BlippyTheSlug's picture
By: BlippyTheSlug, Volker Kirstein
Jul 03 2014 12:00pm
0
Login to post comments
2891 views


I suppose I should start writing this. It's Saturday evening, it's due to be published Thursday (five days from now), and I want to have at least an opening line on the page before the day's over. All day, I've been thinking about what to write, but so far, nothing has really jumped out and screamed Yeah! That's the ticket!

I'd originally considered writing about Jadine Klomparens, and her semifinals appearance GP Chicago, along with hitting Day Two at GP DC. Add in Jackie Lee (who was also at GP DC), and Melissa De Tora, and Lady Planeswalkers, and Girl Power, and blah blah blah. I even went so far as to put together a Ladies of MTG TwitList. But dunno, Maynard. The spark of inspiration isn't quite there.

Besides, writing about Girl Power, while at the same time being a Dirty Old Man / Sexist Pig, has the makings of a minefield I don't particularly care to be traversing at this juncture in time.

I thought about railing against the travesty that has become the Magic home page, and how they [REDACTED] us without kissing us first again, but why bother? I've screamed at their hamfisted handling of all things web related, and their utter disregard for communication of said stompage, for years. They did it again, they're gonna do it again in the future. They're great at making Magic, but should not be allowed anywhere near a website. Nothing new there, and Pete said it better than I ever could in last weeks State of the Program, and I'm too old for this sh... uh... stuff.

There's the Shiny Migration happening in a few weeks. After years of screaming and moaning, surprisingly, I can't bring myself to really care one way or the other. I can play, I can run events, life goes on. On the switchover, I'm so apathetic, it's pathetic. 

That last paragraph was entirely too much work, for too little delivery.

In the meantime, on the MTGO front in general, MOCS are still screwed, PTQs are still screwed, Leagues are still promised. Again, nothing new.

Let's see, what else?

I want to get a Vintage PRE going. I don't want to do another "4 Round Swiss". Nor do I want to make a Vintage Overdrive! clone. I'm thinking combine the two: Swiss pairing, double elimination. That's the easy part.

Now comes the hard part: when, and who to hit for what kind prizes.

Vintage is a pricey format. This is a given. Competitive deck costs include parts of ones anatomy, promissory notes for firstborn children, and indentured servitude. So I can't really be offering the kinds of prizes we're used to seeing in typical PREs. I can't lure in people wanting to play their new multi-thousand dollar toys for a prize pool of a few bot credits.

I have to figure out a way to up the payout. Significantly.

One way to do this might be to make it monthly, rather than weekly. Instead of a sponsor coughing out $25 every week, they might cough out $100 once a month. I like the idea of tying it to the (astronomical) full moon; call it Bad Moon Rising or some such. This being the first Vintage PRE, it might add some lustre/pull when I go pounding on doors, but I know it'll still be hard sell: long time sponsors know that PREs are a bottomless money pit, and new sponsors pale quickly when they see the costs.

Another way might be begging wizzos for support, as well. I mean, they've supported me in the past for special events, Modern Masters boosters for Overdrive! turning three being a good case in point. Perhaps I could get them to kick down some VMA boosters once a month. Who knows? Ya never know until ya ask. (So if you're reading this, Mr./Ms. Poobah (You know who you are), be expecting an email from me sometime in the next few weeks)

What else is going on?

I suppose I could write about my paper decks, and how I feel like I'm at the same point in paper that I usually end up at online before having to liquidate: my decks are almost ready for competitive play, except for some key cards that I can't afford for quite a while yet. When a single land costs more than all of my disposable income for a month (unless I give up smokeables, and we all know that ain't happening), this isn't going to change anytime soon.

This is my take on Tokens. I play it more like I would a Jund deck; those tokens are there mainly to clog the ground

I'm already well aware that Marsh Flats, Godless Shrine, and Blood Crypt need to be in the manabase. Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money.

Any deck that runs should run Lightning Bolt. It's one of those "Laws of Nature."

Since I'm running , and am constantly putting 2 or 3 creatures onto the battlefield at a time, Purphoros, God of the Forge is a natural. With Purphoros dealing my opponents 2 damage with each creature, he's sealed the deal for me more than once.

Ajani Vengeant is weird. The card doesn't really fit in with the theme of the deck, but every time I've gotten him out, I've won the game. Which is the only reason he's still in the deck.

Any deck that runs should run Path to Exile. Who am I to break the law?

White Sun's Zenith is a budget replacement for the Brimaz/Hero slot, but has proven to be surprisingly effective.

Any deck that runs should run Thoughtseize. I need more Thoughtseize. I have two playsets of Duress, but Duress seems like weak sausage after Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize.

I had considered Wrench Mind, of which I have a playset, but on Turn Two is iffy. I'm usually OK for by Turn Three. Go figure. So Blightning gets the nod.

However...

A deck that has no issues whatsoever making on Turn Two is a mono deck.

Wrench Mind could find a home in Mono Devotion/Control; I had been considering adding a disruption package to this thing...

BRW Tokens
A Paper Brainfart by Yours Truly

Creatures
1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
2 Creatures

Planeswalkers
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
3 Planeswalkers

Other Spells
4 Blightning
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Intangible Virtue
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lingering Souls
3 Path to Exile
4 Raise the Alarm
2 Spectral Procession
1 Thoughtseize
2 White Sun's Zenith
32 Other Spells

Lands
2 Clifftop Retreat
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Mountain
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
5 Plains
4 Swamp
4 Terramorphic Expanse
24 Lands

 

Modern Black Control/Devotion
Another Paper Brainfart by Yours Truly
Creatures
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Geralf's Messenger
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Phyrexian Crusader
3 Skinrender
3 Vampire Nighthawk
19 Creatures

Other Spells
2 Doom Blade
3 Drown in Sorrow
2 Elixir of Immortality
2 Exsanguinate
3 Go for the Throat
3 Phyrexian Arena
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Whip of Erebos
19 Other Spells
Lands
3 Ghost Quarter
20 Swamp
23 Lands
 
Geralf's Messenger

 

(Another thing you've probably noticed is I like to run 61 card decks in paper. )

 

Meta Madness
and
MTG TwitList News

Woo hoo! The start of a new quarter!

Since I'm only tracking PE results these days, the new charts will be filling in after this piece of drivel has fallen off the front page over at MTGO Traders. I'll not even put them in this week.

I'm also going to try it a little differently, sort of a "weekend at a time over time" graph. Since I've been dinking with the Modern meta since Day One, I take a lot of stuff for granted. For example, the "tiers": I "know" this deck might be an overall better deck than that deck, or that such-and-such build looks cool, and would be a johnnytastic finish, but is way too slow. But I never bother to say why, because there's always all these charts showing what I take for granted, so I always assume you know these things, too.

But you might be a first time reader of this gibberish, and be thinking this stuff is way over your head. (I wish! I know I write with the literary standard of a twelve year old.) Perhaps I could start making the charts show why the "tiers" are the way they are, rather than simply pointing and saying "see?" Maybe I could make the charts able to show how "when this shows up, that does poorly, and the other does well." 

A guy can dream.

Meanwhile, the Matchup Reference is taking shape. 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 hot-linked to the original. You can simply click on it to take you to the actual chart on the spreadsheet.

To read the chart, simply choose the archetype you want to track in the first column, and 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".  While I do 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 (Polymorph, Possibility Storm, Unstorm, et al) in this list, because they're not part of the "regular" meta; I'm not going for a comprehensive table.

I'm not happy with how this data is represented. It's accurate enough, and easy enough to read (I think), but it lacks visual appeal. I'm thinking about ways to display this data in a more pleasing way. One way I had considered was as a 3-D "topographic map" with peaks, valleys, plateaus, etc. You may see various experiments with this data in future articles, as I play with it to see what I can do.

The Big Picture

There is no Big Picture section this week. 

 


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 Three Cleanup


June 21 - Dundee, UK

  • 1st - Rock
  • 2nd - Angel Pod
  • T4 - Ghostpants x2
  • T8 - Ad Nauseam, Twin, Robots, UR Delver
  • Decklists


June 21 - Osaka, JP

  • 1st - UR Twin
  • 2nd - UWR Midrange
  • T4 - Tarmo Twin, White Lightning
  • T8 - Robots x3, Rock
  • Decklists


June 21 - Victoria, BC, CA (108 Players)

  • 1st - Scapeshift
  • 2nd - Rock
  • T4 - Robots, Rock
  • T8 - Rock, Burn, Melira Pod, Junk

 


June 22 - Monza, IT (269 Players) 

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

 

Week Four


June 28 - Boston, MA, US

  • 1st - Melira Pod
  • 2nd - Ghostpants
  • T8 -  RDW, Bump, Melira Pod, URG Twin, Robots x2


June 28 - Little Rock, AR, US (168 Players)

  • 1st - WB Midrange
  • 2nd - Robots 
  • T4 - Hatebears, UWR Flash
  • T8 - Scapeshift, UW Delver, (Angel?) Pod, UWR Kiki


June 28 - Sioux Falls, SD, US (107 Players)

  • 1st - Loam Gifts
  • 2nd - Ad Nauseam
  • T4 - Junk, GR Tron
  • T8 - UWR Control, UWR Twin, UW Tron, BW Vampires

 


June 29 - Saint Romain de Colbosc, FR 

  • 1st - Fae
  • 2nd - Death and Taxes
  • T4 - Death and Taxes, Rock
  • T8 - Merfolk, UB Mill, UR Twin, BW tokens

 

 

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...

 

Teutonic Soul

Am Grab meinem Vorfahren
Toben zerstörte Steine
Ausgegrabenen Krallen
Unendliches Später
Schwöre ich ihre Geister
Ich war dein

 

 

Overdrive! Turns Three!

I will be celebrating Overdrive! turning three next week (July 7) with event #139!

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 good folks over at WotC have also kicked down! They must like me, despite the [REDACTED] I continually fling at them. Go figure. Anyway, yeah! Wizzo's has given me the go ahead to hand out...

    

Overdrive! #139 Prize Pool

  • Winner - CAD$25, 9 MMA online boosters
  • Runner-up - CAD$10, 6 MMA online boosters
  • Semifinalists - 3 MMA online boosters
  • Losing a match - 1 MMA online 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. Boosters will be added to players accounts by WotC later in the week.

But I also wanted 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!

 

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! #138
Players: 13
Champion: call1me1dragon / Jund
Runner up: sonofvashon / Death & Taxes
Decklists and results from all Overdrive! events can be found here.  

 

call1me1dragon ruined ChineseNotennokes shot at a Hat Trick* by bringing Jund to the dance. The pairings worked out that ChineseNotebook and call1me1dragon had to square off for Round One.

* A Hat Trick is three consecutive Overdrive! championships.

call1me1dragon proceeded to dance over the corpses of Angel Pod, UB Demon Ninja, Tokens, and Death & Taxes to emerge as Overdrive! #138 Champion.

sonofvashon brought Death & taxes to the fray. After a Round One BYE, he Death'd vole's Unexpected Unburial and Taxed Socanelas' Kiki Pod before being killed off by Jund in the finals. 

 

 


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

 

2 Comments

Two elixers of immortality? by ScionOfJustice at Thu, 07/03/2014 - 16:13
ScionOfJustice's picture

Two elixers of immortality?

BlippyTheSlug's picture

Mill is prominent in my playgroup, and I need to stay gassed. One wasn't cutting it, three were too many. I'd cut 'em entirely if I went to FNM with it.