Siege 1 And Sealed

My buddy Jason came down last weekend and we went through two boxes, playing nothing but sealed over two days.

Our conclusion: Turbo Sealed is an anemic format for experienced players. It works but it doesn't show off how great the game is. For new players, however, the format is helpful because the complexity is low enough that new people won't be overwhelmed. If you're an experienced player though, it feels as though you don't have enough choices to make the games engaging.

Here's how we think you should play Sealed in Siege 1: Each player gets 3 packs and builds the best 25 star character team they can. Ignore the star value of your battle cards. You're playing with all of them.

You can effectively ignore the star value on your cards for two reasons: first, some of them, such as Ultra Magnus' armor, are difficult to play to begin with, due to restrictions of who it can be on, and the number in your deck, almost certainly just one. Which leads to the second reason:

Second; sealed inherently has issues with power levels and people occasionally get busted packs. We accept this as just part of the game: if Jason opens a General Optimus Prime and I open two Sargent Skrapnel, (which I did) you can probably guess how the game is going to go.

But that isn't certain: it's just really good for him. If we buy into that, then why bicker over the star count in sealed, which has players doing the best they can with random elements?

So don't: the games will feel more robust and sure, there will still be dead cards, but the improvement in gameplay will make up for it.

Kaladesh Sealed 9/30

I went 2-1 last Friday at Red Castle's sealed event. I felt pretty good about my deck and was one game away from being 3-0. That's pretty sweet!

I also got a headache during the tournament. I don't know what it is about serious competitive events but I need to be able to physically move more or my body starts to revolt.

Here's the deck I played

Filigree Familiar
Cataclysmic Gearhulk
Saheeli's Artistry
Thriving Ibex
Aviary Mechanic
Inventor's Goggles
Bomat Bazaar Barge
Glint-Sleeve Artisan
Skywhaler's Shot
Iron League Steed
Weldfast Wingsmitih
Nimble Innovator
Malfunction
Cogworker's Puzzleknot
Veldaken Blademaster
2 Revoke Privileges
Herald of the Fair
Tezzeret's Ambition
Propeller Pioneer
Fragmentize
Bastion Mastodon
Fairgrounds Warden
Eddytrail Hawk
Smuggler's Copter

In the first matchup, I played an exhausted gentleman who told me he'd been up since 5 AM. His pace of play was understandably deliberate but not slow, and our first game was a slugfest that took thirty minutes. At three life, I was able to come back into the game topdecking Saheeli's Artistry and using it to copy my Familiar twice. With the extra life cushion, I was able to freely attack for 11 two turns in a row, and that sealed the game. Our second game, my opponent was severely mana screwed and I won briskly, which was good because we had about five minutes to play.

In the second matchup, I made a critical game three error when I used my Skywhaler's Shot on Dhund Operative (which was attacking) instead of Ghirapur Guide and just blocking the Operative in a trade.

Because a few turns later, my opponent was able to make his creatures unblockable to my 1/x creatures and swing for lethal, after pumping one of his creatures with Engineered Might.

If I had used the Shot on the Guide, I would've taken away that ability and one of his best creatures to crew a vehicle. I underestimated that ability and it cost me.

The last matchup was another slugfest, with my opponent getting an Aetherflux Reservoir, which I thought was going to win him the game for certain. Fortunately, I am getting better at not panicking during these moments and despite the Reservoir, my opponent didn't have a lot else happening on the board. So I kept attacking while he kept casting cards like Woodweaver's Puzzleknot, keeping steady pressure on his life total while not overextending.

When he had a bunch of stuff on the board and looked like he could stabilize, I was able to put down a Cataclysmic Gearhulk and my opponent made some bad decisions about which permanents to keep. As a result, I was able to finish that match with a win.

So far, things are looking interesting!

I'd like to do more sealed events, as a way of improving my Magic game, so I hope to have some more posts like this in the future.

Sealed & Swap: How'd the Swap turn out?

Well...

Maybe you'll notice that this picture is remarkably free of Swamps, Mountains, and black or red cards.

This is because I forgot to bring the deck I built. I remembered all the other cards, and forgot everything I wanted to get it to work. Sometimes, necessity is the mother of invention.

So, I took the white and green and faked it for the rest of the night. It was a pretty aggressive deck, which means that if I didn't have my opponent on the ropes by turn four, I wasn't going to win. The cards I had just wouldn't allow me to grind it out.

Surprisingly, it worked pretty well. I won most of my matchups-granted, I was often helped by opponents having to mulligan in order to get workable mana, and then that mana not quite working out. However, a win is a win and, when the deck did fire on all cylinders I was attacking for six on turn 4, eight on turn 5.

Hey, it worked for a night.

Sealed & Swap: The Swap

I got Seth's deck in the swap and there are two cards that make the direction of this deck loud and clear:

Sorin, Grim Nemesis and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.

Seth took his deck in the B/W direction but I'm not confident of that choice.

Here's the Black:
Wasteland Strangler
Sky Scourer
Alms of the Vein
Bone Splinters
Zulaport Cutthroat
Altar's Reap
Culling Drone
Ever After
Dead Weight
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
 Vampire Noble
Krumar Bond-Kin
Creeping Dread
Mire's Malice
Vessle of Malignity

Now the White:
 Gideon's Reproach
Felidar Cub (2)
Emissary of the Sleepless
Thraben Inspector
War Behemoth
Alabasater Kirin
Mighty Leap
Affa Protector
Kor Castigator
Wall of Resurgence
Roil's Retribution
Devilthorn Fox
Hope Against Hope
Firehoof Cavalry

Where it gets interesting (for me) is at the Red:
Reduce to Ashes
Vessel of Volitility
Spiteful Motives
Goblin War Paint
Makindi Sliderunner
Bloodmad Vampire
Voldaren Duelist
Eldrazi Aggressor
Boulder Salvo
Boiling Earth
Bloodfire Mentor
Goblinslide
Outnumber
Ondu Champion
Retreat to Valakut

So I'm going to give the B/R deck a shot with just enough white to cast Sorin.

Sky Scourer
Krumar Bond-Kin
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Zulaport Cutthroat
Vessel of Malignity
Ever After
Bone Splinters
Mire's Malice
Vampire Noble
Wasteland Strangler
Dead Weight
Culling Drone

Hedron Blade
Deathless Behemoth
Flayer Drone
Sorin, Grim Nemesis

Bloodmad Vampire
Outnumber
Retreat to Valakut
Goblinslide
Reduce to Ashes
Ondu Champion
Makindi Sliderunner
Eldrazi Aggressor
Boulder Salvo
Boiling Earth

Holdout Settlement
Scoured Barrens
7 Swamp
6 Mountain

The plan: get some early beats out, use Goblinslide to help create greater numbers than I should have, discard to stall my opponent's plans, Retreat to Valakut for damage and Kalitas and Sorin to finish everything off. We'll see how it goes!

No, Outpost Siege, You Fool

My evaluation of Collected Company for sealed formats was wrong.

Let's just get that out there up front. I was wrong. After a match one loss where I was able to cast CC in three games and missed every time, I figured I'd give Outpost Siege a shot.

And man, did that card shine. Opponents had no answer for it and the card advantage it provided allowed me to grind through games in matches two and three that I would've fallen short in, otherwise.

Of course, in match two, game two, this happened:

What I have is 10 lands in play. The two cards in the lower left? That is my hand, set down so I could take the picture. One of those cards is a land, too.

So out of the 17 lands in my deck, 11 of them got drawn and that was why I lost. Matt suggested after our match that I was running one too many lands and while that doesn't seem possible, it was likely correct. I adjusted the deck again between my second and third match, minus one Forest, adding Atarka Efreet instead.

While I won my third match, I'm not sure if the Efreet/Forest swap made any difference. I didn't seem to be low on mana but my sample size isn't big enough.

Still, 2-1 isn't awful and I'm looking forward to the next round of building.

Sealed & Swap

Here's the premise: take six packs of Magic, make a sealed deck, play them for one night. Then, we swap the entire sealed pool with another player and build a new deck to play next week. We can compare builds later and see what happened. It seems like a pretty cool notion and a way to get some extra mileage out of your sealed packs.

From Magic: Origins, Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch packs I am trying to decide between red or black as my second color.

Green is in:
Epic Confrontation
Conclave Naturalists
Saddleback Lagac
Snapping Gnarlid
Ainok Guide
Sultai Flayer
Collected Company
Yeva's Forcemage
Frontier Mastodon
Rhox Maulers
Orchard Spirit
Abzan Kin-Guard

Creatures, Collected Company, that all seems pretty good...

Black looks like this if I add it:
Douse in Gloom
Complete Disregard
Weight of the Underworld
Flatten
Reave Soul
Revenant
Oblivion Strike
Coat with Venom
Sibsig Muckdraggers
Mire's Malace
Alesha's Vanguard

Essentially: all the removal. Red, on the other hand, gives me this:
Outpost Siege

Akroan Sergeant
Hordeling Outburst
Arrow Storm
Atarka Efreet
Boulder Salvo
Sparkmage's Gambit
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
Savage Ventmaw
Vaultbreaker
Tunneling Geopede
Kolaghan Aspirant

So not as much removal but some solid cards and an improved mana curve.

After some hemming and hawing I'm going for the risky RGB deck;

Kolaghan Aspirant
Vaultbreaker
Akroan Sergeant
Savage Ventmaw
Mina and Denn, Wildborn
Epic Confrontation
Conclave Naturalists
Snapping Gnarlid
Ainok Guide
Sultai Flayer
Collected Company
Frontier Mastodon
Rhox Maulers
Orchard Spirit
Abzan Kin-Guard
Douse in Gloom
Complete Disregard
Weight of the Underworld
Flatten
Reave Soul
Oblivion Strike
Coat with Venom

As good as Outpost Siege is, I fear using my turn four casting it. That's an important turn in sealed and having something that really turns the deck on is important. Just as relevant: if I draw that card on turn seven and I'm in trouble, it doesn't help me. Collected Company, on the other hand, has the opportunity to bring out another creature on my opponent's turn. That's a stronger play.

Oath of the Gatewatch Sealed

The success of the Battle for Zendikar events made the choice to do a Oath sealed event easy. Once again, my card pool rep'd two lands as rares: Ruins of Oran-Reif and Prairie Stream. What can I say, I seem to have a knack for getting rares that are useless in limited formats!

Sigh.

The sealed pool was pretty meh; solid enough blue, maybe black, white was out for sure. Green provided lots of mana fixing if I wanted it but not a lot else. Red was weak and I should-

uh oh

So there's that.

If there's one thing I've learned in Sealed, it's that you HAVE to play your bombs. I know Chandra can turn games around without any other help and maybe with the Green mana fixing, I can get a three color deck to work...

The only other rare I had to work with was Guardian of Tazeem and I started off with that card, but cut it because I didn't have enough Islands to make it worthwhile. I probably should've considered Black a bit more at that point but I felt good about what I had, which was this:

Comparative Analysis
Clutch of Currents
Rush of Ice
Thought Harvester
Containment Membrane
Jwar Isle Avenger

Embodiment of Insight
Natural State
2 Stalking Drone
Eyeless Watcher
Broodmonitor
Ruin in Their Wake
Stalking Drone
Retreat to Kazandu

Chandra, Flamecaller
Kazuul's Toll Collector
Eldrazi Aggressor
Goblin Freerunner
Valakut Predator
Kozilek's Sentinel
Reality Hemorrhage

Pilgrim's Eye
Warping Wail
Ruin Processor
Kozilek's Pathfinder
Hedron Crawler

Ruins of Oran-Reif
Wastes
6 Forest
4 Island
6 Mountain

Upon reflection, Black should've replaced Blue:
Tar Snare
Unnatural Endurance
Oblivion Strike
Slaughter Drone
Silent Skimmer
Visions of Brutality

Removal, more colorless themed stuff and a solid flyer. Probably would've been a little better off.

My games were often close though and I was 1-1-1 for the evening. In the loss, I made one mistake and had one run of bad luck. In the latter case, I had to mulligan down to five and keep a one land, Hedron Crawler hand in game one. But just in case I thought I was getting good at the game, game three, I failed to use Natural State to take out Matt's Hedron Crawler, which he was using to activate his own Kozilek's Pathfinder multiple times to keep me from blocking.

So I feel mostly OK about this. My opponents also seemed to be fairly happy with their ability to construct a deck and that's a good sign too. Whatever mistakes Wizards may have made with Battle for Zendikar and Oath, their ability to put together a compelling sealed environment is definitely buttressed by my experience.

Addendum to the BfZ Sealed

I took another look at my cards yesterday as I was dismantling my deck. In the blue-the color I still believe I correctly evaluated as deepest and strongest-I found two cards I wasn't running: Coralhelm Guide and Halimar Tidecaller.

Sigh. Here are two cards that would've been perfect substitutes for Benthic Infliltrator and would've helped me out just as much, if not more. I had at least four cards with Awaken and in nearly every game I played, at least one of my lands became a creature as a result.

But I was too mired in what I thought should be my starting cards to see what cards ought to be. Just goes to show I have more work to do.

Battle for Zendikar sealed, the Sequel

A second round of sealed! The biggest difference is that we got to set up our decks before arrival, so we could spend our time playing instead of building.

Six packs and my rares are:

Prism Array
Shambling Vent
Smoldering Marsh
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Ruinous Path
Ugin's Insight

Sigh.

The white also includes three goddamn copies of Tandem Tactics.

Interestingly enough, my blue is pretty solid, with some Roilmage Tricks and Benthic Infiltrators. The rares might suck but the middle stuff is solid. The black has some removal and Swarm Surge, which isn't awful (although I got two copies of that and three Grave Birthing. Yeesh.)

My green was...weird. There were two copies of Eyeless Watcher and I considered a ramp-into-Eldrazi deck. Ruin Processor, two Eldrazi Devastator, Bane of Bala Ged, and Breaker of Armies is a pretty strong argument for ramping into crazy stuff! But there wasn't enough to do on turns 1-3 and that's where you win or lose the game.

Still, that's what the other colors are for, right?

The question is: What to cut? If I ditch white, I lose the most powerful card I opened. If I cut black, I lose the removal I have. I'm uncomfortable with both of those options and would rather have a decent curve leading into late game bombs than try and rush bombs onto the board. So U/B/W it is.

It didn't work out.

Exhibit A:

What we have here is a grip full of cards that require white (or 8 mana) and a table of two Swamps and an Island. Granted, I had to mulligan down to five in this game, so I kept a hand with an Island, Swamp and a smattering of other stuff, figuring I could draw into a third land (I did) play Benthic Inflitrator (yup) and stall for time (NOPE).

I lost to a R/G/W landfall deck and a B/R/G ramp deck.

Sigh.

Maybe I should've gone green? Maybe I should've cut white? It's hard to say beyond: what I did, did not work.

Decklist for posterity:

Sandstone Bridge
Skyline Cascade
Spawning Bed
Shambling Vent
5 Swamp
6 Island
3 Plains

Incubator Drone
2 Benthic Infiltrator
Spell Shrivel
2 Roilmage's Trick
 Salvage Drone
Rush of Ice

Roil Spout

Serene Steward
Encircling Fissure
Stone Haven Medic
Tandem Tactics
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Complete Disregard
Grip of Isolation (which I played twice as a sorcery. Read the card!)
Ruinous Path
Nirkana Assassin
Culling Drone

Hedron Archive
Bane of Bala Ged
Breaker of Armies
Eldrazi Devastator

Battle for Zendikar-Sealed

Noah came up with the idea of doing some BfZ limited. We'd both heard how great the draft environment was and I figured I have a little extra money right now, I can do this.

Except drafts usually start at 6 and that just isn't enough time for me to get home from work, eat, and then be ready. Agreeing that this was a problem, Noah suggested we just buy packs and do sealed. So I put the call out and next thing I know, we've got six people ready to go!

Here's the deck I put together:

Pilgrim's Eye
Kozilek's Channeler
Eldrazi Devastator

Radiant Flames
Outnumber
Makindi Sliderunner
2 Volcanic Upheaval
Boiling Earth
Valakut Invoker
Tunneling Geopede
2 Touch of the Void

Coralhelm Guide
Guardian of Tazeem
Salvage Drone
Halimar Tidecaller
Rush of Ice
Coastal Discovery
Exert Influence

Makindi Patrol
Sheer Drop
Shadow Glider
Hero of Goma Fada

Evolving Wilds
7 Mountain
6 Island
3 Plains

After my experience with the Origins pre-release, I really wanted to make sure I was playing my rares. I did this to the point of having Felidar Sovereign in the first build of the deck, through two matchups. I soon realized that the card was dead in hand too often, so it was replaced with Makindi Patrol.  I also opened a Kiora, Master of the Depths but it wasn't worth getting into green when I had good stuff in red and white. The mana fixing really isn't there so playing a third color has to be done with care and a fourth color is absolutely no.

My games went well: I believe I was 3-1 on the day. Win or lose though, everyone in the group had a similar feeling: these cards allowed us to put together something playable and stay in contention in our games. We were all pretty pleased by that outcome. Pleased enough that we'll be doing it again.

I've always liked Sealed as a format and I don't get enough opportunities to play it. There's so much focus on Draft that people tend to forget that Sealed is a thing, and you don't have to meet the requirements of having 8 people to do it.

Yeah, it's a little more expensive but it's still challenging and fun. Also, if someone opens an Expedition, they don't have to worry about whether or not they should keep it: it's theirs. With lottery tickets like that, Sealed allows for more of a 'feel good' environment.

League Day 2 or Mana Is Still Everything

I have no idea what my record was but I did OK, 4-2 on the day. This was the deck I ended up with, after opening M15, Fate Reforged, Khans of Tarkir and Dragons of Tarkir.

Veteran's Sidearm
Traveler's Amulet

Market Festival
Agent of Horizons
Explosive Vegetation
Map the Wastes
Nessian Courser
Woodland Bellower
Spirespine
Yisan, the Wanderer Bard
Bassara Tower Archer
Nessian Asp
Setessan Oathsworn
Raised by Wolves
Pheres-Band Thunderhoof

Paragon of Fierce Defiance
Starfall
Atarka Pummeler
Fall of the Hammer
Satyr Rambler
Collateral Damage
Crater's Claws
Inferno Fist
Arrow Storm
Shockmaw Dragon
Titan's Strength
Pharagax Giant
Fanatic of Mogis
Smash to Smithereens

Fetid Imp
Viper's Kiss
Weight of the Underworld
Hooded Assassin
Feast of Dreams
Aspect of Gorgon
Asphyxiate

Destructive Revelry

9 Forest
5 Swamp
7 Mountain
Mana Confluence
Bloodfell Caves

Looking back on it, I have to admit that the rare lands that I opened, forcing me to focus on the mana base and structure, was a blessing in disguise. By using the analysis from deckstats.net and keeping in everything that allowed me to generate mana, either by volume or color, the consistency of the deck helped keep me in games. I lost only one that I can think of due to color screw (hand full of white and black cards, mana of Forests and Mountains). I lost another due to flood but two games with this problem isn't a significant drawback.

In my final pack, my rare was Narset Transcendent. This was also fortunate for me: By then I was so deeply entrenched with R/G/B that going into W/U was out of the question. Caitlin opened up a Surrak Dragonclaw and ended up trying to force a four-color deck so she could play it and Liliana in the same deck. When I played her the second time, her deck didn't come together as well and I'm guessing it's because of the mana.

The other nice thing is that the initial reviews of Battle for Zendikar sealed were pretty positive. I'm still fairly dubious of the set myself in any Constructed manner but if the limited environment is good I don't begrudge people who like that their fun.

Four Color Misery (League)

After looking over what I opened last week, I've come to the inevitable conclusion that I don't have enough creatures to make a three color deck out of last week's packs. I barely have enough to make a four color deck. But you need creatures to win, so this is what I'm looking at shuffling up, at least for now.

Excoriate
Suppression Bonds

Blood-Cursed Knight
Destructive Revelry

Fleshbag Marauder
Aspect of Gorgon
Viper's Kiss
Feast of Dreams
Weight of the Underworld
Fetid Imp
Asphyxiate

Pharagax Giant
Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass
Lightning Diadem
Titan's Strength
Satyr Rambler
Fanatic of Mogis
Starfall
Fall of the Hammer
Smash to Smithereens

Raised by Wolves
Nessian Asp
Might of the Masses
Bassara Tower Archer
Agent of Horizons
Market Festival
Woodland Bellower
Spirespine
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Fade into Antiquity
Setessan Oathsworn
Nessian Courser
Pheres-Band Thunderhoof

Veteran's Sidearm
Sigil of Valor
Traveler's Amulet
Springleaf Drum

Mana Confluence
Temple of Enlightenment

This the first draft of the deck and I suspect I'll try and tweak it further with white if I can. That it allows me to play creatures like Daxos of Meletis isn't a bad thing if the mana can work. I'm adding the white for one reason: I have two rares that can produce the mana for it.

If that's the signal that I should be adding some white, then I may as well follow it. Between the Market Festival, Traveler's Amulet and Springleaf Drum, it's possible I can work around the mana issues and have a deck worth playing. I don't really like this option but playing to the mana isn't a bad strategy under the circumstances. Everyone else will be having similar problems, at least for a little while and until I can solidify the colors this is as good an idea as any.

League 2015

We've started a League again, made up from packs of the current Standard. This time it's going to be much shorter though: Day 1: Mini masters, (sort of) where every round has you adding a pack, until 4 rounds have passed.

I...didn't do so well. I think my record was 1-3. But mini masters is a silly format anyway and everyone had fun. That's what mattered.

Now we move on to Day 2: Sealed deck construction. Of the packs I opened, I now have to make the best 60 card deck I can. Every round: I'll add another pack from the current Standard pool, and tweak the deck as best I can.

The packs I opened were Magic:Origins and Theros block. Since I wasn't a fan of those sets, perhaps that's why my results were so poor? Cards with a * next to them signify my rares.

Mana Confluence*
Temple of Enlightenment*

Destructive Revelry
Daxos of Meletis*
Blood-Cursed Knight

Springleaf Drum
Traveler's Amulet
Sigil of Valor
Veteran's Sidearm

Retraction Helix
Crypsis
Riptide Chimera
Screeching Skaab
Pin to the Earth
Dreadwaters
Lost in a Labyrinth
Cloaked Siren

Starfall
Fall of the Hammer
Pharagax Giant
Cyclops of the One-Eyed Pass
Lightning Diadem
Titan's Strength
Smash to Smithereens
Satyr Rambler
Fanatic of Mogis

Fleshbag Marauder
Aspect of Gorgon
Viper's Kiss
Feast of Dreams
Black Oak of Odunos
Weight of the Underworld
Fetid Imp
Asphyxiate

Glare of Heresy
Suppression Bonds
Mortal Obstinacy
Healing Hands
Great Hart
Observant Alseid
Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
Excoriate

Raised by Wolves
Nessian Asp
Might of the Masses
Bassara Tower Archer
Shredding Winds
Agent of Horizons
Market Festival
Woodland Bellower*
Spirespine
Nissa's Pilgrimage
Fade into Antiquity
Setessan Oathsworn
Nessian Courser
Pheres-Band Thunderhoof

Man, is this bad. Half of my rares are lands and only one (Woodland Bellower) could rightly be considered a good card. You know what? This is what happened last year, too.

Gah.

So, Green gives me the most depth and some targets for Woodland Bellower. Daxos is potentially really awesome but I'm not sure about my White or Blue. Red seems to be next best-ish and Black is...I don't know. I've got a little time to mock up some ideas so I'll start there, and I know it's going to be Green/X/x which means I have a place to start.

Born of the Gods pre-release

I used to do a little better at the pre-releases and I seem to be in a bit of a slump. I went 1-2 last weekend (same as at Gatecrash)and while I had a nice enough time, I just couldn't get the games to fall my way. Yet I don't really feel that concerned. While writing this post, I saw this video on the Knight's Tour, a chess problem that mathematicians have been working on for years. What's interesting about that video, for me, is how people took an already complex problem (how can we use the knight to touch every square on the board) to make an even more complicated problem (let's make a perfect square!)

For me this idea explains a great deal. I am interested in revamping my decks until they work and then my interest tends to fall away. Solving a problem means I don't have to work on it anymore. I think this is why I keep generating decks: they are new problems so solve. But Theros doesn't seem to give me a problem to solve. None of my losses felt as though they were due to player error or a misunderstanding of the environment, or a revelation about how the cards in BotG interacted with Theros. I either had creatures or I didn't, or worse, I just had creatures outclassed by theirs, and that feels more like a luck-based loss than a skilled one.

I started off with a B/W build that I thought had a very solid curve-lots of plays turns 1-3-but it didn't pay off for me in the first match. I was up against an aggressive RW build and couldn't find a fourth land in either game. It's all well and good to have a curve but at some point I still need mana to play the bigger creatures that come along. Never happened. The match was over before match slips had been delivered!

So I decided to use my extra time to look over my deck and change it up. Green had been my original choice over white, but the curve in white was better so that concept won me over. I swapped the white out for green and thought I had a much better gameplan (cast big creatures and hope for the best).

It worked out better in round 2; I went 2-1 against a U/R deck using scry and fliers to pave the way to victory. I was able to mount an offense as well as use Fate Unraveler for the slow burn to keep myself in it. My final play of game 3 involved Bestowing an Setessan Oathsworn with Nylea's Emissary and then attacking for 10.

Unfortunately, my third matchup was not going to be as kind. Playing opposite a BW deck that had Brimaz and played it in games 1 and 2, I was in for an uphill battle. I lost to Brimaz in game one; game two when he showed up on turn 3, I managed to stalemate the board and eventually use Fleetfeather Sandals on Fate Unraveler to fly over for the win.

But game three had me mulligan down to 5 cards. In a limited environment, this is almost akin to conceding. Despite that, I still made a pretty good stance, keeping my opponent off WW by milling at least 3 Plains via two Returned Centaurs but in the end I was just overwhelmed by lifelink and fliers and lifelinked flilers.

What's discouraging is that not only did I not have an answer, I was never going to have an answer. There was not a deck configuration that was going to help me in that game: I could either splash a third color for some removal, and look at losses due to mana screw, or I could do what I did. Mana is so important that I prioritized it over running one copy of Magma Jet, and I think rightly so.

Lesson from the games: Enchantment removal can be used as creature removal, but it is unwise to consider it actual removal.

League Day 3 results: Misassignment of Role

This is a game I was fortunate enough to go on to win:

That streak of fortune did not follow me through the match, however, nor during the day. I had my worst showing yet: 1-3.

My deck was virtually unchanged: addition of Simic Guildgate and Simic Charm, yet as an inverse from last time when I went 4-0, when I needed creatures I got land. When I needed land, I got creatures. When I needed removal, I got Fuck You.

What went wrong? I believe I did not properly evaluate how fast everyone else's deck would become. Every match I lost, I lost in no small part because I had built a deck that was overly reliant on bombs that show up on turn 5, instead of a deck that could steadily increase the pressure or withstand pressure until I could win.

On the upside, every match I lost, I lost 1-2, so clearly those bombs were good enough to make the matchups a struggle, they just weren't enough to carry me to victories.

Now to add the weakest link, the Dragon's Maze pack, and re-evaluate the entire deck:

Maze sentinel
Haazda snare squad
Hidden strings
Murmuring phantasm
Ubul sar gatekeepers
Fatal fumes
Pilfered plans
Sin collector
Species gorger
Warleaders helix
Armored wolf rider
Flesh/blood
Boros guildgate
Gruul cluestone
Azorius cluestone

League Day 3

Here's what I've got going into Sunday. The new stuff is italicized.

Eaten by Spiders Wandering Wolf Grounded Geist Trappers Strangleroot Geist Somberwald Dryad Hollowhenge Beast Grizzled Outcasts Spidery Grasp Ambush Viper Moonmist Bountiful Harvest Druid's Deliverance Axebane Guardian Savage Surge Burst of Strength Disciple of the Old Ways	Harvester of Souls Essence Harvest Harrowing Journey Sightless Ghoul Morkrut Banshee Unburial Rites Walking Corpse Victim of Night Liliana's Shade Daggerdrome Imp Syndicate Enforcer
Leap of Faith Farbog Explorer Cathedral Sanctifier Ray of Revelation Smite the Monstrous Voiceless Spirit Oblivion Ring Guardian Lions Palisade Giant Murder Investigation Basillica Guards Boros Elite	Afflicted Deserter Pyreheart Wolf Fling Russet Wolves Somberwald Vigilante Uncanny Speed Searing Spear Traitorous Instinct Massive Raid
Favorable Winds Beguiler of Wills Nephalia Seakite Artful Dodge Runic Repetition Rooftop Storm Jace's Phantasm Encrust Faerie Invaders Merfolk of the Pearl Trident Index Vedalken Entrancer Doorkeeper Downsize Inspiration Spell Rupture	Bladed Bracers Angelic Armaments Heavy Mattock Ghoulcaller's Bell Ring of Xathrid Slitherhead Izzet Staticaster Spawn of Rix Maadi Sluiceway Scorpion Simic Charm Purge the Profane Ruination Wurm Assemble the Legion Shimmering Grotto Evolving Wilds Rootbound Crag Rakdos Guildgate Simic Guildgate 2xPlains Mountain 2xSwamp

That's quite a zoo. Part of me wants to go G/R/W (get it!?) with a hint of B because there's removal, there's good creatures, the Red can handle occasional artifacts (which I saw few of) the White can go for troublesome enchantments (which I saw plenty of) and Black, essentially, for Unburial Rites. I get access to Ruination Wurm, which is the largest creature I have (without the effort Grizzled Outcasts requires) and Assemble the Legion, which everyone seems to insist is awesome but the lure of getting a 1/1 with haste on turn 6 feels like a trap.

But Simic Charm has many, many uses and Simic Guildgate helps improve my mana. I don't really improve my best colors unfortunately, but mana wins games and that is a bigger key than Assemble the Legion. I feel more as though I should continue to shore up the current leaks in my boat than try and build a new one, so I'm going to stick with my UGB/r deck for now, and look for places to bring in Simic Charm Syndicate Enforcer or Ruination Wurm.

League Day 2: Results

You know how I said:

This is a very attractive prospect because it means I can play stronger cards, it just feels insane because there is one experience that I know is coming:

I have red cards and no Mountains.

 Yeah, well that happened. Just not quite the way I predicted.

What you see is that there are no Forests on the table. What you don't see is the fistful of Green cards mocking me as I die to the onslaught of Mogg Flunkies and Knight of Glory.

However, this was a rarity for the day. I did well, even managing to beat the previously undefeated person, and my deck frequently gave me the outs I needed to win close games. Mana was an issue for everyone (still) and once again I heard or overheard the line: "I shouldn't've kept that opening hand."

I didn't say that; every hand I decided to keep I kept because I had faith in it.That paid off and I'm glad.

Then I opened my pack of Gatecrash:

Burst of Strength

Disciple of the Old Ways
Massive Raid

Syndicate Enforcer

Murder Investigation

Boros Elite

Basilica Guards

Spell Rupture

Assemble the Legion

Simic Charm

Purge the Profane
Ruination Wurm

Simic Guildgate

Armored Transport

Swamp

Oh, boy.

League Day 2: The Mana

Here's what I've got going into Sunday:

Eaten by Spiders Wandering Wolf Grounded Geist Trappers Strangleroot Geist Somberwald Dryad Hollowhenge Beast Grizzled Outcasts Spidery Grasp Ambush Viper Moonmist Bountiful Harvest Druid's Deliverance Axebane Guardian Savage Surge	Harvester of Souls Essence Harvest Harrowing Journey Sightless Ghoul Morkrut Banshee Unburial Rites Walking Corpse Victim of Night Liliana's Shade Daggerdrome Imp
Leap of Faith Farbog Explorer Cathedral Sanctifier Ray of Revelation Smite the Monstrous Voiceless Spirit Oblivion Ring Guardian Lions Palisade Giant	Afflicted Deserter Pyreheart Wolf Fling Russet Wolves Somberwald Vigilante Uncanny Speed Searing Spear Traitorous Instinct
Favorable Winds Beguiler of Wills Nephalia Seakite Artful Dodge Runic Repetition Rooftop Storm Jace's Phantasm Encrust Faerie Invaders Merfolk of the Pearl Trident Index Vedalken Entrancer Doorkeeper Downsize Inspiration	Bladed Bracers Angelic Armaments Heavy Mattock Ghoulcaller's Bell Ring of Xathrid Slitherhead Izzet Staticaster Spawn of Rix Maadi Sluiceway Scorpion Shimmering Grotto Evolving Wilds Rootbound Crag Rakdos Guildgate 2xPlains Mountain Swamp

Filling out a 60 card deck is easy with U/B/G, so long as I am willing to play substandard cards. Doorkeeper is awesome! Jace's Phantasm is not. Then I thought I should go B/G/r because I do have some really good cards there. I just don't have enough to make 60. 

So there's the tension folks: I can play a deck with crappy cards or I can play an illegal deck. 

Except: the mana is there to splash Red. Rootbound Crag and the Guildgate mean that I can start putting in some Red without losing my ability to play Black or Green. The format is a little slower, so it's possible I could weed out the worst Blue, Black and Green cards to make room for even 4 Red ones, without disrupting the whole process. This is a very attractive prospect because it means I can play stronger cards, it just feels insane because there is one experience that I know is coming:

I have red cards and no Mountains. 

This means I'm going to have to take my advice from last time: Make sure I'm confident in my opening hand. So long as I keep that in mind, I should do OK. 

Everyone have a safe 4th of July!

League Day 1 Results

This was the most amusing part of league for me: in my round 4, game 1 against Scott, our first four turns were identical: Swamp, Swamp, Mountain: cast Heavy Mattock, Plains. At some point I think Scott, who played second, was copying my plays just because he could.

I eventually chose the G/B/w/r configuration after a great deal of thought. The Blue just wasn't strong enough to justify inclusion.

My record was 3-2 for the day and while I feel pretty good about that I also know that there were at least two games where I looked at my opening hand and thought; I could do better, but let's keep this. This is a strange form of overconfidence: I don't take what is but actually project what could be and then assume I will be able to make it work from there.

Sealed doesn't work like that. I have to be confident in my opening hand. When I was, or even better, my opponents weren't confident, I won and when I wasn't, games were a struggle. Nonetheless, with that record I should be well positioned to stay in the race to win League. I don't want to get ahead of myself, though since confidence will take me farther than ego.

Also, I may have to find time to take short walks between rounds, because that will help keep my head in the game!

Finally, look at this shit, from my Return to Ravnica pack:

Palisade Giant
Daggerdrome Imp
Druid's Deliverance
Axebane Guardian
Savage Surge
Doorkeeper
Downsize
Inspiration
Traitorous Instinct
Slitherhead
Sluceway Scorpion
Izzet Staticaster
Spawn of Rix Maadi
Rakdow Guildgate
Swamp

Man. 3 Blue cards and only Downsize is good. The rare (Palisade Giant) is awful coupled with my other White cards. One black card and while I am glad to have something replace Sightless Ghoul, I really wish I had more options. The Green...I just don't know what to make out of. Lastly, of the gold cards, only Sluceway Scorpion and Slitherhead really want to bridge colors I feel are strong.

What I do know, though, is that I have to start all over, as if I was building a brand new deck. Only that mentality will help me build the best deck with the cards I have.

League Begins

For the next few weeks, I'm going to have posts on league matches, which I've started with some friends.

The setup is pretty simple; take one pack from each set legal in standard. Use M13 and Innistrad block to build a 60 card deck. Then add one pack per league event until M14 is out. 4 events, 4 packs, the deck evolves as we play. The winner will get beers the losers will get to keep the Magic cards.

Here's what I opened:

Eaten by Spiders Wandering Wolf Grounded Geist Trappers Strangleroot Geist Somberwald Dryad Hollowhenge Beast Grizzled Outcasts Spidery Grasp Ambush Viper Moonmist Bountiful Harvest	Harvester of Souls Essence Harvest Harrowing Journey Sightless Ghoul Morkrut Banshee Unburial Rites Walking Corpse Victim of Night Liliana's Shade
Leap of Faith Farbog Explorer Cathedral Sanctifier Ray of Revelation Smite the Monstrous Voiceless Spirit Oblivion Ring Guardian Lions	Afflicted Deserter Pyreheart Wolf Fling Russet Wolves Somberwald Vigilante Uncanny Speed Searing Spear
Favorable Winds Beguiler of Wills Nephalia Seakite Artful Dodge Runic Repetition Rooftop Storm Jace's Phantasm Encrust Faerie Invaders Merfolk of the Pearl Trident Index Vedalken Entrancer	Bladed Bracers Angelic Armaments Heavy Mattock Ghoulcaller's Bell Ring of Xathrid Shimmering Grotto Evolving Wilds Rootbound Crag 2xPlains Mountain

Really, everything was fine until I opened my pack of M13, which had 6! fucking blue cards, all of which suddenly made me consider the color. Prior to that moment, GWBr was looking pretty positive.

The unplayables are clearly: Ghoulcaller's Bell, Moonmist, Favorable Winds, Rooftop Storm and Runic Repetition. Sideboard cards include Ray of Revelation, Grounded and Leap of Faith. Bad but possible cards are Artful Dodge, Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, and Liliana's Shade.

So here's how it breaks down: Green gives the the most creatures and has some decent cards. White has both solid creatures and good removal, while keeping the color requirements low. Red has some removal and an "I win" card in Pyreheart Wolf.

Which leaves Blue and Black and that's where I'm torn. I can't use both, because the best cards in each color cost UU or BB, which would be a huge strain on this deck. Traditionally, I avoid Blue because the creatures are weak, the removal is nonexistent and the things Blue tends to do well: draw cards and counter spells, don't happen consistently in sealed games.

But Beguiler of Wills, man. Faerie Invaders is a pretty solid body for the cost. Encrust could handle a lot of problems and Index could help dig in critical situations. The problem is; it doesn't synergize with anything else and Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, Vedalken Entrancer and Jace's Phantasm are all horrible, yet I would have to play them to get to 60 cards.

Black presents as different problem. It probably has my best creature in Harvester of Souls and some support from Ring of Xathrid with synergy with white in Unburial Rites. Unfortunately, there is little removal or card draw; things I would hope to find in that color, and to hit 60 I would be compelled to play Liliana's Shade, which is awful under these circumstances. Morkut Banshee is situational and Sightless Ghoul can't block and doesn't blend well with the Ring initially.

My inclination is to go black and try to run 27 lands, using the sheer volume of land to overcome the potential color screw that may be showing up. Hopefully I'll get some test runs in before we start on Sunday.