Monday, February 25, 2013

Standard: 2013-02-24: Gameday: Experiment Jund [Day 2]

Standard: 2013-02-24
to be played at: Gamers of the West, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Attendance: 8
Final Score: 3-0 (2-0, 2-1, 2-1)

Deck piloted by: Deckschrobber
Deck designed by: Ryan Lewis (2013-10-02, SCG Classics)


Like on Saturday I took my Experiment Jund deck to the 2nd Gatecrash Gameday on Sunday. Made no revisions to my list and won everything again. Though I went 3x2-0 on Saturday I only went 2-0, 2-1, 2-1 on Sunday. Having great trouble deciding what to sideboard out against people. Often find myself boarding out the Experiment Ones which according to Herr Bumba is a bad thing to do. The problem is that I didn't draw them all that much and when I did their Evolving trigger didn't actually do all that much for me. The most useful thing they did for me was being Human and being able to sacrifice them to my Falkenrath Aristocrat. 

The Ghor-Clan Rampager was most definitely the MVP of the Sunday gameday. Making me swing in for exactly lethal damage each time.

The list I sleeved up:

        3 Ghor-Clan Rampager   
        3 Flinthoof Boar   
        3 Hellrider   
        3 Deathrite Shaman   
        4 Experiment One   
        4 Dreg Mangler   
        4 Strangleroot Geist   
        3 Falkenrath Aristocrat   
        3 Searing Spear   
        2 Abrupt Decay   
        2 Dreadbore   
        2 Rancor   
        1 Forest   
        4 Dragonskull Summit   
        2 Woodland Cemetery   
        4 Rootbound Crag   
        1 Kessig Wolf Run   
        4 Stomping Ground   
        4 Overgrown Tomb   
        4 Blood Crypt   


Sideboard

    3 Grafdigger's Cage
    2 Abrupt Decay
    2 Golgari Charm
    3 Pillar of Flame
    2 Slaughter Games
    1 Dreadbore
    2 Rakdos's Return


On Saturday I mostly had trouble hitting my red sources on Sunday I lost my games on not getting a green or a black source. Played too few games with the deck to say for sure if the manabase needs fixing or that it was just bad luck. 


If I continue playing this deck I should start getting myself informed on what sideboard decisions I need to make. Found myself playing against a pretty cool Grixis deck in "the final". Grixis is a pretty controlling deck and I did not sideboard in my Rakdos' Returns.
  
Anyway, did win another (auto include) Top 8 Promo full art Firemane Angel and a Zameck Guildmage participation promo and I won my second Merciless Eviction art play mat. One one of them will be heading to Herr Käpitain as he seemed quite taken with the art.

















Saturday, February 23, 2013

Standard: 2013-02-23: Gameday: Experiment Jund [Day 1]

Standard: 2013-02-23
to be played at: Gamers of the West, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Attendance: 6
Final Score: 3-0 (2-0, 2-0, 2-0)

Deck piloted by: Deckschrobber
Deck designed by: Ryan Lewis (2013-10-02, SCG Classics)


A month after the Gatecrash Launch Party it is time for the Gateday Gameday. While orginally planning to sleeve up Owen Turtenwald's Gatecrash ProTour Jund list I sleeved up an Experiment Jund list at Herr Bumba's recommendation instead. This turned out a pretty good plan as I went tripple 2-0. 

The list I sleeved up:

        3 Ghor-Clan Rampager   
        3 Flinthoof Boar   
        3 Hellrider   
        3 Deathrite Shaman   
        4 Experiment One   
        4 Dreg Mangler   
        4 Strangleroot Geist   
        3 Falkenrath Aristocrat   
        3 Searing Spear   
        2 Abrupt Decay   
        2 Dreadbore   
        2 Rancor   
        1 Forest   
        4 Dragonskull Summit   
        2 Woodland Cemetery   
        4 Rootbound Crag   
        1 Kessig Wolf Run   
        4 Stomping Ground   
        4 Overgrown Tomb   
        4 Blood Crypt   


Sideboard

    3 Grafdigger's Cage
    2 Abrupt Decay
    2 Golgari Charm
    3 Pillar of Flame
    2 Slaughter Games
    1 Dreadbore
    2 Rakdos's Return


The deck plays pretty nice and after playing six games with it feels real solid. Though an extremely small sample size I found I sometimes miss my red mana sources in early games.
But that could also be bad luck in these draws. The deck seems to stand up well to mulliganing and comes back pretty decently. Not having any Thundermaw Hellkites in my collection makes it a bit of a lesser build, I guess. Noticed that towards the end of the game I have a whole lot of mana sitting around doing nothing. Deathrite Shaman was definitely the MVP of the tournament. Cutting of annoying Lingering Souls left&right it also took care of Unburial Rites while hurting opponents in the process, yeah. Also the freshly bought Flakenrath Aristocrat (at 17.50(!)) were totally awesome. The indestructible option can wreak havoc on your opponents board. Sacrificing the Experiment One to swing in for lethal is fun. Regret not buying into these Aristocrats when they were 4 euro for a long, long while. Don't think they have a lot of Modern potential but I'm confident they'll get me to play some more Standard. That makes it worth it.

 Besides winning a(n auto include) Top 8 Promo full art Firemane Angel and a Zameck Guildmage participation promo I also won a play mat with the Merciless Eviction art, pretty sweet!

















Friday, February 22, 2013

Standard: 2013-02-21: Unexpected Results

Standard: 2013-02-21
to be played at: Gamers of the West, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Attendance: 12
Final Score: 0-4 (0-2, 0-2, 0-2, 1-2)

Deck piloted by: Deckschrobber
Deck designed by: James Ashe (2013-10-02, SCG Classics)


 Herr Bumba told me about a very cool deck he saw on TCGPlayer's Frank LePore's video deck tech earlier in the week. During the night I watched the deck tech of it along with some games and it looked like hilarious fun. Decided to assemble this deck as well and see if we could have some unexpected fun with it. Picked up an additional copy of Temporal Mastery (9euro) as well as a foil Enter the Infinite (7.50euro) and a foil Unexpected Results (2.50euro) for way too much money but man, this deck looked like good fun. Not reliable but fun to play with. Like opening random gifts. For the first time in age I felt genuinely enthusiastic about playing Standard.

Decklist:
1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
1x Griselbrand
1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
4x Thragtusk
1x Chromatic Lantern
2x Detention Sphere
1x Door to Nothingness
1x Enter the Infinite
4x Farseek
2x Increasing Ambition
3x Omniscience
4x Supreme Verdict
2x Temporal Mastery
4x Unexpected Results
4x Urban Evolution
3x Breeding Pool
4x Glacial Fortress
1x Godless Shrine
4x Hallowed Fountain
3x Hinterland Harbor
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
2x Sunpetal Grove
4x Temple Garden
1x Watery Grave

Sideboard:
1x Dispel
1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
3x Loxodon Smiter
2x Negate
3x Restoration Angel
1x Sphinx's Revelation
2x Terminus
2x Vraska the Unseen

There are 20 cards in the deck that have a converted mana cost of 5 or more. So 1 in 3 is pretty much an up trade from the perspective of Unexpected Results. The problem you need to hit them. Hitting a land isn't so bad as it brings back the Unexpected Results to your hand. Sadly, late game hitting a Farseek is pretty useless. 

Going 0-4 it is needless to say that much needed favor of Lady Luck wasn't shining on me while piloting this deck. Making the deck incredibly boring to play with. When you're not hitting anything useful you have nothing to do. There is no interaction, no fun. Sometimes you have Thragtusk but your faithful beast must stay home most of the time to block in order to keep you alive long enough so you can maybe cast something cool with Unexpected Results.

The deck worked once, sort of. My opponent was screwed and eventually I had a Door to Nothingness with two of each mana. Something that I had build up to with Farseek and Urband Evolution. No Unexpected Results was used in the assembly of this doomsday device.

Gimmicky fun when it works, boring and useless when it doesn't. Think I'll sleeve up Owen Turtenwald's ProTour Gatecrash's Top 8 Jund deck for the FNM and the gameday. 
 

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Team Sealed Practice: Pool 1

Team Sealed Practice for GP Utrecht: 2013-02-06
Decks designed by: Herr Kapitän, Herr Bumba & Deckschrobber.

With GP Utrecht's Team Sealed approaching fast we thought it was a good idea to have some practice with this fun looking format. So we bought a booster box and cracked open 12 packages to see what we could make from them.  Here is our pool:
//WHITE:
    2x Aerial Maneuver
    1x Angelic Edict

    2x Assault Griffin
    1x Basilica Guards

    1x Blind Obedience
    1x Boros Elite
    1x Daring Skyjek

    1x Debtor's Pulpit 
    2x Guildscorn Ward
   1x Hold the Gates
   
    1x Knight of Obligation
   
    1x Knight Watch
    1x Shielded Passage
    2x Smite
    1x Urbis Protector 
 
//BLUE:

    1x Agoraphobia
    2x Clinging Anemones 
    1x Frilled Oculus 
    1x Hands of Binding 
    1x Incursion Specialist
    1x Keymaster Rogue
 

    1x Last Thoughts 
    1x Leyline Phantom 
    2x Metropolis Sprite 
    1x Rapid Hybridization 
    1x Realmwright 
    1x Sage's Row Denizen 
    2x Scatter Arc 
    1x Simic Fluxmage 
    1x Skygames 
    1x Totally Lost
    1x Voidwalk
 
//BLACK:
    2x Balustrade Spy
    2x Basilica Screecher
    2x Corpse Blockade
    1x Death's Approach
    1x Devour Flesh
    2x Grisly Spectacle
    1x Gutter Skulk
    1x Horror of the Dim
    2x Shadow Alley Denizen
    2x Shadow Slice
    1x Slate Street Ruffian
    2x Syndicate Enforcer
    1x Thrull Parasite
    1x Undercity Informer
    1x Wight of Precinct Six

//RED:
    4x Act of Treason
    1x Bomber Corps
    1x Cinder Elemental
    1x Firefist Striker
    1x Foundry Street Denizen
    2x Furious Resistance
    1x Massive Raid
    3x Mugging
    2x Scorchwalker
    1x Skinbrand Goblin
    1x Skullcrack
    2x Structural Collapse
    1x Viashino Shanktail
    2x Warmind Infantry

//GREEN:
    2x Adaptive Snapjaw
    1x Alpha Authority
    1x Burst of Strength
    2x Crocanura
    4x Disciple of the Old Ways
    1x Experiment One
    2x Forced Adaptation
    1x Naturalize
    1x Ooze Flux
    1x Predator's Rapport
    1x Serene Remembrance
    2x Slaughterhorn
    1x Spire Tracer
    1x Tower Defense
    1x Verdant Haven
    1x Wildwood Rebirth

//GOLD:ORZHOV:

    1x Cartel Aristocrat
    1x Executioner's Swing
    3x Kingpin's Pet

    1x One Thousand Lashes 
    1x Orzhov Charm
    1x Purge the Profane 
    1x Vizkopa Guildmage 

//GOLD:DIMIR:
    1x Bane Alley Broker
    1x Call of the Nightwing
    2x Coerced Confession

    1x Duskmantle Guildmage
    1x Nightveil Specter
    1x Paranoid Delusions

    4x Psychic Strike

//GOLD:BOROS:
    2x Martial Glory
    1x Shattering Blow


//GOLD:GRUUL:
    1x Domri Rade
    1x Frenzied Tilling
    1x Gruul Charm

    1x Gruul Ragebeast
    2x Pit Fight
    2x Primal Visitation
    1x Rubblehulk

    1x Rubblebelt Raiders
    1x Ruination Wurm
    2x Zhur-Taa Swine 




//GOLD:SIMIC:
    1x Bioshift
    1x Biomass Mutation

    1x Drakewing Krasis
    1x Mystic Genesis
    1x Hydroform
    1x Nimbus Swimmer
    1x Simic Charm
    1x Unexpected Results


//ARTIFACTS:
    3x Armored Transport
    1x Glaring Spotlight

    1x Millennial Gargoyle    2x Razortip Whip
    1x Riot Gear

    1x Simic Keyrune
    1x Skyblinder Staff

//LANDS:
    1x Boros Guildgate

    1x Gruul Guildgate
    1x Orzhov Guildgate

It took us way, way, way too long but here are the decks that we came up with. Obviously we forgot about thinking about the manabases for each of these decks, but what'ya expect. 
 To be piloted by Herr Bumba:
//ORZHOV DECK:
// Lands
    1x Orzhov Guildgate

// Creatures
    1x Basilica Guards
    1x Urbis Protector
    1x Knight of Obligation
    2x Assault Griffin
    2x Balustrade Spy
    3x Kingpin's Pet
    1x Vizkopa Guildmage
    1x Cartel Aristocrat
    2x Basilica Screecher
    1x Thrull Parasite

// Spells
    1x Blind Obedience
    1x Orzhov Charm
    1x Death's Approach
    2x Smite
    2x Grisly Spectacle
    1x One Thousand Lashes

// Sideboard Options
SB: 1x Purge the Profane
SB: 1x Knight Watch
SB: 1x Executioner's Swing
SB: 1x Debtor's Pulpit
SB: 2x Angelic Edict
SB: 2x Shadow Alley Denizen


To be piloted by Deckschrobber:
//GRUUL DECK:
// Creatures
    2x Warmind Infantry
    1x Skinbrand Goblin
    4x Disciple of the Old Ways
    1x Gruul Ragebeast
    2x Slaughterhorn
    1x Scorchwalker
    1x Cinder Elemental
    1x Viashino Shanktail
    1x Rubblebelt Raiders
    2x Zhur-Taa Swine
    1x Rubblehulk
    1x Ruination Wurm

// Spells
    1x Domri Rade
    1x Burst of Strength
    2x Pit Fight
    1x Glaring Spotlight

// Sideboard Options:
SB: 1x Wildwood Rebirth 

 To be piloted by Herr Kapitän:
//SIMIC DECK: 
// Creatures
    1x Drakewing Krasis
    1x Nimbus Swimmer
    2x Adaptive Snapjaw
    1x Keymaster Rogue
    1x Clinging Anemones
    1x Experiment One
    1x Nightveil Specter
    2x Crocanura
    1x Metropolis Sprite
    1x Incursion Specialist
    1x Frilled Oculus

// Spells
    1x Rapid Hybridization
    1x Bioshift
    1x Simic Charm
    1x Mystic Genesis
    1x Ooze Flux
    1x Totally Lost
    1x Biomass Mutation
    1x Simic Keyrune
    1x Verdant Haven 
 
 

Monday, February 4, 2013

Gatecrash: Set Review: Mono Colour Rares

Angelic Skirmisher
This might actually be a bit of sleeper hit. While not tremendously aggressively prices at cmc:6 but her effect is mighty powerful and may in fact cause see her to see Standard Constructed play. Cause lifelink or first strike ain't no things to sneeze at. Definitely need to score me a foil copy or two of this one. If only to donate one to Herr Käpitain's ever growing angel collection.
Blind Obedience
Hailed as the bane of the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker / Deceiver Exarch in Modern, not even sure if that actually works. Also steals some of the thunder away from Gatecrash's Spark Trooper. A good card, worth picking up with a nice added bonus of extorting the hell out of your opponent while keeping his or her board under control.










Frontline Medic
Aggressively priced in terms of manacost, a strong Battalion trigger and an interesting counter ability. This will be played quite a bit in the aggressive decks to come and in the sideboard of many decks.












Gideon, Champion of Justice
A very strong limited card with poor constructed potential. Sure it might occasionally be huge but most of the time it will be 'average' at best. Has no evasion so gets chump blocked every time. Dies to all kinds of removal. Not a terrible planeswalker but not as strong as Gideon Jura. The foil version do really have an awesome 3d feel to them.










Luminate Primordial
A casual Commander card. Foils of the entire Primordial cylce have a potential for great value. Otherwise a useless card that won't even necessarily make the cut in a limited deck.













Diluvian Primordial
Like the Luminate Primodial it has a great casual appeal with no real constructed appeal.














Enter the Infinite
Extremely powerful card that probably will show up in the Omniscience / Dream Halls kind of decks. And in Commander, of course. And to be honest if you resolve this one and you don't manage to win you don't deserve to win. :)

Wonderful art by Terese Nielsen that I got to get myself a foil copy of.









Realmwright
Manafixer that will see play in Standard and Modern in the budget decks. It is not like there isn't enough mana fix in the Standard environment already with all the 10 shock duels and Far Seek and such.












Simic Manipulator
A limited powerhouse for sure. Probably has some constructed potential as well. Quite an interesting card and one to keep your eye on.














Stolen Idenity
Token clone effects have the potential to extremely useful. Probably works well with the Biovisionary along with Crackling Counterpart and Clone. Cipher is an ability that has such a huge potential but at cmc6 and then needing to do combat damage to retrigger  it is hard to be convinced that will happen often. Still a solid card.










Crypt Ghast
Mana doublers always have potential and this wonderful looking Crypt Ghast is no exception. Will definitely will see play in the inevitable Extort decks in Standard.













Lord of the Void
Being tremendously wrong about the playability of Grisselbrand I'm apprehensive to speculate over expensive black Demons. The effect is powerful but I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb by saying that Lord of the Void ain't no Grisselbrand.











Ogre Slumlord
This card is probably responsible for the recent run on Marrow-Gnawer. That one shot up from a $1-$3 card all the way to being a $15 card. Now obviously that is driven by the casual market (both kitchen table and Commander). Though I don't think it will be long before we'll be seeing a Pack Rat deck gnawing away at the fringes of the FNM Standards under the leadership of Ogre Slumlord.









Five-alarm Fire
In a Boros limited decks this a hugely powerful card that can win you games. Once your creatures get double strike this card can be totally devastating. In a Boros first strike Standard deck this card is pretty much an auto include to serve as removal or simply to finish the job that your creatures that have started. The only thing that is keeping it back are its two RR in its casting cost. And that you may want to put more immediate threads onto the board instead of something that needs to charge up before it does something. But when it does something it tends to be relevant. 






Hellkite Tyrant
The obligatory red mythic dragon. While the others of late, with the exception of Thundermaw Hellkite, they have all been underwhelming. This one also caters strongly to the casual Commander crowd with its alternate win condition. But the fact that has flying and trample does make it a strong contender for a spot in the sideboard if there are decks that rely heavily on artifacts. So it may indeed be a sleeper hit that is now unjustly being regarded as casual dragon.








Legion Loyalist
This card will see play for sure. It probably will find its way into Legacy or Modern goblin decks. And combines nicely with the Five-Fire Alarm with its first strike.













Molten Primordial
A more expensive Zealous Conscripts that only targets creatures. Though the 6/4 haste body makes it a very, very strong limited card this isn't anywhere near relevant for constructive play.












Wrecking Ogre
A 3/3 with double strike for cmc:5. Not too terrible but not too great either. However the Bloodrush mechanic gives it an extra dimension that may make it see play in the aggressive creature based decks that will be rampant in Standard soon.












Giant Adephage
A giant insect that multiplies, has trample and an entertaining flavor text. This well definitely make its way into my Mayael, The Anima Commander deck but it doesn't win you the game like a Craterhoof Behemoth does. Casual / Commander card and a limited bomb for sure.











Gyre Sage
Probably not a very good card. You drop it turn two and use it two cast something that causes it to evolve on turn three. On  turn 4 you get two mana out of it, yeah. Obviously it has the potential to grow and give you more mana every turn which is great in theory but I guess can hardly be described as reliable.











Ooze Flux 
Not sure how this card could be relevant in a constructed environment. Sure, for 1G you can turn your evolved creature into an X/X green ooze when it is being targeted by removal. But it won't recover any if a board wipe hits. 












Skarrg Goliath
A game winner in limited. Very narrow constructed potential. +9/+9 and trample definitely is not without charm in at the Commander table when that could make your general swing in for lethal. And a 9/9 Trampler at cmc:8 is pretty doable there as well. 











Sylvan Primordial
Targeted noncreature removal. Of all of the Primordial this is by far the strongest. Helping you thin your deck by fetching non-basic forests. Pretty good and certainly want a foil one for in my Mayael, The Anima deck.