I know it's been a while since I've been an active poster here...upwards of 6 months and more. But I haven't really had much of a reason to "bid farewell" to the community here, I just sort of, well, wasn't active. But now, I'm finding it to be the right time to say goodbye to this game for a while...perhaps for good.
I'm just returning from States in Edison, NJ. I went 2-3 with 5-Color Control. And it's been a year's journey for me. Last year at States I played Teachings and lost 4 straight games to be eliminated. That dropped my rating to 1540. So I resolved to do something. I was going to, for a year, try to improve as much as possible.
So I did. I played decks more suited to my strengths. I playtested more. I tried not to be so arrogant and kept my mind open to the ideas of my peers. I also played with a more competitive group. I learned a lot. And I got a lot better, too. From that day, to today, I raised my Constructed rating almost 300 points and I got better at Limited, too. But I learned a bigger life lesson, and that is, don't overestimate yourself. And after going loss, loss, win, win, loss, I've learned that that message still resonates today.
In the past year, I didn't win any PTQ's. Heck, I didn't top 8 any. But I was just trying to get better and I did. This game has provided me so much enjoyment and it's even made me smarter. And it's felt good to pick up something, and in 3 and a half years, come so far.
So while the old crowd I used to consort with may not be around, I'd like to say goodbye. Magic will always be a fond memory for me, and MTGS was part of that for more than half my Magic "career."
For those interested, I'm going to write up a piece on my Magic career. It doesn't have tournament-winning reports above FNM or anything like that, but maybe it will be able to teach you something.
I'll be on for the next few days looking for messages and PM's, so let me know if you'd like a copy.
This deck is actually very good, beceause one Rage Forger is often game ending for many decks. Faeries cannot beat this deck. However, you can't beat Kithkin or Doran.
having the red deck with no board, no hand, rip the burn spell off the top was relatively annoying in t8.. i'm almost certain i would have won if i got past the red deck... kithkin is a manageable matchup... and the mirror? I think i'm like 16-4 vs mirror... bleh.. oh well.. maryland.. then if necessary.. nj over the next 2 wkends... bleh...
So I take it this is Morgan? Yeah, rough beats. Not lke Faeries is expected to beat red, though.
Kithkin over Kithkin
Faeries over Quick 'N Toast (old)
3c Red over Faeries
Kithkin over Faeries
T4
Faeries over Kithkin
Faeries over Mono-Red
T2
obv...
Josh Taylor was the winner, 2-1. Jonathan Sukenik, a very good friend of mine and the best player in NJ that few people know, placed second and should have won game 2 up a game, but he didn't play around his opponent's second Mistbind Clique as opposed to playing around Vendilion Clique and Scion of Oona.
Yeah, Philly was highly concentrated with Red, Doran, and Kithkin, but none of those made a big splash. Ian Duke played against the BW deck in the top 8 (he played Faeries) and got absolutely annihilated game 1, I'm really interested to see that BW list.
Like it or leave it. That's life. Challenge yourself to make a deck that doesn't require those things. Build Kithkin without vaults. There's a solution. It won't be that much of a loss, in fact you may get a more consistent manabase. Can't have your cake & eat it too.
Faeries is waaaaay too good not to play. If you're good enough to pilot Quick N' Toast well, then you probably have a 50/50 against Faeries and all the good players agree that those capable of piloting Toast should play Faeries, which in the hands of a good player, beats almost everything.
Mind Shatter is a good pick, as they aren't running that much countermagic, all you really do is float a bunch to play around Broken Ambitions and also watch for Cryptic Command.
Also trainswalker, ferrando didn't win, he lost to elves.
Uh, are you sure? There were only two Elves decks in the top 8 and one was piloted by Chris Knecht, the dealer from Kings Games who lost to Martin (winner) and Wade Wojcak, an acquaintaince of mine...who lost to B/R Tokens...and that was ferrando i thought?
1: Merfolk (German guy mentioned above)
2-4 2 B/R Tokens (one of the was Matt Ferrando), Quick 'N Toast (Rob Seder)
5-8: (Lark, 2 Elves, NY RG)
It was a good tourney for the most part. Best moment of the day was seeing my friend play one of the most masterful games of Magic of all time, dealing 14 damage using one red mana (he played Swath Storm, and was at 2 life under Manabarbs). The next round he beat a kid who punted playing quick n toast (this was round 7) and the kid started crying. lol...
This deck is very solid, but it needs more game against Reveillark. I was thinking of adding Wheel of Sun and Moon and possibly Fulminator Mage in the board because right now the board is a bit out-of-date as it really has nothing against Lark. Big mana is also not a great matchup as Zbi said. In my opinion, if you're planning on winning Regionals, you really need to have a good game against Reveillark. Odds are you will only see it once or twice, but you can only have one loss in a Regionals tournament. Scooping to Lark gives no margin for error and there is an incredibly small minority of players on this site who can afford to do that. By incredibly small minority I mean probably Lesurgo and his ilk...so you better come prepared for lark.
This deck actually doesn't seem terribly hard to pilot...if you look carefully and abstractly, you can see that what it is is basically a Mannequin deck, only slightly greedier as far as spells and colors go. I can't wait to play this monstrosity.
I know it's been a while since I've been an active poster here...upwards of 6 months and more. But I haven't really had much of a reason to "bid farewell" to the community here, I just sort of, well, wasn't active. But now, I'm finding it to be the right time to say goodbye to this game for a while...perhaps for good.
I'm just returning from States in Edison, NJ. I went 2-3 with 5-Color Control. And it's been a year's journey for me. Last year at States I played Teachings and lost 4 straight games to be eliminated. That dropped my rating to 1540. So I resolved to do something. I was going to, for a year, try to improve as much as possible.
So I did. I played decks more suited to my strengths. I playtested more. I tried not to be so arrogant and kept my mind open to the ideas of my peers. I also played with a more competitive group. I learned a lot. And I got a lot better, too. From that day, to today, I raised my Constructed rating almost 300 points and I got better at Limited, too. But I learned a bigger life lesson, and that is, don't overestimate yourself. And after going loss, loss, win, win, loss, I've learned that that message still resonates today.
In the past year, I didn't win any PTQ's. Heck, I didn't top 8 any. But I was just trying to get better and I did. This game has provided me so much enjoyment and it's even made me smarter. And it's felt good to pick up something, and in 3 and a half years, come so far.
So while the old crowd I used to consort with may not be around, I'd like to say goodbye. Magic will always be a fond memory for me, and MTGS was part of that for more than half my Magic "career."
For those interested, I'm going to write up a piece on my Magic career. It doesn't have tournament-winning reports above FNM or anything like that, but maybe it will be able to teach you something.
I'll be on for the next few days looking for messages and PM's, so let me know if you'd like a copy.
So take care everybody.
-Dave, a.k.a. Trainswalker09
So I take it this is Morgan? Yeah, rough beats. Not lke Faeries is expected to beat red, though.
Kithkin over Kithkin
Faeries over Quick 'N Toast (old)
3c Red over Faeries
Kithkin over Faeries
T4
Faeries over Kithkin
Faeries over Mono-Red
T2
obv...
Josh Taylor was the winner, 2-1. Jonathan Sukenik, a very good friend of mine and the best player in NJ that few people know, placed second and should have won game 2 up a game, but he didn't play around his opponent's second Mistbind Clique as opposed to playing around Vendilion Clique and Scion of Oona.
Kithkin is everywhere now.
Uh, are you sure? There were only two Elves decks in the top 8 and one was piloted by Chris Knecht, the dealer from Kings Games who lost to Martin (winner) and Wade Wojcak, an acquaintaince of mine...who lost to B/R Tokens...and that was ferrando i thought?
The NJ top 4 was like this:
1: Merfolk (German guy mentioned above)
2-4 2 B/R Tokens (one of the was Matt Ferrando), Quick 'N Toast (Rob Seder)
5-8: (Lark, 2 Elves, NY RG)
It was a good tourney for the most part. Best moment of the day was seeing my friend play one of the most masterful games of Magic of all time, dealing 14 damage using one red mana (he played Swath Storm, and was at 2 life under Manabarbs). The next round he beat a kid who punted playing quick n toast (this was round 7) and the kid started crying. lol...
This deck actually doesn't seem terribly hard to pilot...if you look carefully and abstractly, you can see that what it is is basically a Mannequin deck, only slightly greedier as far as spells and colors go. I can't wait to play this monstrosity.