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By: BlippyTheSlug, Volker Kirstein
Oct 10 2012 9:39am
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The Warriors (c)1979 Paramount Pictures

*clank!* *clank!* *clank!*
Oh, Wizards! Come Out And Plaa.aay!

*clank!* *clank!* *clank!*

  Many of you have gotten my "hour to go" spam. More than once. I'd like to take a moment here and say once again: WotC employees are more than welcome to come play in any of my PREs! Yes, you! You are cordially invited to come play in Overdive!, Eurodrive!, and Where Angels Fear To Tread. So that there are no conflicts of interest, WotC employees are not eligible for any prizes (other than bragging rights). But you are definitely more than welcome to come pit your skillz and skullz in the madness that is my world. Don't be shy. We won't bite! Unless you ask us to, of course! We would love to have you come play in our maelstrom.

 

 

Modern: Huge Tracts Of Unexplored Land

  It has been said of Modern: "The most important thing about Modern is diversity. It's by and far the most open format right now, there are huge tracts of land no one has explored. It's the new frontier of competitive Magic.", and "The nice thing about Modern is that the format is very open. There's a lot of room to explore and find decks that can work". And just to hammer that point, here are maps from some recent explorations:

 

BRW Aggro
MayhemLikeMe (4-0) Modern Daily #4392700 on 10/02/2012
Beaters
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Gravecrawler
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Utility
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Dark Confidant
26 Creatures

Disruption
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
Control
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Path to Exile
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Slaughter Pact
13 Other Spells
Basic Lands
4 Swamp
Fetches
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
Utility
2 Cavern of Souls
Dual
2 Blood Crypt
1 Godless Shrine
21 Lands

Geralf's Messenger

 

 

  A similar deck (no Thalia, no Bob, plus Sign in Blood and Lingering Souls) was piloted by sharkrabies to a 3-1 finish in the same event.

 

BRW Aggro
Solvagon (3-1) Modern Daily #4392700 on 10/02/2012

Beaters
4 Bloodghast
4 Goblin Guide
4 Steppe Lynx
2 Hellrider
2 Plated Geopede
Utility
2 Dark Confidant
2 Grim Lavamancer
20 Creatures

Draw & Filter
4 Faithless Looting
Control
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
3 Path to Exile
Chumps
3 Lingering Souls
18 Other Spells

 

Basic Lands
2 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
Fetches
4 Arid Mesa
4 Marsh Flats
Utility
2 Slayers' Stronghold
Dual
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Godless Shrine
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Blood Crypt
1 Dragonskull Summit
22 Lands

Bloodghast

 

  Some interesting BReWs, indeed! And all three at the same event. I wonder if this was planned, or mere coincidence? Seeing these decks all together reminded me of a PTQ for Barcelona in Plano, TX back in February, where a bunch of BRW decks showed up at once. So I'm almost wondering if this wasn't testing for an event happening a little over a week from now...

  All three use the Steppe Lynx landfall core with varying degrees of black, ranging from almost full blown zombies with a RW splash to almost full Boros with just a dab of B for Bob and Bloodghast. Bloodghast fits in well with landfall, by the way!

 

 

A Return To Kaleidoscope?

Rime of the Ancient Kaleider

There is an obscure format
Known as Kaleidoscope
But very few appear to know
It's time some words were wrote

It receives so little attention
From Wizards of the Coast
I thought that I would write of it
Before it becomes toast

Every non-land card in deck
Must be of multi-colors
Including split & hybrid cards
You may not run the others

  Often overlooked in the hoopla surrounding the release of Return To Ravnica is that redheaded stepchild known as Kaleidoscope. The upcoming block promises to shake up the K-scope world. Even though that world consists of maybe two dozen players all told, it will be shaken!

  For those of you who don't know: Kaleidoscope is a casual Magic Online format for fans of multi-color decks: every non-land in your deck must be a multicolor card. This includes split and hybrid cards that are more than one color. Constructed decks must contain a minimum of sixty cards, with an optional 15 card sideboard.

  Kaleidoscope is based on the Legacy format. All sets and Promotional cards are allowed.

  The following cards are banned in Kaleidoscope games:
    Anathemancer
    Glittering Wish

  I'm positive Destructive Flow is banned, as well, but not listed on the mothership K-scope page. Which shows how much attention WotC pays to this format.

  Since K-scope is based on the Legacy cardpool, this means multicolour cards that were released in the Commander sets are legal to use, as well. When the spellslinging events were going on, Kaleidoscope was one of the formats offered, and almost always from WotC_LydiaL. (Thank you, Lydia!) Some of you may recall When Worlds Kaleid, a short-lived PRE in K-scope format.

  Whether or not there is a K-scope renaissance remains to be seen. Based on past interest and performance, the odds say no. Personally, since I love K-scope (not as much as Modern, but I love it nonetheless), I will be throwing rocks into the pool to try and make some waves. I encourage other K-scope players to do the same.

 

 

 

Monster Garage

  As sometimes happens in these hard economic times, I had to liquidate my collection for a cash influx. After collecting quotes and cashing out, this left me with my PRM Guru Basic Lands. Period. However, since I'm such a dedicated pimp, I do have a continual weekly budget* that I can rebuild with. So I'm going to chronicle my rebuilding somewhat, along with prices, just to see how expensive it is to get into Modern in a vacuum.

  * As you may or may not know, hosts running sponsored events receive bot credit on the sponsor's bot for running the events. I also "get coin" for writing these articles, the amount thereof varying depending on various arcane feng shui. All of this is scattered over a few bots, so it's not like I can pull up to a bot with 50 tix in pocket. It's some here, a little more there, more somewhere else.

  Blarg! Blarg! Blarg! I had a whole section written out here, but then something happened serverside, and everything below "Return To Kaleidoscope" was somehow deleted. It wasn't me, and apparently other writers had the same issue. So this is a poor reconstruction of what I had.

  Last week, I started on the Soul Sisters/Soul Taxes deck, and left off with a few cards, namely Spectral Procession and Windbrisk Heights, missing. I used my final Tribal Apocalypse fees to pick away at that. Since Spectral Procession is also used in the Tokens deck, I started picking up pieces for Tokens as well. I no longer have the record of exactly what was spent, so this is a very rough recreation.

Soul Taxes/Tokens
~30 for what's shown.

Creatures
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Hero of Bladehold PRM
Cards

Other Spells
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lingering Souls
4 Raise the Alarm
2 Midnight Haunting
2 Spectral Procession
16 Cards

Lands
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Tectonic Edge
8 Cards


Breakdown
The money cards are Isolated Chapel (3.27), Hero of Bladehold (2), Spectral Procession (1.69), and Tectonic Edge (0.25). 

 

 

Hero of Bladehold

 

  Soul Sisters/Taxes and Tokens are now complete to the "Semi-casual" level. Again, cards like Windbrisk Heights or Sorin, LoI are on the slate for later acquisition. While Hero of Bladehold is a PRM card, it does not appear on the list below, because it is not full art/textless. Somewhere along the way I picked up a playset of PRM Terror, as well. I know there is much better removal out there than Terror. But I do love Textless/Full Art cards. (That's a big hint if any of you are thinking of getting me a birthday present later this year!)

Bling & Lands
 
Full Art/Textless Creatures
4 Blood Knight
2 Deathless Angel
4 Groundbreaker 
4 Liliana's Specter
4 Memnite
4 Rakdos Guildmage
4 Serra Avenger
4 Treasure Mage
30 PRM Creatures 

Full Art/Textless Spells
4 Blightning
4 Brave the Elements
4 Cancel
4 Celestial Purge
4 Condemn
4 Disenchant
4 Doom Blade
4 Fireball
4 Flame Javelin
4 Giant Growth
4 Harrow
4 Hinder 
4 Incinerate
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Negate
4 Putrefy
4 Remove Soul
4 Searing Blaze
4 Staggershock
4 Terror
4 Treasure Hunt 
88 PRM Other Spells

Basic Guru Lands
32 Forest
37 Island
37 Mountain
35 Plains
36 Swamp
Urzatron
4 Urza's Mine
4 Urza's Power Plant
4 Urza's Tower
Fetches
4 Arid Mesa
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Marsh Flats
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Verdant Catacombs
Manlands
4 Inkmoth Nexus
3 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Raging Ravine
4 Treetop Village
Utility
4 Bojuka Bog
2 Pendelhaven
2 Reliquary Tower
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Dual & Multicolour
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Rootbound Crag
2 Sunpetal Grove
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Savage Lands
260 Lands
 

 

Total spent: ~275
  25 Built Decks:

  • Bloodcrank Casual
  • Bump x2: Bump, Vex Bomb Bump (T1.5ish)
  • Delver Snapcaster x4: Grixis, UB, URW (Semi-casual), BUG (Casual)
  • Infect x2: BUG, G (Semi-casual)
  • Jund x2: Goyfless Death Cloud (Semi-casual), Goyfless (Casual)
  • Lifegain Aggro x 2: Soul Sisters, Soul Taxes (Semi-casual)
  • RDW x3: RDW, White Lightning, Vex Bomb. (T1.5ish)
  • Textless Casual x5: Jund, BRW, Boros, RDW, GR
  • Tokens (Semi-casual)
  • Tron G Junk, Casual
  • Vampires x2: B, RB (Casual, Tribal)
  • No "real" sideboards built yet.

 

  Woo hoo! Looking strictly at the math, I'm averaging 11 per completed deck. In my eyes, this is reasonably inexpensive. In fact, I'd call it a bargain! So don't you dare use the argument on me that Modern is too expensive to get into in a vacuum! I've now built 25 decks that I enjoy playing for less than the price of a playset of Goyfs. And some of those decks I would not hesitate to throw into a sanctioned event.

  I'd like to build either Storm or Affinity next. But at the same time, I want to pick up more fetches and Scars/Inni Duals. I believe the Standard shocklands will be in the 5ish range (or less) by Halloween, so I'm still holding off on those. Scratch that. If I see a Shockland being sold for 5 or less, and I have the funds, I'm going to snap it up. I did that today with PayPal, cleaning out my PayPal in the process. I think five is a reasonable price for a shock, although I have seen them as low as 2.50ish. I'm also wanting to start picking up some "power cards", like Karn, Wurmcoil, Emmy, Elspeth, etc. Hopefully, my missing sponsor will return to the land of the living soon, and I'll have an eight event backlog to cash in. Cha-ching! That would fill up my land needs quite nicely.

  *doing a bad Donna Summer impression* He works hard for the money... So hard for it, honey...

 

  

 

  It's here in paper. It'll be online this weekend. I'm sure many of you are heartily sick of RTR spoilers and articles. I have nothing to add that hasn't been said more eloquently by someone else, so I'll just say...

 Woo hoo!

 

 

  I have found a new sponsor for Overdrive!, Eurodrive!, and Where angels Fear To Tread! Woo hoo! The great folks over at MTGO Academy have taken up sponsorship of these events, One of the provisos of this move is that this article series will now be appearing over at MTGO Academy, instead of here at PureMTGO. So this will be the last Overdriven! article here at Pure. PureMTGO will always hold a near and dear place in my heart for helping me get started on the writing path, and I may still submit the occasional articles here now and again, if that's ok with all parties concerned. But a TO's gotta do what a TO's gotta do! 

  I have negotiated a "parachute" for the prize payouts of Overdrive! #'s 62, 63, 64, Eurodrive! #'s 44, 45, and Where Angels Fear To Tread #'s 23, 24, 25. Player prizes for these events are now available on the MTGO Academy bots (Academy_Sellbot, Academy_Sellbot2, Academy_Sellbot3, Academy_Foilbot and Academy_Budgetbot). This is for player prizes only, I can wait on mine until the owner of Alphabot and ValueBot returns from Lost...

 

Overdrive! #65

 

Eurodrive! #46

 

 

 

Where Angels Fear To Tread #26

Players: 6  
4-0: None
3-1: romellos, Realms_Uncharted

Players, pairings, and results from WAFTT #26 can be found here.
All decks from WAFTT #26 can be found here.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting Tidbits

  PT Seattle/Return To Ravnica is next week! Woo hoo! I have a bet going on about the amount of Valakut decks. One guy says it's going to be the dominant deck of PT Seattle. I say it's going to be meh! We'll see. I'm thinking we'll see "the usual suspects", with RTR additions, along with one or two standout "new kids".

  As mentioned above, I have found a new sponsor for Overdrive!, Eurodrive!, and Where angels Fear To Tread! Woo hoo! The great folks over at MTGO Academy have taken up sponsorship of these events, One of the provisos of this move is that this article series will now be appearing over at MTGO Academy, instead of here at PureMTGO. So this will be the last Overdriven! article here at Pure. PureMTGO will always hold a near and dear place in my heart for helping me get started on the writing path, and I may still submit the occasional articles here now and again, if that's ok with all parties concerned. But a TO's gotta do what a TO's gotta do! 

  Modern attendance continues to track well:

 

 

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

2 Comments

Good luck by JXClaytor at Wed, 10/10/2012 - 09:41
JXClaytor's picture
5

It was a pleasure getting to see you grow as a writer. I hope the best for you, and you're welcome back whenever you want to write! Thanks for your contributions!

Shame to see you go from the by olaw at Sun, 10/14/2012 - 06:04
olaw's picture
5

Shame to see you go from the site Blippy. I have really enjoyed these articles and the updates on Modern. Thanks for all your time and contributions.