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When you've been alive for twenty-four years, not a lot can happen that is new or unexpected. The majority of day-to-day activities are pretty much summed up in “been there, done that.” Every once in a while though, something happens that stands out.
Since writing about girls in Magic articles seems to be the cool thing to do, I'm going to share a pretty ridiculous anecdote this week that is nothing like the stories other writers have contributed. Most girl stories have the typical happy ending that we've become accustomed to seeing in movies nowadays (or else the story probably wasn't worth sharing, especially not in an article about a card game). My point is that I want to apologize in advance for the letdown due to the fact that my story resides more in the realm of… “What the hell!?”
So yeah, I get a message on AIM the other day from a girl that I've never talked to before. She proceeds to tell me that she checked out my MySpace page the other day and thought I was hot, etc. She then goes on to ask for the link to my page again since she lost it or something. So I give her the link, and I guess she must have failed to read the About Me section the first time… because she quickly replies with the following comment..
“We can't talk anymore, you're a poker player for life and that's lame.”
Like I said, what the hell?
The only reason I even mention this whole ordeal is that it is hilarious on so many levels. First of all, she went out of her way to message me and apparently hadn't read a single thing on my page, since the very first line says that I play card games professionally. This situation is a first for me too, because I've never been rejected (is this even rejection? I don't even know what she looked like or anything about her) due to the fact that I play poker as my main source of income. What's the big deal anyway? Maybe she has bad family history with gambling or something? Who knows? One theory is that she was actually a calling station in a previous life, and now despises the game and won't talk to anyone who plays it.
Anyway, hopefully that was interesting because it sure did make me scratch my head.
This week I want to talk about a few different things as far as Magic is concerned. First off I want to list our cardpool from GP: Boston, since it is now the 2HG qualifying season and I don't think you can get enough practice building Sealed pools in this format. Second, I want to talk about some card valuations in regular TTP draft that I've been thinking about lately. In summary, I'll be all over the place so try to compartmentalize it all if you can.
Here's our GP cardpool followed by deckbuilding. For anyone interested, I played with Chris Fennell.
One of the first things we did after sorting out the trash and putting the cards into colors was to realize that the Black just sucked. Dralnu is freaking awesome in 2HG, but this pool didn't have anywhere near enough spells for him to flash back. The only other great Black cards we had were Muck Drubb and Sudden Death, and all of the creatures were really bad. Clearly we were splashing the Strangling Soot somewhere, but cutting the Black right away made things a lot easier.
As far as choosing the color combinations, it wasn't too tough as we had Ith that we wanted to play, as well as a strong Sliver theme. I don't think you can build the decks any differently than G/R and U/W if you want the most synergy and power. We considered just not running the Slivers for a while but decided that this was just stupid.
Here are the builds we played followed by some explanations as to why certain cards did or didn't make the cut.
| GP: Boston 2HG Deck Seat B Featured by Nick Eisel on 2007-04-15 (Time Spiral Limited) | ||
Artifacts 1 Chromatic Star 1 Paradise Plume Creatures 1 Aetherflame Wall 1 Durkwood Baloth 1 Essence Warden 1 Gemhide Sliver 2 Giant Dustwasp 1 Needlepeak Spider 1 Scryb Ranger 1 Stingscourger Enchantments 1 Seal of Primordium 1 Utopia Vow |
Instants 1 Brute Force 1 Evolution Charm 1 Strangling Soot Legendary Creatures 1 Akroma, Angel of Fury 1 Jedit Ojanen of Efrava Sorceries 1 Empty the Warrens 1 Grapeshot 1 Ignite Memories 1 Search for Tomorrow 1 Tribal Flames Basic Lands 9 Forest 7 Mountain 1 Swamp | Stats: Average mana: 1.85 Average creature mana cost: 3.91 Average creature power: 2.82 Average creature toughness: 3.00 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 42.50% Sorceries: 12.50% Instants: 7.50% Legendary Creatures: 5.00% Enchantments: 5.00% Creatures: 22.50% Artifacts: 5.00% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
I played this deck in the B Seat because we felt it needed the extra card if we were on the play. The Blue deck had two Fathom Seers anyway, and this deck wants to build to a powerful Storm turn.
Timbermare
This guys sucks in 2HG. The only way I'd ever play this card is if I had multiple Momentary Blinks or some other way to turn the drawback into a benefit. He isn't even anywhere near guaranteed to be a Lava Axe either as they can have any removal or bounce spell or even an instant speed chump-blocker. Leave this one on the sidelines in all but the most special of circumstances.
Gaea's Anthem
We had this in the deck for a good portion of deckbuilding before we finally realized that there just weren't enough men in the deck to make this good. Perhaps if we had a second Empty the Warrens or just more guys it would make it, but it seemed truly underwhelming when the deck was laid out.
Molder
We wanted to run one Enchantment / Artifact killer and we chose Seal of Primordium simply because of the three Storm cards in the deck. In general I believe Molder is the better card, but we could play the Seal earlier in the game even when there wasn't a target in play just to power up Storm and this alone made the Seal superior in these decks.
Blood Knight
This guy is pretty underwhelming as well, though still playable. We decided that the Aetherflame Wall and Paradise Plume were both better options. The Plume helped the Soot splash, as well as helping to get GGG or RRR for either of our Legends, and it gained some life on the side. I'm still not sure I'm sold on the Plume overall in 2HG, but it was fine in the games we played it and Blood Knight certainly wouldn't have been better.
| GP: Boston 2HG Deck Seat A Featured by Chris Fennell on 2007-04-15 (Time Spiral Limited) | ||
Creatures 1 Castle Raptors 2 Fathom Seer 1 Jodah's Avenger 1 Looter il-Kor 1 Opaline Sliver 1 Poultice Sliver 1 Quilled Sliver 1 Shade of Trokair 1 Shaper Parasite 1 Sinew Sliver 1 Slipstream Serpent 2 Synchronous Sliver 1 Timebender 1 Veiling Oddity 1 Watcher Sliver 1 Whitemane Lion Instants 1 Cancel 1 Dawn Charm |
Legendary Creatures 1 Ith, High Arcanist 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Sorceries 1 Resurrection Basic Lands 10 Island 7 Plains | Stats: Average mana: 2.10 Average creature mana cost: 3.75 Average creature power: 2.20 Average creature toughness: 2.70 Deck Composition: Basic Lands: 42.50% Creatures: 45.00% Instants: 5.00% Legendary Creatures: 5.00% Sorceries: 2.50% |
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| Download this deck in Apprentice format! |
Download this deck in Magic Online Text format! | |
This deck had some tough cuts like the Calciderm and the Icatian Crier. I believe this is very likely the best build you can make for this deck as all of the cards have a purpose. It also sucked to cut the Piracy Charm, but again, I don't know what we'd ever change in the maindeck to fit it as everything is a good card or a Sliver. Don't forget we have the Gemhide to help power out Teferi as well as use the other Sliver abilities. The Cavalry Master was just a guy in this deck so he obviously didn't make it, and the Opal Guardian was too tough on the manabase as we wanted lots of Islands.
I'm not going to rehash the rounds we lost really because I'm not sure we could've done much about it. Most people would just say this and call it a bad beat, but I've been over the games in my head multiple times and it just wasn't in the cards for us last weekend. The good thing was that I was very happy with our play despite the fact that I was fighting a pretty bad cold and Chris hadn't played much of the format at all.
TTP Draft
I woke up feeling like crap on Sunday in Boston and decided there was no way I was well enough to play eight more rounds of 2HG in the PTQ. This led to sleeping in and then team drafting all day, just like I did on Friday. My overall record on the weekend was 9-2 in 2on2s and 3on3s, so at least that went well and paid for my plane ticket.
I've been drafting a lot and thinking about card values in this format, and finally have a critical mass that I can share in this section.
Corpulent Corpse
I really like Venser's Sliver nowadays, and it's not even because it's a Sliver. It's because it blocks this guy, and also Skirk Shaman.
I used to really hate the Corpse in TTT as it seemed far too slow. Even though I'm not a huge fan of either Black or White in TTP, if I'm Black, I definitely want this guy in my deck and will pick it reasonably high. I'm not sure what changed exactly, or if I'm just biased because most of the people in my playgroup share a similar distaste for Black, which in turn makes Fear better… but at any rate, I like the Corpse again.
Aven Riftwatcher
This guy is misused in my opinion. What I mean by this is that he only belongs in certain archetypes and if you just play him straight up, he's almost a mulligan.
In order for this to be good in your deck, you need a way to negate the card disadvantage. This can be as simple as a Rebel searcher or as comborific as Momentary Blink or Tolarian Sentinel. Basically what I'm saying is that you're trading a card for a pretty marginal effect here unless you have a way to abuse it or get it for free, and normal decks just can't afford to do this. If you have some Woodreaders or Fathom Seer or some way to gas back up, then by all means play this, but I wouldn't be caught dead running it in R/W unless my deck was just terrible. Most people seem to like this card but I'm of the opinion that few actually understand the conditions that need to be met before you actually want him in your deck.
Mana Skimmer
A few of us were talking about this card on the plane ride home, and how it used to be great and now is toned down a bit. It just seems to have trouble getting through nowadays, with Giant Dustwasp, Needlepeak Spider, Aven Riftwatcher, and all of the other guys in the new set that hold down the air. It could also be that people have finally realized the true value of Penumbra Spider.
Whatever the case, I will still play this card, but I'm never excited about it. It usually ends up costing lots of tempo when my opponent simply casts Dead / Gone on it or flips up Shaper Parasite. While I'd never say this in TTT, I'd much rather have the Corpse than the Skimmer, and obviously also Gorgon Recluse and Mindstab.
Brain Gorgers
This guy has been surprisingly playable for me. It's kinda sad to say that because it shows how much Black really does suck, but plopping this guy out on turn 3 with Looter il-Kor is pretty ridiculous on the play, even if you have to “get lucky” to get a Giant Cockroach. Oh, by the way, this is not a combo with Lightning Axe unless you are on the opposing team in a team draft and don't know how the stack works.
Imp's Mischief
If I were to tell you some of the stories where I've gotten blown out by this card, I wouldn't even know where to start. I do know that I lost an entire draft to it when my U/B opponent redirected my Pentarch Ward that was headed for Duskrider Peregrine and then bashed my face. It may look silly, but it's actually a pretty high pick and hard to play around since it's very cheap. Redirecting Mindstab is well worth the six life also, in case you were wondering.
Utopia Vow
There is a group of strong players that really like this card. I am not one of this group. It usually will still end up in my deck, but I'm not very happy about it. Giving your opponent any color of mana is a very big deal, and I've won multiple games because my opponent let me cast my splash card off this. It definitely gets better in multiples, but as most of you already know that I hate Temporal Isolation because of gating creatures and damage on the stack tricks. Isolation is way better than this card so that should give you a feel for where I stand on it.
Brute Force
In the first few drafts I did, I didn't think this card was going to be that strong. I was severely mistaken and it's definitely not the first time. I don't necessarily pick this high if I have other tricks, but the effect is huge especially in non-Green decks and I've come to really like the card. The only problem I have with it is that it's very obvious and easy to play around as the only other thing like it is Fury Charm so it's not like your opponent has to worry about Strength in Numbers, Might of Old Krosa, Aether Web, and Thrill of the Hunt if you have G1 open.
Mana Tithe
Apparently the rest of the world loves this card and I was just completely unaware until this past weekend. I can totally understand how it seems excellent in theory, but I absolutely hate the card in practice. It might be something I'd board in on the draw against a fast deck to gain some footing, but plenty of people are maindecking it in 3on3s and it seems very wrong to me. First off, you have to get somewhat lucky to actually counter a spell with the card and you also have to counter the first thing you can to avoid it being dead. There are the usual exceptions to this logic, like when you know your opponent will Disintegrate you for the max or something, but in general you have to counter the first thing you have an opportunity to. So that's strike one against it because you cannot afford to be selective.
Strike two is huge, and that is when you draw it late game and it's completely dead. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be drawing Mana Tithe when I'm in a topdecking situation where any other non-Land would be great for me. Strike three is that it is even worse in the 3on3 format because as soon as you cast it, it loses almost all value in future games against good players. If you are leaving up a mana every turn, it's not so hard for your opponent to do the same thing if he knows you are playing the card. The only value I can really see is to cast it and then board it out once the other team knows about it because they will obviously play around it as much as possible and this is great if you don't have it in your deck.
Julien Nuijten wrote that he really liked this card in an article, and his logic was that “it's not that hard to keep up one mana every turn in this format.” Hopefully I don't have to break down this statement to show you that this logic is the exact reason that Mana Tithe is bad in the format!
Aquamorph Entity versus Primal Plasma
I've heard debates on which of these is better and while it does come down somewhat to curve, I'm definitely in the Entity camp. I just think the Entity is a much more flexible card overall and can possibly create card advantage or kill someone very fast if the path is cleared by removal. The Plasma has been fine for me but never really impressive, while I'm never unhappy to draw the Entity or run multiples of it.
Citanul Woodreaders versus Giant Dustwasp
Most players are pretty firm believers that the Wasp is the better card here by far, but I'm really not so sure. I love Woodreaders and I believe that the choice is very deck dependent. While I can't provide a specific situation here, the best advice I can give is to take Wasp in a more aggressive deck or one lacking fliers, and to take Woodreaders in a deck with lots of removal that is more control oriented. I'd also rather have one copy of each than two copies of either card, as I've found diversity is very good.
Hopefully my insights helped here in both formats and I'd like to wish everyone luck in the 2HG qualifying season, and also assure you that if I come across new tech for that format I'll certainly be sharing it in a future article.
Nick Eisel
Soooooo on MTGO
Sun3urst@hotmail.com
Ferrett opens a very strong card pool in this week's Sealed Deck exercise... But he has second doubts not about the cards themselves, but the way he sorts them. ... 
