Good to hear from you Promatim. Hit me up on MTGO sometime and I can throw a draft pack your way. I think BFZ is pretty awesome so far and is not to be missed, could be an all time great in my opinion.
The GP was a great time, I actually posted a full write up here if anyone cares to check it out: Cardoc's write up
Interesting, thanks for the feedback FTW. I can honestly say I did not consider playing the Blademaster on Friday night, perhaps I'm underestimating his effect. Nor did I really consider Naya allies on Saturday, perhaps I was mistaken there. I think the same thing affected my decision making both days on what deck I registered. Part of the problem with allies is that you really need to experience them in action before you can fully understand how good and/or bad they are. To date I have very little experience running a significant ally theme, but the devoid cards seem much more straightforward and "felt" better. Looking back I think the ally build was probably the stronger build for the GP main event, and I absolutely felt the absence of some of the key devoid enablers you mention above. The devoid deck felt good, but not great, and there was always that intangible sense that I was just missing one or two key cards to really make it hum.
As a counter example, below is a deck I drafted at the GP today which took me to a 3-0. It's another R/U devoid deck with a lot more of the synergies you're looking for in the archetype. Although to be fair, it's easier to build these synergies into a draft deck than a sealed, and I also had a couple of nice bombs in this draft with the Guardian and Ugin's Insight.
Hello all. It's been some time since I posted here regularly but I thought I'd take the time to write up a report on the GP for everyone. It's a hometown event for me and, as someone who only plays limited, I was pretty excited to see it posted on the GP schedule all those months ago. Read on for the full report.
General Stuff
I found the event to be incredibly well organized and run. Parking was plentiful and not overpriced, and there seemed to be more than adequate judges and support staff available do answer questions and direct you to where you needed to be. Things were run efficiently and on time, vendor space was plentiful with lots of options, multiple food vendors available and just generally a very well put together event. Kudos to Steve Port on what (for now) is his last major Magic event he is running. I hope you enjoy all the Shrines for your Loyal Legions (one local vendor had collected hundreds of the card for people to sign and gift to Steve for his years of running these awesome events in the area).
Friday Afternoon
I rolled up to the Alliant Energy Center about 1pm, an hour after doors opened. The plan was to jump in as many sealed grinders as possible to get more familiar with the format (I'd only played the prerelease to date, plus a number of practice sealed pool builds and self testing) and hopefully earn some byes. About 20 minutes after arriving Grinder #3 fired and it was time to build.
The pool had some obviously powerful cards and a lot of removal, plus good fixing. The challenge was in figuring out how to maximize that potential and determining which colors were deep enough for me to run as main and what, if any, I would be able to splash. My build is below.
Without diving too deep into my deck building thoughts, I settled on G/W with the red splash as I thought it gave me the best mix of removal and strong creatures that would be tough to deal with. It allowed me to play my biggest bombs in Quarantine Field and the Hydra, and splashing for red allowed me to bring in four more removal spells for a total of seven. I considered a blue splash for the power of Drowner of Hope and a few other cards, but in the end decided red was just the better option. I already had enough late game so I didn't really need Drowner, and the extra kill spells would allow me more early interaction. With double Evolving Wilds and Pilgrim's Eye I had plenty of fixing to consistently have the colors of land I needed.
I only listed the sideboard cards that I actually used. Plummet obviously came in against heavy flyer decks, the other cards were brought in to help me against highly aggressive decks. Although I list Looming Spires I never played it. I decided against running a tap-land in my splash color especially given that all my red spells were removal. I thought the odds were too high that I'd want to tap for red mana on the same turn I drew a red land, and the minor upside Spires bring wasn't worth the dip in consistency.
Match One vs. WB
First round I paired up against a gentleman named Jeremy from Illinois. We was running a white/black deck without any major themes or synergies (that I saw) but some solid beaters and a few clutch removal spells as well. We traded to a life totals even at 14-14 game one until I landed a Quarantine Field for X=3, and I cleaned up the game quickly thereafter. Game two he whittled me down with Culling Drone, Ondu Greathorn and Kor Entanglers until I started getting my removal online. Stasis Snare on his Deathless Behemoth and some red burn put me out in front and I took down the match 2-0.
Game one was a very solid back and forth affair. I was able to deal with some of his big eldrazi and thought I had things stabilized with life totals at 6-2 in my favor, and I think I had lethal on my next turn. But I missed the on board kill staring me in the face with his Ruin Processor and Coralhelm Guide on the table. I merely forgot about the Guide's activated ability and died on Billy's next turn. I kicked myself pretty hard as I had the removal available to kill the Guide but used it elsewhere. I chalked it up to still getting used to the new cards and shuffled up for game two.
Game two I saw Billy's Dragonmaster Outcast for the first time, and had to kill it twice as he brought it back with Mortuary Mire (although I never saw a black spell) and was mostly able to keep him off his other big stuff while I consistently beat down with green fatties and flyers. I won fairly comfortably. On to game three.
Game three I saw the Dragonmaster Outcast again, which promptly died yet again. A Titan's Presence revealing Bane of Bala Ged killed one of my early beaters, but Billy couldn't manage to get much offensive action going beyond a Nettle Drone (which did ping me for 6 over the game) and I simply beat him down with fatties and flyers.
2-0 Matches, 4-1 Games
Match Three vs UBR
Round three was vs. Andy who had a bunch of small devoid creatures and some serious ingest action. He came in quite aggressive in each game and got me pretty low every time but eventually my creatures just were too much bigger than his and my removal took it home. Quarantine Field came down for X=3 in both games to seal the deal.
3-0 Matches, 6-1 Games
Match Four vs. BWU
Match four was vs. Jason, who had just won a nail biter of a game three the round before. Quick side note before I dive into our match: I was very happy to be facing Jason rather than his previous round opponent. The guy he had just defeated (in a game which went to turns, Jason winning on higher life totals by a single life point thanks to an Ondu Rising assisted alpha strike) had maybe the scariest BFZ sealed deck I think I'll ever see. A ridiculous number of bombs and efficient value cards, I was happy to see him eliminated by Jason who proved himself a very talented and technical player.
Jason had a blue/white awakening theme going on with a black splash for some removal. Game one was incredibly close with him having an aggressive start with Kor Bladewhirl, Shadow Glider, and Incubator Drone and an Eldrazi Skyspawner. I traded where I could and killed some others and felt way ahead at one point with a high life total with him down to 7, but Ondu Rising brought Jason back up to 18. I baited out his Spell Shrivel which I had seen him play earlier with Tajuru Beastmaster and resolved the Hydra on the following turn which effectively ended his attack. After stabilizing at 2 life on my side I was able to take him down from 18 to dead in short order by landing another Quarantine Field for X=3.
Game two was not as close as game one. Jason had Complete Disregard and Smite the Monstrous to deal with a couple of my cards, but only played 3-4 creatures which my removal easily dealt with and/or was just simply outclassed by my fatties. All of a sudden I was on to the finals.
4-0 Matches, 8-2 Games.
Match Five vs. UBG
The final round was against Tyler, who had made the trip all the way from Australia and is playing in the Pro Tour in Milwaukee next weekend. Game one we actually kind of stared each other down for a while as neither of us could get in profitable attacks past the first turn or two. The board built up until I resolved Breaker of Armies, which died on it's attack, but successfully opened things up for all my other creatures to beat down. I actually ended the game at over 20 life.
Game two was kind of the opposite as Tyler had a much smoother draw with a number of aggressive creatures backed up by removal and Rush of Ice. I couldn't muster much of a defense nor could I find the removal to deal with his threats. Time for game three.
And here the pendulum swung back the other way as I curved out hard and pressured Tyler early. I actually got stuck on 5 lands for several turns with only a single Plains, leaving me unable to cast either the Beastmaster or Quarantine Field in my hand that would have allowed me to end the game on the spot. Instead I had to chip him down 4-5 life at a time. On the turn where I had lethal anyway I drew my second Plains and cast the field fro X=2 to seal the deal. Victorious!
5-0 Matches, 10-3 Games
It goes without saying, but Quarantine Field was a house for me. I was fortunate enough to draw it a lot and I never cast if for less than X=2. My deep pool of removal made it hard to ever truly be in trouble and my fixing always got me there for having the right colors. Top it off with a pretty great pool of creatures and the deck just performed as well as it possibly could.
Okay, so labeling all these spoilers as "Pool #1" was just a bit of misdirection to not spoil the fact that I 5-0'd the event, lol. Just like that I had two byes into the GP on Saturday morning, won a sleep-in special (not having to arrive until 11:30 was amazing) plus 36 prize tickets, enough to get a booster box or any number of sweet prizes. Mission accomplished, I actually just went home rather than play in any other events. I wanted to relax and enjoy the evening.
GP Madison - Day One
I woke up around 8 am (that's sleeping in 2 hours for me) and had a relaxing morning at home before heading over to the exhibition hall around 11:00 am. I got seated and handed my preregistered pool almost immediately, with a 30 minute build window. I found my pool to be quite interesting, with what seemed like two very viable decks to build. See below and, please(!), tell me how you would have built it.
I think this pool offered up two pretty strong decks, and I was torn between them. I focused on either a U/R devoid deck or a W/R allies deck. For the sack of comparison here is how I was looking to build the two competing decks:
Once again only the most relevant sideboard cards are listed, and those who were competing for slots in the deck but may never actually have been sided in.
I went for the light splash on this deck as I thought the added power black brings outweighed the loss in consistency. Some extra evasive creatures, a kill spell and the very sweet Wasteland Strangler seemed like they'd make up for the fact that I may miss on mana every now and then. The fixing wasn't amazing, but I did have one Evolving Wilds to help get there.
Revisiting this build now I'm not so certain the splash is correct (and I wasn't at the time either) but I'd probably do it again. One thing I am convinced was a mistake with this build was running Tightening Coils over Rush of Ice. I think I underestimated the power of casting Rush for it's awaken cost and honestly it was a little blind spot for me while building. I've had good experiences with Coils and basically decided early that it was definitely in the deck when it probably should have only come in from the board.
This seemed like a very synergistic ally build with some very nice high end allies in Blademaster, Angelic Captain, Hero and Entanglers, along with some of the premier low end allies like Bladewhirl and Chasm Guide. There is no doubt that when this deck was hitting its synergies it would be pretty tough to stop. I did have a few concerns with this deck, however.
First, it is an aggro deck and aggro decks require high amounts of consistency. This is something that is very difficult to pull off in sealed and I was afraid this deck wouldn't get there as it is a bit low on the creature count. 14 (15 with Unified Front) is normally just fine, but aggro decks want to be hitting their creature drops damn near every turn and this deck couldn't afford to miss a 3-drop or a 4-drop. In fact, this deck has no 3-drops. It does top out at 5 mana, which made me feel like I could push the land count to 17 (even with the splash) but it has six 5-drops. I just don't know if my aggressive deck wants it's deepest point in the curve to also be the top of it's curve. Perhaps with more experience with allies I would know the answers to these questions a bit more.
Another concern I had was the fact that one of my best cards, Radiant Flames, it is actually pretty weak in this deck. A 2-point Flames kills six (7 with Unified Front) of my own creatures, and a 3-point Flames kills 12 of my creatures. That is 80% of my creature count. I envisioned Flames as either being a dead card in my hand, something that would wipe my board as well as his, or only truly good when I was way behind to a bunch of little guys. That last case is quite solid, but overall one of my best cards just felt so underwhelming in an aggro deck.
In the end I registered the devoid deck as my main, but sleeved up the allies deck as well for a quick sideboard makeover should the matchup seem favorable to it. However I ultimately never ended up making the switch, and just jammed the devoid deck all day. Here is a breakdown of how my matches went:
Round Three vs. WU
Round Three I played Oliver, a young kid who came in from New York for the event. He arrived just in the nick of time before a judge may have awarded a game loss for tardiness. Despite being young Oliver was obviously an experienced player and already had a decent grasp of the format. Game one was a little lackluster as he beat me down with small flyers and Benthic Infiltrators while I sat stuck on three land. Right when I was about to stabilize he finished me off with an Inspired Charge, taking me from 11 life to dead in one attack.
Game two was more of the same from Oliver. Courier Griffin, Shadow Glider, and Kor Castigator kept the pressure up while Roil Spout and Rush of Ice keep me behind in tempo. We are relatively even in life totals when a Lantern Scout pumps him back up to 20. Despite it all I'm making a game of it having taken out a few key creatures with removal and Exert Influence. Things are looking okay for me when I'm facing down a single Shadow Glider slowly eating away my life total and I have 8 live draws to deal with the threat and 5 turns to reach one of them. I promptly draw four straight lands and an irrelevant ground creature on my fifth and final turn.
It was a bit of a frustrating loss given the late game flood, but I thought over the game thoroughly and believe I could have played my removal much differently and a bit more conservatively which would have significantly changed things. Tough to say for sure, but the bottom line is I don't feel I can blame this loss solely on bad draws.
2-1 Matches, 0-2 Games
Round Four vs. WBG Allies
I sat down for Round Four and faced off against Charlie, a very cool guy from Michigan. Charlie was running a pretty solid ally deck, although I wouldn't learn that until game two. Game one I curve out nicely and, although Charlie has plenty of land and all his colors, he really doesn't do anything. I beat him down quickly without taking a single point of damage.
Game two was basically the opposite. I make a sketchy keep of 2 Mountains, 1 Swamp and red spells while Charlie plays out a pretty nuts ally draw that includes Tajuru Warcaller. I thought my draw would get me there but I started drawing all blue spells and never saw blue mana. A strong hand from Charlie combined with my mana issues made it over very quickly. Frustrating, but again it was my decision to keep a dicey hand.
Game three might have been the best game I played all day. Charlie brings the ally beats early with Nirkana Assassin, Warcaller, Tajuru Beastmaster and Hero of Goma Fada. I stabilize with an Exert Influence and a Ruin Processor to get me back up to a comfortable 11 life. The Processor immediately gets Smited but the +5 life has made all the difference and now the tempo is in my favor. I have multiple evasive threats in Benthic Infiltrators, Tide Drifter to help hold the fort and a Wasteland Strangler. I attack with both Infiltrators and the Strangler, he blocks with the Beastmaster as I was hoping and I use Radiant Flames to clear his board, leaving my Infiltrators and Drifter as the only remaining creatures. He has removal for one Infiltrator, but I add Skyspawner to the board. He promptly kills it and I'm beating in with a single Infiltrator. Charlie lands a Kalastria Nightwatch while I chip away one life at a time. He swings in with the Nightwatch, a free attack essentially, and I block with the 0/5 as there is no reason not to. He either has the trick or he doesn't, no need to give up four life for free. Charlie has Gideon's Reproach to kill my 0/5 and now I'm suddenly in trouble as I haven't drawn anything else for several turns. I whittle him down to 2 life while I go to just 1. I continue to brick off the top of my deck and now I have to keep my 1/4 back on defense. Two more irrelevant draws later and it is over.
A fantastic game against a nice guy, but it was a frustrating loss. Just about anything off the top of my deck, including any creature to buy me another turn and the game is mine. Ah well. I just need to go 5-0 from here to make day two, I did it last night didn't I?
2-2 Matches, 1-4 Games
Round Five vs. UW
I was now in elimination mode, as anything more than 2 losses is out for making Day Two of the GP. I face off against Matthew, who drove down from Minneapolis. He is on a White/Blue deck with a lot of flyers and evasive creatures. Game one I curve out with good beats and keep him on the back foot with Exert Influence and Outnumber. He stabilizes and we're at a board stall until I land Breaker of Armies which wipes his board on it's attack and even lives through the attack thanks to the +1 toughness from Tide Drifter. Matthew topdecks creatures for a couple turns to chump the Breaker to stay alive while my other creatures kill him 3-4 life at a time. He never finds an answer to the Breaker and we're on to game two.
Game two I keep another sketchy hand and get punished for it. Once again I keep 2 mountains with red spells, needing a third land of any color to make the hand solid. Matthew lands a turn two Mist Intruder which proceeds to ingest all my land. Every card he hit was a land and I was left drawing spells I couldn't cast, discarding each turn until I just conceded, having never seen a third land. I guess I need to be more cautious on what I'm keeping, especially with the new scry rule in effect.
Game one we trade some damage in the air as we have a ground stand off. He comes in for a big attack and gets me pretty good with Roil's Retribution, the first time I'd seen the 5-mana trick that day. I had been making sure to play around it where possible in earlier matches, but in this particular case I had no choice but to block or let in something like 7 free damage. Despite the mini blowout I'm able to regain the advantage with removal and Exert Influence. Unblockable creatures end up pulling the game out for me on a massive creature board.
Game two I keep a nice hand of Island, Mountain, Swamp + spells. Keith lands Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper while I have a Skyspawner to get in for 2 in the air. I build my ground army up a bit but none can attack through the 4/4 Noyan while he lands a Griffin to hold off Skyspawner. I'm able to kill his Griffin and then have an awakened Rush of Ice on his Noyan to get in for a huge 9 point swing. He lands Oracle of Dust but I have the Exert Influence and that is the game.
4-2 Matches, 4-5 Games
Round Seven vs. UR Devoid
I face off against Thomas who is playing a deck near identical to mine, minus the splash. He has me beat on the consistency of his deck and probably slightly on card quality as well with better ingest/processor synergy and devoid synergy with Ruination Guide.
Game one is a bit of a back and forth affair where we both play our Herald of Kozilek and some support creatures, but his removal suite and synergy is just better than mine. He uses Titan's Presence, Sure Strike and Processor Assault to clear the way of blockers and beats in. I make a game of it with Exert Influence but he has Ruin Processor and yet more removal and closes it out.
Game two I came out with a strong curve and removal of my own, including Exert Influence to steal his Herald and really gain on tempo. We are racing fairly well when I land my own Ruin Processor for +5 life and put myself pretty far ahead. Thomas can't profitably get through after that point despite a Processor of his own and a Ulamog's Despoiler but a big Rush of Ice turn from me seals the deal.
Game three was about as savage of a beating as I've ever received. Thomas started out Salvage Drone followed by Herald of Kozilek, which I matched with my own Herald, and he promptly killed mine in combat with a Sure Strike. My next blocker dies to Titan's Presence which lets him bounce my next blocker with Murk Strider. My re-cast blocker then dies to Processor Assault. Just when I think I've stabilized with a couple of blockers Thomas busts out Rolling Thunder to wipe my board and dome me for 1 for value. Oh, you had that too? Well, good beats then.
I just didn't stand a chance in game three, his draw was the absolute nuts. His devoid deck turned out to be what I could only wish mine was, and the synergy in that last game just simply overwhelmed me. It really opened my eyes to how valuable something like Salvage Drone can be if you have the processor cards to get real value out of his early ingest hits.
4-3 Matches, 5-7 Games
And just like that, my day was done. I considered sticking around to play what amounted to consolation games and trying out the ally deck but in the end I decided to drop and just head home. It was only about 7pm but I had already been at the GP for over 8 hours and was looking forward to just enjoying the rest of my evening doing something other than magic. Of course, when I got home I just immediately began typing this and joined a BFZ draft online.
And that's it for my weekend report. Hope you guys enjoyed the write up, and I'd welcome any feedback on how I built my pools!
Hey guys, I hop in to say hello and see whose still around and all the recent posts are talking about how nobody is here anymore (or at least as much as we all were when Promatim first formed the clan a few years back)! Kind of ironic. My personal involvement on the forums has been extremely minimal lately, mostly due to the fact that I can't access the site from work and find myself too busy for lengthy forum posts at home these days.
But I still think of you guys all the time and I still play! Still limited exclusively and still almost exclusively online.
However! My real reason for checking in here today was to see if anyone is planning on being at GP Madison this weekend? As you may or may not recall Madison is my home town and I'd be very excited to meet any of you. I'll be playing in the main event (a limited GP in my home town, wouldn't miss it for almost anything!) Let me know if anyone is going to be there, please!
Hey clan, I'm throwing this out there very early to allow people plenty of time to plan ahead.
There is a limited Grand Prix in Madison, WI the weekend of Oct 10-11, 2015. I don't know the last time you all checked the "Location" line under my avatar but I just so happen to live in Madison. I obviously plan on playing in the event, and I hope some of you do too! The timing of the GP is pretty sweet as it should be one of the first big tournaments after next year's big fall set of the new block, and there is a Pro Tour just down the road in Milwaukee the following weekend.
I would like to make a legitimate offer to host at my home anyone coming from out of town who needs a place to stay. If you are at all interested or thinking you might attend please PM me and we can discuss. If you plan on being at the event and don't need a place to stay, let me know anyway because I want to meet you! I'm looking forward to the opportunity to show anyone whose never been here around Madison, it is an awesome city.
If anyone is curious or has any questions about the area as the event approaches don't hesitate to ask. As I said, the event is still a long ways off so I plan to make reminder posts as it draws closer and people firm up their plans.
Okay, so I've been inspired to force my own 5 color deck and I'm currently in the middle of the event. (1-0 so far, I'll update when the event is over) I want to post my draftcap for you guys but it's been a looooong time since I last did that and I can't recall where to find the file.
Who can help me find it?
Found my draftcaps and now I have a new dilemma. Either the new MTGO client saves drafts in a different place or I no longer have draftcap selected within the client. I've looked in the client and I can't seem to find where you select the box to record your drafts, any help on this one?
Request: I'd like to see a draftcap and discussion from Sene drafting 5cc and/or Tahn drafting Goblinslide. I'm most interested in a "representative" draft, not necessarily your best 3-0 deck ever. Please show us what a successful draft of the archetype looks like, but not some busted outlier of the form.
Crazy about the cheating thing, but not surprised. In any significantly competitive endeavor there will be people looking for unfair advantages.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who found sealed to be frustrating. It is usually my strongest format (and I absolutely cleaned up in Theros sealed) but I found myself losing a lot in Khans sealed and it often felt out of my control. Tahn's point that the pre-release with the seeded pack was a better format seems spot on. Since switching to draft I've been doing much better.
I'm in the same boat as Bateleur with the lack of time to draft as much as I'd like. Definitely enjoying draft much more than sealed, I think sealed is much more reliant on your pool than most limited formats.
My personal results remain at both extremes. Other than one Swiss draft where I went 1-2, all of my events have either been winless or undefeated.
That "winning" deck looks... let's be charitable and say "inconsistent".
This is a maddeningly complex limited format, and I think it's still too early (for me anyway) to comment on other decks with a high degree of confidence. I agree that deck looks bad but I'm personally having a hell of a time figuring out what's good in this format. I have a very strong suspicion that a lot of success in this format will boil down to two main things:
Hitting the right land drops on time
Making strong in-game decisions
I feel like the vast majority of the matches I've lost (which has been a lot) have been mostly due to these two issues. Like any format mana screw/flood takes its fair share of games, but the problem is compounded in a heavily multicolor environment with lots of cipt lands. Triple Khans games I've won/lost that were decided by mana issues seem disproportionately large compared to other formats (so far).
The other major factor is the extreme multitude of decisions that need to be made each turn. Just figuring out how to spend your mana pratically requires a spreadsheet at times. Do you play that morph, or spend all your mana to unmorph something already in play, or cast a third non-morph creature straight up, or activate outlast, or leave mana up for your trick/removal? What about his morphs? What does he have mana for, what could they be? Should you attack into them or keep your guys back to block? With the amount of mana available to him what tricks and/or unmorphs can he be representing? The decisions are just endless and I know I've lost quite a few matches simply to being outplayed (or out-guessed).
My initial experience with Khans limited has gone something like this:
4-0 a sealed with Jeskai in my first event (news flash, Jeskai Ascendancy is sweet)
Lose my next 10 straight matches (three sealed events and a draft)
Break the slump by winning the last round of a swiss draft
3-0 my very next draft with Temur
How is that for extremes?
All that being said, the format is a ton of fun and I hope to draft a bunch of it. I'll pass on the sealed format, but draft is sweet. Here is my 3-0 Temur (splash black) deck, it played very well. I've listed most of the morphs at the cmc 3 slot:
I drafted a do nothing U/B cube deck last night, promptly got smoked by a Boros aggro deck in round one then proceeded to have no opponents show up for rounds two or three. Why do people join the swiss queue if they don't intend to play all three rounds?
The GP was a great time, I actually posted a full write up here if anyone cares to check it out: Cardoc's write up
As a counter example, below is a deck I drafted at the GP today which took me to a 3-0. It's another R/U devoid deck with a lot more of the synergies you're looking for in the archetype. Although to be fair, it's easier to build these synergies into a draft deck than a sealed, and I also had a couple of nice bombs in this draft with the Guardian and Ugin's Insight.
1 Kozilek's Sentinel
1 Benthic Infiltrator
2 Eldrazi Skyspawner
2 Nettle Drone
1 Valakut Invoker
1 Vile Aggregate
1 Cloud Manta
1 Incubator Drone
1 Vestige of Emrakul
1 Guardian of Tazeem
1 Kozilek's Channeler
1 Oracle of Dust
3 Outnumber
1 Rush of Ice
1 Coastal Discovery
1 Dampening Pulse
2 Stonefury
1 Ugin's Insight
Land
8 Island
7 Mountain
1 Looming Spires
1 Skyline Cascade
General Stuff
I found the event to be incredibly well organized and run. Parking was plentiful and not overpriced, and there seemed to be more than adequate judges and support staff available do answer questions and direct you to where you needed to be. Things were run efficiently and on time, vendor space was plentiful with lots of options, multiple food vendors available and just generally a very well put together event. Kudos to Steve Port on what (for now) is his last major Magic event he is running. I hope you enjoy all the Shrines for your Loyal Legions (one local vendor had collected hundreds of the card for people to sign and gift to Steve for his years of running these awesome events in the area).
Friday Afternoon
I rolled up to the Alliant Energy Center about 1pm, an hour after doors opened. The plan was to jump in as many sealed grinders as possible to get more familiar with the format (I'd only played the prerelease to date, plus a number of practice sealed pool builds and self testing) and hopefully earn some byes. About 20 minutes after arriving Grinder #3 fired and it was time to build.
Sealed Pool #1
1 Cliffside Lookout
1 Expedition Envoy
1 Felidar Cub
1 Fortified Rampart
1 Kor Castigator
2 Shadow Glider
1 Courier Griffin
1 Ondu Rising
2 Tandem Tactics
1 Encircling Fissure
1 Stasis Snare
1 Retreat to Emeria
1 Smite the Monstrous
1 Inspired Charge
1 Quarantine Field
Blue
1 Salvage Drone
1 Benthic Infiltrator
1 Murk Strider
1 Ulamog's Reclaimer
1 Drowner of Hope
2 Wave-Wing Elemental
1 Clutch of Currents
1 Dispel
1 Anticipate
1 Horribly Awry
1 Tightening Coils
1 Retreat to Coralhelm
1 Spell Shrivel
1 Brilliant Spectrum
1 Dampening Pulse
1 Roilmage's Trick
1 Sludge Crawler
1 Dominator Drone
1 Hagra Sharpshooter
1 Mind Raker
1 Kalastria Nightwatch
1 Bone Splinters
2 Complete Disregard
1 Dutiful Return
1 Mire's Malice
Red
1 Makindi Sliderunner
1 Reckless Cohort
2 Akoum Stonewaker
1 Nettle Drone
1 Belligerent Whiptail
2 Outnumber
1 Boiling Earth
1 Goblin War Paint
1 Touch of the Void
1 Stonefury
Green
1 Scythe Leopard
1 Tajuru Stalwart
1 Broodhunter Wurm
2 Giant Mantis
1 Territorial Baloth
2 Tajuru Beastmaster
1 Oran-Rief Hydra
1 Swell of Growth
1 Infuse with the Elements
1 Nissa's Renewal
Multicolored
1 March from the Tomb
1 Resolute Blademaster
Colorless / Artifacts
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Kozilek's Channeler
1 Ruin Processor
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Slab Hammer
2 Scour from Existence
Land
1 Swamp (foil)
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Looming Spires
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
The pool had some obviously powerful cards and a lot of removal, plus good fixing. The challenge was in figuring out how to maximize that potential and determining which colors were deep enough for me to run as main and what, if any, I would be able to splash. My build is below.
1 Kor Castigator
1 Pilgrim's Eye
2 Shadow Glider
1 Broodhunter Wurm
1 Courier Griffin
2 Giant Mantis
1 Kozilek's Channeler
1 Territorial Baloth
2 Tajuru Beastmaster
1 Oran-Rief Hydra
1 Breaker of Armies
2 Outnumber
1 Encircling Fissure
1 Touch of the Void
1 Stasis Snare
1 Smite the Monstrous
1 Stonefury
1 Quarantine Field
Lands
7 Plains
6 Forest
3 Mountain
2 Evolving Wilds
1 Fortified Rampart
1 Tajuru Stalwart
1 Plummet
1 Tandem Tactics
1 Looming Spires
Without diving too deep into my deck building thoughts, I settled on G/W with the red splash as I thought it gave me the best mix of removal and strong creatures that would be tough to deal with. It allowed me to play my biggest bombs in Quarantine Field and the Hydra, and splashing for red allowed me to bring in four more removal spells for a total of seven. I considered a blue splash for the power of Drowner of Hope and a few other cards, but in the end decided red was just the better option. I already had enough late game so I didn't really need Drowner, and the extra kill spells would allow me more early interaction. With double Evolving Wilds and Pilgrim's Eye I had plenty of fixing to consistently have the colors of land I needed.
I only listed the sideboard cards that I actually used. Plummet obviously came in against heavy flyer decks, the other cards were brought in to help me against highly aggressive decks. Although I list Looming Spires I never played it. I decided against running a tap-land in my splash color especially given that all my red spells were removal. I thought the odds were too high that I'd want to tap for red mana on the same turn I drew a red land, and the minor upside Spires bring wasn't worth the dip in consistency.
First round I paired up against a gentleman named Jeremy from Illinois. We was running a white/black deck without any major themes or synergies (that I saw) but some solid beaters and a few clutch removal spells as well. We traded to a life totals even at 14-14 game one until I landed a Quarantine Field for X=3, and I cleaned up the game quickly thereafter. Game two he whittled me down with Culling Drone, Ondu Greathorn and Kor Entanglers until I started getting my removal online. Stasis Snare on his Deathless Behemoth and some red burn put me out in front and I took down the match 2-0.
1-0 Matches, 2-0 Games
Match Two vs. RU
Round two I paired off against Billy, who had bused in all the way from New York. He had a fairly nasty red/blue deck featuring some serious bombs in double Deathless Behemoth, Dragonmaster Outcast, Bane of Bala Ged, and some serious blowout cards like Brutal Expulsion and Turn Against.
Game one was a very solid back and forth affair. I was able to deal with some of his big eldrazi and thought I had things stabilized with life totals at 6-2 in my favor, and I think I had lethal on my next turn. But I missed the on board kill staring me in the face with his Ruin Processor and Coralhelm Guide on the table. I merely forgot about the Guide's activated ability and died on Billy's next turn. I kicked myself pretty hard as I had the removal available to kill the Guide but used it elsewhere. I chalked it up to still getting used to the new cards and shuffled up for game two.
Game two I saw Billy's Dragonmaster Outcast for the first time, and had to kill it twice as he brought it back with Mortuary Mire (although I never saw a black spell) and was mostly able to keep him off his other big stuff while I consistently beat down with green fatties and flyers. I won fairly comfortably. On to game three.
Game three I saw the Dragonmaster Outcast again, which promptly died yet again. A Titan's Presence revealing Bane of Bala Ged killed one of my early beaters, but Billy couldn't manage to get much offensive action going beyond a Nettle Drone (which did ping me for 6 over the game) and I simply beat him down with fatties and flyers.
2-0 Matches, 4-1 Games
Match Three vs UBR
Round three was vs. Andy who had a bunch of small devoid creatures and some serious ingest action. He came in quite aggressive in each game and got me pretty low every time but eventually my creatures just were too much bigger than his and my removal took it home. Quarantine Field came down for X=3 in both games to seal the deal.
3-0 Matches, 6-1 Games
Match Four vs. BWU
Match four was vs. Jason, who had just won a nail biter of a game three the round before. Quick side note before I dive into our match: I was very happy to be facing Jason rather than his previous round opponent. The guy he had just defeated (in a game which went to turns, Jason winning on higher life totals by a single life point thanks to an Ondu Rising assisted alpha strike) had maybe the scariest BFZ sealed deck I think I'll ever see. A ridiculous number of bombs and efficient value cards, I was happy to see him eliminated by Jason who proved himself a very talented and technical player.
Jason had a blue/white awakening theme going on with a black splash for some removal. Game one was incredibly close with him having an aggressive start with Kor Bladewhirl, Shadow Glider, and Incubator Drone and an Eldrazi Skyspawner. I traded where I could and killed some others and felt way ahead at one point with a high life total with him down to 7, but Ondu Rising brought Jason back up to 18. I baited out his Spell Shrivel which I had seen him play earlier with Tajuru Beastmaster and resolved the Hydra on the following turn which effectively ended his attack. After stabilizing at 2 life on my side I was able to take him down from 18 to dead in short order by landing another Quarantine Field for X=3.
Game two was not as close as game one. Jason had Complete Disregard and Smite the Monstrous to deal with a couple of my cards, but only played 3-4 creatures which my removal easily dealt with and/or was just simply outclassed by my fatties. All of a sudden I was on to the finals.
4-0 Matches, 8-2 Games.
Match Five vs. UBG
The final round was against Tyler, who had made the trip all the way from Australia and is playing in the Pro Tour in Milwaukee next weekend. Game one we actually kind of stared each other down for a while as neither of us could get in profitable attacks past the first turn or two. The board built up until I resolved Breaker of Armies, which died on it's attack, but successfully opened things up for all my other creatures to beat down. I actually ended the game at over 20 life.
Game two was kind of the opposite as Tyler had a much smoother draw with a number of aggressive creatures backed up by removal and Rush of Ice. I couldn't muster much of a defense nor could I find the removal to deal with his threats. Time for game three.
And here the pendulum swung back the other way as I curved out hard and pressured Tyler early. I actually got stuck on 5 lands for several turns with only a single Plains, leaving me unable to cast either the Beastmaster or Quarantine Field in my hand that would have allowed me to end the game on the spot. Instead I had to chip him down 4-5 life at a time. On the turn where I had lethal anyway I drew my second Plains and cast the field fro X=2 to seal the deal. Victorious!
5-0 Matches, 10-3 Games
It goes without saying, but Quarantine Field was a house for me. I was fortunate enough to draw it a lot and I never cast if for less than X=2. My deep pool of removal made it hard to ever truly be in trouble and my fixing always got me there for having the right colors. Top it off with a pretty great pool of creatures and the deck just performed as well as it possibly could.
Okay, so labeling all these spoilers as "Pool #1" was just a bit of misdirection to not spoil the fact that I 5-0'd the event, lol. Just like that I had two byes into the GP on Saturday morning, won a sleep-in special (not having to arrive until 11:30 was amazing) plus 36 prize tickets, enough to get a booster box or any number of sweet prizes. Mission accomplished, I actually just went home rather than play in any other events. I wanted to relax and enjoy the evening.
GP Madison - Day One
I woke up around 8 am (that's sleeping in 2 hours for me) and had a relaxing morning at home before heading over to the exhibition hall around 11:00 am. I got seated and handed my preregistered pool almost immediately, with a 30 minute build window. I found my pool to be quite interesting, with what seemed like two very viable decks to build. See below and, please(!), tell me how you would have built it.
2 Felidar Cub
1 Kor Bladewhirl
1 Kor Castigator
2 Ghostly Sentinel
1 Hero of Goma Fada
1 Kor Entanglers
1 Lithomancer's Focus
1 Gideon's Reproach
1 Tandem Tactics
1 Inspired Charge
1 Unified Front
Blue
2 Mist Intruder
1 Tide Drifter
2 Benthic Infiltrator
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Cloud Manta
1 Incubator Drone
1 Wave-Wing Elemental
1 Rush of Ice
2 Anticipate
1 Tightening Coils
1 Retreat to Coralhelm
1 Spell Shrivel
1 Brilliant Spectrum
1 Exert Influence
1 Sludge Crawler
2 Culling Drone
1 Malakir Familiar
1 Wasteland Strangler
1 Mind Raker
1 Silent Skimmer
1 Skitterskin
2 Bone Splinters
1 Complete Disregard
2 Dutiful Return
1 Rising Miasma
Red
1 Kozilek's Sentinel
1 Vile Aggregate
1 Chasm Guide
1 Ondu Champion
2 Vestige of Emrakul
1 Outnumber
2 Boiling Earth
1 Goblin War Paint
1 Radiant Flames
1 Volcanic Upheaval
Green
1 Blisterpod
1 Snapping Gnarlid
1 Tajuru Stalwart
1 Broodhunter Wurm
2 Giant Mantis
1 Tajuru Beastmaster
1 Plated Crusher
1 Swell of Growth
1 Natural Connection
1 Unnatural Aggression
1 Infuse with the Elements
Multicolor
1 Grovetender Druids
1 Herald of Kozilek
1 Angelic Captain
1 March fro the Tomb
1 Resolute Blademaster
Colorless / Artifact
1 Ulamog's Despoiler
1 Ruin Processor
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Hedron Blade
1 Scour from Existence
Land
1 Blighted Fen
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Fertile Thicket
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Sandstone Bridge
I think this pool offered up two pretty strong decks, and I was torn between them. I focused on either a U/R devoid deck or a W/R allies deck. For the sack of comparison here is how I was looking to build the two competing decks:
1 Kozilek's Sentinel
1 Tide Drifter
2 Benthic Infiltrator
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Herald of Kozilek
1 Malakir Familiar
1 Vile Aggregate
1 Wasteland Strangler
1 Cloud Manta
1 Incubator Drone
1 Silent Skimmer
2 Vestige of Emrakul
1 Wave-Wing Elemental
1 Ruin Processor
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Outnumber
1 Tightening Coils
1 Complete Disregard
1 Radiant Flames
1 Exert Influence
Lands
7 Mountain
7 Island
2 Swamp
1 Mortuary Mire
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Rush of Ice
2 Burning Earth
1 Spell Shrivel
1 Chasm Guide
1 Ondu Champion
1 Ulamog's Despoiler
1 Scour from Existence
Once again only the most relevant sideboard cards are listed, and those who were competing for slots in the deck but may never actually have been sided in.
I went for the light splash on this deck as I thought the added power black brings outweighed the loss in consistency. Some extra evasive creatures, a kill spell and the very sweet Wasteland Strangler seemed like they'd make up for the fact that I may miss on mana every now and then. The fixing wasn't amazing, but I did have one Evolving Wilds to help get there.
Revisiting this build now I'm not so certain the splash is correct (and I wasn't at the time either) but I'd probably do it again. One thing I am convinced was a mistake with this build was running Tightening Coils over Rush of Ice. I think I underestimated the power of casting Rush for it's awaken cost and honestly it was a little blind spot for me while building. I've had good experiences with Coils and basically decided early that it was definitely in the deck when it probably should have only come in from the board.
2 Felidar Cub
1 Kor Bladewhirl
1 Kor Castigator
1 Chasm Guide
1 Ondu Champion
2 Vestige of Emrakul
1 Angelic Captain
2 Ghostly Sentinel
1 Hero of Goma Fada
1 Kor Entanglers
1 Resolute Blademaster
1 Lithomancer's Focus
1 Outnumber
1 Gideon's Reproach
1 Tandem Tactics
1 Complete Disregard
1 Radiant Flames
1 Inspired Charge
1 Unified Front
1 March from the Tomb
7 Mountain
6 Plain
2 Swamp
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Sandstone Bridge
This seemed like a very synergistic ally build with some very nice high end allies in Blademaster, Angelic Captain, Hero and Entanglers, along with some of the premier low end allies like Bladewhirl and Chasm Guide. There is no doubt that when this deck was hitting its synergies it would be pretty tough to stop. I did have a few concerns with this deck, however.
First, it is an aggro deck and aggro decks require high amounts of consistency. This is something that is very difficult to pull off in sealed and I was afraid this deck wouldn't get there as it is a bit low on the creature count. 14 (15 with Unified Front) is normally just fine, but aggro decks want to be hitting their creature drops damn near every turn and this deck couldn't afford to miss a 3-drop or a 4-drop. In fact, this deck has no 3-drops. It does top out at 5 mana, which made me feel like I could push the land count to 17 (even with the splash) but it has six 5-drops. I just don't know if my aggressive deck wants it's deepest point in the curve to also be the top of it's curve. Perhaps with more experience with allies I would know the answers to these questions a bit more.
Another concern I had was the fact that one of my best cards, Radiant Flames, it is actually pretty weak in this deck. A 2-point Flames kills six (7 with Unified Front) of my own creatures, and a 3-point Flames kills 12 of my creatures. That is 80% of my creature count. I envisioned Flames as either being a dead card in my hand, something that would wipe my board as well as his, or only truly good when I was way behind to a bunch of little guys. That last case is quite solid, but overall one of my best cards just felt so underwhelming in an aggro deck.
In the end I registered the devoid deck as my main, but sleeved up the allies deck as well for a quick sideboard makeover should the matchup seem favorable to it. However I ultimately never ended up making the switch, and just jammed the devoid deck all day. Here is a breakdown of how my matches went:
Round Three I played Oliver, a young kid who came in from New York for the event. He arrived just in the nick of time before a judge may have awarded a game loss for tardiness. Despite being young Oliver was obviously an experienced player and already had a decent grasp of the format. Game one was a little lackluster as he beat me down with small flyers and Benthic Infiltrators while I sat stuck on three land. Right when I was about to stabilize he finished me off with an Inspired Charge, taking me from 11 life to dead in one attack.
Game two was more of the same from Oliver. Courier Griffin, Shadow Glider, and Kor Castigator kept the pressure up while Roil Spout and Rush of Ice keep me behind in tempo. We are relatively even in life totals when a Lantern Scout pumps him back up to 20. Despite it all I'm making a game of it having taken out a few key creatures with removal and Exert Influence. Things are looking okay for me when I'm facing down a single Shadow Glider slowly eating away my life total and I have 8 live draws to deal with the threat and 5 turns to reach one of them. I promptly draw four straight lands and an irrelevant ground creature on my fifth and final turn.
It was a bit of a frustrating loss given the late game flood, but I thought over the game thoroughly and believe I could have played my removal much differently and a bit more conservatively which would have significantly changed things. Tough to say for sure, but the bottom line is I don't feel I can blame this loss solely on bad draws.
2-1 Matches, 0-2 Games
Round Four vs. WBG Allies
I sat down for Round Four and faced off against Charlie, a very cool guy from Michigan. Charlie was running a pretty solid ally deck, although I wouldn't learn that until game two. Game one I curve out nicely and, although Charlie has plenty of land and all his colors, he really doesn't do anything. I beat him down quickly without taking a single point of damage.
Game two was basically the opposite. I make a sketchy keep of 2 Mountains, 1 Swamp and red spells while Charlie plays out a pretty nuts ally draw that includes Tajuru Warcaller. I thought my draw would get me there but I started drawing all blue spells and never saw blue mana. A strong hand from Charlie combined with my mana issues made it over very quickly. Frustrating, but again it was my decision to keep a dicey hand.
Game three might have been the best game I played all day. Charlie brings the ally beats early with Nirkana Assassin, Warcaller, Tajuru Beastmaster and Hero of Goma Fada. I stabilize with an Exert Influence and a Ruin Processor to get me back up to a comfortable 11 life. The Processor immediately gets Smited but the +5 life has made all the difference and now the tempo is in my favor. I have multiple evasive threats in Benthic Infiltrators, Tide Drifter to help hold the fort and a Wasteland Strangler. I attack with both Infiltrators and the Strangler, he blocks with the Beastmaster as I was hoping and I use Radiant Flames to clear his board, leaving my Infiltrators and Drifter as the only remaining creatures. He has removal for one Infiltrator, but I add Skyspawner to the board. He promptly kills it and I'm beating in with a single Infiltrator. Charlie lands a Kalastria Nightwatch while I chip away one life at a time. He swings in with the Nightwatch, a free attack essentially, and I block with the 0/5 as there is no reason not to. He either has the trick or he doesn't, no need to give up four life for free. Charlie has Gideon's Reproach to kill my 0/5 and now I'm suddenly in trouble as I haven't drawn anything else for several turns. I whittle him down to 2 life while I go to just 1. I continue to brick off the top of my deck and now I have to keep my 1/4 back on defense. Two more irrelevant draws later and it is over.
A fantastic game against a nice guy, but it was a frustrating loss. Just about anything off the top of my deck, including any creature to buy me another turn and the game is mine. Ah well. I just need to go 5-0 from here to make day two, I did it last night didn't I?
2-2 Matches, 1-4 Games
Round Five vs. UW
I was now in elimination mode, as anything more than 2 losses is out for making Day Two of the GP. I face off against Matthew, who drove down from Minneapolis. He is on a White/Blue deck with a lot of flyers and evasive creatures. Game one I curve out with good beats and keep him on the back foot with Exert Influence and Outnumber. He stabilizes and we're at a board stall until I land Breaker of Armies which wipes his board on it's attack and even lives through the attack thanks to the +1 toughness from Tide Drifter. Matthew topdecks creatures for a couple turns to chump the Breaker to stay alive while my other creatures kill him 3-4 life at a time. He never finds an answer to the Breaker and we're on to game two.
Game two I keep another sketchy hand and get punished for it. Once again I keep 2 mountains with red spells, needing a third land of any color to make the hand solid. Matthew lands a turn two Mist Intruder which proceeds to ingest all my land. Every card he hit was a land and I was left drawing spells I couldn't cast, discarding each turn until I just conceded, having never seen a third land. I guess I need to be more cautious on what I'm keeping, especially with the new scry rule in effect.
Game three I curve out pretty hard with beaters and ingesters, backed up by Wasteland Strangler, Complete Disregard and Exert Influence for what turns out to be an easy win.
3-2 Matches, 2-5 Games
Round Six vs. WUR flyers
Round Six I paired off against Keith, another traveler from Michigan. Keith was a very nice guy, we chatted a lot and exchanged MTGO handles after the match. His deck had a good amount of flyers in Mist Intruder, Eldrazi Skyspawner, a pair of Wave-Wing Elementals, two Courier Griffins and Angel of Renewal.
Game one we trade some damage in the air as we have a ground stand off. He comes in for a big attack and gets me pretty good with Roil's Retribution, the first time I'd seen the 5-mana trick that day. I had been making sure to play around it where possible in earlier matches, but in this particular case I had no choice but to block or let in something like 7 free damage. Despite the mini blowout I'm able to regain the advantage with removal and Exert Influence. Unblockable creatures end up pulling the game out for me on a massive creature board.
Game two I keep a nice hand of Island, Mountain, Swamp + spells. Keith lands Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper while I have a Skyspawner to get in for 2 in the air. I build my ground army up a bit but none can attack through the 4/4 Noyan while he lands a Griffin to hold off Skyspawner. I'm able to kill his Griffin and then have an awakened Rush of Ice on his Noyan to get in for a huge 9 point swing. He lands Oracle of Dust but I have the Exert Influence and that is the game.
4-2 Matches, 4-5 Games
Round Seven vs. UR Devoid
I face off against Thomas who is playing a deck near identical to mine, minus the splash. He has me beat on the consistency of his deck and probably slightly on card quality as well with better ingest/processor synergy and devoid synergy with Ruination Guide.
Game one is a bit of a back and forth affair where we both play our Herald of Kozilek and some support creatures, but his removal suite and synergy is just better than mine. He uses Titan's Presence, Sure Strike and Processor Assault to clear the way of blockers and beats in. I make a game of it with Exert Influence but he has Ruin Processor and yet more removal and closes it out.
Game two I came out with a strong curve and removal of my own, including Exert Influence to steal his Herald and really gain on tempo. We are racing fairly well when I land my own Ruin Processor for +5 life and put myself pretty far ahead. Thomas can't profitably get through after that point despite a Processor of his own and a Ulamog's Despoiler but a big Rush of Ice turn from me seals the deal.
Game three was about as savage of a beating as I've ever received. Thomas started out Salvage Drone followed by Herald of Kozilek, which I matched with my own Herald, and he promptly killed mine in combat with a Sure Strike. My next blocker dies to Titan's Presence which lets him bounce my next blocker with Murk Strider. My re-cast blocker then dies to Processor Assault. Just when I think I've stabilized with a couple of blockers Thomas busts out Rolling Thunder to wipe my board and dome me for 1 for value. Oh, you had that too? Well, good beats then.
I just didn't stand a chance in game three, his draw was the absolute nuts. His devoid deck turned out to be what I could only wish mine was, and the synergy in that last game just simply overwhelmed me. It really opened my eyes to how valuable something like Salvage Drone can be if you have the processor cards to get real value out of his early ingest hits.
4-3 Matches, 5-7 Games
And just like that, my day was done. I considered sticking around to play what amounted to consolation games and trying out the ally deck but in the end I decided to drop and just head home. It was only about 7pm but I had already been at the GP for over 8 hours and was looking forward to just enjoying the rest of my evening doing something other than magic. Of course, when I got home I just immediately began typing this and joined a BFZ draft online.
And that's it for my weekend report. Hope you guys enjoyed the write up, and I'd welcome any feedback on how I built my pools!
But I still think of you guys all the time and I still play! Still limited exclusively and still almost exclusively online.
However! My real reason for checking in here today was to see if anyone is planning on being at GP Madison this weekend? As you may or may not recall Madison is my home town and I'd be very excited to meet any of you. I'll be playing in the main event (a limited GP in my home town, wouldn't miss it for almost anything!) Let me know if anyone is going to be there, please!
There is a limited Grand Prix in Madison, WI the weekend of Oct 10-11, 2015. I don't know the last time you all checked the "Location" line under my avatar but I just so happen to live in Madison. I obviously plan on playing in the event, and I hope some of you do too! The timing of the GP is pretty sweet as it should be one of the first big tournaments after next year's big fall set of the new block, and there is a Pro Tour just down the road in Milwaukee the following weekend.
I would like to make a legitimate offer to host at my home anyone coming from out of town who needs a place to stay. If you are at all interested or thinking you might attend please PM me and we can discuss. If you plan on being at the event and don't need a place to stay, let me know anyway because I want to meet you! I'm looking forward to the opportunity to show anyone whose never been here around Madison, it is an awesome city.
If anyone is curious or has any questions about the area as the event approaches don't hesitate to ask. As I said, the event is still a long ways off so I plan to make reminder posts as it draws closer and people firm up their plans.
and I can't recall where to find the file.
Who can help me find it?
Found my draftcaps and now I have a new dilemma. Either the new MTGO client saves drafts in a different place or I no longer have draftcap selected within the client. I've looked in the client and I can't seem to find where you select the box to record your drafts, any help on this one?
That is a huge problem for any deck in this format.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who found sealed to be frustrating. It is usually my strongest format (and I absolutely cleaned up in Theros sealed) but I found myself losing a lot in Khans sealed and it often felt out of my control. Tahn's point that the pre-release with the seeded pack was a better format seems spot on. Since switching to draft I've been doing much better.
My personal results remain at both extremes. Other than one Swiss draft where I went 1-2, all of my events have either been winless or undefeated.
This is a maddeningly complex limited format, and I think it's still too early (for me anyway) to comment on other decks with a high degree of confidence. I agree that deck looks bad but I'm personally having a hell of a time figuring out what's good in this format. I have a very strong suspicion that a lot of success in this format will boil down to two main things:
I feel like the vast majority of the matches I've lost (which has been a lot) have been mostly due to these two issues. Like any format mana screw/flood takes its fair share of games, but the problem is compounded in a heavily multicolor environment with lots of cipt lands. Triple Khans games I've won/lost that were decided by mana issues seem disproportionately large compared to other formats (so far).
The other major factor is the extreme multitude of decisions that need to be made each turn. Just figuring out how to spend your mana pratically requires a spreadsheet at times. Do you play that morph, or spend all your mana to unmorph something already in play, or cast a third non-morph creature straight up, or activate outlast, or leave mana up for your trick/removal? What about his morphs? What does he have mana for, what could they be? Should you attack into them or keep your guys back to block? With the amount of mana available to him what tricks and/or unmorphs can he be representing? The decisions are just endless and I know I've lost quite a few matches simply to being outplayed (or out-guessed).
My initial experience with Khans limited has gone something like this:
How is that for extremes?
All that being said, the format is a ton of fun and I hope to draft a bunch of it. I'll pass on the sealed format, but draft is sweet. Here is my 3-0 Temur (splash black) deck, it played very well. I've listed most of the morphs at the cmc 3 slot:
1 Leaping Master
1 Horde Ambusher
1 Rattleclaw Mystic
1 Temur Charger
1 Mistfire Weaver
1 Mystic of the Hidden Way
1 Sagu Archer
1 Abomination of Gudul
1 Wooly Loxodon
1 Savage Knuclkeblade
1 Bear's Companion
1 Riverwheel Aerialists
1 Thousand Winds
1 Singing Bell Strike
1 Trail of Mystery
1 Arc Lightning
1 Temur Charm
1 Burn Away
1 Become Immense
1 Treasure Cruise
2 Dismal Backwater
1 Jungle Hollow
2 Rugged Highlands
1 Thornwood Falls
4 Mountain
4 Forest
4 Island
Trail of Mystery + 9 morphs was pretty epic. I even passed a Wooded Foothills in favor of the Bear's Companion!
Sounds fun!
I drafted a do nothing U/B cube deck last night, promptly got smoked by a Boros aggro deck in round one then proceeded to have no opponents show up for rounds two or three. Why do people join the swiss queue if they don't intend to play all three rounds?