This thread is for the discussion of my latest article, Favorite Magic Stories. We would be grateful if you would let us know what you think, but please keep your comments on topic.
"If I meant everything I said, I'd be a total *******"
Humour:
Quote from Conical Object »
In Soviet Russia, deck play you!
Quote from Me »
I think that that undefined would be the perfect power for the flying spaghetti monster.
Player A: "I hit you for an undefined amount of damage."
Player B: "I shock FSM."
Player A: "Does it do undefined damage?"
Player B: "No."
Player A: "Then it doesn't die. Take your damage *****!"
Player B: "How?"
Heh, those were a lot of fun to read. I think I enjoyed Bateleur's the best, but all of them were great. I still get the nostalgic feelings JayC described. For me, those memories are about discovering more of the game, and learning the deeper and more strategic elements (sometimes I still don't feel like I have a firm grasp on those :sweat:). I remember the era of our casual high school games club, and "metagaming" against my friend's elf tribal deck. I remember the first time a player brought a goblin deck to the club, and that was when I first began to hate the little buggers...but I digress. I'd like to see more of these types of articles.
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Currently playing:
In Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: Holy Rollers (Geist Tempo)
Well, I just feel so inclined to tell my favorite story ever, even though it's quite unbelievable. Trust me though, this is entirely true.
I used to live in Singapore, and it was my Junior year of high school. Mercadian Masques was just out, and me and my friends got together to draft on a Saturday afternoon. I crack my first pack, and look at the following:
1 Rare
3 Uncommons
11 Rares
Needless to say, I just sort of sat there stunned for a second before alerting my friends to the holy grail of a 12-rare pack. We proceeded to crack all our packs right there (forget drafting!), and about 1/2 of them were 12-rare packs. We figured out that all the multi-rare packs were coming from boxes that were all from one case. We then went to the ATM, withdrew as much money as we could afford, and bought about 3 or 4 boxes on the spot, and then took turns picking rares. I remember finishing off collections of Rishadan Port and Dust Bowl, among other goodies...it was a great time, but to this day I regret it was Masques Block...sigh...bookended by Urza and Invasion blocks, and I got Masques. Still the greatest day of Magic ever, and we never even got to draft.
Well, I just feel so inclined to tell my favorite story ever, even though it's quite unbelievable. Trust me though, this is entirely true.
I used to live in Singapore, and it was my Junior year of high school. Mercadian Masques was just out, and me and my friends got together to draft on a Saturday afternoon. I crack my first pack, and look at the following:
1 Rare
3 Uncommons
11 Rares
Needless to say, I just sort of sat there stunned for a second before alerting my friends to the holy grail of a 12-rare pack. We proceeded to crack all our packs right there (forget drafting!), and about 1/2 of them were 12-rare packs. We figured out that all the multi-rare packs were coming from boxes that were all from one case. We then went to the ATM, withdrew as much money as we could afford, and bought about 3 or 4 boxes on the spot, and then took turns picking rares. I remember finishing off collections of Rishadan Port and Dust Bowl, among other goodies...it was a great time, but to this day I regret it was Masques Block...sigh...bookended by Urza and Invasion blocks, and I got Masques. Still the greatest day of Magic ever, and we never even got to draft.
Lol
The good news: 12 rares in 1 pack!
The bad news: They were Masques block packs =(
At the Planar Chaos prerelease I had an experience similar to the person in bateleur's story. I was playing G/R/w and I hadn't drawn any plains in my first few matches, then when I played something that got to search my library I realised I had no plains. I was so embarassed.
These stories were great though, and having them all in one article was better than any of them by themselves.
In Ames Iowa there was Magic Shop called PC Dungeon, now called The 9th Zone. This is where I usually spend some of my weekend playing Magic. Back during the shop's PC Dungeon days a few years back, they hosted a sanctioned Vintage tournament. I think it was round two and I was trying to revive Stasis into a tier 1 deck I called Stasis Quo (Mono:symu:). The premiss of the deck is less important to the story, but the object of the deck was to lock my opponent under Stasis using Time Vault (prior to recent errata) and Tangle Wire. The objective being that I once I had the lock out I could effectively skip infinate turns causing my opponent to deck himself by way of Howling Mines; occasionally the sole Black Vise would expedite the game. My enabler were the usualy cards of Thwart, Gush et al...
Note: At this time Time Vault required time counters, but I could pay 0 and skip my next turn as many times as I wanted.
Nevertheless, I was playing a friend named Travor who was piloting Butterknives, a mono:symb: aggro deck using Phyrexian Negator and other beaters. He won game 1, so I side boarded in my mono-color hoser. We shuffle and cut and I get the most recockulous hand I could have asked for.
Black Lotus
Mox Sapphire
Time Vault
Island
Illusionary Terrain
Black Vise
Some other card I can't remember.
I'm on the play, which may cause a few eyebrows to raise since I'm playing Stasis, but against aggro, I'd rather get mana out to try and get a Stasis established in the event he drops Negator or some other beat stick.
I drop Black Lotus, Mox Sapphire and the Island. Sack the Lotus for :symu::symu::symu: using two mana for Time Vault. I use the extra Lotus mana and the Mox for Illusionary Terrain. Illusionary Terrain, for those that aren't familiar with the card reads as follows:
Illusionary Terrain Enchantment, :symu::symu:
Cumulative upkeep
All basic lands of one type become basic lands of a different type of your choice.
Ice Age - Uncommon
Swamps were now plains. Now I could have played the Black Vise, but it was pretty pointless since as I ended my turn, I informed him that I would no longer be taking turns this game.
Total disbelief could only superficially describe the look on his face as he conceded before he even drew his first card. Needless to say he won the match in game three, but that has to be one of, if not the most satisfying accomplishment I ever made with Stasis Quo.
Best play ever aside form above: A player goes to disenchant my Black Lotus, in response I sacrifice it to deal nine damage to him. (Triple Lighting Bolt)
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Living heir to the Boros Guild
Former student of Great Pun-Master Badump Chang Best flavor text: Humiliation (Lunch Money) www.hellwerx.com
This has to be one of the best articles I have read on this site. The Beast Attack story made me laugh.
I've got two bad beats stories, one of which I got beaten and and one in which I emerged victorious. Both games were played with the same deck - a standard mono red burn deck I created on my own, around the time dissension became standard legal. Chars, Giant Solifuge, Flames of the Blood Hand, Genju of the Spires, and Blood Moons - standard aggro stuff. It was a really good deck, capable of stealing games from players who weren't paying attention.
Anyways, the game that I lost was against my friend, Brock. He was playing white-black aggro (a horrible matchup for me, Paladin en-Vec with Jitte was real bad news). I win game 1 off the back of Orcish Artillery, which sounds really horrible until you realize they kill your opponent's blockers for no mana so the Genju has free reign. And, with the exception of Paladin, they kill everything in white-black aggro. I side in some Rakdos Pit Dragons, so I can get some damage in if he gets a paladin.
Game 2 is pretty bad and I lose in short order.
Game 3: He gets a paladin. Next turn it is Jitte + equip, but I topdeck.... Hearth Kami! and take that Jitte out. I burn him down to about 8 or so, and go hellbent with a Rakdos Pit Dragon, who is threatening to make the kill next turn. Brock topdecks - Pithing Needle, boarded in for the Orcish Artillery. Needle reduces my pit dragon to a hill giant. Which now, cannot fly by paladin. Then he gets another needle, this time naming Hearth Kami. Followed by a second paladin, so the first one can swing by happily right through my team. It was such a back-and-forth game, but I'm pretty sure that was the only time those two cards were named from Pithing Needles, and it won the game.
The interesting game I won with the red deck was against Marshall, who is a really good player and came in 17th at the recent Grand Prix: Columbus. He was playing Heartbeat combo at the time. I win the first game, because my burn is faster than his combo. He knows I have a bunch of Blood Moons in the board, because he saw some other players get smashed by it. After the game he asked me, "Siding in those Blood Moons?" I said, "Yes, you know how bad they wreck you", and grabbed 3 Boiling Seas. (In case you didn't ever play against Heartbeat combo, the manabase consists solely of basic lands.)
So in the next game he uses Sakura Tribe Elders to hold the fort. I swing into them anyways, and he uses them to fetch islands (YES!!!!) and winds up with a board of 2 Forest, 3 Island, all tapped, and a Carven Caryatid. I had 3 mountains and some irrelevant guys. He was going to go off next turn, except that I hit my fourth land.
"tap 4, boiling seas?"
"Boiling seas? What does that do?"
I show him the card.
"Who the **** plays Boiling Seas? **** Boiling Seas!"
"I play Boiling Seas."
Eventually, the irrelevant guys punch through FTW.
@DRjester: I've heard about that happening to other people before. A small fraction of the Masques block boxes had rares in place of the commons. It actually happened to a friend of mine, who played in one of the prereleases for the block and the 75-card Masques box had something like 49 rares in it. He called the judge, who game him a new box but he got to keep the rare-filled one.
Mine comes from waaaay back in the day when I was a tournament organizer and game store employee. It had to be just after Ice Age was released, as I remember a Jester's Mask being part of the deal...
I ran a land destruction deck. Pretty nasty for its time, even keeping up with weenie hordes, but totally ineffective in today's environ. I was playing one of our locals and, while keeping his land and creatures under control, I wasn't getting any of my damage cards (mainly Black Vise). We were well into the game, and I was down to about 5 life... 90% of that loss thanks to my Fastbond.
I had just destroyed the last land he had on the table, and then pulled this off...
"OK, Doug, I'm going to braingeyser you for... 8 cards. OK, now I'm going to activate the Jester's Mask (allows me to go through hand and library and give them a new hand of cards equal to what they were holding). OK, here's your new hand, it has all the remaining land in your library and a few other cards. Now I'm casting Wheel of Fortune. Now I'm using Tormod's Crypt."
It's one of those things that would only happen once, but the look on the poor guy's face was priceless.
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L1 MtG judge (L2 coming soon) and Dominion tournament coordinator serving Flint MI and its surrounding cities.
OK, probably my favorite story is the following playing in top 8 of a local tourney, maybe 40 people. I was playing B/W Aggro, Confidant/Jitte Style against a slow as crap R/W Tron Control Deck with Genju of the Fields making winning almost impossible against one of our cockiest locals. In game 3, it looked like I was hopeless. I already had to Terashi's Grasp a Genju to stay at 2 and stop his lifegain and then hit land off of my Confidant to stay alive. I took about 3 minutes on my main phase before making a play (which does seem like much longer when you sit there and stare at the table) and my opponent turns to the shop owner and says "Who do I play in top 4?" Who does that? That pissed me off beyond belief :mad1: and inspired me to make one of my best plays ever. I stack the sacrificing of black creatures to Ghost Council so Teysa would make white multiple 1/1's. Then use Teysa to remove the White Myojin from the Game, forcing him to use his divinity counter, which I respond to by sacrificing Teysa to Ghost Counil. The end of turn left me with Ghost Council, and I rode through Shizo for the win. And it felt magnificent.
Well, I just feel so inclined to tell my favorite story ever, even though it's quite unbelievable. Trust me though, this is entirely true.
I used to live in Singapore, and it was my Junior year of high school. Mercadian Masques was just out, and me and my friends got together to draft on a Saturday afternoon. I crack my first pack, and look at the following:
1 Rare
3 Uncommons
11 Rares
Needless to say, I just sort of sat there stunned for a second before alerting my friends to the holy grail of a 12-rare pack. We proceeded to crack all our packs right there (forget drafting!), and about 1/2 of them were 12-rare packs. We figured out that all the multi-rare packs were coming from boxes that were all from one case. We then went to the ATM, withdrew as much money as we could afford, and bought about 3 or 4 boxes on the spot, and then took turns picking rares. I remember finishing off collections of Rishadan Port and Dust Bowl, among other goodies...it was a great time, but to this day I regret it was Masques Block...sigh...bookended by Urza and Invasion blocks, and I got Masques. Still the greatest day of Magic ever, and we never even got to draft.
Ran into a god box of Italian Visions a few years ago.
Was interviewing for a job in Rochester, Minn., when I had the afternoon off and decided to scout the town for magic venues.
One store in town had a couple boxes of Italian Visions wherein nearly all the packs had two rares. In a single day I bought about 44 packs and got 2x Vampiric Tutor, 3x Rainbow Efreet, 2x Undiscovered Paradise, 2x Archangel, tons and tons of other awesome rares; and tons of Impulse, Rogue Elephant, Quirion Ranger, Man-o-Wars, River Boas, Nekrataals, Funeral Charms, Prosperitys, and more. I drove back to Mpls $150 lighter but a lot better off because many of these came back in 8th, 9th, and Time Spiral.
I don't have many dramatic topdecks, amazing wins, lucky matchups, or colossal goofs to relate. One year I almost decided not to play in Regionals because I was overworked that week and didn't think I'd be rested enough do well. I built two decks for me and my friend and we went anyway. I expected to scrub out with my Middle Red deck and watch my friend go the distance with 5c Gifts Control. As it worked out, I went 7-2 losing in the ninth round to mirror and getting knocked out of contention for top 8. He began 0-2 but I convinced him to stay in anyway, and he won the next 5 and got 12 packs, and I got a box + 6 and 28th place. I gave him half my packs for letting me use his decklists.
Several months later, I checked my rating online to discover I'd jumped 100+ points using his Red list that day.
This has to be one of the best articles I have read on this site. The Beast Attack story made me laugh.
I know right. I caught that match toward the end and I was like "people actually play Hunting Pack? What game is this? Game 3? You mean you actually won a game with this deck?". Funny thing is, against any other deck in any other situation he would've gotten beat badly.
great article. so very magic.
here's my little tale (one of many)...
it's the Time Spiral pre-release. i won the first game against my opponent and now i have him at 2 life with me at 20. i would have won a long time ago, but he's got Spirit Loop on a morpher and keeps gaining 2 life each time i attack into it. no biggie, he's dead next turn, and i'm thinking "draw a land, don't topdeck, draw a land..." he draws for his turn and immediately reveals... a land! and then he goes "yes!" and i think he's kidding. but he lays it and attacks me with his morpher who happens to be... have you guessed? Krosan Cloudscraper. that land i was praying for was the 9th he needed to unmorph this colossal pain, which you remember had Spirit Loop on it! i failed to draw removal for this one and only threat and went on to lose the game, after like seven turns of throwing chump blockers in front of it. i wanted to slap somebody.:-/
My best are actually pretty simple, involving winning at odd times with decks built to win in a crazy way. One of the reason Magic is fun for me is because of the crazy cards that, if you put some thought into them, can win in tremendously fun way.
I once killed a guy with Biorhythm who had infinite life. But who hasn't done that. Satisfying nonetheless.
I've killed a team in 2HG who were at 40 using Goblin Game when they all bid the same number. Note: Don't bid the same number as your partner. That was hella funny.
Sometimes poeople will quit when there's real no readon to quit. And I feel so vindicated when they actually come back and win, despite all of their whining about how I've ruined the game for them. Case in point is Genju of the Fens + Eradicate on your opponent's swamps. My friend quit, as would many people. But I forced himt o keep playing, and he came back to win with the lands he had on the table (doing this actually thins your opponents lands for them and if they have enough on the table you are actually benefitting them).
Probably my msot memorial conquest was a game where there were 8 people playing FFA, and I won with my Form of the Dragon followed by a Decree of Anhihilation combo. The lone Form proceeded to slowly kill everyone on the board and no one had any disenchant. How sad and funny.
But I have over 100 decks, mostly goofball decks like these so there's tons of stories like those.
This was back... what, six years now? It was like two months after the Scourge prerelease, and since I was new, I was still playing with a Judgment/big Green/White creatures Phantom deck. Anywho, I'm up against one of the people in our store, he's been playing since way back when in Alpha, so he's got the Power 9 and a ridiculous amount of other good cards. I play against him for fun, and he's playing some new storm deck in Vintage (it was Hurkyl's Recall and Brain Freeze). So I make some beats, he takes them, and then he goes off, and I'm like... oh. That sucks. He scoops up his cards, goes to shake my hand, and I'm like "no, wait" after milling myself. During my upkeep, I flashback Krosan Reclamation, attack for the win, and beat a Vintage storm deck with random G/W beats. Still one of my favorite games ever.
Nice article, I hope that next time, I will have similar stories to tell
I remember a nice moment from FS prerelease, we were both laying lands for some 7 rounds, because I had a Grave Peril at the table and neither of us wanted to lose a critter, with me slowly gnawing him with Augur il-Vec and suspended Arc Blade. Finally, he scapegoated Emberwilde Augur, cast Nessian Courser, fried the Augur and cast his big card - Pact of the Titan, copied by Mirari.
In my upkeep, Arc Blade ended its suspend and hit one of the Giants. Tendrils of Corruption did 3 damage to the other one, I gained 3 life. Then I played Sulfurous Blast, finishing both Giants, and frying the Courser. I got 3 life from Tendrils, so the result was no change in my life, and opponent losing 3, three creatures and being forced to pay 8RR in order to not lose next upkeep. In his turn, I flashed in Aven Mindcensor and finished him in two turns or so. The look at his face after the Giant carnage was priceless as well.
Once, we had a session in a vineyard One of my friends brought something around 20 decks, all various combinations of colors, and all using cards from Alpha to Mirage. We played a giant 8-man game, around the table. If anybody fell, he waited a round and then joined the game with a new deck. One of the guys, playing GR with Stormbind and Wheel of Fortune, managed to kill the same neighbor of his 5 times in a row.
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Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Just this week I was playing some tsp limited and my opponent is ahead on board and attacks with Teneb the Harvester. I block with two guys and one is hit with Death Rattle and another with Slaughter Pact. My opponent taps out playing something else. On my turn I flip up Brine Elemental and win instantly, since my opponent can't pay for the pact.
Krark's Thumb has always been a card I enjoy playing, so let me offer you this suggestion as I have won with this two card Thumb combo many times, even on turn 1 once with a Vintage build.
Krark's Thumb + Game of Chaos.
For those unfamilar with the card:
Game of Chaos
Sorcery - :symr::symr::symr:
Flip a coin. If you win the flip, you gain 1 life and target opponent loses 1 life, and you decide whether to flip again. If you lose the flip, you lose 1 life and that opponent gains 1 life, and that player decides whether to flip again. Double the life stakes with each flip.
Each time you win, you get to keep playing the game staking life at an exponential rate : 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. With the Thumb in play you have a 1 in 4 chance of losing a flip.
great article dark, i have a story about my inexperience of magic which was at the 1.x ptq right before tempest rotated out. Which was when i basically fell in love with aluren too bad i was a few years too late lol,
but anyways i was playing a crappy goblin deck that a friend of mine back then helped me build which actually won 1 match and 1 game. I heard stories about aluren about a week before the ptq though and i was sure that it wasn't bad at all, of course i was so used to playing against my friends and brother i figured i could actually win alot of games. Unfortunitely my lack of knowledge of mtg caused me to lose most of the games i played, but it also helped me learn that you can't go unprepared for something like i did, i've learned so much since then though and i hope the next ptq i goto will be a little bit more in my favor the decks i played against was a seismic assault build (won 2/0), big red (lost 1/2), aluren (lost 0/2), and affinity (lost 0/2), last words from me is if you're pretty new to the game don't make my mistakes and goto a ptq unexperienced with the game or at least don't underestimate a deck and be prepared to face a ton of netdecks and weird rogue decks and experienced players please help newer players
Back in middle school (yeah, yeah), I had a good friend who I would play magic with quite often. He had played magic a year or so before, but was just getting back into it (we had quite the thriving magic community there, 10-20 players usually).
Despite him just getting back into the game, he had some pretty good decks and was pretty matched with me (the current best player). Problem was... he wasn't too clear on some of the rules. Oh sure, he knew most of them, but every now and again... we would run into something he had just completely screwed up. To make things worse, he was always positive that he was correct and would argue quite loudly and vehemently to make is point.
Ok... there is the background on my friend, now here is the sweet story.
We were playing a game, me with a wierd U/B/R control deck and him with generic monoblack. He had seven swamps, and that was all. I had three islands, a mountain, and two swamps, a Zuran Orb, and a Krovikan Vampire. It is his turn.
"What? You can't do that. You can only sacrifice your own creatures"
"No way, that's stupid! Why would you sacrifice your own guys? You sacrifice your enemies, not your allies."
"We've run into this before... you still don't know all the rules that great, and on this one, you are wrong. You have to sacrifice one of your own creatures, the Centaur is dead."
"Dude, I don't want to play with you if your gonna cheat, especially if your just making up rules that don't make any sense!"
So, I think for a bit... then respond.
"Ok, fine. We will play by your rules. The vampire is dead. Is it my turn?"
"Yes."
"Ok... I sacrifice all your lands to my Zuran Orb, I gain 14 life. Mountain, Shivan Hellkite. Your turn."
"Uh.... um.... I guess that I was wrong about that rule, perhaps...."
Damn straight
As a friend of mine said later...
"Cost of a booster pack: $4, cost of a box of deck sleeves: $6, beating Cory at his own rules: priceless."
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Eat that which was never cooked - Inscription of Sushi Spellbomb
Quote from Kalon, Prodigy of War »
Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. Based on these axioms, a cat with peanut butter toast strapped to its back will therefore hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision.
in a 2HG draft at side event in geneva
we and my team mate just keep opening garbage, so we decided to draft slivers since there is nothing else.
In our second round:
we won the roll and started (this is when ppl had 40 life)
turn 1 nothing, turn 2 mire boa/2 headed sliver, turn 3 poutice sliver/syphonmage, turn 4 BONESPLITTER/mirri the curse, swing for 14
then i got some nutty draws and drop 3 slivers in 1 turn, near the end they had Spectral force and Sengir Nosferatu, and cant kill any of our slivers
alrite now topdeck stories. I have always been a lucky mofo so i have heaps of these.
Regionals last year, against rock, i won g1 but g2 i was getting beaten in the face with a SSS that he had crimed for, however i had multiple annexes and was making saps with his vitu-ghazi (no i wasnt going to win that race) I assembled tron but cannot draw into anything for the life of me, then I did this: repeal my signet, replay the signet but remand it, replay the siget and remand it again, repeal another signet, i managed to draw 3 lands and 1 signet off those 4 cards. So i played a bunch of signets and passed. dead in 2 turns to my own SSS. He swings me down to 2
And i topdeck demonfire for 23 to take the match
most, undeserving win, ever.
in a triple Rav draft, g1, the opponent had a UB evasion deck that had stabilized and had me dead in 2 turns, I know i had fetters and arc left in the deck, but they wont be enough, i thought about scooping but thought, meh, i will play it out.
Draws
Flame Fullsilade, which i had actually completely forgotten, and i did it for exactly enough to kill him.
Last year nationals during RGD draft i had a decent UWG deck, the opponent had a bunch of random ground guys and a SSS, i had a palding of prahv which was moldervine cloaked and ocular haloed which was keeping me alive, i attacked with it mindlessly cuz his SSS attacked me, forgetting that if he piles on his ground guys onto my paladin it would die, he gang blocks, i thought crap, think for a while, says"well i draw a card anywayz" taps the paladin for a card. Wildsize
In the second pod at nats i had a pretty good BWr deck, but the opposing deck had 4 Pillary of the sleepless (6 opened) game one i lost cuz he ahd triple pillory. Game 2 i won cuz he drew zero of them, game 3 was a tight race with my celestial ancient and another flying locked under pillory, but i was holding graven dominator and paladin of pravh and think i will be alrite since i have some gas and life gain in my hand, but i dnt draw land for the next 6 turns and was down to 4 life. upkeep goes to 2 life, Draws---Leave no trace which i sided in against him, When he attacks me i used it to destroy him team, then killed him in 2 swings
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Last May, I was at a Team Standard PTQ. 2 of us were done and its down to the 3rd game to deciede which team wins the round. They are 1-1 into game 3. My teammate is playing what might best be described as U/B Hand Destruction on Seat B (in the middle) across from a Heartbeat player.
Heartbeat guy goes to combo out. He goes through extensive motions but has everything he needs to combo out. Finally, he's down to only 2 cards left in his hand but both are neccesary to finish comboing off.
My teammate gets priority (I think there was an Early Harvest on the stack) and activated his Nezumi Shortfang that has been sitting there the entire time overlooked.
The Heartbeat guy stops, looks at Shortfang, doubletakes, looks at his hand, and you can pretty much just see his brain asplode. He and his teammates are dumbfouned and totally at a loss of what to do having suddenly gone from about to win to "...uh...how does this not completely screw us?" A judge is watching because time was ticking down and finally warns the guys to do something or else get a slow play warning.
Heartbeat guy finally has to just accept that he's screwed. He semi-finishes comboing, but its no longer for the win.
Game goes to the 5 turn extension shortly thereafter where my teammate makes a slick play that I think involved ninjustuing Kokusho for Ink Eyes so he can replay Kokusho then play Kokusho #2 on the very last turn for the win.
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I used to live in Singapore, and it was my Junior year of high school. Mercadian Masques was just out, and me and my friends got together to draft on a Saturday afternoon. I crack my first pack, and look at the following:
1 Rare
3 Uncommons
11 Rares
Needless to say, I just sort of sat there stunned for a second before alerting my friends to the holy grail of a 12-rare pack. We proceeded to crack all our packs right there (forget drafting!), and about 1/2 of them were 12-rare packs. We figured out that all the multi-rare packs were coming from boxes that were all from one case. We then went to the ATM, withdrew as much money as we could afford, and bought about 3 or 4 boxes on the spot, and then took turns picking rares. I remember finishing off collections of Rishadan Port and Dust Bowl, among other goodies...it was a great time, but to this day I regret it was Masques Block...sigh...bookended by Urza and Invasion blocks, and I got Masques. Still the greatest day of Magic ever, and we never even got to draft.
Thanks to Avatar for the rockin' Sig and Avvy!
Lol
The good news: 12 rares in 1 pack!
The bad news: They were Masques block packs =(
Thats crazy.
These stories were great though, and having them all in one article was better than any of them by themselves.
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Note: At this time Time Vault required time counters, but I could pay 0 and skip my next turn as many times as I wanted.
Nevertheless, I was playing a friend named Travor who was piloting Butterknives, a mono:symb: aggro deck using Phyrexian Negator and other beaters. He won game 1, so I side boarded in my mono-color hoser. We shuffle and cut and I get the most recockulous hand I could have asked for.
Black Lotus
Mox Sapphire
Time Vault
Island
Illusionary Terrain
Black Vise
Some other card I can't remember.
I'm on the play, which may cause a few eyebrows to raise since I'm playing Stasis, but against aggro, I'd rather get mana out to try and get a Stasis established in the event he drops Negator or some other beat stick.
I drop Black Lotus, Mox Sapphire and the Island. Sack the Lotus for :symu::symu::symu: using two mana for Time Vault. I use the extra Lotus mana and the Mox for Illusionary Terrain. Illusionary Terrain, for those that aren't familiar with the card reads as follows:
Swamps were now plains. Now I could have played the Black Vise, but it was pretty pointless since as I ended my turn, I informed him that I would no longer be taking turns this game.
Total disbelief could only superficially describe the look on his face as he conceded before he even drew his first card. Needless to say he won the match in game three, but that has to be one of, if not the most satisfying accomplishment I ever made with Stasis Quo.
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Best play ever aside form above: A player goes to disenchant my Black Lotus, in response I sacrifice it to deal nine damage to him. (Triple Lighting Bolt)
Former student of Great Pun-Master Badump Chang
Best flavor text: Humiliation (Lunch Money)
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I've got two bad beats stories, one of which I got beaten and and one in which I emerged victorious. Both games were played with the same deck - a standard mono red burn deck I created on my own, around the time dissension became standard legal. Chars, Giant Solifuge, Flames of the Blood Hand, Genju of the Spires, and Blood Moons - standard aggro stuff. It was a really good deck, capable of stealing games from players who weren't paying attention.
Anyways, the game that I lost was against my friend, Brock. He was playing white-black aggro (a horrible matchup for me, Paladin en-Vec with Jitte was real bad news). I win game 1 off the back of Orcish Artillery, which sounds really horrible until you realize they kill your opponent's blockers for no mana so the Genju has free reign. And, with the exception of Paladin, they kill everything in white-black aggro. I side in some Rakdos Pit Dragons, so I can get some damage in if he gets a paladin.
Game 2 is pretty bad and I lose in short order.
Game 3: He gets a paladin. Next turn it is Jitte + equip, but I topdeck.... Hearth Kami! and take that Jitte out. I burn him down to about 8 or so, and go hellbent with a Rakdos Pit Dragon, who is threatening to make the kill next turn. Brock topdecks - Pithing Needle, boarded in for the Orcish Artillery. Needle reduces my pit dragon to a hill giant. Which now, cannot fly by paladin. Then he gets another needle, this time naming Hearth Kami. Followed by a second paladin, so the first one can swing by happily right through my team. It was such a back-and-forth game, but I'm pretty sure that was the only time those two cards were named from Pithing Needles, and it won the game.
The interesting game I won with the red deck was against Marshall, who is a really good player and came in 17th at the recent Grand Prix: Columbus. He was playing Heartbeat combo at the time. I win the first game, because my burn is faster than his combo. He knows I have a bunch of Blood Moons in the board, because he saw some other players get smashed by it. After the game he asked me, "Siding in those Blood Moons?" I said, "Yes, you know how bad they wreck you", and grabbed 3 Boiling Seas. (In case you didn't ever play against Heartbeat combo, the manabase consists solely of basic lands.)
So in the next game he uses Sakura Tribe Elders to hold the fort. I swing into them anyways, and he uses them to fetch islands (YES!!!!) and winds up with a board of 2 Forest, 3 Island, all tapped, and a Carven Caryatid. I had 3 mountains and some irrelevant guys. He was going to go off next turn, except that I hit my fourth land.
"tap 4, boiling seas?"
"Boiling seas? What does that do?"
I show him the card.
"Who the **** plays Boiling Seas? **** Boiling Seas!"
"I play Boiling Seas."
Eventually, the irrelevant guys punch through FTW.
@DRjester: I've heard about that happening to other people before. A small fraction of the Masques block boxes had rares in place of the commons. It actually happened to a friend of mine, who played in one of the prereleases for the block and the 75-card Masques box had something like 49 rares in it. He called the judge, who game him a new box but he got to keep the rare-filled one.
Mine comes from waaaay back in the day when I was a tournament organizer and game store employee. It had to be just after Ice Age was released, as I remember a Jester's Mask being part of the deal...
I ran a land destruction deck. Pretty nasty for its time, even keeping up with weenie hordes, but totally ineffective in today's environ. I was playing one of our locals and, while keeping his land and creatures under control, I wasn't getting any of my damage cards (mainly Black Vise). We were well into the game, and I was down to about 5 life... 90% of that loss thanks to my Fastbond.
I had just destroyed the last land he had on the table, and then pulled this off...
"OK, Doug, I'm going to braingeyser you for... 8 cards. OK, now I'm going to activate the Jester's Mask (allows me to go through hand and library and give them a new hand of cards equal to what they were holding). OK, here's your new hand, it has all the remaining land in your library and a few other cards. Now I'm casting Wheel of Fortune. Now I'm using Tormod's Crypt."
It's one of those things that would only happen once, but the look on the poor guy's face was priceless.
Peak rating 1832
Brain Freeze is the coolest card ever printed.
Ran into a god box of Italian Visions a few years ago.
Was interviewing for a job in Rochester, Minn., when I had the afternoon off and decided to scout the town for magic venues.
One store in town had a couple boxes of Italian Visions wherein nearly all the packs had two rares. In a single day I bought about 44 packs and got 2x Vampiric Tutor, 3x Rainbow Efreet, 2x Undiscovered Paradise, 2x Archangel, tons and tons of other awesome rares; and tons of Impulse, Rogue Elephant, Quirion Ranger, Man-o-Wars, River Boas, Nekrataals, Funeral Charms, Prosperitys, and more. I drove back to Mpls $150 lighter but a lot better off because many of these came back in 8th, 9th, and Time Spiral.
I don't have many dramatic topdecks, amazing wins, lucky matchups, or colossal goofs to relate. One year I almost decided not to play in Regionals because I was overworked that week and didn't think I'd be rested enough do well. I built two decks for me and my friend and we went anyway. I expected to scrub out with my Middle Red deck and watch my friend go the distance with 5c Gifts Control. As it worked out, I went 7-2 losing in the ninth round to mirror and getting knocked out of contention for top 8. He began 0-2 but I convinced him to stay in anyway, and he won the next 5 and got 12 packs, and I got a box + 6 and 28th place. I gave him half my packs for letting me use his decklists.
Several months later, I checked my rating online to discover I'd jumped 100+ points using his Red list that day.
I know right. I caught that match toward the end and I was like "people actually play Hunting Pack? What game is this? Game 3? You mean you actually won a game with this deck?". Funny thing is, against any other deck in any other situation he would've gotten beat badly.
here's my little tale (one of many)...
it's the Time Spiral pre-release. i won the first game against my opponent and now i have him at 2 life with me at 20. i would have won a long time ago, but he's got Spirit Loop on a morpher and keeps gaining 2 life each time i attack into it. no biggie, he's dead next turn, and i'm thinking "draw a land, don't topdeck, draw a land..." he draws for his turn and immediately reveals... a land! and then he goes "yes!" and i think he's kidding. but he lays it and attacks me with his morpher who happens to be... have you guessed? Krosan Cloudscraper. that land i was praying for was the 9th he needed to unmorph this colossal pain, which you remember had Spirit Loop on it! i failed to draw removal for this one and only threat and went on to lose the game, after like seven turns of throwing chump blockers in front of it. i wanted to slap somebody.:-/
I took my Krak's Thumb / Fiery Gambit deck to a new evening game with 6 new guys and in a free for all I proceeded to kill them all with multiple Forked and Twincasted Spiraling Embers.
I once killed a guy with Biorhythm who had infinite life. But who hasn't done that. Satisfying nonetheless.
I've killed a team in 2HG who were at 40 using Goblin Game when they all bid the same number. Note: Don't bid the same number as your partner. That was hella funny.
Sometimes poeople will quit when there's real no readon to quit. And I feel so vindicated when they actually come back and win, despite all of their whining about how I've ruined the game for them. Case in point is Genju of the Fens + Eradicate on your opponent's swamps. My friend quit, as would many people. But I forced himt o keep playing, and he came back to win with the lands he had on the table (doing this actually thins your opponents lands for them and if they have enough on the table you are actually benefitting them).
Probably my msot memorial conquest was a game where there were 8 people playing FFA, and I won with my Form of the Dragon followed by a Decree of Anhihilation combo. The lone Form proceeded to slowly kill everyone on the board and no one had any disenchant. How sad and funny.
But I have over 100 decks, mostly goofball decks like these so there's tons of stories like those.
I remember a nice moment from FS prerelease, we were both laying lands for some 7 rounds, because I had a Grave Peril at the table and neither of us wanted to lose a critter, with me slowly gnawing him with Augur il-Vec and suspended Arc Blade. Finally, he scapegoated Emberwilde Augur, cast Nessian Courser, fried the Augur and cast his big card - Pact of the Titan, copied by Mirari.
In my upkeep, Arc Blade ended its suspend and hit one of the Giants. Tendrils of Corruption did 3 damage to the other one, I gained 3 life. Then I played Sulfurous Blast, finishing both Giants, and frying the Courser. I got 3 life from Tendrils, so the result was no change in my life, and opponent losing 3, three creatures and being forced to pay 8RR in order to not lose next upkeep. In his turn, I flashed in Aven Mindcensor and finished him in two turns or so. The look at his face after the Giant carnage was priceless as well.
Once, we had a session in a vineyard One of my friends brought something around 20 decks, all various combinations of colors, and all using cards from Alpha to Mirage. We played a giant 8-man game, around the table. If anybody fell, he waited a round and then joined the game with a new deck. One of the guys, playing GR with Stormbind and Wheel of Fortune, managed to kill the same neighbor of his 5 times in a row.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Krark's Thumb has always been a card I enjoy playing, so let me offer you this suggestion as I have won with this two card Thumb combo many times, even on turn 1 once with a Vintage build.
Krark's Thumb + Game of Chaos.
For those unfamilar with the card:
Game of Chaos
Sorcery - :symr::symr::symr:
Flip a coin. If you win the flip, you gain 1 life and target opponent loses 1 life, and you decide whether to flip again. If you lose the flip, you lose 1 life and that opponent gains 1 life, and that player decides whether to flip again. Double the life stakes with each flip.
Each time you win, you get to keep playing the game staking life at an exponential rate : 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and so on. With the Thumb in play you have a 1 in 4 chance of losing a flip.
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So the block consisting of Time Spiral, Planar Chaos and Future Sight will now be known as Teaspoon Block?
Former student of Great Pun-Master Badump Chang
Best flavor text: Humiliation (Lunch Money)
www.hellwerx.com
Check out the Hellwerx Souvenir Shoppe.
but anyways i was playing a crappy goblin deck that a friend of mine back then helped me build which actually won 1 match and 1 game. I heard stories about aluren about a week before the ptq though and i was sure that it wasn't bad at all, of course i was so used to playing against my friends and brother i figured i could actually win alot of games. Unfortunitely my lack of knowledge of mtg caused me to lose most of the games i played, but it also helped me learn that you can't go unprepared for something like i did, i've learned so much since then though and i hope the next ptq i goto will be a little bit more in my favor the decks i played against was a seismic assault build (won 2/0), big red (lost 1/2), aluren (lost 0/2), and affinity (lost 0/2), last words from me is if you're pretty new to the game don't make my mistakes and goto a ptq unexperienced with the game or at least don't underestimate a deck and be prepared to face a ton of netdecks and weird rogue decks and experienced players please help newer players
creatures
4 birds of paradise
other spells
4 exploration
Back in middle school (yeah, yeah), I had a good friend who I would play magic with quite often. He had played magic a year or so before, but was just getting back into it (we had quite the thriving magic community there, 10-20 players usually).
Despite him just getting back into the game, he had some pretty good decks and was pretty matched with me (the current best player). Problem was... he wasn't too clear on some of the rules. Oh sure, he knew most of them, but every now and again... we would run into something he had just completely screwed up. To make things worse, he was always positive that he was correct and would argue quite loudly and vehemently to make is point.
Ok... there is the background on my friend, now here is the sweet story.
We were playing a game, me with a wierd U/B/R control deck and him with generic monoblack. He had seven swamps, and that was all. I had three islands, a mountain, and two swamps, a Zuran Orb, and a Krovikan Vampire. It is his turn.
He plays an Accursed Centaur.
"I sacrifice your Vampire"
"What? You can't do that. You can only sacrifice your own creatures"
"No way, that's stupid! Why would you sacrifice your own guys? You sacrifice your enemies, not your allies."
"We've run into this before... you still don't know all the rules that great, and on this one, you are wrong. You have to sacrifice one of your own creatures, the Centaur is dead."
"Dude, I don't want to play with you if your gonna cheat, especially if your just making up rules that don't make any sense!"
So, I think for a bit... then respond.
"Ok, fine. We will play by your rules. The vampire is dead. Is it my turn?"
"Yes."
"Ok... I sacrifice all your lands to my Zuran Orb, I gain 14 life. Mountain, Shivan Hellkite. Your turn."
"Uh.... um.... I guess that I was wrong about that rule, perhaps...."
Damn straight
As a friend of mine said later...
"Cost of a booster pack: $4, cost of a box of deck sleeves: $6, beating Cory at his own rules: priceless."
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we and my team mate just keep opening garbage, so we decided to draft slivers since there is nothing else.
In our second round:
we won the roll and started (this is when ppl had 40 life)
turn 1 nothing, turn 2 mire boa/2 headed sliver, turn 3 poutice sliver/syphonmage, turn 4 BONESPLITTER/mirri the curse, swing for 14
then i got some nutty draws and drop 3 slivers in 1 turn, near the end they had Spectral force and Sengir Nosferatu, and cant kill any of our slivers
alrite now topdeck stories. I have always been a lucky mofo so i have heaps of these.
Regionals last year, against rock, i won g1 but g2 i was getting beaten in the face with a SSS that he had crimed for, however i had multiple annexes and was making saps with his vitu-ghazi (no i wasnt going to win that race) I assembled tron but cannot draw into anything for the life of me, then I did this: repeal my signet, replay the signet but remand it, replay the siget and remand it again, repeal another signet, i managed to draw 3 lands and 1 signet off those 4 cards. So i played a bunch of signets and passed. dead in 2 turns to my own SSS. He swings me down to 2
And i topdeck demonfire for 23 to take the match
most, undeserving win, ever.
in a triple Rav draft, g1, the opponent had a UB evasion deck that had stabilized and had me dead in 2 turns, I know i had fetters and arc left in the deck, but they wont be enough, i thought about scooping but thought, meh, i will play it out.
Draws
Flame Fullsilade, which i had actually completely forgotten, and i did it for exactly enough to kill him.
Last year nationals during RGD draft i had a decent UWG deck, the opponent had a bunch of random ground guys and a SSS, i had a palding of prahv which was moldervine cloaked and ocular haloed which was keeping me alive, i attacked with it mindlessly cuz his SSS attacked me, forgetting that if he piles on his ground guys onto my paladin it would die, he gang blocks, i thought crap, think for a while, says"well i draw a card anywayz" taps the paladin for a card. Wildsize
In the second pod at nats i had a pretty good BWr deck, but the opposing deck had 4 Pillary of the sleepless (6 opened) game one i lost cuz he ahd triple pillory. Game 2 i won cuz he drew zero of them, game 3 was a tight race with my celestial ancient and another flying locked under pillory, but i was holding graven dominator and paladin of pravh and think i will be alrite since i have some gas and life gain in my hand, but i dnt draw land for the next 6 turns and was down to 4 life. upkeep goes to 2 life, Draws---Leave no trace which i sided in against him, When he attacks me i used it to destroy him team, then killed him in 2 swings
Spread the word.
Heartbeat guy goes to combo out. He goes through extensive motions but has everything he needs to combo out. Finally, he's down to only 2 cards left in his hand but both are neccesary to finish comboing off.
My teammate gets priority (I think there was an Early Harvest on the stack) and activated his Nezumi Shortfang that has been sitting there the entire time overlooked.
The Heartbeat guy stops, looks at Shortfang, doubletakes, looks at his hand, and you can pretty much just see his brain asplode. He and his teammates are dumbfouned and totally at a loss of what to do having suddenly gone from about to win to "...uh...how does this not completely screw us?" A judge is watching because time was ticking down and finally warns the guys to do something or else get a slow play warning.
Heartbeat guy finally has to just accept that he's screwed. He semi-finishes comboing, but its no longer for the win.
Game goes to the 5 turn extension shortly thereafter where my teammate makes a slick play that I think involved ninjustuing Kokusho for Ink Eyes so he can replay Kokusho then play Kokusho #2 on the very last turn for the win.
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GDS1 & GDS2 entrant. Former Rules Advisor & casual-level TO. Semi-lapsed player in general.