Big Magic tournaments always have that sense of excitement about them; a witches' brew of nerd sweat, stock market trading floor, symposium, and chess tournament.
I personally can do without the nerd sweat, but the other three elements are both highly enjoyable.
My first such tournament was the 1997 Origins Expo in Columbus, Ohio. There I got my"trader credentials" in one of the most vicious environments in Magic history: PT Columbus (ALICE Block), Nationals, and Grinders during Necro Summer. If any other old Magic geezers are still around, they can tell you younguns about the meteoric rise of Despotic Specter, which in a period of three hours (all centered around the unveiling of Turbo Stasis), went from crap rare to chase card. Literally three hours. It was pure insanity. To add to the heat, Pros were scrambling for Outposts and Glaciers; this created a bizarre trading market, a veritable economics thesis being played out with cards instead of widgets. All in all, it was a great time.
I also had my first opportunity to rub elbows with the game's then pantheon of stars. I met Bertran Lestree, Brian Weissman, and Richard Garfield (The Progenitor himself). I played in the Sideboard Challenge, and we played against Tongo Nation, which has since gone down in the annals of Magic history with a reputation roughly equivalent to the Mongol hordes or the Barbary Pirates of Tunisia. They were actually a really nice bunch of guys. Watching the Pros duke it out was also an enjoyable experience, but their surroundings are not the disco tech that they are today. Still, it was eye-opening. I remade a battery of decks.
Now that I have reached back into my archives and brought out the smelly old nostalgia book, I can honestly say that this Pro Tour Boston was an event probably equal in terms of fun.
It did not have the scale that Origins did, with a huge building and probably 3,000 attendees... But it did have the thrill of a Pre-release, a much more interesting cadre of Pros, and a slightly less frenetic trading floor. I will try my best to recount my experience on Friday and Saturday of the Pro Tour. Specifically, I will rehash a few interesting conversations I had with some Magic people, I will try to outline what will be hot for the upcoming Extended season in terms of chase cards, and I will try to sort out the Sealed versus draft aspects of Onslaught.
The Meet and Greet
I arrived at the Bay Side Expo Center (a.k.a. the"Bay Side Exposes Yourself Center," aptly named for the drunken, clothes free-frivolity that usually goes on there, the concerts, Snow Jams, etc.) on Friday morning around 10 a.m. to see that the Pro Tour was very much in the swing of things. The far corner of the Center was packed with people, while the rest of the place was pretty empty. It was a weekday, it was raining, and it was early, so that was to be expected. Right away, I noticed that Wizards had upgraded the banners and added about forty plasma screens to their display stuff for the Pro Tour. It was a pretty slick showing, great for garnering mainstream media interest.
The only thing that irked me were the misspellings on the banners. Did you know that the Green, Blue, White creature in Planeshift was actually"Questling Pheldagrif"? Neither did I.
I wandered around a bit and watched the feature matches for a while. Then I went over to the edge of the carpet and saw a few of my Ohio friends battling the Phoenix Foundation. Needless to say, that was a second-round loss for the Ohioans. The guys from Ohio were good, but they ain't miracle workers. To be fair, their card pool was a bit shallow, but still.... I then watched a few plays from the second round match from the YMG team. I think they lost, but they had legitimate card pool issues, from the looks of things.
After a bit of watching, I decided to sit down and play some Extended, thinking that I could cobble together a sideboard and play my Post-November Stompy deck in the 4:00 Extended tournament. I sat down and shuffled up against a Rock deck played by the namesake of the Benzo Reanimator deck. The Stompy deck did rather well, especially without the sideboard, but in the end it was not that fun to play. Either I killed the opponent in five turns, or I died slowly over twenty. Yuck.
After a few matches, I noticed a familiar face hovering around the table. It turned out to be Brian Kibler and he was a genuinely nice guy. I have been to a few Pro Tours and National championships (as a spectator, mind you) and I have met a number of Pro Tour guys - some old-school, and many that are still on the Tour today. Of those guys, Kibler was definitely the most approachable and probably the most versed in the game. Bertran Lestree, on the other hand, was quite a surly dude (though he did explain to me the power of Thawing Glaciers in broken French-English). I asked Kibler a number of questions about philosophy (I was a philosophy major as well) and then I asked him some questions about Magic. Seeing as I fancy myself as a deckbuilder, and Kibler is one of the best, I really enjoyed the opportunity to compare notes.
First, we discussed deck building in general. I said that I really did not enjoy the format of OBC... And he concurred, but pointed out that he did enjoy a format with a smaller card pool. Unlike Standard and Extended, Kibler pointed out, OBC can allow for more creative metagame solutions. The general gist was that the smaller card pool did not automatically eliminate some of the wackier, yet specifically-tailored, strategies. For the most part I agree with these comments, but OBC even for a smaller format was awful, with no red at all.
We then talked about the comparisons between OBC and Tempest Block. I claimed that Tempest was, initially like OBC, but as time wore on Tempest Block became healthier, while OBC remained very much the same. Kibler agreed, but pointed out that the Pro Tour with Tempest Block was only Tempest alone, so that any subsequent deckbuilding would appear more vibrant than it really was.
Finally, we talked about the effects of the Internet on deckbuilding and deckbuilding in general. He claimed that the Internet had a profound effect on deckbuilding in that it made environments evolve much faster. Information about a successful deck could be spread rapidly across the globe resulting in dramatic metagame shifts. I agreed for the most part but also point out the fact that often times the Internet has a subtle but debilitating effect on building good decks. As I have argued many times before here on Star City, the Internet can blind players and effectively stamp out innovation. I pointed out that Netherhaups was completely viable and would have made a good run at PT Chicago 2000. He agreed and pointed out that Trix was viable and would have been in contention for best deck at Chicago the year before.
I then asked him about the similarities between decks. I told him that I had been working independently on a deck similar to the Red Zone 2K2 that he played at Worlds. By the time Worlds came around, I was about done with the deck and it was five or six cards away from his build. Kibler stated that this was a predictable effect given the rapid dissemination of information and the obviousness of certain cards. The real difference between good deckbuilding and Pro Tour caliber deckbuilding was the ability to tweak those last few cards to optimize the deck. All of this was very true.
Overall, it was a very interesting conversation. Brian was very knowledgeable and articulate. He knew his history, which I find to be incredibly important for a player, and he was a nice guy.
After my talk with Kibler, I went to watch a feature match. When I was standing around the Pit I overheard Randy Buehler explaining the game to a guy who seemed a bit out of place. He was explaining the matches and the scores and how the players determined who was winning. The guy seemed at least cursorily interested. At first, I thought he was a reporter... But after talking with Mr. Buehler, it turns out he was the new CEO of Wizards! The CEO left to tend to other business. I then asked Buehler if the guy was a gamer at all. He said no - but that he was an amazing businessman, and that it was probably the wisest of moves to have a good businessman in charge. After thinking about for a minute, I realized that Buehler was right. I told him that as long as the suits keep giving R&D the cash, I don't care what they do. In the end, I think this is the correct position. Let the businesspeople worry about the financial health of the game and the creative people worry about the game itself. Each person can play to their strengths and help sustain the game.
I then asked him if the employee ban was not in place, would he would want to play on the Tour? Randy answered with an emphatic yes. He told me that he really loved to compete - and that even if he could not win money, he would still love to play. All in all, this is the kind of guy I want in charge of creative elements for Wizards. Randy came off as a knowledgeable, enthusiastic guy.
Finally, after my friend Ed Moynihan arrived, we watched the Irish team play. Ed is from Ireland and is still well-connected to the scene there, as such he recognized everyone immediately and told me who was who. After reading about John Larkin's performances on the Sideboard and hearing legends of his success through Ed and various other people, John Larkin was nothing like what I expected. He looked like he would be more at home as a character in a British crime movie, like"Snatch," than on the Pro Tour. But watching him play for a while, I realized he was really good. He made no mistakes and often bluffed his opponent into terrible decisions. He was focused on the game and his teammate's positions as well. Overall, he was as impressive a player as I have ever seen - including Kai, who I watched later in the day.
Larkin's unconventional card choices paid off in spades throughout the course of his game, which I only caught the tail end of. The Irish team won their match, but finished low overall. Larkin can certainly give Hammer a run for his money as the most intimidating player ever to grace the Pro Tour. After the match, though, he was very nice guy and did not seem to bothered by his team's performance.
After all of this schmoozing I went over to the Star City table and talked with Pete, Star City's owner, who I had never met in person. He was very nice and incredibly knowledgeable about the business of Magic. We talked about advertising, which is awful right now, and the impact it is having on Magic sites around the world. Star City, because of its store/site model, is not has impacted by this trend as other sites have, something I was happy to hear.
We talked about Brainburst and their controversial stance they took on the spoiler issue. Team Academy's booth was right next door, and we heard some vitriolic comments come from their direction. We also talked about the new site, which may be up by the time I send this. From what Pete told me it sounds awesome; it also sounds like Ferrett did a bunch of work. (Sweet Jeebus, is that the understatement of the year... - The Ferrett) Here is to hoping that everything goes off smoothly.
Needless to say, after all this talking and watching I did not have a sideboard ready for the Extended tournament. Instead, I drafted one last Odyssey draft with my final draft set. The draft turned out as many Odyssey drafts did-G/W losing big time.
My deck had the following: One Mirari's Wake, one Beast Attack, one Mystic Enforcer, one Second Thoughts, and a host of combat tricks (including my favorite draft card, Guided Strike). However, with a dearth of fliers and one solid removal spell I lost all of my games. So much for Odyssey draft.
Cards to Watch in Extended
Eager to see the new set in action, I arrived at the Expose Yourself Center early on Saturday, about 8:30. The registration was not officially to begin until 9:00, but arriving as I did I was still in Flight 8. Lots of waiting and leaning and sleeping ensued. The ride from Newton, where I live, to the Expo Center was a good forty minutes - and that early in the morning meant that I was functionally comatose. Finally, I registered and began the trading bonanza.
Now aside from a deckbuilder, I fancy myself as a pretty good negotiator. I bought my own car, a Civic (which I highly recommend), recently and did all the negotiations myself. This summer I negotiated on behalf of some clients with some serious heavy hitters, and I have been trading for quite some time. So with time to spare and a room full of players, I was really ready to go.
My big focus was on Extended cards. These next few months will be very exciting for Magic. Both major Constructed formats have major shifts and there will be the addition of an entirely new set. The result is that trading was frantic all day and that the power cards for the new environment quickly emerged.
I really wanted to pin down a few cards that I think will be important in the new environment for Extended. Now everyone is looking for two cards - Morphling and Cursed Scroll - thus driving the prices and trade value on these cards sky-high, but there are other cards that will be equally or more important when the season begins. With the exit of Swords to Plowshares, creature decks again become very powerful. Accordingly, Tradewind Rider, Masticore, and Spiritmonger are all staples in the new environment. The power of Rishadan Port has been demonstrated time and again - and with Armageddon (also a card to look for) in the environment, this card's stock has gone up as well. Finally, the multi-lands from Invasion Block are crucial to many three-color and enemy color decks. In turn, the value of lands or cards that can produce any color has gone up considerably, making Thran Quarry, Mox Diamond, and Reflecting Pool important as well.
Because of Masticore's overall power and his positive interaction with madness, threshold, and flashback, I see this card as being the number three card in Extended in terms of value. I would even go out on a limb and say that he will make more of an impact than Morphling and Cursed Scroll, given his wide playability in different decks. Also be on the look out for Spike Weaver (which seemed to double in price from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon), Vampiric Tutor, Pernicious Deed, Vindicate, Meddling Mage, Recurring Nightmare (which is not banned, much to my surprise, and no, I did not play Extended last year), Phyrexian Plaguelord, and Living Death to all be important as well. If the deck is still viable, Quirion Dryad could also retain its value as a great rare.
In terms of uncommons, there are a number of cards that will make an impact in Extended: First, the blue free counters from Masques Block, Thwart and Foil, will be important now that Force of Will is rotating out. Similarly, Fact or Fiction will be a crucial card in the new Extended; Forbid and Dismiss could even see play now that the logjam of awesome counter spells has been broken up a bit.
Given the prominence of beatdown in Extended, Wall of Blossoms may be a good uncommon to pick up. Flametongue Kavu will likely become the creature removal of choice and thus deserves mention. Chainer's Edict, paired up with its Diabolical Cousin for Tempest will also be important. Furthermore, Spike Feeder, Fire/Ice, Uktabi Orangutan, Jackal Pup, Wastelands, Treetop Village, Chimeric Idol, and Avalanche Riders all seem like solid uncommons in the new environment. Look for Skyshroud Elite to be sleeper card for aggro decks.
Also, in light of all the madness enablers in Extended (Wild Mongrel, Masticore, all of the Spellshapers, and Anurid Brushhopper) Circular Logic, Violent Eruption, and Arrogant Wurm, along with a few flashback cards like Roar of the Wurm and Battle Screech will be hot tickets. [Shameless plug: All of these cards and more can be purchased right here on Star City for great low prices and fast service.] (Thanks for saving me the time - The Ferrett)
The Prerelease and Onslaught
Just as I picked up my fourth Masticore my flight got called and we got to see the power of Onslaught first hand. I opened the following five rares: the green Word, the black Word, the Cleric lord, Symbiotic Wurm, and Towering Baloth. Needless to say, the secondary commitments in mana or creatures necessary to make these cards work properly left me without any bombs.
And in case you could not figure it out from the spoiler list or the prerelease, Onslaught Limited is all about the bombs. Visara, Rorix, and other super creatures tend to quickly dominate in any Limited environment - but in Onslaught, which has so few removal spells that work on high-end creatures, these bomb rares are the defining element in the environment. I did happen to pull two Mistform Wall, two Mistform fliers, a Smother, two Pacifisms, a Swat, the big white wall, and some creature type tricks. All in all, I thought that my deck was a good one, with two Pacifisms, the best white common (and perhaps the best card) in the set.
The environment is highly tuned to turn three because of morph and land drops are crucial. In my first match I mulliganed down to five the first game (with two land) and four the next game (with one land). These three lands were all I would see for the entire match. Needless to say, I was swiftly beaten. My opponent was gracious enough to admit that I was land-screwed, but his 4/5 blue flier and army of green giants would have killed me even with a good draw. The flier, a rare, came out both games and simply wrecked my paltry defenses. Again, the bombs define this environment.
My second match was a bit more competitive - but in this match, it was my poor judgment calls that gave me the double loss. Twice I attacked into a morph trap and twice I lost a spell to a morph trap. Once I attacked with my 3/3 Mistform flier only to have it eaten by a morphed Giant Spider (Snarling Undorak, I do believe, which is an awesome green creature in Limited). Another time I lost a Crafty Pathmage (a good blue common to combo with Nantuko Husk, which I also had) to a morphed Skirk Commando I chose not to block. Finally, I lost a Pacifism and a Swat to a Disruptive Pitmage and Voidmage Prodigy respectively.
The lesson: Memorize the morph costs of every creature in Onslaught. Know them like the back of your hand and play around them accordingly. In Limited games are won or lost on the basis of combat tricks and none are more powerful than the morph cards.
FYI: A list of the morph creature costs is available at StarCity, courtesy of blisterguy. This information will be the central piece of data for Limited for the next year, so learn it and grow strong.
Overall, the set is okay in Sealed, with the bombs and morph dominating. Red appears to be the best color with great commons, Skirk Commando, a few Tims, and some good enchant creatures. Green and white seem to come in second. Green has the beef (of course) and white has combat tricks galore, with Gravel Slinger being among the best white commons available and Pacifism being the creature stopper of choice. Black loses its instant-speed creature removal (except for Cruel Revival, which is five mana!), and gains some limited versions of removal like Swat (which is good) and the less often-seen Smother. It has a few overpriced fliers and some good morph tricks, like a morphing Mindstab Thrull.
Blue seems to have gotten the shaft in Limited, with only a few fliers and some really paltry combat tricks to win the day. There is very little bounce, hardly any card drawing, and not as many fliers as usual. The Mistform Walls and the three-mana Mistform flier are good, as is the Sage Aven which lets you rearrange the top cards in your library (blue's replacement ability for drawing cards, I guess). Repulse would single-handedly turn blue's fate around, had it been included, but alas...
Overall, the set seems slow in Limited.
However, I think Onslaught will be the drafter's choice, with tribal decks likely to dominate. The speed of the set and the impact of the bombs will be mitigated by signaling to your opponents and the early commitments to colors/creature types. With the ability to choose creatures, the tribal route - which isn't fully available in Sealed - will be much more popular in draft. The synergy between creatures of the same race and the ease with which signals can be given will likely turn draft into a tribal war. Thus, the drafter will need to keep three things in mind:
1) The power of the creature type, including the uncommon and rare lords and the uncommon tribal avatars
2) The tribal support spells like Thunder of Hooves and Wirewood Pride
3) The non-tribal support cards within the color.
I think that the soldier and goblin decks will likely win in draft with the beast deck, the wizard deck, elf deck, and bird deck following in the middle of the pack. Towing the trail end will be the cleric and zombie decks, which are lacking true tribal powerhouses.
Soldiers and goblins, in red and white, respectively, are two of the three cheapest creature types on the whole and both have solid support spells within their colors. White has Pacifism, a good rare lord, and some excellent morph trap creatures (Gravel Slinger). Red has a host of burn, including the impressive Solar Blast, a great uncommon land, and a very smooth mana curve with pingers throughout. The soldier deck may have the edge in that it has access to more combat tricks, but the goblin deck may be a bit faster. Either way, I think these will be the tier one draft decks.
Down just a bit in terms of power will be the beast deck, which could be big, if the drafter can manage to secure some acceleration or stall effects (walls, like the uncommon Wall of Mulch, or effects). Otherwise, the high casting cost of the beasts may force the drafter into a defensive position too early against the faster and trickier goblin and solider decks. In distinction to the beast deck is the elf deck, a fast deck that lacks the tricks of the soldier deck and the burn of the goblin deck. It has an excellent early and mid game with Wirewood Elves and Elvish Pioneer providing early acceleration.
Wellwisher is also a great card in draft; however, after the fourth or fifth turn the Elf deck seems to lose steam quickly. Without red's support cards and the beast deck's beefiness, I think that the Elf deck is not the powerhouse the other green creature deck could be. Birds can fly and thus are good in draft, but they tend to be too expensive and not as beefy as their Odyssey brethren. Blue's weak support spells also hurts the Bird deck, but because the Bird cards are in more than one color they can pick up the good support spells in white as well, making the deck a potential winner. To be successful the bird deck needs the right mix of no hate drafting, not sitting next to a player drafting soldiers (which would eat you good white support spells), and some awesome rares.
Wizards are a bit trickier than birds but lack evasion, so they may fall behind to the end of the middle of the pack. The two remaining races, Zombies and Clerics, seem to be missing some tribal support spells and thus are not true contenders.
Conclusions
Overall, the weekend was a great time. The Pro Tour was interesting, but I think it may be time to abandon the Team format, as it seems to be broken, and is really hard to qualify for (requiring three people with relatively synchronized schedules). Extended looks healthy and fun, with a lot of strategies and cards to use now that the dual lands have left and Swords and Force of Will are gone. And while Onslaught is a mediocre Sealed format, I predict it will be huge in draft. The set looks like it was designed for that very purpose.
I also am very pleased with the state of the game and the quality of the people participating in and running it. All of the Pros seem like nice people, and Wizards employees are very dedicated.
Finally, I must mention two things:
First, I left my box of tournament commons on a table at the site for over two hours and realizing my mistake found them later. Not a single card was taken and nothing was disturbed. This is a testament to the people that play Magic. Thanks.
Second, as a balance to that comment, I would like to personally apologize to Kush Patel. I normally try to not air grievances or inside jokes in a public forum like this, but suffice to say that I was recently inappropriately rude to Kush - a local JSS player and soon-to-be contender on the Pro Tour - for no reason.
I am sorry. I hope that this article gave everyone some insight into the new set and the new environments that are coming up. And to everyone I met in person, thanks for talking. If you have any comments or questions, email me at scu09144@suffolk.edu.
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