Worldwake is the newest set in Magic and has added some new cards into the mix, changing up both Standard and Limited. The biggest additions that were immediately evident were new blue cards. If you remember when I wrote about the four different deck archetypes (aggro, mid-range, combo, control), I wrote about control decks and how those work. For the last three years (or more) control has dominated the Standard meta-game, and most control decks are reliant on very strong blue cards, which there had been many of in past years. In the most recently released sets the power of blue has diminished...well, until Worldwake.
Though Worldwake doesn't feature any strong counter spells, which is traditionally the backbone of control decks, it does feature a powerful new planeswalker and some very relevant card drawing enhancers. Control isn't the dominant force it used to be by any means (which makes me incredibly happy, let me tell you), but it's starting to make a comeback, most notably with Patrick Chapin's new blue/white control deck.
While everyone saw (and was really excited about) the rise in power level for blue, there were a couple of other cards that have clawed their way into constructed play. The most surprising of these cards, I think, is one called Stoneforge Mystic, a small white creature who searches out an equipment card from your deck when she comes into play (or enters the battlefield as they say these days). Word on the street, even early on, was that she would be good in the next set, which is slated for release in April. However, Louis-Scott Vargas (LSV) featured her in his new Naya aggro deck which got him a 10-0 record at PT San Diego. Now this little mystic's price is quickly scaling the charts.
But, other than that, I would have to say the biggest contribution of Worldwake is its new man-lands, which are dual lands, unlike the originals which were mono-colored (for those of you who don't know, a dual land is a land that taps for two colors of mana). They have greatly enhanced already existing decks like Jund and made possibly previously unplayed decks like blue/white control.
All in all I would say that Worldwake adds a nice dimension to the competitive formats without introducing any cards that are ridiculously dominating. It's true that the new planeswalker (Jace 2.0, aka “The Wallet Sculptor” named for his $60 price tag) is incredibly powerful, but after having played against it, I don't believe he changes the dynamic of the game in an unfair way. While he has allowed for the advent of new decks, he hasn't made decks that were already being played irrelevant.
I am unsure of when the next major event is (or at least the next one that Team DOTS will attend is), but of course, when there is event coverage it will be posted here. In the meantime I think I will chronicle some of my experiences at local events and try to give all of you readers out there some insight into how I go about choosing, constructing, and fine-tuning decks.
Upcoming: whatever I just said would be upcoming
Check us out at: sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Another 5K in Edison
Yesterday found Team DOTS at another 5K event out in Edison, New Jersey. Unfortunately not many of our team members were able or willing to make it, so it ended up just being Matt, Izzy, and myself. Other players we know were in attendance like Joe Shi, our friends Alex and Calcano, and a new friend of ours Andrew Gill. As I mentioned in a previous post, all 5K's (that I know of) are either in the Standard or Legacy formats. This was another Standard event, as I think Conta is the only person on this team who seriously competes in Legacy, at least at the moment.
As Izzy could tell you, I was having some serious frustrations leading up to this event. I didn't think any deck that I had the cards to make would be any good. I had tried my hand at Jund, the dominant deck in the format, and come up short with it every time. For the past month or so I had been playing around with a Bant deck and in the last week switched over to Knightfall (AKA Junk). Both of these decks are white and green, but Bant has a blue splash and Knightfall has a black one. I wasn't particularly happy with either of them after testing.
The problem with these decks, and many mid-range decks actually, is that they run a high number of accelerants to let you drop your big spells early (both decks are actually able to drop 5-cost spells on Turn 3). However, as any good arson will tell you, if all you don't have any matches, there won't be much of a fire. Basically what I'm saying is that in testing I found that when I needed to draw either a threat or a solution, what I ended up drawing a lot of the time were my accelerants, and that ended up costing me games. I wanted desperately to have a good showing at a big event, not necessarily to win or even Top 8, but just to place respectably and feel like I'm actually good at this game.
After some debate and thoughts about messing around with the Knightfall list and running fewer accelerants, I decided to run the list as it was and just to see how it went. Izzy stuck with her Jund deck, which is pretty much always a good option. Matt, ever the control player, had been playing Grixis control (black, red, blue) leading up to the tournament, but the night before decided to switch to a totally different white/blue control deck that Patrick Chapin had debuted at the San Diego Pro Tour (which just happened this weekend).
Izzy ended up doing the worst of us, going 3-3 and losing to a Summoning Trap deck in Round 6. She decided to drop after that, though a 3-3 record is fairly respectable. Matt and I both had opportunities to place high, and Matt may have actually had a shot at Top 8. We were both 5-2, Matt punting his seventh round match after starting 5-1, and me winning three matches in a row after a 2-2 opening. Matt drew his last match in a control mirror (which always takes a really long time), and then his opponent got angry that he wouldn't concede to him and let him into the Top 8 (what a dick, really). I got paired up against Vampires in the last round (a terrible match-up for my deck), and managed to win the first game. Then I punted game two and ended up losing the match.
Note: “Punting” like in football when you kickoff to the other team, is when a player makes a mistake that basically hands the game over to his or her opponent.
However, overall I was happy with the way things turned out. My deck performed well, and I drew relevant cards at the right time, which had been my concern going into the tournament. I even had a chance to beat one of my worst match-ups, and I think I would have if I had played correctly. I think I will even stick with this deck for a bit, though the new Naya deck looks ridiculously amazing and at least warrants some testing (sadly they are sold out of the cards I need for it on both of the sites I usually shop from).
I should give shout-outs to both Alex and Joe Shi, who ended up being in the Top 4 after winning their first rounds in the Top 8. They then split the prize with two other players and wound up with 1G each. Both of them were playing Jund, if you were curious.
I know I had intended to do this earlier, but the next article will be a short write-up on Worldwake. I have a slightly better perspective on it now that I've played with and against it both in Standard and in Limited. And I have to say that some cards I really didn't think were that good have broken into Standard, especially in the new Naya deck (red, white, green aggro) that Louis-Scott Vargas rode to a 10-0 in the Standard portion of the swiss this weekend at PT San Diego. He went undefeated until the semi-finals.
Upcoming: A Worldwake Review
Check us out at: sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
As Izzy could tell you, I was having some serious frustrations leading up to this event. I didn't think any deck that I had the cards to make would be any good. I had tried my hand at Jund, the dominant deck in the format, and come up short with it every time. For the past month or so I had been playing around with a Bant deck and in the last week switched over to Knightfall (AKA Junk). Both of these decks are white and green, but Bant has a blue splash and Knightfall has a black one. I wasn't particularly happy with either of them after testing.
The problem with these decks, and many mid-range decks actually, is that they run a high number of accelerants to let you drop your big spells early (both decks are actually able to drop 5-cost spells on Turn 3). However, as any good arson will tell you, if all you don't have any matches, there won't be much of a fire. Basically what I'm saying is that in testing I found that when I needed to draw either a threat or a solution, what I ended up drawing a lot of the time were my accelerants, and that ended up costing me games. I wanted desperately to have a good showing at a big event, not necessarily to win or even Top 8, but just to place respectably and feel like I'm actually good at this game.
After some debate and thoughts about messing around with the Knightfall list and running fewer accelerants, I decided to run the list as it was and just to see how it went. Izzy stuck with her Jund deck, which is pretty much always a good option. Matt, ever the control player, had been playing Grixis control (black, red, blue) leading up to the tournament, but the night before decided to switch to a totally different white/blue control deck that Patrick Chapin had debuted at the San Diego Pro Tour (which just happened this weekend).
Izzy ended up doing the worst of us, going 3-3 and losing to a Summoning Trap deck in Round 6. She decided to drop after that, though a 3-3 record is fairly respectable. Matt and I both had opportunities to place high, and Matt may have actually had a shot at Top 8. We were both 5-2, Matt punting his seventh round match after starting 5-1, and me winning three matches in a row after a 2-2 opening. Matt drew his last match in a control mirror (which always takes a really long time), and then his opponent got angry that he wouldn't concede to him and let him into the Top 8 (what a dick, really). I got paired up against Vampires in the last round (a terrible match-up for my deck), and managed to win the first game. Then I punted game two and ended up losing the match.
Note: “Punting” like in football when you kickoff to the other team, is when a player makes a mistake that basically hands the game over to his or her opponent.
However, overall I was happy with the way things turned out. My deck performed well, and I drew relevant cards at the right time, which had been my concern going into the tournament. I even had a chance to beat one of my worst match-ups, and I think I would have if I had played correctly. I think I will even stick with this deck for a bit, though the new Naya deck looks ridiculously amazing and at least warrants some testing (sadly they are sold out of the cards I need for it on both of the sites I usually shop from).
I should give shout-outs to both Alex and Joe Shi, who ended up being in the Top 4 after winning their first rounds in the Top 8. They then split the prize with two other players and wound up with 1G each. Both of them were playing Jund, if you were curious.
I know I had intended to do this earlier, but the next article will be a short write-up on Worldwake. I have a slightly better perspective on it now that I've played with and against it both in Standard and in Limited. And I have to say that some cards I really didn't think were that good have broken into Standard, especially in the new Naya deck (red, white, green aggro) that Louis-Scott Vargas rode to a 10-0 in the Standard portion of the swiss this weekend at PT San Diego. He went undefeated until the semi-finals.
Upcoming: A Worldwake Review
Check us out at: sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
Monday, February 1, 2010
Casual Magic, Part 4: The Final Installment...Duhn duhn duuuuhhhhnnnnn!
I started playing Magic for the first time around 4th Grade. I remember taking the bus back from after school with a friend of mine, and we were puzzling over what the “X” in the mana cost of Disintegrate could possibly mean. A random kid who overheard us talking and knew about the game explained that it was a variable, and “X” could be as much as you wanted it to be, or more accurately, as much as mana as you could pay for it. So if you had 21 lands, you could deal 20 damage to your opponent's face? Amazing. We had instantly found our new favorite spell.
As you can probably tell from that little anecdote, my friends and I really knew nothing about the game. Everything to us was a creature beat-down fest. Burn was used, except in very rare occasions, to deal damage to a player, not as removal. Spells like Wrath of God were just unplayable. I mean why would you play something that killed “all creatures” and not just your opponent's? And you can just straight up forget about notions like ordering triggers, responding to effects, or using the stack (which actually didn't exist when I started playing).
There are moments when I yearn for this time before time, when everyone's boards were just massive lines of creatures that were unencumbered by the fear of board wipes; when instants were played as sorceries (unless they were counter spells) because why would it matter?; when enchantment destruction, artifact removal, and walls were all main deck necessities. And when I play casual Magic, this is the state I try to return to.
I don't want to play powerful cards in a casual deck (though if you look at my casual decks you probably think I'm lying, but playing against other high-power casual decks requires me to make some concessions unfortunately). I also don't like getting my casual play critiqued. When playing competitively or testing for competitive play, I definitely value the opinions of other plays and want to know if I made any mistakes, but when I'm playing a deck that's supposed to be fun I go on auto-pilot, and I don't really care if I make mistakes. As far as I'm concerned making optimal plays is for competition. If you happen to make them in casual play, that's fine too, but I personally don't enjoy having my decisions questioned by other players during games that are just supposed to be for fun.
Over the last week or so, since I started posting this series of articles, I've had some debates with other friends of mine on the topic (and you can get some of their opinions in the comments on previous posts). Conta made the excellent point that the power-level of a casual deck should really just be determined by how willing your friends are to play against it. If everyone in your crew is okay with you rocking four copies of every restricted card, then really that's fine.
Ultimately I think his assertion is correct. Casual is really what you make of it, and as long as you and your friends are having fun that's what is most important.
However, for me the fun lies in trying to make decks that are far from being playable in any sort of competitive format, that play cards that don't see competitive play (bonus points if they have awesome art too), and that are generally built around themes (my Elder Dragon Highlander deck only runs creatures that are Angels). I think casual should be a format that is about creativity, doing wacky things you don't normally see, and showing some love to those cards that are just not good enough to cut it in a competitive environment.
Again, I can't tell you how to play your casual games. That would sort of defeat the point of the whole idea. If the fun for you is playing really overpowered decks, then that's cool. There is only one cardinal rule to playing “casual” Magic, and that is to make sure everyone involved is having fun. If you've found that this isn't the case for you and your friends, maybe you should try some of this advice. Hopefully it'll help you out.
Upcoming: A recap of World Wake pre-release at the Fight House
Check us out at: sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
As you can probably tell from that little anecdote, my friends and I really knew nothing about the game. Everything to us was a creature beat-down fest. Burn was used, except in very rare occasions, to deal damage to a player, not as removal. Spells like Wrath of God were just unplayable. I mean why would you play something that killed “all creatures” and not just your opponent's? And you can just straight up forget about notions like ordering triggers, responding to effects, or using the stack (which actually didn't exist when I started playing).
There are moments when I yearn for this time before time, when everyone's boards were just massive lines of creatures that were unencumbered by the fear of board wipes; when instants were played as sorceries (unless they were counter spells) because why would it matter?; when enchantment destruction, artifact removal, and walls were all main deck necessities. And when I play casual Magic, this is the state I try to return to.
I don't want to play powerful cards in a casual deck (though if you look at my casual decks you probably think I'm lying, but playing against other high-power casual decks requires me to make some concessions unfortunately). I also don't like getting my casual play critiqued. When playing competitively or testing for competitive play, I definitely value the opinions of other plays and want to know if I made any mistakes, but when I'm playing a deck that's supposed to be fun I go on auto-pilot, and I don't really care if I make mistakes. As far as I'm concerned making optimal plays is for competition. If you happen to make them in casual play, that's fine too, but I personally don't enjoy having my decisions questioned by other players during games that are just supposed to be for fun.
Over the last week or so, since I started posting this series of articles, I've had some debates with other friends of mine on the topic (and you can get some of their opinions in the comments on previous posts). Conta made the excellent point that the power-level of a casual deck should really just be determined by how willing your friends are to play against it. If everyone in your crew is okay with you rocking four copies of every restricted card, then really that's fine.
Ultimately I think his assertion is correct. Casual is really what you make of it, and as long as you and your friends are having fun that's what is most important.
However, for me the fun lies in trying to make decks that are far from being playable in any sort of competitive format, that play cards that don't see competitive play (bonus points if they have awesome art too), and that are generally built around themes (my Elder Dragon Highlander deck only runs creatures that are Angels). I think casual should be a format that is about creativity, doing wacky things you don't normally see, and showing some love to those cards that are just not good enough to cut it in a competitive environment.
Again, I can't tell you how to play your casual games. That would sort of defeat the point of the whole idea. If the fun for you is playing really overpowered decks, then that's cool. There is only one cardinal rule to playing “casual” Magic, and that is to make sure everyone involved is having fun. If you've found that this isn't the case for you and your friends, maybe you should try some of this advice. Hopefully it'll help you out.
Upcoming: A recap of World Wake pre-release at the Fight House
Check us out at: sites.google.com/site/teamdamageonthestack
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