Looks like I have enough time to do back to back weekends of the legacy of the weeks. Then I'll need to get back to my Chemistry and Calculus studying.
Here is this week legacy of the week!
I'll be going over a red threshold build that I like to call Red Balanced Gro because of counterbalance and quirion dryads.
I will first start off with some card choices that jump out.
A pair of islands is for to ignore wasteland completely and just drop counterbalance when you want to which is important in just about any matchup outside of big mana curve decks. Also with the extra islands you can safely ignore stifle as well since you can just drop an island and cast either a ponder or brainstorm.
Trygon Predator: Really good against the countertop deck mirror which is everywhere these days. Also a random but useful utility card against those lopsided matchups such as Stax and even Dragon stompy.
Quirion Dryad: Pretty much an alternative to Tarmogoyf and when your able to cast a bunch of cantrips, countermagic, and red spells quirion dryads will become more then just a nuisance for your opponent.
Engineered Explosives: Great against other countertop decks, aggro, and aggro-control decks in general, and gets rid of those enchantments/artifacts that could give you problems.
Pyroclasm: Awesome against tribal decks in general and can be used against random aggro decks as well.
Hydroblast: Good against any deck that runs red.
Price of progress: Steals alot of games on it's own especially with everyone still playing with non-basics in the format.
Krosan Grip: Obviously good against other countertop decks. Also good against survival of the fittest.decs and more.
Red elemental blast/Pyroblast: Great all around card for the format since a big portion of the format is blue based nowadays.
Matchup Analysis(The list of decks where I think are deck to beats at the moment. Of course, there are always some exceptions.):
Faeries: This deck has been appearing like nobodies business in the top 8s recently and so for me I think it's a Deck to watch out for. Generally this is a favorable matchup because of Bolts/fire/ices and a playset of red elemental blasts and a pair of pyroclasms from the board. Counterbalance can be pretty huge here just like against just about any other blue based deck out there.
Landstill: First game could go either way but generally you would want to get down an countertop pretty quickly and try to play with an aggressive hand. Because the later the game goes the stronger Landstill becomes for a fact. Postboard becomes more in your favor since you can board in 4 price of progress to burn them out and red blast is amazing here.
Merfolk: This matchup can be slightly unfavorable for you preboard. They can pretty much obsolete all your countermagic including counterbalance through aether vial. On top of that aether vial makes their standstills much more of a concern for you if they run it. But to counterattack their aether vials you have lightning bolts, fire/ices and along with engineered explosives and so you still have a chance in game 1. Game 2 actually gets much easier for you mostly because of red blasts and pyroclasm. You could also bring in krosan grip for their vials if you want.
Aggro Loam: In game 1 you have a fairly alright chance of winning because getting out countertop ASAP is pretty fundamentally sound when dealing with their life from the loam engine. Postboard, gets much better for you mostly because of price of progress and hydroblasts(for their devastating dreams and burning wish). Also sower of temptation is probably better in this matchup then Engineered explosives is but even that comparison is a toss up.
Ichorid: Impossible matchup for you and the only way to win this matchup is dedicating at least 8 pieces of hate in the sideboard for the matchup. But ichorid isn't really popular so there is no need to butcher your sideboard to have a favorable matchup against ichorid.
Storm Combo(Example: The Epic Storm and Fetchland Tendrils): A entirely favorable matchup for you because of two reasons a fast clock(threats) and cheap but effective countermagic like counterbalance, daze, and force of will. Postboard gets that much better with red elemental blasts since storm combo usually plays brainstorm, ponder, and mystical tutor. All of these blue cards can create massive advantage for them and so it'll be a good idea to counter their spells with your second line of countermagic which is red elemental blast/pyroblasts.
Goblins: Another good matchup for you because of your lightning bolts and fire/ices and postboard obviously gets better with pyroclasm and hydroblast. You can pretty much time walk them right out of the game with a single well-timed pyroclasm while having one or two big threats in play.
Threshold Balanced Mirror: The game can go either way game 1 but it still takes quite a bit of skill to win this matchup especially when your playing against a good player. Obviously red blasts, and krosan grip can give you a huge boost in this matchup. Trygon predator and of course countertop are your friends as well. I particularly like Trygon in this matchup because blowing up opposing counterbalances are always good.
Threshold with Stifles and Wastelands: Another favorable matchup for you because of counterbalance and basic islands. It'll be good to get out threats and cast counterbalance ASAP in this matchup. Postboard gets better with red blasts. Price of progress can also help as well when you want to sneak in that extra 4 to 16 damage for only two mana.
Survival: This matchup is generally favorable for you mostly because of the formentioned counterbalance and you have a well integrated threat suite as well. You also have the ability to burn them out with bolts and fire/ice and postboard you have price of progress which can win games against 3 or 4 color survival decks.
Overall, I have been happy with the list and I think quirion dryad is still decent. Although, I am thinking about sticking sower of temptation back in but for now I think it's fine.
Anyway, that's it for this weeks legacy of the week! Stay tuned until next time!
Oh yeah, Daidream totally beat me all by herself tonight. I was playing a RW Brion Stoutarm deck and she whomped me with White Daidreams (it's in my blog). Her first real win with no help from me.
Oh yeah, Daidream totally beat me all by herself tonight. I was playing a RW Brion Stoutarm deck and she whomped me with White Daidreams (it's in my blog). Her first real win with no help from me.
Seems like your a good teacher then. Also it seems Reveillark is a johnny combo with Brion Stoutarm and a slick combo at that.
My friend Matt and his wife who I consider are pretty close friends to me in person always likes to wait to play against me in casual magic on the weekends. So then Matt's wife always asks me you should teach me on how to play magic better Kevin so I can kick my husband's butt in magic. Of course, I reply laughing and saying well I'll see what I can do.
Well I have been messing around with a casual deck myself. I call it Batman's Destiny Reborn because of 4 Reveillark, 4 figure of Destiny, and 4 Skeletal Vampire.
It's early game is good because of the one casting cost creatures and path to exile. Then it has a pretty slick mid to late game with reveillark, wraths, and skeletal vampires.
Going to the Alara Reborn Prerelease today... should be fun im hoping to open a few hammers and border posts (so as to win as for rares i want Cranial v2, Maelstrom Pulse and/or Blitz Hellion :p)... Heres to hoping i get lucky enough to win this one
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Call me old fashioned, but an evil ascension to power just isn't the same without someone chanting faux Latin in the background.
Oreo, Glazing people better than Dunkin' Donuts since 2009
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange eons even death may die.
Going to the Alara Reborn Prerelease today... should be fun im hoping to open a few hammers and border posts (so as to win as for rares i want Cranial v2, Maelstrom Pulse and/or Blitz Hellion :p)... Heres to hoping i get lucky enough to win this one
Sounds like alot of fun and goodluck Sepiriel. I haven't been to a prerelease since invasion shows how much time I spend on actual magic these days.
@Frozen_Fire: Thanks, my ugr thresh list is pretty awesome and it has been testing pretty well against other countertop threshold lists not just yours. I mean even an average player could probably do well at a tournament with my list since it's pretty consistent and has alot of 1 casting cost and 2 casting cost spells for counterbalance. I definitely have spend the last couple of months testing my red thresh on and off.
So plan change... it seems the product of the guy hosting the PR got hold up in customs... so no PR for me it seems the event will take place next week...
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Call me old fashioned, but an evil ascension to power just isn't the same without someone chanting faux Latin in the background.
Oreo, Glazing people better than Dunkin' Donuts since 2009
That is not dead which can eternal lie. And with strange eons even death may die.
Ok coffee house ppls, I'm back, and I bring my Angelfire deck with me! Please don't suggest new lands, because I'm on a limited budget and have been surprised with what I could find to actually build this deck.
Unless you're really attached to the Keldon Marauders, I'd replace those. It's unfortunate that you don't have Firemane Angels. Serra Avenger is another choice card.
Blinks are nice, but it depends on the type of deck you wanna build. Cryptic Command or another useful counterspell is good.
Hey guys, check out my creation, Tarot: The Gathering. It was a lot of work but it was fun. I'm not 100% done with it. I'm gonna discuss with Daidream about each card's deeper meaning and change the art to match better if needed. A lot of them are just really good or fun pieces.
Ok coffee house ppls, I'm back, and I bring my Angelfire deck with me! Please don't suggest new lands, because I'm on a limited budget and have been surprised with what I could find to actually build this deck.
Looks pretty much like a stock Alacar's Uwr Control. That said, if your playing against a bunch of aggro decks in your casual meta I would be inclined to fit 2 or 3 Teferi's Moats in there somewhere. Cryptic Command might also be pretty good in there as well. Overall, your deck looks awesome and play more lands.;)
Looks pretty much like a stock Alacar's Uwr Control. That said, if your playing against a bunch of aggro decks in your casual meta I would be inclined to fit 2 or 3 Teferi's Moats in there somewhere. Cryptic Command might also be pretty good in there as well. Overall, your deck looks awesome and play more lands.;)
Love,
Cecilia
I don't own any Cryptic Commands or cool lands, is Counterspell or FoW good enough?
I don't own any Cryptic Commands or cool lands, is Counterspell or FoW good enough?
Probably. Counterspell and FOW should be good enough. I am a big fan of Rune Snag as well since it can be somewhat better then mana leak in the mid to late game but mana leak is decent too.
Hey people. Just wanted to stop in and say hey; I feel like I haven't been in here in a while.
Any idea what happened to the new thread? No big deal, it's just that we were going to get a new one and suddenly... didn't.
I'm looking forward to Golden Week, the big holiday here in Japan. I've got one teaching day tomorrow, and then nothing until Thursday of the week after. WOOO! My partner in crime Jeremy has already left on vacation, so I'm covering his classes tomorrow while he's in London visiting the folks.
I'm excited about the break, but for different reasons than you might think. I've only got four teaching weeks left in this job!! Four weeks... it hardly seems real. One of those weeks is only three days long, too, and another will consist of the new teacher shadowing me the whole week. I'm leaving the school, saying goodbye to all my students (which I'm sure will be rough on me) after the first week of June, and my goodbye party is going to be May 31st. I'm still in the midst of planning it, but invitations have already been sent out. I'm going to be using the time off this week and next to look for a job! Hopefully, I'll be able to find something relatively easily, and figure out just exactly where in Japan I'm moving to after the first week of June.
Wow... so many memories I've made here. It hardly seems like it's been a few months, let alone a year and a half. I am super pumped about traveling in June and then going home (HOME!!!!) around the beginning of July, though. It's gonna be a helluva birthday party on July 2nd (my 25th), and again on July 10th (my mother's 50th). My brother's birthday is on the 14th, and my cousin's wedding is the 11th, so I've got more than a few reasons to be home then. I'll be staying for around three weeks, I figure, before going back and enjoying a nice month or two of vacation in Japan and then starting my new job.
Hey everyone. Just stopping in to say hi and that finals are absolutely kicking my ass. I turn 19 on Saturday and I'm really excited about that. I can't believe that my first year of college is already almost over, just 9 days left.
Well, anyway, I made it out to Hobby Japan in Matsue this afternoon. ComiSite didn't have any ARB, but Hobby Japan did! I bought 8 boosters. I was hoping to get a Maelstrom Pulse, but that didn't happen, sadly. Here's what I did get:
The worst part? Out of those... NO - zip, zilch, nada - Qasali Pridemage. That makes me a sad panda.
I'm surprising myself by remembering the new cards, though. I can remember what 90% of the cards I'm looking at do, even though I can't read them. And I did get 2 x Intimidation Bolt, which is awesome.
The card I love most out of what I got? Sigil Captain. I can't believe that guy is an uncommon! Can you say casual G/W mana ramp/ Storm Herd deck with Supply and Sakura-Tribe Elder? I know I can.
Hey guys. Can't talk, but the best card for Sigil Captain? Spectral Procession. BWG loves it, especially with the new Glorious Anthem enchantment they have.
Hey guys. Can't talk, but the best card for Sigil Captain? Spectral Procession. BWG loves it, especially with the new Glorious Anthem enchantment they have.
*Psst* That enchantment requires red.
But yeah, Spectral Procession makes for good times with the Captain. I hear Elpseth doesn't mind having him around either. He actually could be quite nice in Naya aggro as well since there's lots of Naya weenies that he makes much better in the late game, like Wild Nacatl, Druid of the Anima, or even Elvish Visionary.
My prerelease actually went really well. As a Timmy, I generally want to build decks that play the bombs I open. Usually I'm happy with my deck if it can support huge late-game plays and has a decent enough early and mid-game that I can take advantage of the slow format. For some reason, these decks rarely work out well for me. (i.e., my Conflux sealed deck did poorly despite having two Exploding Borders, Sarkhan Vol, Apocalypse Hydra, and Blood Tyrant in it. (I also had a Malfegor in the my pool that I cut just so that I could focus on red-green and not have to support his double-black mana cost.) On the flip side, when I'm not happy with my deck I tend to do better. I felt like my deck was poorly built for the Future Sight prerelease and ended up winning 3/4 of a box.
Well this card pool was a mess for me. I had an nice Esper bomb in Enigma Sphinx but Violent Ultimatum pulled me towards Jund. But Jund had no depth, my deepest color was white but required commiting to green which was also weak. I considered going white-green-blue but I had abo****ely no late game in those colors. Oh, and I had next to no viable mana fixers. I had the Jund triland, a Grixis Obelisk, and a Naya panorama. I ended up deciding to focus primarily on blue-black. It let me run a whole bunch of early drops, while I built mana and splashed a single Plains for the Sphinx and a Glassdust Hulk, and a couple Mountains for Vithian Stinger, Resounding Thunder (which I couldn't cycle), and a couple decent red-black spells. I felt like the deck was a mess, but ended up going 3-1 with it. Out of my two prize packs (last round my opponent and I agreed to split) I pulled a Maelstrom Pulse. So I was happy.
The moral of the story is in this Sealed Deck environment, if your card pool lacks focus and/or mana fixing, run your two-color combination that has the most early creatures. If you can combine that with some removal/tempo cards, you might be able to capitalize on the extra-slowness of this format and win with speed rather than bombs, even if your creatures aren't all that great.
My favorite moment was in the third round. We're on the third game, my opponent is at 9 life and I've got my Sphinx on the board. Unfortunately, I'm at 1 life and my opponent has 7 or 8 weenies on this side. It's my last turn, and I topdeck Infest to completely wipe his board. I'm a little embarassed because I couldn't help but burst into laughter when I drew it, as it was the only card in my deck that would have saved me.
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I considered going white-green-blue but I had abo****ely no late game in those colors.
Way to leave the "o" out of absolutely.
Lucky you, though, pulling the one card I wanted.
I put together a MWS deck with Sigil Captain, and quickly discovered that although his ability is great, usually you want to be playing Spectral Procession on turn three or four. Solution? Cloudgoat Ranger and/or Martial Coup. I just got the ruling on the 'coup, and if you have the Captain out, it does let you wipe the board AND get 15 power worth of tokens. Awesome sauce!
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So I joined up with Planar Chaos. They seem to be the RPG-based clan of the moment.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Magic Coffeehouse!
Come in, sit down, relax, get to know somebody!
Open Three and a Half Years as of October 19, 2009!
Banner by PurpleD and avatar/custom by Tanthalas
Here is this week legacy of the week!
I'll be going over a red threshold build that I like to call Red Balanced Gro because of counterbalance and quirion dryads.
Here is my list:
1 Forest
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
2 Island
Creatures
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Trygon Predator
4 Quirion Dryad
4 Counterbalance
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Fire/Ice
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Daze
2 Pyroclasm
3 Hydroblast
4 Price of Progress
2 Krosan Grip
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
I will first start off with some card choices that jump out.
A pair of islands is for to ignore wasteland completely and just drop counterbalance when you want to which is important in just about any matchup outside of big mana curve decks. Also with the extra islands you can safely ignore stifle as well since you can just drop an island and cast either a ponder or brainstorm.
Trygon Predator: Really good against the countertop deck mirror which is everywhere these days. Also a random but useful utility card against those lopsided matchups such as Stax and even Dragon stompy.
Quirion Dryad: Pretty much an alternative to Tarmogoyf and when your able to cast a bunch of cantrips, countermagic, and red spells quirion dryads will become more then just a nuisance for your opponent.
Engineered Explosives: Great against other countertop decks, aggro, and aggro-control decks in general, and gets rid of those enchantments/artifacts that could give you problems.
Pyroclasm: Awesome against tribal decks in general and can be used against random aggro decks as well.
Hydroblast: Good against any deck that runs red.
Price of progress: Steals alot of games on it's own especially with everyone still playing with non-basics in the format.
Krosan Grip: Obviously good against other countertop decks. Also good against survival of the fittest.decs and more.
Red elemental blast/Pyroblast: Great all around card for the format since a big portion of the format is blue based nowadays.
Matchup Analysis(The list of decks where I think are deck to beats at the moment. Of course, there are always some exceptions.):
Faeries: This deck has been appearing like nobodies business in the top 8s recently and so for me I think it's a Deck to watch out for. Generally this is a favorable matchup because of Bolts/fire/ices and a playset of red elemental blasts and a pair of pyroclasms from the board. Counterbalance can be pretty huge here just like against just about any other blue based deck out there.
Landstill: First game could go either way but generally you would want to get down an countertop pretty quickly and try to play with an aggressive hand. Because the later the game goes the stronger Landstill becomes for a fact. Postboard becomes more in your favor since you can board in 4 price of progress to burn them out and red blast is amazing here.
Merfolk: This matchup can be slightly unfavorable for you preboard. They can pretty much obsolete all your countermagic including counterbalance through aether vial. On top of that aether vial makes their standstills much more of a concern for you if they run it. But to counterattack their aether vials you have lightning bolts, fire/ices and along with engineered explosives and so you still have a chance in game 1. Game 2 actually gets much easier for you mostly because of red blasts and pyroclasm. You could also bring in krosan grip for their vials if you want.
Aggro Loam: In game 1 you have a fairly alright chance of winning because getting out countertop ASAP is pretty fundamentally sound when dealing with their life from the loam engine. Postboard, gets much better for you mostly because of price of progress and hydroblasts(for their devastating dreams and burning wish). Also sower of temptation is probably better in this matchup then Engineered explosives is but even that comparison is a toss up.
Ichorid: Impossible matchup for you and the only way to win this matchup is dedicating at least 8 pieces of hate in the sideboard for the matchup. But ichorid isn't really popular so there is no need to butcher your sideboard to have a favorable matchup against ichorid.
Storm Combo(Example: The Epic Storm and Fetchland Tendrils): A entirely favorable matchup for you because of two reasons a fast clock(threats) and cheap but effective countermagic like counterbalance, daze, and force of will. Postboard gets that much better with red elemental blasts since storm combo usually plays brainstorm, ponder, and mystical tutor. All of these blue cards can create massive advantage for them and so it'll be a good idea to counter their spells with your second line of countermagic which is red elemental blast/pyroblasts.
Goblins: Another good matchup for you because of your lightning bolts and fire/ices and postboard obviously gets better with pyroclasm and hydroblast. You can pretty much time walk them right out of the game with a single well-timed pyroclasm while having one or two big threats in play.
Threshold Balanced Mirror: The game can go either way game 1 but it still takes quite a bit of skill to win this matchup especially when your playing against a good player. Obviously red blasts, and krosan grip can give you a huge boost in this matchup. Trygon predator and of course countertop are your friends as well. I particularly like Trygon in this matchup because blowing up opposing counterbalances are always good.
Threshold with Stifles and Wastelands: Another favorable matchup for you because of counterbalance and basic islands. It'll be good to get out threats and cast counterbalance ASAP in this matchup. Postboard gets better with red blasts. Price of progress can also help as well when you want to sneak in that extra 4 to 16 damage for only two mana.
Survival: This matchup is generally favorable for you mostly because of the formentioned counterbalance and you have a well integrated threat suite as well. You also have the ability to burn them out with bolts and fire/ice and postboard you have price of progress which can win games against 3 or 4 color survival decks.
Overall, I have been happy with the list and I think quirion dryad is still decent. Although, I am thinking about sticking sower of temptation back in but for now I think it's fine.
Anyway, that's it for this weeks legacy of the week! Stay tuned until next time!
Love,
Cecilia
Oh yeah, Daidream totally beat me all by herself tonight. I was playing a RW Brion Stoutarm deck and she whomped me with White Daidreams (it's in my blog). Her first real win with no help from me.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Seems like your a good teacher then.
My friend Matt and his wife who I consider are pretty close friends to me in person always likes to wait to play against me in casual magic on the weekends. So then Matt's wife always asks me you should teach me on how to play magic better Kevin so I can kick my husband's butt in magic. Of course, I reply laughing and saying well I'll see what I can do.
Well I have been messing around with a casual deck myself. I call it Batman's Destiny Reborn because of 4 Reveillark, 4 figure of Destiny, and 4 Skeletal Vampire.
It's early game is good because of the one casting cost creatures and path to exile. Then it has a pretty slick mid to late game with reveillark, wraths, and skeletal vampires.
Here is the list:
9 Swamp
8 Plains
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Godless Shrine
4 Reveillark
4 Skeletal Vampire
4 Savannah Lions
4 Serra Avenger
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Damnation
4 Path to Exile
4 Vindicate
3 Wrath of God
Love,
Cecilia
Also, sad news tonight for you all..... Bea Arthur of the Golden Girls died at age 86...
Magic Coffeehouse!
Come in, sit down, relax, get to know somebody!
Open Three and a Half Years as of October 19, 2009!
Banner by PurpleD and avatar/custom by Tanthalas
Going to the Alara Reborn Prerelease today... should be fun im hoping to open a few hammers and border posts (so as to win
Sounds like alot of fun and goodluck Sepiriel. I haven't been to a prerelease since invasion shows how much time I spend on actual magic these days.
@Frozen_Fire: Thanks, my ugr thresh list is pretty awesome and it has been testing pretty well against other countertop threshold lists not just yours. I mean even an average player could probably do well at a tournament with my list since it's pretty consistent and has alot of 1 casting cost and 2 casting cost spells for counterbalance. I definitely have spend the last couple of months testing my red thresh on and off.
Love,
Cecilia
6 Mountain
5 Plains
5 Island
4 Exotic Orchard
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Boros Garrison
4 Lightning Angel
4 Keldon Marauders
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Akroma, Angel of Fury
Artifact: 4
2 Izzet Signet
2 Azorious Signet
3 Ajani Vegeant
1 Jace Beleren
Sorcery: 4
4 Compulsive Research
Instant: 16
4 Momentary Blink
4 Remand
4 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Helix
Thoughts Coffehouse ppls?
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Hey guys, check out my creation, Tarot: The Gathering. It was a lot of work but it was fun.
Omna: Took it down because it only depressed me.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Looks pretty much like a stock Alacar's Uwr Control.
Love,
Cecilia
I don't own any Cryptic Commands or cool lands, is Counterspell or FoW good enough?
Probably. Counterspell and FOW should be good enough. I am a big fan of Rune Snag as well since it can be somewhat better then mana leak in the mid to late game but mana leak is decent too.
Love,
Cecilia
Any idea what happened to the new thread? No big deal, it's just that we were going to get a new one and suddenly... didn't.
I'm looking forward to Golden Week, the big holiday here in Japan. I've got one teaching day tomorrow, and then nothing until Thursday of the week after. WOOO! My partner in crime Jeremy has already left on vacation, so I'm covering his classes tomorrow while he's in London visiting the folks.
I'm excited about the break, but for different reasons than you might think. I've only got four teaching weeks left in this job!! Four weeks... it hardly seems real. One of those weeks is only three days long, too, and another will consist of the new teacher shadowing me the whole week. I'm leaving the school, saying goodbye to all my students (which I'm sure will be rough on me) after the first week of June, and my goodbye party is going to be May 31st. I'm still in the midst of planning it, but invitations have already been sent out. I'm going to be using the time off this week and next to look for a job! Hopefully, I'll be able to find something relatively easily, and figure out just exactly where in Japan I'm moving to after the first week of June.
Wow... so many memories I've made here. It hardly seems like it's been a few months, let alone a year and a half. I am super pumped about traveling in June and then going home (HOME!!!!) around the beginning of July, though. It's gonna be a helluva birthday party on July 2nd (my 25th), and again on July 10th (my mother's 50th). My brother's birthday is on the 14th, and my cousin's wedding is the 11th, so I've got more than a few reasons to be home then. I'll be staying for around three weeks, I figure, before going back and enjoying a nice month or two of vacation in Japan and then starting my new job.
How is everyone else doing?
5 posts in three days...?? Whoa.
Well, anyway, I made it out to Hobby Japan in Matsue this afternoon. ComiSite didn't have any ARB, but Hobby Japan did! I bought 8 boosters. I was hoping to get a Maelstrom Pulse, but that didn't happen, sadly. Here's what I did get:
The worst part? Out of those... NO - zip, zilch, nada - Qasali Pridemage. That makes me a sad panda.
I'm surprising myself by remembering the new cards, though. I can remember what 90% of the cards I'm looking at do, even though I can't read them. And I did get 2 x Intimidation Bolt, which is awesome.
The card I love most out of what I got? Sigil Captain. I can't believe that guy is an uncommon! Can you say casual G/W mana ramp/ Storm Herd deck with Supply and Sakura-Tribe Elder? I know I can.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
*Psst* That enchantment requires red.
But yeah, Spectral Procession makes for good times with the Captain. I hear Elpseth doesn't mind having him around either. He actually could be quite nice in Naya aggro as well since there's lots of Naya weenies that he makes much better in the late game, like Wild Nacatl, Druid of the Anima, or even Elvish Visionary.
My prerelease actually went really well. As a Timmy, I generally want to build decks that play the bombs I open. Usually I'm happy with my deck if it can support huge late-game plays and has a decent enough early and mid-game that I can take advantage of the slow format. For some reason, these decks rarely work out well for me. (i.e., my Conflux sealed deck did poorly despite having two Exploding Borders, Sarkhan Vol, Apocalypse Hydra, and Blood Tyrant in it. (I also had a Malfegor in the my pool that I cut just so that I could focus on red-green and not have to support his double-black mana cost.) On the flip side, when I'm not happy with my deck I tend to do better. I felt like my deck was poorly built for the Future Sight prerelease and ended up winning 3/4 of a box.
Well this card pool was a mess for me. I had an nice Esper bomb in Enigma Sphinx but Violent Ultimatum pulled me towards Jund. But Jund had no depth, my deepest color was white but required commiting to green which was also weak. I considered going white-green-blue but I had abo****ely no late game in those colors. Oh, and I had next to no viable mana fixers. I had the Jund triland, a Grixis Obelisk, and a Naya panorama. I ended up deciding to focus primarily on blue-black. It let me run a whole bunch of early drops, while I built mana and splashed a single Plains for the Sphinx and a Glassdust Hulk, and a couple Mountains for Vithian Stinger, Resounding Thunder (which I couldn't cycle), and a couple decent red-black spells. I felt like the deck was a mess, but ended up going 3-1 with it. Out of my two prize packs (last round my opponent and I agreed to split) I pulled a Maelstrom Pulse. So I was happy.
The moral of the story is in this Sealed Deck environment, if your card pool lacks focus and/or mana fixing, run your two-color combination that has the most early creatures. If you can combine that with some removal/tempo cards, you might be able to capitalize on the extra-slowness of this format and win with speed rather than bombs, even if your creatures aren't all that great.
My favorite moment was in the third round. We're on the third game, my opponent is at 9 life and I've got my Sphinx on the board. Unfortunately, I'm at 1 life and my opponent has 7 or 8 weenies on this side. It's my last turn, and I topdeck Infest to completely wipe his board. I'm a little embarassed because I couldn't help but burst into laughter when I drew it, as it was the only card in my deck that would have saved me.
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Lucky you, though, pulling the one card I wanted.
I put together a MWS deck with Sigil Captain, and quickly discovered that although his ability is great, usually you want to be playing Spectral Procession on turn three or four. Solution? Cloudgoat Ranger and/or Martial Coup. I just got the ruling on the 'coup, and if you have the Captain out, it does let you wipe the board AND get 15 power worth of tokens. Awesome sauce!