MTG Salvation

There are a few ways to do team drafts. The way I'm most familiar with is to seat all the players, draft and then pick teams afterwards. It discourages hate drafting, because you don't know if your neighbor is going to be on your team or not. It's not any different then drafting in a regular pod, you just have the added information of your opponents' decks because of your teammates. Money drafts are usually just a way to past time at a GP. Depending on the group you play with, I've gone in for anywhere from 20 dollars up to 500.

Tarfire strictly better than Shock.

Quote from jetcape15

Yeah, I'm not really sure why they feel the need to keep replacing the art on the invitational cards when they reprint them. It's annoying, and it's pretty disrespectful to the invitational winners. It's like they're saying "This isn't your card anymore." At least this artwork isn't as crappy as the new Meddling Mage or Solemn Simulacrum artworks, though. Those were just bad.

I agree with this. The whole point of being an Invitational winner was that the card was made in their likeness. Obviously everyone nowadays no longer understands the significance of the Invitational since it is now a defunct event, but I wholeheartedly disagree when I see the art having been changed on Solemn Simulacrum, Meddling Mage and now Dark Confidant. That being said, we should expect this to be the norm now, since Bob Maher mentions how unfair it would be to Pikula and Jens if the Dark Confidant reprint got to keep the original art, while Solemn and Meddling Mage reprints had new art.

Quote from Dancing_bananas

Congrats! Can you do a little report on what decks you played and how it went? I'm specially interested in if you played against Voice Pod.

I find it weird that your only cantrip is Electrolyze, I just went from 2 to 3 Think Twice with good results.

Do you think Gideon is worth it over Ajani? He seems great against swarm kind of decks.

R1: Soul Sisters
This is really the only matchup where I felt like Electrolyze carried its weight. G1, I traded off my removal spells with his early creatures, 2 Electrolyzes got me way ahead. I eventually stuck Gideon, which forced him to commit his Ranger of Eos + 2 1 drops to the board, and I was ready with a Supreme Verdict. G2, was more or less the same. He had a slow hand, and the singleton Sowing Salt was enough to strip his Windbrisk Heights. Gideon stuck, but I was forced to tick it up for a while because I suspected he had a Path in his hand (he did). I wore him down with my Colonnades until he was forced to use his Path, and then Gideon finished him off.

R2: GW Bogle
G1, I kept a loose keep, Colonnade, Glacial Fortress, Hallowed Fountainx2, Bolt, Supreme Verdict, Helix. I never drew a red source, and his totem armored Bogle was enough to kill me. G2, I slammed a Spellskite on turn 2 (which he later told me he didn't have an out for) and eventually Gideon. We went back and forth for a turns before he conceded, realizing there was no way for him to kill me. G3, he had a pretty explosive start. The key turn in the game was when he had a Bogle enchanted with Daybreak Coronet, Rancor, and Spider Umbra, and a second Bogle with Spider Umbra. My play was to allow him to go to combat (I had a Cryptic Command in my graveyard), flash in SMC, flashback Cryptic to bounce his Daybreak Coronet and trade with the 4/2 to get rid of his Umbra, and I would be able to clear the board with Pyroclasm into Supreme Verdict on my turn. He had the Path for my Snapcaster, and I was drawing dead.

R3: BR Burn
I don't remember a ton about this match, except Ajani was worth his weight in gold. A lot of early turns were spent trading my removal spells, and eventually landing an Ajani to immediately Helix him. His lack of creatures forced him to use a burn spell, which bought me enough time to stabilize and come back.

R4: UWR Twin
We both had very slow starts, and I thought I was playing the mirror match, until he EoTed a Deceiver Exarch. Once I knew what I was playing against, I could stall him off by trading my Wraths for his combo pieces for his Restoration Angels/Deceiver Exarchs, and using my burn to kill his Kiki-Jikis and wittle at his life. I could never get a real offensive going for fear of not being able to hold up multiple counters. The games were both fairly long, but I had inevitably, since Cryptic Commands is the trump (he was only on Mana Leaks and Remands).

R5: Robots
I smashed him G1 with my removal and a Gideon. G2 I thought I had the game locked up in the bag, but I was light on action (needed to draw a Sphinx's Revelation). He slams a Blood Moon, and I have no answer for it. An Etched Champion with a Cranial Plating makes short work of me. G3, I kept a sketchy 6, and I quickly fall behind. When I tap low for removal, he has a Blood Moon and I die shortly afterwards.

R6: UWR Midrange
This is your dream matchup, they're playing the same deck, but with worse spells. G1, we have an awkward Tectonic Edge battle, and he gets stuck on lands. I poke away at his life with a Snapcaster Mage, and eventually throw all my dead burn at his face. G2, I get an early Sowing Salt, crippling his mana, but he has a Geist which I don't have a Wrath for. G3, he taps out early, and plays into my Sowing Salt, followed by Tec Edges which shuts him off a color. He has no answer for my Gideon which follows.

R7: Mono W Vial
I don't really remember much about this match, other than I was able to burn away his little creatures, force him to overcommit to the board, and then wrath away his bigger creatures.

R8: RG Aggro
I had seen him play in grinders the previous day, so I knew he was on RG Aggro. G1, I keep a land light hand, and I made a critical misplay when I wait for Goblin Guide to go into combat (I was trying to get a land off the trigger) and I'm punished when he uses his Ghor-Clan Rampager on it. He eventually has a pair of dorks, and when I use my last removal in hand to kill it, he has another Rampager for lethal. G2, I had a removal heavy hand that was probably a little land light. I try to gamble with Goblin Guide as much as possible, but I throw away all my removal spells on his early creatures, but die to the Ghor-Clan Rampager he eventually sticks.

R9: UWR Midrange
I don't remember much about G1, except my notes showing him losing life in increments of 2 and 3, suggesting I just domed him with the majority of my burn spells. I had an early Sphinx's Revelation for 4 in G2, which gave me enough cards to stay ahead. Sowing Salt was MVP here, taking away the threat of his Colonnades (I think) and a Snapcaster Mage allowed me to put pressure on him. He eventually had an Assemble the Legion, which I was able to chain Cryptic Commands together to keep it under control while I was stockpiling a lethal amount of burn in my hand. The final turn of the game had him at 7 lands and a fetch land in play. He goes for a Thundermaw Hellkite, which I Mana Leak, and play my singleton Shadow of Doubt when he cracks his fetch to keep him from being able to pay. I activate my Colonnade for lethal, he has the Path, and I have the burn spell to finish him off.

I did not play against any Pod decks during Day 1. I thought about playing Think Twice, but I wanted all my cards to be doing something. In a lot of my matches, I felt like I didn't have time to be fiddling around with cantrips. Gideon was an excellent finisher for me. Whenever I stuck him, he usually ended the game very quickly, especially since I had anticipated playing against a lot of midrange and aggro decks. That being said, I would have liked to play another Ajani somewhere, but I'm not sure what I would cut though (certainly would not cut Gideon for it).

I went 6-3 at GP Portland with 0 byes, losing round 2 to GW Bogle, round 5 to Affinity and round 8 to RG Aggro. This was what I played.

Creatures (4)
4 Snapcaster Mage

Spells (30)
2 Path to Exile
2 Wrath of God
1 Gideon Jura
3 Spell Snare
2 Mana Leak
4 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Supreme Verdict
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Lightning Helix
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Turn//Burn
3 Electrolyze

Lands (26)
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Arid Mesa
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Glacial Fortress
1 Sulfur Falls
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Tectonic Edge
3 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Celestial Purge
2 Rest in Peace
2 Flashfreeze
2 Pyroclasm
2 Sowing Salt
1 Shadow of Doubt
1 Counterflux
2 Spellskite

If I had to play this deck over, I would probably make these changes:
+1 Path to Exile
+1 Spell Snare
+1 Plains
-1 Electrolyze
-1 Wrath of God
-1 Glacial Fortress

+1 Supreme Verdict
+1 Pyroclasm
-2 Flashfreeze

I was pretty happy with the way deck performed, I smashed the midrange decks that I played against, because I could go over the top with my spells. Turn//Burn also surpassed my expectations, it was most commonly a two-mana Shock, but in the late game, it could eat anything, ranging from Tarmogoyfs, to Celestial Colonnade. Electrolyze was underwhelming, except against Soul Sisters.

SCG Opens are basically glorified FNMs, the EV is just too low to go out of the way for it.

Quote from Lauphiette Kincey

I guess I'm just more competitive then most people. I see a deck utterly dominate everyone and I think, "That's awesome. I wonder if I should pick it up," as opposed to

It's easier to complain than to play better.

Quote from Ebonclaw

Well, I get that it's homeless due to the nature of competitive decks out there right now. I also get the card is mana intensive. And i know the card isn't a great card....right now. But given that it's got a long standard life ahead of it, as the format changes and undergoes rotation, I just can't see a card that does that much.....stuff....not get a chance to shine at some point while legal, because if it does, it's from a small set at mythic rarity, which seems promising enough for starters.

The card does very little, against aggressive decks like Naya Blitz or RG Saitou, by the time you get to enough mana to actually kill something, you'll be under pressure from multiple attackers. If you're using it to tap down creatures by doing 1 to everything, you're losing card advantage. The "Can't cast noncreature spells" is irrelevant, since if you're in a losing board position, it doesn't help you. If you want to stop your opponents from casting Supreme Verdict or another board sweeper, than Boros Charm works better for less and is more versatile. Gatecrash is also not a small set, it's the same size as RTR. Not to mention Gatecrash will still be drafted when Dragon's Maze comes out. There's no shortage of this card to go around, so you're looking at a <$5 mythic, this card is terrible.

Quote from inked

In the link it says for the tournament "if you have enough planeswalker points" you can play, does anyone know how many that is? I read it twice and couldn't find it. Would be fun to play at and get the promo, but I don't know if I even qualify.

Scroll down to the bottom of the announcement, it's 500 to qualify in the US.

Quote from DakmorQueen

Hey, I'm going to ask a question too, because I've never been to one either. What are those slips that they have at the end of matches? I've only watched a few rounds of tournament play and was curious of that.

They are the results slips. It has your names, and your record the result of match, and sign at the bottom. They also have a line for you to check if you wish to drop from the event.

Color me impressed, there are a boatload of people here.

I'll try to find it, but there was an article (or it might have been at a GP) where someone went back and made 40 of the best Standard decks of all time and pitted them against one another to determine the "best deck of all time". I'll see if I can find the article somewhere, but maybe someone will know what I'm talking about.

Quote from Hiddene

I have a question about making Day 2; when it says you have to have an X-2 or better record, would I be correct in assuming that, for instance, an X-2-1 record would not be qualified for Day 2 (obviously excepting when they have less than 64 X-2s), but obviously, an X-1-1 would be just fine?

This is correct. Just assume that the threshold is going to be 7-2 (21 points) for 9 rounds to make Day 2. If the GP is large enough, and it goes to 10 rounds, you will need to go 8-2 (24 points).

Quote from Hiddene

This exactly. Like foil Boros Reckoner + more nuts. I'm not EXPECTING it to happen, and I'm definitely looking forward to playing through the entirety of Day 1 until I hit about X-4/X-5, if only to get better. But if I see a foil Reckoner in the same pack as another Reckoner, I may just consider dropping at registration. I'd feel better about it if they just wouldn't let you take off and drop until after you register. Perhaps I'll just force myself not to do it, no matter how much I want to. It's not like I'll get to go to many GPs this year.

Playing at GPs is one of the quickest ways to get better, I would strongly suggest playing out Day 1, regardless of your standing.

MTGS' white knights are going to come out in droves trying to explain to you why what you did was borderline cheating. I'll just say what you did is within the rules, so it's fine.