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Tuesday, 27 August 2013

The P5!

In Legacy, every color has a very strong 2 drop
White - Stoneforge Mystic
Green - Tarmogoyf
Red - Young Pyromancer
Black - Dark Confidant
Blue - Snapcaster Mage

Last night, I protoyped an Esper colored deck with some of them.

4 Brainstorm
4 AEther Vial
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Dark Confidant
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Spell Pierce
3 Force of Will
2 Standstill
3 Baleful Strix
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte

3 Cabal Therapy
3 Spellstutter Sprite
1 Bitterblossom (Lent out cliques so it might be better)

It was decent as every of my 2 drop commanded respect.
It's still a very young build so I expect to change much of it.

Sunday, 25 August 2013

Vanguard Bushiroad Festival 2013

Yesterday, I went for the Bushiroad Festival 2013.
I reached at 10.15am but the tournament for the jp version was already full then.

I spent an hour observing games before the area inside was open the members of the public.
I went in, stood through the opening ceremony which was done in a very corporate Japanese style which I felt was not suitable for the context out of Japan.
I started to get the stamps for my card to redeem the promo, starting out at the mini-game section.
One of the challenges was to sort cards. I couldn't do it (twice) so I tried the memory game (like those you would find in the ancient Nokia phones) and I managed to get my stamp for that section.


The new EB07 cards coming out next week:


One of the stamp requirements was to take a picture with the backdrop.
(I wasn't too excited by myself)


By 1pm, I managed to clear all the requirements and got my promo Wingal Liberator.


I wanted to play against Doctor O to see how good he was but I couldn't win in the mass scissors paper stone part to get to challenge him in gunslinging.
(Definitely not gonna win the obvious cheaters - or just plain people with extremely retarded reaction)


Doctor O apparently went undefeated in Taiwan but he got horribly misgraded in his first game and he also lost out of courtesy to his second challenger (with extremely slow scissors paper stone reaction) when he just announced a 32k rear guard lane where he plopped down the 2 guys who get extra power when units become locked only after the whole locking sequence was done which easily would count 9k+7k+3k per locked unit from Nebula's skill. Not to mention his friends at the back discussing what he should play very audibly. I guess he has an amiable image to uphold and I gained respect for him that very day.

My first game of the day actually took place past 2pm when they opened the free fight where players had to clock games where you can play for up to 2 promos, 1 promo per 2 games, regardless of win/loss.
I went 3-1 with my loss attributed to misgrading. My plays were decent for the day.

One of my juniors from band was one of the Bushiroad staff and I thought that that was a very cool place to work.

Promos bids

Currently the best bids of the promo cards I am selling are as below:

Foil prm goblin bombardment 15 (k)
Foil prm Ghost-lit raider 420 (s)
Foil prm lightning rift 15 (b)
Foil prm wee dragonauts 15 (k)
Foil prm ink-eyes, servant of oni 500 (m)
Foil prm lotus bloom 60 (p)
Foil prm korlash, heir to backblade 410 (s)

Closed. Thanks


pm me in-game to put a bid

ends on 31/8 9.30pm est

Tuesday, 20 August 2013

Plateau!


The MOCS season that was just over gave out Plateau. I managed to get 2 at 40 tix each even though I had totally forgotten to come back to hunt for it. Phew. 

I traded my Foil prm Stifle and foil prm Thopter Foundry for a total of 80 tix to make my purchase.
I think that I am running out of valuable promos. I also happen to have put some of my rare crappy promos on sale on www.classicquarter.com. One of them only has 5 copies in total online. Not many cards have such a rarity. ;)

Thursday, 8 August 2013

Mtg and the current me

Today is a holiday at where I am but I have to work for half a day.
While at home, I logged in to MTGO to get a few more copies of foil Young Pyromancer.
Surprisingly, I was asked to join a Legacy DE (0_o) and also a Classic DE (and the QT).
I haven't been active on MTGO lately and I doubt people remember much of any player which is why I was rather surprised to see people asking my to join events.

Classic has been good for me 2 years back. I used to play at 1.30am-> 4am on Sunday before getting up at 9am to go to church. (Which is why I can't play the Sunday slot) The end of the year classic tournaments was insanely fun as DEs fired at very convenient timings (9.30pm?).
Now, DEs hardly fire so I don't even try.
I also stopped playing in the QTs when I kept defaulting matches because two people just cannot get a match done in a week. It would have been great to play for the big prizes and stuff but I just hate losing games over such dumb reasons.

That said, I still find it enjoyable to design decks and play the old formats (Legacy and Classic),
enough for me to want to go irl to play Legacy with what miserable cards I have.
The only dual land I own is the Tropical Island I bought for myself on my birthday a couple of years back.
I looked at some bad condition Volcanic Island on Starcitygames and Channelfireball which were less than $100 each so I think I might be able to get 2 copies soon.

I guess minimally, I would need 2 tropical island, 2 volcanic island, 3 underground sea for me to make and play decks that I would be comfortable with. Currently, I also need 2 more Scalding Tarns (why did I not buy them when they were in standard?!?!?) for my deck. Basic lands are important in Legacy for control decks so that you do not get blown out by Wasteland or just defeated by recurring ones.

My friend asked me about the modern gifts deck played at worlds (?) and I looked at it.
The first thing I saw was 4 Tarmogoyfs which I can say without a doubt that it can be configured better to 2 goyf 2 Scavenging Ooze. Firstly, you do not auto-lose to Rest in Peace. Secondly, you can disrupt the mirror (in billions of ways), attack pod decks much more. The only downside is that you would need to be very careful of how you play your lands so that you have more green mana available. I do not suppose that the format is one where you need to clean up asap with Tarmogoyf.
I would play Snapcaster Mage too. I was surprised to see that the core of it resembled the old one as much as it did. Perhaps I can make a modern gifts deck irl too. (Will need more cards but looks doable)
Unfortunately, it is a deck that needs quite some tweaking and play experience to get it right and I have some doubts with that list as it is. I will perhaps try to have a modern deck available so that I can have one to play in the future in some events.

Of course, that would be after I get my Legacy deck running. ;)

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

Another 3-1 with UR Gifts-still (without standstill)!

I went back to the Wednesday Legacy tournament (about 16man) with an upgraded version of last week's deck.

I went back thinking how I could improve the deck and I came to an answer in Gifts Ungiven which I replaced Fact of Fiction for.
I swapped a Crucible of Worlds for Life from the Loam.
This meant that I could easily Loam + Punishing Fire + Grove of Burnwillow.
I put in 2x Engineered Explosives and an Acedemy Ruins so that I could have a better Counterbalance matchup. I could Gifts Ungiven for them with Loam as well.
I was considering putting in Regrowth so that I can have a pile with Snapcaster Mage to be able to tutor anything out but opted not to for now so that my graveyard reliance would be less.

UR Gifts-still
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Wasteland
1 Faerie Conclave
4 Scalding Tarn (Borrowed 3x)
1 Volcanic Island (borrowed)
2 Steam Vents
3 Island
1 Snow-covered Island
1 Mountain
2 Grove of the burnwillows
1 Tropical Island
1 Academy Ruins 

2 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
3 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Divert
3 Stifle
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Punishing Fire
2 Counterspell
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Young Pyromancer
1 Life from the Loam
1 Dismember
2 Gifts Ungiven
2 Force of Will
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Fire/Ice
1 Izzet Charm (very useful esp when you need to kill Xantid Swarms) 36

SB
2 Izzet staticaster
2 Pyroclasm
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Counterflux
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Pyroblast

I won round 1 vs Belcher (and the guy was double eventing irl!!!), round 2 vs the ritual storm deck, lost round 3 to counterbalance top -_-" (again) and won round 4 against a monoblack smallpox deck.

Vs Belcher
Game 1, I happened to have Force of Will game 1 and he scooped.
Game 2, I had some assortment of counter magic but the key was my sideboarded Ancient Grudge which managed to eat up 2x Goblin Charbelchers. He ritualled to 4 mana, cast Goblin Charbelcher, dropped a Lion's Eye Diamond and I Ancient Grudged the Belcher. Soon after, he cast another which I Spell Pierced and he cracked the LED to pay for it. I put down my Grove of Burnwillows and flashbacked. ;)
Then I slowly attacked with Mishra's Factories for the win.

Vs Storm
Game 1, he Duresses me, and goes off.
Game 2, he all in-ed on the red flashback spell but I had Mindbreak Trap which conveniently exiles the card.
Game 3, his Xantid Swarms came up and he randomly attacked. I randomly had a Faerie Conclave in play untapped by his second attack so I randomly animated and blocked. He drew another but I got an answer for it. I had a good number of counters so managed to beat him down.

Vs Counterbalance
Game 1, I cast Gifts Ungiven for my loam package after I failed to stop Counterbalance from resolving with Sensei's Divining Top in play. He had Snapcaster Mage in the top 3 cards so I could not resolve my Life from the Loam to get the engine going.
Game 2, Engineered Explosives managed to clear Counterbalance twice but Jace resolved on the other side and I only could beat with a lone Snapcaster Mage (where were you my manlands?). I drew lands and some useless cards so he won on Jace, TMS.

Vs MonoBlack
Game 1, I Gifts into a Loam package which destroys him. (Tons of cards, recursive removal, unlimited removal for Mishra's factory)
Game 2, he drops a Leyline of the Void on turn 0 which means I need to play in a way that does not use my graveyard. It was not too difficult as my countermagic allowed me to build up and cast a Gifts Ungiven. I managed to get 3x Mishra's Factory in play and with Wasteland Stifled, they easily took the game (with their impervious nature to the sorcery speed removals of that deck).

Trying to be competitive without the resources is tough. This is what my cardpool allows but I am quite fond of the deck. I tested a version of the deck online on Tuesday but it went 2-2, winning something I can't recall, losing to a UR Painter deck, winning a ragequit burn deck, losing to reanimator.