Buddyfight: Jackknife Gold Ritter Deck

The group I play cards with is weird. They can't seem to stay in a single card game to play.

Anyway, we've recently gotten back into Buddyfight (which we played during its first release).
The thing I dislike most about the game is its name more than anything actually.
It is, in my opinion, the worst mashed up name one could ever come up with for a card game.
It irks me just thinking about that because they could have come up with something much better and it would probably have a more positive response.

Putting aside from the fact that it is primarily designed as a cardgame directed at kids, a game is a game and there is no discrimination on that point from me because I love games in general.
The only thing that prevents me from playing a game is if the game is filled with lolis and almost fully naked girls because I obviously shouldn't and cannot afford to be caught playing those type of games and there is no lack of games in the world that I would have to end up in the state of having to play one of those.

I chose the Jackknife Gold Ritter deck to use because I like how it fundamentally changes the way the game is played and I like how there is a promo art of the Green Dragon Shield (that is not out yet).

While my deck is almost there, the below is the build I want to ultimately end up at (I am 2 cards away):

Buddy: Jackknife Dragon
4 Jackknife Dragon
4 Jackknife Burnenergy
4 Jackknife Thunderstorm
4 Jackknife "Berserker"
3 Jackknife Gold Ritter
4 Jackknife Braveheart
4 Jackknife Gift
4 Blue Dragon Shield
4 Green Dragon Shield
2 Flying Dragon Shield
2 White Dragon Shield
2 Gargantua Punisher
2 Calvary Academy
2 Dragonic Grimoire
2 Dragonic Charge
1 Dragoenergy
1 Day of the Dragon
1 Dragogenius

It took me awhile to understand how to build the Jackknife Gold Ritter deck because most references I looked at ran less Jackknife Berserker or Braveheart and they all seem happy with it.
The numbers are simple to understand once the reasoning behind them is established.

Firstly, the base Jackknife Dragon has to be maxed out so that the climbing can start.
Hence, 4 Jackknife dragon, 4 Jackknife Berserker and 4 Jacknife Braveheart is essential because everything starts from there.
At a 12 base count, the odds of it showing up in the starting hand is 82.6%.
At a 8 base count, the odds of it showing up drops to 66.9% which is essentially 1 less game per 10.

Jackknife Braveheart is easily replaced by Jackknife Burnenergy which turns into a net -0 on the gauge with 1 extra soul so every Jacknife Braveheart is equivalent to having an extra soul.
In addition, it can be used to search for Jackknife Gift to find Jackknife Gold Ritter which would be at an effective count of 11.
For what Braveheart does to the entire integrity of the deck, I cannot fathom how people reach any numbers less than the full 4 copies.

Jackknife Braveheart and Jackknife Burnenergy are the core enablers to the strategy which needs gauge and a specific life total to go off.

Gold Ritter is at a count of 3 to prevent games where all the ritters are in the gauge and therefore unusable. At that point, the game ends because this Jackknife build can only make one attack per turn since it neither runs any grade 1s nor does it run any equipment apart from Gold Ritter.

Other than the Blue and Green Shields I suppose the rest are all variable.
White Dragon Shield is to help against impacts and Flying Dragon Shield is to help against attacks that cannot be nullified.

I use Gargantua Punisher over Victory Slash because I want to close games with more certainty.
Dragonic Charge helps that and the building up to Gold Ritter.
Calvary Academy pushes Gold Ritter out of the 10k mark so that it is more protected than it would be otherwise and 10k is a sweet spot which most people can reach comfortably.
It moves out of a Drill Bunker range and also out of a natural Excalibur to force it to link rather than comes straight.

Playing it is no rocket science but it plays a little differently from a normal deck. You start by charging a spare Jackknife so that you can have one in the discard to use Jackknife Gift on. Otherwise, it will come down to whether or not you manage to burn any gauge with a Jackknife in it to use the gift. Gold Ritter itself needs 2 gauge so the gauge count is very important as you might need more gauge at times to get to Gold Ritter. If a Jackknife comes down to stay and it is not well protected, it might become very difficult to add enough soul to it on the following turn. It does not really work as a lone attacker because it does too little and there is only one attack because of how there only is Jackknife Dragons in the deck and no size 1s so Gold Ritter is really a priority.

All in all, it is a very interesting deck that warps the way the game is played. I look forward to using the alternate art Green Dragon Shields. =)

How to block game invites on Facebook (iphone)

It's been annoying that people keep spamming Pirate King invites so I went to figure out how to stop those. So here are the 5 steps to stop all that nonsense.

1) On the iphone app, tap the "More" button at the bottom.

2) Tap on "Settings".

 3) Tap on "Notifications".

4) Tap on "Mobile Push".

5) Scroll down to find "Application Requests" and "Application Invites" and uncheck those.

Voila.

Final Fantasy VII G-Bike

Recently, Square Enix released a new smartphone game. Final Fantasy VII G-Bike, based on one of the mini games that was in the original FFVII. It's the mini game where you had to guard the little van if you can recall. Otherwise, you could go back to the gold saucer to play it. I think you can find it there.

Anyway, it's available on the Japanese apple store. I don't use Android so I cannot tell if it's ENG/JPN location protected there too. If you need the official link, it's http://www.jp.square-enix.com/ff7_gbike/  .

(You can make a Japanese app store account by registering a Japanese address (take a shop address or just google map a random place).

You go around using Cloud on his bike.

This game is kinda like those running games where you have to jump over stuff, go under stuff, attack enemies. It's has the best graphics for that genre though. The basic gameplay is still just that.

You get to add a support character (once per 30 mins, sometimes you get to use the character again so I don't know the exact logic yet). Tifa shows up when you fight a boss to do FinalHeaven for a little more damage at the end of your limit break sequence.

You get to see the limit breaks only when you fight bosses and the limit break is determined by the weapon you hold. So far I've seen BladeBeam (Buster Blade), Finishing Touch (Butterfly Edge/Murasame) and Meteorain (limited boss mission).

 If you have the support character, the limit break transits into another by that character (currently only Tifa)

Tifa is all ready to give a good punch.

BAM!

TIFA!!! <3

Their first limited edition Boss mission has Bahamut in it. (The very first you summoned in FFVII).

You can get the limited edition Bahamut bike using the parts. It's kinda late if you start now...

His intro scene.

MEGAFLARE!!!

Getting punched by Tifa~

You level up weapons/bikes using items (which you get from the end of a mission at the roulette).

I would advise against using the gems unless it's a rare item and it's just beside the one where you landed on.

After some time, I realized that what you need can be gotten easily from the missions that have it as the reward. If you hit 100 pts they put more of that on the slots so it becomes much easier to get that particular item.

It's still a game in its infant stages so it's a very good time to get into it. =)

I like how fast the points charge with time and it seems like the game would get better in time.
I'm a sucker for FF games with all the nostalgia (Currently playing FF Agito on the phone too).

Commander 2014 in Legacy Part 2

So I went down to my local cardshop last night and they had Commander 2014 singles.
I bought the below stuff and found another cool card - Malicious Affliction which could potentially take down 2x Tarmogoyfs.

I was deliberating on Dualcaster Mage and the red Planeswalker but I did not get them as I would not be likely to be playing anything along those lines in the near future. I'll try my luck online but it's very hard to find singles from these products because the reprinted cards are so much more easily accessible online and thus have very minimal resale value as compared to irl.

The key buy was the 2x Titania which I feel is half Primeval Titan and half Grave Titan in the same card and I think that it would be the card that would be able to bring me into 2015. I would probably be still working along the lines of BUG mid-ranged/control to find something that I like.

There was a BUG nic-fit (weird name like tin fins) deck that I am interested in running. The big mana fatties deck sounds good vs Miracles / Delvers.

Titania is very underrated. =)

Commander 2014 for Legacy

If I had to pick 10 cards to get from the commander 2014 boxed set, I would get these 10 cards.

In specific numbers, if I had the money, I would get:

4x Daretti

He's a 1 card engine in itself but you'd probably be playing Goblin Welder and Dack Faden.
4cc Planeswalkers are usually played at the bare minimal, apart from Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Control Slaver sounds fun.

3x Contamination Priests
Sideboard card that you can't really play too many of. 3 is a good number to have between the main and the side. I guess it singlehandedly beats Sneak and Show and Reanimator but 4 seems excessive.

2x Spoils of Blood

I have no idea where this would go but it looks like it does something.

2x Song of the Dryad

Maelstrom Pulse exists so this could be a liability. 2 is more than enough for a straight up answer card.

3x Dualcaster Mage
I'm not convinced that Fork is needed but we've played similar cards that we would never have just because they have creature bodies. The 1RR cost is the biggest problem but it's better to get this earlier than later.

2x Wake of the Dead

The ability to reanimate more than 1 guy at eot is very powerful. I don't see this replacing stuff but it's definitely interesting.

1x Ob Nixilis

This is for sure a good buy at 1x. The -2 ability is going to be very strong.

(Like vs Miracles who can't really counterbalance lock it) You would almost never need more than 1.

2x Titania

This is Primeval Titan + Grave Titan in a card. I'm sold. With its cost, I'd be comfortable playing 2x easily but it's a very high potential card. I'd pick up more since it's so cheap at the moment.

1x Nahiri

I'd play Elspeth so I'd consider this too. The Batterskull reanimating upside makes it worth thinking about. I don't see more than 1 ever needed like Ob Nixilis but I'd get that 1x first.

2x Intellectual Offer
This is like a mini Time Spiral that could go into a High Tide deck to untap Candelabras...
(A little pushing it)
Or maybe the same Dack Faden deck with Welders and Notion Thief?

Vanguard G needs to change

As a follower of the Vanguard animated series from its beginnings, it is sad to say that despite the graphics and effects being much better in this new season, the card game aspect of the show is lost in its entirety. No doubt everything looks much smoother and impressive, the move away from a game narration has kicked it down in the ranks of my mind of card game animation.
To be fair, I'm comparing Vanguard G to its past seasons, Yu-Gi-Oh (which I watch every now and then), Buddyfight and Duel Masters (which I sparsely peek into).

Yu-Gi-Oh has been a very odd game to watch because everyone seems to have their own very specific cards (that look very sidelined for most random characters) and the cards that show up in the main characters' decks have very odd conditional effects (that do not make sense generally, given their incredibly deep cardpool). I do not particularly enjoy their side character duels but it can be quite interesting when they have their big important games. I do not play the game so I can't really guess how some of what they do translate to real life (like how Stardust Dragon became its next form) or how Action cards from the current season work.

Across the seasons, I am not a fan of random powerful cards being pulled out of thin air where no one (even the user) knows what is being played and there has always been a good number of it.
I recall an episode where Yuma had a card which the opponent had a card that directly opposed the card he had (the rank up magic) and he just changed it to an altogether different card and used it on the spot. That's outright cheating.

Still, as a cardgame narration animation, it is one of the best there is,

Duel Masters, is a different ball game altogether with its direction all the while being targeted at a very different crowd with its very rough, inelegant style.
The current season is rather crude visually but it does bring out what the game is in its narration.
I couldn't really bring myself to follow it because what I understand of the game in its impressions is that it is much more explosive than what the show portrays it to be and it falls below that expectations and the show itself does not appeal to me.

Then, there is Buddyfight which came after Vanguard which was probably Bushiroad's attempt to make a better game that is more like MTG while using its prior experiences from its other games.
The game itself is good to play with it being between MTG and VG in terms of gameplay and the show is very simple to understand when they do actually go through the full motion of everything.
The only things I dislike about the game is the name itself and the actual mechanics of a buddy which simply adds a life. I would have thought that it would be like a commander - being able to call out at least once from where it sits but it is only there to make you obtain a 5th copy, a design space that I feel is utterly wasted.
The story is decent enough to want to carry on watching and there is enough weight in the various worlds that no one is outright the loser (although there is one obvious winner in terms of support).

As much as I do not actively have the desire to chase it because of a lack of a draw towards it, it is honestly a good show which translates the actual game well.

And after a full circle, I will talk about Vanguard,
The previous seasons were ok with a very skewed representation of the flagship card, Blaster Blade which the show made to be the most awesome card in its universe with its uber rareness which I cannot really comprehend. (This probably ended up killing Aichi as the main character once they figured that there was no way they could keep up eternally with there only being 1x Blaster Blade in the entire series)
Other than that, the animation showcased the various clans in a fine pace, probably only really bogged down by the actual card design of the clans which was not done well through its infant stages and the clans were easily bashed by plot armor to skew the actual allure of the clans. Comparatively, Buddyfight does much better at maintaining power and the allure of each clan, probably because of how it could learn from its predecessor.
I had very little respect for the dinosaur clan or the spike brothers to the point where when I saw those in the DS game, I would have some form of disgust if I had lost to them versus the other more respectable clans whereby I would just be plain annoyed.
Story-wise, Vanguard does a pretty bad job.
I can't say anything about the introduction of the cheaty psyqualia (which is indeed a very true way to play a high level game - by knowing what matters and having an sculpted image of how to win the critical points of the game).
But its true "badness" comes from how the story flows to the next season.
From MLB being changed to a Gold Paladin starter with no one actually remembering the "old clans" to the Legion season where the world resets yet again, I think this show is by far the most accepted far-fetchedness I have ever seen where nothing truly makes sense if you would look back and think about it. It has gone through a lot of gimmicks like going around Asia and the whole Reverse arc but other than the occasional "show card and create an explosion", it was generally successful in bringing out the next set and generating hype for the game.
From a gameplay standpoint, it does a decent job in terms of showing what happens and this is not easy since there could technically be 6 different things in play and they can't really describe each of them.

Now there is Vanguard G, the newest iteration of the series which makes zero effort to let you understand the game. The general story is ok, as with most card game animations, with schooling kids going through their daily lives being a decent way to get through.
The graphics are a big improvement to the previous seasons.
However, the card game narration is totally lost in the midst of the smoothness of the animation.
If I had wanted to watch plain action, I would watch Gundam Tri Fighters which does a better job.
I can't stomach watching a card game animation with no name drops, no ability explanation whatsoever and the characters not attempting to play the game properly (Chrono had G3s and did not attempt to stride in the last episode? What's up with that?!? Chronojet dragon doesn't even do anything like that.). Episode 1, we see the introductions and we don't get much information as to what the cards do and one stride unit does 3 damage off the bat to close the game. Episode 2, we see some male Oracle Think Tank units, no names, no abilities, game ends. Episode 3, we only see the new legion unit from the other side killing 2 RGs and no other real explanation of anything other than a few name drops and kagero retire skills.
If they go on like this, I will really hate this season.
No doubt I would watch it because I follow the game now but I am truly unsatisfied with it as it is.
I don't know why they are doing it like this, if only to tease you perhaps, but it does not generate any hype for the upcoming sets whatsoever and it does not even help anyone watching to understand what is going on in the game. For its purpose of being a card game animation, I'd rank it dead bottom.

Rant over. I hope they really get their act together.

VG: Gear Chronicle is over powered

With the leaks from the latest monthly bushiroad, we see more of the new Gear Chronicle clan (and a bunch of other clans).
From there, we see that they have a whole frigging FAMILY OF SILENT TOMS.

G2: sb 2 to activate Silent Tom.
G3: gb1, cb1 to activate Silent Tom

G-unit: CB1, face up another copy of itself, Silent Tom, if there are 2 or more faced up cards in your G-zone +1 crit

I'm not sure if they have been testing their cards but the Silent Tom effect of (cannot be guarded by G0s) essentially means that if you intend to guard an attack, you're throwing at least 2 cards at any one point. This effect in Oracle Think Tank was unique to Silent Tom who had to be boosted by a 8k vanilla to be able to utilize properly and was later on brought back on the g4 Nouvelle Vague which was also difficult to guard against. 

And now they have a whole Silent Tom clan? Sign me up. I don't see how one could lose if you're attacking with triple Silent Tom when the opponent is at 5 damage. 3x perfect guard? BS much.

Legacy Cube sounds cool

I was looking at twitter and I saw that they did a new holiday cube based on Legacy.
The announcement can be found here.

It sounds interesting so I'm thinking of proxy-ing it up.

An easy search got me a link:
http://magic.bluebones.net/proxies/

Their card list was a pain in the butt as I copied the cards one by one for all 600 of them.
The proxy page doesn't have the new commander cards yet so I might wait for those to go on before I go ahead and print the entire list. (haha... I don't own too many cards from the list and I don't really want to get into worrying about any missing cards)

Accorder Paladin
Angel of Serenity
Archangel of Thune
Baneslayer Angel
Banisher Priest
Blade Splicer
Boros Elite
Brimaz, King of Oreskos
Champion of the Parish
Cloudgoat Ranger
Doomed Traveler
Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Elite Vanguard
Emeria Angel
Eternal Dragon
Exalted Angel
Flickerwisp
Frontline Medic
Hallowed Spiritkeeper
Hero of Bladehold
Imposing Sovereign
Isamaru, Hound of Konda
Kami of Ancient Law
Karmic Guide
Kor Skyfisher
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Mentor of the Meek
Mirran Crusader
Mother of Runes
Porcelain Legionnaire
Precinct Captain
Ranger of Eos
Restoration Angel
Reveillark
Savannah Lions
Seeker of the Way
Silverblade Paladin
Soldier of the Pantheon
Student of Warfare
Sublime Archangel
Sun Titan
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Wall of Omens
Yosei, the Morning Star
Banishing Light
Crusade
Dictate of Heliod
Glorious Anthem
Honor of the Pure
Journey to Nowhere
Land Tax
Oblivion Ring
Parallax Wave
Seal of Cleansing
Spectral Procession
Angelic Destiny
Faith's Fetters
Spear of Heliod
Armageddon
Council's Judgment
Day of Judgment
Entreat the Angels
Gather the Townsfolk
Lingering Souls
Martial Coup
Oust
Ravages of War
Terminus
Wrath of God
Condemn
Disenchant
Mana Tithe
Momentary Blink
Path to Exile
Raise the Alarm
Swords to Plowshares
Unexpectedly Absent
Ajani Goldmane
Ajani Steadfast
Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Elspeth Tirel
Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Elspeth, Sun's Champion
Gideon Jura
Augur of Bolas
Chasm Skulker
Cloudfin Raptor
Consecrated Sphinx
Coralhelm Commander
Deceiver Exarch
Delver of Secrets
Dungeon Geists
Frost Titan
Glen Elendra Archmage
Keiga, the Tide Star
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Looter il-Kor
Man-o'-War
Master of Waves
Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Merfolk Looter
Mulldrifter
Old Man of the Sea
Pestermite
Phantasmal Image
Phyrexian Metamorph
Riftwing Cloudskate
Sakashima's Student
Sea Gate Oracle
Serendib Efreet
Snapcaster Mage
Sower of Temptation
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
Thassa, God of the Sea
Tradewind Rider
Vendilion Clique
Venser, Shaper Savant
Wake Thrasher
Waterfront Bouncer
Future Sight
Legacy's Allure
Opposition
Control Magic
Treachery
Bident of Thassa
Ancestral Vision
Compulsive Research
Deep Analysis
Ponder
Preordain
Serum Visions
Show and Tell
Time Warp
Upheaval
Daze
Brainstorm
Condescend
Counterspell
Cryptic Command
Cyclonic Rift
Dig Through Time
Dismiss
Dissolve
Essence Scatter
Fact or Fiction
Forbid
Forbidden Alchemy
Force of Will
Force Spike
Gifts Ungiven
Impulse
Into the Roil
Intuition
Mana Leak
Miscalculation
Mystical Teachings
Negate
Pact of Negation
Remand
Remove Soul
Repeal
Stroke of Genius
Think Twice
Jace Beleren
Jace, Architect of Thought
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Bloodghast
Bloodline Keeper
Bloodsoaked Champion
Bone Shredder
Brain Maggot
Carnophage
Dark Confidant
Desecration Demon
Diregraf Ghoul
Disciple of Bolas
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Geralf's Messenger
Gnarled Scarhide
Grave Titan
Graveborn Muse
Gravecrawler
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Griselbrand
Herald of Torment
Hypnotic Specter
Knight of Infamy
Kokusho, the Evening Star
Lifebane Zombie
Massacre Wurm
Master of the Feast
Mesmeric Fiend
Nantuko Shade
Nekrataal
Nighthowler
Ophiomancer
Pain Seer
Phyrexian Obliterator
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Shriekmaw
Skinrender
Soul of Innistrad
Spiteful Returned
Stinkweed Imp
Vampire Hexmage
Vampire Lacerator
Vampire Nighthawk
Visara the Dreadful
Xathrid Necromancer
Bad Moon
Bitterblossom
Diabolic Servitude
Phyrexian Arena
Recurring Nightmare
Sarcomancy
Animate Dead
Underworld Connections
Whip of Erebos
Black Sun's Zenith
Chainer's Edict
Consuming Vapors
Corrupt
Damnation
Dread Return
Duress
Exhume
Hymn to Tourach
Inquisition of Kozilek
Living Death
Night's Whisper
Profane Command
Reanimate
Sinkhole
Thoughtseize
Toxic Deluge
Unburial Rites
Dark Ritual
Darkblast
Disfigure
Dismember
Doom Blade
Entomb
Go for the Throat
Hero's Downfall
Murderous Cut
Slaughter Pact
Tendrils of Corruption
Ultimate Price
Liliana of the Veil
Liliana Vess
Sorin Markov
Ashcloud Phoenix
Avalanche Riders
Beetleback Chief
Borderland Marauder
Chandra's Phoenix
Cunning Sparkmage
Dualcaster Mage
Firedrinker Satyr
Firefist Striker
Flametongue Kavu
Frenzied Goblin
Goblin Bushwhacker
Goblin Guide
Goblin Rabblemaster
Goblin Wardriver
Gore-House Chainwalker
Greater Gargadon
Grim Lavamancer
Guttersnipe
Hellrider
Hero of Oxid Ridge
Imperial Recruiter
Inferno Titan
Jackal Pup
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Kiln Fiend
Lightning Mauler
Mogg Fanatic
Mogg War Marshal
Prophetic Flamespeaker
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Scorched Rusalka
Siege-Gang Commander
Spikeshot Elder
Stormbreath Dragon
Stromkirk Noble
Thundermaw Hellkite
Young Pyromancer
Zealous Conscripts
Goblin Bombardment
Madcap Skills
Seal of Fire
Sneak Attack
Splinter Twin
Sulfuric Vortex
Hammer of Purphoros
Anger of the Gods
Arc Trail
Bonfire of the Damned
Chain Lightning
Crater's Claws
Devil's Play
Dragon Fodder
Firebolt
Flame Slash
Hordeling Outburst
Krenko's Command
Mizzium Mortars
Molten Rain
Pillar of Flame
Rift Bolt
Slagstorm
Tempt with Vengeance
Act of Aggression
Ancient Grudge
Brimstone Volley
Burst Lightning
Char
Fireblast
Incinerate
Lightning Bolt
Lightning Strike
Magma Jet
Searing Blaze
Searing Blood
Searing Spear
Skullcrack
Smash to Smithereens
Staggershock
Stoke the Flames
Through the Breach
Chandra, Pyromaster
Koth of the Hammer
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
Acidic Slime
Arbor Elf
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Avenger of Zendikar
Birds of Paradise
Boon Satyr
Chameleon Colossus
Courser of Kruphix
Craterhoof Behemoth
Deranged Hermit
Elves of Deep Shadow
Elvish Mystic
Eternal Witness
Fauna Shaman
Fyndhorn Elves
Hornet Queen
Indrik Stomphowler
Joraga Treespeaker
Llanowar Elves
Lotus Cobra
Master of the Wild Hunt
Noble Hierarch
Obstinate Baloth
Oracle of Mul Daya
Overgrown Battlement
Phantom Centaur
Polukranos, World Eater
Primeval Titan
Reclamation Sage
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Satyr Wayfinder
Scavenging Ooze
Sylvan Caryatid
Tarmogoyf
Terastodon
Thragtusk
Thrun, the Last Troll
Troll Ascetic
Vengevine
Wall of Blossoms
Wall of Roots
Wild Mongrel
Wolfir Silverheart
Wood Elves
Woodfall Primus
Yavimaya Elder
Awakening Zone
Sylvan Library
Curse of Predation
Rancor
Birthing Pod
Call of the Herd
Commune with the Gods
Cultivate
Eureka
Explore
Farseek
Genesis Wave
Green Sun's Zenith
Harmonize
Kodama's Reach
Mulch
Natural Order
Plow Under
Primal Command
Rampant Growth
Regrowth
Search for Tomorrow
Song of the Dryads
Tooth and Nail
Tracker's Instincts
Beast Within
Chord of Calling
Krosan Grip
Mutagenic Growth
Naturalize
Setessan Tactics
Summoning Trap
Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury
Garruk Relentless
Garruk Wildspeaker
Garruk, Caller of Beasts
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Nissa, Worldwaker
Baleful Strix
Bloodbraid Elf
Boros Reckoner
Brago, King Eternal
Burning-Tree Emissary
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Falkenrath Aristocrat
Figure of Destiny
Fleecemane Lion
Geist of Saint Traft
Ghor-Clan Rampager
Goblin Electromancer
Huntmaster of the Fells
Keranos, God of Storms
Kitchen Finks
Lotleth Troll
Murderous Redcap
Mystic Snake
Nightveil Specter
Olivia Voldaren
Prime Speaker Zegana
Progenitus
Prophetic Bolt
Psychatog
Qasali Pridemage
Rakdos Cackler
Shadowmage Infiltrator
Shardless Agent
Sin Collector
Tidehollow Sculler
Trygon Predator
Voice of Resurgence
Detention Sphere
Mirari's Wake
Dreadbore
Gerrard's Verdict
Maelstrom Pulse
Supreme Verdict
Vindicate
Abrupt Decay
Boros Charm
Electrolyze
Far / Away
Fire / Ice
Grisly Salvage
Lightning Helix
Sphinx's Revelation
Terminate
Warleader's Helix
Ajani Vengeant
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Domri Rade
Garruk, Apex Predator
Kiora, the Crashing Wave
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Ral Zarek
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Sorin, Solemn Visitor
Venser, the Sojourner
Vraska the Unseen
Xenagos, the Reveler
Duplicant
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Molten-Tail Masticore
Myr Battlesphere
Phyrexian Revoker
Precursor Golem
Solemn Simulacrum
Spellskite
Sundering Titan
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Wurmcoil Engine
Basilisk Collar
Batterskull
Bonesplitter
Grafted Wargear
Lightning Greaves
Loxodon Warhammer
Umezawa's Jitte
Vedalken Shackles
Aether Vial
Basalt Monolith
Chrome Mox
Coalition Relic
Cursed Scroll
Everflowing Chalice
Gilded Lotus
Grim Monolith
Hall of Triumph
Isochron Scepter
Mind Stone
Mox Diamond
Sensei's Divining Top
Shrine of Burning Rage
Sphere of the Suns
Tangle Wire
Thran Dynamo
Winter Orb
Worn Powerstone
Karn Liberated
Adarkar Wastes
Ancient Tomb
Arid Mesa
Badlands
Battlefield Forge
Bayou
Blood Crypt
Bloodstained Mire
Breeding Pool
Brushland
Caves of Koilos
City of Brass
Clifftop Retreat
Dragonskull Summit
Drowned Catacomb
Flooded Strand
Gaea's Cradle
Glacial Fortress
Godless Shrine
Hallowed Fountain
Hinterland Harbor
Isolated Chapel
Karplusan Forest
Llanowar Wastes
Mana Confluence
Marsh Flats
Mishra's Factory
Misty Rainforest
Mutavault
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Overgrown Tomb
Plateau
Polluted Delta
Reflecting Pool
Riptide Laboratory
Rishadan Port
Rootbound Crag
Sacred Foundry
Savannah
Scalding Tarn
Scrubland
Shivan Reef
Steam Vents
Stomping Ground
Sulfur Falls
Sulfurous Springs
Sunpetal Grove
Taiga
Tectonic Edge
Teetering Peaks
Temple Garden
Temple of Abandon
Temple of Deceit
Temple of Enlightenment
Temple of Epiphany
Temple of Malady
Temple of Malice
Temple of Mystery
Temple of Plenty
Temple of Silence
Temple of Triumph
Tropical Island
Tundra
Underground River
Underground Sea
Verdant Catacombs
Volcanic Island
Volrath's Stronghold
Wasteland
Watery Grave
Windbrisk Heights
Windswept Heath
Wooded Foothills
Woodland Cemetery
Yavimaya Coast

VG: Mystery Flare Dragon odds

So today they revealed the new Gear Chronicle Stride Unit, (Time-space dragon) Mystery Flare Dragon that spots a "if hit, reveal the top 4 cards of the deck, if it has 4 different grades, cb4, take another turn, shuffle the deck" skill.

That's quite over the top with vg skills since if it ever does work, you will probably just outright win the game on the spot. Even if the game does not end, 3 more attacks plus another 2/3drive checks is gonna put the gear chronicle player too far ahead for a normal comeback to happen.

The question becomes: how likely is this game ending skill going to work?

Using a common distribution of 16-14-11-8, counting from the full deck size,

I get 4! x (16x14x11x8)/(49*48*47*46) = 0.093036

which is about 10% of the time.

Additionally, even if you have a exact same ratio of cards, a rough gauge of 4! x (1/4)^4 gets 0.09375 which is essentially pretty much about 10% of the time.

So it is highly unlikely that you would actually lose to that skill but as long as it does work, you've pretty much lost the game right there. It is somewhat like another shot at a double critical trigger.

Still, I hope I never get to be at its receiving end.

Moving away from Doomsday?

So it's now the post Khans of Tarkir era, with Treasure Cruise pushing tons of delver decks into the top slots. The eternal weekend legacy's t8 was flooded with all variations of delvers.
It had 1 Maverick with Punishing fires (which eats delvers), 1 Tezz deck (with its maindeck leyline of the void) and 6 assorted delver decks.
It has been awhile since I have gone out to play Legacy and I brought my Doomsday fitted with 2x Dig through time and 1x Treasure Cruise in the SB. I lost againt BUG Delver (after I tried to go off against a Force of Will and getting stuck on one Swamp) and 2 Miracles decks.
With blue being more prominent, the storm side of the Doomsday deck is much weaker than it was. While my hands were rather bad all night, the problem was more fundamental than that.
I do not foresee that this overly complicated deck has the staying power to bash through the format as it is now.

The new challenge now is how to get through a format where people can play 4x Ancestral Recall.
I'm not sure where to start but I think I could try Sudden Shock, Pyroclasm etc.
I guess I should try to design a Delver killer, then move to finding the means to beating the other matchups. True-Name Nemesis overly complicates this effort but perhaps that would be the way to go... The Tezz deck does this very well with Chalices, Baleful Strix, Thopter-swords combo etc.
I don't think I have the core cards for that deck irl but maybe I can test it online to find a new direction to go towards. It has become a notch more difficult to deal with decks if they can simply refuel with Treasure Cruises.

Next Generation VG

The new season of Vanguard is here with its new Stride, G-assist and Generation break mechanics.

Stride is a very interesting mechanic because it is as good as having an early breakride with very minimal requirements.
Its main flaw is that it is very undercosted for what it does since it replaces itself with an extra drive check but has an additional 15k worth of attack stacked on, making it much harder to guard.

If they start slapping powerful abilities unto these, it will look pretty nasty because these are by far the most accessible cards in the game and would allow one to recreate the same games with a high degree of consistency.

The biggest winner is Commander Laurel who can turn a triple drive into a hexadrive and that is really not funny. 

G-Assist is really good since you can get out of a grade lock faster with minimal costs and generation break as a mechanic is interesting because it requires you to stride before you can use it and anything above gb1 means that you will probably see it work rather late into the game. Potentially more powerful

The flow of the game has vastly changed again and I think that those clans that are not vg-centric have the most to gain with stride since the G-unit is gonna at least be really fat and pressuring. I foresee the faster clans to be able to make full advantage of this.

Below is the new numbers to take note of:

So the math for a triple check is as follows (under the assumption that 1/3 of the deck is triggers):
The most common is 1 trigger which is about 44% of the time, as suggested by the one-in-three cards odds. This is followed by a no trigger at 30%.
Collectively, approximately 75% of the time, there will only be a maximum of 1 trigger from a triple drive check. This also means that 1 in 4 games where you take on a triple check, you will get hit by at least a double trigger and 1 in 25 games, you will get hit by a triple trigger.

Looking forward to getting a set of 8 G-units and the Dotx

Updating Doomsday

Last night, I managed to get a bunch of Treasure Cruises and bought 2 Dig through Time from a player opening boosters so I could finally update whatever I could play.

With the new set, I think that the format has changed significantly, mainly because of how Treasure Cruise is trying to be an Ancestral Recall and how it actually does end up being played for U.

We used to had to have very incremental advantages to get ahead of the opponent, playing cards like Brainstorm and Ponder to extend their reach to the fullest. However, now, those bad players who spam those spells early can just negate that minor advantage and break past with Treasure Cruise. I used to believe that just jam packing cantrips was inferior to playing actual threats (so I'd say 4 Brainstorm + 1 Ponder would be better than 4 Brainstorm + 3 Ponder in a deck like miracles that did not strive on finding any particular cards).

It brings us into the part of Vintage that I could never really handle, Ancestral Recall. In the era of Classic, I had really played for these very incremental advantages and I was doing quite well but I was on the backseat after Ancestral Recall became the core part of the game that would primarily dictate the flow of the game. I had mine countered and the opponent could use it twice. That did not pan out well.
In the same way, I have fears that Treasure Cruise might warp the various formats to have this tension. Treasure Cruise is like a reverse threshold in how it functions and dedicated decks can easily abuse it.
The modern Jeskai Ascendancy deck is a very powerful deck that just randomly wins really fast and is fueled by Treasure Cruise. I'm wondering if it can be played in Legacy/Vintage but I do not yet have any ideas on how to convert the decks over or how they should play out (instants cantrips to outdo removal?).

In any case, I tried updating the Doomsday deck by removing the Emrakul combo (since everyone has some form of guard against it, it has been the weakest link of the deck). I am trying 2x maindeck Dig through Time which seems quite insane with its 7 choose 2 reach and a Treasure Cruise in the SB as a wish target. It feels quite comfortable to play but I guess I have to do this with a live opponent to actually have proper feedback. I haven't played much since the release of the new set but I think the new additions are good to go.

Fine tuning za Overlord

I'm into my final tuning of the overlord deck.
It turned out quite fine actually with the limit break enabler doing sick things like turn 3 DOtR.
I upped the number of draw triggers after understanding the nature of the deck better, settling for a split of 6 crit 6 draw and not going into 4 crit 8 draws as the opponent inevitably has to take some damage from the front and not having crits to close the game can be very detrimental.
I am now settling my G3 spots with 2 DO (breakride), 3 DOtR, 3 DOtG.
The additional base the breakride gives DOtR does help quite abit as the draw trigger can be used to up its power to 26k. It also helps to save guarding power since it is less common for 18k RG columns nowadays,

I'm down to adjusting the last G1 and G2 spot, still undecided on which direction I should be headed for. I'm debating between Gojo and the limit break enabler for the g1 spot and perhaps the cb2 draw 1 on hit guy for the g2 slot. It's much better at building the game early on and I don't really use counterblast early.

I will be thinking about what more I can do while getting more open with the less common clans on the DS with the pre-bt16 pool.

Dragonic Overlord?

I decided to wind down my Legacy testing for awhile so that I can prepare for 4th Oct's Vanguard tournament.

I'm quite bummed that I would not be able to use the recently spoiled Shin-kyukyokujigenrobo great daikaizer which is legions with Great Daiyusha and has the Daikaizer's breakride skill as a legion skill. The earliest possible date to get it is like a week after the event. =/

I have yet to make a move on the movie EB cards (as I ran out of $) so I don't really have anything new and they recently killed the Sing-saver/phantom blaster dragon abyss deck that I had and I don't really have an image of what I should do next with those.

With the movie EB having a new Dragonic Overlord, I thought of a deck to use:

G0
1 Lizard Soldier, Fargo
4 Heal
7 Critical
2 Gattling Claw Dragon
3 Seal Dragon, Artpique

G1
2 Eternal Bringer Griffin
3 Perfect Guard
1 Quintet Wall
3 Dragon Monk, Gojo
1 Seal Dragon, Kersey
2 Seal Dragon Spirit, Malkibel
2 Calamity Tower Wyvern

G2
4 Dragonic Burnout
3 Bellicosity Dragon
3 Perdition Dragon, Dragonic Neoflame
1 Dragon Dancer, Arabella

G3
4 Perdition Imperial Dragon, Dragonic Overlord the Great e-birth"
2 Dragonic Overlord "The Яe-birth"
2 Dragonic Overlord (breakride)

For this deck, the main idea is to make use of Dragonic Burnout by having DO in the drop zone via discard/soulblast. DOTR is there to hopefully be able to withstand the link joker lock decks (since it itself operates under a lock 5 environment. While DO does not stack with DOTG, it should not be too much of a problem. It's more of a multiple drive check deck than anything. It is quite straight forward and does not have anything that is able to outrightly take the game.

The only issue is whether or not this deck will be outclassed by a dedicated perdition dragons build with that trinity flames skill. I will try it out tonight before I come to a conclusion as to whether or not to complete the deck or just move on to something more worthwhile.

Online Woes

I'm not sure why but I'm on a straight loss record for the Doomsday deck online.
Sure the hands have been rather bad but it's a little too bad for a bad record.

Last night I lost to UW counterbalance,
Game 1, I lost after getting my Doomsday countered post Rain of Filth as I Force of Willed the counterbalance.
I won 2 on Laboratory Maniac.
Game 3 I lost after my opponent had Jace in play and had a flusterstorm for my Unearth.

Round 2, I faced Painter
Game 1, I mulled to 5, keeping double Gitaxian Probe and tried to find lands. I ended up looking like I was playing Belcher.
Game 2, he had Grindstone out so I did not really want to Doomsday. I died to a bunch of creatures but was ultimately stopped by a Phyrexian Revoker naming Lion's Eye Diamond.

For a start, I am considering making an uncounterable pile with Cavern of Souls and using Chromatic Sphere to pick up the last draw which would win the game.
This whole "can't do well online" thing is worrying as I don't really know what to make out of it. Might be that I'm terrible at the deck, the deck is terrible or my luck is terrible. I suspect it might be the technicalities and the strategies that I am not too adept at but I hope that that is the case.

Doomsday 2-1-1 (a turn away from 3-1) 18/9/14

I bought a Rain of Filth and replaced my Cabal Ritual.
I was researching the deck in the day so I have a better clue as to what to do with my sideboard.
I might put Infernal Contract so that I can Burning Wish, LED, Infernal.
I am also curious as to how Time Spiral works from the SB. Apparently it helps vs massive discarding.

Round 1 vs Lands (from the previous day)
Game 1, I got locked out by Chalice at 1 and 0, and thought that I could Cabal Ritual and Doomsday it back but I forgot that Doomsday gets rid of threshold. =/
I had a Misdirection maindeck as 2 FOW 1 Misdirection split but that ultimately backfired when I could not Force of Will the Chalice. A good reason to at least go 3 FOW, 1 Misd/FOW in the side.

Game 2, I played through a Sphere of Resistance to double Dark Ritual into Doomsday and go for the maniac kill which would need 4 mana. My land was tapped by Rishadan Port but I had Thought Scour in hand to push the combo through the upkeep. I won on the following turn.

Game 3, time was called before we started. I cast a turn 1 Doomsday. I assembled the Lab maniac but he tapped down my Island which would have drawn Thoughtscour for the win. We ended up with a draw after he declined to concede. The "would you like to concede" shit doesn't work.

0-0-1

Round 2 vs D&T
I didn't have a good feeling vs this matchup since it runs Karakas, has Thalia and has Swords to Plowshares, essentially having outs vs all my kills unless Ito run a Chromatic Sphere for the Lab Maniac kill which should, in my understanding, bypass removals since the mana ability comes with a split-second-type draw.

Game 1, I tried to buy time with a Burning Wish for Massacre but my opp dropped 3/3s and I eventually died to those.

Game 2, my opponent had Thalia out with a Karakas so I banked on the Maniac kill but it was hit by Swords to plowshares. It was difficult to slow play it as my opponent had double Rishadan port.

0-1-1

Round 3 vs Sneak and Show
Game 1, I had Force of Will backup and I went for the Lab Maniac kill since I had 2 draws, 3 mana.

Game 2, I cast Flusterstorm turn 1 vs a turn 2 Show and Tell. I Force of Willed a Sneak Attack but I could not get gas. A Sneak Attack eventually resolved and I scooped. I had an Emrakul mid-game, hoping that he would draw another Show and Tell but I couldn't get that lucky break.

Game 3, I Duressed away a Force of Will and he had a poor hand of double Lotus Petal post mulligan. I eventually just went for a Lab Maniac kill but passed the turn as I did not have the extra draw, opening myself to a Pyroblast which would decide the game. It was his card for the turn after so I got through.

1-1-1

Round 4 vs RUG
Game 1, my opp's hand developed into a very UR burn type of hand and I managed to sit around and build up, midway getting a Cabal Therapy to knock out 2x Stifles. Eventually, I stormed with 4 life left facing a Lightning Bolt.

Game 2, my Sensei's top got hit by Spell Pierce, my land was stifled, my opponent played goyf and tapped out twice. On my third land drop, I cast Duress, holding it for a turn to take away Force of will, facing Stifle, Daze, Bolt but my opponent was tapped out.
I had exactly enough mana to go off on my setup. I had double LED, Rain of Filth, U, Doomsday, Brainstorm.
I could do the Tendrils kill but my sequence until Brainstorm could not afford to get hit by Daze.
I went for it anyway. Since there is only two windows to use Daze.
I cast Doomsday, floating U. Cast LED, LED (so I was clear by here). I cast Brainstorm and sac-ed both LEDs and went for the storm kill and he saw the mistake there.

2-1-1

Got a KTK Windsweapt Heath (in the future) for my finish.

4-0 Doomsday 17/9/14

Last night I played the below 61 cards to a 4-0 finish.

3 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Doomsday
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4  Brainstorm
1 Ideas Unbound
3 Burning Wish
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Pact of Negation
1 Laboratory Maniac
2 Ponder
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Divert
1 Mental Note
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Spell Pierce
1 Unearth
1 Duress
1 Lotus Petal
1 Cloud of Faeries

2 Misty Rainforest
1 Island
2 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Underground Sea
1 Scalding Tarns
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island

1 Force of Will
1 Void Snare
1 Doomsday
2 Toxic Deluge
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
2 Xantid Swarm
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Massacre
1 Ponder

Bought a LED for $100 (so $75 minus $25 leftover store credit).
Thankfully I went 4-0 to get back $80 worth of store credit (or 2x Arid Mesa but I don't think I want that now) so I'm technically good, only that my funds are stuck as store credit.

Round 1 vs Reanimator
Game 1 was slow on his side. I could not make out what I was against until I cast Duress. Fortunately, I was clear to initiate the kill.
Game 2, my opponent reanimated Iona naming blue. I had a Cloud of Faeries in play so I set up Shelldock Isle + Emrakul and an Unearth to try to untap the Isle. Unfortunately, it got countered by a Force of Will and I was at 7 life.
Game 3, we traded Duress/Thoughtseize and I managed to top into a Thoughtseize for his post Entomb turn which nabbed Reanimate. The game dragged a little to where I got to cast Pact of Negation and pay for it. I cast Doomsday for the Emrakul kill since it sidesteps whatever reanimation targets and would win by itself.

Round 2 vs Burn
Game 1, I did a storm kill after setting up abit.
Game 2, I was not in a situation to Doomsday into a probable kill.
Game 3, I Doomsday-ed down from 6 to 3 and he immediately tried to cast Lightning Bolt even before I picked up my deck when he asked for my life. So I explained that if he wanted me to be at 3, I would have to stack my deck first. Got a little messy but since he was so eager to Bolt me, I put a Pact of Negation on top of the deck (which I probably wouldn't have thought of). I had double LED and a Gitaxian Probe so I guided him saying that I would have priority first. I cast LED and asked if he would like to Lightning Bolt me, which he did and I flipped Top into Pact of Negation, then casually went off to probe into top, discard my hand to double LED (which would have had the pact), cast top, draw Ideas Unbound and storm killed. (If he was not so eager, I would have lost)

Round 3 vs Jund
Game 1, it went slow and I could not assemble my cards on time and the creatures ended the game.
Game 2, I stormed up a 11 point Tendrils of Agony for his 21 life and managed to cast Pact of Negation on his Punishing Fire after I went down to 2, again capitalizing on the fact that I would have loss if he waited a little - for me to discard my hand. We both knew he had Punishing Fire since he returned it to hand a turn earlier.
Game 3, he mulliganed down to 1 in an attempt to get Leyline of Sanctity out.
I easy won that.

Round 4 vs Lands
Game 1, he tried to go for an early Marit Lage but I was a turn ahead and I stormed up 20 points.
Game 2, he had Chalice of the Void on zero and was attacking my lands with Ghost Quarter/Wasteland. I declined searching for a third basic land after he quartered my Swamp that was
quartered from an Island. I had double fetches in play and he tried to quarter my fetchland to force me to get a nonbasic. I cracked and saw a second Swamp (my land base online is different from my real life deck) so I was pleasantly surpirsed to see it and that foiled his plan for the turn.
I managed to Brainstorm into Doomsday to set up the Lab Maniac kill.
I had a fetchland in hand and Unearth in hand with Force of Will backup so my pile (going to pass the turn) was Mental Note - Lab Maniac - Gitaxian Probe - Gitaxian Probe -Underground Sea.
He quartered my swamp and wastelanded my Underground sea, leaving me with a Tropical Island in play.
I drew Mental Note, played my fetchland, cast Mental note, binnned Lab Maniac and card 3, drew probe, fetched Underground Sea, cast Unearth, cast Gitaxian Probe to end the game.

Changes:
I am going to change a Cabal Ritual for Rain of Filth tonight. A fifth Dark Ritual would be better than the second Cabal Ritual for sure. I know I have one but I couldn't dig it out yesterday so I'll just buy one later.

Of my sideboard, I am skeptical of Void Snare (bounce) but I'll try it for awhile.
I am trying a Flusterstorm in place of a Toxic Deluge for now.

Doomsday Log

Been testing out Doomsday and it has not been easy.
Doomsday is hard to play because there are so many possible variations of what is going on and any misstep ends the game right there and then.

In terms of deckbuilding, I'm not sure if my current call of running 3 very different win routes is correct. As much as the cards currently do not outright clash with each other (apart from Emrakul) since they components can be cycled (the reanimation spell and the faerie), there is a time factor that goes into using 2 mana to cycle.
There are more linear decks that focus on the exact kill route but those have the problem of having to be able to bash through the specific hate for them.
The main contention between the various kill conditions is actually LED which forces you to drop any counter protection.
I also have not figured out the right protection to use between discard and counters, not to mention that I have lesser of each now as well since I have more slots dedicated to going off.

I'm also not firm on how I aggressive I want to be with the cantrips because I cannot ascertain how fast I need to go off when I go off. Playing in a "when I can play" way makes each individual cantrip much less powerful since I usually get back 2 of the 3 cards that I see instead of 1 of the 3.

Do I go for upkeep top activation?
Do I keep a petal as the only mana producer?
Do I turn 1 Ponder?
Do I turn 1 Brainstorm?
Do I turn 1 Ponder or Brainstorm?

The sequencing of lands is also very questionable now since these decisions can clog up potential plays later on and make the player trip over.

Do I search for basic Island? Underground Sea? Volcanic Island?

So this whole bulk of "setup for doomsday" sequencing and playing needs to be firmed up which I would need time to build up and familiarize. I currently also need a greater understanding of which kill I should go for out of the 3 and how to integrate the sideboard into the deck post sb.
What to include in the sb is also another problem itself since I do not have a full understanding of the deck and its various matchups yet.

There are some additional points I need to take note as well:
-Being at 1 life pre-Doomsday is the same as being at 0.
-Emrakul on the same turn needs 1 more card in hand to go Isle+Faerie
-Sensei's Top + turn 1 kill setup requires 1 more mana since the first LED gives U already.
-On MTGO there is a need to keep looking at the library count to visualize what's left in the deck and I need to get the best plan before I click on the first card for Doomsday since I do not get to reselect.

As of now, I should be just about 20% tapping into the full potential of the deck.
It does not help that I usually test at night when I'm all worn out from work.
This is a very human factor when it comes to this deck as I would need to build up the mental capacity to go through more than 10 rounds of it in a day and in a fatigued state as well. I could do that for most control decks right now since I'm adept at the mid-late game but I can't say the same for the early game requirements that this deck has, especially when it is this unforgiving. I suppose I will have to take in the stress of playing in a tournament setting and just keep throwing it at myself to build up some resistance towards it,
It was quite difficult yesterday as I had trouble getting to sleep on the previous night and I was honestly very tired throughout the day even before starting round 1 at 10pm.
Hopefully I can make a judgment by the end of the year so that I can prepare more definitively for GP Kyoto in April.

Legacy Doomsday 3-1

Last night, I put together a Doomsday deck after getting 3 Doomsday (had 1 sad white bordered one), 1 Meditate and 1 Ill-Gotten Gains. I have the core of a storm deck irl less 2x Lion's Eye Diamond so together with my existing cards, I could more or less assemble a playable deck of some sort (with a bad mana base since I do not own 2x Volcanic Island or any Badlands/Bayou).

The deck is a mesh of the known kill conditions that it commonly runs, having the storm kill, the Emrakul kill and the Lab Maniac kill available post Doomsday.
The white bordered Doomsday looked ugly so I decided to play 2x Burning Wish and put it into the SB. (HAHAHA)

I faced RUG round 1, losing game 1 to not being able to figure out how to win from BB and top.
I won game 2 after going for the Lab maniac kill with protection.
Game 3, my setup was attacked with Spell pierce, Stifle on fetchland, Wasteland etc.

Round 2, I faced Shardless (bant).
Game 1, I cast Doomsday, set up Sheldock Isle + Emrakul and Lab Maniac + double Gitaxian Probe.
He dropped a Karakas to bounce the Emrakul, I cast Lab Maniac, and double probed for the win.
Game 2, he had a mediocre hand but I had to Force of Will a Meddling Mage. I saw that he had creature removals so I opted for the storm kill.

Round 3, I faced the Veteran Explorer deck.
I let him Cabal Therapy me to get the 2 basic lands. Eventually, I stormed for the win.
Game 2, I went for a turn 2 Doomsday after I Diverted a Cabal Therapy to see a clear hand. I did the Lab Maniac kill.

Round 4, I faced D&T. I went for a turn 1 Doomsday and opted to go for the Lab Maniac kill. I was vulnerable to Swords to Plowshares the whole time. He dropped Thalia so I could no longer do the 2 mana kill and had to hardcast Lab Maniac. I safely untapped and Mental Noted for the win.
Game 2, I played slowly, casting Toxic Deluge to clear the threats. I eventually used the storm engine to win at storm 10. Would have been lacking one if he had left W up for Swords to Plowshares.

I liked how the deck just won out of nowhere. I'm looking forward to preparing and testing it online.

I won a True-Name Nemesis for my finish.

Boom//Bust on doubles

The weekend has been rather eventful for me.

I went 4-2 in the MOCS qualifiers, losing the last round to a URW delver deck that went double Wasteland, double True-Name Nemesis and double Lightning Bolt (after I Toxic Deluged for 1 going down to 6). At least I got a Show and Tell for my trouble.

As for the big real life Legacy tournament, I went 0-3 drop, possibly the worst results I have had thus far.

Round 1 vs the Gravecrawler deck.

I lost game 1 when I eventually ran out of cards against Cabal Therapy and tokens.

Game 2, we got into a long game and I stabilized with Jace in play and the Punishing Fire combo.

In game 3, his turn 1 Faithless Looting threw in 2x Bloodghast. I played a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman and he dropped Pithing Needle naming it and cast a Gravecrawler. To make things worse, he dropped 2x Blood Artist and made it impossible for me to come back.

Round 2 vs Painter
Game 1, I get hit by a Blood Moon with an Island and Swamp in play but not much I can actually do. An Ensnaring Bridge on the other side stops me from attacking with Snapcaster Mage and he assembles the Painter combo eventually.

Game 2, I misplay and opt to Force of Will instead of putting down an Engineered Explosives for 2. The painter combo comes down with Pyroblast backup and I lose.

Round 3 vs Shardless BUG

Game 1, I run out of business cards after Jace gets Force of Willed.
Game 2, we get into a long attrition game and I manage to cast Intuition for the Marit Lage kill to close it.
Game 3, I misplay Snapcaster by playing it a little too early to get Brainstorm instead of getting Intuition later on despite having thought of that route, Eventually, the game drags out and Shardless Agent into Ancestral Vision, Shardless Agent into Tarmogoyf puts enough pressure on the game with nothing significant on my side other than a True Name Nemesis, ending with a Disfigure on my Creeping Tar Pit ready to block a goyf.

So now, this chapter of Legacy has closed for me. I am looking to work towards 2015's GP Kyoto (Legacy). I will probably test some other strategies over the next few months.

3-0-1 Legacy

Yesterday, I made my way to a new shop that has a very good Legacy payout.
It seems like they figured out that they would do 4 rounds, and an additional match if tied for 1st place.
The payout is very good versus the entry.
For $10, top gets Delta/Wasteland, second gets Mire, third/forth is a True-Name/commander deck or something along that line.

I took my deck which is about 2 cards off my online list (lacking a third Underground Sea and a Misty Rainforest) and tried to find 2x blue elemental blast / trading post but could not find either.
(I suspect trading post can be used vs Jund since they don't have a way to kill it)
I stuck to the Nylea's Bow that I had in my 15th slot.

I learnt from this tournament that I have the option to play 1-0 and drag out a draw in order to win.
It's something that I have long forgotten so it's a good lesson learnt before the 7 Sept tournament.
Online, we're just trying to close on the clock. In real life, drawing is a tournament option (as much as I loathe it).

I won Shardless BUG, UWR delver, Miracles (1-1, but I was let up with a split) and we did a 4 way split among the 3 3-0s and my 3rd round opponent who was paired with one of the 3-0s. We all drew to lock in the top 3 spots. I wanted Wasteland so I ended up having to fork out $50 for our split since we counted $160 - $40 each and valued Wasteland at $90.

Preparing for 7 Sept

Over the past week, I did not manage to get into even one VMA constructed qualifier that fired.
It only needed 17 people to go off but people are aggressively boycotting the format.
I cannot fathom the reason. Even Classic had people in the past for something with such a alluring payout.
I was quite down over the weekend, having played in the VMA limited champs and getting blown out in 4 games over 2 players to Parallex Wave. It was 3am and I just gave up at 2-2. I would probably not make it even if I won all the way from there and some packs would not make up for the lack of sleep.
Then it came upon me that I would have this late night issue over the next few weeks (not anymore) and I was quite demoralized by it. The events I was looking forward to were going to be very taxing for me.
IF I had qualified for the VMA constructed champs, I would have had to stay up and probably end up skipping a 10km run I am scheduled for.
Also, if I make it into the Legacy MOCS, it means staying through the night and continuing into the day for the IRL Legacy tournament which I expect to be about 7 rounds. I expect the MOCS to be about 8-9 rounds. I am not sure I am able to handle that physically. Part of me wants to just skip the MOCS as it is much less taxing to play in a normal timing than at 11pm till maybe 7am?

In any case, I am still practicing my 4c control deck and trying to find a way to shore up my worst matchup, burn. I am considering having 2x Blue Elemental Blast in the SB for it. I've been thinking and nothing clicks. I did play Shardless BUG a few days back with double Chill in the SB but I understand that the fundamental difference is that BUG is able to close the game whereas mine is much slower. I need to think of which is the second card to make space for the second BEB/Hydroblast.

I have lost quite a few games to burn and it goes against my wanting of having a game vs everything. I just can't stomach auto-losing to anything but that would mean respecting it more. 2 is as much I can go and is the minimal amount of respect required.

Last night I lost to Burn and Storm, won D&T and Miracles. Gonna try playing at a high EV tournament tonight at a new shop. I hope that 2x blue elemental blast is going to be the right way to go and that I would have to adjust how it interacts with the other matchups (storm? miracles? jund? etc)

Legacy IRL

Last night was MTGO downtime. So I went to a real life shop to keep myself prepared for real life tournaments. Unlike online, there is so many things that needs to be done like shuffling, maintaining of sleeves, keeping track of life, graveyard, board state, hand size, opponent's state, your own state, rulings, missed triggers etc.

I collected my preordered Jace pop figure at a toy shop after registering and went for dinner.

Round 1 vs Shardless bug
Game 1, I lose to being out volumed to cascade with a Volrath's Stronghold in play preventing me from wanting to kill the Shardless Agent.
Game 2, an early loam lock wins the game.
Game 3, I get stuck for more than 10 turns (Ancestral Vision suspended and resolved twice) without my 3rd land. I keep getting Deathrite Shaman which died each time.

0-1

Round 2 vs D&T
Game 1, my opponent has no vial so we go into a very slow game and I come out with Jace Liliana.
Game 2 was not too different. Just very mid-game plays without anything too shocking that I could not handle. (Unlike that Cataclysm from the day prior)

1-1

Round 3 vs burn

Game 1, I lose to double Goblin Guide (1 would have been ok).
Game 2, I stabilize at 5 life Jace and Liliana and Brainstorm on an Isochron Scepter, voraciously digging for counters and answer and I get there with True Name Nemesis.
Game 3, I almost come back but have to make a choice as to how I want to deal with Grim Lavamancer as I had lands, counterspell and force of will. I drew an abrupt decay next turn -_-". I got to 4 life with a Deathrite Shaman but he drew Fireblast.

1-2

Round 4 vs BUG Delver

Game 1, I resolve Jace and go to town.
Game 2, we get into a very long game with everything dying and being discarded.
I eventually get True Name Nemesis (which he has no outs against), dealt with his flipped delver and faced a 1/1 delver. I just turned sideways every turn and won with Deathrite adding to the clock.

2-2

Road to MOCS 2014 Day 20 (16 QP)

Yesterday, I had my final attempt to qualify for the VMA limited championship (would not be possible anymore).

I was elated to open a foil Force of Will but my pool was not impressive.

In the end, I came up with a BW deck that beats with shadow guys and fliers. After submission I considered a weaker but more mid-game build with blue green. 

Round 1 was easy. I outraced with shadow creatures.

1-0

I saw that his deck had many small guys so I swapped into UG which had fatter dudes. He had Skullclamp but was mana screwed.

2-0

I killed my opponent with his own Kezzerdrix by wiping the board with Famine. =)

3-0

I was glad to go 3-0 but I lost round 4 with a hand full of lands. Zzz

3-1

In the final round, I faced a BW deck similar to mine. He had the new Desolation Angel in game 1 but I had done enough damage to just Famine for the win.
Game 2, my shadow creatures applied pressure and his fliers could not keep up. He had Death Grasp for my griffin but I had Death Grasp at him to add more clock. 

4-1

With this, I qualify for the MOCS qualifiers and the VMA limited championship. Step one of my world domination plan is complete!

In the last round of the qualifier, I joined a Legacy DE.

Round 1, I faced dredge.
I almost win game 1 on the back of Deathrite Shaman and Snapcaster Mage blocking zombie tokens but I lacked the removal required to survive the few zombies.

Game 2, Deathrite Shaman plus Surgical Extraction controlled the pace of the game until another Deathrite Shaman joined the fun.
Game 3, I kept a hand that had some chance with counters and removals but my opponent had quad cabal therapy to just nice hit my answers out of my hand.

0-1

Round 2, I faced Reanimator.
I lost game 1 when my opponent reanimated Iona naming black. I did not find Jace or Far/Away.

Game 2, I had Deathrite Shaman to mess the board but he used Show and Tell to put Inkwell Leviathan down. He attacked into Jace so I had enough life to Toxic Deluge for 11 to kill my own Deathrite Shaman and the Leciathan. I came back with Jace and Liliana, plus Deathrite and Creeping Tar Pit.

Game 3, he Exhumed and I had surgical extraction for Grave Titan and he got an Elesh Norn. Since it wasn't much of a clock, I Intuitioned for Dark Depths combo and he could not do much from there.

1-1

Round 3, I face Death and Taxes. I won game 1 with him having no Vials out and getting into a dominating position with planeswalkers.
I swiftly lose game 2 to not having any lands.
Game 3, I was almost dead after a Cataclysm but I managed to draw lands at just the right points in time to survive and make a comeback.

2-1

Round 4, I had a bye. Whee~ Free win and everything!

So this week I end up with +3 QPs (all from last night) and I'm set up for the MOCS qualifier and the VMA limited champs. Hopefully I would manage to do well in the VMA limited champs (go top2 and get the foily playset) and get a shot at getting 35 QPs to enter the MOCS tournament straight. =/