• Great Designer Search II—WotC is offering a second shot at this dream job.
• Magic Weekend Announcement—Wizard’s announcement of these mega-events was tempered by a conflict with Magic Cruise 3.
• States Announcement—While there are major tournaments every weekend, there’s still only one annual opportunity for a player to be crowned a state champion.
• New  Play or Draw  Rule—Swiss results will now determine which player decides to play or draw in the top eight of Pro Tour events.

Tournament Coverage

• Grand Prix Gothenburg—Kenny Olberg was the last man standing in this Swedish showdown thanks to his RG deck and two acidic slimes.
• SCG Minneapolis Open –Jund and Bomber Man took down the titles this weekend in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Standard

• A Winner’s Memento—Josh Utter-Leyton begins with the end in mind in this tournament report recounting his route to the National title.
• Dredgevine in Minneapolis—Gerry Thompson rode this renegade strategy to a 2^nd place finish in this weekend’s SCG open.  David Ochoa discusses his nationals experience with the deck here.
• Getting the Soul Read—Conley Woods discusses the rogue life-gain deck that continues to put up impressive results.
• Getting Nassty at Nationals—Matt Nass wrote a prescription for Conscription at nationals and discusses his draft successes as well.
• Life after Shards—Adam Koska peers into the not-so-distant future of Standard.

Limited

• No Sleep ‘til 7^th Place—Sam Black reports out on his Gothenburg experience.
• Gothenburg Report and M11 Draft—Bas Melis reflects on his sealed pool and recommends forcing mono-black in M11 draft.
• Mastering M11 Sealed—Darwin Kastle dives into the deep end of these sealed pools.
• The Rares and Mythics of M11 Limited—Gerard Fabiano rates the cards at the back of the pack.

Extended

• Extended Faeries—Justin Richardson reminds us just how tough it can be to beat a turn-two Bitterblossom.

Legacy

• Legacy Format Ripples—Noah Swartz sorts through the fallout of GP Columbus.
• Legacy on the Cheap—Christopher Walton examines relatively inexpensive deck options and their possible evolutions.

Casual and Variant Formats

• EDH is for Fun?—Ben McDole takes a spikier slant on EDH with Arcanis, the Omnipotent.
• Rocking Kresh in EDH League—Sheldon Menery shares his current list, scans of altered cards, and a report from a league match.
• The Cube: Redundancy—Adam Styborski considers the role of functional reprints, randomness, and risk in Cube design.

On-Going Series

• So You Want to Qualify for the Pro Tour—Sam Stoddard focuses on tournament structure and tie-breakers.

Miscellany

• How to Win When You Draw Terribly—Travis Woo talks about tells, bluffing, and putting your opponent on tilt.
• Building your Character Sheet—Alexander Shearer takes an espansive look at self-assessment that covers everything from D&D style character
• The Female Advantage—Lauren Lee begins her new column by discussing her experiences networking as a female player.

Concentrating on the constant sound lifts the fog of sleep slightly, but your eyelids remain too heavy to lift.  Unsure of where you have awakened, you remain still for fear of some animal.  The ground beneath you is firm but soft.

The droning slowly grows louder as your consciousness rises.  You finally open your eyes to the sight of stacks of books topped by candles.  With a final leap your mind is reminded of how you had fallen asleep in Issar Roon’s study while listening to his tale.

…moon composed of blue mana was called the Eye of Doom.  The black one, Ingle thanks to…

The voice continues without pause.  You are unsure of how long you had slept, but it seems to have gone unnoticed by the old man.  Attempting to remain quiet, you push yourself off the colored rug and sit in what you hope is an attentive position.

…green moon was the last ejected, and named Lyese by Glissa Sunseeker after her sister.

Not only were the moons defined by the color of mana that imbued each, but so were the environments of Mirrodin.  The plane was separated into five distinct locales, each home to their respective Lacuna.  They were the Razor Fields, the Quicksilver Sea, Mephidross, the Oxidda Chain, and the Tangle.  The Lacuna were passages by which the moons escaped Mirrodin’s core and all led to that sixth and final region of Mirrodin, home to Memnarch’s Panopticon and Karn’s Palace.

Your mind fully awake at last, you listen closely to hear more about the strange plane.  The old man pauses in his tale to turn pages rapidly until he finds what he is looking for.  He turns towards you with the book held forward.  Half of a page is taken over by a beautiful sketch which can only be part of Mirrodin.

This is the Razor Fields, the location of white mana upon Mirrodin.  Its name comes from the Razor Grass that grew across much of the land.  This grass would chime in the wind, but was stronger and sturdier than any glass or metal you might find in a wind chime.  Its edges were as sharp as a blade, cutting anything that would brush against it.  It could even grow fast enough to impale an unwary traveler before they knew to move.

Though a dangerous place, the Razor Fields were the home to a scattering of races.  Nomadic humans called Aurioks lived among the Razor Grass.  They survived through trade, and were fierce warriors when threatened.  Their allies, the Leonin, preferred a permanent home, and built a city of gold called Taj-Nar.  A third race, the Loxodons, seemed to avoid contact with other races, but lived peacefully within the Razor Fields.

The old man turns the page a few more times.  Each page holds another beautiful sketch or painting of the Razor Fields.

The locale of blue mana on Mirrodin was the Quicksilver Sea.  A sea of an unknown liquid, this was the home of the Vedalken and Neuroks.  The Vedalken populated spires of quicksilver while the Neuroks lived in tin settlements along the shores of the Quicksilver Sea.  The Vedalken spires that rose high into the air were believed to have been created by solidifying the liquid in the sea.

You look closely at the sketch in the old man’s book and easily identify what appear as giant thorns stabbing the sky.

Of course, a highly intelligent race like the Vedalken needed a center for their government, and so they built Lumengrid, a huge interconnected city that rose atop a giant pedestal.  Lumengrid was the core of Vedalken society, as well as the center of commerce.  It was there that they lived, traded, and trained their Neurok slaves.

The old man turns more pages.

If the Quicksilver Sea and Razor Fields were lands of beauty on Mirrodin, then Mephidross was the dark pit.  Bordering the Quicksilver Sea, it too had liquid and spires, but these were corrupted reflections infused with black mana.  The knee-deep water was covered with scum and noxious gas called necrogen.  The ominous chimneys in Mephidross were as black as obsidian, and emitted a constant thrum that spoke of a hidden and dark energy.

Almost entirely inhospitable, Mephidross held two races, the Nim and Moriok.  The Nim were zombie-like creatures, twisted remnants of life that had strayed too deeply into the dark recesses of the swamp.  The Moriok were humans, those ever-adaptable beings, who found a way to live within the swamp.  Unable to fully resist the necrogen, the Moriok had metal plates over their eyes, and were often missing pieces of flesh and bone.  The Moriok were ruled over by a warlord named Geth.

Again, the pages and pictures flash by.

The Oxidda Chain was home to red mana on Mirrodin.  Giant mounds of rusted iron, these mountains were scrap heaps and piles of ductwork.  Some mountain tops had even separated, floating hundreds of feet in the air thanks to the strong magnetic fields within the Oxidda Chain.  Deep within the mountain range laid the Great Furnace, Kuldotha, a place of molten metal.

Humans and goblins inhabited the Oxidda Chain, living off of the metal and furnaces located throughout.  The humans, called the Vulshok, were great smiths, the creators of Mirrodin’s best weapons and armor.  Though they held strained relations with outsiders, they were amiable towards the goblins near their home and often traded with them.  Many of the goblins on Mirrodin lived around Kuldotha, scavenging and becoming artificers.  All but a small cult believed in a creator of their world called the Steel Mother, and often sent her offerings through Kuldotha.

More pages turn, and you begin to feel sleep clawing at you once again.  You resist, hoping the old man will soon finish his story.

The final locale on Mirrodin’s surface was the Tangle, the domain of green mana.  The Tangle was a conglomeration of copper, much of it in the forms of trees and living plants.  One might imagine it alive, thanks to the verdigris that covered almost all surfaces.  Deep within the Tangle laid a tree called Tel-Jilad, or Tree of Tales.  Inscribed on the trunk was the entire history of Mirrodin.  Though, the beginning had been mysteriously erased.

Though the Tangle itself was not living, life was able to flourish.  Many animals made it their home, along with some plants and intelligent species.  As with all other areas of Mirrodin there was a human tribe, the Sylvok.  The Sylvok were a hunter-gatherer culture, and kept mostly to themselves.  There were also Viridian elves who lived alongside the Tel-Jilad trolls, keepers of Tel-Jilad.  Glissa, an important figure in Mirrodin`s history came from among the Viridian Elves.

The old man’s story comes to an abrupt end, and he closes the book with a soft thump.

That is all for today.  You seem tired.  Take care of those feet, and get some sleep.  I will tell you a new tale when you are more awake.

You had forgotten about your feet, but after the old man speaks you begin to feel the pain return.  You make your way to the door as gingerly as possible, and hope that the pain remains at bay until you are able to lie down again.  As you make your leave, you catch a glimpse of the old man’s gentle smile before he turns back to his books.

This is a work of fiction based on the stories and entries provided by Wizards about some of the early characters. The author takes some liberty with the story for dramatic purposes. So the story portrayed here may not be the exact story according to Magic Canon. The author has found references and art to use in the following locations: Encyclopedia Phyrexianna and the MTG Salvation Wiki. Written by Brendan Weiskotten.

We capitalized Elder Dragon Highlander before it made the rules, didn’t we?

While I’m not here to declare how much of an expert I am at cube draft, I do feel confident talking about what I’ve learned from my cube. Last time it was the lessons I could apply in general; this time I’m looking directly into the heart of the beast itself.

Dogged and Dragged

I don’t believe I’ve ever really explained my cube. In fact, my initial statements at the outset more than a year ago (more power to you if you know what I’m talking out) are grossly off the mark now. Originally, my goal was to apply two overriding principles:

• Cards printed at common rarity only (true pauper)
• Support and provide multicolor play

Sounds pretty simple and, in my infinite naivety, it was pretty simple. However I was wrong about many things and it took dozens of iterations and trials to discover:

• No one likes being forced into something (in this case it was three color decks)
• Cube is more often associated with powerful rares than commons (Time Walk vs. Rampant Growth)
• Commons facilitate traditional Limited play better than constructed archetypes

Plowing through versions, testing cards and attempting to find archetypes, sleeving and resleeving everything, creating a comprehensive spreadsheet documenting various datum – it’s clear that I’m passionate about what I’m doing. Funneling this passion into my cube only resulted in more and more information being gathered. Three things quickly became apparent:

• Aggressive three-color (or more) decks were not effective
• Four and five color control decks had the long game locked up
• Functional copies of cards were highly desirable

Does that sound familiar? Applying the standard cube caveat – every card is, generally, a very high pick and consistently desirable – reveals nothing more interesting than what you can gain from a few rounds of drafting:

• Monocolor and color pairs provide focus, and therefore consistency
• Splashing for cards that can take control of a game is acceptable
• Achieving consistency through redundancy of cards is a powerful strategy

But here lies and interesting divide in the cube community: to include functional reprints or to not include functional reprints. For my cube, some of the highlights are:

• Civic Wayfinder – Borderland Ranger
• Kodama’s Reach – Cultivate
• Cloud Spirit – Rishidan Airship

And there are some pairs that are virtually functional reprints:

• Terror – Doom Blade
• Sakura Tribe Elder – Sylvan Ranger (worth a discussion elsewhere)
• Mire Boa – River Boa
• Carnophage – Vampire Lacerator
• Rampant Growth – Farseek

I could go on but my point is that I clearly believe in having multiple copies of similar, powerful effects in a constrained draft space.

Some Terminology

When I say “constrained draft space” I mean exactly what I say: a draft environment where variability is limited and reduced. Have you ever drafted triple “small expansion” in the recent year or so? Multiples begin to pile up quickly and archetypes are limited.

The most powerful strategies are parasitic perversions that can’t exist elsewhere. What a lovely way to transition back to my cube.

Consistency in Limited decks can be achieved in a number of ways, primarily:

• Following a Mana Curve to ensure threats are distributed across converted mana costs
• Restricting colors to a synergistic pair, splashing only for great effect (Fireball, Clone, etc.)
• Pulling multiple copies of strong cards (multiples of Doom Blade, Stormfront Pegasus, etc.)

While following a mana curve and focuses draft picking are things still controlled by the players of a cube, it is only the cube owner that can permit or deny redundancy of effects.

It’s an odd discussion I’ve seen moving around that hasn’t settled much beyond the old standby of “since cube is anything you want just do what you want” solution. Is Kodama’s Reach sufficient alone or is adding Cultivate better? What about Terror and Doom Blade? Or Control Magic and Binding Grasp?

There are a lot more cubes with multiple Control Magic effects than Rampant Growth effects. The reason for this is the not-so-subtle ramping effect the Signets from Ravnica block provide in conjunction with the mana smoothing impact of the bounce lands, also from Ravnica block. A nice set of sets if I must say so.

In a different vein, Monday brought some Twitter discussion regarding Squadron Hawk and cube: is it possible to get the “best of both worlds” with the Hawk – include one Hawk and, by picking it, get the three more that make it worth running? The consensus from Kelly Digges (@kellydigges), Sam Stoddard (@samstod), Alexis Jansen (@alexisjansen), Trick Jarrett (@mananation), and Evan Erwin (@misterorange) was that it sounded like a good solution. Similarly, if the Nissa’s Chosen from Nissa Revane came from nowhere – just “Poof! Here’s a 2/3 dude!” – then Nissa could be an excellent cube addition.

Redundancy is a powerful, attractive thing.

But part of what makes Squadron Hawk interesting is that you have to actually spend picks on supporting the Hawk, otherwise you end up with an underpowered 1/1 flying Bird.

Redundancy is a powerful, attractive thing that rewards those who know how to find it.

I don’t like the “pick one, get four” solution for Hawks. Part of working with a cube is adhering to the boundaries you set and working within the window of “one copy per card” makes functional reprints (and near reprints) exciting. Suddenly, seeing Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach feels more natural.

Imagine if Squadron Hawk instead let you pay to put a copy into play up to three times. Ignoring very awkward templating issues (“Use this ability no more than three times in the game.” Wait, what?), would this card still be a common? Of course not – it’s clearly something much more. By having to pay multiple picks for the effect of filling your hand with a creature the redundancy comes with an opportunity cost of other things that may, individually, be stronger.

Splitting Hairs

It’s this narrow division that drives the of redundancy for me: the tension between raw power, and potential power, and having multiple copies of moderately effective cards. The core of virtually every blue-based control deck in cubes are Control Magic effects. They serve as a combination of removal and bodies, giving a power tool to taking control of a board.

There is little trade-off here: stealing creatures is generally the best thing a deck can do at any point in the game. Mana ramping, for comparison, is best early in the game. Taking multiple ramp effects is a risk that, if executed properly, rewards playing creatures a turn or two ahead of where your opponent is. Turn three Blastoderm or Calciderm is pretty rough beats.

Redundancy is powerful mitigation against randomness. Redundancy without risk is boring.

Running a very tight cube – about 365 cards or just enough for a full eight man draft – virtually guarantees that all of the copies of cards will be seen. Providing opportunities for players to make decisions is part of the skill testing element that makes cube draft so engaging. Of course, with a larger cube running functional reprints gets the desirable effects to show up more consistently, providing opportunities for players to recognize their potential during drafts.

So why would you ever make the decision easier than it needs to be? (Don’t answer that – it’s a trick question.)

I include a lot of ramping effects in green for three reasons:

1. It feels natural as part of it’s color identity
2. It provides intuitive support for multicolored decks
3. Green has the best creatures to ramp into

However, green also has strong creatures along a mana curve as well – it’s not all land fetching and mana bugs. The decision to grab the correct amount, not too much or too little, of the right mana ramping will yield a more optimal deck than one that either ignored or overvalues the same pieces.

Redundancy in the form I present it is meant to achieve the ultimate goal of providing a sufficient number of pieces for multiple drafters to grab the correct number and types of pieces. Everyone else ends up punished for greed or ignorance.

Skill testing indeed.

So how do you feel about redundancy? Where do you see it falling within the spectrum of draft and what are you looking for it to achieve – or for you to achieve with it? Join me next week when I show you some pretty graphs and delicious, crunchy numbers.

I’ve been thinking of something recently: Years ago when Legacy was first taking off, people were always asking me how to get into Legacy without spending too much money. Dual lands topped out at $30 in those days and almost nothing in the format cost more than an Underground Sea. I suggested decks to them that I knew were sub-par but were able to steal games now and then, and they were happy because they could be built for around $40. Before Tarmogoyf, Zoo and Sligh were both budget decks and until Path to Exile both were mostly choices for if you just wanted to have fun at the tournament. Looking back to the days of Mental Note, those were good times and very inexpensive to get started in the format.

Now that Legacy has really picked up, all of the cards with any real scarcity have shot up. At least it shouldn’t be too surprising the increase in value of dual lands is linked with the increase of popularity with Legacy. However, recently I had been thinking about a few things. The first is that no one who plays Merfolk wants to be playing Merfolk (The exception here would likely be Saito at the Grand Prix, but Merfolk is still a budget choice) and I think that most people who are piloting it would rather be playing a deck that touches a bit more on the bases of what Legacy is supposed to be about – skill intensive, decision based plays, not just attacking with fish-people and hoping not to play against Mountains. Even if Merfolk is a budget choice, it has been doing exceptionally well. The same is true of Burn, another deck that used to be heralded with White Weenie and Pox as totally non-viable decks. Elves was another deck from that same vein that has has been putting up respectable numbers. Even an Affinity deck made day two at the Grand Prix. Apparently, you don’t need to invest a lot of cash into Legacy to enjoy some success with it.

For a long time, Legacy players argued with Standard players about the costs of each format and how even after a single rotation, Legacy was often a much cheaper alternative. At that point in time I knew I was lying, but I also knew that over time not only would it would be the safer bet, but that the more stable cards for Legacy would appreciate in value. This was during a time where Legacy staples far out valued the price of any standard card. It is now the case where staples for Standard have huge price tags that exceed even most dual lands, and the quality of the cards is simply not high enough to cause them to maintain value over time, especially with the advent of duel decks that seem to imply that every Planeswalker is going to be reprinted in a preconstructed deck at some point (except maybe Big Jace). Some years later, Legacy cards have tripled in value where as Shadowmage Infiltrator and Tooth and Nail haven’t found much of a home in quite some time, what will become of Primeval Titan and Gideon Jura relative to the value of Tropical Island and Phyrexian Dreadnought?

Foremost, I want to stress this article isn’t designed to discuss the long-term viability of the format, this has been a hotly debated topic recently and it is all a moot point to discuss because if people want to play the format, then they will develop viable strategies to work around or in spite of card restraints. Merfolk has been the perfect example of this. What I want to do in this article is show some of the decks that have been successful in Legacy that lack the price tag that is commonly associated with the format. Furthermore this is not an article claiming that one format is superior to another on any grounds, even for fiscal purposes, but to demonstrate that it is possible to enjoy Legacy on a longer-term basis for a comparable investment to a standard rotation.

Decks on the Top End

Before listing any decks, I feel as though I need to extend my definition of budget. For the context of this article, budget is defined as a relatively inexpensive deck that has a solid shot at competing and winning in a Legacy tournament. The first decks I’d like to cover are decks that push the upper limits on what can be considered budget. None of the decks presented should run over $500 retail. Each example given is of a deck that has enjoyed some degree of success recently in Legacy.

Merfolk and Goblins

Merfolk is the cheapest competitive deck to optimize that uses Force of Will. Essentially, the cost of the Merfolk deck is sixteen cards: Force of Will, Wasteland, Mutavault, AEther Vial. The rest of the deck consists of low-end rares and mid-range uncommons. The good news is three of the four highest end cards in the deck are staples of the format that can be reused in literally dozens of decks so this isn’t going to be skewed like buying cards for say Aluren, where most of the cards are only going to be playable in that single deck. The excellent news is that Merfolk has been doing incredibly well recently.

Goblins has pretty much been the same deck for the last six years and the value is in four high ticket items as well: Wasteland, AEther Vial, Goblin Lackey and Goblin Piledriver. Goblins has also been doing quite well recently and has a strong track record of performing, so we can likely expect it to stay that course. The issue is that a lot of players feel vulnerable without the safety net that counters or other more direct forms of disruption provided by black. However, Goblins stumbles in many fewer places than these other decks do so the lack of maindeck disruption isn’t often the oversight that it seems it would be in theory.

I won’t really provide a list for each of these decks as I talk about them quite frequently, but they are the two decks that can be built fairly cheaply that have enjoyed perhaps the most success per dollar. What I will touch upon is the idea of cutting costs in these decks. For Merfolk, not playing Force of Will is simply not an option, it is essential to holding any advantage that the deck is able to generate. AEther Vial is essential to both decks as well. The flexible card that can be dropped from both lists is Wasteland. While the mana denial will win some games and allow you to apply a lot of pressure early on, the card isn’t vital to the play the deck. Mutavault and Goblin Piledriver could both possibly be cut from either list, but that is looking a lot more skeptical. You have to start somewhere, so it is best to look at the cards are not entirely vital to the functionality of the decks.

The Casual Suspects

Burn

I talked a bit about this deck last week, and since I wrapped up that article another Burn deck has had a respectable finish:

"Burn by Kyle Miller"

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Creatures (12) 4 Goblin Guide 4 Grim Lavamancer 4 Keldon Marauders Spells (28) 4 Sulfuric Vortex 4 Fireblast 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Price of Progress 4 Chain Lightning 4 Lava Spike 4 Rift Bolt Lands (20) 8 Mountain 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Scalding Tarn 4 Wooded Foothills Sideboard (15) 4 Vexing Shusher 4 Pyrostatic Pillar 4 Searing Blaze 3 Volcanic Fallout

Until fairly recently Burn was considered a terrible deck. Taking Burn into a tournament was literally doing the deck’s namesake with your entry fee. Zoo has always been seen as a superior strategy, and until recently Zoo had not been taken seriously as a competitive deck. Though Burn has put up some numbers in this format, while it may not be an ideal deck, but it has proven that it is a metagame player.

The Good – Burn is ultra consistent, as all the cards do exactly the same thing – kill the opponent. Despite losing in the finals to a Merfolk deck, Burn has proven that it is able to race most current aggro strategies. Burn decks are also able to really punish combo decks and speaking as a control player, a knowledgeable red player is one of the most aggravating things to play against. There are a fair number of decks that realistically have bad matches against this deck.

The Bad – The archetype tends to be an easy archetype to hate out as years of cards have been printed to effectively foil a deck that just recently recieved enough cards to truly become playable. The curve on playing this deck is also deceptively high. While on the surface the idea is just to send everything at the opponent, learning how to sequence spells for the most effective endgame and resource management for when a Lightning Bolt needs to act as a removal spell makes some experience required. Also, because Burn is so straight forward, you are seldom able to have a trick that the opponent is not going to see coming, meaning that there are very limited opportunities to out play anyone on the other side of the table.

The Price Points – The only cards in the deck over $11 are the fetchlands and Chain Lightning. The rares that are in the deck are plentiful and generally unplayed so they are easy to accumulate. Most of the deck is common and many of these cards exist in excess in most collections. To cut costs on the deck the Fetchlands are the first thing that can be cut as they are only useful to power up a Grim Lavamancer who himself can be a candidate to be removed. Chain Lightning‘s price tag has grown quite a bit over the last few months and for budget concerns it can certainly be cut. The only piece of advice is to be sure that the card that replaces it deals as much damage and is not Shard Volley. I’m a big fan of Hellspark Elemental finding a slot in this deck and some people have had success using Reckless Abandon or Reckless Charge to push in a lot of early damage. The sacred cow of the deck that probably should not be removed is likely Goblin Guide as he is able to apply so much pressure that it drastically reduces the work the rest of your cards need to do to get the job done.

The Long-Term – Cards such as Sulfuric Vortex, Stigma Lasher, Everlasting Tormet and Leyline of Punishment are all fairly inexpensive means to combat a lot of the cards that people are going to attempt to use to win games against you. The decline of Counterbalance has really helped to push this deck into the playable realm, but if you see much of it in your metagame, moving toward high cost cards that are a bit slower may be the best call, Hell’s Thunder is an attractive option and I had liked the possibility of Flame Javelin for a long time, but that probably isn’t an excellent choice. To further combat tribal plans, Flamebreak is really good. Don’t try to load up on cards to beat Combo with, generally the burn is just punishment enough for a burn player.

Elves

About a year ago the world was abuzz with the idea there there was an Elf combo deck that was winning all kinds of games. Grand Prix Chicago had a lot of Elfball players but the metagame was actually ready to handle them. The archetype really dropped off after that point, but is essentially a very powerful and cheap deck to build. The idea behind the Elfball deck is to play Glimpse of Natures and pair it with Heritage Druid and some number of Nettle Sentinel. Eventually the process will net a large amount of mana and you can use Banefire or Mirror Entity to enable a win.

"Elfball"

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Lands (15) 15 Forest Spells (9) 1 Grapeshot 4 Summoner's Pact 4 Glimpse of Nature Creatures (36) 1 Vexing Shusher 1 Caller of the Claw 3 Llanowar Elves 4 Birchlore Rangers 1 Eternal Witness 4 Wirewood Symbiote 4 Elvish Visionary 1 Viridian Shaman 4 Quirion Ranger 1 Regal Force 4 Heritage Druid 4 Nettle Sentinel 4 Fyndhorn Elves Sideboard (15) 2 Tormod's Crypt 1 Vexing Shusher 3 Relic of Progenitus 3 Krosan Grip 2 Reverent Silence 4 Thorn of Amethyst

The Good – The deck is fairly resilient because it isn’t suscepitble to much of the same combo hate that storm decks are and has a solid backup plan of attacking with swarms of creatures. Even if the combo fizzles out you are left with a lot of power on the table for the next turn and often a handful of guys. A big selling point is that a lot of people won’t see this coming and have a very difficult time playing against the deck properly. Even if the deck becomes a force in your metagame, it’s possible to modify an elf deck to use Natural Order and/or Survival of the Fittest which gives you a lot more versatility than either Goblins or Merfolk can offer.

The Bad – Because green isn’t the strongest color there is little in the way of protection for the combo or any of the creatures. The intricacies of the deck are many and if you’re going to outplay the opponent, you’re going to at least need to have the experience to know that Wirewood Symbiote can save any creature from a removal spell or deny counters to a Jitte. The biggest problem is the splash hate that this deck is going to suffer from people combating Zoo and Merfolk; Firespout, Volcanic Fallout and Perish are all around. It almost doesn’t matter what the sweeper is, Elves are going to die to it.

The Price Points – Many casual and otherwise budget players have a high tendency to have a lot of elves cards in their collections already, which can really cut into the cost of this deck. Like Burn, most of the rest of the cards are common and not too much substitution should really need to happen considering that Glimpse of Nature is the only card likely to have a high price tag attached to it aside from Gaea’s Cradle. Glimpse of Nature is a lynchpin of the deck where as Gaea’s Cradle can easily be worked around or simply omitted. Considering that the next highest card may well be Priest of Titania, which many builds do not use – the entire deck is on the low end of competitive decks and allows for a lot of wiggle room.

The Long-Term – As previously stated, Elves builds have a lot of flexibility and as a result really do have long term potential. Seeing as how Green, the color that other people splash for access to Krosan Grip, the best Disenchant effect is already easy at hand and some of the strongest hate for control decks can be found in the form of Choke and Xantid Swarm. The available tutors in the form of Chord of Calling and Summoner’s Pact make the choice versatile and any of the cards that you’re going to be dreading should be able to be answered through Caller of the Claw, for surprise wins. Elves have been a minor player in the format as far as aggro decks go and now modern builds of Elfball and Elf-Survival mean that there is likely a lot more potential for the archetypes and for mono-green decks in the future.

Dredge

Another deck that was a big player in Chicago was Dredge. I’m personally not a fan of this deck, but it is a good choice for some people. Anwar Ahmad has written a lot about a Dredge that would feature both Lion’s Eye Diamond and Entomb. While I’m convinced that the best Dredge decks are going to be using Lion’s Eye Diamond, I’m not sold on the power of Enomb. In fact, the best performing Dredge decks have a relatively low cost, and are not using either, which is exactly why I’m discussing it right now.

"Dredge"

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Lands (15) 4 City of Brass 4 Gemstone Mine 4 Cephalid Coliseum 3 Tarnished Citadel Creatures (27) 4 Golgari Grave-Troll 4 Stinkweed Imp 4 Golgari Thug 4 Putrid Imp 4 Tireless Tribe 4 Narcomoeba 3 Ichorid Spells (18) 4 Careful Study 4 Breakthrough 4 Bridge from Below 4 Cabal Therapy 2 Dread Return Sideboard (15) 4 Ancient Grudge 1 Flame-Kin Zealot 4 Firestorm 3 Nature's Claim 1 Terastodon 1 Ancestor's Chosen 1 Ray of Revelation

The Good – There is likely no deck in Legacy that has a higher percentage of game one wins and you only need to win one more game after that to seal up a match. Dredge has such a strong surprise factor and is so dependent on just one zone that it is difficult for other decks to even interact with it, even when Dredge has a poor start. For most intents and purposes the deck is immune to Counterbalance, Chalice of the Void and any other counterspells. Dredge is strong against most aggro plans and goldfishes most real games anyway and Dredge goldfishes a bit faster than other decks.

The Bad – There is likely no deck in Legacy that has a higher percentage of game two or three losses. Literally every deck has access to hate for Dredge and most people tend to over-sideboard against graveyard strategies. Dredge, especially with an inexpeirenced pilot, also loses a lot harder to hate than other graveyard based decks such as Reanimator or Loam based decks. Dredge does goldfish a bit faster than most other decks, but essentially it is a luck-based deck, so the deck is a lot more open to variance in not only draws but in dredges as well. One final concern is that Dredge isn’t going to present the greatest way to learn the format as most of the games are going to be incredibly skewed one way or the other.

The Price Points – Dredge’s cards are all around and under $5 each, so there shouldn’t really be a need to cut costs anywhere. The lands and Lotus Petals can be used for other combo decks and Cabal Therapies can both be used in future creature decks, but after that there are not many real uses for any of the Dredge cards except to play Dredge.

The Long-Term – Dredge was formerly one of the decks of choice of pro players coming into the format, so they did a lot of work on it about a year ago. There are still some very dedicated players with excellent credentials putting work in on the deck. While it is unlikely that Dredge will get any new new maindeck cards anytime soon, Leyline of Sanctity and other new options keep appearing for the sideboard.

Belcher

A few months ago I had worked on a joke deck that I had called, “Budget Belcher”. The idea behind this deck was that Belcher was so cheap as it was that making a budget build of it was a joke. I was using painfully sub-optimal cards, and even with really poor choices that slowed the deck down numerous turns, I was still beating competitive decks:

"Budget Belcher"

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Lands (3) 1 Mountain 1 Murmuring Bosk 1 Dryad Arbor Creatures (12) 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Wild Cantor 4 Tinder Wall Spells (45) 4 Manamorphose 4 Safewright Quest 4 Lotus Petal 4 Seething Song 4 Goblin Charbelcher 4 Empty the Warrens 4 Spoils of the Vault 4 Desperate Ritual 4 Dark Ritual 4 Rite of Flame 2 Blood Pet 1 Lay of the Land 1 Songs of the Damned 1 Culling the Weak Sideboard (15) 3 Ignite Memories 4 Duress 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Elves of Deep Shadow 4 Ingot Chewer

The above list is seriously a joke, do not try that one at home. However, if I can win matches with this deck, then it stands to reason that a deck that isn’t using awful cards in the place of good ones can and many of the good cards aren’t even costly. A real build of the deck is slightly faster but it doesn’t need to be much more expensive to build and the optimized lists are not that much better than a list that is not optimized.

"Belcher"

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Lands (1) 1 Taiga Creatures (12) 4 Simian Spirit Guide 4 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Tinder Wall Spells (47) 4 Lion's Eye Diamond 4 Lotus Petal 4 Goblin Charbelcher 4 Seething Song 4 Pyretic Ritual 4 Desperate Ritual 4 Rite of Flame 4 Burning Wish 4 Land Grant 4 Street Wraith 4 Chrome Mox 3 Empty The Warrens Sideboard (15) 4 Ingot Chewer 4 Xantid Swarm 3 Pyroblast 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Reverent Silence 1 Pyroclasm

The Good – Belcher has enjoyed a good deal of success recently and it seems as though the deck is on the verge of being able to overcome some of the “just lose to Force of Will” scenarios that the deck is known for. Belcher also has a very strong game against decks that are not packing a heavy control suite.

The Bad – Being another luck based deck, Belcher is going t fall victim to the variance in draws that Dredge is open to, where your ability to fix draws stops at your deck choice.. Unlike Dredge, Belcher is going to mulligan a lot harder as it generally needs all seven cards in hand to really take be able to generate a win. Being a very linear deck, there are very few opportunities to outplay an opponent and they all involve how you sequence your rituals The elephant in the room of course is how weak the deck is to counter magic and there isn’t an excellent answer for it just yet. Sometimes when you play a deck that goes for broke, you end up dead to some cards.

The Price Points – Belcher has been the only suggested deck that featured a dual land, and in this case it can easily be replaced with a Stomping Ground at almost no less of efficiency. The issue with the cost on Lion’s Eye Diamond can probably be overlooked as the card is not essential to the functionality of the deck. Chrome mox is the next highest card in the deck and is a lot more difficult to drop, but it can be done if you need to do it, as I’ve had success with a deck that didn’t play it. Even Burning Wish can be replaced with something like one Empty the Warrens and three Spoils of the Vault. After all the substitutions the deck’s price of mandatory cards starts on the high end with Elvish Spirit Guide and works its way down to something like Desperate Ritual.

The Long-Term – It had looked for some time that Belcher’s best days were over, but lading up to the Star City events and in those events themselves. Belcher recently took second at Legacy Worlds and has enjoyed moderate success in other tournaments even putting a few copies into day two at the Grand Prix, something I feel that few people would have thought possible. There is most likely a future for the deck and it will likely get stronger before it gets weaker.

Conclusion

I feel that these are some good options to get into the format with. I didn’t have time this week to test a budget build of Counter-Top Thopters that I had seen, although it looked interesting. This is likely a topic that I will revisit in the coming weeks, so I’m not too upset that there were a few decks that I missed.

I wanted to comment on something else that has been on my mind. Everyone I know, myself included was convinced that interest in Legacy was going to drop off the map after the Grand Prix. I think the basis for this arguement is how no one cares about Extended after the PTQ season for it ends. As school has been picking up and people have started settling a lot more, I’ve noticed that attendance in local tournaments has actually been steadily increasing. Part of this is recovering from the drop off we had as school ended, but there are definitely a lot of new faces playing the format, which of course is great.
Here is a look at the updated compilation of top performing decks

Bold entries are new
x = Denotes 2nd-8th in a 64+ event or 2nd-4th in a 32+ player event.
1 = A first place finish.
Total tournaments accounted for: 7

• Zoo
  • Traditional Zoo: xxxxxxx
  • Big Zoo: 1xx
  • BRG Aggro: x
  • Cat Sligh: 1
  • Survival: x
• Merfolk
  • Mono Blue: xxxxxxx
  • U/b: xxx
  • U/w: x
• Goblins
  • R/b: xxx
  • R/g: x
  • R/b/g: x
• Combo
  • Belcher: x
  • TES: 1xxx
  • DDFT: x
  • Reanimator: xx
  • U/R Painter 1xx
• Counter Top
  • NO Counter-Top: 1xx
  • UGr: x
  • Supreme Blue: x
  • Ugwb: 1
• Survival
  • GWb: xx
  • U/G Madness: 1xxxxx
  • G/W: x
  • Elves: 1
• UG/x aggro
  • UGR Tempo Thresh: x
  • Team America: x
  • New Horizions: 1xxxxx
  • Aggro Bant +NO: x
• Emrakul Decks
  • Sneak Attack: xx
  • Eureka: x
  • Aeon Bridge: x
• Control
  • Landstill U/W: xxx
  • Landstill U/b/g: x
  • U/W Control: x
  • U/g/r Control: x
  • Dreadstill: x
  • Faeries: x
• Loam Decks
  • Aggro Loam: x
  • 43Lands.dec: x
• Midrange
  • B/w Deadguy: 1
• Chalice Decks
  • White Stax: 1xx
• Other
  • Burn: xx

Frameworks are the cards that are crucial to a deck’s ability to function whereas core cards are more like “cards I would not leave home without.” The latter includes cards like Path to Exile or Mana Leak that there is very little practical reason to cut from decks due to their superb efficiency at filling important roles. This is the primary purpose of thinking about frameworks. I feel that thinking about decks in terms of frameworks allows for easier differentiation of role-players. People frequently become attached to cards and put them in decks because they were good a couple weeks ago, without fully thinking through each step.

A recent example of how I think this phenomenon affected deck construction is UW Control, specifically the card Spreading Seas. I never felt this card was necessary in UW Control, so I never played it. However, I recognized that it served a useful purpose in the early part of the year, during a Jund-infested metagame. While I disagreed with the selection, I felt it was a legitimate choice that many made, since it did in fact have a strong impact on the game, both shutting down Jund’s manlands and interfering with their ability to cast spells.

However, after GP: DC, I felt like Spreading Seas became a card whose place no longer existed. The rise of Next Level Bant and Mythic made it so that there was a much larger swath of the field that Spreading Seas was mediocre against. Sure, it shut down Mythic’s manlands but in my experience if Mythic was attacking with manlands, they normally had three or so, so shutting one off didn’t do anything. I felt like Essence Scatter, Path to Exile, and Oblivion Ring all got better at this time. The fact that most UW mages were automatically putting 4 Spreading Seas into their lists at this time bothered me, mostly because I felt like the card had outlived its usefulness. Manlands can be handled by Tectonic Edge as well as Path to Exile, and I had no problems running more spot removal maindeck and editing my manabase to include Tectonic Edges. Removing Spreading Seas I felt gave UW control much more flexibility, and my own results sans Spreading Seas were very strong during that time period.

My main point is that I feel like it is important to think critically about card selection at every juncture and to frequently rebuild decks, even established ones, from the ground up. Metgames shift quickly, and your card choices need to shift just as quickly to adapt. You may not agree with my (or someone else’s) assessment of individual cards, but that is all the more reason to think critically about your own card selection. Why are you playing that card? Is it really the best card for the job you are asking it to do? Can your deck operate without it? If so, is it worth operating without it?

Sometimes these questions are trivial; most of the time they are not. I feel like players need to question card choices more frequently, and this is the most basic first step along improving your own decks. Question every card choice, make every card justify itself. Remember, the most common number selected for a card during deck construction is ZERO.

This week I wanted to talk about the value of open mana, and by corollary, why instants are so strong. It’s something that most players realize intuitively, but have most likely never thought critically about. Your mana is always either tapped or untapped. If it is tapped, you have used it, if it is untapped, you have not. Mana curves deal with how to maximize your ability to use all your mana every turn, but that is not the only way to get use out of mana. Sometimes you get good value just by leaving lands untapped. Let’s look at a very basic example:

I’m sure many of you have seen this sequence play out time and time again. Player A is playing around Lightning Bolt. Player B has gained value by simply representing the card. If he has the bolt, he can use it later, if he does not, simply having an untapped red source has saved him two damage.

So why hasn’t Player A gained value if Player B holds the Lightning Bolt? Hasn’t Player B stopped Player A from killing his Leech by not pumping? Isn’t this a value gain? In reality, the answer is no. Putrid Leech is as vulnerable to Lightning Bolt as a normal 4/4. It requires two Lightning Bolts to kill the creature. Player B should not expect to be able to kill Putrid Leech with Lightning Bolt, and should aim to use the spell for some other purpose (like killing a planeswalker or breaking a Thrinax). Of course, if Player A presents Player B with the opportunity to kill Leech with Lightning Bolt Player B should take that opportunity, but that scenario should not be expected.

In summary, Player B has gained two life simply by leaving a red source untapped. This is a relatively small gain, but it is far from unimportant. Over the course of many games, or even turns, the advantage can turn out to be a significant one. Applying this play to a more specific context, consider playing Jund against UWr control running Lightning Bolt. Assume this play repeats itself on turns 3, 4, and 5 for the Jund player (since the UWr player is on the draw). The UWr player has effectively gained a grand total of six life simply by representing Lightning Bolt; six life which most likely will prove crucial in the mid to end game. The difference between being at say 6 and 12 is rather large.

This was a very concrete example of value gained by utilizing open mana, but there are other ways of utilizing open mana. One of the biggest has been sorely lacking in the modern Standard metagame until recently – counterspells.

Counterspells represent one of the greatest ways to get “value” out of simply leaving mana untapped. By threatening to counter your opponent’s spell you can often convince them not to play it. This delays your opponent’s spells, and thereby retards their development. This is one of the primary strengths of counterspells that good blue mages have learned to utilize over the years.

When instants are concerned, the critical thing to remember is as follows: Frequently the THREAT is all that is needed, and in a nontrivial number of situations the threat will be as good as actually having the card.

This principle applies to other types of instants (burn in particular) to a lesser extent, but it is by far the most visible in counterspells.

Cryptic Command is an excellent example of a card that alters play situations simply by being represented. For those of you that played a lot of standard a couple years ago, you are surely familiar with how the mere threat of Cryptic Command changes play situations. The biggest example of this is how people would play cards like Wizened Cenn, Boggart Ram-Gang and Bloodbraid Elf post-combat to avoid the dreaded counter + tap blowout on Cryptic. No doubt many of you who played during that time period made or saw those decisions on a non-trivial basis. Whether or not the blue player actually had the card didn’t matter, people played around it anyway.

Faeries was such a force because of the number of “instants” it could threaten. In particular, Cryptic Command, Mistbind Clique, and Scion of Oona, and Spellstutter Sprite all presented their own unique challenges and had to be dealt with in different ways. Often playing around one spell would let you walk right into another, and this is why Faeries was so good.

So why is this important to deck construction? Because it is an area rife with potential advantages to gain, if only you seek to exploit them. You can accomplish that by simply putting appropriate situational instants into your deck. This far more important in limited than in constructed, but it is applicable to both formats.

This is why drafting tricks is so important. Because a wider variety of cards are playable in limited you gain the ability to represent more spells. In ZZW draft two untapped swamps could represent either Disfigure or Urge to Feed. Does that mean your 4/4 should attack into your opponent’s 2/2? If he has Disfigure you are likely okay, since it’s still a two for one, but what if he has Urge to Feed? Then your 4/4 just dies. What if his 2/2 is a vampire and your creature is a 5/5? Does that change the situation?

Forcing your opponent to answer questions like these is a critical part of gaining small, marginal advantages over the course of the game. These advantages can easily add up to swing a match one way or another. A player that plays too cautiously is liable to lose a match he could have otherwise won through more aggressive play. Likewise, a player that plays too aggressively is liable to lose a match he could have won by playing more cautiously. Instants are the fundamental wheel on which these advantages turn.

Within the game of Magic it is absolutely crucial to find the proper balance between aggression and caution, and the player who balances these two opposing forces better will often come out on top. But it is important to remember that at some point, your opponent will call your bluffs. That is why it is important to actually have “it.”

Sometimes your opponent will run his Jace out on turn 4, even in the face of 1U up. Then, it is important to actually have the Mana Leak or Negate to punish your opponent, so that he will think twice about doing it in the future. If you never actually have “it” your opponent will quickly learn to not play around it, and your advantage that you gain by leaving mana up is nullified. Proper placement of instants can make a hand of cards look much more threatening than it actually is, but it must still be supported by an appropriate decklist which gives the player the opportunity to make those plays.

Thus it is important to remember during deck construction what kind of tricks your opponent is likely to play around and include them in your deck, but not to overload on them. You want enough that you can gain a good advantage whenever you play the card, but also few enough so that they don’t clog your hand. It’s a delicate balance to strike.

As an example, let’s look at a Legacy card – Daze. In this case, “open mana” simply represents having an Island in play. Daze is one of the defining cards in Legacy, but should it even be in your deck? There are three main things to think about when you decide whether or not to include Daze (sideboarding is often when this decision is made).

1. Am I on the play or on the draw?
2. How effective is Daze in this match-up?
3. Is my opponent playing around Daze?

Daze is far more effective on the play than on the draw, if only because the card is easy enough to play around and the tempo loss significant enough on the draw that using it is frequently not desirable in those situations. Thus having Daze in your 60 on the draw is a decision not to be made lightly. But there are situations where it is correct.

The next thing to consider is the effectiveness of Daze. Daze’s effectiveness is directly proportional to how mana-tight a deck is. Green decks typically have less trouble with the card, if only because they run far more mana and sometimes mana acceleration like Birds or Noble Hierarch. Obviously an ineffective card should be cut.

Both of these are normal sideboarding thought processes that deal with the effectiveness of the card. The third line of thought is how you gain value by simply representing Daze.

If your opponent consistently plays around Daze, it is potentially correct to board it out, even if you would leave it in otherwise (on the play, in a match-up where Daze is effective). Why? Because you can get the effect of Daze simply by having an Island in play. You don’t even need to have the card in your hand. Your opponent is doing the job for you by consistently playing around the card. On the other end of the spectrum if your opponent never plays around Daze you should probably leave it in, even if it is not very effective or you are on the draw, because you are likely to get better value out of it based on the way your opponent is playing.

In the end, the critical thing to remember about the value of open mana is that it is extremely fluid and situation specific. However, it is important to keep that in mind when building decks (or sideboarding), if only because there are many small advantages that can be gained by threatening spells. It is often viable to play a deck that does not interact on this front, but be aware that there is a legitimate sacrifice there, and thus it is important to keep this kind of situation in mind when designing decks.

Chingsung Chang
Conelead most everywhere and on MTGO
Khan32k5@gmail.com

In my opinion the best way to make sure your opponents do not win is to simply deny them the opportunity to do so. There are a few ways to accomplish this. One is mana denial. The problem with mana denial is that your deck generally needs to be built around it. Even worse you need a dominant board position to actually seal the deal before you cast the LD spell. Mana denial of course has its place, but only in moderation with other more aggressive or controlling strategies. This means our deck will have some version of LD, just not as much as initially expected.

The next method to ensure an opponent does not win is to simply counter everything they do. This is by far the most obnoxious method to deny the opponent their chances. Nothing is more frustrating than watching everything you do go down the drain in a one for one manner. Worse, control decks usually back these spells up with card drawing to counteract their one for one barrage with card advantage. Counterspells will be our primary tool to win, or at least set up enough time for victory, with this deck.

The final method is to simply not let the opponent take another turn. There are ample extra turn effects in EDH, and I’ve seen them used to great success. It can be particularly effective to take the rest of the turns in a match. This past weekend I was the head judge for the TCGplayer.com Open Qualifier in Orlando. Several rounds in a row I witnessed a player use Pyromancer’s Ascension to take all five of the extra turns in the extended time. Each time this happened that player won the game. Unfair? Yes. Effective? Undoubtedly.

For this deck we will be using mono-blue. Blue offers us the most number of counterspells, and of course the most card drawing. Mono colored also lets us optimize the number of non-color producing lands we can use. Blue also offers us a solid number of generals to choose from. While there is much to be said for Vendilion Clique, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, and of course Azami, Lady of Scrolls, I have selected Arcanis the Omnipotent to lead the troops. Arcanis lets us draw cards and will ultimately let us combo out, killing an entire table in one fell swoop!

Let’s look at the various breakdowns, starting with mana denial effects. Strip Mine and Wasteland are almost uncounterable ways to destroy lands and just get better when we are able to recur them. Enter Crucible of Worlds! Crucible lets us reuse those amazing effects until we get tired of crushing dreams. We also have a nice kill condition and crushing land destruction effect in Sundering Titan. The titan single handedly wipes out many lands and cripples board positions, typically to the point of no return.

Up next we have our extra turn effects. They are fairly straight forward, as are the card drawing effects, so instead I would like to highlight some of the tutor options available. Personal Tutor and Mystical Tutor are both great ways to find extra turn effects, and in some cases the more powerful card drawers. We also use a great tutor effect in Planar Portal. The portal lets us go infinite with Beacon of Tomorrows and also lets us set up some of the true infinite combos the deck has to offer.

Finally, we have the counterspell package. I’ve packed fifteen counterspells into this list, and each has an added benefit. Each spell steals creatures, counters game breaking effects, and of course draws cards. There have been games that have been won by commandeering a key combo piece, and of course simply winning from an unwinnable position. Just remember, we only need to go to the mid to late game, use your counterspells sparingly! This is especially true if you are going to be battling with more than one opponent. Ultimately we have multiple ways to combo infinitely and simply need the time to have that happen.

Without further ado, I give you the final list. This list is based off of a very competitive deck piloted by two of my friends, Shawn French in Atlanta (DFMT!) and Chris Boyle in Cape Coral, Florida.

"Arcanis, the Spikiest of EDH"

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General (1) Arcanis the Omnipotent Extra turn Effects (7) 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 1 Time Warp 1 Capture of Jingzhou 1 Temporal Manipulation 1 Time Stretch 1 Walk the Aeons 1 Beacon of Tomorrows Counterspells/Card Drawing (26) 1 Force of Will 1 Misdirection 1 Commandeer 1 Pact of Negation 1 Thwart 1 Rewind 1 Remand 1 Hinder 1 Counterspell 1 Desertion 1 Mana Drain 1 Cryptic Command 1 Dismiss 1 Deprive 1 Negate 1 Memory Jar 1 Time Spiral 1 Time Reversal 1 Twincast 1 Opportunity 1 Compulsion 1 Frantic Search 1 Fact or Fiction 1 Ancestral Vision 1 Jace's Ingenuity 1 Stroke of Genius Tutors (4) 1 Planar Portal 1 Personal Tutor 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Sensei's Divining Top Mana Acceleration (9) 1 Extraplanar Lens 1 Sol Ring 1 Sapphire Medallion 1 Gauntlet of Power 1 Mana Crypt 1 Grim Monolith 1 Mana Vault 1 Gilded Lotus 1 Solemn Simulacrum Utility Cards (17) 1 Mind Over Matter 1 Lightning Greaves 1 Treachery 1 Control Magic 1 Bribery 1 Vedalken Shackles 1 Capsize 1 Evacuation 1 Spin into Myth 1 Vensir, Shaper Savant 1 Forcefield 1 Wipe Away 1 Sundering Titan 1 Crucible of Worlds 1 Leyline of Anticipation 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 1 Tezzeret the Seeker Lands (36) 1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea 1 Strip Mine 1 Wasteland 1 Tolaria West 1 Magosi, the Water's Veil 1 Ancient Tomb 1 Maze of Ith 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge 28 Island

There are multiple infinite combos packed into this list and while I would love to take the time to run through them this week, that will have to wait for another time. Next week I will be in Amsterdam testing for my level three Judge certification (yay!), so join me in two weeks when we go through the ins and outs of being a jerk in EDH!

Until then, this is Benjamin McDole giving you a hundred reasons to play magic!

“Welcome, welcome! We are glad to have so many students returning to the Academy this year as we finally reopen the doors! As some of you may know, we did have a bit of a temporal mishap, and while we have cleaned up and incorporated fascinating new facilities in our rebuilding, students are cautioned to be vigilant and not to wander into any restricted areas.

Now, I know it’s been a long day just traveling to the island but step lively and hurry to your quarters, your classes begin in just five minutes! Don’t fret though! After calculating the amount of time wasted with rest, we have built the dormitories in fast-time rifts! Sleep well students, I expect brilliant things from you all this year.”

It’s time for all students to be heading back to school, and I decided to craft a casual multiplayer deck based around Magic’s most famous school, Tolarian Academy, to celebrate. I loved college and this is a great time of the year for students. The university is filled with interesting events in the evenings as the weather is still warm and inviting. You reconnect with friends and social groups after the long summer. You get to eyeball all of the projects and topics that you’ll be exploring for the next three months, and begin plotting your strategy to ace your classes while still having time to get your Magic game on. It’s wonderful.

So, here we are, watching the first class of the freshly rebuilt Tolarian Academy be greeted back to school. They seem to have a monster of a year before them, complete with temporal features both dangerous and advantageous, depending on the cunning of the students and faculty.

Now when I originally began designing this list, I had it in mind to craft an EDH list, but I quickly scrapped that idea when I noticed that the most important card, Tolarian Academy, was on the EDH banned list. How depressing! But I understand the reasoning behind it. Being that my whole theme was based around this card, I would have to alter the format in mind.

The monstrous deck that resulted is a vintage legal, casual multiplayer deck. I’ll be first to admit that it is not the most competitive deck, but it sure is fun, even if you get a slow start. First of all, one of the planned ways to win is Battle of Wits. This is the main reason to have a 260 card deck. Yes, 260 cards. That may seem like a silly thing, but if your opponents don’t take you seriously, you are going to win right out from under their noses.

"Tolarian Back to School Special"

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Creature (60) 3 Academy Rector 2 Academy Researchers 3 AEther Adept 2 Archivist 3 Auramancer 1 Barrin, Master Wizard 3 Blinding Mage 2 Bottle Gnomes 1 Braids, Conjurer Adept 4 Chronozoa 4 Disruptive Student 1 Ertai, Wizard Adept 1 Hanna, Ship's Navigator 2 Hapless Researcher 1 Karn, Silver Golem 2 Lost Auramancers 1 Magus of the Moat 3 Mnemonic Wall 2 Patron Wizard 1 Rayne, Academy Chancellor 3 Scrivener 2 Stern Proctor 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 2 Temporal Adept 2 Tolarian Emissary 2 Tolarian Entrancer 2 Tolarian Sentinel 2 Treasure Hunter 2 Wizard Mentor Instants (24) 4 Counterspell 1 Enlightened Tutor 1 Ertai's Meddling 4 Impulse 1 Mystical Tutor 2 Opportunity 3 Ovinize 4 Rewind 2 Snap 1 Time Stop 1 Words of Wisdom Artifacts (19) 2 Barrin's Codex 1 Book of Rass 3 Cloud Key 1 Crystal Chimes 4 Elixir of Immortality 1 Jayemdae Tome 2 Urza's Incubator 1 Voltaic Key 4 Worn Powerstone Enchantments (42) 1 Arcane Laboratory 1 Aura of Silence 3 Battle of Wits 1 Cast Through Time 2 Confiscate 2 Control Magic 2 Copy Artifact 1 Hanna's Custody 2 Hermetic Study 1 Levitation 1 March of the Machines 2 Mind Control 1 Moat 4 Oblivion Ring 1 Opposition 2 Persuasion 2 Private Research 1 Pursuit of Knowledge 1 Rhystic Study 1 Second Chance 2 Slow Motion 2 Take Possession 2 Teferi's Moat 3 Temporal Isolation 1 Treachery Sorceries (24) 3 Chronomantic Escape 1 Idyllic Tutor 2 Open the Vaults 1 Personal Tutor 3 Relearn 3 Replenish 2 Temporal Fissure 3 Tidings 1 Time Stretch 2 Time Warp 2 Wash Out 1 Windfall Lands (91) 2 Academy Ruins 4 Calciform Pools 4 Coastal Tower 4 Faerie Conclave 4 Forbidding Watchtower 39 Island 4 Lotus Vale 25 Plains 4 Tolaria West 1 Tolarian Academy

Forty-two enchantments in this deck allow you a number of options as you work the table to set-up your win. With cards like Academy Rector, Lost Auramancers, Enlightened Tutor and Idyllic Tutor, you have a very high likeliehood of being able to tutor up a copy of Battle of Wits without much difficulty. Should you be countered when playing Battle of Wits or should it be destroyed before you’re glorious upkeep, you can try again thanks to Replenish, Open the Vaults, Auramancer, or reload it into your library with Elixir of Immortality.

If there should be a reason you can’t search up the Battle of Wits, you can play the long game with creatures like Chonozoa, an assortment of legendary creatures related to the school, and time manipulating effects to allow you extra turns. Using Mnemonic devices and Relearning vital lessons, you can cast advantage gaining spells over and over again to help you lock in your win.

There are also a few cards that will help you protect your win-condition and edge out certain annoying or devestating cards that often crop up in a multiplayer game, thanks to Disruptive Student, Counterspell, Rewind, and Ertai, Wizard Adept.

Those who wander into the basements will find one of Urza’s strange artifacts, Urza’s Incubator, where he is hard at work attempting to raise a new race. Lucky for you, there are only a few creatures who are not Human. Should you stumble across the Incubator, you’ll only have to pay full price for Karn, Silver Golem, Mnemonic Wall, Bottle Gnomes, and Chornozoa.

This year’s focus on enchantments, while allowing us the Battle of Wits win condition, also allows us to have a toolbox of other effects that synergy nicely with the abilities of many of the academy’s inhabitants. Being able to reuse enchantments after they’ve been destroyed, fetching them up and sneaking them into play allow the academy’s defenders to gain control of the intruders forces and turn them back on each other.

Another mode of defense employed is simply denying access by locking up the school behind defensive moats and methods of returning creatures back into the aether they came from. Then, when the opportunity arises, Levitation allows the students to overcome their own defenses and strike down their harassers.

Take a look at the list of cards and take in the flavor of the Tolarian Academy. With so many talented students, talented faculty and powerful enchantments and artifacts at their disposal, I think you will enjoy marshaling their forces and utilizing the quirky fractures in time as the Academy fights back against any intruders who may be trying to take a stroll through Tolaria’s prized garden, the Lotus Vale.

Bonus feature: No doubt you noticed certain cards from Tolaria’s future included in the list, but there is also a strange new student, who traveled all the way from Otaria (and through a temporal rift between universes), to become a researcher at the Academy. Enjoy!

After signing up for Nats we went to Fogo de Chao for dinner; if you ever want the best service and meat in your life; I suggest you go there. The food is so scrumptious and it’s all you can eat. So after having dinner served to us on swords we all went back to the hotel to register our decks and head to bed.

The next morning we arrive at the tournament and get ready for the player meeting. I decided to play R/G Valakut Ramp with summoning Traps main for the standard portion. Even though it felt awkward not playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor – I knew this deck was really good and proved to do well in testing against everything except red deck wins – which I was not expecting much off and Ascension which I had a lot of sideboard hate for. Here’s the deck:

"R/G Valakut"

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Creatures (19) 4 Primeval Titan 4 Siege Gang Commander 4 Inferno Titan 4 Bloodbraid Elf 2 Avenger of Zendikar 1 Terastodon Spells (15) 4 Rampant Growth 3 Explore 3 Cultivate 2 Harrow 3 Summoning Trap Lands (26) 2 Raging Ravine 2 Evolving Wilds 3 Terramorphic Expanse 4 Forest 4 Valakut, the Molteb Pinnacle 11 Mountain Sideboard (15) 4 Obstinate Baloth 4 Nature's Claim 3 Pyroclasm 2 Gaea's Revenge 2 Back to Nature

I originally had 2 Slave of Bolas and 1 Swamp instead of 2 Gaea’s Revenge and 1 Nature’s Claim, but I opted to play Gaea’s Revenge and another claim because I expected a lot of Ascension and U/W.

Round one (James W. Seelhoff playing R/G Valakut)

He wins the die roll and is on the play. He starts things off with a Rampant Growth and I mirror his play. He has Cultivate to ramp even further while I just have a Harrow. He has the Primeval Titan next turn and all I have is a Bloodbraid Elf that hits an Explore. I then die to his Primeval Titan getting Valakut and some lands, what a skill intensive game one!

I’m now wishing I played the Slave of Bolas sideboard.

-4 Bloodbraid Elf

+4 Obstinate Baloth

Game two I am on the play, and end up mulling to four. I ramp a little with Rampant Growth but start missing land drops he has the turn four Primeval Titan and I just scoop’em up!

0-1

Round two (Peter J. Klinstiver playing U/W Control)

I win the die roll and surprisingly chose to play first. I Cultivate on turn three after he plays a Wall of Omens. On my turn four I attempt a Siege-Gang Commander which gets Deprived, the following turn I just double Cultivate and hopes he counters one and if he doesn’t I should be out of Mana Leak range. He doesn’t counter anything and plays a Jace, the Mind Sculptor on his turn and Brainstorms. I cast an Inferno Titan killing his Jace which he doesn’t answer and ships the turn back. The following turn I cast an Avenger of Zendikar knowing that he brainstormed and put 2 cards he didn’t need on top. I assumed since he didn’t have an answer for Inferno Titan that he wouldn’t have one for the Avenger either. He didn’t and scooped when the Avenger hit play.

-3 Explore -2 Harrow

+2 Back to Nature +1 Nature’s Claim +2 Gaea’s Revenge

I don’t want to get blown out by casting Harrow and him countering it so I take them out.

Game two I start things off with Rampant Growth on turn two. On turn three I have no lands in hand, but I do have a Cultivate. I just cast the Cultivate calmly hoping he doesn’t counter it – he tanks for a bit than counters it. I do not have another land and my hand and regretfully ship the turn back. I eventually start drawing some land a couple turns later and luckily rip another Cultivate which he doesn’t counter. He ends up having Gideon Jura, Elspeth, and Jace all on the field and has my Primeval Titan Oblivion Ring‘ed along with my Siege-Gang Commander with Journey to Nowhere. I have Valakut online and at the end one of his turn after he attacks me to 11 (thanks to Elspeth and Gideon) I try to Nature’s Claim his Oblivion Ring which he promptly counters. I then cast Back to Nature which he has no answer to and I am able to kill him with Valakut triggers and Siege-Gang Tokens.

1-1

Round three (Andrew D. Vick playing Mythic)

I’m on the play again this match, but don’t have anything to exciting where as Andrew busts out the gates with turn one Noble Hierarch and turn two Lotus Cobra followed by a tap land which allows him to play a Birds of Paradise. He casts a turn three Jace TMS and Brainstorms. I am able to cast a Bloodbraid Elf which hits a Rampant Growth and attack his Jace. He doesn’t block with his Cobra and Jace dies. The following turn he has a fetch land and drops a Linvala, Keeper of Silence along with a Night of the Reliquary. I cast an Inferno Titan promptly killing his Birds, Noble, and Cobra. He is out of gas at this point and I am able to cast a Primeval Titan to kill his Knight and seal game one.

-3 Summoning Traps – 1 Terrastodon -1 Explore

+3 Pyroclasm +2 Back to Nature

Again Andrew has a lighting fast start with turn one Noble Hierarch followed by turn two double Lotus Cobras, turn three Dauntless Escort and turn four Knight of the Reliquary. I have a turn four Inferno Titan and try to kill his Cobra’s and Hierarch – Andrew will have none of that and sacs his Dauntless Escort and on his turn he hard casts an Eldrazi Conscription and swings. I draw for my turn and don’t have a Back to Nature so I concede.

Game three I have a turn two Explore followed by a turn three Rampant Growth and Pyroclasm to kill his turn two Lotus Cobra. He casts a Fauna Shaman and I just ramp some more. He discards a Sovereigns of Lost Alara to get a Knight of the Reliquary and plays it. I play a Primeval Titan and kill his Knight. Andrew uses the shaman’s ability again discarding a Fauna Shaman to get another Knight and casts it. The next turn I am able to cast Avenger of Zendikar and have three mountains hit the field clearing his board all the while growing my deadly salad tokens.

2-1

Round Four (Brandon M. Nelson playing U/W Control)

I am on a roll and win another die roll. I try and start things off with a Cultivate but Brandon swiftly Mana Leaks it. I later try for a Siege-Gang Commander which he Cancels and then misses his land drop. I attempt an Inferno Titan all the while holding Primeval Titan in my hand trying to drain him of his counter spells and saving the best titan for last – which ends up working because my Inferno Titan gets countered. The next turn Brandon is still missing land drops and I try for an Avenger of Zendikar which gets Essence Scattered. I finally cast the last threat in my hand which is the Primeval Titan and it resolves I quickly tutor up a Raging Ravine and one Valakut. Brandon is able to keep my Primeval Titan in check with Path to Exile, but Raging Ravine is able to end the game while Brandon is stuck on four lands.

-2 Explore -2 Harrow

+2 Gaea’s Revenge +2 Back to Nature

Things start off a little slow this game with me ramping a little and him just playing lands. I cast a turn three Bloodbraid Elf which hits a Rampant Growth, he leaks the Bloodbraid Elf and lets the Rampant Growth resolve. Next turn I play a Siege-Gang Commandeer which he counters I then cast a summoning trap which he also counters. He is stuck on four lands again, but has an Elspeth to get things going on his side. By this time I have Valakut online so I cast an Inferno Titan which resolves and does three to his Elspeth, I follow this up with a mountain to get rid of the pesky planeswalker. On his turn he wipes the board with a Day of Judgment. I have a Bloodbraid Elf which hits a Cultivate putting him at seven after combat. He taps out for another Day of Judgement and on my turn I cast a Gaea’s Revenge that domes him for lethal. Now it’s time to draft!

3-1

I regretfully didn’t take many notes on the drafts but I know I drafted a really bad green/white deck with three Palace Guards, couple of fliers, two Pacifisms, and some 2/2 bears. The best thing I had in my deck was my pack one pick one – Platinium Angel. Everything else was supposed to stall until I could cast her which happened to work a lot of the games. People couldn’t do anything about her when she resolved. I ended up going 2-1 this draft putting me at 6-2 for the day which was a decent day one.

Day two I end up drafting another bad deck, this time it’s U/B fliers with two sign in bloods and no removal spells, because I never opened any Doom Blades and never saw Quag Sickness.

My first opponent was Peter Ingram. We get deck checked so I hand my deck to the judge and then take out my sideboard, which was in a big card sleeve that was also holding some extra sleeves for my deck incase one ripped. After the Judge walks away this hipster reaches over without asking and squeezes the sleeve. He replies with, “Some Judges don’t do their job well enough, you could’ve been cheating. Sometimes I have to do their job.” I’m a nice guy and just refrain from saying anything. The Judge comes back and I end up getting a game loss for misregistering my deck. Apparently I marked as having Serra Angel in my sideboard when I meant to mark Serra’s Ascendant. I then have to play a game without sideboarding and lose; I just sign the slip and quickly walk away.

My next round I play against Alexander West a really awesome guy that totally steam rolls me with his mono white aggro deck. I chat with Alex for a bit after the match then mark the drop box, Alex tries to convince me to keep playing that I shouldn’t drop just yet. I thank him, but didn’t listen and now regret it. Thanks anyway for trying Alex!

Even though I didn’t do so hot in the big event I still had a blast that weekend. I played against Brian Kibler in a two-headed giant event. His team had a Serra Ascendant which is really broken in two-headed giant since your starting life total is thirty. I ended up cubing a ton this weekend, and I highly suggest trying to cube if you’ve never done it. It’s really fun! Now I am off to test for Amsterdam and try and get more drafts in to up my draft skills. Hopefully I will be well prepared for Amsterdam, thanks for reading everyone!

As I play more and more M11 drafts, my preferences for one archetype over another slowly evolve. Here are my current preferences:

1. Blue/Black
2. Black/Red
3. Blue/White
4. Blue/Red
5. Red/Green

While Blue/Red is not a pairing of friendly colors, I think this is more about my love of Blue in M11 and my disdain for Green in the format. My girlfriend Rada probably does even more M11 drafts than I do. She has formed some preferences for cards and color combinations that dovetail with mine and some that contrast starkly with mine. While we aren’t on the same page on Blue/Black currently, we’re in lockstep about the wonders of Red/Black and Blue/White in M11 draft. This was especially helpful when we drafted as a team recently.

Rada and I draft at our local game store once or twice a week. While there are usually several tables of drafters and we’re rarely at the same table, it’s possible that we will eventually be stuck next to each other. This could be a little bad since neither of us likes Green, so if it ever happens I will probably draft Black/Red and she will probably draft Blue/White.

This week we went spent a wonderful day at the beach in Rhode Island, but as a result were too late to join the Friday Night Magic booster draft. Instead, we challenged two players to a team draft. I sat with Jeff on my right and Bill on my left (the names have be changed to protect the innocent.) I decided to force Red/Black since I figured Rada would force Blue/White.

I was pleased to hear Jeff say to Bill as we sat down, “in team draft, it’s extra important to counter-draft.” So not only would Rada and I not waste any picks, but it was our opponents’ plan to waste picks.

Here is the deck I ended up with:

Creatures (13) 1 Black Knight 1 Reassembling Skeleton 1 Bog Raiders 1 Liliana S Specter 1 Nether Horror 1 Berserkers of Blood Ridge 1 Manic Vandal 1 Fiery Hellhound 1 Vulshok Berserker 1 Ember Hauler 2 Goblin Piker Spells (11) 1 Crystal Ball 1 Doom Blade 1 Sign in Blood 1 Diabolic Tutor 1 Quag Sickness 1 Fling 1 Fireball 2 Lightning Bolt 2 Thunder Strike Lands (17) 9 Swamp 8 Mountain Sideboard (19) 1 Demon's Horn 1 Jinxed Idol 1 Sorcerer's Strongbox 2 Bog Raiders 1 Unholy Strength 1 Incite 1 Goblin Balloon Brigade 1 Lava Axe 1 Goblin Tunneler 1 Garruk's Companion 1 Greater Basilisk 1 Brindle Boar 1 Hornet Sting 1 Dryad's Favor 2 Goldenglow Moth 1 Ajani's Mantra 1 Jace's Erasure

As I expected, Rada went Blue/White. This is the deck she drafted:

Creatures (14) 1 Ajani's Pridemate 2 Wild Griffin 1 Assault Griffin 1 War Priest of Thune 1 Cloud Crusader 1 Blinding Mage 1 White Knight 2 Stormfront Pegasus 2 Palace Guard 2 Azure Drake Spells (9) 1 Safe Passage 1 Mighty Leap 1 Jace's Ingenuity 1 Sleep 1 Unsummon 2 Foresee 1 Preordain 1 Mind Control Lands (17) 9 Plains 8 Island Sideboard (19) 2 Maritime Guard 2 Ice Cage 1 Alluring Siren 1 Armored Ascension 1 Squadron Hawk 1 Ajani's Mantra 1 Silence 1 Disentomb 1 Pyretic Ritual 2 Hornet Sting x 1 Sacred Wolf 1 Back to Nature 1 Greater Basilisk 1 Wall of Vines 1 Giant Growth 1 Hunter's Feast

As you can probably tell, Rada and I didn’t counter-draft, which led to us having plenty of playables and decent sideboards. When we had packs without playables in our colors, we took Green cards. Despite this, several things went wrong. First, Jeff drafted Red/Black right in front of me. Second, Bill drafted White in front of Rada. To make matters worse, Bill opened two Day of Judgments. In the third pack I opened a pack with a Garruk Wildspeaker and a foil Garruk Wildspeaker! While I got two good cards out of the pack (including a Fireball,) it was painful having an opponent with two planeswalkers and two Day of Judgments.

In the first round, I played against Bill and Rada played against Jeff. Bill had two Llanowar Elf and a Birds of Paradise. As a result, he frequently had explosive draws that included a Garruk Wildspeaker. After getting crushed in game one, I quickly fell behind the eight ball in game two. Fortunately, I drew my Crystal Ball and slowly fought my way back to a victory. My burn helped against the Wildspeakers and the Crystal Ball made me less vulnerable to Day of Judgment, but I still succumbed in game three. Bill 2-1.

Fortunately, Rada smashed Jeff 2-0. I was a little concerned about my match-up with Jeff, one would expect his deck to be better than mine, since we drafted the same colors and he was feeding me. My concern lifted after I won a game of attrition and then sideboarded in two more Bog Raiders and a Sorcerer’s Strongbox. I’m not a big fan of the Strongbox, but I think that Red/Black on Red/Black is often such a removalfest that any card advantage can be a big deal. After I finished Jeff off, it was down to Rada versus Bill.

Rada’s match-up with Bill was much better than mine. Her two Foresee and Jace’s Ingenuity helped shrug off Day of Judgment and she had a huge advantage in the air, which made the Wildspeakers much less of a big deal. Rada won 2-1.

While I think Rada and I are formidable players, I also think our draft strategy helped us secure the win. Yes, they got all the Green, including two planeswalkers, but that meant we got all the Blue! I’ll take that trade any day. We got all of the best color in M11 and they got all of the weakest color. One of the reasons I got such a good Red/Black deck behind Jeff was because they wasted picks counter-drafting. Jeff first picked a Mind Control in pack two (he already knew he wasn’t drafting Blue at this point.) Bill counter-drafted two Aether Adept, including taking one with a second pick (this may not have been a counter-draft, but it was at least a wasted second pick.) Sure, Rada’s deck would have been better with another Mind Control and two Aether Adepts, but she still had the best deck at the table. So who cares, as long as she still beats both of them?

Some formats are mainly tempo oriented, such as Zendikar Block draft. In Zendikar draft my only goal was to push my opponent off the table in as few turns as possible. Missing one’s two drop was often fatal. You can build a good tempo deck in M11, I particularly like Blue/White or mono-red for this purpose. Despite this, I believe M11 draft is more about card advantage than tempo. This is one of the reasons Blue is so powerful, not only does it have card drawing, it has card selection in the form of Scry. Making sure you draw good spells instead of unneeded land or vice-versa is its own form of card advantage.

One of the reasons I like Red/Black so much, even though it doesn’t include Blue, is because of card advantage. Black has blatant card advantage in the form of Liliana’s Specter, Gravedigger, Mind Rot and Sign in Blood. Red uses removal for card advantage. Cards like Fireball, Prodigal Pyromancer and Pyroclasm can be used to kill multiple creatures.

One of the greatest forms of card advantage in Red/Black is just playing lots of individual creature removal, like Lightning Bolt, Assassinate and Doom Blade. This allows you to remove key creatures. If I have a life advantage and a big creature in play, I don’t care if my opponent has a small creature in play. Sometimes you can have good enough creatures in play that some of your opponent’s dudes can be ignored. Being able to remove relevant ones or keeping them away from a relevant quantity of creatures is a form of card advantage. There are other common ways to gain card advantage through removal. If your opponent double blocks and you can destroy one blocker with an instant and your creature stomps on the remaining blocker, for example. Another way is to destroy a creature with an enchantment on it. My favorite may be making equipment into dead cards by killing all of my opponent’s creatures.

Keep these things in mind when drafting Red/Black:

1. Take creature removal over pretty much anything.
2. Use high picks on creatures with built in card advantage like Gravedigger, Liliana’s Specter and Prodigal Pyromancer.
3. Try to avoid being pulled too heavily in both directions mana-wise. Are you going more with Ember Hauler and Fiery Hellhound or Quag Sickness and Black Knight?
4. Try to find synergies. I like Act of Treason with Bloodthrone Vampire, for example.

My favorite commons when drafting Red/Black are:

1. Lightning Bolt- Duh.
2. Doom Blade- Deals with the big creatures that Red has trouble with.
3. Chandra’s Outrage- Great by itself, awesome with Fire Servant or Chandra’s Spitfire.
4. Assassinate- Bad Doom Blade that also kills Black creatures.
5. Gravedigger- Card Advantage.
6. Liliana’s Specter- See Gravedigger.
7. Quag Sickness- More removal.
8. Fiery Hellhound- Powerful when you can kill most potential blockers.
9. Child of Night- Best common two drop in these colors.
10. Nightwing Shade- It’s no Serra Angel or Air Servant, but it’s still the nasty five drop flyer for these colors.

If you keep these things in mind when drafting Red/Black, whether it’s in an eight man or a team draft, you will be in good shape even if you’re behind another Red/Black player. It doesn’t really matter how bad your creatures are or how few of them you have, if your opponent can’t keep any of their own alive because of your onslaught of removal. If you are aspiring to power draft M11, you could do very well just always drafting some combination of Black, Red and Blue.

Now that we’ve covered your pre-tournament preparation, I want to focus on their structure, on what goes on during the actual tournaments, and how to navigate it.

Tournament Structure

PTQs, and all large Magic events, use the Swiss system to decide their pairings. This means you will (generally) play players with the same record as you every round. You may get paired up or down if there are an uneven number of players in any points ranking. Match points in Magic are awarded as 3 per win, 1 per draw and 0 per loss. A bye is counted as win.

The swiss system is organized so that at the end of the rounds, there will be only one undefeated, and the rest of the top8 will be based on their total number of match points. This rarely happens because for that to happen perfectly there has to be an specific number of players (8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, etc) so that each round there is an even number of people with an undefeated record, and nobody chooses to intentionally draw. What almost always happens is that when the tournament gets down to 4 undefeateds, these players draw. The reason is that while they would only need a loss and a draw to top8, two losses would put them out, and there is no advantage to going into the top8 with a better record than anyone else (though if the play/draw rule being tested out at Pro Tour Amsterdam is popular, this could change.)

Generally speaking, you need less than two losses to make top8. Except in instances where an abnormally large number of players attend a PTQ (think 300+), X-0, X-0-1, X-1s, and X-0-2s are guaranteed into top8. Next up comes X-1-1, which is usually the cut-off score and usually based on tiebreakers. X-2s can make top8, but it usually requires either some drama with players being paired against a higher or lower ranked opponent due to their not being an even number of players with their number of points. This can easily mess up with math. Sometimes smaller PTQs (64 or under) will also allow for one or two X-2s to make top8. To make top8 with X-2 you will need very good tiebreakers.

A word on tiebreakers. There are three tiebreakers in Magic – Opponent match win percentage, the percentage of your games you won, and the percentage of games your opponents won (throughout all of their matches). This is similar to how the BCS and other sports ranking associations rate strength of schedule. It rewards you for winning early in the tournament and having your opponents do well also.

If you’ve ever noticed that a first round loss puts you at a lower tiebreaker level than other players with the same record, it’s because every player you beat after round one will have at least two losses – some of them more. If the player you beat round one decides to stay in at 0-7, you will see that your tiebreakers will take a hit from it. If you start off 5-0, each of your opponents will generally have fewer losses going into later rounds. Therefore, it is a big advantage to win the early rounds as your odds of making top8 at x-1-1 are directly correlated with playing other players at the top tables.

The first tiebreaker is the only one that generally ever matters for a PTQ due to the number of rounds you play. The fewer rounds, the more likely that the first tiebreakers could be even. The more, the less likely. I’d say this becomes a deciding factor in something like one out of every hundred PTQs. I wouldn’t be concerned with it.

Understanding the Math of the Final Round of Swiss

This is probably the question I get asked most at PTQs – Can I draw into top8, or do I need to play? The math for this seems very complicated, but it really isn’t. Most of it comes down to logic.

Round 8 of an 8 round PTQ is about to get underway. The first thing the staff does it post the standings for everyone to review.

How will the above situation play out? Here’s what we do know – Andy, Bob, Carl and Dennis are each 6-0-1, and because there is an even number of players at x-0-1, they will all play each other, and probably draw. They will end the swiss at 20 points. Four spots of the top8 are filled. Next we have five players at 18 points. If each of these players were to draw, at least would be knocked out. I say at least, because we still have two players with 16 points who can hit 19 points. In this situation, we have seven people playing for the remaining four spots. Someone will have to play.

Because of how DCI reporter pairs the final round of a swiss event, players will play the opponent with their closest competitor in terms of tiebreakers, unless they have already played. That means Elizabeth vs. Frank, George vs. Helena, and Isaac vs. Jack.

Elizabeth and Frank can safely draw in as well. Only George, Helena, and Isaac can possibly beat their match points, and two of them will have to play each other. The remaining player will get paired down. He will face one of the two players with 16 points, the other player with 16 points will be paired down. Because of how opponent match percentage is calculated, getting paired down will hurt your final tiebreakers if you win. Neither of the 16 point players poses a significant risk to Elizabeth and Frank’s tiebreakers. It would probably require each of their opponents to still be in the tournament, and lose. This will almost never happen at an event this size – it is at the least considerably lower odds than winning a single match of Magic.

This means that we have five people playing for the remaining two spots in the top8.

George vs. Helena

Isaac vs. Jack

Ken vs. Laura.

The winner of George vs. Helena is guaranteed in. Isaac is guaranteed in if he wins. Assuming George and Helena play, then Jack is in with a win as well. Ken is so far behind on tiebreakers that he would require either a miracle, or Elizabeth and Frank to play it out in order to make top8.

This isn’t the only way this can play out, though. George and Helena can choose to draw, but the results will probably be bad for Helena. While Isaac’s tiebreakers are worse, that won’t matter. He will either end up at 7-1 and 22 points, or he will be out of top8. Jack has a very strong 64% tiebreaker. If he wins the match, he will probably end up above both George and Helena in the standings to end up in 7^th place. Helena will have to hope that the math gods somehow bless her just enough to get above George in the standings.

Note that in the above example, there is a shot for an x-2 to make top8. It just requires everyone to play out the final round. If the tiebreakers were closer – much closer – then this could happen. If the difference between 5 and 9 was two or three points, then you get into a situation where a match can draw, but is taking a risk that nobody else draws.

In general, if you want to figure out if you can draw, try and figure out how many people can get into top8, and how many places are ‘open’. If there are more matches then spots, you can’t draw. If there are less matches than spots, and you have the highest tiebreakers, you can draw.

Navigating a tournament

When you are playing in a large tournament, it’s easy to get bogged down in numbers. Your 1-1, 3-1, 4-1, etc. Don’t worry about anything until you are at last the last two rounds. Focusing on your score before that is useless. There is a reason that people generally refer to their score as X and blank. The X isn’t important while you are still alive in the tournament. What’s important is your number of losses and draws. They are what really determine if you top8, not your wins.

Up until the last two rounds, you should be taking each game as it comes, and focusing on the match at hand. Everything that came before and will come after is meaningless. Don’t let previous failures, or false bravado from your undefeated record, change your decision making. Too many players will keep a incredibly risky hand because they’re up a game anyway, or because they are still in the tournament with a loss.

During the last two rounds, try and examine the standings. If you are x-1, you almost certainly have to play anyway. If the tournament is smaller, you can sometimes make the strategic decision to draw in the next to last round instead of risking a pair down in the final round. I used to do this all of time about eight to ten years ago when PTQs averaged closer to eighty people. With the larger PTQs of today, this will almost always put you

Sometimes there are nine people playing for eight slots. If one match ends favorably for you, keep in mind you can choose to draw later on in the match than just the beginning. Don’t slow play to try and force the situation, but if it comes up, take advantage of it.

Keep in mind in the final round that tiebreakers can go up or down a fairly significant amount. While you never want to draw yourself it, there are times it is best to take a risky draw as opposed to playing a horrible matchup. I wouldn’t suggest it often, but if the numbers are close, and if you feel you have a better chance relying on your previous opponents to win as opposed to winning your current game, then go ahead and take the draw.

I’ve done it once at a PTQ going into the 3^rd game on the draw in a terrible matchup. I had about a 40% chance of making top8, and far less than that to win the game. My opponent took the draw, and I made top8. For about a minute, before they fixed one misreported match, and I was ended up 9^th on breakers (It was one of the opponents the other person vieing for 8^th had played, whose match was misreported in terms of who lost). I still believe it was the correct decision, even if it ended up poorly that time.

Next week, I’m going to finish up this series by talking about what you do when you make top 8, and going beyond just the facts, and talking about the entire experience of PTQing, and how to get the most out of it.

July 12th – Phil Dickinson sends me a mono-W Eldrazi list on Facebook, and says it is “total gas” for his “grind $300 for Jaces on MODO” plan. He also promises we’ll get very drunk together next time he is back in London.

July 15th – I come up with the following list ( http://mtgurl.com/MO3X ) in about 5 minutes, and post to twitter, getting a couple suggestions for changes, people saying it’s almost test ready. I like the idea in principle, but fear it may struggle against the raw power of the current top decks. Also some of my card choices (Path over Oust/Condemn, Lotus Cobra over Rampant Growth/Explore are clearly incorrect, as several Twitter friends are quick to point out.

July 18th – I hear from @Daiches2 on Twitter of some interesting Sun Titan lists at his local PTQ in the Netherlands – UWR Superfriends-like, and some Naya/Bant concoctions. Also Fauna Shaman being put to good use in a few decks.

July 19th – James Mills tells me he’s heard about a UW Mass Polymorph brew on Demonic Tutor (our local forum here in London), which I mock him about. I see Pat Chapin talking about today’s relative lack of deckbuilders on The Magic Show and wonder if I should risk taking a creation of my own to this Saturday’s PTQ, or even Nationals. Thing is, why would you go against so much data/knowledge from the “hive mind” when it’s such an important tournament? I think about putting Realm Razer into the “wildfire” deck and playing that on Saturday for fun. Realm Razer could also be good in Naya with Fauna Shaman? I think about a Fauna Shaman extended combo-Rock deck with Iona, Body Double, Doran, Reveillark etc in it when i go to lunch, based off Rob Stanjer’s Doran list from last year’s Nats. I wonder if I should just play Jund/Mythic Conscription at Nats and stop trying to be “different”. Or maybe Charlie Grover’s Naya/Conscription hybrid a few of us have played recently. Gary Lynch says he wants to play a U/W deck at Nats and I reply saying Gerry T says it’s not good right now. I put up a thread asking if people fancy getting some testing down this week/weekend while Hana is back in Scotland. I talk to Tom Reeve a bit on facebook messenger and he shows me a t8 Megrim list from Finnish Nats, and we both laugh about it.

July 20th – Charlie Grover says on DT that Gerry T is wrong about U/W not being viable, and that there is a good Mass Polymorph list – “Nice one Dan“. I’m annoyed at constantly being told I’m wrong. I check out the first M11 PTQ decklists and see that something like my “wildfire” idea is viable after all. Also the Fauna Shaman decks look decent, and some have even cut down the Conscription package to just 2 cards as I predicted to Tom Reeve yesterday. I see the new Japanese PTQ lists, which nearly all feature 4x Primeval Titan, and almost cry over the prospect of having to spend £100+ for a playset of the damn things for Nats.

July 21st – I read about the new “TweetMTG” thing WotC are running on July 31-August 1, and ask on DT if anyone wants to give it a spin, no response. I also see that the WotC European mailshot references me and links to my Mananation article on why you should attend Nats – sweet! Email Tom Baker, and it turns out he’s unlikely to be around for Nats (sadface), but might leave some of his cards behind while he is in the US. I’m hopeful he’ll let me borrow his ANT deck or one of the (proxied) cubes while he’s away. Phil Dickinson texts to say he might be able to get Fri night and Sat off to come stay at mine and play, yay! We then have a long text discussion about various janky decks and him asking me to borrow cards, as always. I read various articles at lunch including Mass Polymorph decklists I am still not enamoured by, and Bucher’s Geopede jund, which I will consider running on Saturday if I can’t borrow cards for other decks. I email Mike Duke to ask if he can lend me either 4 Primeval Titan or 4 Fauna Shaman.

July 22nd – Phil Dickinson asks me if some random guy called Josh Tovell can stay at mine on Friday night before the PTQ – I say yes, providing he buys me a beer and the two of them don’t mind getting cuddly on my futon. Read some more articles on Fauna Shaman and Primeval Titan decks. My Shamans are in the post from the US but won’t arrive in time for the weekend, and still no word on lends from Mike. Sadface. Hana is back to Scotland for a few days so will have plenty of time for Magic this weekend. Also read AJ Sacher’s article about everyone being terrible at Magic – I’m inclined to agree with a lot of what he says about players “asking for fish in a bun rather than learning how to fish”, but I still think he words it in the most arrogant way possible, so people are unlikely to listen.

July 23rd – Coverage from MTG panel at Comic Con confirms new planeswalker and new Elspeth, possibly sunburst/modular, but no word yet on the “factions”. Good news though is that Mike comes through on the lends, says I can borrow whatever I like for tomorrow’s PTQ. I text Phil and ask what to play, he gives lots of silly suggestions like “Time Sieve” and “Duelling Megrim‘s” – hopefully he’ll be better with the advice later on tonight. At FNM that evening, after an awkward confrontation with Andrew Buchanan re: him losing it at the invitational the weekend before (He got a bit stroppy apparently, I argue you should never “lose your shit” over a game), I draft M11 and go 2-0, 2-0, 2-0 for the first time ever, with the following deck – my first pick was a Mind Control over a Protean Hydra:

Creatures (13) 2 Blinding Mage 1 Augury Owl 1 Aether Adept 1 Gargoyle Sentinel 2 Scroll Thief 1 Cloud Elemental 1 Water Servant 2 Assault Griffin 1 Armored Cancrix Harbor Serpent Spells (10) Brittle Effigy 1 Diminish 1 Preordain 1 Ice Cage 1 Pacifism 2 Mana Leak 1 Sleep 2 Mind Control Lands (17) 10 Island 7 Plains

Halfway through FNM Phil Dickinson and Josh Tovell turn up, and afterwards we go back to my house. Josh and I build me a new Naya Shaman deck based on the hybrid deck I was playing a while ago (the list of which Charlie Grover gave me), while Phil plays his Mono-W Eldrazi deck on MODO in a 2-man. And subsequently loses to a guy who was playing Archmage Ascencion and Sphinx-bone Wand maindeck, Roll around pointing and laughing at Phil. Discuss Magic/talk crap til about 3am then sleep. At about 5am Josh wakes up Phil by saying “Mana Leak” in his sleep, LMAO again.

July 24th – The three of us get up and get to the London PTQ in plenty of time, there end up being 64/65 players, so 7 rounds swiss then cut. R1 I play against what I assume is a UWG Mass Polymorph deck, as in g1 all I see are some Mana Leaks, Path to Exiless, and a Growth Spasm before I win with Realm Razer, so I board in Cunning Sparkmages for his tokens, but win game 2 with little opposition. R2 I play against mythic, he turn 3′s me g1, and g2 I take too long to get red mana for Cunning Sparkmage and he conscriptions me on turn 5 or so. R3 I play against another mythic deck, and take g1 – then lose g2 as he has Qasali Pridemage for my Basilisk Collar, then lose g3 on last of extra turns, as he casts Gideon Jura and +2′s him when I was going to Sejiri Steppe one of my Knight of the Reliquarys and attack for lethal next turn – sadly even with 3 KotR cycles between his end of turn and my upkeep, I can’t flip my own one-of Gideon to steal the win. R4 I play a WG Eldrazi ramp deck, also featuring Summoning Trap and Avenger of Zendikar – g1 I win with a sick fauna shaman and Vengevines draw with no opposition, then a similar sequence, also with a Sword of Vengeance, allows me to win g2 through an Avenger and about 8 tokens. R5 I play an Esper control deck with Grave Titans and Baneslayers, and manage to win g1 exactly with raging Ravine + Sejiri Steppe on it, despite the Baneslayer he just attacked with and Grave Titan and tokens on the board, but lose the following two games to Baneslayers, and drop. It feels the deck was particularly weak to mythic and big creatures, and at times felt like i didn’t have enough red mana available to get sparkmage going quickly. Also maybe 1/2 too many fetches, and a few too many CIPT lands. Not sure whether to consider a 1-of Borderland Ranger or Sylvan Ranger to help some of these mana issues. Following this, I play some casual against Gil’s Mono-R while we drink a load of beers, then Dan Gardner (who just lost the final to Adam Barnett) openly refers to me as a “barn” to Charlie Grover and Rob Stanjer as I’m leaving, and this annoys me no end. Fair enough if you don’t respect me as a player, I’m bad to average, but at least respect me as a person, especially when I’ve been friends with these guys for nearly 2 years now!

July 26th – I read Dave Rockstar’s response to AJ Sacher’s article, and it sums my feelings up quite well – Telling people they are bad and need to improve with little/no advice on how to do so only frustrates them. Pat Chapin’s “Sixty” article is a pretty amusing pseudo-response too, and I think I “get it” to a degree – because as I’m looking through these decklists I’m constantly wondering why a certain card is present (it seems bad/not as good as something else), why a certain number of a card, or why a card is NOT in the deck. In the evening, I buy pauper Goblins on MODO for about 13 tix, but don’t get a chance to play it yet as I’m still short 4 Mogg Raider, which I can’t seem to find anywhere. Maybe after drafting tomorrow.

July 27th – After work I go to TGC for an M11 draft – it’s a weird one as it’s a pod of 7, some cards I’d consider really decent table or go late (examples: Pyroclasm 9th, Azure Drake 9th, Stormfront Pegasus 6th), and at least one of the players hasn’t drafted much at all before – I help him out before the games by making sure he puts enough lands and creatures in his deck (he was at 15 lands, 8 creatures, and many auras, before he asked for my advice). R1 I play against a Ub mill deck, that seemed to not be doing anything at all until I get Traumatized out of nowhere, then double Tome Scoured g1 – however after boarding in a pair of Cancel I take g2 and 3. R2 I lose 2-0 to a mono-W deck featuring some pretty bad cards (Goldenglow Moth, Holy Strength), but also 2 Blinding Mages, and 2 Armored Acension I have very little in the way of answers to. I board in the Cancels after g1, but don’t draw amazingly in g2, and I must have made a mistake or two as well along the way, that lost me the extra few turns I needed to stabilise. R3 starts very well, as my opponent, Keith Boulton, buys me a beer. Thanks Keith! However, despite his Conundrum Sphinx with multiple ways to get it back, I beat him 2-0, playing around Mana Leak successfully in g2 to eventually kill him exactly with Inspired Charge when he taps out to Mind Control my Harbor Serpent. Afterwards I have a good chat with Dan Royde about how to test properly, and his predictions for who will do well in this year’s Nationals.

July 29th – I’m pleasantly surprised by AJ Sacher’s article on playing Brainstorm, as it’s great content, and isn’t insulting to the reader for a change. Reading Cedric Phillips on Turboland has me starting to question Naya Shaman as my deck choice for Nats, as he puts down any other deck choice. I’m thinking it would be a good idea for me to prep myself on 2 or maybe 3 decks for the next couple weeks, then choose a little sooner to the event itself which I feel most comfortable with.

July 30th – I take note of Brad Nelson’s advice to grow a badass beard, and note I already have one – it will surely lead to imminent success at Nationals then, eh?! Magic Show is interesting but not of much use to me as it’s all about Legacy (nice red deck though w/ Cedric Phillips!) A few other articles today are similarly eternal focussed, but worth reading nonetheless. As always with me approaching a large event, I am growing increasingly uneasy about my current deck choice, Naya, despite the good finishes it has put up recently. I think I should definitely test a UW/UWr deck, Jund, Mythic, and Mono-R ASAP and get a better handle on what I like/feel comfortable playing with. On a more general note, I feel that perhaps this tendency to jump on whatever is the current deck is another danger of not building/testing your own decks properly – without forming your own opinions, you are willing to believe what anyone else has to say, which is constantly shifting, or just in total opposition to one another.

July 31st – I finally get my Pauper Goblins deck on MODO finished thanks to a helpful GoodGamery user directing me to a bot with 4 Mogg Raider in stock, yay! I start off playing nothing but Mono-U, and once when I win the second 2-man I enter, discover that until prizes change to M11, these aren’t worth it, as even if you win the bots will only buy your booster for 1.something tix. So while Hana is busy working I play in the Tournament Practise Room for most of the day, against a mixture of competitive decks (Mono-U, Burn, BW Pestilence, vaious U-based control), some less competitive (reanimator, in which I manage to race a t3 Ulamog’s Crusher), and some real jank (Naya Beasts, some multi-coloured Trinket Mage deck). Overall I’m wining something like 60-70% of the time, but against some fairly bad decks and opponents, and I still need to work out my exact game and sideboarding plan against the better decks so I can try and win myself some packs when the prizes change to M11

August 2nd – Read about GP Colombus results – again, not terribly useful to my Nationals preparation, but interesting nonetheless. Forgot to mention – GGS live coverage of the event I watched as it was taking place was fantastic, especially with Conley Woods commentary, props to those guys! After work, I go for an M11 draft at TGC. Played 3 games of my Naya Shaman vs Amar Dattani’s Mythic before drafting, and yet again it is abysmal, I feel like I have no chance of winning this matchup if Mythic has an average or better hand. Consider whether I should test this out also. Drafting itself, I just pick blue cards again, and end up with a solid but unexciting UB deck featuring Conundrum Sphinx, 3 Azure Drake and other creatures, and Assassinate/Doom Blade/Sign In Blood/Preordain/Diminish/Call To Mind as my non-creature package. Perhaps slightly low on removal, but not the worst. My r1 opponent, as soon as we sit down to play, begins complaining about how terrible his deck is and how there is no way he can win. 3 games later, and after he’s handily beaten me with Pacifisms, Serra Angels, and a Mind Control, I’m pretty miffed, as he still claims his deck is really bad. Hana calls saying her friend’s bag got stolen while they were out for drinks, and it was a 7-man pod anyways, so I decide to do everyone a favour and drop to go home rather than play on in a bad mood.

August 3rd – I read about the Mono-R v Turboland matchup and begin to wonder more about playing Mono-R – seeing as they were confident it would take multiple life-gain effects for a regular deck to have a chance against Mono-R. Decide I should definitely put this together for Sunday’s testing session. Discussions of Wescoe’s calling a judge re: “I bet with a friend” are all over Twitter – of course not being there or knowing the players personally, I can’t pass any useful judgement. Seems like a raw deal for the guy who got the DQ though… :(

August 4th – Lots about the HoF ballot on Twitter and various blogs. Slightly annoyed by @Starkpo’s overuse of totally over-the-top, attention-grabbing headlines, and decide it is the “red top” of the Magic blogosphere. Not anything useful on standard today really.

August 5th – More stirring up of sportsmanship arguments with Craig Wescoe’s open letter and Matt Nass’ marked cards explanation. I get an invite to The Games Club invitation-only Nationals testing day Jason Howlett is running, which is a ridiculously good offering: free team polo shirt, half-price or less M11 drafts, and a huge set of proxied decks to test with will be there for us to use, plus chance to win a booster box. Exactly the kind of event stores/clubs should be offering to their players to encourage working as a team and supporting one another. Read a great article on TCGPlayer from Steve Sadin on deck choice at lunchtime – I should build my Goblins Legacy deck again!

August 6th – Man these Wescoe form comments were just awkward. Can’t believe I wasted my time reading 9 pages of that… Nothing much to read on Standard today, though I’m looking forward to reading the upcoming Naya video deck tech on 60cards.com as promised on Twitter. After work I go to FNM – did a few good trades (getting a Yawgmoth’s Will, some FNM Foils, and a Foil Japanese Stonehewer Giant for upcoming Sygg Voltron EDH), and played 4 preboard games with Naya against low-tier decks (1 RG Summoning Trap Eldrazi, 3 Megrims) and win them all – not valid testing though probably. In the draft I yet again just pick blue, white, and black cards after a tasty p1p1 Air Servant (over Foil Mitotic Slime, not close I think) and go 2-1 with the following deck, my one loss being to Wei, a very good limited player who will shortly be competing in Chinese Nats:

Creatures (13) 1 War Priest of Thune 2 Augury Owl 3 Blinding Mage 1 Wild Griffin 2 Gravedigger 2 Cloud Crusader 1 Serra Angel 1 Air Servant Spells (10) 1 Preordain 2 Diminish 1 Ice Cage 1 Cancel 1 Assassinate 1 Crystal Ball 1 Foresee 2 Inspired Charge Lands (18) 8 Plains 7 Island 1 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Swamp

August 7th – Change my Naya Shaman deck to Brad Nelson’s latest configuration, with a random sideboard of things to try out. Also build a new EDH deck, a Sygg, River Guide Voltron strategy, and a post-M11 Mono-R deck to test. Go to TGC, hoping to test standard lots, but very few people there have a deck on them. I end up playing a couple games of EDH (the deck needs a LOT of work still) and a few games with the Mono-R deck, which I win almost all of.

August 8th – Go to the Pendrell’s Oak pub by Holborn tube station at noon for an afternoon of testing with Gary, James, Amar, Louis, Gil, Paul Y, Martin. I start playing the Mono-R deck and don’t bother switching to Naya Shaman as the results seem so good. I go about 17-5 in game 1′s versus a selection of the field (notable decks not played against (Jund, UW, Turboland), then 4-4 against a pretty hateful post-SB Naya deck with Obstinate Baloths, Wall of Omens, etc – including a few wins through double Baloth or similar.Mono-R seems like a legit option, with pretty decent g1′s against the field – plus I expect people to either sideboard not enough cards, or for their post-sb decks to not be hateful enough, and still give me 50/50 games. I decide to play Mono-R, and order the only cards I am missing, 4 Kargan Dragonlord, off ebay.

August 9th – Discuss deck choice a bit with Alex Tennant via email, he says a friend of his is playing Mono-R too, and gives much the same analysis of that idea as I had. He’s playing Fauna Bant though, with Frost Titans in the sb. See a spicy-looking GWRu Fauna Shaman deck featuring Renegade Doppleganger and Hell’s Thunder (!) that top 8′d New Zealand Nats on GoodGamery – might put together for a spin, but feel I should stick to my choice and be confident in it – even if Mono-R is not “the best deck” come August 20th, all the experience I gain with it from now will be greatly useful. Also find out we are having a “player party” the night before day 1 of Nats, with free karaoke and bowling, plus we’ll get into the bowling alley free every night of Nats! Another fantastic offer from Jason for sure, but one that could harm our chances in the main event I fear! Tom Reeve and Seeker on GoodGamery chat tell me about their Megrim deck, which Tom is probably going to play at Nats, but asks me to keep quiet about.

August 10th – Peter Dun is back from China, so I send him a Facebook message asking for his opinion on Mono-R. I also compile a spreadsheet with the numbers from all the recent (post M11) winning Mono-R decks from various PTQs/nationals, which gives me an idea of what the “base build” should be, and what sideboard cards to consider.

August 11th – Peter gets back to me on Facebook, and his analysis is mixed – “the deck is clearly good enough, but people can beat you if they choose to, and being mono-coloured gives you relatively few sideboard options“. He suggests I have a look at Charlie Grover’s Boros deck, which I already have the list for. Read a load of articles on standard, and barring a couple of scenarios highlighted by Gerry T, no mentions of Mono-R whatsoever, and none of the suggested lists feature Leyline of Sanctity (my biggest problem, I think), and most have 3-5 life gain spells between main and SB, and some Path to Exiles at the most. Which means they will draw 1/2 a game, which doesn’t seem like enough to beat me. The deck is certainly well under the radar at present…

August 12th – Get a message from Josh Tovell saying he thinks UW Titan will be played a lot, and that the OJ’s/Gardner group are likely to be playing Turboland. Need to test these matchups thoroughly then, but on the face of it Turboland should be okay, and if UW isn’t playing Baneslayer, that can only be a good thing, right? Players of that calibre could probably beat me with 40 lands and some life-gain spells, so I guess it doesn’t matter greatly anyway. He thinks Pyromancer’s Ascension or Time Sieve are the decks to play in this case – I’m only 4 Time Warps and 4 Ascension’s away from having that deck, so guess I could consider it if I wanted to play combo (i.e. was anticipating a control-heavy meta, and didn’t think Mono-R was good enough). I ask him what he thinks of my current deck choice – he says it seems well positioned, but he always feels dirty playing it, to make sure I have a good SB plan vs. UW, combo match-ups are 50/50. “Red deck has positive match-ups across the board so I agree it’s a solid choice”. Someone better than me saying my deck choice is reasonable makes me happy. I then find a tournament report from the admittedly low-attendance Romanian Nationals on MTGSalvation which has a pretty comprehensive UW sideboard plan I might like to consider some of – 4 Combust, 3 Manabarbs, 3 Brittle Effigy, 4 Kargan Dragonlord (he was running Ember Haulers main?!). At lunch I read the articles: Craig Wescoe’s UW seems like something I wouldn’t want to play against, but no mentions of Mono-R anywhere. The soothing voice of LSV tells me about M11 draft as I eat my sandwiches. Max McCall’s article on Mental Magic is awesome – makes me think I should make a video of Rob Stanjer playing and comboing out sometime (at Nats maybe?), I think people would enjoy watching that.

August 13th – I listen to the 60cards/ManaDeprived podcast (including my Twitter homie @JayBoosh), which is pretty funny, and again no mentions of Mono-R. Rapahel Levy’s article on drafting UB in M11 confirms something I’ve thought for a while now – you always want a Harbor Serpent in your blue decks, the guy is awesome. I’ve said to others I think I’ll try and force blue if possible in the Nats drafts, and the more I read about the format from pros, the more reasonable this plan seems. I’m also beginning to think that black may be a better pair than white for it, although having played a couple of UW decks splashing black, with enough scry cards I see this being a very legitimate option also. This week’s Magic Show featured a clip of the Nassif/Chapin Dragonstorm match, which I remember watching live online shortly after I started playing, and really got me hooked on the game, bit of a sentimental moment for you there. Not sure I like his Mass Polymorph deck though, not the kinda thing I’d play. Chapin’s article mentions he likes a 1 of Sylvan Ranger in Naya as a way to tutor for land on turn 3 – suck it, Daniel Royde, who said this was “too cute” an idea! :P Rest of today’s articles seem mainly to be about Pyromancer’s Ascension, Naya, and UW as ever. Wonder if I should try Manic vandal against decks with equipment/Howling Mines/etc – too niche? Or splashing a little black for kill spells and Thought Hemmorhage out of the board against combo and decks playing BSA/etc?

August 14th – I go to TGC for an 11 person Game Day, at which I come 5th, going 2-2. Wins against UG Turboland and Mono-G, losses to BW Allies (fortunately this isn’t a real deck likely to be played at Nats, because it creamed me with Duress effects and lifegain and went on to win the event, ‘grats Kieran!), and W control. After the main event I watched a few people draft – Jason Savage won with a good UR deck, beat Thomas’ UG deck in the finals. You definitely want to be in blue if at all possible, it seems. I also then tested the UW control matchup with my Mono-R,trying several sideboard options. It wasn’t pretty. I went 7-11 overall (5-5 pre-board, 2-6 post-board). The problem, as it turned out, was running out of cards – UW would one-for-one me early on, then I’d be topdecking and have no chance while they were stabilising. Then it was just academic for them to find a BSA/Sun Titan/Colonnade/Elspeth to beat me with. So, the real enemies are counterspells, Celestial Purge, Path to Exile, and Condemn. How to beat these, or at least get a 50/50 post-board game? The hunt continues…

August 15th – I go to TGC again for testing day, and get a load more games in with Mono-R, trying various different janky sideboard plans against UW, including bringing in a ton more guys (good if they have Leyline of Sanctity I guess) such as Goblin Ruinblaster and Plated Geopede – it doesn’t really work. Still want to try out Obsidian Fireheart and Lodestone Golem I have seen in a couple lists, as well as the white splash for Oblivion Ring and/or War Priest of Thune. And maybe some stupid things such as Eye of Ugin + Kozileks (you can thank Phil Dickinson for that one). Good news though is that I go a 2-1 average against Pyromancer’s Ascension in that set of games, and beat Jund 5-2 before Ray Wat finally gives up testing that matchup for the day. Then do a £6 timed draft, re-drafting the rares in lieu of prizes. For the first time in this format I don’t feel very happy about my picks until halfway through pack 2, but it comes together in the end, and I have a solid GB deck splashing white for 2 Pacifism‘s and some sideboard cards. Sadly I then go 1-2, and feel silly for not playing blue, of course! End up with a Day of Judgement for my trade folder and some other junk though. Also have a brief chat with Quentin Martin about the Mono-R mirror, and he agrees you should definitely draw, as it is “an all-out attrition war” more than anything else.

August 16th – Carry on asking around for UW sideboard ideas, and Gary (who also will play Mono-R, borrowed from Gil) says he might give up on it entirely, and just shore up his other matchups. Will have to see what does well in the LCQs, but this could be an option if people think Pyromancer’s Ascension will be preying on all the UW and thus the deck will be underplayed. Still might be okay anyways, as I don’t think any single archetype will comprise more than 10-15% of the field, and a lot of British players seem to love the creature decks anyway. As long as I don’t get paired against it more than once I could still do good, right? Won’t make that call til after some final testing tomorrow and Thursday anyway.

August 17th – Read the articles during lunch after a tasty burrito. AJ Sacher actually was pretty decent this week, with some funny stories in which he didn’t sound like a total dick, though not sure slagging off his employer by posting his uncensored article in the comments was a smart move. Patrick Sullivan’s Mono-R report from GP Columbus, though irrelevant and out of date now, is hilarious. After work I nip in for a few games at TGC, no one to test the UW matchup and try more sideboard ideas with, so I just play a few games against Keith Boulton’s Boros deck (a good idea now it won Chinese Nats) after buying him back the beer I owed, and go 2-2. Also run into Tom “Brown Tom” Brown, who is going to start playing again from Scars of Mirrodin after a hiatus of a year or so, and I haven’t seen him in ages. Woo!

August 18th – Starkington Post reports on Twitter that AJ Sacher has been fired by SCG. LMAO. Get another Facebook message from Josh Tovell, discussing sideboard possibilities – Runeflare Trap is a bit too narrow he says, plus he has some sage advice on staying with the same deck – “I think you should stick to playing Red deck, audibling is the nut low“. Meanwhile, of course Gary lynch is asking for cards for another deck, one he hasn’t tested at all (GW Eldrazi ramp/Trap) on Demonic Tutor – “As I have done hardly any testing and have found I can’t draft I may as well play something fun“. Can’t argue with his reasoning I guess, but given his experience with Jund over the past few months, I think he’s a fool for not playing a freshly-tuned build of that. Do a super quick analysis of my very-likely inaccurate predicted meta and win percentages for Mono-R (after reading an article by Sam Black on doing this), and end up with 55% wins, which agrees roughly with my 58.6% based on my total 34-24 record in testing thus far. A very slight favourite against the field will do me fine. Email my list to @JayBoosh asking for sideboard ideas, and he suggests a black splash for Blightning against control/combo and Suffer the Past against Ascension. Not sure I like this though as it still means you’re dead to Leyline of Sanctity…

August 19th – I get up about the same time as I normally would for work, and get the same bus as my girlfriend Hana, getting off just outside the very familiar Royal National Hotel, my new home for the following 4 daytimes! Inside, I spend the first hour or so catching up with people I’ve not seen in a while, including players from my former clubs of Oxford and Milton Keynes, and friends I regularly bump into at PTQs and big pre-releases. As the day goes on, I ask many of them what they think will be played, whether Mono-R is a decent choice or not, and get some very positive responses. Alex Tennant and Matt Light tell me it’s pretty well positioned, particularly considering the top tables at the constructed LCQ are full of Jund, and the average British player’s huge love of mid-range creature decks (such as Jund and Naya). Chris Bateman has a Pyromancer’s Ascension list proxied up he’s probably going to play, but is thinking of audibling to Mono-R, and Russ Davies tells me he’s still considering it, but the list he tested had more creatures that stay in play, with Plated Geopede, Ember Hauler, and “the full four-boat” of Kargan Dargonlords. No one is saying anything about UW, and there’s also a bit of buzz for the two UR combo decks, plus the entire Leeds crew is apparently playing Open the Vaults combo. As such I decide Reflection Traps and Manic Vandals will be played in my sideboard when I finalise it that evening. (Note: Manic Vandal is also fantastic in the mirror, according to me and Russ Davies’ hypothesizing – providing a threat while killing their Dragon’s Claw seems important)

On a whim, I buy the gaudiest sleeves I can buy (hot pink with metallic rose detailing), and after dinner I sleeve up and write on a deck-reg sheet the following:

Creatures (19) 4 Goblin Guide 4 Hellspark Elemental 3 Kargan Dragonlord 4 Ball Lightning 4 Hell's Thunder Spells (17) 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Burst Lightning 4 Earthquake 4 Searing Blaze 2 Staggershock Lands (24) 3 Arid Mesa 3 Scalding Tarn 4 Smoldering Spires 4 Teetering Peaks 10 Mountain Sideboard (15) 3 Dragon's Claw 2 Manic Vandal 2 Ricochet Trap 2 Manabarbs 2 Flame Slash 2 Mark of Mutiny 2 Combust

August 20th – I get up with Hana as usual, and we catch the bus together, her kissing me goodbye and wishing me “good luck and have fun!” before I get out at the venue. I’d already shown my ID and registered the night before, so just had to wait a short while until the player meeting was called at 9.30. When it was, as usual i’m seated with all the other “B’s”, so I banter away with Chris Bateman and Adam Barnett for a few minutes, as we look through our goody bag of free treats – containing a Mirrodin deckbox and sleeves (which I quickly errata with a Sharpie, adding a “Scars of”), score pad for life totals, and some pieces of paper detailing the weekend’s events and telling us we should come to “Party in Amsterdam” – I’m already booked to go! Pairings are put up, and I nervously head to sit down for my first constructed game of the day…

Round 1 – Eduardo Sajglik (Jund):

Eduardo is a very decent (read: much better than myself) player I’ve duelled with several times before (with a win 2 years ago in a PTQ at Gravesend, then a draw the following year at a Nats Qualifier in Gravesend), though until I read his top-8 feature match coverage, I wasn’t aware he’d previously finished so highly at Canadian Nats. I fear the worst (UW control), as it seems the sort of thing he’d play, and begin to shuffle my deck.

“You’ll want to change those sleeves after this round,” is Eduardo’s opening gambit after we greet each other – from my experience he likes to play mind games a bit, but I’m confident my sleeves are acceptable for tournament play, and win the die roll. We both mulligan, and my first play is a Hellspark Elemental on turn 2, after Eduardo reveals his deck choice with a Savage Lands. A few turns later I take game 1, but make a minor misplay in Earthquaking for 1 instead of 2 on my penultimate turn, which i’m called out on, and feel pretty awkward and stupid for a second before shaking it off. I sideboard in 2 Flame Slash and a Mark of Mutiny for 3 Kargan Dragonlord, with I anticipate will be too slow for this matchup.

Game 2, I keep: Mountain, 2 Goblin Guide, 2 Hellspark Elemental, Searing Blaze, Hell’s Thunder – figuring with any land in the next 3 draws i’ll be more than fine. Sadly I don’t see one in the 6 or 7 draws I get before Eduardo kills me, while he gets all but 1 land from the Guides, but I still manage to get him down to 12 in the process. He comments that my hand was not unacceptable to keep, and interestingly, that he’d be more likely to keep it on the play than the draw, as 2 Goblin Guides are more likely to “get there” on the play.

Game 3 I keep 7 on the play while Eduardo goes down to 5, and we both get a fair amount of damage in, while he Blightnings me twice. Eventually, I tap out to play some haste creature and attack him down to 2, with 2 burn spells in hand. Eduardo rips a thgird blightning to take away my win next turn, attacks me down to 4 leaving adequate creatures on defence, and I fail to top-deck a burn spell or Hell’s Thunder to finish him off. A little unlucky, as this matchup is definitely favourable for me, but as we agree afterwards, it’s not as unwinnable for the Jund player as many people consider. We wish each other good luck, and I move on with hopes of getting back in the swing of things in round 2…

Round 2 – Matt Light (RG Valakut Titan):

“Are you playing red?” asks James Allingham at the pairings board.

“Yea.”

“Aww, Matt’s gonna hate you…”

Matt is another very decent player I know well, and on the back of a top 32 Legacy GP finish and winning 2 PTQs this year, is emerging onto the Pro scene. We chat animatedly, having lost our first round nerves, and now being at the much less serious 0-1 tables. Chris Bateman who is sitting next to us joins in the banter frequently as well. Matt wins the die roll and leads with an Evolving Wilds, so is almost certainly playing the Primeval Titan ramp deck. After my Goblin Guide reveals a Terramorphic Expanse and he cracks the Wilds for a Forest, it’s pretty clear. I take him down to 6 while he ramps his mana, and then plays an Inferno Titan that is forced to trade with a Ball Lightning. With me now out of cards the Primeval Titan he plays on the following turn is surely safe, and he kills me from 16 with Valakuts the next turn while sitting at 4 life. “I made out like an absolute bandit that game,” Matt tells James Allingham who has now come over to watch, “one with a cape and Zorro mustache and everything!” I board in 2 Flame Slash, 2 Manabarbs, 2 Mark of Mutiny, for 2 Kargan Dragonlord (which I later realise is incorrect), and I believe 2 Earthquake and 2 Searing Blaze (he doesn’t play many non-titan guys, just Bloodbraid Elf and presumably sideboard Obstinate Baloths)

Game 2 I stay on 20 life throughout, as he takes Hellspark Elemental, Ball Lightning, Hellspark Elemental unearthed and Teetering Peaks‘d, then is thoroughly abused with a Mark of Mutiny on his Primeval Titan.

Game 3 I realise (and Matt comments) that an early Kargan Dragonlord is huge in this matchup as he only has Lightning Bolts and Valakut triggers with which to kill it (thus my sideboarding was incorrect), but fortunately I’ve drawn the 1 remaining in my deck, which I play (quite unsure of myself) over a second Hellspark Elemental on turn 3, and level up once. After a turn or two it’s then a 4/4 and takes Matt down to 8. He passes his turn with a 2 Valakut, 5 Mountains, and an Evolving Wilds plus a Forest or two in play, and says something about having not enough Mountains. Then as I untap asks, “How much to make it an 8/8?”, pointing at my Dragonlord. I see straight through this bluff, as it’ll obviously be killed by fetching up a Mountain with the Evolving Wilds if I do sink all my mana into it. I attack without levelling, having unearthed a Hellspark Elemental or something, and the Dragonlord dies to 2 Valakut triggers as expected, plus the other creature is bolted. Matt then chains an Obstinate Baloth into a Primeval Titan to kill me, as I draw nothing. “I didn’t deserve that,” Matt laughs, and I join him before we wish each other good luck in the following rounds.

Round 3 – Chris Bateman (UR Runeflare Trap)

“Aww man, I didn’t want to have to play you now!”

I agree with Chris is we reluctantly shuffle up to play against each other. Again, he’s a better player than I, who I see regularly at British events, and is consistently top 8ing the PTQs on our little Isle, and won an extended one earlier this year with Scapeshift. More importantly though, he’s fun to hang out with! We both know what the other is playing, so I’m quick to ship back 3 lands and 4 3-mana spells for something a bit faster, while Chris keeps. I get him down to 8 and take a few burn spells to the face in the process, but am tapped out when he chains Time Warps while filling my hand up with Temple Bell. Then I take 11 going to 2, having only had one instant to play, Burst Lightning (taking him to 6) when he Traps me at the end of my draw step, and has a bolt to finish the job. I sideboard in 2 Manic Vandal and 2 Ricochet Trap for I think 3 Kargan Dragonlord (again, very slow here) and a Ball Lightning.

Game 2 is all me, as I Goblin Guide, then Hellspark Elemental, then a couple other things to take Chris to 3 before an attack for 10 he takes all of.

Game 3, Chris buys himself what feels like infinite time in the early game, playing multiple Unsummon, Into the Roil, and even copying them with Twincast, before killing me from 17. Sadly I never drew my Manic Vandals, which would have been pretty spicy in this game, but Chris had in fact sideboarded his Time Warps out against me, knowing I’d bring in the Reflection Traps. Cunning! He also asks me if I’ve played the matchup before, wondering why I didn’t burn down my hand with Earthquakes for 0 (something I never considered), and asking if I boarded in my copies of Dragon’s Claw – “If you both have Dragon’s Claw, it comes down to decking. Although in testing I did manage to once cast all 4 copies of Runeflare Trap and 2 Twincast to kill someone from 77 a couple turns before I decked myself.” Clearly knowing this matchup better than myself, and having built his sideboard well (having plenty more Unsummon effects available), I can’t say he didn’t deserve to take this one from me, though it isn’t his easiest matchup.

Round 4 – Nathaniel James (GWB Junk)

I’ve not seen or played against Nathaniel before, and with us both at 0-3, I can’t help but feel the slightest bit confident about my chances in this matchup. This being said, I’m already a bit on tilt, but decided to play the last remaining standard round “just in case”, as Chris advised me X-3 can still get in. I’ve had miracle runs in the past, so why not start another one now, eh?

Goblin Guide on the play after a Mulligan gets in some early beats, revealing 2 Lotus Cobra and then a plains. Nathaniel waits a turn to play Cobra into Cobra, and I’m sure I have him with a blowout Earthquake for one to kill them both, followed up by a second Guide and an attack down to 9. He makes an Elspeth to generate blockers, and I get him down to 2 with a Hell’s Thunder in hand. He then plays Baneslayer Angel and in combination with unearthing spent creatures, I have 2 turns to find a burn spell, so of course I draw 2 Mountains. Now is definitely the right time to go on tilt, I don’t remember what I sideboarded, but it was almost certainly 2 Mark of Mutiny and 2 Combust in for 3 Kargan Dragonlord and something else.

On the play with 6 cards to Nathaniel’s 5, I take him down to 8 before he plays a Kor Firewalker, which I believe I can win through if he doesn’t land a Baneslayer. He doesn’t, but does have an Elspeth, which sends the Firewalker into the air to kill me over several turns as I draw pretty much the only things in my library which won’t win me the game. Then, despite being very annoyed and upset with my 0-4 result, politely thanked him for the games, and ticked the drop box, before finding a friend to whinge to and console me.

Was I disappointed in my performance in this tournament? Yes, very.

Do I feel like I deserved to do better? Certainly.

So what can we learn from this?

Conclusion:

Having played 70 or so games with the deck in testing, and found its only weak matchup to be UW control, I was confident in my choice of deck, and thought I knew how things would play out in the major matchups. Moreover, considering the British love of mid-range creature decks, Mono-Red seemed relatively well positioned for this tournament, something several good players relayed to me in the days immediately before. Add to this a sideboard of cards I thought were pretty effective against everything but UW, and my recent success (vs. the field’s inexperience) in M11 draft, I was confident of improving upon my 77^th place finish last year, when I played perhaps the worst deck for the meta (Kithkin), and had done much less testing.

But, then I lost to 2 of my best matchups, one that is 50/50 or so, then a deck I hadn’t considered at all, and didn’t even get to the draft stage. So where did it all go wrong?

Luck: I’m not willing to say it was all bad luck and there was nothing I could have done at all, as that gives me no hope to improve in future. However, the deck just didn’t give me the draws it had done in testing, and on a few occasions I failed to draw a game-winning card having had several opportunities to do so. This may be in part due to…

Sleeves: Bear with me on this one, I know it may seem stupid at first, but… The sleeves I chose to play with were a brand I’d never used before, and were particularly uncomfortable to shuffle with, which perhaps led me to shuffle less than really necessary. Moreover, in my sweaty, nervous hands cards often stuck together a little, which also did not help. Plus, having something as basic and simple as this not feel right could certainly have a negative effect – consider driving an unfamiliar car vs. your daily driver. I should have used the matte-front ones I know and love.

Testing: While I had done a fair amount of testing and reading, it was clear in some cases my opponents had done more/better prep. Consider round 3, Chris knew what I would board in and changed his deck to thwart this, and knew far more detail on the long game in this matchup than I had ever considered. Or the importance of Kargan Dragonlord against the ramp decks. I also hadn’t played more than 10 or so games vs. Jund, and had assumed the few difficult games I had encountered were very much the minority, and the majority would be simple goldfishes. Despite agreeing with Eduardo the matchup was far from unwinnable for the Jund player, I had not listened to what I knew and tested it more thoroughly accordingly!

Mulliganing: While I maintain my 1-land keep vs. Eduardo was correct despite it backfiring horribly, I’m willing to be convinced I should have mulliganed there. Furthermore, I kept a few average hands at 6/7 cards when I could have looked for something more profitable in fewer cards. Perhaps I was put off this by not wanting to shuffle even more with those sleeves.

Sideboard: I made at least one obvious sideboarding error, and my board could have included more cards against high-risk threats such as Baneslayer Angel, which can lose me the game on their own. Perhaps more Combust, or some copies of Brittle Effigy should have been present?

Deck choice: Again, I stick to my guns here and say Mono-R wasn’t a bad choice, but it wasn’t the obvious best choice, and I did get some advice that I think I may take more seriously in future. I sadly don’t remember who said each of these things, so if it was you, speak up! 1 – “You’re a better player than you give yourself credit for. You can play a deck that works harder for its wins and do fine, rather than play something that either wins or loses easily.” 2 – “Man, it would really suck to top 8 then not get to go to Worlds because you played a matchup you had no hope in hell of winning.”

But, I can’t beat myself up about this forever. There’s always next time, right…?

A distant acquaintance who moved to South Korea a little over a year ago earned the four slot as an alternate on the Korean team. How I wish I could have been there to see it happen.

But I wasn’t: if you did catch any coverage of US Nationals you may have noticed my name popping up there. I was offered a phenomenal opportunity to be a part of team to provide coverage in Minneapolis – and gladly accepted it. While traveling halfway across the country to see one of the greatest shows stateside this year was an easy to grok idea, bring thrust deep into the environment of the top names, faces, and minds in US Magic was an entirely different swing.

I’m no expert in who’s who.

While the amazing team I was able to join had more information than I could possible absorb (and, thus, were where I turned to for stories, information, and anecdotes) and were certainly capable of handling the event entirely without me, I am glad I was able to earn the tidbits of wisdom they shared.

There’s nothing like feeling completely insignificant to bring you to humility.

Railbirds

Let’s say you’re not into fun, casual, side events – you know, “the other stuff” at Nationals – but you’re totally into competitive Magic then watching matches is the way to go. I usually have a distaste for the competitive simply because I’ve played with far more of the “OMG ur deck is SO BADWHYAMILOSING?!” and “LOLS I just ROLFSTOMPED you, n00b.” players than eloquent professionals.

Eloquent professionals were in full stock all weekend at Nationals.

Sure, there’s always a few bad apples in a bushel but I was utterly impressed with virtually every player I met. To name names I had the pleasure of watching David Ochoa, the Ocho if I’m allow familiarity I don’t feel I have, in two Feature Matches. It took the full first match to really catch on to what he was doing in his games but by the second – the marathon playoff match against Conrad Kolos for the 3 and 4 slots – I was following along.

I don’t dare go near the “I know how the deck works.” idea, but Ochoa played some seriously tight Magic and, once seeing it working in action, I was hooked. (And, yes, I’ve been catching up on his work at Channel Fireball.) I don’t think I need to elaborate what the feeling of watching someone play exceptionally well brings to heart.

Maybe I do, though. For me, I felt both excitement (What’s the next card? Is he going to do that next? Does he have an out against this?) and despair.

Hopeless, complete despair.

I felt, firsthand and without reservation, distinctly just how poorly I play Magic. I couldn’t help but wonder as I sat hammering in my laptop whether anyone else watching felt the same way. Excitement, yes, but that feeling of crushing defeat would inexorably creep into my heart.

My hands would shake, my mind reeling at the prospect of being so clearly inferior. No, “prospect” is the wrong word; perhaps the better word is “fact” or “truth.”

I wondered if the gaggle of players, professional and amateur, fresh and veteran, felt anywhere near the same. Had they ever felt the same? Was this feeling normal? Acceptable?

And why, with my army of EDH decks, obsessively-constructed cube of commons, and wacky sea-themed Quest for Ula’s Temple deck, did I feel this way?

Nate Price, roommate for the weekend and there-is-no-word-sufficient-to-express-my-esteem-for fellow player shared something so simple I’ve never stopped to consider it: if we’re all gamers, who have grown up on video games and strategy guides, what’s the point of playing a game if there isn’t winning?

It’s Come to This

When I heard this discussion brewing, while playing (rather, getting crushed at) Brian Kibler’s new game Ascension Sunday night, my first reaction was to protest. I play Magic for at least a half-dozen reasons that aren’t “To win.”

• The social experience of being with friends
• Sharing a social experience with new people
• Seeing the wacky, different, and odd interactions of cards
• Experimenting with atypical and nontraditional approaches
• Engaging in the nostalgia of Magic of the past
• Teaching and coaching players that I may provide for

But as I held back and listened I began to understand more what Nate, and the others discussing in agreement, were driving at:

Winning is not mutually exclusive from any other objective in gaming. In fact, winning is a driver for gaming whether we recognize it or not.

Social gaming, that is playing with more than one opponent, generally yields fewer winners than dueling: only one player still wins. It’s harder to beat multiple opponents since there are more eyes and minds looking for your weaknesses. Politics and temporary teamwork provide avenues for shifting the game away, or for, a particular player.

Wacky and different cards and decks are generally most interesting when they do something effectively and, in terms of Magic, that’s usually winning games. The few Limited environments that have hosted viable milling strategies are few and far between in Magic but the appeal of such an avenue isn’t “Sweet! Milling!” but “You were beaten to a strategy you did not anticipate which, often enough, is a sufficient means of victory unto itself.”

The best way to put it is that sometimes you sit down with opponents to play one game but end up seeing a totally different game in action.

What do we teach new players?

• The need for sufficient, but not too many, lands in your decks
• That creatures or spells that will defeat your opponent are necessary
• Efficiency and the advantages of using less resources than your opponent

None of these are inherently wrong – 99% of all Magic involves these fundamentals which, thanks to Magic being Magic, can be broken in different ways – and I’ve coached many newer players on looking for these in their decks.

Why do we teach these principles by nature? Is it the social inertia of Magic theory and how we have grown and deepened our understanding of it? Or is it the underlying desire for each of us to win games of Magic and intuitively know that following the veins of theory lead us closer to that?

You’re Hot Then You’re Cold

I don’t have the answers. Without the proper tools to conduct sociological studies I’m not sure I ever will. But know that when my hands were chilled, cut to the bone, it wasn’t the abundant cold air flowing about but the wrinkle of passion in my heart calling out “You can do so much more.”

I know now, after the luxury of thinking back over the brief few days since then, that it wasn’t just me being starstruck or having a flighty fancy for following a fantastic player; it was the sparking desire to win. Seeing the best made me want more than I currently had.

Which, by my count, are the following:

• Poor evaluation of card interactions and synergy
• Lack of focus to attain a proper curve in Limited
• Lack of focus in Constructed win conditions
• Shallow knowledge of players – names, faces, styles, and histories
• Simplistic mana base construction and development

Am I a bad player? Defining “good” and “bad” are entirely dependent upon your value system. In some ways I believe I am an excellent player. The list above applies a competitive prism and the results are obvious.

I don’t think I’ll give up my wacky tastes, love of all things different and casual, and desire to see players similar to me slide up to events like Nationals. But these things have their time and place – and all-too-often it isn’t at the main tables and competitive environments of high level Magic. Dusting off my focus, stretching my muscles in practice, and building up my reserves of skills are things that are vital and worthwhile.

Is it even possible to lead a dual life – both playing as relaxed and free as I can while apportioning my mental capacity and dutiful practice to competitive improvements? Where does one end and the other being? Where does the road lead to?

And, most importantly, do I have the fortitude and discipline to succeed, in relative terms obviously, at both? Are a pair of quivering hands and beading, cold sweat all I will ever muster?

• Grab and Go Event Decks Announced—Wizards’ new product is a full 75 designed to be competitive at the FNM level.  Ertai’s Lament weighs in here.
• Elspeth vs. Tezzeret Decklists Spoiled—The Dual Deck goodies include two new cards from Scars of Mirrodin, two copies of StP, and a Mishra’s Factory.
• New Keyword: Proliferate—Contagion Clasp and Kemba’s Skyguard were spoiled with the new Dual Deck revealing a new keyword and some intriguing watermarks.

Tournament Coverage

• Nationals Coverage—The Mothership’s coverage of nationals in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain.  Congrats to the champs: Josh Utter-Leyton, Dennis Johannsen, and Joe Jackson.
• StarCityGames Open Denver—Standard and Legacy results from the Mile High City.  Shout out to the local players who made the coverage.

Standard

• Great Look at Great Decks—Mike Flores discusses the diversity showcased in last weekend’s national events.
• Matching up in Standard—Steve Sadin looks to pick up wins by playing the percentages instead of decks with unwinnable matchups.
• Playing Life Gain at Nationals—Tom Ross traded in his Nacatls for Soul Wardens and ran the deck that’s been dubbed “Soul Sisters.”
• Em-ra-kul or What?—Konrad Colos’ innovative summoning trap deck should catch opponents by surprise.
• Bugging out with Titans—MrScottyMac runs triple titans, Pulse, Mana Leak, and three Planeswalkers in this strangely powerful brew.
• Nationals in Review—Chris Jobin talks about the top dogs in Standard including the Dredge deck.

Limited

• Card Evaluation—Darwin Kastle provides his M11 Power Rankings and reflects on the first picks from Pod One at nationals.
• A Gimmicky Take on Draft—Matt Nass looks at the Black Red Sacrifice archetype and in a companion piece David Ochoa drafts the deck here.
• ABC: Always be Clocking—Gavin Verhey argues in favor of an aggressive curve in forty-card formats.
• Fight to the Finish—Steve Sadin looks for value in his final inclusions and sheds some light on how to properly scrape the bottom of a barrel.
• Contest Winners—Josh Silvestri chooses the four best builds of a single sealed pool from over 200 entries.

Extended

• Larkfolk—Jacob Van Lunen is the latest writer to evoke the powerful elemental in the New Extended format.

Legacy

• Deconstructing Denver—Doug Linn breaks down the diverse range of decks with a strong showing last Sunday.
• The Old Deck—Chris Walton looks at Goblins, Landstill, Burn, and uses seven recent physical-card tournaments to begin his tally of top decks in the current format.

Casual and Variant Formats

• EDH Starter Kit—Bennie Smith approaches the concept of EDH staples from a fresh and budget-friendly perspective.
• Why Cube—Thea Steele explains the appeal of cube drafting.
• Stampede of Beasts—Ertai’s Lament tweaks the Beasts and lives to tell the tale.

On-Going Series

• Magic Effectiveness Project—Alexander Shearer updates the project’s status and shares early findings.
• Painting Magic—Adam Wilson mixes it up this week and paints a playset of Ponder.

Miscellany

• So You want to Qualify for the Pro Tour—Sam Stoddard’s continuation about what it takes to make it to Magic’s major league level.
• Frameworks—Chingsung Chang drills down to the core of several current decks to illustrate this theoretical concept.
• A Case Against Speculation—Don Wiggins gives the online retailer’s perspective on speculation orders.
• Hacking your Card Sorting Process—Kelly Reid parses out the possibilities for keeping your large collection organized.
• Top Ten Most Disappointing Cards in Shards Block—Ben Bleiweiss runs down the Shards cards that never quite lived up to expectations.

Were you featured this week?

<a href="http://www.mananation.com/week-magic-821827/"><img src="http://mananation.tv/images/twim-button.jpg" alt="Magic the Gathering Links for this Week"></a>

It was Friday morning. I was running around the site trying to get the last of the power that I needed for Vintage Champs. I swung by the Cool Stuff Inc booth to pick up my Black Lotus. I used some of the sweet moola that Trick gives me for writing these articles to pay for it. Here’s a little pro-tip for you: if you want Power, a good way to get it is to write for ManaNation. Trick was nice enough to hang around the CSI booth to make sure that my purchase went off without a hitch. After getting the Lotus I ran to the event, which started the same time that the vendor hall opened, so I was already running late. On the way to my seat, I found my buddy Lopee who loaned me a Mox Pearl. I purposefully left the Pearl off the list so that I could finish my set of power with the Pack to Power binder.

As it turns out, I now suck at vintage. Darn! I probably should have thought about that before dumping three thousand dollars of my collection into Power Nine. I guess now I just have to get better or I could set my Power on fire and You Tube the ritual. I’m sure that I would get weeks of enjoyment out of taunting all the people who would hate me for that. Anyways, the focus of the day was to get to a Mox Pearl, so I hit the trade tables.
It took some time to get the beacon shinning but after a few minutes the binder was opened and deals were on the grill. My first trade of the day was actually pretty sick and it was the first time that I legitimately traded a card from another card game. As my trade partner was approaching the end of my binder he found my collectables page. It’s the page of the binder where I put all the strange cards that I pick up on my journey. He asked if the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card was for trade and I said, “Yeah, are you interested in it?” He smiled, “Yeah, my little brother collects these and here would be pretty stoked if I brought him one.” I told him, “To be honest, I don’t know what it’s worth.” He looked it over and said, “Neither do I but it is a Ghost Rare, which means it’s worth something.” I was curious about where this line of thought was going. He was already making himself vulnerable by telling me that it was a Ghost Rare, so that tells me that he will probably give a fair price based on his understanding. Whatever the price was, I wasn’t going to argue with him, since I got the thing for free as a throw in.

Since I wasn’t going to argue with the price, I figured that I would throw my trade partner a bone and use this opportunity to establish myself as a fair trader. I interrupted his silent train of thought, “Well, I am not looking to make a million on it, what is the cheapest Ghost Rate that they make?” He guessed at $6, I said, “Sounds fine, why don’t we just go with that.” I went with what I call the 1-2-3, its where you pick three cards, one at a dollar, one at $2 and one at $3, the idea is to gain the value on the middle card. If you already have a card at $1 and a card at $3, then it’s easy for someone to call a card $2 even if the card is worth more. I have no idea why this is; I think that subconsciously people’s minds need to see patterns. I’ve never had a problem trading Sanguine Bond and the other two cards were solid movers at GenCon. The Coralhelm Commanders were trading at $4 and the Inferno Titan was a solid $6. Typically with the 1-2-3 you only gain value on the second card but in this case he valued the Titan at $3 so I said why not.

Trade 87

My (6) Ghost Rare 6 His (17.47) Sanguine Bond 3.49 Coralhelm Commander 3.99 Inferno Titan 9.99 Net +11.47

Trade 88
The next trade was a quick one. The guy was gracious enough to look through my binder and find some goodies for his EDH deck. I don’t remember much about the trade other than the fact that he wanted to value the Wall of Blossoms at $1. The trouble is that it was Korean which means that it’s worth about $5. Rather than trying to dupe the value out of him, I just explained that the Wall of Blossoms was a desirable Cube and EDH card and that Korean cards carried a heavy premium. He asked how much and I said that I would trade the Wall at $4. He was fine with that number. I valued the Foil Faerie Conclave at $2 and we made this trade.

My (7.49) Wall of Blossoms Korean 4 Faerie Conclave Foil Promo 3.49 His (9.48) Leyline of Sanctity 6.49 Destructive Force 2.99 Net: +1.99

Trade 89
After I got done with that trade, I perused the tables a bit. My eyes searched the open binders and I spotted a Foil Voltaic Key. I positioned myself over the back of the person looking at the binder. I asked, “Whose binder is this?” He pointed and grunted, “His.” I asked the guy, “Hey, is that Foil Key for Trade?” he said, “Yeah, I actually just packed that.” I handed him my Pack to Power binder. He pulled out an Inferno Titan and asked, “How much do you value this at?” I told him that dealers would give me $5 cash so that I assume it’s about $8 in trade. We valued the Key at $5 and the Leyline at $3. His friend thought that he should have gotten more for the key buy it seemed like my trade partner didn’t care. I would have trade the Titan at $6 but getting $8 was sweet!

My (9.99) Inferno Titan 9.99 His (13.48) Voltaic Key Foil 6.99 Leyline of Sanctity 6.49 Net: +3.49

After this trade, Sheffield and Mannix came over to recruit me for an EDH Tournament. It’s was already Midnight and I was on the fence about joining. As I thought it over, I realized that I had spent most of my time a GenCon trading and hanging out with the grinders. I figured that I owed it to myself to play some magic and after that beating in Vintage I was looking forward to smashing some people on the EDH tables; we’ll just call it my therapeutic form of vengeance.

Saturday

I woke up with a Jolt. The way that the sun was shining through the curtains I knew it was much later than I hoped it was. I rolled over in the bed and looked at the clock. It was 3pm. The bed next to me was empty. I looked down on the floor under the sink where Kelly was sleeping, he was still wrapped up in his blankets. I contemplated doing something mean to him and posting the pictures on Twitter, but I opted not to stress our already fragile relationship.
It was Saturday afternoon and GenCon was passing me by. I mental scolded myself, I shouldn’t have played EDH until five in the morning. My Pack to Power quest was on the ropes since my Friday trades did not contain any breakthroughs and there was still no sign of the Illusionary Mask. I was holding onto hope that the Mask would be waiting for me at the front decks. I planned to stop by on my way to the site.

I started to do some writing while I waited for Kelly to get up. He eventually awaken with a hardly distinguishable statement, “Hum Tim Sit…” What the heck was he saying, I thought to myself, I shot back at him, “What?! Speak English Puto.” He answered back more clear, “What Time Is It?” He supprised to learn that it was already three, we both got ready and on the way out I stopped by the front desk. The beginning of my conversation didn’t give me much hope.
“Yeah, Mail, It’s this strange system of envelopes that us humans use to transport goods from one place to another…” The lady at the front desk could not hear my thoughts or I am sure she would have been offended by my sarcasm. “There is no mail here for you.” She said after checking in the back. “Are you sure?” I tried to sweetened my tone, what if I pissed her off and she just didn’t want to give me my mail. “Yes, I check the mail and there was none for you today.” This must be a mistake, “What about Yesterday?” He answer was quick, “No.” “Alright thanks.” There is no use burning daylight. I had until the end of the day to get a Mox.

Trade 90
I started the day by trading with my buddy Larson. Ever since he traded me a Jace for an Elspeth at the Worldwake release he has been very careful about what he trades me. I heard him say that he needed Wall of Omens earlier in the weekend. I said, “Larson, do you still need the Wall of Omens?” He said, “I think so, but I would rather buy them then trade them from you.” Nice, why doesn’t he get on the loud speaker and totally kill my opportunity for any trades today. I laughed his comment off and said, “Seriously, I’ve got four. Let’s do this. I will make it painless.” He slid his binder across the table, “How much do you want for the Wall of Omens….” Before I could answer he interrupted, “Dollar! Done.” I said, “You’re killing me man, $2 is fair, don’t be a douche.”

After fussing about whether he needed three of four he agreed “Ok, $8 for the set.” Larson doesn’t mess around, in his mind he knows what he is willing to give up for these walls and what he is not. I did some fishing but was shut down at each angle. Finally I made the move on the Vendillion Clique. People still value these low! Lason put it at $6, that’s higher than most people value it but lower than it’s worth. I agreed with his pricing and then started fishing for $2 worth of cards. I knew that I couldn’t get anything playable or he would give me the big no, so I went for promos, valuing each of them at $1. He shook his head and I snapped my picture.

My (9.96) 4x Wall of Omen 2.49 His (12.97) Vendilion Clique 8.99 Elvish Visionary Foil Promo 2.49 Tidehollow Sculler Foil Promo 1.49 Net: +3.01

Trade 91
A passerby spotted the Foil Voltaic Key in my binder while I was trading with Larson. He was hanging around like a fly waiting to land on some watermelon or something. Once I was done with Larson he handed me his binder. Just like Vendillion Clique, Spell Snare is another “gotcha”. Most people value it at around $2, but it typically trades for $6. I took a mental note of the Spell Snares as I flipped through the binder and kept looking. I ask him “What do you value your Spell Snares at?” He hesitated and said “I don’t know?” I asked him, “Two?” he agreed. I told him that I valued the key at about $6 and that I would do the key for the three Spell Snares. He asked if he could throw something in and I said, “Sure, I can add something small.” He found a Captivating Vampire. These vampires trade very well, by the way. Here’s what the trade looked like:

My (12.98) Voltaic Key Foil 6.99 Captivating Vampire 5.99 (Seriously! Lol) His(17.97) 3x Spell Snare 5.99 Net: +4.99

Trade 92
I sat down to scope out my next trade when I seen a girl walking by the trade tables. I asked her if she had trades and she stopped to sit down. Her binder was disorganized but had some good stuff in it. I asked her, “What format do you play?” She said, “I mainly play EDH with my boyfriend.” I started to get the feeling that I was looking through a “Closed-Playgroup binder” – this is a trader’s dream. The binder was untouched by sharks, it was like a fruitful orchard. I was pumped. She was polite and excited to find some EDH stuff that she needed. As I started to survey the binder I stumbled upon my salvation, the card that would ensure my victory, Chains of Mephistopheles. I tried not to act too excited, “Is this for trade?” I pointed to the Chains. She said, “Sure.” I had to get it. I asked her how much she valued the Chains at and she said about $35, which is pretty close for an Italian one. Italian Legends is worth less than English Legends, in case you didn’t know. She has pulled a pile of cards but it wasn’t quite enough to get there. I asked her if she could find anything else, then I remembered that I had the box of “Bulk” rares that I pulled out of the Pack to Power binder. I said, “I also have these.” After a quick shuffle through, she started pulling stuff. In my mind I did the most epic Flores fist-pump, for no other reason than I was sure that this trade would get me there. She said, “How about this?” I added it up. It was enough.

My (21.89) Djinn of Wishes .49 Sunpetal Grove3.99 Hellkite Charger .49 2x Mordant Dragon .49 Knight of New Alara .75 Vengeful Archon .49 Cloudthresher 1.25 Spearbreaker Behemoth .49 Conundrum Sphinx 1.49 Coralhelm Commander 3.99 3x Emeria, the Sky Ruin 2.49 Paleoloth .49 Serra Ascendant 4.99 Her (54.99) Chains of Mephistopheles 54.99 Net: +33.10

Trade 93
I did quite a bit of personal trading with her and her boyfriend. Here trade stuff was what we American Picker fans would call a “Honey Hole”. I also made this small trade after going through her boxes.

My (.75) Pathrazer of Ulamog Foil .75 Her (10) Necromancy Japanese 10 Net: +9.25

Trade 94
I was on a roll. I looked to my right and there was a guy sitting and waiting patiently to trade. I handed him my binder and he pulled some stuff out, including my newly acquired Necromancy. I told him that Necomacy was worth about $5 and since it was Japanese that I was looking to get $10 for it. He didn’t like that number at all. I told him, “I totally understand bro, but the card is in EDH and Cube. People like to pimp those things out and Japanese Visions is really hard to get. I totally understand if you don’t want to trade for it.” He just kept staring at it, and then he said, “It looks too sweet to pass up. Lets trade for it.” I took the set of Ball Lightning and the Knight all of which we had priced at $2 each. The moral of the story is that pimp makes the dollar bills.

My (10) Necromancy Japanese 10 His (27.45) 4x Ball Lightning 4.99 Knight Exemplar 7.49 Net: +17.45

Trade 95
I was in hyper mode by now. The night was wasting away and Ryan was getting ready to leave in a couple of hours. I needed to land this Mox before he left. I charged the trade tables. I knew that Josh, one of the grinders, was giving $5 on Time Reversal, so my next trade was based on that. I asked my trade partner what he valued the Time Reversal at and he said $2. At this point, Time Reversal was a bit of a Joke, since it started at $30 and literally halved over night, now players consider them garbage. I pulled some more cards to make the trade even, since I valued the Leyline at $6. I added Ghostly Prison, which can fetch $4 to $5 in trade and typically has a good by price and the Foil Merfolk Soveirgn, which was cool in legacy before Coralhelm Commander booted it. My trade partner eyeballed the trade and then we shook on it.

My (7.74) Leyline of Sanctity 6.49 Mind Stone Foil Promo 1.25 His (14.48) Ghostly Prison 4.99 Time Reversal 6.99 Merfolk Sovereign Foil 2.49 Net: +6.64

Trade 96
This next trade was a nightmare. I literally spent twenty minutes to just lose value. I didn’t realize that I was wasting time until Ryan gave me a clue. “Man how long are you going to work on that $5 trade?” I cut my losses and closed the trade shortly after that remark.

My (5.98) Loxodon Warhammer Foil Mirrodin 4.99 Momir Vig, Simic Visionary .99 His (1.99) Lodestone Golem 1.99 Net: -3.99

I think we have a winner for worst trade with that last one. After these trades, I had to know where I was for value. I brought my binder to the grinders, Josh Beisiegel. In the picture check out what is on the top of the stack of cards next to him. “How close am I brother?” I handed him my binder. He looked it over and I reminded him that there were some cards stacked on top of each other. He said, “You need about $20.” He handed the binder to Ryan to look over and they both agreed. I couldn’t believe that I was $20 in trade value away from completing my quest!

Trade 97
I was a like a bull seeing red. All the reason flushed from my mind. I don’t even really remember these next two trades I just remember thinking, “I don’t have time to grind. I need to slam dunk a couple to get there.” I approached the first trade binder in sight. My memory was seriously turned off at this moment. It’s like when you walk up to a hot chick and drop the sickest Rico Suave lines, then the next thing you know, you are making out in the back of your car. No matter how hard you try you can never recover them from the abyss of your mind. I seem to remember valuing the Vendilion Clique at $10 and his stuff at $5 and $5. This was the slam dunk that I needed.

My (8.99) Vendilion Clique 8.99 His (27.98) Kalastria Highborn Foil Full Frame 11.99 Eldrazi Monument 15.99 Vendilion Clique Proxy from his deck Infi Net: +18.99

Trade 98
I slid the binder across the table to the next guy. He wanted the Time Reversal. I knew that I need a card that would sell to a dealer for more than $5 to get rid of the Time Reversal. I proposed the Sun Titan. It was on the rise from its use in the UW Control deck. He accepted and we ended up with a small level up trade.

My (8.24) Time Reversal 6.99 Spawnsire of Ulamog 1.25 His (14.98) Sun Titan 11.99 Temple Bell 2.99 Net: +6.74

I walked back over to Ryan. I handed him the binder and said, “I’m there.” He flipped through it, while I gave him the highlights from the new pickups. He handed to Josh, to double check. Josh said, “I would give him a Pearl for this.” Ryan said, “Ok, Let’s do it.” He slid the Pearl across the table. I can even explain how I felt. It was a bit unreal. I said, “Ok, let me take the cards out for you.” He said, “No just leave them in the binder.” I felt odd giving him everything. I flipped to the back of the binder and said, “I am going to keep this last page with the tokens and stuff.” He smiled and said, “No way bro, the binder for the Pearl.” Man I was going to miss that Ray token, I always felt like he was smiling back at me saying, “You can do it partner.” I said, “If I keep this page it’s a deal breaker?” He said, “Yep.” I didn’t really have much of a choice, so I handed over the binder and a small photo shoot ensued. Here are the shots.

Trade 99

My (1 Pack of ROE) Pack to Power Binder His (359.99) Mox Pearl 359.99 Net: Infi

As I left the trade area for a late dinner, the separation anxiety started setting in. When something like that becomes such a focus of your energy you always feel somewhat discombobulated when it goes away. Well guys and gals. We did it. We went from Pack to Power. I will be back next week for an “Aftermath” to say my proper goodbyes and tell you what happened to the Illusionary Mask. I also have a couple of lost trades for you and a special goodbye gift. Leave any questions that you want answered in the comments. See you for one last rendezvous next week. Thanks for reading.

Playing against a friend of mine in a local event, I slammed down my sideboard for game two and said “I have thirteen cards for you”.

His response: “When you board thirteen cards in, you board thirteen cards out”.

As inane as this statement may seem, he had an important point. If you want a card in your deck post-board and have to swap it out, odds are you are taking out the wrong card or are boarding too many cards in.

The first step in constructing a sideboard should be going through your main deck and figuring out what cards are bad in each matchup. Write down the number of bad cards and mediocre cards in each matchup and then work on the sideboard. Starting with the most important matchup add cards to cover the minimum number of cards you want to take out (the number of bad ones). Once you are done, try to consolidate the list down to fifteen by increasing the number of overlapping cards. These cards don’t have to be great in any specific matchup, but just good in multiple ones. For example, my Jund lists tend to have one Master of the Wild Hunt. While the card isn’t exceptional anywhere, it is good against any creature deck and even some control decks. A specific card would be better for each matchup, but the Master makes it so I can board out all the bad cards in each matchup. After this, if you still have too more cards for a matchup than you have mediocre or bad cards to take out, figure out which ones are the worst and leave them out unless they are actually better than a card still in your deck.

You can also make slight changes to the main deck to accommodate issues with this framework as well. I played three Maelstrom Pulse main in Jund only because I couldn’t make a board with less than 17 cards that worked otherwise.

If you can’t get a sideboard to work with the above guidelines exactly how much of an issue it is often depends on what kind of deck you are playing. Control decks tend to have more card draw, allowing them to overcome a dead card in their opening seven a lot easier. Beatdown decks tend to have more issues, but due to their overall consistency can function perfectly fine down a card if absolutely necessary. Midrange decks tend to be based on gaining incremental card advantage by pairing their threats and answers up properly, making being effectively down a card extremely detrimental. Combo and other linear decks tend to not have dead cards in them to begin with (this will be covered later).

2. Post-board games don’t have to be played the same as pre-board games.

In the Jund against Mythic matchup, game one is rough for Jund but games two and three Jund is a heavy favorite. Jund only boards four to six cards and none of them are specific hate for the deck. Why is it that the matchup swings so heavily?

The answer is that game one Jund has to be the beat down. Their limited supply of removal will run out quickly, leaving them dead to Mythic’s monsters if they are still alive. At Grand Prix DC my game one wins against Mythic were based mainly on killing them on turn 5 with Garruk’s Overrun.

Postboard Jund completely changes to be the control. You board out the cheap creatures other than Putrid Leech for Doom Blades and non-Cascadeable spells. With the added removal and the greatly increased odds of cascading into one Jund can simply kill each of Mythic’s threats as it hits and win at its own pace.

While this example is extreme due to how Cascade works it is seen elsewhere. The most common is when one player boards in an efficient hate card that recentralizes the matchup.

This also happens when two similar decks play. One of the ways to break the symmetry of a mirror or pseudo mirror is board into a different game plan. This is even better if your deck loses the mirror fight game one. A good example of this is the Merfolk versus Zoo matchup in Legacy. Game one you lose the aggression fight. Your creatures and removal are both outclassed; hence the reason the matchup was traditionally viewed as poor. While Saito’s plan of boarding in specific hate cards is very reasonable, another plan that works is morphing into the control deck. With the same number of board slots you can bring in 4 Submerge, 4 Hydroblast, 2 Engineered Explosives, and 2 Vedalken Shackles and fight Zoo on a different level.

3. Know when to concede a matchup.

In the above case, I showed a Merfolk deck devoting twelve cards for one matchup. While in that case it might be warranted due to Zoo’s popularity, the versatility of most of the cards listed, and the fact Merfolk tends to be favored against non-aggressive decks, sometimes it just isn’t worth it. For example, how many cards do you have to devote out of Zoo to beat Storm combo? It is a similar number but Storm is a very small portion of the metagame, the decks those cards are also good against are similarly scarce, and Zoo has a lot of other decks that it has to combat. If you go short and only board a couple cards you will probably still lose the matchup anyways.

This is not to say you shouldn’t board incidental cards you already have if they are good. Most Zoo lists have Red Elemental Blasts in the board, which can be used to slow down a Storm deck and steal a win. The issue is that unless you somehow have extra sideboard slots, a couple specific hate cards to bring a matchup from 10% to 25% just aren’t worth it.

One last comment on the subject: If conceding the matchup isn’t a viable option for the event and fighting it causes you to lose viability against the field, you may want to consider switching decks. That said, losing to even the most popular deck is reasonable depending on your strength against the rest of the metagame and how good that deck is against the field.

4. Aggressive decks should rarely have situational answers against control decks.

You are playing a Zoo deck in Legacy and want a good answer to Counterbalance. The first card that typically comes to mind is Krosan Grip. In Lorwyn Block and the subsequent standard format, Kithkin players often went to Wispmare as an answer to Faeries.

Consider what the card actually does in that matchup. Your goal as the beatdown deck is to win the game before your opponent sets up a stable board state. Almost every control deck should be able to accomplish this without the use of whatever specific card your answer lines up with, meaning that in a fair percentage of games you have a blank in your deck. When the main way for the aggressive deck to win is have more threats than the control deck has answers, blanks are very bad.

The exceptions to this are when the aggressive deck is completely bricked by the card it is trying to answer and unable to outrace it hitting the board (ie. Energy Flux against Affinity) or the answer is not situational. A good example of the latter is the fact Zoo decks can get away with running Path to Exile as there are so many creatures that it is only a blank in very specific matchups.

If the answer is also something that actually can kill your opponent, like a Qasali Pridemage or Volcanic Fallout, it suddenly becomes acceptable as a mediocre threat is still a threat.

5. Linear decks should sideboard very sparingly.

This mainly applies to combo decks but some other decks such as Affinity have fallen under this category. Tribal decks tend to not count as linear decks as their cards often support a range of effects that get better or worse depending on matchup. This is also not considering a full transformational sideboard as those are rarely viable.

First off, when sideboarding with linear decks you worry about two things instead of matchups: faster linear decks and specific hate cards. Linear decks also tend to be so full that they rarely have room for more than a few cards to protect their core.

The reason linear decks are so powerful is that all of their cards work together towards making an overpowered effect. While often the effects that linear decks need to answer are often extremely hateful and prevent them from functioning at all, boarding in extra cards can lead to the same issue. Linear decks need to assemble a certain number of pieces to reach their end game and by reducing the density of a given piece you start to remove your deck’s ability to win. If you slow your deck down or lower the consistency you can do as much damage as a single hate card. The best example of this is Charbelcher combo. The deck has no way to find extra cards and has to invest all its resources into one threat. By cutting replacing threats and Rituals with answers the deck loses the ability to even present a threat. An opening seven with a Xantid Swarm is very similar to a six card hand game one.

The ways to sideboard with a linear deck are to either upgrade an existing portion of the core to one that helps fight the hate or trim the excess copies of specific pieces in order to fit a couple counter-hate cards. At Grand Prix Columbus I would typically sideboard out 2 Preordain and 1 Lotus Petal as those were the worst cards in the most redundant slots. Against decks with creatures I would want to hit but no counters two Duresses would become Thoughtseizes. Dredge decks in Legacy board out one of a bunch of different cards in order to maintain their ability to perform any of their functions. They also switch around reanimation targets to things like Blazing Archon or Ancestor’s Chosen for aggressive matchups where Bridge from Below is inactive or Terastodon and Woodfall Primus against cards like Moat or Elephant Grass that otherwise lock them out.

This also puts linear decks into a position where they can pack answers for a large variety of problems. The main issue is just finding them when they are needed.

6. Most specific hate cards need backup.

Unless an answer completely shuts down the opponent’s ability to play their cards, it still needs a game plan to back it up. Your opponent will know about strong answers to their strategy and will come prepared with outs to them. Note that this mainly applies to older formats as Wizards has moved away from harsh hate cards and strategies that require them in recent years.

The easiest form of backup is a solid clock. The reason Gaddock Teeg and similar cards are so effective out of Zoo is that while the other deck is trying to solve the issue they pose, the Zoo deck just kills them. Without a good clock, even immense amounts of hate can fall.

Another way to backup hate cards is with secondary disruption. Most commonly this is counterspells or Duress effects used to stop their countermeasures. If a control deck backs Leyline of Sanctity with counters odds are most combo decks won’t be able to win. One less direct example is Humility in addition to Moat out of Landstill decks against Goblins. Moat puts the Goblins deck on one out of Siege-Gang Commander. While it doesn’t take long for the Goblins deck to get to lethal with a Siege-Gang after a Moat hits, the control deck can set up the other half of the lock faster.

Hate cards can also be backed up by other hate so long as the combination requires multiple answers. This is a rare scenario as it often requires a large amount of sideboard space to reliably set up.

Some cards dodge this issue by answering the hate against them. The most common example of this is Chalice of the Void stopping the bounce or artifact removal directed towards it. Manabarbs also does this to some extent in Standard by punishing the answer to it (though the card still needs a clock to function).

7. Unexpected answers are easy ways to steal games.

If your opponent comes prepared for a given solution to their strategy it will take an additional line of action to finish them. If they aren’t prepared your one answer might be enough to immediately end the game.

The best application of this is against Dredge. People often follow a very strict guideline for what cards they want to board in against them. In Extended it used to be Affinity always boarded in Tormod’s Crypt, a deck with four sideboard slots boarded in Leyline of the Void, Domain Zoo boarded in Yixilid Jailer, and so on. As a result, Dredge had perfect information while sideboarding and could bring in narrow answers for each hate card. If a deck brought in something different, such as Affinity bringing in Leyline, it would usually auto-win game two. The Dredge deck could bring in a generic answer for game two, but the generic answer was much worse against most of the hate than the best option. While Dredge is an extreme example this can be applied in many other situations. I lost a match at Nationals because my opponent who was Mono-Green game one cast a Manabarbs off Lotus Cobra mana game two and I had no answer to it.

If you play the same trick for long enough people will start to figure it out, but it should work long enough to give you an edge for one event. If after that even your list is highly publicized and people know about what you did, odds are you did well enough already.

People will also be able to adjust between games if you win game two with the card or plan and force a game three. Sometimes it is correct to swap out the plan if you notice they appear to be boarding to deal with it, like how Blue-White early in the season would board Baneslayer Angels in and out to either have a threat against their opponent’s lack of answers or leave their opponents with a handful of dead removal.