My message today is about losing. What it takes to lose and how it happens to even the best of us. As anyone who plays in a competitive forum knows (or should know,) everyone loses at one time or another. It’s just a fact of playing.

Grand Prix Indianapolis

Going into Round 4 of the tournament, I’m 3-0 and I’m feeling the momentum build for me. Game 1 of the match, I have a question for the judge. Calling out for judge, then telling him the question, then confirming the answer, had to take 3 minutes? 5 minutes?

Mistake #1 – When time in this round is called and at the end of the 5 turn extension, my opponent is at 12 life. I have 5 creatures on the table for a total of 14 power. He has 1 2/2 creature. Even though you may have a watch, the judges call time, AND you have 5 turns to finish, you still need to monitor ANY interruptions you have. That instance of me calling the judge could have definitely been the difference between a win and a draw for that round.

After a 5-0-1 start with a decent sealed deck with 4 rounds to go (10 total), I get paired feeling that I’m in need of a couple more victories to guarantee day 2.

Mistake #2 – I tend to believe that you cannot worry about day 2 merely halfway through a tournament. My recommendation is know the cut off in the beginning of the tournament and then don’t think about it again until the next to the last round or even the last round. The only thing you should be thinking about during your match is YOUR MATCH

In game one, my opponent steamrolls me. So, what I usually do is think about what caused the loss, while I’m sideboarding. Other than the fact that he came out quickly, and had Spectral Procession on turn three, there really wasn’t much to consider.

Game two is different, while pondering my 5th turn (after he played Spectral Procession AGAIN) I asked him how many cards he had in hand. He said “4,” so I counted his permanents and his graveyard to find 13 total cards outside of his library. I counted mine, and found a total of 11. I was on the play so the difference should only have been one, not two. I told him that he had drawn an extra card and he responded with what I felt was denial.

I quickly called a judge over and the judge asked him what happened. He said, “apparently, I drew an extra card.” Now, because I am familiar with the floor rules for events such as this, I assumed a game loss was inevitable. I was right, the judge provided a quick solution to the issue. However…

Mistake #3 – When in doubt, CALL THE HEAD JUDGE. I asked this judge if he was sure this situation didn’t merit a match loss. I recall asking my opponent about the extra card and he was shady about it. When the judge asked him he was quick to give an answer. I spoke to the Head Judge later, he explained that a match loss could have been issued dependent upon the facts that were gathered. Did the first judge do his job? Absolutely. Should I have called the Head Judge to escalate the call here? YEAH.

On to game 3 of the round.

This game rolled out relatively slow, we’re both a bit mana screwed early but we both get a spurt of lands (I’m still thinking about the extra card he had drawn.) The field looks even with creatures, with me putting a Prison Term on his early Scuttlemutt (while thinking about that extra card). Then, I play Seedcradle Witch and Umbral Mantle to take over momentum in the game (while thinking about the extra card). He plays Godhead of Awe. Not only do I get upset that he draws another bomb, I think about that stupid EXTRA CARD!!!

Mistake #4 – You GOTTA let things go. Such as our sometimes torturous lives take us down the most regrettable experiences, we still need to let them go. Worrying about what happened last turn or last match will often prevent us from making the right steps in the future. Don’t make the same mistakes again, but don’t ponder them too much.

This lead to me just untapping and drawing… That Prison Term I told you about? It’s still on the ScuttleMutt…

Mistake #5 – Anticipating you and your opponent’s turns is what EVERY good Magic player does. So many things were going through my mind, one of which was the fact that I had several flyers in my deck and I merely needed to draw one. However, those other great Magic players know when to deal with something immediately.

Well, 4 turns later, I don’t have a creature that flies and I’m virtually dead. I guess this one’s a win for the bad guys.

Now that the round is over, I try to be optimistic with my 5-1-1 record. It doesn’t work, I spend round 8 still pondering over my issues in round 7 and am barely able to concentrate. With my mind in disarray, I over commit and lose to Incremental Blight (even after seeing it in game 2). In round 9, I get mana flooded and am unable to make this a good match.

Playing 9 rounds of top tier Magic is hard to do. It doesn’t get much easier when you’re worrying about issues not having anything to do with your current round. After any one of the mistakes listed above, I could have picked myself up and put myself on the right track. Instead, I didn’t and perpetuated my own doom.

I hear lots of people talk about not getting good cards, or being mana screwed or flooded. I believe that land issues are inevitable. What you don’t hear are people who admit to losing or “punting.” I love the term punting (it’s a football term.) Here, I’m using it to mean when you do something, or allow something that gives your opponent a chance to win. In Football, when you punt you give the ball back to your opponent and let them go for a touchdown again.

Some people believe their lives are guided by fate or inevitability, any of my mistakes above could have been avoided and placed me with perhaps a different fate, which wouldn’t be fate at all, as I chose an alternative.

Tiger was down, but he wasn’t out. Even with his knee causing him pains on every swing he came back to win the tournament. He didn’t let this missteps knock him out, and we shouldn’t either.

Nuff Said!

–Lee

I was at Grand Prix Indianapolis last weekend where I had a mediocre deck with a pretty impressive start of 5-0-1, only to bomb out with 3 straight losses . When I travel to events I really enjoy the opportunity to meet with ManaNation viewers and I also get to chat with the Pros as well. (Props to forum member BigFiber and Antonino DeRosa)

I was looking to play in the PTQ for the weekend and Antonino talked to me about a block deck that had a relatively decent finish in a PTQ just a few weeks ago. I was quick to respond with my ever so tiring “Faeries is the Best deck” line and he responded by telling me to at least look at it. It does VERY well versus creature decks. I looked, I liked, so I made some modifications and here’s what I came up with (see right.)

This deck is very similar to the Mana Ramp decks that try to push out something big and stomp the opponent into submission early. Now I didn’t post a sideboard as I feel that this is the piece of the deck that REALLY needs work. Anyone who has suggestions please send us email using the form!

What I can tell you is that this deck performs VERY well versus creature decks. I’ve been posting about a 75% margin of victory against Kithkin (after about 60 games) and I went 3-1 over Kithkin in my PTQ last week. With Mages in the main deck, I was able to handle “Five Color Green” very well also, but can always feel a bit more comfortable.

Here were my matches with a quick overview:

Round 1 Kithkin
My round one opponent was a young lady who was very sweet and was VERY interested in watching Mananation (hope you were able to watch!) I won’t mention her name as she may not want me to identify her. She made a couple of play mistakes, however I don’t think she really could have won even with perfect play. A couple of times I needed to Nameless Inversion a Burrenton Forge-Tender to wipe her board.
Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0

Round 2 Kithkin

I smashed with a Turn 4 Oona in game one and a Turn 3 Colossus in game 2
Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0

Round 3 Assassins
This was a very interesting match. He mulliganed game 1 and I mulliganed game 2. He’s playing a deck similar to mine, with the difference being I used fertile ground and devoted druids, he used profane commands and SCARBLADE ELITE. For Game 3 I cast multiple Thoughtseize AND I destroy 3 of his lands early with two Fulminator Mages and a Makeshift Mannequin. However, I draw 7 consecutive lands which allowed him to recover and beat me up with his Colossus. This is one of the things I feel is a weakness to the deck.
Games: 5-2
Matches: 2-1

Round 4 5CG
He mulligan game 1 and I use my Mages to win both games. I recommend destroying the blue sources so they have a harder time casting Cryptic Command. I believe the 5CG deck’s weakness is that it has quite a few spells that cost 5 or more and thus make mana very valuable.
Games: 7-2
Matches: 3-1

Round 5 Faeries
He sweeps me for the exact reasons why I still think Faeries is the best deck in the format. It counters cards that you cast while still gaining a permanents of its own in
Spellstutter Sprite. Mistbind Clique can be very annoying as it Time Walks me, AND I am unable to get my 4th and 5th source quick enough.
Games: 7-4
Matches: 3-2

Round 6 Kithkin
I’m playing the boyfriend of my round 1 opponent. So I think it’s poetic that I lose. He’s running Oblivion rings main and I get flooded once again. He was able to put out multiple Forge Tenders on top of me playing badly.
Games: 7-6
Matches: 3-3 drop

All I can say is that the deck is pretty good. Not quite there yet but on its way.

GP Indianapolis was fun. Wizards and the promoters were gracious enough to give T-Shirts and Play Mats out for entering certain events. There were over 1100 people in the main event and the energy was electrifying.

And it was GREAT meeting more of the show’s viewers, I hope to meet more soon! In Denver and maybe Chicago.

I’m not to keen on tourney reports any more but if you liked this one (I’m sure I could have added more detail) let me know and I’ll work harder and better on the next one. I really just wanted to show off a deck that can deal with Kithkin and Elves rather easily.

See Ya next week!
-Lee

The game’s game has changed, no longer is it let’s make the game a Professional event, it’s back to “let’s acquire more players for a time.”

So, I’m a bit inspired by drafting and I thought I’d share some of my thoughts with you. For those of you who know me, know that I have a very unconventional draft strategy. I tend to draft by card value, as opposed to themes or color. I don’t mean rare drafting or the card’s dollar value. I’m talking about the cards “draft” value. I should call this my “Power to the People” drafting style. It basically incorporates the “BEST” overall card in each pack, I determine this by statistical data from drafts as well as opinions from “good” players that I respect.

In the old days, we used to spend hours talking about draft choices and what was good and why. Fortunately for you, times have changed and you can find statistical data to support choices and how much they may weigh upon you or your deck. Or, you can just use it as a reference. Look at the table below:

I created this spreadsheet as an example of draft statistics. This is summed up by literally thousands of drafts for just Timespiral. The snapshot above includes Rares, Uncommons and Commons for the purpose of showing the relative value regardless of rarity. Now obviously there are almost ALL rares at the top of the list, but as you move down there’s more of a mix in rarity.

So, the purpose of this discuss is to get you the newbie OR the pro to recognize that “draftability” can effect your decks overall value. The number you want to pay attention to is the number to the left of the card color. This represents the draft order of the card, so Call of the Herd is a first pick with some cards being of a higher pick value (the lower the number the better) I believe that with over 1000 people drafting or 1000 drafts to have taken place, Call of the Herd MUST be a better card rated higher at 1.5735 than Errant Ephemeron at 1.8691. Even though one might not consider this to be significant, let’s look at it with just 5 card choices:

With 5 picks, you can see that Player A’s advantage has gone up almost .5. This is STILL not significant. However, considering the fact that this is from a pool of 13 cards and they’re mostly rare. What you have to consider is that you have 3 separate pools of 15 and each of those cards have a perceived play/draft value. With essentially 23 choices that go into your main deck, a few picks can be a HUGE difference. Think of it like this, if you make a 40 card deck of ONLY land, you have a VERY small chance of beating someone who has 39 lands and 1 creature or 38 lands and 2 creatures, etc. What this means is that you have a finite value based on your 45 cards. Add to that, the mana base theory we’ve provided in one of our episodes and you should be good to go.

Here’s what should be going through your mind when taking PICK 2 and beyond:

1. What is this cards value overall? This is about picking cards that are versatile virtually EVERY time you draw it. Some cards are situational others are always useful.
2. Is this card usable with my last picks? Is it Tribal? Does it have some uber combo I can use?
3. Does this card share color(s) with my last pick(s)? With Shadowmoor , you can be mono colored even though you have chosen multicolored cards.
4. Do I have enough removal? I usually look to up to 9 or 10 removal/utility cards
5. Do I have enough creatures? I’m comfortable with 11 to 14 creatures
6. What is the current mana curve of my selections? You DON’T high picks if they’re all 5cc and above
7. Is this card worth any money? HaHa sorry, but this IS something to consider!

Now with subtle dips in value, you can pick cards that will work better for you. You MUST consider casting costs, creature or removal. Sometimes, that will force you to take a card of a lesser value than an explosive rare. In the Shadowmoor draft, Power of Fire has moved up quite a bit in rankings earlier. However, it doesn’t need to be said, how much this card has improved. On the flip side of the coin, what good is having 4x Power of Fire if you only have 2 creatures? Another great example is having Firespout with NO red or green mana. Kind of a big mistake.

This system is the foundation to my success (if you wanna call it that). No matter what you do in life, you HAVE to have a plan. Your current plan can switch to another plan. I’d love to hear how this works for you all. Let me know if this was helpful.

Lee

Are you a Magic player? Probably.

Do you tell people outside of the Magic Community that you’re a “Pro” or that you spend 20+ hours a week playing this card game (and NOT the World Poker Tour)? Probably not. It’s interesting to me that we play a game that is so infinite in it’s possibilities and so very narrow in it’s participation. A very dear friend of mine once said to me that MTG players are the rudest bunch of people she’s ever encountered. Interestingly enough, I agree with her, or at least part of me does. This might not even be the right time to talk about it, with regionals coming around the corner and PTQs rearing their ugly heads right behind it. You’re probably expecting me to come out with some ultra-cool deck tech or analysis that you’ve not heard of, and once again, you’re wrong. I’m here to talk about fun, or maybe not, I really want to talk more about casual play. For me, for you, and even the casual observer, MTG can be a positive experience. Hopefully, you’ll agree and maybe you’ll pursue or make the same observations I have. Then again, you probably won’t even understand and say “Lee is rubbish.” I won’t deny that claim.

Magic was meant to be a game, and even I often forget to be forgiving in certain situations. I’ve said in other articles that it’s even hard for me to play this game unless there’s something waged or to be gained. This attitude has made it a challenge for friends and family to take an interest in the game because I’m too quick to point out the finest details that caused them to lose. My son, who’s 11, tells me that people expect too much of him because he’s the son of Lee Steht, and that alone puts pressure on him to anticipate 3 turns ahead and lay damage on the stack like a young Bobby Fischer might put you in check after 3 turns. Yet when he and I play Halo3 he relishes the fact that he gets MVP after every other game. I try to make Magic fun for him by taking it a little easy, but just the environment of a PTQ can make it stressful to him. I’m sure every father wants to find that which would make their child a prodigy, but when the world expects too much, I’m sure it makes that light switch of genius harder to turn on.

I’ve observed many of my son’s opponents providing feedback after matches that they have won, to help with his decision making and share how he could have won and that provides me with hope that there are people who just enjoy playing. However, I have observed people who stomp off angrily due to some random manascrew or a bad draw that caused their loss. So, perhaps it’s just happenstance that a person shows kindness.

What about simple common courtesies, such as acknowledging a person is standing there. How often do you hear people say “excuse me” at a tournament? I think it’s funny when I see these guys carrying a trunk on their back trying to hustle some trades and they bump into a person and just continue on their merry way. Is it too much to expect an “I’m sorry” or “pardon me”?

It’s tough to even maintain conversation with people sometimes, especially after you’ve gained some notoriety for something (like a podcast.) People will just walk right up to you and interrupt whoever it is you were listening to or saying, without thinking anyone else. Does it ever occur to someone that a person might be participating in a conversation? My ex-wife has commented on several occasions where she became completely annoyed with guys who would interrupt her conversations with me. I must say though, that in cases like that, I certainly appreciate the interruptions with her.

Would any of you ever admit to being the “stinky” guy in the room? I would hope not. However, we all know that Magic Players are known for their inability to spend time on hygiene. I know that it’s difficult to drive 7 hours to a tournament location, find a room, shower and even brushing your teeth. Perhaps it’s just an element of the game. Does it really need to be? I know of situations where even Hall of Fame players had been asked to wear a suit or something more appropriate for top 8 appearances. Is it so much to ask to pretend to be professionals? I know that the sport of Pool and Billiards once required players to wear tuxedos. Reasons vary as to why, but some say it was to legitimize the game as a game for “gentlemen”.

On a side note: WOTC/ DCI has yet to crack the formula of maintaining young interest and unfortunately had to the pull the plug on great programs such as their Junior Super Series. The game HAS to appeal to kids, parents and especially with mothers. The Super Series at least provided legitimacy for a kid to compete. Does anyone really need to be a role model? Not really. Would it help the game? Probably.

My last point will probably make me sound like some old geezer, but I think it has to be said. Most Magic players have hardly entered puberty much less high school and the language they use is often inappropriate. This is just another thing that scares off women (both players and mothers) and young players from coming events, whether participating or even as a spectator. Sadly, no one steps up to monitor things like language. I’m guilty of it too! Similarly, leaving trash around or throwing cards around the room is much like the use of foul language. Perhaps the parents don’t care about their kids using this language, but I’d love to take some of the fast food trash or cards left around and put it right in the middle of the family living room. The word “SAVAGE” comes to my mind.

All in all, I just wanted to spew some thought on something that has bothered me about the people I play this game with. In the end, Nerds will be Nerds and I’m sure all of them are happy. I’m sure they could care less about the fact that I’ve witnessed some of the World’s best chess player converge to play for mere pennies. Part of that is a sort of stigma of playing a “game” competitively. I think I could forgive random Magic Hall of Famer for using steroids, but what I cannot forgive is a Hall of Famer who slept on the street and wore the same clothes for an entire Pro Tour weekend. You may say that it’s not that big of a deal, but I have a problem with being associated with that kind of stereotype.

I’ll let your fathers try to explain chivalry to you. Let’s get ready for Regionals!!!

Lee

Overall I like the changes. My biggest concern is with the new rarity. But we’ll see how it goes. If it means more Planeswalkers then I’m for it.

– Trick

Blowfly Infestation:

Why I like this card: Blowfly Infestation is flat out a fun card. I’m one of those guys who loves it when a card plays in accordance with the flavor it evokes. When you play this card, it feels like you are holding the leash of the Bubonic Plague. A board with one toughness creatures can be absolutely devastated by the smallest token being put into play. Being able to knock down creatures as if they were dominos is a wonderful and amazing experience as a magic player. As a side note, in drafting, this card is a diamond in the rough that often can be snatched up 7^th or 8^th pick.

Decks this card would work in: A control deck with a -1/-1 counter removal theme. I could see Serrated Arrows really making things painful for your opponents along side Blowfly Infestation. There are so many good cards in Shadowmoor that deal with -1/-1 creature control (see: Grim Poppet), Blowfly Infestation could definitely be something to anchor around in board control. While looking through magic’s history I noticed there are a lot of other cards that play nicely with Blowfly Infestation and would be worth looking into if thinking about making a -1/-1 counter/control deck. Giant Oyster, Harbinger of Night, Aboroth are just to name a few.

Cemetery Puca:

Why I like this card: What’s more fun than seeing the look on your friends face after you wipe out his big carry creature he just put into play? Watching his jaw hit the ground as it hits the board again… under your control! Cemetery Puca offers this delightful opportunity to you in a conveniently priced three-drop package. The power of Puca is two-fold: first, it doesn’t target a specific graveyard so your creatures and each of your opponent’s creatures are fair game. Second, it’s a repeatable effect as Puca’s ability transfers over to the creature’s form that it takes. If you like a creature that hit the yard better than the one you currently have Puca set to, tap one measly colorless mana and that creature is yours.

Decks this card would work in: Frankly, Puca is a utility card. There isn’t really too heavy a theme with the card (although I’m sure someone is going infinite with it on turn 15 somewhere somehow) and really the only condition you need to have in your deck in order for it to be very effective is having lots of removal or at least to get creatures into the yard.

Everlasting Torment:

Why I like this card: The most annoying multi-player decks, for me, are ones that loop life gain and eventually reach critical mass by going infinite. Well friends, they’re day in the sun has come to an end thanks to arrival of everlasting torment. It such a sassy little global effect and if your opponent is running life gain/damage prevention, they’re toast (hopefully they aren’t running too much enchant removal). What’s also nice is the wither ability it grants all of your damage sources. So now all of your Tims can deal with larger scale threats and direct damage nukes have their utility value increased. When put up with Blowfly infestation (pointed out earlier) this card can really wreak havoc.

Decks this card would work in: Something aggressive. Very aggressive. And certainly nothing that cruxes on life gaining at any point. The counter-synergy there is too powerful to try and work around. If you don’t have something fast to work with in a deck that runs Everlasting Torment you are going to be running into problems. This enchantment hitting the board is in a sense closing off an out to your opponent who is already on their heels from tempo you have generated. At least, this seems to be the desired effect in the most powerful scenario created by Everlasting Torment.

Firespout:

Why I like this card: Bread and butter R/G aggro board sweeper (read: hurricane and earthquake). It’s so excitingly versatile as well, especially in a R/G deck where you have the potential option of activating only one side of the destruction coin that is firespout. Another great thing is how this card fits in terms of casting cost. Being able to tailor a pyroclasm effect, with one more point of damage for one more mana, and being able to splash it into green is good, very good. The power of this card is certainly evidenced in how highly it is taken in draft. I think at my weekly draft (another shout out to First Pick!) firespout is taken right below incremental blight in terms of draft picks.

Decks this card would work in: Preferably something R/G. This way you have the option of tailoring your firespout to whatever creatures your opponent is throwing at you. While R/G in and of itself doesn’t have many fliers, having the option to only remove all non-fliers is still something to keep in mind when considering the options this card gives you.

Godhead of Awe:

Why I like this card: Do you even have to ask??? A 4/4 flyer hitting the board and effectively disabling all of your opponents armies for five flexible hybrid mana is insane. Really there isn’t much else that needs to be said about the card, the power should be just that obvious.

Decks this card would work in: I could see the Godhead fitting in decks that run pretty far along the control end of the deck spectrum. Casting Godhead just screams of counter and board control. And don’t underestimate the ability of a 4/4 flyer to carry you home all on its own (especially when all the other flyers have been reduced to 1/1). See Brian Weissman’s The Deck if you are having a difficult time believing me.

Hollowhorn Barghest:

Why I like this card: Punishing your opponents for having no cards in hand while simultaneously rewarding yourself if you end up in that unfortunate situation is nice. Besides that, it is a very efficiently priced black creature. It avoids terror effects and pesky things like Sudden Death. There are very few cards out there that effectively deal with 6 toughness creatures quickly and effectively. Black is not known for being a bargain basement creature casting costs but honestly, a 7/6 for 7 mana is not bad.

Decks this card would work in: Any basic rack decks where you can piggy back damage onto discard. Another thing that I love about The Rack is its value in multi-player in that it does not target opponents but rather includes everyone in the fun. Having a 7/6 beat stick attached to discard damage normally used to finish your opponents off in rack decks also gives you another win condition and is very tough for your opponents to deal with.

Kulrath Knight:

Why I like this card: All of a sudden, Serrated Arrows is handing out Pacifisms like it was the Salvation Army. Working this card into a deck focused on control in the form of -1/-1 counters would be very menacing. Not only that but the card itself actually dispenses out -1/-1 counters because it has wither. And it flies over for three. Not to mention the art is incredibly sexy. Seriously, do you need more reasons?

Decks this card would work in: Similar decks that Blowfly Infestation would work with. Decks that run board control in the form of -1/-1 counters.

Prison Term:

Why I like this card: Options, options, and more options. It’s great to disable creatures early in the game and even better as the game goes on because it forces your opponents to think one creature a head. The fact that you can use this card to jump between creatures regardless of controller is sick and is something that will come in handy numerous times in a multi-player game. Also, this card is a wonderful political pawn as you can choose to move it or not depending on whom you are playing to stop and who you are in cahoots with.

Decks this card would work in: Anything white. Seriously. This card has an incredible range of playability. Its ability is so simple yet so powerful.

Worldpurge:

Why I like this card: Evacuation effects have always made me smile. It always has seemed to be that blue is the kid that has been left out at the lunch table in the cafeteria of mass removal. With Worldpurge you get some nice parting gifts short of literally removing the creatures. Forcing your opponents to discard to seven immediately forces them to make painful decisions. I’m not sure exactly how the mana pool emptying will play out as you can only cast it at sorcery speed, I’m sure somebody knows why that’s good too.

Decks this card would work in: Decks that are similar to the ones that would work with the Godhead of Awe. Something control heavy that operates on shutting down combat and preventing your opponents from carrying out their poorly thought out plans.

Those are some cards that I could see really making an impact on a table with three or more people sitting around it. I would also like to mention that specifically for EDH, Oona, Queen of the Fae and Sygg, River Cutthroat are PHENOMENAL Generals. Unfortunately, in the world of Shadowmoor , Wizards printed the sexiest generals for EDH in the same colors. I’ve already seen a milling deck that runs around Oona courtesy of my friend Ben (he swears it has milled 300 cards in a match before). And for the longest time, some kids at first pick were dying to crack a foil Sygg to have a nice shiny General to lead their troops into battle.

Now there are a few cards that I did not mention that I think would do just fine in a multi-player environment, Mass Calcify is a good example. The cards I presented above were some of the ones that I would imagine as fun to play in a multi-player environment and provide some open-ended possibilities for deck design.

As for me, I have finals next weekend so I may or may not be able to deliver another timely multi-player/EDH article for next week. If I do find time buried between Arabic and Public Policy textbooks, I’m hoping to write another deck profile and give another detailed play report the following week.

Until Then,

Trent

The origin of this is that every business, when broken down to its most simplistic meaning, can be described in 30 seconds. The time it usually takes to travel on an elevator, when the person you’re talking to can’t escape (at least, not easily.)

Why am I discussing an Entrepreneurial skill in my Magic article? Because you should know the elevator pitch of your deck. When someone asks what you’re playing, you should be able to, in a brief amount of time explain your deck and its plan.

Key points your deck elevator pitch needs to contain:

• The deck name (and creator if not you)
• The key cards
• The general strategy
• The bad matchups
• The really good matchups (I mean, the auto-wins)
• Should not contain the words: “kind of like”

Why do you need this? Because it means you have a clear understanding of your deck. A clear and complete understanding of your deck means you have the necessary information to make proper decisions during a match.

You hear writers and announcers discuss playing for the card you need to win. You have to know your deck well enough to be able to discern what cards in it can help you win and what you can do to up the likelihood of it happening.

If your opponent is at three life, you need to draw an Incinerate to kill them, but they have two islands and three cards in hand, how do you know one of them it isn’t a counter? You don’t. You do everything you can, either forcing him to tap his mana or to use the card in hand in the hopes that when you draw your card it will be the game winner.

That’s a fairly simple example, but even that simple example wouldn’t be doable if you weren’t sure that your deck had three Incinerates and not two, when two are in your graveyard. You need to know your deck so you know what remains in it during a game.

This isn’t just for standard either, it’s easier for Standard as numbers are usually regular. Draft and sealed are more difficult, but you need to remember the key cards and how many you have. Even your limited decks should have their own elevator pitch.

Ask me about my deck’s elevator pitch next time you see me.

Match-up 1: Charles and His Goblins
This deck is an interesting one. It centers around Wort, Boggart Auntie as its general and uses a lot of cheap goblins and all the tribal synergy shenanigans that go along with them. Auntie is very key in this deck as the card advantage generated from her ability to recur goblins in the yard is insane and having a 3/3 creature with fear as a general against any deck that doesn’t play black is a scary scenario (as 21 points from a general will supercede the 40 life points in EDH required to take you down).

There are some really awesome cards in his deck that both seem like they are very fun to play and can be absolutely back breaking. Buried Alive is great as it basically tutors up three cards that you can recur with Auntie’s graveyard ability. Siege-Gang Commander is just wonderful, being able to convert your army into Shocks is a wonderful ability to have. Certainly worth its 10 dollar price-tag. Insurrection is the definition of a finisher, this card is inconceivably devastating and can swing tempo in such a way that I have never seen before in multi-player magic. Any red EDH deck should be running this card. Period. And last but certainly not least is Ben-Ben, Akki Hermit. While being a solid defense against attack, this creature has one of my favorite names in Magic. With a name like Ben-Ben, how can you go wrong?

Over the course of the game, I found myself running into a few problems. The first and one of the more tricky problems was my inability to successfully and consistently deal with Wort. My deck has a lot of removal that revolves around Terror effects. This however presents a problem when such a key player in my opponent’s deck avoids these effects. Sure, I can destroy all of his other creatures (the majority being red goblins) but what good is that if I’m having a problem dealing with the machine that’s bringing them all back from the yard? So a lot of the match I was focused on how to get an answer to Wort and stabilize my board position enough to recover from the onslaught of goblins.

Even after a few Damnation effects, Wort was still causing me problems. I dropped Garruk, Wildspeaker and Chameleon Colossus during the last few turns of the game, desperately hoping that an army of 3/3 beasts and a pro-black beat stick could protect me against the army across from me enough to find a way to regain some momentum, but in the end it was I who was Overrun (figuratively speaking.)

Another problem I found myself running into was the fragility of Savra. The difference between two-toughness and three-toughness is huge. Especially with a deck running a card like Siege-Gang Commander. Her brief appearances in the game gave me opportunities to deal with Wort in ways most of my removal couldn’t offer, however, she was so often the target of hate that these brief windows of opportunity didn’t ever blossom into tempo swinging board sweeps.

Overall, the match was a tough one. Running into Wort was a real problem and when that machine gets online, recovering from the momentum my opponent was gaining was a real struggle. There were a few cards such as Annihilate and Terror that would sit dead in my hand or be needlessly wasted on a goblin chump because of their inability to target black creatures.

Match-up 2: Four-way Fight Fest
The second match I was able to play was quite the game featuring my Savra deck, my friend Charles’ goblins deck, a first pick regular named Charlie with his deck featuring Kaervek the Merciless, and a local judge in the area named Tony and his deck featuring Radha, Heir to Keld. Charlie’s deck didn’t have much inner-deck synergy but mainly just featured some powerful cards from magic’s history. Tony’s deck on the other hand had early game mana ramping while featuring a lot of top-end power in red and green beat sticks.

The match began going along fairly normally enough. Charles was beginning the Wort recursion machine, Charlie was mana-flooded for a while, and Tony was starting a base to support his larger creatures. Tony was able to pull out Deus of Calamity on turn four which was incredibly unfortunate for all of us (especially Charlie whose lands were almost all non-basic). Charles was sneaking in with an ever growing number of Goblins while I was setting up with card-advantage enchantments such as Phyrexian Arena and Abundance.

Things started to heat up when I brought in Sengir Nosferatu. The next turn I was able to bring in Savra and start dispensing global Cruel Edicts like it was my job. At first, my opponents didn’t find this play to threatening; however when the Deus and Wort fell to the triggered abilities of Savra, things started going south. The players on the board realized that if they were to ever put creatures on the board, this problem had to be dealt with. Tony targeted my Sengir with Flame Javelin and so in response I activated my bat ability by tapping my last two open mana. Charles had his turn next and was very easily able to deal with the bat token I had in play and with me not having the mana to bring the Sengir back into play, that was all she wrote. From there on out, Savra had a huge target on her head and any time she hit the board she would most assuredly be leaving soon.

Tony got a Protean hulk on the board in the next few turns that would ultimately lead to my demise. However, in consolation, after I had been eliminated, Charlie (who wasn’t aware of Protean Hulk’s amazing yard trigger) cast Nettlevine Blight targeting Protean Hulk, eventually leading to everyone’s demise at the hands of Tony’s legions of doom spawned from the corpse of the fallen Hulk. Ahh… the hilarity that only magic can bring.

Something to note in this match was watching my opponents focus all tunnel-vision on my poor Sengir-Savra combo after it had eliminated a sizeable chunk of the board. Political finesse was something that I touched on in last week’s article and it is absolutely something that made my life MUCH more difficult in this match-up mash-up. Subtlety can often win you a game, giving you the freedom to generate board stability and wait for the precise moment in which you can successfully take the reigns of the game away from your opponents.

While I didn’t win either of these matches (cue The Cure), many more lessons in life come from losing than winning. Diversifying my removal options and flying under the radar are two important things I need to work on in terms of deck building and play style. Thanks for reading this week, next week I plan to look at some of the best multi-player cards (what few there are) to come out of Shadowmoor and some new elements that the block introduces to us.

Until Then,
Trent

Yesterday was another awesome day for Magic, I watched Zvi Mowshowitz go from being out of contention (0-3 to open the tournament) all the way to 20th place. A big example as to why he earned a spot in the Pro Tour Hall of Fame.

On Monday if you had asked me who I expected to see in the Top 8, I would have said Guaillame Wafo-Tapa without hesitation but he fell short while Shuuhei Nakamura, Makahito Mihara (2006 World Champ), and Paulo Vitor Doma da Rosa all rose to the top.

I’m looking forward to getting down there and seeing just what is going to happen today. We won’t be able to get footage on the floor, but we’ll be talking to other Pros and regular folks here at the event.

One thing that is fascinating to me is the rise of the Swiss team. Manuel Bucher designed the powerful deck that Wafo-Tapa, the Ruels and others were wielding. And in the top 8 we have Nico Bohny, another member of the 2007 Team Champions from Worlds.

Today’s the last day of the event, and what an event it has been. Look forward to the coming episodes, interviews and games you’ll see only here on ManaNation