3-1 with UR Landstill

Last week I brought a faux-Naodelver list to the local legacy tournament held on Wednesdays.
I went 1-3, with the shocklands causing more than enough losses to make me change my decklist before going in again.

This week, I brought my UR Stillless Landstill deck to the mini tournament.
I finished 3rd with a 3-1 score which is not bad for an incomplete deck.

I won UBG, lost to UW+R counterbalance, won Jund, and won UW counterbalance.

Below was the list I played:

4 Brainstorm

3 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Divert
3 Counterspell
2 Force of Will
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Ancestral Vision
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Punishing Fire
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Fire/Ice
1 Izzet Charm
1 Dismember
2 Fact of Fiction
3 Stifle
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought

1 Remand
4 Scalding Tarn (borrowed 3)
1 Volcanic Island (borrowed)
4 Island
1 Snow covered Island
2 Steam Vents
2 Wasteland
2 Grove of the burnwillow
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Faerie Conclave
1 Mountain

3 Pyroclasm
3 Pyroblast
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Counterflux

It seems the format is prepared against a singular creature now so I expect to take out Phyrexian Dreadnoughts from both the main and side. 

My deck was supported easily on the power of Punishing Fire + Grove of the Burnwillow, which I still value very highly in the current Legacy environment.
Otherwise, it is just a Landstill style deck that I am more than comfortable running with my prior experience in Classic from about 2 years ago. I want to have a Academy Ruins + Engineered Explosives engine against the counterbalance deck so I might be thinking of how to tweak in that direction.
The main difference in the deck's form comes from Fact of Fiction, and Young Pyromancer which replaces Jace, the mind sculptor and Tarmogoyf. I don't own any irl Jace TMS so I went for the next best thing I could in that slot. As for Young Pyromancer, I had already set my eyes on it since I replaced the Bitterblossom slot in my Nao-Delver list with it. It beats in a swarm and can block Tarmogoyf easily.

The main structure of the deck comes from an online legacy list but I know I would have Young Pyromancer in my list. That deck's strength came from the presence of Spell Snare which made a big deal in my games today. I put in some of my touch (very obvious with the numbers) and ended up with the above list.

I think I am quite comfortable with the list now but I would want to get my lands as a top priority.

Good job!

Over the weekend, my brother went to play in a local Vanguard tournament with 20+ people in it. I got him his 3rd copy of the perfect guard and left it for him to collect from the shop and also helped him to register for the tournament before leaving for my appointment.
A few hours later, he sent me a picture:


So, it turns out that he went u defeated (6-0) and got to choose a playmat as prize.
(We were talking about playmats just the other day.)
He definitely was lucky but I'm sure his plays were generally good since we have games very frequently nowadays.

I come to wonder if I would be able to pull off something like that as well...

Reflections

Last week I bought my first box of unsealed product in a long time. I believe the last time was a box of Japanese Shards of Alara boosters.

Only that I did not get Mtg but Vanguard instead...



It's not to say that I don't like Mtg (I do still) but the format of vanguard is like Legacy in its diversity and its cost is not as restrictive.

I've been playing vanguard with my brother for awhile now (I introduced him to it) and it is nice to finally have something that scales up in power level rather evenly on both sides.

In the past I tried a sort of sealed thing with my brother but that died out pretty fast.

I guess this will be the last amount of time left I have to play card games with someone before I have to go into the next phase in life.
(Until I get a kid who somehow is interested in card games which I don't take for granted will happen)

Personally, I think my lack of achievement has kept me from being able to move on. I usually move on well with things I am 'done' with. At a personal level, that would be like getting into the mtg pro tour or something significant but I was unable to devote the time to trying or to prepare.

I have enjoyed learning and finding out ways to improve at the proficiency of playing card games. It is an art in itself as well as a discipline but is not something that can feed a person.

The proper society does not allow one to survive on these skills unless you dare to make it your rice bowl which I unfortunately do not. Comfort and a sense of security are such (constraining feelings) which may or may not be good.

There is no definite good or bad in most things, as much as we want a clear distinction between the two.

At work, I try to figure out how to 'play' in the financial sector 'game' which is possibly the most difficult 'game' I have ever played as no one has truly figured it out and I don't believe I would be able to. I am looking around for an edge but I think the only edge I currently have is being right in it and being able to react to it.

I want to build something but it feels difficult to even start. Nevertheless, I shall find something I can really start on that would get somewhere.

Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014's Scavenging Ooze!

Last night, I bought Dotp 2014 on Steam, basically only for the foil promo Scavenging Ooze.

I printed the slip and went to pick up the pack at my local cardshop.

A very thin pack. Like ancient times.

So I opened the pack and found 2 new cards along with the foil Scavenging Ooze.

Foil promo Scavenging Ooze is so cool! (I heard that there is a Japanese version too.)

Scavenging Ooze is going to be a powerhouse in Modern which used to only have Tarmogoyf as the main weapon of choice in the 2cc slot. Scavenging Ooze will mess up a few strategies and give you an edge in the Tarmogoyf mirror. I always run Scavenging Ooze alongside Tarmogoyf as a 1 of. I don't think that it replaces Tarmogoyf entirely but running it over Goyf #3 or #4 will definitely let you win more than you used to. 

Dotp 2014 has sealed deck campaigns and dropped Archenemy. I think the latter was more interesting. (Why would I want to play sealed in the first place? I used to like core set sealed for its good EV when I used to grind for points on MTGO before Core Set became a more mainstream format. It's not that amazing especially if you want to play it for fun.)
If they let me play Dotp2013 (not 2014) on my iphone, I would. Unfortunately they didn't think that they could fit it in a small screen so I'm out of luck. 

I don't think I'll touch the game yet...