Here's one example of the explosiveness and resiliency of Academy:
Right before the ban hammer came down one of the guys from our playgroup built the deck and wanted to play it before the ban (he had just finished it and was quite sad about the ban).
So five of us sat down and played our current standard decks against him. We had various deck types (a couple of aggro decks, a couple of fun decks, and a control deck).
He beat all of us within 4 turns if I remember correctly and could have kept going.
4 of the 5 Worldwake lands have power 3 or greater, 2 of them have a toughness of 4, and 2 of them have a decent form of evasion. Only 1 of these lands haven't been used much in competitive formats outside of their standards lives (maybe 2 if you include Stirring Wildwood).
All of the OGW lands (so far) come across as little beaters that are designed to encourage creature combat and the abilities on them are pretty standard and uninspiring. Not that they're bad, just not a lot of variation between them. All-in-all, I'm sure they'll have their place and will be fun, but they do have a 'powered down' feeling.
Back again with another All Creatures! modern report. I actually wasn’t concerned about going, but again, my youngest wanted to go to get some practice before the SCGOpen in Cincinnati. Fortunately we were able to since there wasn’t much else going on and he was out of school for the holidays. There were 22 players.
I didn’t change much from what’s listed in the above post, but I replaced one Eternal Witness with a fourth Qasali Pridemage, took out all of the Pillar of the Paruns for more basics, and replaced a few cards in the sideboard. Here is what I took:
Match play: Round 1: versus Chris with Mono Red (2-1)
Chris admitted that he was running a ‘not so up to par’ Mono-red standard deck (He was playing Akoum Firebird and Chandra's Fury ). He hadn’t been able to play recently so he just wanted to get some games in. The first game I put Thalia, Guardian of Thraben out which stalled him a few turns and he was only able to get a Monastery Swiftspear and a couple of Goblin tokens out before I beat him up with the Thraben Guardian and Anafenza, the Foremost.
In the second game I had to mull down to 5 and then stalled on the correct mana somewhat. By the time I was able to get anything going he took me down with some burn spells and early Swiftspear beats.
Third game I sided in the Kor Firewalkers and Lavinia of the Tenth. I played a Firewalker second turn and he helped to make sure I wouldn’t lose this game (having the right mana helped as well).
Round 2: versus Isaiah with B/W Tokens (2-0)
Isaiah is a very good standard player and has recently dipped into Modern. First game I second turned a Meddling Mage naming Path to Exile. Found out after the match that it sat in his hand the rest of the game. I was so happy to hear that. Not that he couldn’t have removed it with something else, but by the time he pulled into another removal spell I had beat him down pretty hard and he needed to get rid of something else. We went back and forth a little when he played Sorin, Solemn Visitor and then tried a Secure the Wastes which I promptly Mystic Snaked. Fortunately I got him down to 5, was able to push two damage through and finish him with a Siege Rhino.
The second game was a rough battle. I sided out a couple of Pridemages, Eternal Witness, and a Fiend Hunter and brought in both Lavinias and the Izzet Staticasters. I barely held on throughout the whole game after he played a turn 3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos and turn 5 Hero of Bladehold. I should’ve kept that other Fiend Hunter. Fortunately the Izzet Staticaster did great work keeping the tokens at bay. He also played Sorin, Solemn Visitor twice and at a certain point he was favored 26-6. Fortunately I had a Siege Rhino in play to hold off his big boys for a minute and was able to detain his creatures enough with Lyev Skyknight and Lavinia to get some damage through. We finally ended up 6-1 in his favor and I was able to attack through his remaining creatures to get him for exacties. Thank God Siege Rhino has trample.
Round 3: versus don’t recall with B/G Dredge (1-2)
Unfortunately there isn’t much to say about this match. I mulled to a bad five in the first game and he ran through me with Vengevine, Lotleth Troll, and Bloodghasts. In the second game I had a better start and his was mediocre. I was able to detain his troops with Livinia, named Abrupt Decay with Meddling Mage, and swing out. The third game he got a really good hand and had 2 Vengevines and a Gravecrawler on the board turn 3. My hand wasn’t bad and I had Anafenza, the Foremost on my turn 3, but alas, it was just too late.
Round 4: versus my son with Grixis Delver (2-0)
We really weren’t interested in going through this since we’ve played it many times before and he was 1-2 already. He lost to Storm first round having never played against it (was not aware that Pyromancers Ascension and Goblin Electromancer are the cards to stop. Won against Naya Company and lost a close one against Jund. He still felt pretty good since he won at least one game in each match he lost and they were close. He gave me the win and we scored a little credit. Always better than nothing, right?
I definitely had some mana problems in a couple of the games this time around. There were a few cards that would have given me a better start if I would’ve been able to cast them a little earlier, so I’m either going back with 2 Pillar of the Paruns and 3 basics or 1 Pillar and 4 basics.
I did draw the one of Eternal Witness, but never was really interested in playing it. It seemed like I always wanted it to be something else. I am somewhat interested to try out Stonecloaker. Yea, I know it’s not human and can be a bad first draw, but it definitely has multiple advantages to it otherwise: Save a guy, exile a card in their graveyard, provide a nice blocker/beatstick. Not sure. Everything else I’ve been overall happy with, but I haven’t been able to fully test the deck,so it’s hard to say. I did run against a RG Tron deck once and that’s why I have the 2 Avalanche Riders in the side (might help with Bloom as well). I do like the Kor Firewalkers against burn, but I’m going to replace them with Auriok Champions. A little more versatile and with my deck probably gain me more life.
So, for the meantime here is the most recent iteration:
I'm running a deck that contains Meddling Mage and I was wondering what others thoughts were on the appropriate card(s) to name against some of the standard decks in Modern. Most of the time I'm naming removal (e.g. Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile), which isn't a bad thing, but some of the match-ups I haven't played against.
What would you name or would you take him out in certain match-ups (barring not playing him at all, I know).
The majority of decks you would come across and a some initial thoughts on what to name: Affinity
That's not mold, that's collections of dirt, dust, dead skin, and oil. You can simply scrape it off with your fingernail, although it will return over time as you handle the cards.
Yea, if you check out some of the older cards or cards where people don't use sleeves you'll notice this a lot. Especially on white bordered cards.
For some 'hopefully' helpful context, I've been playing continuously since '94. We had 2 boys ('97 & '01) and of course it's been mostly pre-releases and FNMs since then, but you can still enjoy playing without being that concerned about staying on top. One of the nice things was that once my boys reached their pre-teen years, they both learned how to play and we all would go to pre-releases and an occasional FNM. This in and of itself is very enjoyable (and a lesson in teaching the game ). The past few years we'd go to approximately 2 events per month unless something more involved took precedence (i.e. youth sports, band, etc.). I even wrote an article awhile back about how they became interested and progressed into the game. My oldest still games (at college), but doesn't really play M:TG anymore. My youngest is still very much into it though.
The nice thing is that your amount of play won't have a lot to do with your 'being bad'. Don't get me wrong, frequency does help, but you can still perform well even if you only occasionally go out. Small example, my youngest and I hadn't played since the BFZ PR and just played in our first BFZ drafts last Friday. Due to his band schedule; Friday night football games aren't conducive for FNMs .
I played in 2 drafts; 3-0'd the first with what I thought was a not-so-great Converge deck (URGB) and lost in the second one with a really good B/W lifegain/allies deck. Whether or not you keep up on the grinding you can still get some decent wins. When your time commitment changes, what you want to get out of the game changes. It's up to you if you want to roll with it or not.
However you choose more power to ya', but I wanted to express that there is still some fun to be had.
Yup, first one! It's amazing. I'm not complaining about how the baby is taking away from my Magic hobby, more just coming to terms with the idea that I can't grind anymore, therefore it's going to be quite difficult to be "not bad" in the online meta-game. Like I'm not sure how I feel about even playing a spot draft here and there, because it doesn't feel fun being so far behind the curve.
I suppose I'll try to draft once per set, with expectations of going 0-3, and take it from there.
But seriously, Magic is a young person's game. The time commitment required to be good is enormous. It's not like other games because every 4 months you have to re-master it. To those of you in your late teens and 20s...if you have aspirations of a family one day...enjoy your time now because there won't always be time to be a good Magic player. There's a reason all the pros seem to be late 20s/early 30s with no kids.
Just curious....if this was a Competitive or Professional REL would there be any difference in this case or what would the ruling be?
(though I agree with most everyone here. If he had already placed the creature into the graveyard, then his motion clearly stated that the Mardu Charm resolved and there shouldn't be a rewind.)
Yea, I pulled others beforehand, but a revised Vesuvan Doppelganger was the first one I remember where I had that 'little kid' glee to it. It was from a starter deck and I pulled a Clone as well (which was kinda cool with 2 of the rares being Shapeshifters ). Of course I also pulled not-so-great Taiga as well.
If you're a predominant Elf or Merfolk player, then the answer is pretty easy. If you're generally a green player, then I would go with the Tree. Very classy.
All cards have inverted front backs and are square cornered. Misprinted workshops and lotuses? This is the best anyone is getting. Better island/rit than the german island/rit too
Occam,
Very cool. Just wondering, is there an awesome story behind how you got them?
Right before the ban hammer came down one of the guys from our playgroup built the deck and wanted to play it before the ban (he had just finished it and was quite sad about the ban).
So five of us sat down and played our current standard decks against him. We had various deck types (a couple of aggro decks, a couple of fun decks, and a control deck).
He beat all of us within 4 turns if I remember correctly and could have kept going.
WWK manlands:
Celestial Colonnade
4/4 flying & vigilance
Creeping Tar Pit
3/2 Unblockable
Raging Ravine
3/3 +1/+1 on attack
Stirring Wildwood
3/4 Reach
Lavaclaw Reaches
2/2 Increase power
BFZ and OGW manlands:
Shambling Vent
2/3 Lifelink
Lumbering Falls
3/3 Hexproof
Needle Spires
2/1 Double strike
Hissing Quagmire
2/2 Deathtouch
4 of the 5 Worldwake lands have power 3 or greater, 2 of them have a toughness of 4, and 2 of them have a decent form of evasion. Only 1 of these lands haven't been used much in competitive formats outside of their standards lives (maybe 2 if you include Stirring Wildwood).
All of the OGW lands (so far) come across as little beaters that are designed to encourage creature combat and the abilities on them are pretty standard and uninspiring. Not that they're bad, just not a lot of variation between them. All-in-all, I'm sure they'll have their place and will be fun, but they do have a 'powered down' feeling.
I didn’t change much from what’s listed in the above post, but I replaced one Eternal Witness with a fourth Qasali Pridemage, took out all of the Pillar of the Paruns for more basics, and replaced a few cards in the sideboard. Here is what I took:
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mantis Rider
4 Siege Rhino
4 Meddling Mage
3 Mystic Snake
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Lyev Skyknight
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Fiend Hunter
2 Anafenza the Foremost
1 Eternal Witness
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Reflecting Pool
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Copperline Gorge
2 Forest
2 Plains
1 Island
2 Sin Collector
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Izzet Staticaster
2 Lavinia of the Tenth
2 Spellskite
2 Reclamation Sage
2 Avalanche Riders
1 Gaddock Teeg
Match play:
Round 1: versus Chris with Mono Red (2-1)
Chris admitted that he was running a ‘not so up to par’ Mono-red standard deck (He was playing Akoum Firebird and Chandra's Fury ). He hadn’t been able to play recently so he just wanted to get some games in. The first game I put Thalia, Guardian of Thraben out which stalled him a few turns and he was only able to get a Monastery Swiftspear and a couple of Goblin tokens out before I beat him up with the Thraben Guardian and Anafenza, the Foremost.
In the second game I had to mull down to 5 and then stalled on the correct mana somewhat. By the time I was able to get anything going he took me down with some burn spells and early Swiftspear beats.
Third game I sided in the Kor Firewalkers and Lavinia of the Tenth. I played a Firewalker second turn and he helped to make sure I wouldn’t lose this game (having the right mana helped as well).
Round 2: versus Isaiah with B/W Tokens (2-0)
Isaiah is a very good standard player and has recently dipped into Modern. First game I second turned a Meddling Mage naming Path to Exile. Found out after the match that it sat in his hand the rest of the game. I was so happy to hear that. Not that he couldn’t have removed it with something else, but by the time he pulled into another removal spell I had beat him down pretty hard and he needed to get rid of something else. We went back and forth a little when he played Sorin, Solemn Visitor and then tried a Secure the Wastes which I promptly Mystic Snaked. Fortunately I got him down to 5, was able to push two damage through and finish him with a Siege Rhino.
The second game was a rough battle. I sided out a couple of Pridemages, Eternal Witness, and a Fiend Hunter and brought in both Lavinias and the Izzet Staticasters. I barely held on throughout the whole game after he played a turn 3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos and turn 5 Hero of Bladehold. I should’ve kept that other Fiend Hunter. Fortunately the Izzet Staticaster did great work keeping the tokens at bay. He also played Sorin, Solemn Visitor twice and at a certain point he was favored 26-6. Fortunately I had a Siege Rhino in play to hold off his big boys for a minute and was able to detain his creatures enough with Lyev Skyknight and Lavinia to get some damage through. We finally ended up 6-1 in his favor and I was able to attack through his remaining creatures to get him for exacties. Thank God Siege Rhino has trample.
Round 3: versus don’t recall with B/G Dredge (1-2)
Unfortunately there isn’t much to say about this match. I mulled to a bad five in the first game and he ran through me with Vengevine, Lotleth Troll, and Bloodghasts. In the second game I had a better start and his was mediocre. I was able to detain his troops with Livinia, named Abrupt Decay with Meddling Mage, and swing out. The third game he got a really good hand and had 2 Vengevines and a Gravecrawler on the board turn 3. My hand wasn’t bad and I had Anafenza, the Foremost on my turn 3, but alas, it was just too late.
Round 4: versus my son with Grixis Delver (2-0)
We really weren’t interested in going through this since we’ve played it many times before and he was 1-2 already. He lost to Storm first round having never played against it (was not aware that Pyromancers Ascension and Goblin Electromancer are the cards to stop. Won against Naya Company and lost a close one against Jund. He still felt pretty good since he won at least one game in each match he lost and they were close. He gave me the win and we scored a little credit. Always better than nothing, right?
I definitely had some mana problems in a couple of the games this time around. There were a few cards that would have given me a better start if I would’ve been able to cast them a little earlier, so I’m either going back with 2 Pillar of the Paruns and 3 basics or 1 Pillar and 4 basics.
I did draw the one of Eternal Witness, but never was really interested in playing it. It seemed like I always wanted it to be something else. I am somewhat interested to try out Stonecloaker. Yea, I know it’s not human and can be a bad first draw, but it definitely has multiple advantages to it otherwise: Save a guy, exile a card in their graveyard, provide a nice blocker/beatstick. Not sure. Everything else I’ve been overall happy with, but I haven’t been able to fully test the deck,so it’s hard to say. I did run against a RG Tron deck once and that’s why I have the 2 Avalanche Riders in the side (might help with Bloom as well). I do like the Kor Firewalkers against burn, but I’m going to replace them with Auriok Champions. A little more versatile and with my deck probably gain me more life.
So, for the meantime here is the most recent iteration:
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mantis Rider
4 Siege Rhino
4 Meddling Mage
3 Mystic Snake
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Lyev Skyknight
2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Fiend Hunter
2 Anafenza the Foremost
1 Stonecloaker
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Horizon Canopy
2 Reflecting Pool
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Seachrome Coast
1 Pillar of the Paruns
1 Copperline Gorge
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Forest
2 Sin Collector
2 Auriok Champion
2 Izzet Staticaster
2 Lavinia of the Tenth
2 Spellskite
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Avalanche Riders
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Stonecloaker
Have fun.
What would you name or would you take him out in certain match-ups (barring not playing him at all, I know).
The majority of decks you would come across and a some initial thoughts on what to name:
Affinity
Burn
Jund
RG Tron
UR Twin
Grixis Control
Amulet Bloom
Merfolk
Infect
Abzan
Naya Company/Zoo
Bogles
Elves
Yea, if you check out some of the older cards or cards where people don't use sleeves you'll notice this a lot. Especially on white bordered cards.
For some 'hopefully' helpful context, I've been playing continuously since '94. We had 2 boys ('97 & '01) and of course it's been mostly pre-releases and FNMs since then, but you can still enjoy playing without being that concerned about staying on top. One of the nice things was that once my boys reached their pre-teen years, they both learned how to play and we all would go to pre-releases and an occasional FNM. This in and of itself is very enjoyable (and a lesson in teaching the game ). The past few years we'd go to approximately 2 events per month unless something more involved took precedence (i.e. youth sports, band, etc.). I even wrote an article awhile back about how they became interested and progressed into the game. My oldest still games (at college), but doesn't really play M:TG anymore. My youngest is still very much into it though.
The nice thing is that your amount of play won't have a lot to do with your 'being bad'. Don't get me wrong, frequency does help, but you can still perform well even if you only occasionally go out. Small example, my youngest and I hadn't played since the BFZ PR and just played in our first BFZ drafts last Friday. Due to his band schedule; Friday night football games aren't conducive for FNMs .
I played in 2 drafts; 3-0'd the first with what I thought was a not-so-great Converge deck (URGB) and lost in the second one with a really good B/W lifegain/allies deck. Whether or not you keep up on the grinding you can still get some decent wins. When your time commitment changes, what you want to get out of the game changes. It's up to you if you want to roll with it or not.
However you choose more power to ya', but I wanted to express that there is still some fun to be had.
(though I agree with most everyone here. If he had already placed the creature into the graveyard, then his motion clearly stated that the Mardu Charm resolved and there shouldn't be a rewind.)
1 Prairie Stream
3 Might of Old Krosa
Pile B:
2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Yea, I pulled others beforehand, but a revised Vesuvan Doppelganger was the first one I remember where I had that 'little kid' glee to it. It was from a starter deck and I pulled a Clone as well (which was kinda cool with 2 of the rares being Shapeshifters ). Of course I also pulled not-so-great Taiga as well.
Occam,
Very cool. Just wondering, is there an awesome story behind how you got them?
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Pile B:
Vendilion Clique (MOR)
Spellskite (MM2)
I don't use the Clique and the skite is an extra. Just wondering in the long run. Thanks.
Yea, that's what I figured as well, but just confirming. Thanks.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Pile B:
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Eidolon of the Great Revel