RDW – or HERE'S JOHNNY!!!

Red.  My favorite color in Magic.  My color of choice since August of 1993.  My original core group of magic gamers was myself, Sal Greco, Bruce Reade, Phil Mason and Kathy Marcoux.  When Phil introduced us to the game, he had each of us pick a color.  Phil chose Blue (of course!), Bruce went White.  Kathy chose Green. Sal & I argued over black for about 2 seconds until Phil told me Red had dragons.  That sealed the deal.  From the beginning of Magic the Gathering, I have played Red. I still own the very first Shivan Dragon I ever pulled from a pack for Christmas of 1993.  She’s Unlimited, she’s beat up and her back makes her unplayable.  But I still fondly recall the days when she was a powerhouse.  I’m mostly known, though, for breaking Powersurge, a now useless card that I resemble.   

Regular readers of this blog know my history with Red.  I’ve never been much of a proponent for RDW on a weenie level, preferring myself to play the control game of Big Red.  I find “Little Red” (as I call a normal RDW) to be boring to play and balance it with bomb creatures that can cause your opponent to enter scoop phase.  That theory worked pretty well up until now.  The game has changed and RDW must change with it, as well as my outlook on RDW.  Now it’s all about SPEED – and that means we gotta splash some black. 

I won Lilac House’s Gameday with RDW, splashing 2 Dragonskull summits to help activate Rakdos Keyrunes.  It worked then, but the rest of the world mutated about a week later into Bant Control and 4C Control.  And that is very bad for RDW.  Shortly thereafter some smart person bought a Rakdos Event deck and “fixed” it.  And now half your field at any given tournament is a Red Black Rakdos build or a Red splashing black build.  Call it RDW, BDW (Black Deck Wins), or Dirty Red or just plain Rakdos – the little guild that can. 

Consistently. 

Turn 1 – Rakdos Cackler.

Turn 2 – some 2 drop with haste

Turn 3 – kill a creature and make another 1 or 2 drop creature.

Turn 4 – Hellrider.  Win.

How do these decks stack up against your enemies in the critical game 1, a game the RDW player MUST win?  Here are some tips for the newer players to think about. 

Mirror Match!  RDW vs. Anything Red Black 

Creature control is the key to winning this match up.  Most decks only run 8 damage spells game 1.  I run 12.  Why?  Just because of the mirror match.  Having a firepower advantage over your opponent is always good in war.  Its why the North won Gettysburg and why – if you play your direct damage correctly, you should win the mirror match.  Only use direct damage to kill or set your opponent up for the kill.  Otherwise, chew up his field and kill his creatures.  RDW can’t win without creatures if they only have 4 Pillar of Flames and 4 Searing Spears. 

RDW vs. Control 

The early ramping of the Bant Control and 4C builds makes them susceptible to the speed of Black Red.  Most for these decks aren’t ready to role until turn 4 and it’s usually a Supreme Verdict or Sever the Bloodline by this point, which puts them back another turn.  Not to mention, Hellrider kills Jace and Tamiyo dead allowing you to still punch your opponent in his grill with your horde of 1 and 2 drops.  NEVER OVER EXTEND!  Supreme Verdict and Detention Sphere will rain on your parade faster than you can check your losing results on your match slip.   

RDW vs. Red Blue 

Adding counter magic means your opponent has removed some direct damage or creatures from his deck.  You will win the battle of attrition 9 times out of 10 against the blue red player.  Bait his counterpells and direct damage with threats that are serious but more likely to die quickly early on.  Once he’s used his resources on that, drop your Hellriders and Dragons for an Izzet barbeque the Dinosaur would envy. 

RDW vs. Humans and GW aggro 

Same theory as the mirror match, except KILL MAN DORKS should be your immediate rule of thumb.  Swarm as much as possible but keep in your mind that Green White has as much removal as Red Black.  Don’t overextend – as the removal they have is on par with Bant Control and should never be underestimated.  Your own mass removal cards can even this match up nicely.  Always try to run at least a couple Bonfire of the Damned or Mizzium Mortars (or Killing Wave/Sever the Bloodline!) in your main board to prepare for this match.  

 

Whether your pleasure is Zombies, Devils, Humans or Vampires, RDW Rakdos style is an effective killing machine!  Until the next time I unleash a Cackler ...

PEACE!

And the winner is – SELESNYA or how many times can I play the same Thragtusk?

Rotation has come and gone and the metagame is settling.  The old deck archetypes have fallen by the wayside.  RB Zombies has puttered with the loss of Mortarpod.  Delver decks are pretty much non-existent.  RDW had its usual immediate post rotation success but now the BIG decks are surfacing.  And other than the expected Jund builds, all the successful decks have a common denominator:  Green and White. 

Naya, Junk and Bant builds are coming out of the woodwork.  They are dominating the competitive scene.  All because of a handful of cards.

One can argue that the Selesnya Charm is the most versatile of the new charms, now.  All of them have their merits, but Selesnya Charm is the New York Yankees of charms with these builds.  Exile an opponent’s big gun, flash out a blocker or go over your opponent’s creatures with trample.  The Selesnya Charm is a trooper.

 

How many times in one game can a person kill the same Thragtusk?  This monster card from M13 saw moderate play when he hit standard this summer.  In most green builds he was the replacement for our primetime friend the Primeval Titan.  Now he’s an essential part of any agro deck.  Give me life or give me a blocker.  Thragtusk hitting the battlefield is a win-win situation every day.  And what makes him so versatile is this beast’s beauty . . .

. . . The Restoration Angel.  Avacyn restored gave us plenty of good cards.  Griselbrand continues to see play in re-animator decks, the Miracle cards are still hot in any deck but the late game winner of this set has to be the Restoration Angel.  A 3/4 flyer with flash that blinks another non-angel creature when she hits the board?  And that target is usually a Thragtusk?  Thundermaw who?  Block it and gain 5 life.  My turn.  You have 10 life?  You’re tapped out?  Swing alpha for 11.  WIN.  This happens to me with RDW nearly every time I play against a build with WG. 

IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, USE THEIR GUNS AGAINST THEM, DAMMIT! 

Mark Jr & Sr, Chris Reno, Steve Wizins and I have been developing builds featuring Selesnya combos.  All the decks are similar on the fundamental level in colors and some of the above mentioned shared cards only.  My venerable WB Miracle/Planeswalker build evolved into a Junk Planeswalker and has now become a 4C Rites deck, bucking the trend of WGBR by making it WGBU . . . and taking out most of my Planeswalker pals while in the process: 

Main Deck:
2 Acidic Slime
2 Angel of Serenity
2 Armada Wurm
2 Garruk Relentless
3 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Griselbrand
4 Restoration Angel
2 Thragtusk

2 Detention Sphere
3 Farseek
3 Forbidden Alchemy
3 Grisly Salvage
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Terminus
3 Unburial Rites

2 Drowned Catacomb
3 Glacial Fortress
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Isolated Chapel
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Plains
2 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
2 Woodland Cemetery

Sideboard:
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Detention Sphere
2 Nevermore
1 Sever the Bloodline
2 Stony Silence
2 Supreme Verdict
3 Syncopate 

It’s a simple build, and it gains control of the board by turn 4.  I’ll take a beat down – and in play testing have come back from the brink of death (as in 1 life facing a board full of big creatures and an opponent with 30 life!) to win.  My sideboard is designed to add some control to the game when needed and for defense against graveyard control.  This deck does not mess around. 

23 land – a little light one would say, yes? – but with 9 cards I can fetch or seek out land with, and 2 of them being instants, the deck reaches its mana curve nicely.  I held back from using Keyrunes, despite their advantage when playing Terminus, due to my ability to ransack my graveyard or seek out creatures.  Farseek also allows me to shuffle my deck after a Terminus, putting any creatures I’ve had out back into the deck.  Finally, I chose Blue over Red to be able to access not only board control, but to have a reliable and re-playable seek card in Forbidden Alchemy. 

The Magic metagame has settled until February of 2013.  May the best deck with GW win! 

Until the next time I play the same Thragtusk six times in one game . . .

 

PEACE!

RETURN TO RAVNICA GAMEDAY or The Devils Made Me Do It!

 

It seems like more and more large events are occurring in the Magic world.  They are popping up like every weekend.  Pro Tour and Grand Prix qualifiers, Open Grinders and scheduled Wizards Magic “events” are materializing faster than you can say “There’s a Jace that’s $50.00 again?”  

With that in mind, this past weekend saw great turnouts in all the local venues for their Gamedays, as did the out of town event in Philly.  We had a small gathering at Lilac House, only 10 players, but in contrast to our first Gameday for M13, which saw a field with many newer players, it seemed the sharks came out to feast at Lilac House.  Kudos to Joanne, our rookie, for hanging with said sharks and making the best of it.  You go girl! 

I was uncertain about what I would play going into this.  For a week I hemmed and hawed.  I pimped out more of my Junk Planeswalkers deck but was unsatisfied with its performance play testing against Bill Barrett’s Jund Zombie build.  My sleeper deck had been my mono red Big Red deck, and I had broken it out on occasion over the past few months with positive results.  Rotation took away Koth and some of my other toys, but they found surprising replacements in Return to Ravnica’s card pool. 

4 Ash Zealot
4 Hellrider
4 Rakdos Cackler
3 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Vexing Devil

4 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Brimstone Volley
2 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Krenko's Command
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Rakdos Keyrune

3 Cavern of Souls
2 Dragonskull Summit
2 Hellion Crucible
16 Mountain

Sideboard:
2 Annihilating Fire
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Pillar of Flame
3 Smelt
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Zealous Conscripts 

I’ve got a similar deck on Magic Online.  I’m accused by control players of only “turning Hellrider sideways” to win with this deck.  Well.  Yeah.  That’s what it does.   

And it wins.

 

The object of the deck is swarm without over extending, utilizing Hellrider to add onto the damage dealt.  The sideboard is set to destroy zombies and aggro decks.  With such a simple strategy, you’d think it would be easy to facilitate the way people have complained.  In a perfect world, this deck wants turn 1 Rakdos Cackler, turn 2 Cackler and a Vexing Devil drop or Ash Zealot, turn three Krenko’s Command and turn four, Hellrider with a killing blow on the table. Looks great in black and white, but the fact of the matter is we all know the world of magic IS NOT PERFECT. All day I was plagued with mana drop issues – I wasn’t making my fourth land drop some games until the 6^th or 7^th turn.  This was frustrating at first – but after a few games of dealing with it, I learned the mana humps were actually slowing me down and pacing me.  I found a rhythm and kept to it. 

Round 1:  Vs. Leo Walter IV (UW Cops) I win 2-0.  3 pts. 

I call Leo Leo’s UW build “Cops” for the simple fact that every card in the deck either detains, exiles or otherwise incapacitates every creature you have.  For example, in game one Leo allowed me to drop 3 Vexing Devils.  He played Arrest on EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM! Add to this mix Jace 2.0 and though I won not only that game; but also the entire match 2-0, it took forever and was hard fought.  Leo’s forte is building decks that buck the metagame and once again he proved that going Rogue may not win, but it certainly is fun to play (and to play against!). 

Round 2:  Vs. Steve Wizins (GW Tokens) I win 2-0  6 pts. 

Steve is a hell of a player.  He takes deck archetypes and turns them on their heads, sort of like Cabin in the Woods did to slasher flicks.  Gameday proved to be no different.  Steve’s version of GW tokens was a difficult contest for me.  I eventually won 2-0.  At no time did Nicol Bolas intimidate me. (EDITOR'S NOTE:  I oopsied on Steve's deck when I first wrote this blog, thinking for some reason he was playing Junk Zombies.  So sorry, Steve.  How could I forget such an unforgettable deck.  Note to self - take better notes next time.)

Round 3: Vs. Rich Bourque (Starbucks Coffee Pot) I win 2-1 9 pts. 

I love Rich’s deck builds.  He always puts just the right balance of cards into his Rogue decks. And what gets me is lately he’s been putting them together just before leaving the house that morning for the tournament.  He did it with his Championship deck at last Gameday, and did it again this time.  Thus I shall call his decks “Coffee Pot” builds from herein.  It’s like the caffeine hits his brain and makes brilliant and wonderful card epiphanies.  

Rich stomped me Game 1.  I kept a loose hand and it showed.  He whipped Jace out in no time, making my Goblin tokens ineffective.  In the end, my intent to deliver a paralyzing and game-changing blow with a Thundermaw Hellkite backfired when he stole it from me and delivered his own deathblow.  I fall to my own dragon.  Sizzle.  Good play.   

Once again Rich was in my head.  I shook it off and pulled the Krenko’s Commands from my deck in sideboarding.  Now, most often I sideboard out the Vexing Devils, they just aren’t as effective against certain decks.  But Rich having Jace changed this for me.  It turned out the decision was a wise one, I took out the Commands and replaced htem with more fire power.  After a quick beat down leading to a multi turn pass go, I sandbag a Pillar of Flame to deliver the deathblow. 

Game three was just as ferocious, but I quickly burned him down and took the victory.   

Now that I’ve gotten over letting Rich in my head, we are developing a great rivalry and I look forward to our next match. 

Game 4:  Vs. Justin Cohen (WG Aggro) We draw into Top 4 10 pts. 

Justin and I draw into the top 4. Like Rich, Justin’s appearances at Lilac House are welcome.  He’s a heck of a player and has proven it over and over again.  Our top four becomes myself, Justin, Rich Bourque and Mark Carfagno Sr..  Rich recovered from his loss in round 3 by winning his Round 4 match and Mark Sr. snuck into the top for the 4^th seed, becoming my first opponent in the top 4. 

TOP 4 PLAY OFF: 

Round 1 Vs. Mark Carfagno Sr.  (RDW) I win 2-1  

Mark built his RDW about a month ago.  It’s a fun deck with some fun cards in it and is surprisingly fast and explosive.  He quickly beat me down in game 1.  Game 2 was different and I gained an advantage over him in the end.  Game 3 was epic, with my deck playing by the numbers.  The decision to play a Hellrider rather than a Thundermaw Hellkite in the last two turns of the game was my strategical coup of the match.  Unknown to me, Mark had a Traitorous Blood in hand.  Stealing the Hellkite if I had cast it first would have cost me the match.  Keeping with pace, I played the Hellrider instead, and, as fate would have it, took the Highway to Hell and victory.(EDITOR’S NOTE:  I must digress for one moment.  Mark’s deck would have done much better overall if he had put artifact destruction and graveyard control into his sideboard.  He did neither.  I would like Mark to go back and review my previous blog on sideboarding and keep this in mind the next time he builds one.)

Rich and Justin had a solid match marred by mana issues for Rich that eventually cost him the match.  This would be a theme that carried on in to the next and final round. 

Round 2: Vs. Justin Cohen (WG Aggro) I win 2-0 

Winning a tournament is exciting.  It is.  No matter what the size or the prizes, when you win you feel good. 

Most of the time.  Not today. 

Since playing in Gamedays since 2009, I’ve made a few top 8’s.  This was my first victory.  And it was stained by Justin’s deck puking on him.  For as exciting and well played a match as Rich and I had in the M13 Gameday, this was the polar opposite. 

See, when I write, “I win 2-0” in the heading, it should really be “Justin Loses 2-0.”  I didn’t win in my mind; I didn’t beat him or his deck.  Simply put, his deck was behaving like an overtired three-year old in a candy store – it wasn’t cooperating with anything.  It just didn’t like him this round for whatever reason.  In game one, he mulligans to 5 cards on the play.  I get a nut draw after a mulligan to 6.  Justin fights hard but eventually falls after becoming land flooded.  Game 2 is even worse.  Justin mulligans to 4 cards, once again, on the play.  This is not good.  He quickly recovers, but AGAIN falls into a mana pocket and my deck overwhelms him.  It was a bittersweet victory.  I don’t like losing that way myself and I certainly do not relish victories made in that manner.

 

 

A bittersweet victory, but a victory nonetheless; and for the first time in a long time I went home with the box and finally earned a play-mat. I look forward to the next time Justin and I can play when his deck is in a better mood. 

I noticed some important things during play on Saturday. 

 

The most obvious was the lack of impact Bonfire of the Damned had on my games.  Though it was helpful when it came up, for the most part the card was a non-factor most of the day.  This is notable due to the value of the card.  Might we see a decline in this miracle’s value soon?

RAKDOS CACKLER IS AWESOME.  Got that?  Unleashed, he's a throwback to the Zendikar goodness of Goblin Guide for all intents and purposes.  So what he can't block and don't have haste.  He's never blocking anyway!  This creature won more games for on Saturday than you would think.  Watch this uncommon go up in value. 

Thanks to everyone who made it out and for the great matches that took place!  It’s you guys that make Lilac House the best spot in town to play. 

Until the next time we get a Frankenstorm . . .

 

PEACE!

It’s Not Easy Being Green or: Why are most judges grouchy

Before Mark opened the doors of Lilac House to Magic, the first thing he did was ask me to be his rules judge.  He did this because of my experience and my 2 year tenure as a judge for Tales Twice Told.  I went into this wild adventure as his Rules Advisor, not anticipating the baggage that comes with this “prestigious” title. 

Since March, I’ve had to hand out very few hand slaps.  As long as the players tap 90 degrees and use token cards for tokens and NOT dice (tap a square die 90 degrees, I triple double dog dare you), I’m a pretty easy-going guy and this nonchalance mirrors the “casual” environment that Mark has created. A handful of game losses from not un-sideboarding between matches and tardiness between rounds are the only major “infractions” I’ve had to assess in 6 months.  But for as relaxing a casual environment can be, it can also breed bad habits and disrespect for the “law.” 

Yes, it’s a casual environment.  But we still have rules to follow in the game.  FAM and Saturday Standard tournaments at Lilac House are primarily there for us to have fun and for newbies to learn the game.  Well fine, you’ve got a deck and you “know the rules” so you can play the game and don’t have to “learn” anything new.  Wrong.  Now you turn FAM into practice pit for bigger tournaments – your Gameday box events, PTQ’s, GPT’s and $XK events like Star City Opens and TCG Gold & Platinums.  This forces you to learn proper play and etiquette.  Arguing with the tournament official is pointless, regardless if your point seems logical to you or not.  There is a reason the DCI formats things the way they do and it is the tournament official’s duty to enforce it.  We live in a country where freedom is the way.  Yet we all still stop at red lights or pull over if the lights are flashing behind us.  Stop Signs and Speed Limits become the stack and triggers in Magic.  You can’t have freedom without order.

People need to remember that arguing with an official leads to disrespect.  The official loses their “Air of Authority” from this.  Ignoring an official after they make a ruling is unpardonable.  Colluding behind the Judge’s back to create an outcome in your favor is just as bad.  All of this adds up and makes the Judge wonder why they even bother.

My wife asked me why I haven’t taken the Judge’s Exam.  I told her I’m not ready for it yet, as I still have much to learn.  The rules?  Oh, except for a minor brain fart here and there, I know the rules.  The rules aren’t the problem here. The problem lying herein is my attitude.  I tell myself “Until I can learn patience and develop that iron skin where I can ignore someone’s comments, I can’t take the test.”  Bottom line.  I have to make myself a better person, and for every 3 steps I take forward in what I believe to be positive progress, I do something to wreck it all.  But I can’t be nihilistic regarding my attitude.  I should be LEARNING from my mistakes instead of dwelling on them.  How can I improve my attitude without making a concerted effort to do just that?  Well, I have to judge tournaments, first and foremost.  And that also means I have to take the test.

So this week I’ll be taking the test.  Our reserve Judge, Mark Jr., recently passed the Rules Advisor exam and I now will be doing the same.  Mark and I want you to have the best experience you can at Lilac House and will do all we can to insure that.  Not just for a select few, but for everyone who walks in the door.

We fall so we can get back up.  And run faster.

Until the next time Popeye the Sailorman eats a can of spinach . . .

PEACE!

Return to Ravinca Commentary - or what do I play in the pre-release?

This weekend marks the pre release of one of the most anticipated Magic the Gathering sets in some years, Return to Ravinca.  I made my casual return to Magic near the end of the original Ravinca block, about the time it was rotating out, the cards I had acquired at that time were awesome and Return promises to be a multicolored dream.  What do we play and with only half the guilds being present, which will come out on top?  Only time will tell when rotation hits.  Some say our current format is stale, but for the most part those words come from control players who can’t handle agro decks.  Return to Ravinca will certainly do one thing – reinvigorate Standard. 

Currently, the only viable mono colored decks are green and black.  RDW has gone by the wayside for almost a year now, but is making resurgence with the Goblins, Bonfire of the Damned and Thundermaw Hellkite.  Mono blue only works in pauper format.  Mono white, currently played but inconsistent, is losing its powerhouse card, the Hero of Bladehold.  Wizards seems to have smartly printed mono colored cards in Return to Ravinca to give each a shot during rotation. The new Jace, Architect of Thought, the Desecration Demon and Mizzium Mortars are good examples of powerful mono colored cards in Return that will help bolster those deck builds.

 

My personal favorite is the “shock” lands.  They have returned to make Modern and Legacy more accessible to newer players, according to Wizards.  The current Standard builds that are going through re-envisioning will certainly utilize them.  I feel they are what Standard needs right now, especially for developing multi colored decks, a direction Standard has been moving towards for some time now.  Add to this “Gate” land cards, essentially common dual lands that come into play tapped, and you have the perfect mana base for a multi colored format.

 

Key Runes – Mana pumping artifacts that turn into creatures.  We’ve gotten away from the last Man Land in the format – Inkmoth nexus – and have made our way into a new era where we see lands being sacrificed to make token creatures (i.e. Hellion Crucible and Grove of the Guardian).

 

Rakdos’s Return is a game changer.  A BR multicolored spell that acts as a fireball AND a Mind Twist?  WINNING!  This card could be a late game usurper.  In contrast, Supreme Verdict tells us why they dropped Day of Judgment from the Core Set.  An uncounterable Day?  UW builds are going to have a picnic.  One can see why Bant will be so powerful come rotation.  Let's add Abrupt Decay to the mix, an uncounterable 2 drop Vindicate for those troublesome low cost high powered cards like Vampire Nighthawk and Ajani, Caller of the Pride.  Maelstrom Pulse light, for sure, but it kills an Oblivion Ring.  Even so, the venerable Oblivion Ring gets to up the ante with big brother Detention Sphere.  An O-Ring that acts as a Pulse?  Sweet!  Give me more of that one and add to Bant build’s power cards.

 

Charms have always been an efficient tool in any deck.  The Charms of Return to Ravinca are no different.  With each card giving you 3 instant speed choices, you are sure to find an answer in a Charm. 

New game mechanics and keywords always bring a fresh breath to the game.  Return to Ravinca is no different.  Scavange, Unleash, Detain, Populate and Overload are all making their debuts in this mighty set.  Each is dedicated to a Guild:  Golgari gaining Scavange (which allows you to exile that card in your graveyard to put +1/+1 counters on a creature), Rakdos taking Unleash (Make it unable to block but make it HUGE, TOM!), Selesnya grows with Populate (Got a token?  Make ANOTHER token.  BOGO!), Azorious controls with Detain (tap it – it can’t untap on the next turn and it can’t use activated abilities) and Izzet goes OTT with Overload (change the word TARGET to ALL for a slightly higher cost?  Sure!).   

Return to Ravinca is the shot of juice all of the current Magic formats needed.  The pre-releases this weekend will be exciting to play in and going forward one can only dream of the possibilities.  This is possibly the expansion I’ve looked forward to the most since Zendikar rotated out.  Pick your Guild and have at it, my friends.  Until the next time I return to Rakdos . . .

 

PEACE!

A call for the return of manaburn or STOP THE DUMBING DOWN!

M10 saw some significant rules changes for Magic.  First, they eliminated stacking damage.  That was great, as damage NEVER should have been stackable.  Ever.  A change made in 6^th edition, I believe.  For every great thing WotC does, they always mungle something up.  In this case they removed manaburn from the equation.  I still shake my head at this awful decision. 

Some of you are unfamiliar with the term manaburn.  From the beginning of Magic one had to contend with manaburn.  Essentially, unspent mana at the end of each of your phases is dealt to you in damage.  This does not mean that untapped lands cause you damage, it means that mana in your pool that is not spent on spells or effects is removed from your life total.  

WotC said they removed manaburn because it was a non-factor and an under utilized mechanic.  I disagree.  I think they removed it so they could make neat new cards for the Alara and Zendikar blocks like Omnath and it has led to clowns tapping Pristine Talisman for life and disregarding the mana created with the artifact, just for example. Instead of utilizing it, you went to opposite extreme and made cards that wouldn’t work with it being in effect.

 

 

Why is manaburn important to the game?  I have one argument: I believe it is a fair penalty for going hog wild with big mana-pumpers and ramp.  Only need 2 mana when you tap that artifact that gives you 3?  Well take a point of damage for being greedy.  It makes you do better math, but much like our education system today, WotC has dumbed it down for Middle-America and people who vote on American Idol.  I liken it to rounding your checkbook up instead of figuring the dollars and cents except in our case we don’t suddenly find an extra $20 in our bank accounts.  I’m HORRIBLE with math and can still remember nightmare sessions of going over fractions with my Mom at the dinner table as a teenager.  But Magic taught me how to count cards and how to figure out ratios and odds in my head, a difficult challenge for someone with severe ADHD.  I had to learn it to be successful in the game.  And manaburn was part of that equation.  

Which is why we play games anyhow, is it not?  To learn in a casual environment?  Not to make money, WotC.  Magic is no different than Candyland in this sense.  But eliminating this important mechanic also opened the door for people too dumb to learn the math while playing the game, opening to an influx of netdecking where these people are piloting paint-by-number decks and winning when they shouldn’t be.  Cha-Ching goes the cash register.  It’s weakened the playing field the same as expansion pro ball teams make room for crappier players and the direct result is the good teams get better, ruling the market, and the bad teams lose money and bounce around from city to city.  With Magic, this has snowballed into the creations of overpowered cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and venues where the same 4 people win every week at events.  By doing everything they can to make Magic more accessible and each set’s cards being created with certain Magic formats in mind, they are actually weakening the game.  You can’t learn anything in this kind of environment.  You’re eliminating creativity to some point as well, by creating so much diversity you’ve also created pigeon holes that can’t be escaped from.  Imagine your duress at opening a sealed pool and one of your rares is Battle of Wits.  What am I to do with Battle of Wits in a limited environment?  Give me a break.  But I digress; perhaps I’m bitter because a card that resembles me is now useless?  

My now infamous 1995 Championship deck utilized manaburn as a win condition.  And it did it frequently.  In fact, I won more games by manaburn than I did by making you draw cards against Underworld Dreams or smashing your face with a Juggernaut.  How so you ask? A little card called Powersurge; in combination with the totally awesome Candelabra of Tawnos.   Powersurge says that your opponent takes 1 damage at the beginning of their turn for each untapped land they control.  The Candelabra untaps X lands.  You do the math, pun intended.

I would tap out on my turn, using the Candelabra to untap your lands.  You would then take damage from multiple Powersurges at the beginning of your turn.  A smart opponent would then tap his or her lands again to take the manaburn damage as opposed to the Powersurge damage. Winning! With manaburn.  This would be a viable combination in our current Legacy format, especially now that Candelabra is no longer restricted/banned in the format. 

WotC hadn’t made a card that utilizes manaburn in so long, no wonder they removed the mechanic.  But I think it’s time to bring it back, perhaps in M14 – especially with next year also being Magic’s 20^th Anniversary.   You’ve gone around the block a few times with the game, WotC; now fix the math.  Bring manaburn back.  Make cards to use with it as opposed to working without it.  Don’t ignore it; use it!  Like I did with the cards YOUR R&D team made.  

Until the next time they make a card that looks like me . . .

 

PEACE!

Bye-Bye-Bye, or Rotation is Imminent!

Rotation is coming.  It’s inevitable.  Every October the Standard Universe mutates into something yet to be determined, creating an atmosphere of the unknown where many new deck archetypes appear in competition.  It’s an exciting time for Magic, albeit bittersweet.  Gone are cards we’ve been using for up to two years.  Friends we’ve made, essentially.  They’re out the door.  Sure, we can visit them in a Modern setting, but that format does not get enough attention.  Now we lament the passing of some great cards from the past two years of Standard. 

Goodbye Phyrexian Obliterator.  Mono Black Mid-Range loved you.  An ode to powerhouse black creature cards of old from Juzam Djinn to Abyssal Persecutor.  A 5/5 with trample for 4 black mana that was essentially unblockable.  As a notable local mono black player says, I hope he gets replaced with something gooder.  Yes.  Gooder.  The Obliterator is so broken he destroys grammar as well as opponents.

Shall we take a moment of silence to think about Ponder?  You’ve come and gone from lives over the past 4 years and will once again be set aside, waiting to be drawn again. 

Birds of Paradise.  You first graced me with your beauty in 1993.  Now you flutter away again.  Seems that the city plane of Ravinca has no place for your colorful droppings any longer, which is a shame.   

 

Vapor Snag.  An Unsummon that tags your opponent for a paper cut.  I for one am happy this one has evaporated, though I can see it returning to a core set in the future. 

Blade Splicer.  A standby in most decks that play white mana and recent target for Restoration Angels.  Getting 2 for 1 from a spell is always a benefit, but when one of them is a 3/3 Golem with first strike, watch out.   

Phantasmal Image is a Clone for 2 mana.  Yeah.  Unfortunately, Wizards targeted it with M13 and it went to the Modern Graveyard. 

Mana Leak.    You’ll be back soon as the Snapcaster Mage takes his leave. 

Wurmcoil Engine.  The first card in Scars block that made me go WTF!?!?!  REALLY?  And people learned to put it out so fast and quickly copy it with a Phantasmal Image.  Certainly a game breaker that will be missed.

An Equipment Artifact that comes into play attached to a token creature?  Give me more Batterskulls, please!  Make that creature a 4/4 and give it vigilance and lifelink.  Another game breaker if I ever saw one.  An honorable mention to the Batterskull’s little brother that could, the Mortar Pod, another staple of many decks in the current format.  We’ll miss Living Artifacts. 

Time to say goodnight to the RUG Pod deck, kids, as its engine, the awesome Birthing Pod goes nighty-night.  But with it also goes all the wonderful Phyrexian Mana cards like Dismember, Gitaxian Probe and Gut Shot or my personal favorite, Tezzeret’s Gambit (a mainstay in my Big Red build!).  Rumbles about a “NEW TYPE OF MANA” or “6^th COLOR OF MANA” had circulated the Magic world since Antiquities hit the cardboard.  Well, New Phyrexia finally gave it to us with Phyrexian Mana.  Another mechanic that is broken to some players takes its bow.   

Sword of  (INSERT GAME CHANGE) are a thing of the past. A miser card in many decks as well as being the cornerstone cards of the premiere tier-1 decks for the past 2 years; including CAW Blade and Delver decks.  Current mono Green decks can spit these suckers out and equip them on turn 3.  All 3 swords from this block had their benefits, but in the end, the Sword of War & Peace had the most lasting impact on the standard metagame. 

TITANS.  Yeah, Gotta be in all caps, deserving of their status as one of the cards that made standard fun again.  Or broken, dependant on the deck builds.  They didn’t call him PRIMETIME for nothing, people.  They’ve been sent to the Tarterus of Modern now, folks, but I’m sure they will return.

Inkmoth Nexus.  The only viable man-land in the format and it has the added benefit of being an infect creature.  I’m glad to see Infect leave Standard.  It’s had its fun poisoning me.  What concerns me is that all the new “man-land” types seem to be sacking the land and putting a token creature out, ala Hellion Crucible.  We’ll see what happens.  Magic always loves its man-lands. 

Gideon Jura.  We’ve hung out for 4 years now, bro, what gives?  You’ve drawn the attention of so many creatures over the years; I don’t blame you for wanting to take a break.  I hear your replacement is coming next year and will retain the “ATTACK ME” ability.  I can’t wait. 

Da da da dum, de dum, de dum, Hammertime!  I saved my favorite card from the Scars Block for last!  Koth of the Hammer, the second best Planeswalker in my opinion (behind Jace, the Mind Sculptor), leaves Standard without being reprinted in M13 as I assumed he would be.  Chandra never works and Koth is the PERFECT example of how a Red planeswalker for a core set should be.  I salute you, Koth, and can’t wait for your return, someday.

 

I'm sure I probably missed your favorite card.  Talk about it on the forum below or on Facebook.  Did I miss any cards that will be missed?  Until next week, when we talk about what’s coming in Return to Ravinca . . .

 

PEACE!

 

 

 

The Evolution of BIG Red (re-dux)

(Please note this is a reprint of an article I wrote for Red Site Wins last August.  The website is no longer operating and I have taken the liberty to republish the article on this blog with annotations and added information.)

October 2010’s rotation totally changed my builds for Magic the Gathering competitive deck play.  After successfully playing Vampires or red-black combinations for nearly a year I finally decided to use the Jace, the Mind Sculptors I had acquired.  I built a white/blue control deck utilizing Sun Titans, Squadron hawks, Day of Judgment and Roc Eggs (yeah.  I said Roc Eggs).  The theory was get out some eggs, blow up an agro board and suddenly I have creatures and you don’t.  I would equip my sword of Body and Mind to a Roc and whoop on you.  If this was 1995 it might have worked.  In modern parlance, however, it sounds like a bad Caw-Blade build.  And it was.  I am trapped in my old school thought on deck building.  I had retired from active play in 1995 after winning the first and only non-DCI State Championship for New York, not returning to an FNM table until 2009.  Deck construction, regrettably, had been an unfortunate casualty of this. I didn’t understand the meta-game to save my life.  I was a shadow of my former self.

October also saw my return to competitive Magic with the TCG 5K at Wiz World Boston.  I brought this “caw-blows” deck into the Friday night bye-qualifiers and promptly went 0-4.  Frustrated, I sold the deck to a dealer and promptly bought a play set of Koth of the Hammer, a couple Kargan Dragonlords and decided to get back to basics.  I had asked a friend what my problem was, he asked in return, “What was the first color you learned when you first started playing Magic?”  I replied that it was red.  He told me to build the best red deck you can.  I said I don’t want to play red deck wins, it’s too weenie for my tastes.  Then build Big Red he said.  So I did.

  

I built it again utilizing old school build techniques.  One problem mono red always had in the age of dinosaurs was its mid game slow down and land draws.  I felt Valakut would solve that, allowing the land draws to damage my opponents.  The Exploration Maps assisted in getting Valakut to the table as well as being another fetch.  Reverberate was my ace in the hole, remembering how powerful Fork was, I played it to its best potential.  

Main Deck:
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Inferno Titan
4 Kargan Dragonlord
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Burst Lightning

4 Staggershock
4 Exploration Map
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Reverberate
16 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Sideboard:
3 Cunning Sparkmage
4 Pyroclasm

4 Combust

4 Punishing Fire 

After going 4-0, I lost my next three matches (White-Blue control, red deck wins and Quest all beat me in succession) and dropped in the tournament. But the I knew the deck had potential. 

The deck had a huge impact on the meta-game at my local store (Play the Game Read the Story in Syracuse, NY).  Reverberate shut down Genesis Wave decks as I was copying the waves and killing people with Valakut land drops.  It also helped me with counter-magic.  I ran into trouble with blue/white control, black/blue control and Valakut Ramp decks.  I found myself winning against the control decks about 50% of the time and Valakut destroyed me 75% of the time.  The deck had to adapt. BIG RED MARK 2:

Main Deck:
2 Cunning Sparkmage
4 Ember Hauler
4 Goblin Guide
3 Inferno Titan
4 Kargan Dragonlord
4 Koth of the Hammer
4 Burst Lightning
2 Red Sun’s Zenith
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
13 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn

4 Arid Mesa
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

Sideboard:
2 Slagstorm
1 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Inferno Titan
3 Molten-Tail Masticore
4 Combust
4 Reverberate 

Reverberate moved to the Sideboard. I decided it would only come in to face Genesis Wave and decks with counter-magic.  The addition of the Goblin Guides assisted me in early attack advantage.  The Ember Haulers added 4 more direct damage spells to fold.   I added Red Sun’s Zenith for the deck’s Fireball.  The changes brought me some limited success at FNM.  The deck stayed consistent in its wins and losses, though. Then Caw-Go started showing up at FNM.  Once again the deck needed to adapt, and finally it found the answers to the control decks and in a better position against Valakut. BIG RED MARK 3: 

Main Deck:
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Inferno Titan
4 Kargan Dragonlord
4 Koth of the Hammer
2 Kuldotha Phoenix
3 Burst Lightning
2 Contagion Clasp
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Red Sun's Zenith
4 Tumble Magnet
3 Arid Mesa
11 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Tectonic Edge

2 Mystifying Maze

Sideboard:
2 Brittle Effigy
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Pyroclasm
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Slagstorm
2 Traitorous Instinct

It began wrecking caw-blade decks.  The main boarded Ruinblasters were key to the match up.  The addition of the artifacts, especially Tumble Magnet, assured me extra turns against red protected creatures.  The spheres allowed third turn Koth to hit the table.  Maze helped me further deal with red protection.  Valakut couldn’t handle Chandra’s wheel of fortune ability, an unexpected side effect of me wanting to have her in a red deck.  Chandra Ablaze was a casual monster and deserved respect, as it wasn’t getting any competitive play.

I brought this build to the Star City Open in May 2011.  I went 4-3 then dropped after once again winning my first 4 matches, losing out to White Control, Caw-Blade and Valakut. I thought it was the end of Big Red.  Insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results. 

I began playing caw-blade and other variants at FNM.  Red would appear on occasion, but for the most part I was fed up with it.  Chandra’s new incarnation made her way into the deck.  When played, I would frequently drop Koth & Chandra on the same turn.  Many decks can’t handle two planeswalkers hitting the board on turn 4.  But now I found myself losing to weenie decks.

The Star City Open in August 2011 gave me an opportunity to play my Caw-Blade variant (Growl-Blade aka Meow-Go, essentially Caw-Blade with main board Leonin Relic-Warders) and left Big Red in the dust after I made top eight at Game Day. I didn’t leave red home, though.  It made the trip.  The build I brought was this: 

Main Deck:

4 Chandra’s Phoenix

4 Goblin Guides
2 Plated Geopede

2 Kiln Fiend
2 Inferno Titan

3 Grim Lavamancer

1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Chandra, the Firebrand

3 Koth of the Hammer
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Incinerate
2 Forked Bolt

4 Arid Mesa
13 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard:
2 Act of Aggression

2 Dismember

2 Combust

3 Manic Vandal

4 Goblin Ruinblaster

2 Slagstorm 

As you can see, I didn’t know what I wanted to do.  I wanted to have the new Chandra get play, bottom line. I asked my traveling buddies, Andre Seggara and Allen Terry to look at the deck and fix it.  The only rule:  Both Koth and Chandra had to stay in the build.  Andre started by taking out the Goblin Guides, the Geopedes and Kiln fiends.  “This is BIG RED, why does it have weenies in it?  Besides, do you want to keep giving decks with 25 or more lands cards in their hands?”  He upped the planeswalkers to 4 each, returned the Sphere of the Suns and Everflowing Chalice to the deck, chastising me for taking them out.  Allen noticed this increased our mana ratio on turn three and removed Chandra’s Phoenix from the build.  “Our three drop is our 4 drop now,” he said with conviction.  I then moved the Ruinblasters to the main board. We cut out a Lavamancer, added a second wurmcoil engine, then we removed the forked bolts, added Searing Blaze due to high amount of landfall in the deck.  The main coup was Andre’s suggestion to add Tezzeret’s Gambit to the deck, which Allen thought was brilliant.  Red lacks card draw.  He and Andre ran test hands and constantly came up with consistent play in the deck.

After falling in love with the build, Andre played it at FNM at Harrison’s Comics in Salem, MA.  He went 4-1, losing to a Grand Architect Deck after being mana flooded mid game. 

I decided to play Meow-Go on Saturday, the deck did it’s thing at FNM (I went 3-2, however had a forced loss in round one because I took my wife to dinner.  I did play a match against that opponent and won).  This left the new and improved Big Red up for grabs.  After hemming and hawing and almost playing a Valakut Ramp deck, Allen decided to play Big Red at the Star City Open.  This is the build he brought, after making some adjustments.  BIG RED MARK 4:

Main Deck:

4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Inferno Titan

2 Wurmcoil Engine

4 Chandra, the Firebrand
4 Koth of the Hammer

2 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Searing Blaze

1 Slagstorm
3 Tezzeret's Gambit

4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Sphere of the Suns

14 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard:

1 Ratchet Bomb
4 Manic Vandal
2 Act of Aggression
2 Combust
3 Dismember
1 Ricochet Trap
2 Slagstorm

The deck started the day 5-0.  He ended it 7-3, one of his losses being a televised feature match against a Valakut deck.  Chandra was $25 in the dealer case on Saturday.  On Sunday she was $35 and we overheard people asking for Chandra all day in trading.  One of our intentions was met – to finally make Chandra a viable card in standard competitive play. 

We’ve since adapted the deck further. The Grim Lavamancers have left the build, replaced by Kuldotha Phoenixes. The sideboard has been adapted to better deal with Splinter Twin combo and Valakut.  Other subtle changes to the mana count and number of burn spells have been made, as well.  I understand a fan of the deck and friend of Allen and Andre will be playing this deck at the Grand Prix in Pittsburgh this weekend (sic. 8/24/11!).  This person has some experience playing Big Red and I wish them all the luck.  We’ll keep the new build under wraps until then.  Go Big Red! 

UPDATE 8/21/12:  Since writing this article last year, mono red decks started falling by the wayside going into the next standard rotation in October 2011.  Losing M11's Lightning Bolt, Zendikar Block and its versatile Goblins (Guide and Ruinblaster) and most importantly in the case of Big Red, Everflowing Chalice, spelled the demise of mono red builds.  Innistrad block provided no viable replacements for these cards.  Red instead smouldered and added little pieces of the puzzle here and there; cards like Stromkirk Noble, the Hellrider and Bonfire of the Damned – the latter one of the most expensive cards in the current standard format.  With these cards, red has lived on as a support color.  At least until the release of M13, which saw plenty of new red spells and creatures, most notably the Thundermaw Hellkite and Krenko.  Goblin decks resurfaced shortly after, executing turn 4 and 5 wins on a regular basis.  Now, like the phoenix of old, so too has Big Red returned to claim its rightful spot as a respected and feared opponent in the Tiers of Competition.  The aforementioned Thundermaw Hellkite and Bonfire of the Damned are sure to lead the charge.  I've begun playtesting an expirimental build which has had some limited success, but I don't want to post the build yet until it's become solidified.  Until the next time I "Hitchew For Tree!"

PEACE!