MTG Salvation

The first month comes to an end, and people are thinking. I feel good about myself.

1 SALAd - Life Gain sucks (8th - 33+13=46)
Black Lotus, Treasure Hunter, Sulfuric Vortex/Elephant Guide

Very poor sideboarding choice. Might actually have won if there were more lifegain decks.

2 spuzzem king - mana burn wins (T-4th - 35+28=63)
mishras workshop; mishras workshop; mirror universe/triskelion

Most of the field was unprepared for Mirror Universe.

3 help im a bug - Sex Machine (1st - 37+33(!)=70)
City of Traitors, Isochron Scepter, Heroes' Reunion/Divine Offering

Speed kills. Only decks able to handle this were anti-lifegain (ahem), counter, and artifact hate. Congratulations

4 Ankh-Morporkian - TET Port (13th - 23+16=39)
Treetop Village, Eladamri's Vineyard, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale/Maze of Ith

Lifegain was the order of the day; in a lot of cases, you couldn't deal damage fast enough.

5 r_x_ - Life.dec (10th - 24+21=45)
Remote Farm, Sheltered Valley, Words of Worship/Ghostly Prison

WoW lacked the "surprise" factor of Isochron, and that's why it lost to MU. Also, subpar sideboard choice. IMHO, Aura of Silence was the card to go with.

6 Istanbul - flea market (6th - 33+24=57)
Black Lotus, Anurid Scavenger, Bargain/Diabolic Edict

Threat + lifegain. Good concept, but Bargain every 2 turns was too slow for the field

7 WhammWhamme - Does this work? (T-4th - 35+28=63)
Mishra's Workshop, Mishra's Workshop, Mirror Universe/Triskelion

See #2

8 Chimpanzee - Forced to End (3rd - 38+27=65)
Sheltered Valley, Force of Will, Misdirection/Soldevi Sentry

Occam's Razor: All things being equal, simple is best. Ironically, Sheltered Valley decks gave you the most trouble. If Force didn't cost you 1 life...

9 !Chucklez! - Worth A Shot? (12th - 27+15=42)
Black Lotus, Black Lotus, Beacon of Immortality/Visara the Dreadful

Did surprisingly well. Gaining 20 life before your opponent could breathe helped a lot.

10 jcsuperstar - I almost played scepter-nourish (11th - 28+15=43)
Sheltered Valley, Tanglebloom, Maze of Ith/The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Scepter-Reunion would have been better (see #3); anyhoo, slightly faster than straight Valley, but not a lot of creatures to Ith/Tab, which led to a less-than-glowing result.

11 worthawholebean - I Swear I Won't Play A Creature Spell (8th - 37+10=47)
Black Lotus, Skittering Skirge, Duress/Ostracize

Discard in the main deck is usually too late.

12 Silver Seraph - Convergence Classic (15th - 18+9=27)
Sheltered Valley, Black Lotus, Energy Field / SB : Kami of Ancient Law

Poor metagame choice. Most decks here focused on lifegain rather than damage.

13 aurorasparrow - Outteched (2nd - 40+27=67)
Tempting Wurm, Hickory Woodlot, Naturalize/Tempting Wurm

Naturalize maindeck was your secret weapon. Good job.

14 Tahn - I won't kill.dec (14th - 23+12=35)
Sheltered Valley, Maze of Ith, Maze of Ith / Mishra's Factory

2 Mazes maindeck was usually redundant (n.b. #13)

15 SOS - million dollar Goblin (7th - 33+14=47)
Plateau, Raging Goblin, Raze/Spirit Link

Raze maindeck helped you out a lot.

16 SorryGuy - Worse deck in the weirdest format (17th - 15+3=18)
Mishra's Workshop, Bottle Gnomes, Ensnaring Bridge/Steel Golem

Not enough creature combat, too much creature hate.

17 CounterAdept - Sheltered Shrine: (16th - 22+5=27)
Sheltered Valley, Black Lotus, Ensnaring Bridge / Honden of Cleansing Fire

Same story as # 16. Bridge was perhaps the least useful artifact in the game.

  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17	
1   X  1  1  4  1  6  1  8  1  1  1 12 13  1  1  1  1  33
2   2  X  3  2  2  2  D  8  2  2  2  2 13  2  D  2  2  35
3   1  3  X  3  3  3  3  8  3  3  3  3 13  3  D  3  3  37
4   4  2  3  X  5  4  7  8  4 10  D  4 13  4  D  4  4  23
5   1  2  3  5  X  6  7  5  5  5 11  5 13  5 15  5  5  24
6   6  2  3  4  6  X  7  8  6  6  6  6  6  6  6  6  6  33
7   7  D  3  7  7  7  X  8  7  7  7  2 13  7  D  7  7  32
8   8  8  8  8  5  8  8  X  8  8  8 12  8  8  D  8  D  28
9   9  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  X  9  9  9  9  9  9  9  9  27
10  1  2  3 10  5 10  7 10  9  X 10 10 10 10  D 10 10  28
11 11 11 11  D 11 11 11  8 11 10  X 11 11 14 11 11 11  37
12 12  2  3 12 12  6  7 12  9 10 11  X 13 14 15 12 12  18
13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13  8 13 13 13 13  X 14  D 13 13  40
14 14  2  3 14  5  6  7 14  9 10 14 14 14  X  D 14  D  23
15  1 15 15 15 15  6 15 15  9 15 11 15 15 15  X 16 15 33
16 16  2  3  4  5  6  7 16 16 10 16 12 13 14 16  X 17  15
17  D  2  3  4  5  6  7 17  9 17 17 17 13 17 17 17  X  22
  13 28 33 16 21 24 28 27 15 15 10  9 27 12 14  3  5	

Congratulations to help im a bug for winning 3.5CB #4 and (slightly naughty) Best Deck Title for a total of 15 points
Congratulations to aurorasparrow for Most Imaginative deck and 5 bonus points

Final Results for March:
1 help im a bug (50+44+44+85) = 223
2 Chimpanzee (49+50+30+65) = 194
3 r_x_ (31+58+41+45) = 175
4 spuzzem king (44+30+35+63) = 172
5 SALAd (31+31+33+46) = 141
6 SorryGuy (34+35+35+17) = 121
7 Ankh-Morporkian (49+ 0+30+40) = 119
8 Silver Seraph (42+ 0+41+27) = 110
9 jcsuperstar ( 0+ 0+67+43) = 110
10 WhammWhamme ( 0+ 0+38+63) = 101
11 dasheiff (63+38+ 0+ 0) = 101
12 deari (52+24+ 0+ 0) = 76
13 Istanbul ( 0+ 0+18+57) = 75
14 aurorasparrow ( 0+ 0+ 0+72) = 72
15 Tahn ( 0+ 0+23+35) = 58
16 Greebo (49+ 0+ 0+ 0) = 49
17 SOS ( 0+ 0+ 0+47) = 47
18 worthawholebean ( 0+ 0+ 0+47) = 47
19 !Chucklez! ( 0+ 0+ 0+42) = 42
20 Alfred (40+ 0+ 0+ 0) = 40
21 Thoomor ( 0+ 0+39+ 0) = 39
22 bataleur (28+10+ 0+ 0) = 38
23 silicon (32+ 0+ 0+ 0) = 32
24 chrome moxen (10+21+ 0+ 0) = 31
25 Ikaros ( 0+30+ 0+ 0) = 30
26 CounterAdept ( 0+ 0+ 0+27) = 27
27 NavyJoe ( 0+18+ 0+ 0) = 18

Congratulations to help im a bug for winning March's Player of the Month contest! No special prize except your name in my sig, which is worth its weight in... electrons.

Next week is a normal format. The week following will be a special format. Pick your doom, mortals! :G:

Full rules:
Each player submits a deck with a total of four cards in this format:

[Deck title]
[Fixed card1]
[Fixed card2]
[Maindeck card]/[Sideboard card]

Each match will consist of two games, each player playing first. The player playing second will play the two fixed cards and the maindeck card. The player going first may choose before his first turn whether to play his maindeck card or his sideboard card. (Again, only the player going FIRST may change the card)

As in all CB games, the entire deck is in your hand, you don't lose to decking, and each player gets to see the other's hand, so not only does each player make the best play possible, the sideboarding player may select the better card of the two. Alsom random effects go against the caster

Banned List:
The Rack
Form of the Dragon
Trinisphere

Balance

Strip Mine
Wasteland
Glacial Chasm

Blackmail
Coercion
Cabal Therapy
Mesmeric Fiend
Abandon Hope
Nezumi Shortfang
Pulse of the Dross

Meddling Mage
Leonin Squire
Show and Tell

All ante cards
Any card that forces your opponent to discard more than 1 card a turn.
Any non-mass-produced card (Proposal, 1996 World Champion, etc.)
Unglued
Unhinged

And, as usual, No Cheese(TM) (No multi-discarding, no 1st turn kills)

Deadline for entries is Sun April 10, 23:59:59 pm

Let's see if we can get more consistent players.

Well that was thrown together and turned out horrible! Atleast I did not fall too far in the standings:).

Good luck to you all, this should be a metagame setter!

I was waiting for a Lavaborn Muse/Black Lotus/Sheltered Valley Deck to appear.. then I realized first-turn dreadnaught was even faster and could beat reuinion on a stick.. then I realized my deck could beat all three (well, not muse going second).

note to self: play the meta deck, not the best deck

Hm, I'm surprised nobody played Lotus, Channel, Platinum Angel/Darksteel Colossus.

I got tired of it, buggy. Played it too often.

Quote from help im a bug »

Hm, I'm surprised nobody played Lotus, Channel, Platinum Angel/Darksteel Colossus.

im not, a life gain meta was expected, paying lots of life would be bad

Quote from SOS »

Okay, time to *****

15 vs 4
Right now: 2-2
Should be: 4-1

Me playing first
ME 1st turn: Plateau, goblin, swing for 1
HE 1st turn: Treetop ville
ME: Swing for 1, Raze on Treetop
HE: tabernacle
ME: sac gob, we wait for convergence to converge and grant me victory

me versus number 2:
2-2
should be: 4-1

Me: Plateau, Goblin, smack
He: Mishra
Me: Raze, Goblin

and so on, he gets to do nothing

THat's all time I have for now, I'll post more tomorrow (btw this game pwns :))

tabernacle first?

Quote from SOS »

Okay, time to *****

15 vs 4
Right now: 2-2
Should be: 4-1

Me playing first
ME 1st turn: Plateau, goblin, swing for 1
HE 1st turn: Treetop ville
ME: Swing for 1, Raze on Treetop
HE: tabernacle
ME: sac gob, we wait for convergence to converge and grant me victory

me versus number 2:
2-2
should be: 4-1

Me: Plateau, Goblin, smack
He: Mishra
Me: Raze, Goblin

and so on, he gets to do nothing

THat's all time I have for now, I'll post more tomorrow (btw this game pwns :))

Yes, and yes. Not sure what I was thinking. Will fix results.

Oh, and if you beat 2, you beat 7 also (same deck)

Quote from help im a bug »

Hm, I'm surprised nobody played Lotus, Channel, Platinum Angel/Darksteel Colossus.

Oh, that reminds me... if we ever play an alternate-win format again, Platinum Angel is banned. Takes all the fun out of it.

Oh, I saw Crack. oops.

Quote from SOS »

The last one I was able to detect:

15-17
Right now: 3-3
should be: 4-1

17 playing first
He: Sheltered valley, lotus, bridge
Me: Plateau, raze

The valley only gains him life during his upkeep, so we are both at 20, and both unable to do anything so it's a draw.

Don't forget the sideboard:
17 playing first:
7 - Valley, Lotus, Honden
7 - Plateau, Goblin, 19-20
6 - (1 from valley, 2 from Honden): 22-20
6 - raze, 21-20

And from that point on, 17 will gain 2 life every turn and you'll deal 1 damage to him.

So, he'll Converge for the win.

It's kinda sad... we got 21 votes on the poll, but only 11 entries for the actual game so far. Come on and play with us, dudes!

Well, unless there are any last-minute votes, looks like Vanguard takes it. Results to be posted later today.

Quote from Unstable »

well, i think u forgot me, i did send in a decllist....
i've pmed it to u.

Why did you think I forgot you?