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New Banner Smell

I felt the old banner was a bit clunky, so I decided to give it a little tune up. You like it? I do. This article will mark the first of what will be a few... scatterbrained entries in my repertoire. Basically we'll be moving over an entire week of various events, with very to-the-point reports on them. You'll notice I'm going a bit video light, but at least they're in "real" HD now. Let's get started!

Crackin' Down!

Learning a new deck is rough, and this time's no exception. After deciding to shelf UW Control, I picked up a set of Lotus Cobras, Noble Hierarchs and Knight of the Reliquary's and went to Bant town! Hearing that Josh Utter-Leyton won Nationals with a Bant list nearly identical to mine made me feel even better about the decision, and play test results for me were very promising. Mythic is a deck that I've always been interested in playing, and it's unfortunate that my time with it in Standard will be short lived. However, I've still got a solid month and a half of turn three 12/13 trample birds to enjoy, so I intend on making the most of it!

After grueling hours coin-tossing in the TP room, I decided I was comfortable enough to hop into a Daily Event on Monday.

Round one was a total blowout against Valakut. He didn't have the burn to keep up, and I had the obscene ramp to take both games in short order. I was worried about this particular match up, and to be perfectly honest I think I got a little lucky with his less-than-stellar draws. Round two was against UW Control. I kept game one in check, bringing him down to 4 with a pair of angry knights. To no surprise on my part, he peels a Day of Judgment and follows it up with a Baneslayer Angel. I find nothing but lands, and proceed to concede. Game two is just awful, I mulligan to 5 and never see blue mana, snakes or shamans... It's almost fitting that the deck I turn my back on deprives me of a 4-0 finish.

Being the exceptionally astute player that I am, I decided to spend absolutely zero time scouting, and instead got some chocolate milk and a biscuit. The biscuit was great, but the milk left a bit to be desired. In any case, imagine my surprise to find my round 3 opponent was against none other than Jacerator! To be honest I can really see how this deck could make something of a surprise comeback given the meta, but with all those pesky Eldrazi running a muck it's a bit risky. The turn 2 Howling Mine did more harm than good for the mill player, as it launched me into all the pieces I needed to end the game in a timely manner. In an interesting turn of events, I ended up having to hard-cast my Eldrazi Conscription on my Lotus Cobra, and with him at only four lands, the annihilator trigger was beyond crippling, as was the 15 incoming damage! Game two ended quickly with the stock Sovereigns enabled cobra victory. Despite double Howling Mines he was stuck on two lands for most of the game, finally drawing a third for Safe Passage, only for it to meet a Mana Leak. On to round four! For great justice... and also packs!

A quick pre-match scout shows my new opponent is playing Jund with maindeck Jund Charm... Yay me!

Games one and two were both over very quickly. I had a turn 4 cobra kill on game one, and he just kept me locked down game two. So here were are on game three, 6 packs and a QP on the line. I hate having to mulligan at times like this, and my 6 weren't a whole lot better than my 7. I opt to keep simply for the fact of having a turn one play, and an Elspeth down the pipe. I start to curve out nicely but he seems to have an answer to all my threats. A topdecked Baneslayer Angel helps me stabilize, though not by a whole lot thanks to that Malakir Bloodwitch. The witch takes my Elspeth, but she's able to leave one token behind before she falls. Who knew that token would go on to take the game? I'm pretty heart-broken to see my angel die to a perfect cascade, but my once-in-a-lifetime topdecking powers pay off, and a Sovereigns of Lost Alara end the game, putting me at a 3-1 finish!

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MED Draft Redux So with the nix-pax week almost over I decided to spend some of my winnings on one last MED draft set. I'm still horrible at drafting, but at least I cracked a dually! I pulled together a WRb pile and hit the table.Game one came to an unfavorable end despite my pulling an Animate Dead on his Lesser Werewolf and enchanting it to a 3/5. He had enough combat tricks and direct damage to beat face. Game two I kept a sketchy 5 land hand, but managed to curve out okay. I seemed to have a fairly stable defense lined up, until the Brothers of Fire tore it down. I really should stay away from the MED queues, but sometimes I just can't help myself! At the very least, my draft paid for itself. Y'know, it's only midnight, and I took a nap today. I think I 'll hit up another Standard Daily Event.

 

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 Hot Bant on Bant Action!

I really need to stop queuing for events at odd hours. For one I'm halfway nodding off at around this time, and for two my fresh copy of The Losers is just itching to be watched! Regardless, round one is off to a good start as I find myself in the mirror (which I've never played before now) and managed to find that elusive turn 3 kill in game one. Game two got a little dicey as he dropped both a Linvala, Keeper of Silence to shut down all my mana dorks, followed by a Gideon Jura, killing my only relevant creature. Luckily I find the land I need to drop a turn 6 Sovereigns and end the round. Off to round two, and maybe a few minutes of movie time...

I'd like to note that one of the reasons I chose Bant over UW Control was simply because Bant has the ability to put other decks on a clock, whereas UW really doesn't. There's a lot of games that I really need to be able to end as soon as possible, and Bant can do that. Additionally, while it's fully capable of a turn three win, it's far from necessary. I love this deck for it's ability to seamlessly shift from combo, into midrange, into control based on the attributes of the game.

Round two gets off to a really shaky start, quickly losing game one to an army of giant white monsters. I couldn't believe this deck when I first started hearing about it, and part of me still doesn't. But here it is, in all of its janktech glory. Who knew Ajani's Pridemate would be the modern day Tarmogoyf? I'm not too surprised to lose game one as I have been all weekend, so it's off to the sideboard. It was through constantly losing to this deck that I came to find a gaping flaw in my sideboard plan. I neglected any creature removal as frankly this deck can ignore 95% of all creatures in the format. However, this "Soul Sisters" deck (Thanks Conley!) had creatures that simply required removal. I ended up putting a full set of Path to Exiles in my board. The logic was any deck that these would come in against simply wouldn't benefit enough from the ramping for it to work against me. The plan paid off, and games two and three were a shutout! One more win and I'm in the sweet-spot.

 Round 3 starts shortly after round 2, which is nice. What isn't nice is the way I got rolled in the mirror. I almost have game one when double Time Warp changes everything. Game two is just as bad. There goes my 4-0 finish, but there are still packs to be won. I have some time to kill before the final round, so I think I'll use it to sulk.

I am blessed to finish the night with one of my worst match ups, Soul Sisters. Well, I beat it once I can do it again right? Game one I keep a decent hand on the play of 4 lands, an Elspeth, Birds of Paradise and a Mana Leak for that pesky pridemate. The game draws out entirely too long with me never seeing a sovereign, and him gaining more life than I could deal with. The paths come in for game two.

The paths, they do nothing!

Ugh, frustrating. A whole day's worth of tournament's and only a single QP (And a Bayou) to show for it. I think I'm going to have to start researching possible ways to deal with this damned new deck, as unless I get a very strong start, I just can't race them. Why oh why aren't Firespout and/or Engineered Explosives in Standard!?

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Well that sure puts a cramp in my Wednesday night Magic...

My wife was settling in for an ICC10 continuation and there wasn't anything good on TV. I had already watched The Losers and it was okay. Since I couldn't play any of my decent Standard decks, I decided to take it easy with some Legacy.

Despite all my downing of Affinity it's my only relevant Legacy deck, so I decided to dust it off and play a couple rounds. My first game was against a CounterTop deck that seemed to use Jace and Garruk as win conditions. Game one was a quick blowout with very fast vials and drums on my side. Game two he had me pretty locked down until an army of angry beast tokens accompanied by a Trygon Predator finished me off. Game three was long, with him either bolting or countering all my dudes. He eventually got an active Jace as well as the CounterTop soft lock, but couldn't find an answer to my double Aether Vials. An EOT Master of Etherium ended the game. My next round was against Dr. Teeth himself, Psychatog. I got destroyed here. Not only was he playing the 'tog, but ninjas! Did not see that coming. Both games ended quickly. Two hours have past, and Elspeth's still banned.

 I think it's about time to call it a night. Besides, season premiere of Ghost Hunters starts at 9 and I can't miss that!

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It's late, and this article's starting to run long. I finished watching Ghost Hunters while my wife and her guild continued to wipe on Blood Prince Council. Really it's reasons like that why I'm not too inclined to raid anymore until Cataclysm comes out, but I digress. Ghost Hunters was good, I'm glad to have TAPS back as I really don't like the International team. It was a hotel investigation which was cool. I wish they'd do more home investigations but at least it was better than watching another bar or theater. Also Kris and Amy >>> GHI Chick. Anyway, I had some time to kill before I was ready to go to bed.

With Elspeth still banned I decided to finally make good on my threats and slap an EDH deck together. I chose Azami as my commander and went about finding any and all decent looking wizards that cost 10 cents or less. I ended up spending 1 ticket to finish the deck.

The game started slow as I imagine most do. I gained some quick unpopularity by countering one player's (Hoard of Notions) not once but twice. Eventually Azami hit the board, followed by a Mind's Eye, then a Magus of the Future. After just a couple turns of that I was down to just about 50 cards left in the deck, and Feldon's Cane was looking like an appealing future card to consider.

I was able to land both a Gauntlet of Power and a Coat of Arms before my three single-serve friends decided to end me.

I had a lot of fun with it.

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 We're Done... For Now...

Yes, I think it's that time. We're not quite done with the week yet but I think I'll save my next event for later. This Saturday I'll be playing in my first ever Premiere Event, and will be writing and recording as the event goes on. I'll need to work on a better answer for certain aggro decks, as I fully expect to see life.dec in spades. Rough matches aside, I've been having a lot of fun with Mythic, and am comfortable taking it into a large event. I'm less comfortable waking up at 6:30 in the morning to play Magic, but I suppose that's how it goes. Next week's article will focus on that one event, I promise. Until next time! -Jeff Torres