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By: BlippyTheSlug, Volker Kirstein
Dec 19 2013 12:22pm
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Terra Incognita

It has been said of Modern: "The most important thing about Modern is [its] 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".

To hammer home this point, here are maps from some recent explorations:

 

This first deck isn't exactly new, but it always tickles my fancy when I see it.

Death Cloud
_VFS_  (4-0) Modern Daily #6454976 - Download Deck
Creatures
2 Eternal Witness
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
10 Creatures

Planeswalkers
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Liliana Vess
6 Planeswalkers

Other Spells
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Death Cloud
2 Dismember
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Night's Whisper
2 Thoughtseize
20 Other Spells
Lands
2 Forest
1 Godless Shrine
3 Golgari Rot Farm
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Swamp
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Treetop Village
2 Twilight Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
24 Lands

Sideboard
3 Choke
2 Damnation
2 Duress
2 Fulminator Mage
2 Infest
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Stony Silence
15 cards
Death Cloud

 

Death Cloud decks have been lurking in the wings since Modern's beginnings, making their presence known at PT Philadelphia '11, Modern's first sanctioned event, ever. Death Cloud was a player in Ye Olde Extended, as well. I love these decks, and love showing them off whenever they pop up. The Rock hallmarks of disruption and clogging the ground are all there. Make no mistake about it, this twisted monstrosity is still a branch of that hell spawned family tree known as Rock.

One thing I think worth noting: that's Liliana Vess we're seeing here, not Liliana of the Veil. It makes perfect sense, too, if you think about it for a minute. Her +1 is strictly better than LotV's +1, her tutoring effect is nondiscardable, and her ultimate is strictly better post-cloud. Her casting cost isn't really an issue. With Garruk Wildspeaker untapping lands, and Sakura-Tribe Elder plopping out basics, no huhu. I love olde skoole tech like this; the delicate interplay of the love/hate that Garrul and Lili have for each other is a thing of beauty, and this deck is a tango.

A few weeks back, I was talking about how Delver had disappeared for a while, and was starting to experience a renaissance of sorts. This trend has been led most recently by UR PyroDelver. Monday, we had an invasion of Delver decks, and I ran across something new...


Blue Ninja Delver
masterczulki (3-1) Modern Daily #6455075 - Download Deck
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
17 Creatures

Other Spells
4 Cryptic Command
3 Disrupting Shoal
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
4 Vapor Snag
23 Other Spells
Lands
18 Island
2 Mutavault
20 Lands

Ninja of the Deep Hours

 

Which is almost identical to this one, differing mainboard only in one copy of Vendilion Clique vs Disrupting Shoal.

Blue Ninja Delver
Tendrils (3-1) Modern Daily #6455075 - Download Deck
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Snapcaster Mage
16 Creatures

Other Spells
4 Cryptic Command
4 Disrupting Shoal
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Remand
4 Serum Visions
4 Vapor Snag
24 Other Spells
Lands
18 Island
2 Mutavault
20 Lands

Ninja of the Deep Hours

 

This is a new take, from my perspective, on the Delver archetype. Ninja of the Deep Hours is definitely some interesting tech; I've seen Ninja decks in the Just For Fun room, but never really thought I'd see them here. But then again, this isn't really a Ninja deck, is it? It's a Delver deck.

The basic premise is still the same: plop down Delver, flip, swing. Many times, an opponent will wait for the declare blockers phase before trying to destroy the bug. Oops! What bug? Your opponent is taking two instead of three, but so what? Your Delver is back in hand ready to come out and flip again, and you just drew another card.

This event proved to be a veritable flood of Delver decks. There were a pair of RUG Delvers, as well: 

 

RUG Delver
BootRus (3-1) Modern Daily #6455075 - Download Deck
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Vendilion Clique
18 Creatures

Other Spells
1 Burst Lightning
3 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
4 Serum Visions
1 Sleight of Hand
3 Spell Snare
20 Other Spells
Lands
2 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
7 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
22 cards

Delver of Secrets

 

I think it's interesting that the deck with fewer overall Islands (nine vs eleven) is running Vedalken Shackles. But what do I know? I think it's because of these two builds, the one with the Shackles is going the more controlly route, while the deck without the Shackles is going the more aggro route. Either way, RUG Delver is one the more aggressive flavors of Delver, employing the ubiquitous Tarmogoyf as an additional beater.

Huntmaster of the Fells does yeoman duty, as well.

Huh. I use that phrase a lot, don't I? Such and such card "does yeoman duty." What is a yeoman, anyway? And what is his duty?

Everything I've researched seems a bit muddled and contradictory. The gist seems to be that the yeoman was usually a freeholder bound to the manorial lord. It was also a term for Welsh archers with yew bows. As the term migrated through the centuries, the yeomen were always ranked higher than commoners and laborers, but lower than the lesser nobility. The yeoman was a position of trust and responsibility. Yeoman of the Guard (This position still exists in the British monarchy, and the yeomen are commonly called 'Beefeaters'), Yeoman of the Watch, etc.

From this arose "yeomans duty", as being something arduous but not odious, reliability being implicit. Not hard work, necessarily, but also a duty or assignment faithfully executed.  

 

 

 


Bohemia as the "Heart of Europe"

You go, Boii!

Soon after the dawn of recorded European history, a tribe/nation of Germanic Celts, the Boii, were expanding into what is now northern Italy and southern France. This was one of the events, along with being hard up for cash, leading to Julius Caesar's Gaulish campaign of 58 BC. The emigration of the Boii (along with the Helvetii) left what is now southern Germany and the Czech Republic lightly populated. The Suebi - another Germanic tribe/nation - migrated in from Germany and Poland, and became dominant over the remaining Celts in the region. Both Tacitus and Strabo refer to this area as Boihaemum.

During the 6th and 7th centuries, Slavic tribes emigrated to Boihaemum from the east, and Slavic languages gradually began supplanting the Germanic and Celtic. By the 9th century, Bohemia was largely Czech and German.


This isn't Vyšehrad, it's Karlštejn

Praha was founded in the 8th century by the Czech duchess and prophetess Libuše and her husband, Přemysl. The original wooden fortifications were soon replaced by Vyšehrad, a grand fortress dominated by a cathedral.  Přemysl was also founder of the Přemyslid dynasty, which ruled Bohemia until the 1300's when the House of Luxembourg took over the throne via marriage.

You might be wondering why I'm rambling on about some city in the middle of Europe. A city not many people outside the Czech Republic think about, except in as an Action movie set, or as a tourist destination. I'll tell you why. Bohemia, the Czech Repulic, and their respective Capital kicks off the new year of Modern on January 10 with GP Praha! Woo hoo! Another Modern GP is right around the corner to chase away those post Yuletide blues! Never fear, you'll be getting more history lessons a la Blippy in the upcoming weeks.

You'll be seeing similar ramblings for PT Valencia, Spain, come February. Valencia has a rich and fabled history where I'm bound to find a few gems. I'll be sure to make up some slander and lies for GP Richmond in March, as well. 

 

 

Meta Madness

And so it ends, and begins anew again. Dailies are firing as you're reading this. Premieres are in the queues for the weekend.

And here we are, starting the Q4 2013 MTGO Modern Meta for the third time. We're back to the "samo samo" as far as event results go: the highest attended event on a given day, plus all Premier Events. Since it's so late in the quarter, this data will probably go on to become the Q1 2014, as well.

In the long long ago, in the time of the birthgivers, there were results from all the daily events. It was just over a year ago that they stopped with a barely audible peep.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I still believe WotC purposefully held off announcing this redaction of event results until after the Community Cup Challenge 2012. (So the CCC participants couldn't question the decision/policy change, and so people like me wouldn't mar the event by screaming blue murder from the sidelines)

"…publishing every deck list leads to solving constructed formats far too efficiently… "

"Solving" of Standard and Block has not slowed down. If anything, the pace seemed to increase. The "solving" argument does not even apply to nonrotating formats. One year of redacted results has not shown anything that I can measure as a "slowdown". Has anything been seen or measured in R&D? Prove it.

"...we don’t want metagame development to become purely a function of data analysis."

Uh huh. Dunno about you, bubu, but data analysis figures pretty heavy in any metagame decisions I make. Looking at what's being played, what decks are doing well, what archetype matches well against which, these are all functions of data analysis. If you're not making deck/game decisions based on some form of data analysis, you may as well be throwing darts or using a ouija board.

Event results could go into a simple scrollable box, like this.

12/12 | Modern Daily
12/12 | Modern Daily
12/12 | Modern Daily
12/12 | Modern Daily
12/12 | Standard Daily
12/12 | Standard Daily
12/12 | Standard Daily
12/12 | Standard Daily
12/12 | Standard Daily
12/12 | THS Block Daily
12/12 | THS Block Daily
12/12 | THS Block Daily
12/12 | THS Block Daily
12/12 | THS Block Daily
12/12 | Legacy Daily
12/12 | Legacy Daily
12/12 | Legacy Daily
12/12 | Legacy Daily
12/12 | Legacy Daily

If I can do something this simple, this quickly, with my ancient creaky mind, just imagine what a real coder could do!

It has been mentioned that WotC doesn't want to clutter the page with a long string of event results. Space on the MTGO.COM results bar is not an issue. You cannot tell me with a straight face that this is even an argument.

I call [REDACTED]. Complete and utter [REDACTED]. All the arguments set forth for the redaction of event results in the original forum post of over a year ago, as well as subsequent ones, have been shown to be just so much [REDACTED].

All results. All the time.

NOTE: Google Docs has been having issues recently, so if you see a chart that's simply a red box with "'undefined' is not a function...", refreshing the page will often clear it.




This glimpse into the Modern meta is presented for your entertainment only. It is by no means representative of the actual meta.

 

The Wall of Voodoo

 

Rock

Today, the basic core of the Modern Rock deck is:

Abrupt Decay
Deathrite Shaman
Inquisition of Kozilek  /  Thoughtseize
Liliana of the Veil
Scavenging Ooze
Tarmogoyf

Everything else is “accessories”, according to the builder’s preference. Jund and Junk are two appendages of the same beast. Ajundi happens when the appendages slap together. But it’s all the same slavering, rabid swampbeast hybrid that comes tearing into every Modern FNM, every Modern GP, every Modern PTQ, every Modern PT. And usually ends up King of the Hill. That beast is Rock.

 

 

 

Spank The Slug

I'm trying something new. To be more accurate, I'm stealing an idea/tool that I like. I want to be known for my words, as well as my commitment to giving back to the community that spawned whatever this is. (This being the whole gestalt of MTGO (and me), my articles, my events, the community, and you) I want to be known for a lot of things, actually, but those two are the issues at hand here. This is an article about MTGO (and me), and I am writing it. You are part of my gestalt. I want to interact with you.

So. Ask me something. Ask me anything.

Nobody asked me anything! Again! *sniff!* So here's some biographical fiction.

 

Mid-February, Postwar West Germany, 1959

Screams of laughter echoed off the cold concrete of the abandoned bunker. Mama would blow a gasket if she knew Uschi was sitting at an illicit fire with that ne’er-do-well Herman, and drinking warm pilsner. Uschi was enthralled with Herman’s pompadoured hair, his pointy shoes, and his overall slickness. Mama said he would bring her to no good end, but Uschi didn’t care. She was nineteen, almost twenty, and Mama didn’t know everything! Sitting here holding Herman’s hand felt just fine. The beer and Hermans silly renditions of the Schmaltz the grownups listened to were going to her head, it looked like Herman was melting… and his eyes were… bulging outwards…

 

Late November, Outside Oldenburger Atommüll Und Biologischabfälle Anlage #3 1959

Uschi wept inconsolably as she read the letter again. Herman had been sent to live with his uncle across the ocean in Amerika. Mama had had him sent far away, bribing Herman’s father with a small piece of land, and Herman’s uncle with some of the carefully hoarded gold. Mama told her that no good would ever come from him, and had forced Uschi to work at the horrible waste dump. As she cried her way homeward along the path by the grimy facility, a fit of sneezing overtook her. Each sneeze seemed to want to pop her eyes right out of her head. Uschi sat down hard. In a final violent paroxysm, Uschi sneezed a large globule of glowing phlegm onto the ground.

As Uschi sat on the ground rubbing her aching nose, the loogey began to quiver and shake. Uschi watched speechless as a bright purple something wiggled it’s way free. It lay there for a moment, then a plume of bright green feathers unfurled from it’s backside. Two protrusions at the front quickly followed. The little columns turned bright green at the tips, as well. The feathers on it’s back began to wave, and quickly the bright green turned to a vivid yellow. The wee beastie was no larger than a One Mark coin.

 

Early March, Wilhelmshaven, 1963

Uschi huddled in the darkness, listening to the machinery and shouts of men as they loaded the freighter. There was a series of loud clanks, and her cramped crate was being hoisted into the cavernous hold of the ship. After few moments of being jostled into place, silence descended. An interminable time later, Uschi heard the six big Daimler diesels coughing to life one after another, filling her world with a monotonous blatting. An almost imperceptible rocking told her they were under way! Soon she would be holding Herman once more, and Mama could curse all she wanted.

Uschi undid the latch securing the lid from the inside, and peeked out into the hold. It was dark, except for the red glow of the night lamps, and deserted. She quietly crept out of the crate, and retrieved her knapsack. As she opened her pack, her pet (who she had named Blippi) scooted out and turned its eyestalks on her reproachfully. “It’s dark and smelly in there!”, whispered the bright purple beast, now grown to the size of a medium dog. “Why did I have to be in your pack when we were hiding to begin with?”

“If they did find us, I didn’t want to have to explain you”

“If they did find us, they would have found me, too, wouldn’t they?”

“Shut up, Blippi.”

The two had made their way to the door leading to the rest of the vessel. Uschi pressed her ear against it, listening hard. Not hearing anything, she tried the handle, and found it unlocked. “Come on, Blippi! Let’s get us some fresh air!” Following signs, the pair crept through the seemingly empty ship, and finally stood before a hatch. Steeling her nerve, Uschi again found the door unlocked, opened it, and walked out onto the little observation platform.

The sun shone gloriously in a clear blue sky. Below her, and stretching to the horizon, Uschi could see cloudtops of the purest white. Between the clouds, she could see tiny sparkles of sunlight reflected off the ocean far below. The air smelled clean and beautiful after so many hours cooped in a crate. Uschi imagined the air where Herman was, in fact, the air in all of Amerika, smelled just as sweet.

 

 

Friday Night Standard

Friday Night Standard is a limited seating, free-to-enter tournament that runs twice every Friday: once at 1800 UTC, and again at 830PM Eastern time. It's structured just like the Dailies on MTGO: 4 Rounds of Swiss Pairing, with prizes going to all 4-0 & 3-1 players. Registration is done via Gatherling. You can find more information at the main event thread here.

 

Watch Friday Night Standard from the Tournament Organizer's perspective! The Slug's Lair on Ustream will be bringing you all the action live every Friday at 830PM Eastern. Everything from the player meeting to the final math, experience a tournament from the TOs point of view. There are "feature matches" every round.

 

 

FNS Pacific

I had been considering adding a third event to the Friday Night Standard lineup, to cater to MTGO players living in the Pacific Rim and eastern Asia.

 

Due to lack of interest, this project is being shelved.

 

 

FNS EU #40
Players: 17
4-0: call1me1dragon, Odero
3-1: Lannister1, olioolli, Houmeris
Decklists and results from all Friday Night Standard EU events can be found here.

 

 

 

FNS #51
Players: 18
4-0: erymrog
3-1: arcbounddaylabor, rittmeyer, vole, Lannister1, pan
Decklists and results from all Friday Night Standard events can be found here.

 

 

 

 


BlippyTheSlug on MTGO

USTREAM Channel: The Slug's Lair
Blog: Read At Your Peril (NSFW!)