Category: Special Events

All blog posts written about my experiences at various MtG events. Whether they be Grand Prixs, PPTQs, or random events, this is where they will be.

February 17th FNM & Special Planeswalker Profile

Salty’s Back…

Hasn’t he used that title before on another blog post? Yea…but it fit…so get over it. AFTER A LONG AND ARDUOUS CONTEMPLATION, I DECIDED TO GIVE STANDARD A TRY. I thought long and hard about what decks are at my LGS Jack’s On Queen, and I decided on running a Green/Blue Energy list. I built the list to combat the machine menace of Mardu Vehicles. Using Thriving Turtle with an attack activation to block almost all of Mardu Vehicles ground threats, primarily Toolcraft Exemplar and Scrapheap Scrounger. Also bouncing my opponent’s Heart of Kiran with Unsubstantiate is essentially a 2-for-1. So let’s get into the games!!

Round 1; Win in 2 vs Hedron Alignnment

Now I knew coming into FNM that I was going to run into some gimmick based decks. Primarily I thought it was going to be Paradox Engine and Cryptolith Rite that would have been the gimmick of choice, but in no way shape or form did I suspect Hedron Alignment. The deck uses a variety of draw then discard like effects to get a singular copy of Hedron Alignment into the yard, then targets it with Secret Salvage, to exile one copy and get the rest into hand. I never let my opponent get rolling. I just pushed super hard for lethal with a barrage of Greenbelt Rampagers‘ to take game one, and Nissa‘s elementals to take game two. As one sided as the games were, my opponent and I still had a great time playing. I loved the premise of his deck and we spoke after the game about improvements.

Round 2; Win in 3 vs Dimir Artifacts

You know a game is going well when you can swing with a Thriving Turtle three times. The list is basically a control shell which uses super cheap artifacts and Tezzeret’s Touch to make giant 5/5 monsters which end lives very quickly. Game one I managed to squeak out but game two I just got slaughtered. The MVP of game three was Architect of the Untamed. This Tireless Trackeresque looking creature has two abilities. The first is a triggered ability which occurs when a land enters the battlefield under your control. The second and most important of the two is an activated ability which costs eight energy, and allows me to put a 6/6 colourless beast onto the battlefield. This beast was crucial in game three as my opponent swung in with a 5/5 enchanted artifact I was able to activate the Architect’s ability and brick wall the artifact with my 6/6 beast. Which swing was what I needed to break through my opponent’s defenses and secure the W.

Round 3; Loss in 2 vs Mardu Vehicles

This was it, this was the game I was waiting for. Game one went in my opponent’s favour but was close after I cast Confiscation Coup taking my opponent’s Heart of Kiran which he quickly replaced. I just didn’t stand up to the onslaught. I hit the sideboard hard, bringing in a total of 10 cards. Including all copies of Aether Meltdown, Appetite for the Unnatural, Natural State, Clip Wings and Horribly Awry. I was on the play and my opening hand was Attune with Aether, Aether Meltdown, Architect of the Unnatural, Horribly Awry, and three lands. This had was fantastic…or so I thought. I proceeded to Meltdown my opponent’s Heart of Kiran, I got Architect out and got up to seven energy before my opponent killed it, but you want to know the worst part? Out of my 10 draw steps before the game ended, I had drawn two non land cards. Worst land clump of my life, against the match I had been prepping for. MVP was my obviously garbage shuffling job.

Round 4; Win in 2 vs Servo Mimic

Aha! I knew I wasn’t through with gimmicks just yet! Metallic Mimic is a very interesting card and I can see it being played in a variety of tribal based decks, such as Green White Humans. But something I was not expecting was servos. My opponent would flood the board with servos using Sram’s Expertise and Master Tinketeer to just go Servo nuts! However, both games my opponent was running into some land trouble. Complete opposite of what happened to me in the game previous, my opponent never hit a fourth land drop in either game. These games would have been much closer if that did not happen.

Wrap Up

After all was said and done we finished 3-1 which got us third place in the standings. I enjoy the deck but I feel as if some cards definitely under performed. I feel Confiscation Coup is a cute card, but too slow in the current meta. I enjoy Aether Theorist and what the Scry brings to the table, but I feel that maybe Shielded Aether Thief would make for a better pick up. Another big let down was Greenbelt Rampager. With almost every deck I played against running some number of Fatal Push, spending two energy to get push is meh, it also just gets eaten by Heart of Kiran. I think I will have to change the deck if I intend on playing it again, possibly look for a more control based approach.

 

The Phantom Menace

Now I use the Star Wars title loosely as I am about to inform you about a certain player at my LGS. This guy came to his second FNM on Friday and proceeded to do a clean sweep of standard and take home first place. Now I bet you’re asking yourself, “But Brad, why is that such an achievement?” Well that’s not all he’s done. He played in both of Aether Revolt’s Gamedays and made it to the finals both times. Both games were super intense, and quite a thing to behold. He actually took home the Kaladesh Gameday Mat from my LGS a couple months back. Oh yea, and one more thing, the guy is nine years old. You heard me right, nine year old Lucien Lahaie is a little magic pro. Through watching his games and the way he plays I think we can all learn a thing or two. A big thing I notice is how little time he takes to make his mind up. Whether we call that the impulsive moves of a nine year old or the pre-calculating thoughts of a clever mind, it is refreshing to see. Far too often I see people over think their plays. They play themselves into a corner and play far too cautiously, and I’ve seen it lead to people’s detriment. But with Lucien, it’s like his brain function goes like this, “Draw threat? Play threat. Draw removal? Play Removal”. From his frame of mind its’, ‘I have a removal spell, I will kill your thing, I don’t care if you have another thing in your hand, I’ll remove that later.’ On Friday he was piloting Mardu Vehicles, and I know some people are going to say “But it’s Mardu Vehicles” yea well I say you gotta see this kid play it first. One thing I remember from FNM was I was sitting next to one of Lucien’s opponents during their game. Each player controlled a copy of Toolcraft Exemplar. Lucien declared the trigger and swung. His opponent quickly declared his own Exemplar as a blocker and said “they trade”. Lucien held up one tiny finger and said “read the card”. It was at this point during my game that I had to pay attention. I took a peak over my opponent’s shoulder as he read the wording on Toolcraft Exemplar; “At the beginning of combat on YOUR turn…” My opponent gave me a look of shock and slight horror as he said “he’s right.” My game ended shortly after so it gave me time to watch the remainder of Lucien’s game. It was at this moment that I realized how little time he spent in the tank, and I think that is where a majority of Magic players trap themselves. They go too deep into the tank and psych themselves out. It was the final round of the tournament and Lucien was up against the mirror. Lucien had Pia Nalaar on board and a couple of other things while his opponent had quite a significant state, difference was that his opponent was at three life and he was at a comfortable 16. A crowd was gathering around the table at this point as matches were finishing up. It seemed that the tempo had shifted in his opponent’s favour as Lucien was empty handed. Then seemingly out of no where Lucien picked up his graveyard, removed a copy of Thraben Inspector and put it off to the side, as well as putting a Scrapheap Scrounger from his yard to the battlefield. The crowd couldn’t believe it, his opponent couldn’t believe it, had he known that the scrounger was there the whole time? He used Pia’s second ability and sacrificed the Thopter and the Scrounger to disable his opponent’s blockers and swung for the win with Pia’s first pump ability.

The kid has some serious piloting skills and I can’t wait to see attend big events as he grows along his Magic career.

Image result for anakin podracer

Well that’s all for this week! Stay tuned for next week when I might play Snow-Mentals in Modern!! Until next time, STAY SALTY MY FRIENDS!!

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Face to Face Modern Open

Oi! How’s it going salters and saltettes? It’s been a wee while since we last spoke. With school picking back up and working two jobs, the blogs are going to be few and far between, but I will attempt to jam as much content in as possible.

Friday January 6th 2017 FNM

So last night I attended my LGS Jack’s on Queen and participated in a modern Friday Night Magic event. I managed to come out on top of the three round event and taking first. Given it was a small event, it still felt good to win.

Face to Face Modern Open

This brings us to today. I traveled from the quiet little town of Wasaga Beach to the hustle and bustle of Seneca College in Toronto to participate in a Modern Open tournament hosted by Face to Face Games. My pilot was Jason Malott, a local level two judge whom was second in command for the event, and his co-pilot was his son Jaden, whom was going to play in the event utilizing a mono-green stompy list. After careful deliberation, not really, I decided to play my Orhzov Eldrazi deck.

Round 1; Win in 2 vs Through the Breach

I am a big fan of playing against grixis colour decks. I don’t now why but the colour combination always works out in my favour. Game one I hit my opponent with an Inquisition of Kozilek  and ended up taking out a Snapcaster Mage, but it was what I saw that was the issue…. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Needless to say I took game one pretty convincingly. My opponent was visible shaken after the first game, so naturally I inquired if everything was ok. He told me that after casting a Serum Visions he did his scry and kept a Through the Breach on top, but later in his turn he cracked his Scalding Tarn, and shuffled his Through the Breach back into his library. Game two I hit my opponents’ Remand and Cryptic Command with Surgical Extraction. Once all the counter spells were gone I used Infinite Obliteration to remove Emrakul from my opponent’s deck.

Round 2; Loss in 3 vs Affinity

These games were pretty close, but quick. Game one my opponent just ran me over, too many wheenies and not enough removal. Game two I was able to stave off the waves of robotic menaces. I’m going to focus primarily on game three as it was the most intense. It start out quite well for me, I had spot removal for a lot of my opponent’s big things. Disenchant taking care of Cranial Plating saved me for the early portion of the game. So here was the board state. I had a variety of eldrazi creatures on the field, and instead of activating Vault of the Archangel I decided to cast a Thought-Knot Seer and pick the last card out of my opponent’s hand. My opponent had two copies of Darksteel Citadel, Inkmoth Nexus, Steel Overseer, and a Vault Skirge. I was sitting at a comfortable seven life. I had a bunch of ground blockers and felt pretty secure. I pass to my opponent, and he draws his card for turn. He slams Arcbound Ravager, and I know I’m in trouble. He activates Steel Overseer and puts a +1/+1 counter on both Ravager and Skirge. He then proceeds to sacrifice both Citadels to put to more +1/+1 counters on Ravager. He then taps the Nexus to animate it, turning it into an artifact and sacrificing it to Ravager, he does the same to Overseer. He then sacrifices Ravager to itself, and using it’s modular ability, he transferred five +1/+1 counters to vault Skirge making it’s power and toughness seven, exactly lethal. Felt real bad mang. Salt level rising.

Round 3; Loss in 2 vs Jund

Oi oi oi. The MVP of this game belongs to my opponents Dark Confidant. Both games Confidant took my opponent to sub five life, but I could not stick a threat to finish the job. Not much to say about these games, I just got styled on. Salt level reaching critical levels.

At this point I am 1-2 and feeling pretty down. Then my little buddy Jaden runs up and tells me “I’m 2-1!”. Boom, instant second wind. I am so down to crush everyone.

Round 4; Win in 3 vs Infect

Game one my opponent had a turn two kill, but unfortunately for him I was able to clear his graveyard with Relic of Progenitus before he could toss a Become Immense onto his Glistener Elf. Game two my opponent managed to slap me with enough poison counters to take me out. Game three was very back and forth but I managed to pull the game out and take it home.

Round 5; Loss in 3 vs G/R Tron

Normally this is a good match up for me. I was able to take game one pretty convincingly, keeping my opponent off ‘Tron’ by using Ghost Quarter to spot remove Urza’s Tower, Urza’s Mine, and Urza’s Power Plant. Game two was vastly different. Neither of us did much of anything until my opponent was able to play Karn, Liberated. After exiling some of my lands I scooped and we moved to game three. Game three was super rough. He had tron put together on turn three and just went off. Literally nothing I could have done to stop my opponent from dropping World Breaker and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Salt level rising. Salt reaching maximum capacity.

Round 6; Win in 3 vs 8-Rack

Game one was super easy, primarily because my opponent never drew into a copy of The Rack. Game two was a completely different story. My opponent had two copies of the Rack and two copies of Shrieking Affliction, it was at this point I realized Raven’s Crime was a huge crutch that my opponent leaned on for drawing land. Game three I managed to tear all copies of Raven’s Crime out of his library and yard with Surgical Extraction. The only issue now was the fact that I was at two life, had 30+ points of damage on board, and four cards in hand, but couldn’t do anything as my opponent had two copies of Ensnaring Bridge, two Racks, and a Shrieking Affliction. Anything in my opponents deck was lethal; Lightning Bolt, Kolaghan’s Command, or Blightning. My opponent and I went back and forth for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was like four turns each. My opponent drew a variety of discard spells like Inquisitions, Thoughtseize, and Funeral Charm. I had to keep a bunch of land in my hand to prevent the Racks from killing me. We continued for turn after turn until I drew into two copies of Disenchant, which allowed me to destroy both Bridges and swing for lethal. Both my opponent and myself were just glad it was over, the best, most intense game of Magic I have played in quite a while.

Round 7; Win in 2 vs Bant Spirits

I have no idea where this deck went wrong but boy did it go wrong. My opponent kept a two land hand when his hand contained nothing but three drops and just never drew into a third land for the rest of game one. Game two my opponent whiffed twice off of two copies of Collected Company. I felt so bad for the guy, not only did I pick his hand apart with Inquisition and TKS, but whiffing on CoCo just feels bad.

Round 8; Win in 2 vs Burn

I’m going to preface this by saying that if you enter a tournament, please respect the rest of those whom enter it and which to play. My opponent decided to double dip, what I mean by that is that he signed up for a side event while the main event was going on. That’s the issue with On-Demand Events, they fire once they have the appropriate amount of people. After my opponent sits down, but before he gets his deck out, his draft gets called to fire. So we play game one and he just burns me, brutally. All of the burn spells directly to the face. At this point, the judge heading my opponents’ draft event is becoming more and more agitated as he is now calling my opponent specifically over the loud speaker. I sideboard, do my thing and shuffle up for game two. At this point the judge of the side event has located my opponent and is waiting for him, and by waiting I mean staring directly at him to get up and go to the draft table. My opponent opens with a flurry of burn spells, and takes me to three life, I am within the ‘bolt zone’. Now it’s not just the judge waiting for him, but it is his entire draft table. I proceed to take my turns at a reasonable speed, and after my opponent drew lands for three turns in a row he scoops his stuff and says “I concede, I have to go draft.” My opponent marked down that I won in two on the match slip, signed it, shook my hand, and scurried off to his draft pod apologizing profusely. Moral of the story kids, don’t double dip.

Conclusion

After all was said and done I managed to finish in 47th place out of 151 people. I missed prizing by 15 places, which just means I will get it next time! I inquired at the Face to Face Games booth about making some trades and I did 150 dollars worth of trades. I decided to live up to my title image and finally pick up a Godless Shrine Expedition, done by the magnificent Noah Bradley. I also grabbed two copies Thoughseize for the modern deck. Twas an awesome day, certainly some salty moments, but never the less totally worth it.

Stay salty my friends.

 

Grand Prix Trial San Jose

What’s up you salty buggers? Long time no talk to. This past Saturday, December 3rd, Jack’s on Queen hosted a modern Grand Prix Trial for Grand Prix San Jose. Nine of the finest modern players I have had the pleasure of knowing showed up to duke it out for the two round byes at the Grand Prix, as well as in-store credit prizes! After five grueling rounds, five players were eliminated and we were left with our top four. Our top four going into the single elimination bracket were as follows; Frederic Gagnon playing Merfolk, Calvin Heintz playing Kiki-Chord, Matthew Manuel playing Jeskai Blitz, and Michael Lewis playing Grixis Delver.

I did not play in this event as I had the honour of head judging  the event!

Unfortunately with the changes to blogspot.com, I am unable to post videos, so I will refer you to the semi finals video!

 

Eldritch Moon Midnight Prerelease

Something salty this way comes my friends! Eldritch Moon Prerelease is upon us, and with it comes tons of new cards for us to brew with, compete with, and most of all, have fun with. I attended the midnight launch of Eldritch Moon at my LGS Jack’s on Queen. Below I have a link to my sealed pool.

The Deck

So in my pool I had a very poor selection of bombs. My prerelease promo was Coax from the Blind Eternities and that would have been useful if I pulled any eldrazi cards, but alas I did not. So without further adue, here’s the list!

1x Borrowed Malevolence
1x Dead Weight
1x Terrarion
1x Guardian of Pilgrims
1x Olivia’s Dragoon
1x Repel the Abominable
1x Borrowed Grace
1x Cryptolith Fragment
2x Desperate Sentry
1x Oath of Liliana
1x Survive the Night
1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1x Gisa’s Bidding
2x Haunted Dead
2x Spectral Reserves
1x Tenacity
1x Campaign of Vengeance
2x Certain Death
1x Subjugator Angel
10x Plains
7x Swamp

So as you can see, my deck was kind of weak. Thalia is a great card, but in a format where removal is prime, she didn’t stick around for long. Being able to jam out tokens with Spectral Reserves and Haunted Dead was too much for some to handle. Coupled with cards like Tenacity, Borrowed Grace, and Campaign of Vengeance, tokens can be quite a lethal strategy.

I ended up going 3-1 with this beauty of a deck, really taking advantage of Campaign of Vengeance. Ended up placing 5th in the event. I managed to do some sick trades and scored a date stamped Mausoleum Wanderer and date stamped Spell Queller for my blue/white spirits standard deck. It just so happened that after I acquired these cards, I was given my partici-packs, and it just so happens that the two rares in the two partici-packs were Mausoleum Wanderer and Spell Queller. So now my standard deck is 100% complete and we will see how that goes on friday at FNM!

Until next time, stay salty my friends.

Grand Prix Toronto

Heya Saltlings!

How is everyone doing? This past weekend was Grand Prix Toronto hosted by Face to Face games. The event was held at the Enercare Center located on the EX grounds near the Toronto lake shore. Without further ado, let’s get it underway!

GPTorontoPlaymat2

Friday

Friday, my local level 2 judge and friend Jason Malott and I traveled to the venue early in the morning to inspect the area. Upon arrival we met up with some other Jack’s on Queen locals. First thing in the morning I participated in a 32-player single elimination Last Chance Trial, winner gets byes for the main event the following day. First round I get paired with a Jack’s local playing aristocrats…and everyone knows my opinions on aristocrats, if you don’t feel free to scroll down and read for yourself. Long story short, I lost and was eliminated. A couple hours later, a handful of Jack’s regulars and myself entered a sealed Shadows Over Innistrad event. My pool was bad, three of my six rares were land, and my bomb was a Goldnight Castigator. I threw together a decent red/black deck that ended up going 2-3 and I narrowly missed prizing. The other regulars went 2-3 as well with the exception of Mr. Malott whom went 3-2 and made prizing, he never let me forget the entire weekend, and it’s not going away any time soon. After that I just roamed around the event floor and inspected the decks, did some play testing, and prepared myself for the main event.

focus

Saturday – Main Event

HYPEHYPEHYPE

Super hyped for the main event! I met with a gang of Jack’s regulars before the main event.

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After the player’s meeting we got off the races. This was the deck I was running in the main event. Jund Mid-Range

Round 1; Loss in 2 vs G/W Tokens

Man, white is becoming the most powerful colour in the format. With things like Declaration in Stone, Archangel Avacyn, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, white just trounces anything it comes up against. Splashing in one or two colours gives access to a plethora of other super strong white based cards. Anyways, game one I got Ormendhal’d, and game two I got double Avacyned. Just a bad matchup, seems everything that plays white is a bad match up.

Round 2; Win in 3 vs G/R Goggles

I enjoy the green/red goggles deck. The list played by Brad Nelson at the pro tour caused an influx of people to play the deck. I managed to take round one as my opponent never drew into a threat. Game two really hurt me, she managed to ramp super hard and land Dragonlord Atarka on turn four. I proceeded to lose the next turn because Atarka hurts. Game three was pretty close. My opponent managed to stick Atarka on curve, turn seven, and pretty much wiped my board state. My opponent was at 10 life and I was at 17, I was empty handed and if I didn’t draw into my one sideboard card that I needed it was pretty much over. My opponent passed the turn, and by the grace of God I drew into Eldrazi Obligator and obligated Atarka to finish off its’ owner. They were very good games.

Round 3; Win 3 vs Mono-Red Goblins

This was a deck I was not expecting to see what so ever. Mono red goblin beat down, featuring Magmatic Chasm. Game one I managed to just get there by swapping damage back and forth with my opponent, his wee goblins could not contain the might of the eldrazi menace. Game two I just go annihilated. I kept a super greedy hand with no green land, hoping to draw into it, and I never did. I just got Goblin Piledrivered into the ground.Game three was basically a game of removal for me, I kept another greedy hand without any waste mana, had two eldrazi and a bunch of removal. I kept his board clean for seven turns until I drew into a waste source and was able to begin dropping eldrazi creatures.

Round 4; Loss in 2 vs B/U Control

Both games consisted of me attempting to resolve something, then if it resulted, immediately throwing it to my grave after him announcing some sort of removal spell on my end step. It was not a fun game…

Round 5; Loss in 3 vs G/W Tokens

Remember what I said about white? Yea game one I managed to keep him at bay, my opponent never actually got to token flood at all, it was probably just a bad keep for my opponent. Game two and three were quite similar for my opponent. As both games my opponent managed flood the board with soldiers, thopters and plant tokens, which were all pumped by double Gideon emblem. Bruh, it was at this moment in the event that I was losing steam, I was 2-3 and not feeling so hot.

Round 6; Draw in 3 vs G/B Aristocrats

Game one I got turn five Ormendhal’d. Literally nothing I could have done to prevent this monstrosity. Game two my opponent pulled the trigger on Ormendhal way too early. He sacrificed his entire board to flip him, then once declared as an attacker, I cast Clip Wings forcing him to sack Ormendhal. I managed to get there this game. Game three made me quite irritated. My opponent was playing quite slow, and shoulder checking to look at the time. He had been playing quite slow the entire round but this game became excruciating. A judge came over and spectated us, so he picked up his game a bit. But it was too late, I managed to him to one life when the final turn was taken. I was angry, not that we drew, but that he forced the draw, I dominated him that third game and he knew it.

Round 7; Loss in 2 vs…G/W Tokens

So at this point in the event I am 2-3-1 and I’m pretty done. My opponent drops Hangarback Walker and by my opponents land base I come to the conclusion that they are playing G/W tokens. Two games in a row I got destroyed by Hangarback tokens and Gideon emblems. I was just done with running into white tokens all day. So after the second game of getting smashed by thopters I decided to drop the event. My ending score was 2-4-1.

The Crew – The Rest of the Jack’s Regulars

Andrew Fugslang – 1-4 drop with Assault Formation

Joseph Balderson – 1-4 drop with G/W Cryptolith Tokens

Matt Manuel – 2-3 drop with Mardu Control

Mikey Dolman – 1-2 drop with Bant Company

Steve Nutbean – 2-2-1 drop with B/G Aristocrats

Jaden Malott, Jason’s son, participated in the Face to Face modern open on the Saturday. He was piloting a mono-green stompy deck and dropped after going 1-5. He played very tightly and just got some unfavourable match ups. I was proud of the little guy for sticking it in there for so long. Way to go Jaden!

jaden

The Aftermath

So, after the main event I was disappointed in how my deck under-performed. I was quite upset in the meta and just wasn’t interested in building white wheenies. So I made the slightly rash decision to sell my standard deck and build my long in the works modern deck. Orhzov Eldrazi.

Sunday

So Sunday comes around and I decide to enter the Sunday Face to Face modern open. I had only participated in one event before and that was with mono-red elementals. I was nervous, but I definitely surprised myself.

Round 1; Win in 2 vs America Control

If there’s one thing I know sucks when your playing control, is when your hand gets picked clean. Both games I picked his hand clean with a variety of sorcerys’. I was able to exile cards from his grave so he wasn’t able to flash them back via Snapcaster Mage.

Round 2; Win in 3 vs Naya Burn

These were some very very close games. For reference, the life totals for the three games were 4 to 0, 0 to 15 (all the burn) and 6 to 0. If he had decked any sort of burn spell in games one and three it would have been over. But luckily I was able to pick most of them out of his hand before he could bolt my face off.

Round 3; Loss in 2 vs Esper Control

We went to time at the end of game two. But these games were so close, I actually enjoyed playing against control. The ending life totals for the games were 0 to 6, and 0 to 1. Not only did I take my opponent to one life in game two, but he had no cards in his library so he would have lost the following turn. It was intense, and I finished that round with a smile on my face.

Round 4; Win in 2 vs Skred Red

This deck, I had genuinely never seen before. Using the card Skred and a bunch of basic snow mountains, this deck would have put up quite a beating if I didn’t make him pitch Koth of the Hammer turn one off a Duress. He drew nothing but land and I managed to punch my way to victory. After sideboarding our decks were collected for a random deck check. Our decks were returned and my opponent was asked to be spoken to in private. He was issued a game loss for marked cards. Apparently four cards in his sideboard were prerelease promo foils, and were heavily bent, therefore easily identifiable in the 60 card deck. I asked my opponent if he wanted to play a game just to see how it would have went, and he agreed. I out raced him and managed to win, so I would have won in two regardless of the penalty.

Round 5; Win in 2 vs Infect

I was worried about this match up. I had always been scared of infect due to an early magic experience with Blightsteel Colossus. But never the less I went in the intention to win. Game one I picked his hand clean and killed his only creature, it was over pretty quick. Game two I brought in my secret sideboard tech for these decks that only run one or two suites of creatures, Infinite Obliteration. I dropped one on turn three naming Glistener Elf, and a second on turn four naming Blighted Agent. He had no more threats in his deck and conceded on the second obliteration. At this point I’m 4-1 and super hyped, ready to take on the world.

Round 6; Loss in 3 vs Ad Nauseum

I had wanted my brother to build this deck for the longest time, because I enjoyed the look of it, never did I think that playing against it would be literal torture. Game one I took to six before he managed to combo out, game two he never got the combo off in time, and game three he combo’d off on turn four. I knew once I reached good results I was going to play against tougher decks, but decks that only interact with themselves suck to play against.

Round 7; Loss in 3 vs Affinity

If I had to pick what I hated to play against the most, it’d have to be robots. It is, in my opinion, the modern equivalent to aristocrats. Game one my opponent destroyed me, I got rushed so hard. Game two I boarded in Kataki, War’s Wage and my opponent conceded on the spot. Game three I kept a kind of greedy hand, with the intention of picking some cards of my opponents’ hand turn one. On turn one he dropped every card in his hand except for two. Once I cast duress, I saw two Cranial Plating, and I knew I was in for some trouble. Next turn dropped it and just started beating my face with fliers. I never drew Kataki and lost the game, and the round.

Round 8; Loss in 2 vs Merfolk

Do you want to know what is more frustrating than not knowing what cards do because you’re new to the format? Well, it’s not knowing what cards do because you are new, and those cards happen to be all Chinese foreign versions. So every time he cast a new merfolk, I had to call a judge over to get the oracle text on them. Especially when my opponent doesn’t even speak Chinese, or have any Chinese ethnicity, and before people jump down my throat I know this because I asked him why he played with those cards, and he said straight up, “To mess with my opponent.” Boy was I tilted.

Wrap Up

So all in all, I went 4-4 with a very poorly optimized sideboard. I am surprised that I managed to do better in modern than I did in standard. Maybe I’m focusing on the wrong format? I think I’m going to try modern a little more.

Anyways, thanks for reading, if you made it this far congratulations! Until next time, stay salty my friends.

*All photos were taken by Mikey Dolman*

 

 

Shadows Over Innistrad Prerelease 2

Sup nerds? Prerelease number two is under my belt, and I have to say I enjoy the flavour of the set. All the cards are so jammed with flavour and just feel good content it’s amazing.

The Sealed Pool

Check out the deck I put together.

 

Round 1 Win in 2

Round one I played against a red/green deck. Game one was pretty close, but game two my opponent took a one lander and couldn’t do anything for the first few turns.

Round 2 Loss in 3

Round two was another red/green deck. All three of these games were stupid close. Game three was really unfortunate as my opponent instant speeded some 1/1 devil tokens that when they die they deal one damage to target creature or player. He managed to two for one my creatures and then just took the tempo.

Round 3 Win in 2

Round three I played against esper colours. If you’re wondering why he has a bunch of Runeclaw Bears, those are actually his card sleeves. He used clear sleeves and put a bear in each to use as a card backing, pretty ingenious. The games were good, but I couldn’t help but appreciate the bears.

Round 4 Win in 2

The fourth and final round of the event I got paired with my little brother. We had done testing before the first round was announced and he beat me. But this time he didn’t get the start he wanted, I polished him off in two.

Final Words

I came fourth and managed to make prizing, woot! I’d like to give a special thanks to Jack’s on Queen for hosting the amazing event, and special shoutout to store owner Kim for running five events solo the entire weekend! If you are in the Elmvale, Wasaga Beach area give em a checking out!

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Shadows Over Innistrad Prerelease 1

Nerds! How’s it going? I hope you’re all well. It has been quite a while since my last post, life has been busy, but no need to bore you all with the details, on to the good stuff.

Magic: The Opening

So my pool was decent, decent pertaining to the value of the cards not the overall cohesion of the deck. Check out the opening and I’ll explain.

So yea, two Sorins, one of which was foil, Anguished Unmaking and a some junk. I decided on putting together a black/white good stuff deck that never really had much cohesion.

Due to some technical issues I was unable to record any of my games.

Round 1 Loss in 3

We went to three, however it seemed that my 23 nonlands and 17 lands were an unfavourable mixture as I got land starved nearly all three games.

Round 2 Loss in 2

Round two was worse. I lost in two. My opponent was rocking a nasty white/green deck with Avacyn which luckily I managed to kill both games before she flipped. This game was opposite the first game, as I got land flooded.

Round 3 Draw in 2

Another well put together green/white deck. This one had a very solid clue theme and my opponent nearly decked himself twice, we went to time but as my opponent won the first game he gained the points.

In Conclusion

All in all I dropped after the third roun, I was exhausting, my deck was bombing, and I managed to trade my foil Sorin, for a promo Arlinn Kord. I’m attending another prerelease this afternoon and hopefully I will be able to record my games.

Until next time nerds, stay salty.