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By: BlippyTheSlug, Volker Kirstein
Jun 26 2014 12:00pm
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Overdrive! Turns Three!

A Brief History of Overdrive!
excepted from Overdriven! 1

Overdrive! began as an Overextended event with little fanfare at 830PM Eastern time on July 4th, 2011. It just so happened I did a Mad Max Marathon one Sunday, watched Highlander the following Monday, and then played in the Tuesday Overextended event. Someone mentioned they wanted more Overextended events to me during a break between rounds, I was listening to AC/DC's Highway to Hell, and *click*! It really just all came together in its entirety in that split second. I lined up a sponsorship, hammered out the details, and a few days later we were ready to rock. And the 4th of July was just too serendipitous. I "put up the ads" and the rest... is history.

The last Overextended game on MTGO was played on August 22nd, 2011, and Modern became an officially sanctioned format online with the August 24th downtime. Overdrive! jumped right in. The first Modern games on MTGO were played August 29, at Overdrive! #9.

By now you're probably well aware of my propensity to throw together extravagant prizes for significant events. Rest assured, I have given in to this urge once again:

Overdrive!s third birthday celebration will be Overdrive! #139, on July 7th.

Face to Face Games, our sponsor, has generously kicked in some additional ducats for the brouhaha, so the winner will receive CAD$25, and the runner-up will receive CAD$10!

But wait! There's more!

The folks over at WotC have also kicked down! And how! They must like me, despite the [REDACTED] I continually fling at them. Go figure. Anyway, yeah! Once again, I went hat in pseudopod, banging on the Ivory Tower portcullis. (metaphysically speaking) After begging, pleading and promising my next child, Wizzo's has given me the go ahead to hand out...

    

Ha! The joke's on them! I've had a vasectomy, and I'm not fathering any more children! Mwahahaha! 

Check out the prize pool I was able to cobble together for this shindig:

  • Winner - CAD$25, 9 MMA boosters
  • Runner-up - CAD$10, 6 MMA boosters
  • Semifinalists - 3 MMA boosters
  • Losing a match - 1 MMA booster

Wait. What? Losing a match get you a booster?

That's right! If you play a match, and lose, you get a booster. You have to actually play, though. You can't just register and not show up. I keep track of no shows, and people that make it a habit get blacklisted. Yeah. I get medieval when I have to. But I also want to make sure that everyone who plays walks away with something, so this seems like a good way to do it.

I hope to see you there!

The New Beta

 

I really don't know what to say. Ever since this article series began, my stance on the Wide Beta has been pretty straight-forward: it's garbage. It lagged, it ate my resources, it crashed randomly. I had concerns with the clunkiness of the chat interface, and with my account remaining "logged on" after I had closed the client. I had very little faith in being able to run events once v3 went dark.

On the other hand, the builds have been getting better. In the two years I've been playing with it, I've seen it go from crashing my system when I try to load it, to being able to log in and play a game or three. That was the previous to last build, which still featured the Gideon Jura theme. I had rated that one as "doesn't suck."

This new build (412) is a whole new kettle of fish. It's nimble, it doesn't randomly lock up on me; that is to say, it hasn't to date. I put it through its paces and ran Friday Night Standard off the Beta. Other than the lack of the /me function, it went smoove. I was able to send my "hour to go" messages (AKA spammage) to everyone in my buddy list with no issues, and my system didn't have the same heat buildup and fan speed increase like it did it with v3. I also started getting serious lag when I had more than 24 chat windows open in the v3 client, and bogged down totally around 32. This does not happen in the Wide Beta! I was able to hit everyone in my list without closing a window! Woo hoo! 

Earlier today, I opened a trade with a bot: click, click, click, click, click, "done", click, click, done. For me, setting the filters was easy and intuitive enough. I was able to make changes to my decks with no problems. I don't draft, so I can't comment on that part of it. 

This build goes beyond "doesn't suck". I would go so far as to call this build "decent"; I no longer fear the v3 blackout.

 

 

Meta Madness and MTG TwitNews

The "matchup reference chart" is starting to take shape as I get more results put in. Google Docs still doesn't like to display the entire chart, you can see how it cuts off at the bottom and right side. However, it is hotlinked to the original. You can simply click on it to take you to the actual chart on the spreadsheet.

Choose the archetype you want to track in the first column, and simply read it across left to right to see its known results against other archetypes. The format is always W-L. I do not count "mirror matches". I split apart UWR Kiki from Splinter Twin, so there's now UWR, and UWR Kiki. While I lump together Jund, Junk, Ajundi, and Rock in the big picture, I do differentiate between Jund and Rock in the matchup chart.

Also, I'm not including the oddball decks, like Polymorph, or Unstorm, in this list, because they're not part of the "regular" meta; I'm not going for a comprehensive table.

The Big Picture


 


PTQ Roundup

Woo hoo! Modern PTQ Season is here! You know what that means: lots of colorful flags and Top 8s from around the world! I scour the interwebs so you don't have to. So, without further ado, here's what I was able to dig up for you from this past weekend:

Week Two Cleanup


June 14 - Montreal, CA

  • 1st - Angel Pod
  • 2nd - UWR Control
  • T4 - Rock, Robots
  • T8 -  Tarmo Twin, Kiki Pod, UR Twin, UWR Kiki


June 14 - Zagreb, HR (85 Players)

  • 1st - Tempo Twin
  • 2nd - Robots
  • T4 - Living End, UWR Kiki
  • T8 - Robots x2, Jund x2
  •  


June 15 - Amersham, GB

  • 1st - U/G Infect
  • 2nd - Jund
  • T4 - G Tron, Tarmo Twin


June 15 - Paris FR (209 Players)

  • 1st - Robots
  • 2nd - Fae
  • T4 - Rock, Merfolk
  • T8 - Blue moon, UR Twin, Scapeshift, Jund

 

Week Three


June 21 - Berlin, CT, US

  • 1st - RDW
  • 2nd - UWR
  • T8 - Melira Pod x2, Kiki Pod, Grixis Tidings, Rock, Jund


June 21 - Ottawa, CA

  • 1st - Hatebears
  • 2nd - UR Twins
  • T4 - Ad Neauseam, Rock


June 21 - Richardson, TX, US

  • 1st - Robots
  • 2nd - Scapeshift
  • T4 - UWR Kiki, Tempo Twin
  • T8 - Scapeshift, Tarmo Twin, Merfolk, UR Delver/Pyromancer


June 21 - Wroclaw, PL

  • 1st - Scapeshift
  • 2nd - Hate Bears
  • T4 - Gr Tron, Twin
  • T8 - Jund, Merfolk, Robots, UR Nivmagus Delver

 


June 22 - Angoulême, FR (87 players)

  • 1st - Rock
  • 2nd - Bant(?)
  • T4 - Death Shadow, Ad Nauseam
  • T8 - UR Twin, Scapeshift, Fae, Melira(?) Pod


June 22 - Greenville, SC, US (136 Players)

  • 1st - UWR Kiki
  • 2nd - Merfolk


June 22 - Monza, IT (269 Players) 

  • 1st - Scapshift
  • 2nd - UR Twin
  • T4 - Tribal Zoo, Gr Tron
  • T8 - Robots x3, Jund


June 22 - Poughkeepsie, NY, US

  • 1st - RUG Delver
  • T8 - Gr Tron x2, Tarmo Twin, U Tron, Scapeshift x2, Junk


June 22 - Singapore, SG

  • 1st - Jund
  • 2nd - Jund
  • T4 - Tarmo Twin, UW Control
  • T8 - Rock, Scapeshift, UW Control, Kiki Pod

 

 

Random Gibberish

I guess the Spank The Slug segment went over like a lead balloon. I mean the common concept thereof, not the actual lead balloon made by Mythbusters. So I'm going to use this space to throw random gibberish at you. Be it in the form of poetry (most likely), video composition (maybe), rambling pointless stories (also likely). If you want to see something else, ask me. So there. Here we go...

Hunger

A bright copper smell filled the air as blood spattered across my face, each droplet burning ecstasy. I inhaled deeply of its dying breath, filling my lungs with the sweetness of its terror and despair. I flung the now empty sack. My teeth sang in their sockets, my bones moaning harmony. Each footfall felt like miles as I raced through the streets. Soon enough others would discover the shattered vessel, and the cry would be raised again.

Still, time enough. I could feel another. Rare for a town such as this to have two; the gods (hah! what gods?) in their perversion must be smiling on me. There! In the temple! I could feel it, even though the the thick stone walls. 

I bounded to the temple’s front, finding the doors open. As I silently crossed the threshold into the cavernous sanctum, I saw it kneeling at the altar, chanting softly. Such irony, to revere whatever it is that made me as I am. Though my heart pounded like timpani in some demented chorus, it did not hear me.

Perhaps a draft gave me away. My skin carried the smell of blood and offal, the perfume of my soul. But still, too late. Its eyes widened and its mouth opened to inhale. I was upon it. Eyes riveted to mine, I drank in its realization of its doom. Again the air misted with blood, burning bright, lightning bolts to my very core.

I left the torn flesh draped across the altar, and ran out into the streets, howling with joy. Two in one morning! Sated, for now, it was time to go. With my teeth screaming almost unbearably in their sockets, and electric fire coursing through my veins, I ran into the rising sun. 

 

 

 

Overdrive!, which started on July 4th, 2011, is the original Modern format Player-Run Event! In fact, Overdrive! is even older than Modern, having started out as an event in the Overextended format. Overdrive! is a single elimination event: two men enter, one man leaves. Registration is done via Gatherling. You can find more information at the main event thread here.

 

 

Overdrive! #137
Players: 12
Champion: ChineseNotebook / Angel Pod
Runner up: blankChar / Knights
Decklists and results from all Overdrive! events can be found here.  

 

ChineseNotebook called to the Pod People again, and the Pod People answered, this time with Angel Pod. ChineseNotebook podding his way through Goblins, UW Gifts Tron, Jund, and Knights to emerge as Overdrive! #137 Champion!

Newcomer blankChar brought a cool Knights deck to fray. Knights are  something you don't see every day! After a first round BYE, blankChars cavaliers rode roughshod over Tokens and Jund before succumbing to Angel Pod.

 

 


BlippyTheSlug on MTGO
Blog: Read At Your Peril (NSFW!)

 

1 Comments

Draft on zee Beta by vaultboyhunter at Thu, 06/26/2014 - 15:05
vaultboyhunter's picture

I think it's about the smoothest thing. I went cold turkey all in 2 months ago on the Beta only using it for everything, and the Beta seems so much better even in that short amount of time!