Ebay has some interesting results with canopy - is it just due to short supply, and the fact that auctions haven't really caught up yet? The most recent end had a playset going for $80 - still almost a doubling. I'd expect a lot more people trying to dump these soon, stabilizing around $18-20
Honestly the mirror is a hilarious thing to play, and it really comes down to whoever has the best experience with playing the deck. It pays off for knowing every single activation and combination the deck can put together.
Vial is indeed the most important thing, as whoever gets one online first has control of the game as it is the closest unfair thing we have in the deck. The most important thing to do is if we don't have a vial, ensure we can get a Mom and revoker in play. The deck does have that issue where since we run so little spot removal and the fact the protection shuts down a lot of combat tricks such as jitte.
This is the GW version I came up with. Seems like a very aggressive curve, without what I'd really want though in the creatures to be as aggressive. There's one open spot left - Mark of the Vampire as a splash? Accord? Mastodon?
Yea the advocate should probably have been there, I guess the Wurm too - maybe better to cut the sliver subtheme with Manaweft/Predator for those two, and something else for the mystic.
I didn't feel like GW had enough playables - I had much stronger removal in Black, and only some combat tricks in white.
After a cursory glance I attempted to make a BW build. But there was not enough playables and especially not enough creatures.
Red seemed alright with the Raiders and the Embrace, but the creatures left something lacking. Blue again had about 4 playable
creatures, so I worked on BG, with the splash because Double Strike is that good.
Last cuts were the Gnawing, and the Mystic.
how I did:
R1: RB
G1: I don't see a 5th land, he gets there with blood bairn + newt, with lava axe for exact.
G2: He doesn't get 5 lands, I get T2 Predatory T3 Syphon, and get to 42 life before he stabilizes. I have a better late game.
G3: He goes early Molten Birth, but I get early slivers/mutavault/fireshrieker and win.
1-0
R2: BW
G1: We get a stalling early game. I get liturgy/pacifism as well as a mark on the minotaur. He's forced to trade 3 creatures for
the minotaur, while he gets stuck on 5 lands. While he stalls I save up my removal to get rid of his guardian of the ages.
He wipes with a shirvel, get sa shadowborn demon too. he's able to get a mark on the demon. Life totals start to go in his favor.
I draw quag, and hold off as im still at 19 life that first turn, hoping to get the liturgy #2. I don't, so I'm forced to quag the demon to
stay alive. I keep going as i'm up 4 mins on time. I don't get remvoal, die to demon a few turns later.
G2: Hand is 4 land, Witchstalker, Dark Favor, Pacifism. Hard to keep but I do, as I feel confident about a 6/4 hexproof. I get manaweft
and mutavault in first 2 draws. He duresses away the pacifism :(, I get T4 sporemound, follow up with Hunt and Favor on the Witchstalker.
He then plays a blood bairn, follows with vampire warlord. I get a pair of lands for the next two draws. I mess up and forget to activate
mutavault early, giving him an extra turn at 5 life. I read him on having a flare, but he then plays only a 2/3. I get giant spider for first
nonland in 5 turns. He's down to 4min at this point, and im saving removal for demon or a fatty. He shrivels to wipe the board, so i can't alpha strike
with the saps. He finally gets the demon with 3min. I again forget to activate mutavault to force the block so i'm not taking lethal next turn. I lose with
2 minutes left. Unfortunately based on his tricks I wouldn't have won with my draws anyways.
1-1
R3: GU
G1: Go down to 6, nothing that special. He gets t1 mystic, but no t2 drop. He gets t3 giant spider, i get fireshrieker. He then gets 2 seakites flashed in.
I get a sporemound t5, with liturgy and quag in hand but no second black. I get the clutch topdeck swamp, but he then drops briarpack alpha to kill the mound.
I get minotaur abom, but he ebbs it and troll hide gets the last damage
G2: I mull to 5 and get 3 forest liturgy quag hand, draw a swamp but he gets real creatures. No second blue or creatures still. I get second swamp too late,
and I die.
1-2
R4: BWU
G1: Again, opening hand of 2 swamps 5 green cards. My 6 is much better, with liturgy/manaweft/pred/forest/forest/fireshrieker. T2 manaweft, t3 pred, but no third land.
Doom Blade kills the manaweft, but I get a deadly recluse, which gets pacified. He gets a pair of flyers to start swinging in. I hold off with giant spider, but no
second black/5th land. I can't swing because of his wall of swords and all my x/3s. He sensory deprives the spider. i mark and shriek up the witchstalker, which
takes out 3 of his creatures and I get 10 life for the swing. Sporemound lands and is again deprived of its senses. Master of Diversion comes down and liturgy #2 takes
him out quickly, leaving opponent with only a pillarfield ox followed by ajani's chosen. Mutavault comes down to swing with the 3/3s, but there's a wall of frost from the opponent.
I bait out a block and kill the wall with quag sickness. His creatures are nothing spectacular, and the 3/3 with double strike gets there.
G2: T2 Mutavault + Predatory, facing down t3 wall of frost. Liturgy kills that and a wall of frost, but shrivel 1 for 1s the tenacious dead. Opponent never gets white, and game
is over quick with pred/muta/fireshrieker.
Anyone think there will be some new spots to get a GP? I for one would like to see GP Boise or someplace like that. Some place that hasn't ever (I think) had one.
I was thinking that as well. I could really see them going with somewhere new for the PNW one, possibly Idaho, just because Seattle/Portland/Vancouver all recently happened. I'd also like to see one in Iowa because why not? The main issue though is accessiblity to travelers. If there's no major airport within a 1 hour drive or so that definitely makes it a burden to get to.
Hold on. Where did you get Ottawa from? I mean it would be nice considering I live there but I'm curious what your reasoning is.
Just guessing based on the locations of GPs this year, last year, and where the gaps are. Because of the fact there's unlikely to be one in Toronto or anywhere else bordering Ontario (because I don't think it's going to be one in Buffalo), I feel that covers the gap better than Montreal. I'd expect this to be a 2nd season GP, so probably April.
If your location is correct, you are paying for airfare cross country and food/hotel already, What's another $40?
Mainly I was curious as to how well CFB put on the VIP for their previous GPs. I know Providence was a mess, and Vegas was neutral, but those were different
Just out of curiosity, can someone explain the VIP option?
Guaranteed stuff like playmats, etc, assigned seating (so you're always there same seat all day, unless you play another VIP), free bottle of water every round, usually there's a special VIP side event, and sometimes a bit more.
So I've heard good and bad about getting VIP for different GP events. From people who went to Providence, it was apparently a disaster. On the other hand, I hear Vegas had it, but no one really complained about it as opposed to the other things such as the cap.
I'm looking into getting it for Oakland in a few weeks - since I'm flying in late Friday, I won't be able to guarantee stuff like the playmat, etc. It's $40 more from the sleep in special to guarantee all the freebies/etc. I haven't heard much about CFB GPs if the VIP is worth it, but I'm just trying to get opinions about it and other GP VIP events.
The ones I commonly see are sulfur elemental, the others are the traditional just anti-aggro stuff like sweepers. Sulfur is the only one that causes the most issues, but sometimes it's just great when I have a Mirran out - I'll gladly take a 3/1 Double Strike.
May go with 1-2 Chalice in the open slots to handle Elves some more. Not too sold with the relic, usually would rather have a third RiP, but I like to diversify a bit. Spellskite seems alright, but I'm just not too sold on it. Seems like its just 2 life to counter target removal spell, which Mom does pretty well already. It does "counter" Abrupt Decay on vial, but is that needed? It seems like those types of decks are pretty good matchups for us already.
I feel like I want something that allows me to handle opposing Jittes more than anything else. Is Manriki-Gusara really our answer?
Vial is indeed the most important thing, as whoever gets one online first has control of the game as it is the closest unfair thing we have in the deck. The most important thing to do is if we don't have a vial, ensure we can get a Mom and revoker in play. The deck does have that issue where since we run so little spot removal and the fact the protection shuts down a lot of combat tricks such as jitte.
1 Voracious Wurm
1 Predatory Sliver
1 Manaweft Sliver
2 Deadly Recluse
1 Witchstalker
1 Advocate of the Boar
1 Brindle Boar
1 Banisher Priest
1 Master of Diversion
1 Syphon Sliver
1 Giant Spider
1 Bonescythe Sliver
1 Sporemount
1 Woodborn Behemoth
2 Celestial Flare
1 Pacifism
1 Hive Stirrings
1 Hunt the Weak
1 ???
1 Mutavault
1 Shimmering Grotto
15 Basic Lands
I didn't feel like GW had enough playables - I had much stronger removal in Black, and only some combat tricks in white.
Here's what I ran:
After a cursory glance I attempted to make a BW build. But there was not enough playables and especially not enough creatures.
Red seemed alright with the Raiders and the Embrace, but the creatures left something lacking. Blue again had about 4 playable
creatures, so I worked on BG, with the splash because Double Strike is that good.
Last cuts were the Gnawing, and the Mystic.
how I did:
R1: RB
G1: I don't see a 5th land, he gets there with blood bairn + newt, with lava axe for exact.
G2: He doesn't get 5 lands, I get T2 Predatory T3 Syphon, and get to 42 life before he stabilizes. I have a better late game.
G3: He goes early Molten Birth, but I get early slivers/mutavault/fireshrieker and win.
1-0
R2: BW
G1: We get a stalling early game. I get liturgy/pacifism as well as a mark on the minotaur. He's forced to trade 3 creatures for
the minotaur, while he gets stuck on 5 lands. While he stalls I save up my removal to get rid of his guardian of the ages.
He wipes with a shirvel, get sa shadowborn demon too. he's able to get a mark on the demon. Life totals start to go in his favor.
I draw quag, and hold off as im still at 19 life that first turn, hoping to get the liturgy #2. I don't, so I'm forced to quag the demon to
stay alive. I keep going as i'm up 4 mins on time. I don't get remvoal, die to demon a few turns later.
G2: Hand is 4 land, Witchstalker, Dark Favor, Pacifism. Hard to keep but I do, as I feel confident about a 6/4 hexproof. I get manaweft
and mutavault in first 2 draws. He duresses away the pacifism :(, I get T4 sporemound, follow up with Hunt and Favor on the Witchstalker.
He then plays a blood bairn, follows with vampire warlord. I get a pair of lands for the next two draws. I mess up and forget to activate
mutavault early, giving him an extra turn at 5 life. I read him on having a flare, but he then plays only a 2/3. I get giant spider for first
nonland in 5 turns. He's down to 4min at this point, and im saving removal for demon or a fatty. He shrivels to wipe the board, so i can't alpha strike
with the saps. He finally gets the demon with 3min. I again forget to activate mutavault to force the block so i'm not taking lethal next turn. I lose with
2 minutes left. Unfortunately based on his tricks I wouldn't have won with my draws anyways.
1-1
R3: GU
G1: Go down to 6, nothing that special. He gets t1 mystic, but no t2 drop. He gets t3 giant spider, i get fireshrieker. He then gets 2 seakites flashed in.
I get a sporemound t5, with liturgy and quag in hand but no second black. I get the clutch topdeck swamp, but he then drops briarpack alpha to kill the mound.
I get minotaur abom, but he ebbs it and troll hide gets the last damage
G2: I mull to 5 and get 3 forest liturgy quag hand, draw a swamp but he gets real creatures. No second blue or creatures still. I get second swamp too late,
and I die.
1-2
R4: BWU
G1: Again, opening hand of 2 swamps 5 green cards. My 6 is much better, with liturgy/manaweft/pred/forest/forest/fireshrieker. T2 manaweft, t3 pred, but no third land.
Doom Blade kills the manaweft, but I get a deadly recluse, which gets pacified. He gets a pair of flyers to start swinging in. I hold off with giant spider, but no
second black/5th land. I can't swing because of his wall of swords and all my x/3s. He sensory deprives the spider. i mark and shriek up the witchstalker, which
takes out 3 of his creatures and I get 10 life for the swing. Sporemound lands and is again deprived of its senses. Master of Diversion comes down and liturgy #2 takes
him out quickly, leaving opponent with only a pillarfield ox followed by ajani's chosen. Mutavault comes down to swing with the 3/3s, but there's a wall of frost from the opponent.
I bait out a block and kill the wall with quag sickness. His creatures are nothing spectacular, and the 3/3 with double strike gets there.
G2: T2 Mutavault + Predatory, facing down t3 wall of frost. Liturgy kills that and a wall of frost, but shrivel 1 for 1s the tenacious dead. Opponent never gets white, and game
is over quick with pred/muta/fireshrieker.
2-2
I was thinking that as well. I could really see them going with somewhere new for the PNW one, possibly Idaho, just because Seattle/Portland/Vancouver all recently happened. I'd also like to see one in Iowa because why not? The main issue though is accessiblity to travelers. If there's no major airport within a 1 hour drive or so that definitely makes it a burden to get to.
Just guessing based on the locations of GPs this year, last year, and where the gaps are. Because of the fact there's unlikely to be one in Toronto or anywhere else bordering Ontario (because I don't think it's going to be one in Buffalo), I feel that covers the gap better than Montreal. I'd expect this to be a 2nd season GP, so probably April.
Seattle
NYC Area- Unlikely to be actually NYC, probably North Jersey or CT.
Chicago
LA
New Orleans or North Florida
Nashville
Winnipeg
Ottawa
Mainly I was curious as to how well CFB put on the VIP for their previous GPs. I know Providence was a mess, and Vegas was neutral, but those were different
Guaranteed stuff like playmats, etc, assigned seating (so you're always there same seat all day, unless you play another VIP), free bottle of water every round, usually there's a special VIP side event, and sometimes a bit more.
I'm looking into getting it for Oakland in a few weeks - since I'm flying in late Friday, I won't be able to guarantee stuff like the playmat, etc. It's $40 more from the sleep in special to guarantee all the freebies/etc. I haven't heard much about CFB GPs if the VIP is worth it, but I'm just trying to get opinions about it and other GP VIP events.
After tweaking/comments from this thread, my board is:
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Cataclysm
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Sunlance
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
3 ???
May go with 1-2 Chalice in the open slots to handle Elves some more. Not too sold with the relic, usually would rather have a third RiP, but I like to diversify a bit. Spellskite seems alright, but I'm just not too sold on it. Seems like its just 2 life to counter target removal spell, which Mom does pretty well already. It does "counter" Abrupt Decay on vial, but is that needed? It seems like those types of decks are pretty good matchups for us already.
I feel like I want something that allows me to handle opposing Jittes more than anything else. Is Manriki-Gusara really our answer?
Personally, I do just a single pile shuffle at the start of each round to count the deck, everything else is riffle/overhands.