Slave To The Grind

More Blue decks! Only this time with Black. This one was built back in the day-the day being when Glimpse the Unthinkable was printed. The upside to not doing mill decks very often and them only really being viable in Blue is that I often have an abundance of tools to make it work. If all is well, as with Chop Shop, there won't be much to change.

Still, I have to do something to make it interesting and for me, this meant using Arcane spells in order to ensure that I wouldn't run out of steam. Hideous Laughter almost never gets spliced but Dampen Thought does. In addition, the use of Isochron Scepter means that I can either stall (via Boomerang) or mill (with Dampen Thought or Vision Charm), commit perpetual murder (Diabolic Edict) or do even weirder stuff (with Twincast. There's something awesome about using Twincast on Glimpse the Unthinkable.) The only thing that really screws me over are graveyard replacement effects, like Wheel of Sun and Moon, which can be bounced and countered, or Eldrazi. 

Small nuisances, trust me. Also; because I have said that, I am sure to play against those cards. Nature of the beast, right? I will report back with fifteen games that all end with; 'Emrakul triggered and I died.'

Finally; this deck plays a grindy game, hence the name taken from the Skid Row song.

3 Counterspell
4 Dampen Thought
2 Hideous Laughter
2 Enervate
3 Boomerang
3 Muddle the Mixture
2 Twincast
2 Diabolic Edict
4 Vision Charm

4 Isochron Scepter

3 Damnation
4 Glimpse the Unthinkable

12 Island
8 Swamp
4 Watery Grave

I don't think there's much more to explain about this deck: it's using the best answers it can to stall out until I can mill my opponent down to nothing. All I need is time.

The Thief Is Cautious

Playing Chop Shop is an exercise in patience when playing vs other Blue decks. This is almost in opposition to the hurried quality that I need to execute when playing other creature decks; if I cannot get something online and rolling, I am in big trouble against Red or Green, for example.

But against Blue, I have to pick my battles wisely. In the photo, I've achieved a stalemate in that game because I managed to resolve a Veldaken Shackles whilst Noah was tapped out. I later had a second Shackles countered and soon after, I lost the game.

To my credit, I knew there was countermagic and I tried (and succeeded) in baiting it out with other cards. However, in the end Noah had more counters than I did and was able to save one last to keep a card that presented huge problems for him off the board.

Commandeer also continued to prove itself; in one game taking over a Ponder that allowed me to set my deck up while denying Noah the same and in a three player game, retargeting a critical spell that would have been bad for me to something that made it bad for someone else.

What's odd about Chop Shop is that I don't really feel like there are cards I should abandon. I haven't been terribly disappointed by the cards I've had in hand and unlike many decks I've been working with, I don't know that there have been qualitatively better cards printed for me to use than the ones I have. It's all about using the tools I have to make the best of it. I do that, I have a chance. It's just weird to play a deck and not want to make a whole bunch of changes.

Thieves Like Us

I know that I said that I wasn't sure about Commandeer because it kept showing up against decks running creatures and for the most part, that card doesn't help me there. But against Fuz last night, playing a UW Runeflare deck, it was very useful.
Why? Because on my turn 1 Extract, I looked at his deck and realized that he wanted to fill my hand with cards, then use Sudden Impact or Runeflare Trap so I would take a ton of damage based on the number of cards in hand. Stealing his artifacts wouldn't help me, because the effects of those are global (card draw) and there were only four creatures in the deck: Shah of Naar Isle.

I set about removing the Runeflare Traps because they could do the most amount of damage to me for the least amount of mana. I tried to bounce or steal Mizzium Transreliquants wherever I could, again because recasting and using its ability cost Fuz more mana than simply bouncing the Font of Mythos. But most importantly, by game 3 I had realized that I should save my Commandeers for the Sudden Impact or Runeflare Trap. If I take control of that spell; I win. If I can't, then I am able to compel Fuz to use up his countermagic, which means landing a Veldaken Shackles or Keiga becomes much easier and I can ride those cards to victory.

Keeping 2 Commandeers in seems worth it for these odd situations.

Also, I noted the new Rules Changes today, including the one that says that you won't get a game loss for not doing a one-for-one swap between your main deck and your sideboard.

I was just ahead of the curve.

That's Mine Now

I managed to get in a couple games with Chop Shop and I have to say; it's a lot of fun to play. Very hit and miss but still entertaining and maintaining enough deliberate choices that if I get wrong, can cost me.

I got in a match against stonethorn, who had mocked up a GRW Allies build (perhaps preparing for new Slivers?) because after the Modern event, this was his response: screw it, I'm having fun and making Allies to mess with you.

So yeah. In the photo, you can see how that's working out for him, as I've used Sphinx Ambassador to steal, among other things, his Sun Titan. This was game three which had him starting off slow and was probably won the moment I went all in on the dick move by Confiscating his (at the time) one source of white mana.

I don't always steal your lands, but when I do, it's because you're fucked.

I don't want to give the impression that it was all sunshine and roses though; Allies is a tough build and I lost game one to a beatdown that felt inevitable. My third game was won due to the fortune of mana screw, but I'll take it.

I played one more game against Noah, who was running an aggro version of Scapeshift. I was able to Bribery out his Primeval Titan, putting me one turn away from the win...and then he cast Scapeshift and was able to kill me off. Happens.

I have found only one glaring weaknesses in this deck yet. I mean yes, of course there could be 'stronger' card selections but that's almost always the case. That said, I've had multiple games with Commandeer in my hand and lacked a target for it. Creatures are just so critical these days that this spell often lacks targets so I'm wondering if this might be a better fit for a Commander deck. It's been years since I've updated the cards in Chop Shop so there is bound to be something that takes your stuff and is pleasantly effective. 

Chop Shop

So if I don't want to play B/W, G/B, or G/R, what does this leave me with?

Mono-Blue.

2 Desertion
2 Inspiration
2 Commandeer
4 Rescind
4 Impulse
4 Counterspell
2 Boomerang

1 Acquire
2 Mimeofacture

3 Vedalken Shackles

2 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Sphinx Ambassador

4 Extract

1 Bribery
1 Treachery
2 Confiscate

23 Island

I think the theme of this will be pretty obvious to anyone who's played long enough, or to those who recognize who Chop Shop is. However, for everyone else; I want to make your stuff, my stuff.

I don't think I have much against combo decks beyond countermagic but against anything else I should have an interesting tension between taking my opponent's stuff and not dying to said stuff. The key card is likely Impulse, which is probably the most efficient card in the deck and one that will get me out of a whole lot of messes. Should be fun though and a nice way to get away from all the grinding of the past couple months.

I Need To Do Something New

I'm a little burnt out after all the Modern testing and I think I may be sick of decks running Black/White or Black/Green or Green/Red. Seriously. All that maximizing for value and hounding after the perfect play has left me a little worn out. Modern Masters is coming up, M14 is coming up and those are all very exciting but after the long stretch of writing and playing and work on Modern...I need more pizza and beer, at least short term.

On Modern Masters: I really hate that WotC is allowing this to be treated as some kind of money printing machine. $300+ for a single box of cards is extortion and leads me back to the my money > less of my money rule. To hell with paying that much for a box! That really is insane.

On M14, Slivers are back, yay! Wait, now they look different and dull. I got it and at first I was OK with it. Then it was pointed out to me that Slivers were just going to look humanoid...boo. I tend to agree with Evan Erwin's point on slivers here and there is a much more scathing overview of them here. And the more I think about it, the more I agree with those points.

Worse is the reason that Slivers have been changed, which is what I'm going to talk about. Because this kind of change has to be something that we should expect, is actually inevitable, I think, once we talk about the why, mechanically, this change had to be made: the need for everything to be all upside.

When I started the game and Juzam Djinn roamed the land, I remember staring at the card Armageddon and thinking, "Why would anyone play this?"

Then someone showed me (you add elves!) and it was a huge revelation! New pathways opened up in the game and new deck ideas, along with solid principles of deckbuilding were brought to light. Challenges to break symmetrical cards compelled genuine decisions about what was best for your deck and it was more difficult to throw in the kitchen sink.

Ditto with Slivers; how do I play a deck that helps my opponent, if they have Slivers? Well, you have to figure out a way to make your Slivers matter more than theirs. Then someone figured out how to make it work, (Muscle Sliver + Crystalline Sliver) and suddenly there was something interesting going on.

One of the ways that Sliver decks became balanced was that the benefit went for all of them, so if your opponents outplayed you with the same creatures, then you had a real brainbender to work out.

One of the reasons I play Magic is to problem solve. If Wizards continually gives players cards that are always good for you and just you then they are removing an element of problem solving from the game. I'm not suggesting that Armageddon should come back (which would be awesome to me but wreak havoc on newer players and likely return a UW control deck that I'm sick of, after nearly 20 years) I'm saying that they are limiting themselves and the game by insisting that every mechanic or idea that now comes to light, always and easily be beneficial for the player.

Sometimes, I think we, as players, deserve more difficulty. I'd like to see those more challenging cards or mechanics at least once every two years; not as a mandatory thing but as something that doesn't get rejected because it isn't new-player friendly enough. It's not as if Slivers were incredibly difficult to understand though: they just didn't fit in the new paradigm of "Every mechanic should obviously benefit the user and only the user."

That's sad and even worse, I believe it's restricting. If they can't occasionally give us mechanics that are challenging then how much of the game is being cut off in order to make sure it appeals to the most people? I'd argue that a vital area is being cast as "Here Be Monsters" and it's going to bite the game in the ass, eventually.

More importantly, I'd like to see some respect given to the past. Slivers have been one of the most popular tribes in Magic's history! They've gotten respect from pro players and love from casuals since they debuted in Tempest, but now, likely in the name of marketing, the history and iconic features of a beloved creature type is being cut away.

Now, add this to Erwin's point that the new Slivers should just be Allies, given how distinct they've become coupled with an artistic direction that obliterates their distinct look, and I believe you have a recipe for ruining the thing that made what was cool, cool.

4-3 or Advocate For Yourself

I went 4-3 at the GP and all in all, I have to say it was a pretty good time.

My wins were in:

Match 2: Tron-his game 1 he had to mulligan down to 3 cards. He still got the Tron but I cast Unmake on the Wurmcoil Engine and that was that.

Match 3: RWG aggro-where I learned how awful Gobin Guide is against me, drawing no less than six but possibly eight lands as a result. The critical moment in game 2 was when he swung at me with two Guides and a Tarmogoyf and after I resolved the Guide triggers (drawing two Godless Shrines), I cast Sudden Spoiling, blocking and killing 2/3rds of his attackers, taking zero. The response was "Oh you and your combat tricks."

Those combat tricks won me the game, baby. Why don't you have any?

Match 6: Elf Combo-I kept killing combo pieces until he used Summoning Pact and, unfortunately, forgot to pay for the upkeep. Game 2 my opponent was on tilt and did not give a fuck about the game.

Match 7: Merfolk. This was the only match that went to three games, but if there's one thing I can do with this deck it's kill tiny creatures. The games I won I managed to resolve a Deathbringer Liege and untap with it. Which lead to sushi. The game I lost I had Spreading Seas cast on two of my five lands, keeping me off black mana for a chunk of the game and allowing for unblockable attackers.

My losses went like this:

Match 1: RUW control, playing a list a lot like Brian Kibler's recommendation from his SCG article, gave me more than I could handle. My biggest mistake was not sideboarding out the Liege for cheaper discard. I was never going to land a 5 mana spell and I was foolish for thinking I could, even with 11 discard spells.

Match 4: Back in the day we called this deck Enchantress, though it goes by Boggles now. Whatever: they play something you cannot target, then Kor Spiritdancer and then enchant the heck out of a creature to swing for victory. The mistake I made in game 2 is understandable but clear in retrospect (retrospect being about two minutes after I made it); I cast Mortify on the Leyline of Sanctity instead of the Kor Spiritdancer, so I could use my Tidehollow Scullers.

Note to self: Kill the draw engine, always, unless the option is to lose instead. The draw engine is the machine that tears the bones from your muscle.

Match 5: Against R/b burn...this one was a heartbreaker. I had a solid game one despite losing. I figured I had a good game against this deck because anything I had with lifelink made his life miserable. So I sideboarded, shuffled, presented and then realized I hadn't done my pregame ritual of counting my sideboard!

So I asked my opponent to hold up a moment and he graciously did. Neither of us had drawn cards, we had merely randomized the other person's deck. I counted my sideboard...14 cards.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

So I called a judge over. And got a game loss. So that was that.

Two matches later, a man named Michael Simon would call a judge over in Game 1, admitting to his horror that he had been playing with an illegal deck for the past six rounds. He had a deck of  61 cards, writing only 60 on his decklist.

His penalty was downgraded upon appeal and he went on to post a 10-0-0 record, and losing in round 11.

I didn't realize that this was the kind of penalty I could or should appeal. After checking in the Monday judge thread at Reddit, it was confirmed: I should have appealed, especially if I "didn't understand" or "thought something was off".

The next question is: How the hell am I supposed to know if something is off? I certainly understood what was happening so that wasn't an issue. Moreover, I really feel like I got screwed for being honest. I caught my mistake before we'd started the game! If we had begun play, then there's no way to remove the doubt of cheating and I would accept that as my fate. Since I caught the issue before, shouldn't that have mattered?

Apparently yes, but only if I had appealed. 

Still, my ego will recover from that bruise and my integrity matters more. I can say that I learned from the experience and next time will appeal decisions I feel are too rigorous, knowing that it's an option and that judges won't have an issue with it.