, Far/Away, and Alive/Well. then pick up gates, gatekeepers, and a couple cluestones. You play like 11-12 cards from the pack if it goes well.

that said for all the success I've had with it I'm sure much of it is positive variance. you lose a lot to 2-color decks, especially Gruul.

yeah the bottoming out of the pack market this year is really unfortunate - it's great for people who just buy packs and draft them and do little else, but makes playing to break even close to impossible. just about every set through AVR had its packs selling for the full 4 tickets at some point, and now it's just been a downward spiral with 2-ticket DGM packs being a new ridiculous low.

hopefully there will be a correction in the future, the factors that are causing this are hard to pin down exactly (we think it's mostly the combo of higher redemption fees plus the changes in limited offerings, especially the removal of the old version of 4-pack sealed which was popular and ate a lot of packs)

I can see the higher redemption price really hurting small set single prices. I like to give WoTC the benefit of the doubt but the way they handled 4-pack sealed was pretty tone-deaf, bringing it back due to "popular demand" without realizing that the fact that it cost no tickets was pretty much the only thing that made it popular. I think the 6-pack phantom is going to remain pretty popular and that'll probably deflate pack prices a bit.

at this point i'm happy if DGM just gets back up to 3 tix, i've got dozens of packs on my account that i'd like to liquidate but the current price is too low for even my value-ignorant self

I'm banking pretty hard on the shocklands hitting 5-6 tix once the next block comes around, but worried that they're just too oversaturated now to ever be worth that again.

those will absolutely go up a bit next year. for some reason i get the sense that there's not a lot of oversaturation of the singles market and that GTC and DGM prices are low due to low demand for the cards in those sets. pretty much everything in there short of Voice is a reasonable buy-low right now if you want to put some money into speculating, but the shocklands are the surest of them all

also if you don't have your red staples for standard (at least ones for midrange/control decks) i would pick them up immediately, like right now, before chandra is spoiled. mizzium mortars, boros reckoner, steam vents, etc. i really think they are going to deliver on this one.

oh yeah since Reckoner dropped to the 5-6 range I've been hording them. Morters were also on my "never pass" list though they haven't been worth much lately (if nothing else, there's no worse feeling than passing a rare like that and then getting destroyed by it, my God do I hate that card in Limited)

buying mtgo shocks seems terrible to me unless you still need any for your playsets. i agree that they'll probably hit 5 tickets but that seems like the ceiling. i think stuff like reckoner and abrupt decay are better things to speculate on, but i think supply is just too high for any rtr singles. the increase in the cost of set redemption coupled with the decrease in demand for packs has kinda wrecked the secondary market in mtgo imo and i'm curious how much of that is intentional.

about two months ago i sold most of my rotating standard stuff and all my packs - not sure if that's a wise choice or not but i needed money and i had someone willing to buy tickets from me for actual cash. since then i haven't been playing nearly as much mtgo as i was the first 5 months of the year but i enjoyed mma drafts and won enough (and opened well enough) that i can draft again without worrying about a bad run leaving me completely modobroke. i also got a webcam and am going to try streaming drafts and sealeds in anticipation of M14/limited ptq season

sorry i wrote that in chunks over the course of like half an hour so it sort of seems like i'm just randomly blogging

other thoughts: i still really like blue in full block drafts, i'm also still doing well positioning myself for an rtr guild instead of trying to force a gtc one although predictably it seems like people have moved away from the 'force a gtc guild as hard as you can' strategy. rn i really want to be azorius or izzet, really anything with some tempo and solid fliers seems like it's the best positioned to beat the other dominant strategies. i also really, really like the new garruk for standard - this is probably wrong - but it just seems like such a nuts + ability? i also really want some of sdcc promos but imagine they will cost a fortune on the secondary market ::sadface::

i don't think it was their intention to wreck the secondary market, they were obviously just trying to cut costs on their end of the redemption process, but they did it around the same time as a bunch of other small changes that all messed with the lifecycle of pack prices in a negative way and this is the result

i should be taking advantage of it by drafting a lot but instead i'm jamming constructed because i am dumb and want to get back on the player of the year board since i'm just off the bottom of the constructed one but nowhere near the limited one

new garruk is good i think but it also competes in a very similar space to the other green mythic which is better than garruk in a spell-based ramp deck. so it depends on whether future standard has better mana dudes or rampant growths

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