Magic: The Gathering

[Fragamemnon]

Wow, MTGO is actually getting real PTQs:

http://www.wizards.com/MagiC/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/events/ptqsd10/season

Harder to win than a real PTQ, but still awesome that you can participate without the travel expense and inconvenience (the latter is a real pain for me since I have a demanding job)-I'll probably give it a go when Extended season rolls around (I'm not so good in draft).

[tehjaybo]

Bump for ZENDIKAR OMG SPOILARZ
http://mtgsalvation.com/zendikar-spoiler.html

Hedron Crab   U
Creature - Crab    Uncommon
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control,
target player puts the top three cards of his or her library into his
or her graveyard.
   0/2

 
This makes my mill deck HAPPAY!

Trapmaker's Snare
   1u
Instant    Uncommon
Search your library for a Trap card, reveal it,
and put it into your hand.
Then shuffle your libary.

Also makes mill HAPPAY.  Hello Archive Trap + fetchlands.  Turn one, say goodnight to 13 cards. Turn two, what's that?  You're popping a second fetchland because I can't POSSIBLY have another Archive Trap?  Well hell!  I'll LOOK FOR ONE FOR TWO MANA.


The new Chandra is pretty sweet for monored burn...  I'm excited there.  And Pyromancer Ascension ...


What is everyone else looking forward to?

[Saint Cornelius]

I'm looking forward to the prerelease! This Saturday & Sunday at the local shop. Rampaging Baloth and a Celestine Reef Planechase card for all participants!

Question to those of you with a DCI account (as in, tehjaybo): how long does it usually take your store to upload your play info? One of the stores I play at updates DCI immediately after the matches are complete, but the other one I play at has only sent information into the DCI once, from M10's prerelease tournament. I've played a bunch of drafts and FNM there with nothing to show for it!

I wouldn't really care as I've been losing a lot, but I'm getting gypped on the player rewards benefits because of it and it sort of sucks.

[Human Snorenado]

Your best bet it is to mention that to the people who are supposed to be updating the info.  It's cool for the shop to make money off of drafts and sealeds and prereleases, but the flip side is that players are supposed to be able to occasionally get cool shit too.

edit:  also you might mention (in as non-dickish of a way as possible) that another store you play at has no trouble updating the info.  HINT HINT.

[Saint Cornelius]

also you might mention (in as non-dickish of a way as possible) that another store you play at has no trouble updating the info.  HINT HINT.

the only problem I have with mentioning it to these people is that they're the surliest fucking nerdlingers this side of Evilbore, and I don't want to get the boot from the store that's right across the street from my house!

I actually do like the other store better, the one that updates immediately... but it's all the way across town and you really can't beat a 5 min. walk to get your Magic on, you know?

[Human Snorenado]

Sounds like the classic conflict- your desire to get cool free shit vs. your desire to exert as little effort as possible.  That (and the fact that my town doesn't have even a FNM game at any of the shops in town) are why I'm a MTGO exclusivo.

[Saint Cornelius]

That (and the fact that my town doesn't have even a FNM game at any of the shops in town) are why I'm a MTGO exclusivo.

I poured over $4k into MTGO, it's just too fucking much for me nowadays. Now that I've discovered FNM and local drafts, I only do a draft on MTGO every once in a while.

Plus, I like having physical cards. It's awesome to be able to play anyone, anytime, anywhere online... but it sucks to not be able to do anything other than your basic standard Magic. Can't play any variants outside of the approved ones on MTGO, can't cube draft...

[tehjaybo]

Plus, I like having physical cards. It's awesome to be able to play anyone, anytime, anywhere online... but it sucks to not be able to do anything other than your basic standard Magic. Can't play any variants outside of the approved ones on MTGO, can't cube draft...

This, this, this, a thousand times this. 

Do the events have atleast 8 people in them?  Anything under 8 can't be DCI sanctioned, so they wouldn't be able to give points for that.  Other than that, tell them to get off their asses.

And what's your DCI number?  I wanna see how I rank up against the rest of MagicBore.

[Saint Cornelius]

Do the events have atleast 8 people in them?  Anything under 8 can't be DCI sanctioned, so they wouldn't be able to give points for that.  Other than that, tell them to get off their asses.

Oh yeah, definitely. They usually have 16 people, two "pods" or whatever they're called.

And what's your DCI number?  I wanna see how I rank up against the rest of MagicBore.

It's #1213948091. I suck, btw. 

[tehjaybo]

Magic
Composite (as of 2009-09-21)
1587 rating   16 matches   5 events   
    151158  All   71361  North America   64385  United States   4284  US-California   368  San Diego, CA   
Limited (as of 2009-09-21)
1574 rating   16 matches   5 events   
    127757  All   59777  North America   53640  United States   3967  US-California   340  San Diego, CA   
Total (as of 2009-09-21)
1575 rating   16 matches   5 events   
    167651  All   77857  North America   70251  United States   4604  US-California   401  San Diego, CA


Mine:
Magic
Composite (as of 2009-09-21)
1573 rating   76 matches   21 events   
    192299  All   91293  North America   82441  United States   915  US-Kentucky   291  Lexington, KY   
Constructed (as of 2009-09-21)
1549 rating   53 matches   15 events   
    136374  All   62692  North America   56835  United States   727  US-Kentucky   222  Lexington, KY   
Limited (as of 2009-09-21)
1597 rating   23 matches   6 events   
    88196  All   41421  North America   37134  United States   477  US-Kentucky   157  Lexington, KY   
Total (as of 2009-09-21)
1564 rating   76 matches   21 events   
    187279  All   87348  North America   78866  United States   873  US-Kentucky   271  Lexington, KY

You're higher than me.   

[Saint Cornelius]

The complete Zendikar spoiler!

I'm excited! Can't wait for tomorrow.

[Human Snorenado]

I'm kind of thinking about driving up to Jacksonville to play in the pre-release there, but it's supposed to keep raining tomorrow and I don't know if I feel like driving an hour each way just to play cards.  Probably wait for the MTGO pre-release.

[The Sceneman]

me and playgroup cant be fucked dealing with the nerds at the prerelease so were just gonna buy a box of boosters and run our own sealed deck. With drugs and booze. Oh man am I pumped. I want a vampire deck!

[tehjaybo]

Me, Billyofcourse, and our friend Brandon are in the car now going up to Louisville (approx 2 hours from my hometown, 1 hour from Billy's apt where we stayed the night).  Signed up for an event at midnight, got our packs and dropped.  Got two fetchlands and an Ob. 

Will post how we do.

[Saint Cornelius]

I've played two matches so far: first one went 1-2, second I got pwnt 0-2.

Now I'm eating a burrito

[Human Snorenado]

Anybody pull any good cards?  I decided to stay home- it's fucking raining all day again here.  If there had been a pre-release in town I would have gone but fuck driving an hour to play cards.

[tehjaybo]

I did pure shit.  I got one prize pack, that's it.  We drove an hour in the rain to get there.  First round played UG, lost two rounds 0/2, and then won 2/0 and dropped.  First booster draft, UG, lost first round.  Second draft, UG (seeing a pattern?) And won a game, so I got a pack.  Bought some foils, traded some, ended out okay.  Got two Ob Nixs, I pulled a Warren Instigator, 4 B/G fetches, 2 W/B, 3 Bloodghast, Archive Trap, Goblin Guide, Blade of the Bloodchief, and Mul Daya Oracle.  Traded for two of the four Pulses I needed.  There's more here and there, but we didn't sleep last night so we're spacing kinda.

Oh, and Billy got Force of Wills.  Lawl.

Warning: We ordered 6 boxes.  Be prepared for the omg Friday.

[Human Snorenado]

Gee, I see no correlation between your lack of sleep and shitty play. 

[Saint Cornelius]

One of the (few) people I beat over the weekend was also complaining about a lack of sleep. 

This weekend was a lot of fun! I played both days, going 2-5 the first day (I don't know why it went 7 rounds, but it did) and 3-3 the second. Pulled a fetchland the 1st day, Sorin the 2nd. Someone offered me $20 for the Sorin... and I turned him down! 

I saw a lot of people trying to do their thing with Allies, some with great success. Lots of people playing Plated Geopede and kicking much ass with it! I had it in my deck too, but hardly ever drew it. The first day I went R/G before splashing a bit of white in there, after seeing how Kor Skyfisher rocked out a lot of interesting combos with the uncommon lands and landfall tricks. Second day I wilded the fuck out at first and tried going for a four color Ally deck. Got my ass beat the fuck down the first match, and my opponent suggested I take out one if not two colors. So then I went R/W/G (I had the Sorin but I just didn't feel like I had enough B to support him) and started doing better, but only winning one of the next two matches. With two matches left, I decided to take out W/G altogether and just go B/R... and what do you know, I won my last two!

I really like this Zendikar set. Looking forward to the official release next weekend!

[tehjaybo]

I have now fully had time to recover from the opening of the boxes and the building of the decks.  So far I have:

Green/Black Ob Nix landramp
Mono Black Control (minor Vamp theme)
Mono Red Tribal Goblin
Esper Control/Mill

I am absolutely loving all of these decks, but so far my favorite of the group is the MBC deck.  It has creature responses.  It doesn't mind taking a little damage, because it gains life like crazy.  It actually runs the card no one is really thinking about (Sorin) and plays it well.  It can easily make you take two damage for every card that goes to your graveyard from ANYWHERE, and let me gain that two life.  Your blood is so delicious to me.

What are you building?

Also, is anyone trading Zendikar stuff?  Even though we got the boxes, we are still looking for some more cards, not to mention some 2010 stuff still.  Will post a list later.

[Saint Cornelius]

What are you building?

Working on a mill deck!

Also, is anyone trading Zendikar stuff?  Even though we got the boxes, we are still looking for some more cards, not to mention some 2010 stuff still.  Will post a list later.

I'm looking for commons and uncommons from the current block to make my cube!

[FlameOfCallandor]

What do you need. I can sell you bulk commons and uncommons for a decent price.

[Saint Cornelius]

I'm looking more to trade than to just all out and buy... I play enough sealed and buy enough boosters that it's just a matter of time before I have a complete set. I guess I'm looking for other people who just want to patch up holes in their collection, basically.

[Saint Cornelius]

That being said, if you had complete common & uncommons for the Shards block, I could be convinced to take them off your hands

[FlameOfCallandor]

What would you trade for a stack of commons and uncommons?

[FlameOfCallandor]

I'm not sure if I have a complete set, but I do have alot.

[tehjaybo]

What are you building?

Working on a mill deck!

This is of great interest to me!  I love playing mill decks.  What colors are you making it?  And what are you using in it?

[Saint Cornelius]

I've got a long ways to go before I make anything really playable, but I'm hella intrigued by blue's Archive Trap and Hedron Crab possibilities... maybe throw in some Tome Scours and a Traumatize? And a bunch of counter / bounce shit to send any threats back to my opponents' hand.

FoC, let me know what you have and we'll talk.

[FlameOfCallandor]

I've been drafting twice a week for the past 10 months. I have it all. I can ship some bulk commons and uncommons if needed.

[tehjaybo]

I've got a long ways to go before I make anything really playable, but I'm hella intrigued by blue's Archive Trap and Hedron Crab possibilities... maybe throw in some Tome Scours and a Traumatize? And a bunch of counter / bounce shit to send any threats back to my opponents' hand.

My friends and I all discussed mill in all of it's forms, and we finally came down to thinking that Esper mill is the best right now.  It allows that splash of black for mind funeral, it leaves other possibilities open for black spells, it has white for board clearers and path for single  target removal, and blue for main mill and control.  But I have problems playing it as control instead of as mill.     I'm really bad at playing control.

[FlameOfCallandor]

The only mill that will be playable will be turbofog.

[tehjaybo]

Tap four, Punish Ignorance that idea.

Thanks for the life.

[FlameOfCallandor]

punish ignorance is a terrible card.

[billyofcourse]

punish ignorance is a terrible card.

punish ignorance is not a terrible card.  It was just overshadowed by cryptic command.  A hard counter and a six point life swing for 4 mana.  I'll take it.  Not to mention esper control has a very easy time casting it.

[FlameOfCallandor]

negate is leaps and bounds better than punish ignorance.

What are you going to do, save 4 mana every turn you think you need to counter something? Cryptic command was versatile punish ignorance is not.

 

[FlameOfCallandor]

If you have 4 mana to just sit around with your losing already. plus, it gives you no tempo if you are forgoing casting a spell in favor of waiting to cast punish ignorance.

[FlameOfCallandor]

I wouldn't even play punish ignorance in a draft.

[billyofcourse]

that's why you don't only run one counter spell in a control deck, dear god. 

control deck...

you don't cast a damn thing on your turn(short of a board clearer), until you have enough mana to cast and protect your kill card.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Pro-tip

temp>lifetotal (as long as its not 0)

So what do you do against a deck that casts a lot of weenies or a really fast aggro deck or weenie deck? Are you going to punish ignorance their veteran swordsmith? I'll take that trade any day of the week.

They are going to destroy you before you get your kill card out.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Just a rule in general, worrying about life totals is for noobs. You win by making your opponent get to 0, not by gaining life.

[billyofcourse]

Just a rule in general, worrying about life totals is for noobs. You win by making your opponent get to 0, not by gaining life.

you clearly never watched cruel control rape kithkin....there's a reason it was a better deck.  This deck is modeled after cruel control.  Also, the punish ignorance is not so much about the gaining three life as it is them losing three life...not to mention, a six point life swing totally fucks with the tempo of a weenie deck.

[tehjaybo]

Kitchen Finks
Cruel Ultimatum
Baneslayer Angel


Clearly life gain is terrible and doesn't help games at all.

[Saint Cornelius]

All I know is, the Zendikar sealed & draft I've been playing has seen the following archetypes:

• mono green
• mono red
• allies
• mono black
• b/u mill

I haven't seen too many people give a shit about life gain; that one card that lets you win if you have 40+ life during your upkeep, I've seen that one passed around the table a few times.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Kitchen Finks

Kitchen finks isnt a good card because of the lifegain its good because it can black, has persist and lifegain.

The life gain part of cruel ultimatum is probably the weakest part of the card.

And baneslayer angel is just a beast all aroung.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Just a rule in general, worrying about life totals is for noobs. You win by making your opponent get to 0, not by gaining life.

you clearly never watched cruel control rape kithkin....there's a reason it was a better deck.  This deck is modeled after cruel control.  Also, the punish ignorance is not so much about the gaining three life as it is them losing three life...not to mention, a six point life swing totally fucks with the tempo of a weenie deck.

What tournament level deck used punish ignorance? I went to the PTQ in san antonio and beat 3 5CC decks and didnt see one punish ignorance.

[FlameOfCallandor]

lets analyze two cards.

Lighting bolt and punishing ignorance.

Lighting bolt costs 1 and can do 3 damage
Punish ignorance costs 4 and can do 3 damage. The difference is the lifegain and the counter. Clearly a 4 cost counter spell is awful (Cryptic command had waaaay more going for it).

Not only is it a 4 cost card its cost is WUUB which means that you need a certain color combination open. You're gonna sit there for 2 or 3 turns waiting to cast it on my"bomb" while I destroy you with my riverboa.

[Saint Cornelius]

or plated geopede.

[FlameOfCallandor]

plated geopede is sooo good!!

[tehjaybo]

You're gonna sit there for 2 or 3 turns waiting to cast it on my"bomb" while I destroy you with my riverboa.

You can't regenerate an exile.

[billyofcourse]

Just a rule in general, worrying about life totals is for noobs. You win by making your opponent get to 0, not by gaining life.

you clearly never watched cruel control rape kithkin....there's a reason it was a better deck.  This deck is modeled after cruel control.  Also, the punish ignorance is not so much about the gaining three life as it is them losing three life...not to mention, a six point life swing totally fucks with the tempo of a weenie deck.

What tournament level deck used punish ignorance? I went to the PTQ in san antonio and beat 3 5CC decks and didnt see one punish ignorance.

because like I said, cryptic overshadowed it.  Cryptic was a better card, there is no doubt about that.  But I'm just talking about control decks in general.  They have answers to weenie, being board clearers, etc.  also runs smaller counterspells in addition to the punish ignorance, ie negate/countersquall/essence scatter/cancel/take your choice.  there are any number of very useable counterspells in the format.  You didn't see cruel control biting it because it couldn't cast a cryptic command til turn 4, or had to keep four mana open to counter something.

[FlameOfCallandor]

Here is my rundown of Standard counterspells

Negate>Essence Scatter>Cancel>Spell Pierce>Counter Squall>Double Negative>>>>>>>>>Punish Ignorance

[tehjaybo]

Here is my rundown of Standard counterspells

Negate>Essence Scatter>Cancel>Spell Pierce>Counter Squall>Double Negative>>>>>>>>>Punish Ignorance

Mindbreak > Double Negative

I'm starting to get wind of a troll.

[FlameOfCallandor]

People over at MTG salvation are actually talking about using double negative in standard decks to stop cascade. I have yet to see anyone talk about using punish ignorance. Ever.

[tehjaybo]

"Man, that Time Sieve card is so junk.  We have like a million of them."
2 months later
"Holy shit Time Sieve rocks"

There are a lot of greatly underrated cards that were overshadowed by other stuff.  Billy and I think that Punish Ignorance will be decent in the decks that we know.  You do not think this is so.  However, you are playing Warp World, and we are playing Esper Control. 

Opinions on the internet lolololololol.

[Saint Cornelius]

Warp World decks are a lot better in theory than in execution

[tehjaybo]

Warp World decks are a lot better in theory than in execution

So is Green/Black Ob Nixilis.   

[FlameOfCallandor]

Time Sieve and warp world have interesting and unique game interactions punishing ignorance does not.

[tehjaybo]

Time Sieve and warp world have interesting and unique game interactions punishing ignorance does not.

Because a 6 point life swing and counter magic sucks so much when the colors can support it and dependably cast it, whereas an eight cast sorcery brings so much to the board when I have you dead already by then.

And sorry for all of this, I just realized how good Warp World is and how many people at PT San Antonio won with it.
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck_search_result.asp?Location=2009%20PTQ%20Austin:%20%20%20San%20Antonio,%20USA

Oh wait.

[FlameOfCallandor]

I got 39th with it and it was my very first Magic tournament ever.  It was sweet.

Anyway, I'm sorry you have a hard on for a terrible card. 

[FlameOfCallandor]

Thats 39th out of 200 people. I even beat the guy who got 5th overall.