MTG Salvation

Quote from gumOnShoe »

A person on another site I visited created a topic, which I've lightly edited to meet the minimum standards of this forum and follows below in the quote. I've largely in the past agreed with his point of view, but he's always been more extreme and frankly nihilistic. Anyways, he's asking a very specific question that I think is going to be asked a lot more and I'll now let his words live on in a close approximation of what he posted:

Fake news. Clickbait. Kneejerk articles. Confirmation bias. Echo chambers. Bubbles of autonomy and safe spaces.

We are flooded by gonzo propaganda journalism. It used to be the news came with a little spin, now the spin comes with a little news. Journalistic standards are at rock bottom lows. An article on a news site has less factual authority than grafitti on a bathroom stall.

But there's a solution, it's just unconstitutional: regulate journalism.

They do it in china all the time, the government controls the media, to keep them from lying or spreading corporate propaganda.

How much Benghazi will it take to change the will of the people? We've seen the restrictions on guns come down from mass shootings, constitution schmonstitution (yes, I am unamerican [edited]). People voted for Trump because they figured there was NO WAY he could posssibly be as big of a piece of **** [edited] as he appears, that it's all a smear campaign. How many more fake scandals will it take for Americans to say "enough is enough" and start finding a way to abandon freedom of the press and regulate the media?

They used to do it under the auspices of the FCC. You needed a license to broadcast television or radio, and you had to fulfill some sort of civic good to justify your license. Remember public programming? They used to make the cable stations give away free airtime to budding television makers, for crying out loud. Broad cast fake news back then, hell, even broadcast "profanity" and you'd get your license pulled.

It looked like freedom of the press, but really the FCC could shut anyone down they wanted to if they became a problem. The internet ruined all that, of course. Hell, I'm making this thread: I'm well aware of how **** [edited] things have become if you're getting this news from me.

So, will all this propaganda reach a breaking point, where people start to someway or another regulate the media to a standard higher than the National Enquirer? Will we one day welcome the end of freedom of the press in favor of a well regulated media we can trust for a change?

Or, could things actually get WORSE?

I'm frankly of the opinion that the system isn't going to fix itself, he's right there. I'm also of the opinion that our government can't fix this through regulation, though it's probably the only hope of getting in gear. I think it's more likely our system is heading for an inflection point where something core in our society is going to change. The optimist in me thinks young people given time and power can get things right, but frankly we just elected Trump.

I don't think this kind of anti-democratic call is going to go away. I think there will be more appeals towards authoritarianism in the coming years as the continual degradation of faith in our systems continues.

I know two things:

1. Government of the people/by the people can work, but only if its citizens believe that and if it has actors within that are trying to do good for everyone.
2. The populist backlash doesn't believe in the system or government anymore and so the voices which could make number 1 work out will be told to shut up and sit in a corner.

Piece one contains all of my hope, but piece 2 is I think our reality. And in losing faith in the system I simultaneously know that I'm part of the problem and can't see a way out of it. I'm pretty sure self-harm is on the menu for the foreseeable future. I'm having a real hard time seeing this work itself out and I don't think the people in power have any desire to have a functioning media that interested in facts or truth.

Another friend told me once:

Reality is the thing that keeps punching you in the face no matter how hard you try to deny it.

I guess that's true too, but I can't help but feel we'll in a world of hurt, and if you're blind and paralyzed you might not understand that you attached a rocket pack to your own fist and its hitting you over and over again because you did this to yourself.

/nihilistic rant

Quote from SSquirrel »

Quote from krimsonviper »

Genuinely curious why you say Turbo-Depths isn't a positive match up?

T3 and T4 swinging w a 20/20 that I couldn't disrupt.

Quote from SSquirrel »

Played Burn at GP Louisville and went 5-4 to barely miss day 2. Sucked missing day 2 but same record as my last w big events so I'm very close. I used the 60 cards I posted recently, but added a 61st card for 1 maindeck Exquisite Firecraft.

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures: 12 4 Goblin Guide 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel 4 Monastery Swiftspear Spells: 30 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Lava Spike 4 Chain Lightning 4 Rift Bolt 4 Price of Progress 4 Fireblast 2 Searing Blood 2 Sulfuric Vortex 1 Flame Rift 1 Exquisite Firecraft	Lands: 19 19 Mountain	SB: 2 Pyrostatic Pillar 2 Sudden Shock 1 Sulfur Elemental 2 Tormod's Crypt 3 Exquisite Firecraft 3 Smash to Smithereens 2 Pithing Needle

Round 1: Casey Bloodworth, Sneak and Show. On the draw
Loss, 1-2

Casey flew out from SLC bc Legacy. Game 1 I sit down and promptly mulligan to 4. Seriously? Lots of mulligans and bad dice rolls this weekend. He destroyed me pretty quickly game 1 w no real surprises thanks to a face full of Emrakul. Game 2 showed Flusterstorm and Griselbrand from Guide flips. One 2 lands staring at my Vortex and knowing even w another land it won't ever see play so I just say to myself "please play S&T". Next turn he does and puts Griselbrand into play. He's on 5 so he can't even afford to use Griselbrand and just has a nice 7/7. Fire last next turn lets him die to Vortex. Game 3 was another face full of spaghetti w a Griseldaddy chaser. Fun not, I ran into him after round 7 and we were both 4-3. After beating me he got pounded 3 rounds in a row before winning 3 straight.


Round 2: Mitchell Anderson, Threshold. 0-1 overall. On the draw
Win, 2-1

We had a fun 3 game series. He had driven up from Charlotte w/at least 11 other folks in a few cars. Big turn out for Charlotte, considering I ran into someone else who knew no one in Charlotte as he had recently moved there and he had driven up too. Not a lot in particular stands out about any of the 3 games. The game I lost was the middle game I’m pretty sure and it was largely on the back of every time he cast a Goyf it was a minimum of a 4/5. I guess that size of Goyf and 20/20 Marit Lages were the reasons I had been considering a single Chaos Warp in the board Eventually I ground him out and moved on.


Round 3: Kevin Klipfel, Miracles, 1-1 overall. On the draw
Win, 2-0

Kevin had been sitting near me during the player’s meeting. I also sat next to a guy who I sat near at GP Indy and ended up playing that day. Kevin and I both already knew what decks to expect from each other, so that was fine. Kevin wasn’t respecting the power of Price of Progress at all in game 1. His first 2 fetches were both Tundra and that allowed Price to help seal his fate. This is one of the reasons I have 3 Firecraft in the board and they all came in. I don’t know if I ever had a game where I saw more than 1 show up all day and I never actually cast one against Miracles I don’t think. Kinda funny. Game 2 was also not very long. I had a really rough hand for him to deal with and got it done pretty quickly.


Round 4: Paul Tartaglio, Turbo-Depths, 2-1 overall. On the draw
Loss, 0-2

Ugh. I managed to kill a Hexmage in game 1. That was really about as good as it got for me. I think in Game 2 I was going to be able to take him from 14 to 6 before he would swing w/Marit Lage, but I was ever even close to worrying his life total in either game to be honest. Guy at the table next to us was in Louisville from Tokyo bc Legacy. Crazy how far some folks were traveling for the event.


Interlude:
So far I’m now at a record of 2-2 and wondering how many more of my bad matchups will end up in my way before the day is done. I’m counting S&S and Turbo Depths as the bad matchups. I’m generally fine vs Miracles. I also met Brandon Burton and his mom between rounds, sat down and chatted w/them for about 10 minutes. She is super nice. Brandon didn’t talk a whole lot, but I love seeing them out playing like that. I had played Burn and missed day 2 at GP Indy when he won, so I had wanted to congratulate him on that one. I believe he was actually on Sneak & Show himself this weekend.


Round 5: Greg Ivey, Shardless Sultai, 2-2 overall. On the draw
Win, 2-1

Greg was down from Chicago w/his wife, who was apparently doing better in the tournament than he was. His Sultai deck was very solid. He hymned me in 2 different games and each time he managed to knock a land out of my hand. The first time it was only the second land I had been holding, so that set me back. If I had kept that land, he would have been dead in pretty short order. The 3rd game I had actually decided to work around Hymn and hope to not draw many lands and kept a 4 lander. His Hymn nailed 2 mountains, which was absolutely perfect. We had a really great back and forth going and playing against Burn is always a stressful event for him b/c he can go down such big chunks of life in such a short time frame.

I had managed to Pithing Needle his DRS during the SB games and at one point he had an army of 3 of them left as very unimpressive 1/2 threats The final turn of game 3 was very funny. His wife had won her match and was chatting w/us as we finished up. He was at 3 life w/a Shardless Agent, Goyf and DRS all on the table. I had a Rift Bolt about to come off of suspend and zero cards in hand. I announced the suspend trigger and in response he cast Abrupt Decay, killing his own Agent. This allowed him to gain 2 life w/DRS to stay alive as he had already earned another 6 life or so from DRS activations and was still barely clinging to the game. This left him at 2 life. Busy upkeep step had distracted me. I comment that I don’t have any cards and don’t have much else to do, when his wife blurts out that I haven’t drawn for turn yet. I say “Oh yeah, thanks”, draw, then say “Goblin Guide, swing for lethal?” and get the handshake He wasn’t mad about it and the picked back and forth a bit and I told her “he still loves you, he just doesn’t like you very much right now” heh. She was 6-2 heading into the last round of the day and I didn’t see her after to find out. I think he had ended up dropping before that.

Interlude:
While I’m walking up to the results table I remind myself there are 4 more rounds and I have 1 loss I can give, and I can do this. I’m ready to do this.


Round 6: Phillip Gallagher, Death and Taxes, 3-2 overall. On the PLAY (Finally!!)
Loss, 2-1

Phillip and I had a very fun 3 rounds against each other. I killed a T1 Mom 2 different games and got a very painful reminder of exactly how painful Batterskull+Jitte and Batterskull+Sword of War and Peace can be. A well timed Sanctum Prelate for 2 stranded 2 Smash and a Searing Blood in my hand. I eventually Bolted it, then killed a germ token before finishing him off. The real problem w/this round was that I didn’t mulligan my hand in game 3. I don’t even remember exactly what it was at this point, but I think it had too much land and having too much land and then proceeding to draw 3 more over the course of the game was just brutal. This loss is entirely on me and I think if I had mulliganed that I could have carried the round. Really upset w myself over this one, but I definitely learned from it. Oh yeah, he runs thrabenuniversity.com, so expect to see his tournament report posted soon as well. Curious what he has to say about our match.


Round 7: James Mabry, Storm, 3-3 overall. On the draw (again)
Win, 2-1

James and I both play at Through the Decades here in Louisville and we have played a lot of games against each other. I sometimes play around w/Sac Land Tendrils and we played about 10 games in 20 minutes one night playing Sac Land vs regular Storm heh. I actually won some of those games amusingly enough. Anyway, game 1 I got him too low too quickly. T2 Eidolon sealed this one real fast. A judge was passing by so he did a quick double check that LED, LED, Infernal Tutor (sac for 3 red and 3 black in response), cast Tendrils would kill him before any of the life gain occurred. We had both been pretty sure of that line beforehand, but I was fine getting the confirmation. Game 2 I had sided in 2 Pithing Needles and ended up getting both out, blanking Scalding Tarn and Polluted Delta. He told me those were bad and to side them back out for game 3 heh. He had cast a bunch of Goblins and just turned them sideways till I was dead w/my 2 Guides blocking. I was stupid here too and after his initial swing w/all 12 I didn’t return swing and kill him. Doh! Really annoying to have the deck crap out and flood like that when there was only 19 land. Game 3 was another T2 Eidolon which eventually died to an Abrupt Decay. I got into topdeck mode for the kill here too. First time was a mountain, leaving me to just swing w/Swiftspear for a few turns in a tow, but the 3rd time I drew a Lava Spike to seal the deal.


Round 8: Stephen Nguyen, Miracles, 4-3 overallI. On the play for only the second time all day.
Win, 2-0

Stephen traveled from Louisiana for the event and was a lot of fun to play against. Game 1 was pretty typical Burn beats. Large chunks of life every turn and not enough ways for him to stop things. Game 2 was a lot of back and forth. He Terminused early and I had held back the 2nd Guide on purpose instead of going all in on creatures, so I didn’t really care. I had a bolt for Mentor when he was tapped out and had no Force too. Multiple Swiftspear were swinging too and he was floating a Wear/Tear to help counter things after STPing a Swiftspear. Eventually tho he had no choice but to shuffle and lost his blocking spells. A series of suspended Rift Bolts followed by other spells got him low enough eventually that the Fireblast had no answer. These games were also odd b/c I kept 1 landers both games w/lots of spells that would play and in both cases got stuck on one land for several turns before finally finding more land. Luckily Miracles doesn’t do a very good job of punishing slow development.


Round 9: Vanessa Sudendorf, Jund, 5-3 overall. On the play

Vanessa was in from the eastern part of Virginia, I’m guessing she got lucky and got a flight before the bad weather hit. We had a good game with a lot of back and forth. Goyf is still annoying to deal with. I was feeling really good about the match and we went into game 3 and I had no lands. And 1 land w/a terrible mix of 2 and 3cc spells w/nothing castable. And no lands. So now I’m on a 4 that consists of 2 mountain and 2 Rift Bolt. I’m annoyed that I’ve had so much mulliganing today and we are chatting and the next thing I know I’ve forgotten my scry, suspended a Rift Bolt and passed turn. I realized during her first turn that I hadn’t scried. I pointed it out that I had forgotten to scry and that I hadn’t see anything yet, but that we were past that point. She agreed I had and we moved on to her duressing away my 2nd Rift Bolt. My next card? Rift Bolt #3! Crazy. Anyway, eventually I’m sitting on a hand of Exquisite Firecraft, Fireblast and Lightning Bolt and she is at 12 life. She only has 2 lands and has a 3rd fetch in play for multiple turns. I’m quietly Jedi Mind Tricking her into fetching so I can Bolt her EOT, then cast Firecraft and Fireblast for the win. Facing down a Goyf and a couple of DRS it’s a tough board. Luckily she doesn’t have the pair of BBEs she used on me the game she had already won earlier. I drew an Eidolon the turn before what ended up being my final one. She Decayed the Eidolon which bumped the Goyf to lethal size and I could only Bolt and Fireblast to drop her to 3. There was definitely a greater than normal amount of land on my side of the board at the end of the game too.


Overall I had a great day and except for a few goofs, felt I played pretty well. My opponents were all great. No major misunderstandings, everyone was cool, no one was salty after losing, etc. Vanessa felt really terrible w/me losing after that mulligan and i hope she did all right today. A couple of decision different or even my deck just liking me a little better and I would have been playing today too. Definitely hope for more quality Legacy events as this one was a blast.

I also got to meet lots of players I wanted to and to get a lot of cool signatures on cards. 4 Glistener Elf were signed by Tom Ross and a lot of things signed by the artists. The best part (for this deck anyway) was getting 6 beta and 2 Korean 4th Ed (but still original art) Mountains. These joined the Lava Spikes I got signed by Mark Tedin at the Sealed GP that was here in Louisville in September.

I hope everyone enjoys the report and can take something away from it.



Edit: For fun I went back today to look at everyone's final standing. The D&T guy I played against actually ended up in the money right above Cuneo

Me: 710
Casey Bloodworth: 894
Mitchell Anderson: 520
Kevin Klipfel: 1485
Paul Tartaglio: 397
Greg Ivey: 1337 (Wife Brenna made 554)
Phillip Gallagher: 48
James Mabry: 1183
Stephen Nguyen: 1006
Vanessa Sudendorf: 306