This was by far my favorite round in a long while. Great deck diversity and tons of interesting matches. I think I kinda like this 3CB + land rule thing in general, too - we should do it again sometime.
Because I was so taken with this week, I went a little above and beyond, and wrote up match reports for all the ones I thought were cool. Here they are, sorted roughly from most to least interesting. You should probably familiarize yourself with the decks a little before reading.
Personman v. Tails2k5:
This match is ridiculous. I will break it down step by step so that you can appreciate its ridiculosity.
He can't play Figure until turn 3, when he can back it up with Denial. However, this lets me get enough mana to cast Shoal normally when I'm on the play.
I can safely lay down Adept, since wasting Exile on it means I'll be able to keep Figure from ever attacking with Mistmeadow's ability.
If I had nothing else in my hand, he would win on turn 8: swing for 2 on turn four (remember he needed blue mana for Denial, so he can't pump twice yet), swing for 4 on turn five but get chumped, 6 total on turn 6, 14 on 7, 22 on 8
I can't play Mistmeadow until turn 6, because it would just die, and I can't stop Figure from attacking with it until turn 8, because then I wouldn't leave four open to save it from Path. But on turn 8 I get to have four open after preventing his attack. Eventually I get to twelve and can start blinking Figure on my turn too to prevent it from blocking, and Mistmeadow eventually goes all the way, winning on my turn 33 (since he can slow down one more turn by burning Path).
That was all when I'm on the play. When Tails2k5 is on the play, I have to pitch my dude to counter Figure on his turn 3 and can't chump, and he gets turn 8 first, so it looks like I lose. However, I can just let it through on turn three, keeping my guy and my counter. Then on my turn five I can force it through and I still have one turn of chumpage before it starts flying because of his Island.
Except he can just ignore Adept and hold the counter for Witch, so that's game, right?
But wait! He has to tap 6 out of 7 lands on turn 7 to pump Figure! So I can get Witch through safely! And then... oh. And then he has path, and I can save the Witch, but die to Figure's next attack. Or I can reset Figure to a 1/1, let Witch get Pathed, and die a little later. Oh well.
And it's even worse for me than that, too - because when I'm on the play, he can just let me counter Figure, and then Path adept and counter mistmeadow for the draw. Damn.
Tails2k5 vs. domogrue:
Unless I misunderstand how suspend works, domogrue needs to cast Garg on turn 3 so that it won't go on the stack on top of Balancing Act when he sacs all his lands on turn 6.
Xyre vs. domogrue:
Spell Snare is key here, as it lets Xyre make Beacon's Balancing-Act dodge good - he plays Beacon - gets Denialed - Gets Snared on turn 5, then Beacon is in the library and dodges a next-turn balancing act, and then it's back in hand with Denial backup on turn 6.
VikingMetal4L vs. DragonDart
The way Orim's Chant fends off Dark Rituals for three turns is quite awesome.
Masclins vs. domogrue:
domogrue can wait til turn six, tap out, play Balancing act, then sac everything for Garg. If Act goes through, Masclins gets to keep a card, but that doesn't help against the floated mana and Denial still in domogrue's hand; if he fights off Denial Garg hits the table and Beacon can't deal with it.
bmh vs. VikingMetal4L:
bmh is all like, Check out my Leyline, yo! And then VM4L is like, Uh... Dreadwing has 1 toughness. Yo.
Personman v. Xyre:
Snare for Mistmeadow means the guys he gets when he forces Beacon through Shoal with Denial will beat me down, even though Adept never lets him recur it. If he didn't have Snare, I could blink them out of existence one by one (though possibly not fast enough, I'm not sure.)
Personman v. Masclins:
On the play, I get Mistmeadow down faster than Denial. This lets me protect Adept from Beacon, so he can only ever hit me once. Then I slowly but surely lay on the Cathartic Beatdown.
Xyre vs. Masclins:
Xyre is two mana cheaper overall and wins a turn sooner after casting his Beacon. This means he can ignore everything Masclins does and force Beacon through on turn 7 and win.
Personman vs. DragonDart:
I can delay you for *two whole turns*, but being stuck at three mana is not much better than being stuck at 1 for my deck.
Xyre vs. bmh:
This match seems cool because Xyre gets to play the game of figuring out the correct turn to cast the one Beacon he will get. Until you notice that actually he just dies in the air on turn five.
Masclins vs. bmh:
Double Denial does its job: one for the chant, one for the Anurid.
Personman v. VikingMetal4L
This match is complex enough that it keeps looking like I might have tricky plays, but in the end plague spitter vs. 2 1/1s is just too harsh.
It is now officially Way Too Late Early so I will expand this post tomorrow. But I'll probably be too much of a completist right now and go make the POTM sheet instead of sleeping anyway. Blurg.
EDIT: Yeah, okay, I did it. At the moment, Tails2k5 leads VikingMetal4L by 2 points, finally breaking his three-month streak! VM4L, you'd better start really scouring this month's matches for errors...
0. Overview
Two Card Blind (2CB) is a Magic tournament, run entirely within this forum. To compete, players submit two-card decks which are played against each other. Scoring assumes optimal play, without randomness or concealed information.
1. Game Rules
1.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules.
1.2. Players' decks contain exactly two cards, which begin the game in hand. Players do not mulligan or sideboard.
1.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty. A player does not lose the game as a result of being unable to draw a card.
1.4. A random effect produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of the effect.
1.5 Whenever a player could play a Land card, that player may put a Basic Land card from outside the game onto the battlefield. (Basic Snow Lands are Basic.)
2. Tournament Rules
2.1. Players submit their decks to the 2CB moderator (Personman).
2.1a. The moderator informs players of mistakes in a timely manner. (Sometimes. Often I run kinda late. Be careful.)
2.1b. A player may submit multiple decks, but only the most recent as of the deadline is counted.
2.1c. If a player's final deck is illegal, their most recent legal deck is used. If no legal deck has been submitted, they do not participate.
2.2. A player may not submit a deck that can, against any deck, win the game or force one or more cards in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's first turn, or force a specific card in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's second turn. (Note that forcing your opponent to discard two cards is very likely to force a specific card their hand to change zones.)
2.3. A deck may include any number of any card legal in Vintage (Type 1).
2.4. Each player plays one match, consisting of two games, against each other player. Each player is the starting player once per match. Results assume optimal play and perfect information.
2.4a. If no player can win, the game is a draw.
2.4b. A player that can't win or draw plays to extend the game.
2.5. Points determine tournament standings. Players are ranked, first to last, in order of decreasing number of points.
2.5a. For each match, a player earns 3 points per game win and 1 point per drawn game. Matches in which each player wins one game and loses one game are worth only 2 points per player, rather than 3.
2.5b. A table of match results is posted each round. Its rows represent players and its columns represent opponents. Match results reflect the combined result of both games played in a match. A player's total points are listed at the end of his or her row.
3. Banned List
3.1 The following cards are banned. Any deck that includes a card on this list is illegal.
* Fastbond
* Meddling Mage
* Nezumi Shortfang
* The Rack
* Black Lotus
Each month, the player with the highest combined score from the four rounds that month is designated Player of the Month. Here are the previous winners, in reverse chronological order:
I looked at my results, and I do have corrections for this week, but they work against me.
My match vs DragonDart should be 3-3; Orim's Chant doesn't do so much for me when I'm on the draw.
My match vs Personman should also be 3-3. When Personman plays first, I play Plague Spitter on T3, but then Personman plays his 4th land and on his eot, and uses Mistmeadow to "phase out" Plague Spitter. So it's not in play during my upkeep and doesn't trigger. Anurid is similarly phased out once Personman gets 8 mana, and both my guys remain phased out for all but end steps once Personman gets to 16 mana, and he can start attacking.
Anyway, serves *me* right for playing a crappy deck.
If we do 3CB+land again, I'd suggest cleaning up the banned list.
I have no idea what I was doing in the DragonDart match, I knew that was 3-3 but must have just typed it wrong, or stopped thinking about it after I wrote about how cool chant was and assumed that cool = win. Whatever.
Wait... shouldn't I beat VM4L 6-0 instead of going 3-3?
Even on the play, I should win.
T1: VM4L plays Plains. During my upkeep on T1 he can Chant.
If he does, I play swamp. On his 2nd turn he plays a land. On my second turn I play Ritual and Braids, preventing him from ever reaching 2 lands.
If he doesn't, I play swamp, cast Dark Ritualx2 and play Braids. He could also Chant in response to the first Ritual, but I can still play Braids on my second turn with the leftover Ritual and prevent him from casting anything else.
If you play two rituals turn one, he responds to the second one by chanting. If you play a ritual on turn TWO he responds by chanting.
Incidently, personman? Vs VikingMetal4L, waiting until turn 6 to shoal his upkeep Chant, drop Misty, and blink out Spitty in your beginning of the end?
On the play he does 3 to you on turn 4, then 6, then 6, then 3 ('cause on turn 6 you blink out Spitty), then kills you on turn 7 just before you seize control...
I rather liked this 3 card variant, it opened up a lot of options.
What banned list update are you suggesting, VM4L? Arcane Denial is sort of the new 'go-to' card, a consequence of removing discard I suppose. Things might change a lot if both counterspells and discard were banned.
I actually wasn't calling for the banning of Arcane Denial, though I'm not opposed to it either. Mostly I just meant the list could be cleaned up, removing redundant cards as well as some cards that are only good in 3CB or 5CB like Wasteland. (As for removing counters/discard, that sounds like the basis for a possible alternate format "noob week": no counters, no discard, no land destruction).
As it stands, the banned list for 3CB+land is
Fastbond
Meddling Mage
Nezumi Shortfang
The Rack
Black Lotus
Wasteland
Ghost Quarter
Strip Mine
Glacial Chasm
Blackmail
Brain Pry
Coercion
Pulse of the Dross
Thoughtseize
Force of Will
Cabal Therapy
Abandon Hope
Show and Tell
Misguided Rage
The Rack
Form of the Dragon
Balance
Restore Balance
Barren Glory
Mesmeric Fiend
Nezumi Shortfang
Voidstone Gargoyle
Leonin Squire
Magus of the Moon
Unmask
Trinisphere
Removing those cards are either somehow redundant or are in my opinion "obviously fair," we are left with the much shorter list:
Fastbond
Meddling Mage
Nezumi Shortfang
The Rack
Black Lotus
Glacial Chasm
Force of Will
Show and Tell
Form of the Dragon
Balance
I furthermore don't see a reason why Glacial Chasm and Form of the Dragon can't come off the list. Show and Tell remains pretty scary as it is playable turn 1 with Mana Crypt; Force of Will seems format-defining to say the least; and Balance is ridiculous because the third card means you could legally play it in the same deck as Gargadon (say, with Chant?) and go for a pretty resilient lockout turn 3.
Finally, I do think Shortfang loses a lot of its power with the third card in the mix, and could safely come off. So the banned list I propose for the next 3CB+land is
Actually, Tails2k5, discard wasn't very 'banned' in 3CB, as discussed two weeks ago (You can Hymn people turn 2 without forcing a particular card out of their hand). I was rather surprised no one took advantage of that fact. I kinda wanted to run Forget in my deck, but it really needed two threats to make sense.
Were other people under the impression that Hymn was a nono in 3CB? Was everyone, except VM4L and myself (those who actually talked about it in the two weeks ago's thread)? More importantly, should it be? Neither of us ran it either time anyway (though given my performance this week I probably should have :P), so maybe it's not an issue?
Actually, Tails2k5, discard wasn't very 'banned' in 3CB, as discussed two weeks ago (You can Hymn people turn 2 without forcing a particular card out of their hand). I was rather surprised no one took advantage of that fact. I kinda wanted to run Forget in my deck, but it really needed two threats to make sense.
Were other people under the impression that Hymn was a nono in 3CB? Was everyone, except VM4L and myself (those who actually talked about it in the two weeks ago's thread)? More importantly, should it be? Neither of us ran it either time anyway (though given my performance this week I probably should have :P), so maybe it's not an issue?
Pretty much, yes. Maybe we just played the format we *wanted*.
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This was by far my favorite round in a long while. Great deck diversity and tons of interesting matches. I think I kinda like this 3CB + land rule thing in general, too - we should do it again sometime.
Because I was so taken with this week, I went a little above and beyond, and wrote up match reports for all the ones I thought were cool. Here they are, sorted roughly from most to least interesting. You should probably familiarize yourself with the decks a little before reading.
This match is ridiculous. I will break it down step by step so that you can appreciate its ridiculosity.
He can't play Figure until turn 3, when he can back it up with Denial. However, this lets me get enough mana to cast Shoal normally when I'm on the play.
I can safely lay down Adept, since wasting Exile on it means I'll be able to keep Figure from ever attacking with Mistmeadow's ability.
If I had nothing else in my hand, he would win on turn 8: swing for 2 on turn four (remember he needed blue mana for Denial, so he can't pump twice yet), swing for 4 on turn five but get chumped, 6 total on turn 6, 14 on 7, 22 on 8
I can't play Mistmeadow until turn 6, because it would just die, and I can't stop Figure from attacking with it until turn 8, because then I wouldn't leave four open to save it from Path. But on turn 8 I get to have four open after preventing his attack. Eventually I get to twelve and can start blinking Figure on my turn too to prevent it from blocking, and Mistmeadow eventually goes all the way, winning on my turn 33 (since he can slow down one more turn by burning Path).
That was all when I'm on the play. When Tails2k5 is on the play, I have to pitch my dude to counter Figure on his turn 3 and can't chump, and he gets turn 8 first, so it looks like I lose. However, I can just let it through on turn three, keeping my guy and my counter. Then on my turn five I can force it through and I still have one turn of chumpage before it starts flying because of his Island.
Except he can just ignore Adept and hold the counter for Witch, so that's game, right?
But wait! He has to tap 6 out of 7 lands on turn 7 to pump Figure! So I can get Witch through safely! And then... oh. And then he has path, and I can save the Witch, but die to Figure's next attack. Or I can reset Figure to a 1/1, let Witch get Pathed, and die a little later. Oh well.
And it's even worse for me than that, too - because when I'm on the play, he can just let me counter Figure, and then Path adept and counter mistmeadow for the draw. Damn.
Tails2k5 vs. domogrue:
Unless I misunderstand how suspend works, domogrue needs to cast Garg on turn 3 so that it won't go on the stack on top of Balancing Act when he sacs all his lands on turn 6.
Xyre vs. domogrue:
Spell Snare is key here, as it lets Xyre make Beacon's Balancing-Act dodge good - he plays Beacon - gets Denialed - Gets Snared on turn 5, then Beacon is in the library and dodges a next-turn balancing act, and then it's back in hand with Denial backup on turn 6.
VikingMetal4L vs. DragonDart
The way Orim's Chant fends off Dark Rituals for three turns is quite awesome.
Masclins vs. domogrue:
domogrue can wait til turn six, tap out, play Balancing act, then sac everything for Garg. If Act goes through, Masclins gets to keep a card, but that doesn't help against the floated mana and Denial still in domogrue's hand; if he fights off Denial Garg hits the table and Beacon can't deal with it.
bmh vs. VikingMetal4L:
bmh is all like, Check out my Leyline, yo! And then VM4L is like, Uh... Dreadwing has 1 toughness. Yo.
Personman v. Xyre:
Snare for Mistmeadow means the guys he gets when he forces Beacon through Shoal with Denial will beat me down, even though Adept never lets him recur it. If he didn't have Snare, I could blink them out of existence one by one (though possibly not fast enough, I'm not sure.)
Personman v. Masclins:
On the play, I get Mistmeadow down faster than Denial. This lets me protect Adept from Beacon, so he can only ever hit me once. Then I slowly but surely lay on the Cathartic Beatdown.
Xyre vs. Masclins:
Xyre is two mana cheaper overall and wins a turn sooner after casting his Beacon. This means he can ignore everything Masclins does and force Beacon through on turn 7 and win.
Personman vs. DragonDart:
I can delay you for *two whole turns*, but being stuck at three mana is not much better than being stuck at 1 for my deck.
Xyre vs. bmh:
This match seems cool because Xyre gets to play the game of figuring out the correct turn to cast the one Beacon he will get. Until you notice that actually he just dies in the air on turn five.
Masclins vs. bmh:
Double Denial does its job: one for the chant, one for the Anurid.
Personman v. VikingMetal4L
This match is complex enough that it keeps looking like I might have tricky plays, but in the end plague spitter vs. 2 1/1s is just too harsh.
It is now officially Way Too
LateEarly so I will expand this post tomorrow. But I'll probably be too much of a completist right now and go make the POTM sheet instead of sleeping anyway. Blurg.EDIT: Yeah, okay, I did it. At the moment, Tails2k5 leads VikingMetal4L by 2 points, finally breaking his three-month streak! VM4L, you'd better start really scouring this month's matches for errors...
Two Card Blind (2CB) is a Magic tournament, run entirely within this forum. To compete, players submit two-card decks which are played against each other. Scoring assumes optimal play, without randomness or concealed information.
1. Game Rules
1.1. Except for the changes described in these rules, games follow the Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules.
1.2. Players' decks contain exactly two cards, which begin the game in hand. Players do not mulligan or sideboard.
1.3. Players' libraries begin the game empty. A player does not lose the game as a result of being unable to draw a card.
1.4. A random effect produces the result that least benefits the owner of the source of the effect.
1.5 Whenever a player could play a Land card, that player may put a Basic Land card from outside the game onto the battlefield. (Basic Snow Lands are Basic.)
2. Tournament Rules
2.1. Players submit their decks to the 2CB moderator (Personman).
2.1a. The moderator informs players of mistakes in a timely manner. (Sometimes. Often I run kinda late. Be careful.)
2.1b. A player may submit multiple decks, but only the most recent as of the deadline is counted.
2.1c. If a player's final deck is illegal, their most recent legal deck is used. If no legal deck has been submitted, they do not participate.
2.2. A player may not submit a deck that can, against any deck, win the game or force one or more cards in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's first turn, or force a specific card in an opponent's hand to change zones before an opponent's second turn. (Note that forcing your opponent to discard two cards is very likely to force a specific card their hand to change zones.)
2.3. A deck may include any number of any card legal in Vintage (Type 1).
2.4. Each player plays one match, consisting of two games, against each other player. Each player is the starting player once per match. Results assume optimal play and perfect information.
2.4a. If no player can win, the game is a draw.
2.4b. A player that can't win or draw plays to extend the game.
2.5. Points determine tournament standings. Players are ranked, first to last, in order of decreasing number of points.
2.5a. For each match, a player earns 3 points per game win and 1 point per drawn game. Matches in which each player wins one game and loses one game are worth only 2 points per player, rather than 3.
2.5b. A table of match results is posted each round. Its rows represent players and its columns represent opponents. Match results reflect the combined result of both games played in a match. A player's total points are listed at the end of his or her row.
3. Banned List
3.1 The following cards are banned. Any deck that includes a card on this list is illegal.
* Fastbond
* Meddling Mage
* Nezumi Shortfang
* The Rack
* Black Lotus
POTM 5: Tails2k5
POTM 4: VikingMetal4L
POTM 3: VikingMetal4L
POTM 2: VikingMetal4L
POTM 1: DragonDart
Next week is back to normal. Deadline is 11:59PM EST.
I wish we could see more players. I actually prefer Land Rule 3CB to 2CB and 5CB.
Modern UW Taking Turns
My match vs DragonDart should be 3-3; Orim's Chant doesn't do so much for me when I'm on the draw.
My match vs Personman should also be 3-3. When Personman plays first, I play Plague Spitter on T3, but then Personman plays his 4th land and on his eot, and uses Mistmeadow to "phase out" Plague Spitter. So it's not in play during my upkeep and doesn't trigger. Anurid is similarly phased out once Personman gets 8 mana, and both my guys remain phased out for all but end steps once Personman gets to 16 mana, and he can start attacking.
Anyway, serves *me* right for playing a crappy deck.
If we do 3CB+land again, I'd suggest cleaning up the banned list.
I have no idea what I was doing in the DragonDart match, I knew that was 3-3 but must have just typed it wrong, or stopped thinking about it after I wrote about how cool chant was and assumed that cool = win. Whatever.
Fixed and fixed.
Even on the play, I should win.
T1: VM4L plays Plains. During my upkeep on T1 he can Chant.
If he does, I play swamp. On his 2nd turn he plays a land. On my second turn I play Ritual and Braids, preventing him from ever reaching 2 lands.
If he doesn't, I play swamp, cast Dark Ritualx2 and play Braids. He could also Chant in response to the first Ritual, but I can still play Braids on my second turn with the leftover Ritual and prevent him from casting anything else.
Incidently, personman? Vs VikingMetal4L, waiting until turn 6 to shoal his upkeep Chant, drop Misty, and blink out Spitty in your beginning of the end?
On the play he does 3 to you on turn 4, then 6, then 6, then 3 ('cause on turn 6 you blink out Spitty), then kills you on turn 7 just before you seize control...
...ooh, SO CLOSE!.
Modern UW Taking Turns
What banned list update are you suggesting, VM4L? Arcane Denial is sort of the new 'go-to' card, a consequence of removing discard I suppose. Things might change a lot if both counterspells and discard were banned.
As it stands, the banned list for 3CB+land is
Meddling Mage
Nezumi Shortfang
The Rack
Black Lotus
Wasteland
Ghost Quarter
Strip Mine
Glacial Chasm
Blackmail
Brain Pry
Coercion
Pulse of the Dross
Thoughtseize
Force of Will
Cabal Therapy
Abandon Hope
Show and Tell
Misguided Rage
The Rack
Form of the Dragon
Balance
Restore Balance
Barren Glory
Mesmeric Fiend
Nezumi Shortfang
Voidstone Gargoyle
Leonin Squire
Magus of the Moon
Unmask
Trinisphere
Removing those cards are either somehow redundant or are in my opinion "obviously fair," we are left with the much shorter list:
Meddling Mage
Nezumi Shortfang
The Rack
Black Lotus
Glacial Chasm
Force of Will
Show and Tell
Form of the Dragon
Balance
I furthermore don't see a reason why Glacial Chasm and Form of the Dragon can't come off the list. Show and Tell remains pretty scary as it is playable turn 1 with Mana Crypt; Force of Will seems format-defining to say the least; and Balance is ridiculous because the third card means you could legally play it in the same deck as Gargadon (say, with Chant?) and go for a pretty resilient lockout turn 3.
Finally, I do think Shortfang loses a lot of its power with the third card in the mix, and could safely come off. So the banned list I propose for the next 3CB+land is
Meddling Mage
The Rack
Black Lotus
Force of Will
Show and Tell
Balance
Not unless you enjoy playing 1CB.
Modern UW Taking Turns
Were other people under the impression that Hymn was a nono in 3CB? Was everyone, except VM4L and myself (those who actually talked about it in the two weeks ago's thread)? More importantly, should it be? Neither of us ran it either time anyway (though given my performance this week I probably should have :P), so maybe it's not an issue?
Woah, really? I need to keep up...
Fattycakes Zombie of Clan Limited
Pretty much, yes. Maybe we just played the format we *wanted*.