And the crowd goes wild!

I managed to get a 2-Headed Giant game in with Hexagram and things worked out very nicely in the w/l column but left me with more questions. I was mana flooded, despite getting extra card draws off Spreading Seas and our opponents used some enchantments, which made the creature I could stick-a Veiled Sentry with Ancestral Mask-a real beating. Even when my creature finally died, the damage had been done and my partner could take up the slack with his B/G deck using Desecration Demon.

My next matchup was against a U/B mill deck Fuz was piloting. In game 1, he milled me down to nothing but I had a Words of Wind out, which lead to the mildly amusing scenario where I was able to ignore any draws I had to make and my creatures had juuuust enough that the whittling down would have won.

But in games 2 and 3, a Jace's Phantasm showed up early (or worse, multiple Phantasms) and I couldn't solve those problems. The mill effects easily defeated my Energy Field and I lost pretty rapidly.

Fuz suggested that I remove the Energy Field and put in something that could give my creature Hexproof or Shroud. The problem at the moment is layered: First, there really are only two cards worth it: Alpha Authority or Zephid's Embrace. The former because I could still cast Rancor or Ancestral Mask on my creature, the latter because the Embrace turns that creature into a threat. This kind of problem is exactly the thing that Theros might solve, once the block is complete.

However, I am reluctant to follow this advice because Second, I really don't have enough data on Energy Field to say if it's good or bad. Four games just isn't enough experience and the matchup against a mill deck is almost irrelevant because so few decks take that route.

Finally, I just don't have enough creatures. 10 creatures, including Veiled Sentry, doesn't give me enough targets for the 5 Auras I have. I feel as though I would be frequently confronted with situations where I have Auras but no creatures.

This may change, should Theros give me some creatures with Bestow that are cheap enough to cast and worth casting. The potential interactions are interesting here, so I'm keeping my eyes open for such a card. It may not appear for another couple sets, though so this might be a deck to revisit.

But I'm not done yet!

3 Bits Post PAX

First: I played a very small Legacy event at PAX; 6 players. When we were told that the prize for that event-an uncut foil common sheet from M14-wouldn't be given to us for such a small pool, we'd be given packs instead, OH THE WHINING.

It wasn't many people-two, really-but holy shit were they upset. One person didn't finish his match, simply dropping to get his entry fee ($10) back. There were a couple guys who came in late and tried to register but were denied and again OH THE WHINING. The people who wanted in made it sound like we were suckers for wanting to play. I'm glad they didn't get in, now: they didn't seem like fun people to play against.

The hell with that, man. I just wanted to play some games. I didn't prepare though and it cost me. I was playing an unmodified version of All Nightmare Long, which means it was underpowered and not nearly powered up enough for what I was going to deal with.

My first match was against a Glimpse/Kobolds deck that the pilot admitted was janky. However, I lost the critical game 2 when he stalled out in his combo and had to attack with Signal Pest....and 16 other creatures.Which was fine, except that on my turn, instead of killing Signal Pest, I went for an Ornithopter, so I could get in...4 more damage.

In my defense, the Signal Pest was buried under many kobolds and I could not easily make out what my possible targets were. However, that's the only excuse: I wasn't paying enough attention to the life totals, (I thought his was lower) and I certainly could have paused to really take stock of the board before making my decision. This might have given me time to see what the best play was. 

My final matchup (I got a bye round 2) was against a mono-U wizard tribal deck that existed to counter everything and then watch you commit suicide from sheer frustration. In the 3rd game, I thought I had a decent start with my opening hand having a turn 2 and turn 3 Tidehollow Sculler to play...and his turn 2 went: Island, Chrome Mox removing blue card, Patron Wizard.

And that was that.

Next year, remember cards with Split Second.

Second: remember those two guys who bailed on the Legacy event? Well, with just four of us left and in our final round, the judge said that the prize could be split evenly amongst the four of us, if we agreed to it. We did and I pulled this. So that doesn't suck!

Third: the Theros previews. I am not a fan, so far. Man, every time they decide to emphasize flavor over function, I seem to have issues. Kamigawa, Innistrad, and now Theros. But I'll talk about that next time.

Oh yes: I decided to replace the Still Life in Hexagram for Energy Field. I don't know that it's a good idea, but it certainly seems like a not bad one!

Hexagram

There are very few Deftones songs that hit as hard as Hexagram does. Given my tastes in music, it probably won't come as much of a surprise that I love that song. There's no connection between the song to the idea of this deck, though. I tend to do that a lot; if I can't get an easy/inspired connection then I just pick a song I'm listening to a whole lot at the time. It's been awhile since I broke out this deck, which I think will become clear as I explain how it works. With Theros's enchantment-theme coming up, I figured this would be a good time to revisit it, so it will be fresh in my mind, when the goodies from the new set arrive. If there's an interesting addition, I want to be on top of it.

3 Rancor
4 Enchantress's Presence
2 Ancestral Mask
4 Words of Wind
2 Still Life
2 Veiled Sentry
3 Spreading Seas
3 Seal of Removal
4 Eladamri's Vineyard
2 Seal of Primordium

2 Verduran Enchantress
3 Metathran Elite
3 Yavimaya Enchantress

4 Breeding Pool
9 Island
10 Forest

This deck was initially constructed when mana burn could happen. For those unfamiliar with the term, "mana burn" was when a player would take damage at the end of a phase, for any unspent mana left in their pool. So, against a non-green deck, Eladamri's Vineyard could get in some extra points of damage.

Since the rules have been changed to eliminate mana burn (for the better, I think) that won't work however, the free mana is still a good thing for the combo that this deck wants to use to win:

With Words of Wind and a Verduran Enchantress or Enchantress's Presence on the table, I want to play an enchantment, skip the extra draw and force everyone to bounce something. With enough resources, I should be able to replay my stuff faster than my opponents, and creating an unblockable Metathran Elite or a huge Yavimaya Enchantress should allow me the win.

So I've tried to make everything work with those lines.Via floating mana from the Vineyard, I could do something like play Rancor and skip the draw without tapping any land at all. If I have another Rancor to bounce, I could just as easily play that again. Spreading Seas allows me to draw and to potentially stall an opponent by stunting their mana, Seal of Primordium is my concession to the decks I face that have those crazy artifact or enchantment combos.

Still Life is probably unnecessary now. Added as a mana sink for the Vineyard, it doesn't really serve all the purposes it needed to and I could add in more Seal of Removal, Spreading Seas or Veiled Sentry. It also might be a good space for something more defensive in nature, giving me time to set up the combo. Propaganda would be the obvious choice, except I'm using it elsewhere. However, this is a perfect opportunity to try something new, and I have a pretty clear choice of what to take out, so I feel good about my starting point.