Eternal Set Review: Time

See this article with pictures at Numot Gaming!
http://www.numotgaming.com/eternal-set-review-time/

I have been playing lots of Eternal lately, and with the NDA lifted, it is time to put out my thoughts on the cards! I am going to work my way through reviewing all of the cards, starting with the Time faction. I may get around to replacing the text with card images. The power costs can be interpreted as: 3T - three power with one Time influence. I am rating the cards 0.0 to 5.0, with 5.0 being the best. I will have both draft and ranked ratings. Enjoy!

2 T

Accelerate

Give a unit in your hand Charge.

Common Spell

Draft 0.0

Ranked 0.0

I don’t think I have ever seen this spell cast, and for good reason. It doesn’t really do enough to be worth playing in any normal deck. Perhaps there will be some bizarre combo which requires it, but nothing is jumping out in this set.

3 T

2 / 3

Ageless Mentor

Summon: All units in your hand with cost 4 or more get +2/+2.

Uncommon Unit — Mystic

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 1.5

This is a fine card to play in Draft and in my very early days in the beta I believe I tried this in Ranked as well. In the upper tiers of Ranked these days there is probably too much competition that is better.

3 T

2 / 1

Amber Acolyte

Summon: Draw a Sigil of your choice from your deck.

Common Unit — Mage

Draft: 3.5

Ranked 3.0

Very strong card all around – think Civic Wayfinder from Magic. I have been having a hard time finding room in Ranked for the card, I think Secret Pages is a little better because you will always have at least two power on a mulligan. Having a Pages in that situation is far better than an Acolyte. 

4 TT

Ancient Lore

Draw two cards. Units drawn this way get +1/+1.

Uncommon Spell

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 2.5

Not super efficient, but there aren’t a ton of ways to draw cards and this is serviceable. It plays better in a deck with lots of units, something Time specializes in.

7 TTT

7 / 7

Ancient Terrazon

Invulnerable to damage

Rare Unit — Dinosaur

Draft 3.0

Ranked: 1.5

This is a powerful finisher in Draft as it is very hard to kill. In Ranked, it is hard to find room for seven drops but this one is a great answer to Relic Weapons. Unfortunately the deck that focuses on Relic weapons also plays many ways to kill this unit – Harsh Rule(Destroy all units) and Vanquish(Destroy a unit with 4 or greater attack) come to mind.

2 T

2 / 3

Bold Adventurer

Common Unit — Explorer

Draft 2.0

Ranked: 1.0

A fine body in Draft but there are better things to be doing on turn two in Ranked.

7 TT

7 / 7

Carnosaur Behemoth

Empower: Overwhelm this turn.

Common Unit — Dinosaur

Draft: 1.5

Ranked: 0.5

This card doesn’t really do enough in either format to be playable. I could see running it in Draft if I was desperate for a late game card, but certainly don’t pick it highly.

3 TT

2 / 2

Clockroach

Echo (When you draw this card, add a copy to your hand)
Summon: Clockroaches in your hand and deck get +1/+1.

Rare Unit — Clockroach

Draft: 2.5

Ranked: 3.5

This card is the centerpiece of an entire archetype in Ranked involving ways to copy it or put it on top of your deck to re-trigger echo. The deck is probably not quite tier 1, but it is close. In Draft it gets a lot better if you have ways to put it back on top of your deck, but as is, getting a 2/2 and a 3/3 for one card is definitely playable.

Copper Conduit

Powersurge, Overwhelm
Summon: +Attack/+Health equal to your power.

Rare Unit — Sentinel

Draft: 3.5

Ranked 3.0

This is a very strong unit all around. Being able to cast it on any point in the curve is powerful. It is seeing less play in Ranked lately, but certainly has a few homes out there. I run it in my Divining Rod deck centered on Overwhelm units. This is a bad thing to flip with the rod, but a necessary cheap body to target with the rod.

3 TT

4 / 1

Dawnwalker

Overwhelm
When you play a unit with 5 Attack or more, play Dawnwalker from the Void.

Rare Unit — Radiant

Draft: 4.5

Ranked: 5.0

This is one of the strongest cards in the set across the board. You definitely want to prioritize some 5 attack minions in draft to go with it, and don’t forget your Predator’s Instincts! Giving this unit Killer is basically just absurd. It lets you fight something, play a 5 attack minion, and then fight another thing. Rinse, repeat. In Ranked this card is a power house, with many decks built around it. It helps that it slots perfectly in front of one of the other most powerful cards on rate, Sandstorm Titan.

3 T

Decay

Kill an enemy attachment. Your gain 3 Health.

Common Fast Spell

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 2.0

This is a fine card, but it is hard to find room for it. There are plenty of annoying attachments out there. Keep in mind this can destroy a Permafrost, Relic Weapon, and of course any Relic. Draft seems to be a lot about stacking weapons on evasion units, and this card can break up some of those things and potentially net you a 2 for 1.

3 T

2 / 2

Determined Stranger

Stranger have +1/+1.

Common Unit — Stranger

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 1.5

This is an odd card in draft because most decks are playing at least a few of the two drop strangers that provide influence. This matches up poorly with those, as it enables them to trade up with your Determined Stranger. If your opponent doesn’t have strangers, this can be an absolute beating. On balance, I like the card and draft it fairly highly. You can definitely put together a strong stranger deck in draft. In ranked it is all about if there is a viable stranger deck. So far it appears it is not quite good enough, or we haven’t figured out the appropriate power base to make it work. My instinct is that there are too many Lightning Storms and Harsh Rules running around to risk running strangers.

 3 T

Dispel

Silence a unit. Draw a card.

Common Spell

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 1.0

This will never be unplayable in draft because you can always cycle it, sometimes with a little extra value. I wouldn’t take it highly and often won’t play it though. There are better things to do in ranked.

5 T

2 / 2

Divining Rod

Summon: Play all units in the top four cards of your deck that share a skill with the wielder. Discard the rest.

Uncommon Weapon

Draft: 1.5

Ranked: 4.0

This is probably too hard to make work in draft, but there are a few ranked decks that are centered on this card. The first most popular version focuses on flying units and there is also a build focused on Overwhelm units. The card is very powerful in these decks and reminds me of Collected Company from Magic.  It can lead to some really absurd turns. The decks are probably tier two due to Harsh Rule being so heavily played, but against decks without the sweeper it can do a lot of work.

3 T

Dune Phantom

Flying, Ambush

Uncommon Unit — Illusion

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 1.0

Fliers are very strong in draft, and this blocks just about all of them well. You can also suit up the Phantom with weapons and attack with it. The card isn’t great, but it is certainly playable in draft. It is not really playable in Ranked, however.

5 T

3 / 3

Elysian Pathfinder

Summon: The top unit of your deck gets Echo.

Uncommon Unit — Mystic

Draft: 3.5

Ranked: 2.0

I find this to be a very strong card in draft as a value card that can run away with the game if you give the right unit Echo. It is harder to find room for it in Ranked, but it is a powerful effect.

2 T

0/1

Ephemeral Wisp

Empower: Play Ephemeral Wisp from the void.

Rare Unit — Elemental

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 1.5

A repeatable chump blocker probably isn’t worth a slot in draft, but there are some cute things you can do with this in Ranked as it retains any buffs gained from other cards. 

1 T

Excavate

Move a card from the void to the top of your deck. You gain 2 Health.

Uncommon Fast Spell

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 4.0

This card reads terribly. Reclaim is notorious for being a horrible Magic card and this is essentially the same. I can’t give you any real logic as to why the card is good in Ranked, but it feels essential to make the Time/Justice/Primal control deck work. Putting Harsh Rule and Channel the Tempest back on top has been very important to winning games with the deck. Perhaps the card is just a little bit of training wheels and can be safely cut for other things. Though a new version of the control deck is running Elysian Trailblazer to give Excavate Echo, which lets you loop them infinitely to deck your opponent. I haven’t gone that deep yet!

Forcefield XT

Powersurge
Give a unit or player + Health equal to your power.

Uncommon Fast Spell

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 0.5

This a loose trick to play. I would say that your deck is bad if you have to run it in draft and I would say similar things if you played it in ranked.

2 T

1 / 1

Friendly Wisp

Flying
Ultimate: When you play a unit with 5 Attack or more, draw two cards.

Uncommon Unit — Elemental

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 3.5

This is a powerful card as Time decks often are happy to run many 5 attack units. I run three copies in my Time/Justice good stuff deck as a way to help grind against midrange/control decks. It is a solid play to run this and Sandstorm Titan on turn 6.

7 TT

Hall of Lost Kings

Play a 5/5 Sentine. If you have more than 25 Health, play five Sentinels instead.

Rare Spell

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 1.0

It is very hard to make this work in draft. I have had it played against me in Ranked, but that was very early in the beta. The card is probably just too hard to make work.

4 T

2 / 2

Healer's Cloak

Summon: You gain Health equal to the wielder's Health.

Uncommon Weapon

Draft: 1.5

Ranked: 0.5

This is a passable card in draft but I wouldn’t try it in Ranked.

4 T

3 / 4

Horned Vorlunk

Overwhelm

Common Unit — Dinosaur

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 0.5

A playable, if unexciting card to include in draft. You shouldn’t touch this in Ranked unless you are just starting out and need to fill out your deck.

5 TT

Idol of Destran

While Idol of Destran is in your hand or deck, it gets +1/+1 each time you play a unit.

Legendary Unit — Sentinel

Draft: 1.5

Ranked: 0.5

This isn’t a good card in either format, but at least it can attack and block in draft.

1 T

Infinite Hourglass

Your units have Endurance.

Uncommon Relic

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 1.0

This is a little less horrible than it looks. Permafrost is such a widely played card, that having a blanket answer to it is nice. The endurance combat benefit is a nice cherry on top. Still not a great card, and hard to find room for it generally.

1 T

1 / 1

Initiate of the Sands

+1 maximum power.

Common Unit — Mage

Draft: 1.5

Ranked: 4.0

I have been not that impressed with this card in draft. Games are rarely decided in the first 5 or 6 turns and thus the ramp seems not as important. In Ranked, the card is very powerful and can lead to some truly broken starts. 

5 T

1 / 5

Lumen Defender

Deadly
Summon: You gain 5 Health.

Uncommon Unit — Radiant

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 2.5

This card makes attacking a nightmare for your opponent. Pretty much the perfect card for any Time/Primal flying deck in draft as a way to lock down the ground. This card is underrated in ranked, but probably a little too underpowered to make an impact.

6 T

4 / 6

Lumen Shepherd

Fate: Play a 1/1 Wisp.

Uncommon Unit — Radiant

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 1.0

A reasonable body in draft but the rate is too bad for ranked.

4 T

2 / 2

Marisen's Disciple

Summon: Choose and play a 1/1 Scorpion, 2/2 Locust, or 3/3 Sandcrawler.

Rare Unit — Mage

Draft: 4.0

Ranked: 3.0

Very powerful unit all told. You should be slamming this in draft most of the time. Unfortunately it faces a lot of competition in ranked with Sandstorm Titan, but it can be run alongside it in some builds. Pairs very well with Xenan Obelisk.

8 TT

4 / 7

Marisen, the Eldest

At the start of each player's turn, play one of the following at random: 1/1 Scorpion, 2/2 Locust, or 3/3 Sandcrawler

Legendary Unit — Mage

Draft: 5.0

Ranked: 3.5

Probably one of the best cards in draft in the set as long as your deck is capable of getting to the late game. Criminally underplayed in ranked. One of the better follow ups after your opponent Harsh Rules you. Though it is pretty bad against future Harsh Rules. Pairs very well with the Obelisk as well. 

5 T

3 / 3

Merciless Stranger

Strangers are Deadly.

Uncommon Unit — Stranger

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 0.5

If you have enough of the two drop strangers, this can be playable in draft. I am not sure the card is even playable in the ranked stranger deck, though it goes nicely with the quick draw stranger.

6 T

4 / 4

Mystic Ascendant

Empower: +2/+2 and draw a card.

Legendary Unit — Mystic

Draft: 4.5

Ranked: 4.0

Very powerful unit, just make sure to play it and a power on the same turn. Pairs hilariously with Vodakhan in Ranked. The Ascendant will run away with the game if left unchecked.

3 T

1 / 3

Nomad Healer

Fate: You gain 3 Health.

Common Unit — Explorer

Draft: 0.0

Ranked 0.0

I would never play this card in any format.

4 T

Oasis Sanctuary

You gain 6 Health.

Common Spell

Draft: 0.0

Ranked: 0.0

Also not playable in either format.

1 T

1 / 1

Ornamental Daggers

Echo

Common Weapon

Draft: 2.5

Ranked: 1.5

This card is better than it looks in draft. Being able to make two units slightly bigger is worth the card. There are ways to pump the weapon in your hand or deck with Warcry, Inspire, or Tinker Apprentice. If you pump it even once, the card is great. There is some room for this sort of thing in ranked too – Icaria anyone?

5 TT

Passage of Ages

Kill all attachments. Play a 1/1 Wisp for each one killed.

Rare Spell

Draft: 1.5

Ranked: 1.0

There are enough attachments running around in draft that I wouldn’t be embarrassed to play this. I wouldn’t be excited either. Clearly intended to be a side deck card in ranked, one that is great against Clockroaches, but not really a main deckable card right now.

7 TTT

5 / 5

Pillar of Elysia

Empower: Play a 5/5 Sentinel.

Uncommon Unit — Sentinel

Draft: 4.0

Ranked: 2.5

Very powerful card in draft, just make sure to play plenty of power in your deck and play it on a turn when you can also empower. I have definitely played it in ranked, but it probably is not quite good enough. You could do worse if you are just starting out and need a finisher though.

4 TT

3 / 2

Praxis Displacer

Summon: You may put another unit into its owner's hand.

Uncommon Unit — Mage

Draft: 2.5

Ranked: 1.5

This card does interact nicely against weapons, but there are a lot of 2/2s on the ground that make this pretty bad in combat altogether. If it cost 3, we would be in business in both formats probably.

1 T

Predator's Instinct

Give a unit Killer.

Common Spell

Draft: 2.5

Ranked: 2.5

This is an underrated card in both formats. Absurd with Dawnwalker, but also just a fine removal spell if you have enough large units.

6 TTT

6 / 6

Predatory Carnosaur

Killer

Rare Unit — Dinosaur

Draft: 4.0

Ranked: 3.5

Very powerful card which often kills your opponent’s best unit and leaves a 6/6 behind to kill the opponent. Matches up very nicely against Sandstorm Titan in ranked. A strong reason to play a heavy Time deck.

2 T

Refresh

Give yourself or a unit +4 Health.

Common Fast Spell

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 0.0

I don’t think I have seen this played. It is a very mediocre trick in draft and not playable in ranked.

1 T

1 / 1

Sanctuary Priest

Empower: You gain 1 Health.

Common Unit — Cleric

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 1.0

Not a good card all the way around. The life gain is not really enough to overcome the unplayable body.

0TTT

3 / 2

Sand Warrior

Uncommon Unit — Illusion Warrior

Draft: 1.5

Ranked: 0.5

It is hard to get enough time early enough for this to matter. As discussed previously, a 3/2 body isn’t that impactful in draft and certainly not enough in ranked.

2 T

Sandform

Draw a copy of a unit in your hand. The copy gets +1/+1.

Rare Spell

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 3.5

Another cornerstone of the Clockroach deck, this card is excellent with Echo cards. Still reasonable without them in draft, but not a crazy high pick.

4 TT

5 / 6

Sandstorm Titan

Endurance
Units can't fly.

Legendary Unit — Sentinel

Draft: 5

Ranked: 5

Perhaps the strongest card in the set on rate alone. I was going to rank it a little lower in draft because it won’t necessarily be amazing on turn 10, but shutting down fliers is a huge game. I would say flying based draft decks are amongst the best archetypes, and they probably can’t beat this card. The card is a cornerstone of most Time decks in ranked and pushes out most other four drops. Luckily, the game is not purely about rate as there are plenty of synergy based decks that can go over the top of this card. As far as a fair game goes, this is pretty much the stones.

2 T

2 / 2

Sauropod Wrangler

Your units with 5 Attack or more cost 1 less.

Common Unit — Explorer

Draft: 2.5

Ranked: 3.0

A fine two drop in draft which causes you to draft/include a few more 5 attack units. A cornerstone of the Time based ramp decks. Turn 3 Titans for everyone!

3 T

1 / 1

Scorpion Wasp

Flying, Deadly, Ambush

Uncommon Unit — Vermin

Draft: 4.0

Ranked: 3.0

Great removal card in both formats. Excellent against Aegis units and the common draft strategy of stacking up a unit with weapons. Starting to be underplayed in ranked, but it seems excellent against the Rakano weapons decks.

2 T

Secret Pages

Echo
Draw a Sigil of your choice from your deck.

Uncommon Spell

Draft: 3.5

Ranked: 4.0

Very powerful card that lets you fix your influence and ensure power drops at no loss in card economy. Enables you to mulligan a bit more aggressively as you are guaranteed at least two power. Essential to help with splashes in draft.

1 T

1 / 1

Seer's Companion

Flying
Fate: You can see the top card of the enemy deck.

Common Unit — Bird

Draft: 1.0

Ranked: 0.0

A very loose final card to include in a draft deck, but otherwise unplayable.

1 T

Silence

Silence a unit.

Uncommon Spell

Draft: 0.0

Ranked: 0.0

I forgot this was in the set! The effect is not worth a card.

1 T

Slow

Double the cost of a card in the enemy player's hand.

Uncommon Spell

Draft: 0.0

Ranked: 1.5

You can sort of trade for a card in draft if you hit a 6 or 7 drop, but most of the time you are just down a card when you play this. I have seen it do a thing or two in ranked, mostly by targeting a Harsh Rule, but probably not worth a slot.

4 T

4 / 3

Steward of Prophecy

Summon: Silence a unit in the enemy player's hand.

Rare Unit — Radiant

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 1.5

A fine body in draft with a somewhat useful ability. This is an example of a card pushed out by Sandstorm Titan in ranked. If this were a 2/2 for 2 or 3/3 for 3, we would be seeing it in ranked I believe. Being able to silence champion cards is a big game.

5 TT

Striking Snake Formation

All of your units get Killer.

Rare Spell

Draft: 3.5

Ranked: 2.0

If you have large units in your deck, and lots of them, this card is absurd. Can be combined with Overwhelm units to do lots of damage to the opponent directly while picking off small units. It does require a lot of set up to be good though which keeps it from being one of the best cards in draft. Has its uses in ranked, but usually won’t make the cut.

3 T

Synchronized Strike

Give two of your units +2/+2 this turn.

Common Fast Spell

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 0.0

A fine trick in draft, but not enough going on for ranked.

2 T

Talir's Favored

Summon: Draw a Time Sigil from your deck.

Common Unit — Mystic

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 1.5

A playable, if unexciting card in draft. Does not compete well with Secret Pages in ranked.

8 TTT

6 / 6

Talir, Who Sees Beyond

Overwhelm
Your Time units have Destiny.

Legendary Unit — Scion

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 2.0

One of my favorite cards in the set from an excitement standpoint. Not great in draft unless you have a majority of Time units. Probably too cute for ranked as well, but it is too fun not to try!

2 T

Teleport

Put a unit into its owner's hand.

Common Fast Spell

Draft: 2.5

Ranked: 1.0

I like that this breaks up weapons in draft, but it doesn’t do enough in ranked.

2 TT

1 / 1

Temple Scribe

Summon: You gain 1 Health and draw a card.

Common Unit — Cleric

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 3.0

One of the better two drops all around. I have found myself cutting it for Secret Pages in ranked, but it would be the next best two drop a lot of the time.

4 T

Timekeeper

+1/+1 for each of your Time influence.

Uncommon Unit — Radiant

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 1.5

The card just dies to silence effects, which is unfortunate because there are too many of them running around in ranked for the card to be playable. It is okay in draft though.

5 TT

6 / 5

Towering Terrazon

Common Unit — Dinosaur

Draft: 3.5

Ranked: 1.0

Excellent rate in draft, should always make the cut. Not enough going on for ranked.

4 T

1 / 5

Towertop Patrol

Flying

Common Unit — Mystic

Draft: 2.0

Ranked: 0.0

Not that much different from Dune Phantom, a fine card to play to help against the flying decks. Also a good target for weapons.

5 T

4 / 4

Treasure Hunter

When treasure Hunter attacks, draw a card. When she blocks, you gain 4 Health.

Rare Unit — Explorer

Draft: 4.0

Ranked: 1.0

Awesome card in draft. You can’t go wrong with attacking or blocking! Too small of a body for cost in ranked unfortunately. 

5 TT

5 / 4

Twinbrood Sauropod

Echo

Uncommon Unit — Dinosaur

Draft: 4.0

Ranked: 3.0

The body is just good enough to make the card pretty great in draft and playable in ranked. I like it in the Clockroach deck to give your Crown of Possibilities other big echo bodies to put abilities on.

3 T

Unlock Potential

Your units get +1/+1.

Common Spell

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 2.0

Powerful effect in both formats, especially in conjunction with fliers in draft and token decks in ranked.

2 T

1 / 2

Voice of the Speaker

Your power cards have Echo.

Uncommon Unit — Mage

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 3.0

Powerful value two drop in both formats. Combos really well with Vodakhan to draw most of your deck and put all of your power into play in ranked.

1 T

Water of Life

Echo
You gain 3 Health.

Common Spell

Draft: 0.0

Ranked: 0.5

Wildly unplayable in draft. I could see side decking it in ranked against a burn deck, but there are probably better options.

4 T

3 / 3

Xenan Guardian

Endurance
Ultimate: Pay 8 to give Xenan Guardian +5/+5.

Common Unit — Radiant

Draft: 3.0

Ranked: 0.0

A fine body in draft that can win games if the game goes long. Not nearly good enough rate for ranked.

4 T

Xenan Obelisk

Your units have +1/+1. They have +2/+2 instead while you have 8 or more maximum power.

Rare Relic

Draft: 5.0

Ranked: 3.5

As long as you draft enough units, this card is bonkers in draft. Widely played in constructed as well. The only thing holding it back from dominance is the cost. This card used to cost 3 and was all over the place. Competing with Sandstorm on the curve hurts it a lot. It pairs really well with the cheap value Time units to make them relevant bodies in the late game.

I will be trying to get the rest of the factions out as soon as possible. In the meantime check out my stream! www.twitch.tv/chapmanben

-Ben

Magic Firsts

I was listening to Mark Rosewater's latest podcast with Melissa De Tora, and I felt compelled to share my answers to these questions that they discussed about their Magic "Firsts". 

When was the first time you heard of Magic?

My memory is a little hazy on this, but I believe I heard about Magic from my friend Tom in 3rd or 4th grade around 1994. 

What was the first time you saw magic?

I was over Tom's house for a sleepover or something and some of his boy scouts friends had cards that they brought over. I was immediately intrigued as to how to play.

What was the first time you played Magic?

I must have played that night with Tom and his friends. I remember a big group game. We played the timeless "All Lands Down" variant that meant that you would start the game by putting any lands that you had in your opener onto the battlefield. Sometimes we would draw back up to seven after doing this. That is just good, clean Magic: the Gathering, as Richard Garfield intended.

What was the first product purchased?



The cheapest packs at this time were Fallen Empires at $1 or $2 a pack. The set was massively overprinted, thus the cheapness, and my early packs were of that set. Needless to say, I had a lot of Thrulls and Thallids. I also bought some Fourth Edition and a good amount of  Ice Age and Chronicles soon after.

What were the first rares you opened?



 With no colored rarity symbol, I had no idea there were rares, or what they were. Looking at a visual spoiler and using my memory, some of my first rares were:  Dwareven Armorer, Ebon Praetor, Elven Lyre, Bottle of Suleiman, Dragon Engine, Ebony Horse, Kormus Bell,  and Urza's Avenger. My decks were not good.

What was the first card that wowed you?



I remember picking through the common boxes at the local card shop and finding a Craw Wurm. I had never seen such a big creature before. It looked like cheating on paper. I immediately sought out more copies and quickly bought them.


What was the first card you didn't understand?


 
Looking back the card I most illegally played was Frozen Shade from Revised. I essentially played it like it got +1/+1 counters. It didn't say until end of turn! When I saw a Fourth Edition copy, I assumed that my Revised copies still got permanent +1/+1, while the Fourth Edition copies were the worse version.


What were your first decks?



Given the amount of Chronicles I purchased, I believe one of the first cohesive decks I built was a mono red Urza tron deck built to ramp out X damage spells to the face. I believe I was still playing "All Land Down" primarily, along with our bonus rule where we got to draw back up to seven. The deck was pretty effective!

What was your first trade?




The first trade I remember doing was my Chronicles City of Brass - likely the only card I had worth anything, for a Gargantuan Gorilla. I am pretty sure I didn't read the text box and was blinded by the fact that this creature was bigger than Craw Wurm, taking pole position as the biggest creature I had ever seen. I know for a fact that I never once activated the ability.

There is a second part coming of that podcast. I will write another post with my responses after it comes out.

Origins Limited

Well it has been a little over a year since my last post, and I have had some success recently, so figured I would dust off this blog! 

Since my last post, I have had a few brushes with nearly qualifying for the PT again. The closest was GP Orlando where I was three game wins away from top 8 and the invite. Unfortunately, came up short against the eventual winner, Eugene Hwang. I also was three wins away in the last traditional PTQ, a standard event where I played RG devotion, again losing to the eventual winner. I matched my best GP day one record (8-1) in Providence, my first standard GP, last month. Day two was a bit of a train wreck where I lost two unfavorable match-ups, misplayed badly to pick up the fourth loss, and lost a close, but favorable, match-up in the last round to get no money. Given my lack of prep for the tournament, I was still pretty happy with how I played overall.

Just yesterday I was able to take down an Origins limited PPTQ, which nets me the joy of playing modern at the RPTQ on Halloween. I am glad there is a lot of time in between because I rarely play modern and I will need to jam a lot to get a feel for the format again. I don't want to write a full tournament report on the PPTQ, but I do want to share my thoughts on the limited format so far.

Big picture, I love that the rares are very beatable. There is nothing like Citadel Siege in the format, which is great. Fate Reforged limited was incredibly annoying due to how much better a lot of the rares were compared to the uncommons/commons. The commons and uncommons are a lot more competitive in this format. The marquee cards, the flip planeswalkers, are often pretty interesting to play with/against, as compared to the Dragonlords which usually just immediately won the game. 

One thing I have noticed from the drafts I've done, about 7-8 including two PPTQ top 8 drafts, there are more unplayables than most recent formats. If you waffle too much in choosing colors, you can be left scraping the bottom of the barrel to round out your deck. Luckily there are a handful of cheapish cantrips available to help fill you out so you don't have to play stone blanks or 19 lands. This could be a byproduct of how I approach drafting in general though. I focus on taking the most powerful cards early, and will radically change course if passed the right cards later on. I find it to be a huge mistake to "force" an archetype from the outset. You eventually need to settle on something, but try to let your neighbors tell you what you should be drafting. The problem with this approach is that if you take too long to figure out what colors you are supposed to be in, you will sometimes not get enough playables, as described above. Overall, I think my flexibility has served me well as it allows for more power to get into my decks.

I have had success with all of the colors in Origins, mainly drafting based on power level of individual cards. You do need to be aware of the Renown creatures, and have a plan for them. It can be very hard to beat a Topan Freeblade if you don't have enough two drops. 



I recommend drafting Fiery Impulse and Reave Soul fairly highly, as they are also good ways to deal with the Renown creatures. 



Disperse is better than normal as resetting Renown can sometimes be your only way out. Separatist Voidmage plays a huge role there as well, but I have found my four drop slot to often be cluttered. I found good three drops to be a bit scarce, so if you are deciding between a four and a three, give the edge to the three drop all else being equal. 



On the topic of Renown, in general all of the Renown cards are pretty good, but Knight of the Pilgrim's Road is actually not very good. Because most players know to draft bears to combat the free blades, it often is very hard for the Knight to get through and often is left trading down.



Another important part of the format are Thopter tokens. There are many cards that produce thopters that are very solid, so I would be very weary of playing too many X/1's. Things that do one damage are a bit better due to this as well. Chandra's Fury is a lot better than normal (I didn't like it much at all previously).



A few card specific notes: 

Sentinel of the Eternal Watch and Whirler Rogue are the nut uncommons. Hangarback Walker might be the Pack Rat of the format (not nearly as good, but a great card)


Don't play Bellows Lizard. Remember, as Andrew Cuneo once said, you can play any number of basic lands in your deck.



Finally, side boarding is very important in this format. There are specific sideboard only cards, like Enlightened Ascetic, but just as important is keeping track of the power and toughness of your opponents creatures, and boarding in spells/creatures that match up well with those numbers. I recommend, especially in sealed where you have a lot more boarding options, to jot down all of your opponent's cards, and especially their creatures power and toughness, so that you can board appropriately.

If you have specific questions about cards or the format, let me know on Twitter @bchap55 .

Thanks for reading!

-Ben

PT Born of the Gods

PT Born of the Gods

I am a little bit tardy with this report, and I was considering not writing one at all, but in the end I wanted to have a bookend for this blog. Hopefully my memory serves me well as we are five months removed from this trip/event!

I arrived in Valencia on Sunday February 16th, with the tournament starting Friday the 21st. My plan was to try and jam a bunch of Modern and drafts online until the other northeast PTQ winners arrived that Tuesday. I was having excellent success in draft, all of my triple Theros practice seemed to transfer well enough to the new Born, Theros, Theros format. 

I couldn't make heads or tails of my modern practice. I was left in a bad spot having practiced mainly with a GBw deck of Wily Edel's design before the Modern bannings occurred. These bannings left the deck without Deathrite Shaman, obviously one of the better cards in the deck. I decided that with only a few weeks to practice before the PT, and the difficulty acquiring cards, I would just run with the deck I had been practicing, subbing Birds of Paradise for DRS. In practice, this seemed to be okay, I was winning at close to the normal rate. Unfortunately, I did not get enough practice at all against Pod decks as they just don't appear in great numbers online. I was holding my own against affinity, tron, UWR,  and twin, which I figured would be popular choices at the tourney. I was hoping that the burn/zoo decks would be less popular, as my deck could not beat burn, almost ever, and the zoo matchup was dicey. Such is life in Modern, I believe. No deck has great matchups across the board, and I felt my discard effects would at least give me a chance in my weak/less tested matchups.

Once the other guys arrived - Mike Sigrist, Devon O'Donnell, Bob Victory, Sheamus Kelahan, Justin Bransfield, and Brandon Gade, I tried to meet/hang out with them as much as possible. It was a lot of fun eating and playing magic with this group, and luckily Sheamus and Justin spoke enough Spanish that we were able to survive in the wild. Unfortunately, we just didn't have much time to test in the end. Tuesday was more or less lost as the guys recovered from jet lag. We did get to do one paper draft together Wednesday, and countless drafts online between 3-4 computers. This preparation was great I thought as we got to discuss picks and plays frequently. I even took down Siggy in the finals of our paper draft! Good old Uncle Brimaz...

Modern testing was a bit more difficult. Sheamus, Bob, Brandon, Devon, and I were all locked into different decks and were unlikely to change decks. Mike and Justin were unsure what to play, and thus wanted to test a variety of things. They ended up settling on a big zoo list. Unfortunately for me, my list was one of the rogue decks which just did not present much value to the other guys' testing. Everyone wanted to run their decks against the gauntlet of Pod, Twin, and Zoo, which we thought would be fairly well represented. I did get a number of games in against the Big Zoo deck as well as a decent amount against Pod, but I felt I could have used another week to really get some good testing done. Alas, it was a lot of fun, and I am super thankful/appreciative that I was included in the group.

My first draft pod featured Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, Ivan Floch, Andresj Prost, as well as my new friend Sheamus! I opened a Phenax and decided it was literally a sign from the gods to jam one of my favorite archetypes, UB. This did not end up too great for me though. I was passed a number of good red cards in the Born pack, but did not want to jump into that color as it was so weak in Theros. I ended up with a number of solid rares, but not enough bounce/hard removal to deal with the common threats in the format. The card draw spells are especially weak when there are no real removal spells to draw to. In many matchups I would need to hit Curse of the Swine early to stand a chance. In other formats, this pile of cards would do quite well at stalling the board and then winning with Phenax, Whip, Nighthowler, or Tromokratis. However in BTT, the games usually come down to one jacked up heroic creature or a Nessian Asp type card, neither of which my deck handles well.

Round 1 I had to face Ivan Floch, a gold level pro and the best player from Slovakia. We had a fun chat about Zdeno Chara, a fellow Slovak, before he stomped me quickly with a very solid RW heroic deck. I even Cured his Anax and Cyamede, but he was able to use tricks to get through my blockers before overrunning me with creatures. In game two if I had decided to put him on nothing in hand, I could have milled him out over two turns with Phenax, but instead decided to play blockers instead which did not get the job done.

Round 2 I faced Sheamus and his GW deck. We had a very tight match that Phenax and Whip played a large role in winning for me. He was frustrated as he really liked his deck, but he went on to go 8-1-1 in the modern portion with Bogles to cash the event. A great result for his first PT I must say. 

Round 3 I faced another gold level pro in Andresj Prost with his BG deck. He ran me over pretty badly with turn four Nessian Asp both games with Pharika's Mender backup. My deck just didn't have the Baleful Eidolons needed to fight large green monsters. Whip allowed me to stall out a long game 1, but ultimately I couldn't stabilize against the beef.

Disappointed to be 1-2 with what I thought at the time was a solid deck, I had to gear up for the next five rounds of Modern. I needed to end up 4-4 or better to make the next day, which was my hope for the tournament. Here is what I ran in Modern:

Round 4 I faced a burn/one drop heavy Zoo list featuring Experiment One, Boros Charm, and the like. He had excellent draws and I had mediocre draws, and I was at 1-3 in no time. I think if I picked my hand and the top 3-4 cards of my deck I would have still had trouble in game one. His particular Zoo build was just too fast for my deck.

Round 5 I faced the straight burn deck complete with Bump in the Night. As stated before, this was a nigh unwinnable matchup in testing. The only times I felt good about it were when I was boarding 4 Leyline of Sanctity. I decided I couldn't beat everything, and chose not to go that route with my board. I got steam rolled game 1, but we had an interesting game 2. After some discard spells and molten rains, I had a 3/4 goyf on the board with 1 land and an extra goyf in hand against his two burn spell hand. I was at 9 or 10 life at this point, while he was at 12 or so. It was his turn and he had to decide whether to save his burn to try and kill me over a few turns, or kill my goyf. He decided to use both burn spells to kill my goyf, leaving him hellbent and me in a position to draw a land and play a second goyf. I brick. He draws, and casts ZoZu The Punisher!

I just shook my head and could not believe it. I don't think I ever saw that one in testing. Now even if I drew lands, I wouldn't be able to race in all likelihood. I missed another land drop before being able to cast Goyf, but by then he drew enough burn to race me. 

I was very frustrated to be at 1-4, especially annoying that I didn't get to play any real magic as I was steam rolled by my worst matchups. Now I had to win the remaining three rounds to make day two.

My round six opponent was Kentarou Yamamoto who had top 8'd the previous pro tour and was ranked in the top 25 in the world. At the time I didn't realize his exact accomplishments, but I recognized the name and knew it would be a tough match. He was playing Jund and we had an epic match. This match made up for the frustrating tournament I ended up having, as at least I could look back and know that I went toe to toe with one of the best in the world and really put him to the test. I believe we finished the match with under five minutes remaining, and we were not playing slow. I won game one off the back of a timely Maelstrom Pulse on two of his Goyfs which was enough to put me ahead. I ended up losing the next two games, ultimately due to his deck having somewhat of an inherit advantage and my sideboard plan. The key issue was the my Birds were basically dead cards, but I didn't realize this until after. There really was no point to ramping out Liliana or Lingering Souls in this matchup as the games would invariably go very long. Really what they did was cause me to flood. Also, I left in my discard spells, which was another mistake. The games often would develop into top-deck wars, where the discard really just doesn't do anything. I should have boarded out birds, and all but two Inquisitions for Finks, Abrupt Decays, and the extra Path. In any case, the next two games were very close and grindy but eventually Kentarou ended up drawing slightly more spells as I drew Birds and useless discard spells. At 2-5 I was eliminated from day two contention, but proud that I put up a fight and took a real game off Kentarou.

I stayed in and played out the next two rounds, losing to a RUW Twin player in three tight games and finally winning a match of modern against a RG Tron player in the final round. It was a very disappointing tournament for me, but definitely a learning experience. I was very proud that Mike, Devon, Sheamus, Bob and Justin all were able to make day two. Devon, Sheamus, and Justin even managed to cash their first PTs! They definitely represented the Northeast well as a whole with those results. Mike and Devon even managed to qualify for the next PT a few weekends later on the last possible weekend to do so. Mike has also gone on to ridiculous success at the GP level with a Top 9, Top 4, and win which gives him Silver status and qualifies him for the next three PTs, I believe. Bob also recently won a PTQ after top 8ing four prior PTQs in the Modern season. What a beast!

As for myself, since the PT, I scrubbed out of two limited GPs and a PTQ with mediocre sealed decks, though I was in contention in one of the final limited PTQs of the season. I was X-1 going into round 7 of eight. If I won that one I may have been able to draw into the top 8. Unfortunately my opponent had and cast three lightning strikes over the course of a game where if he didn't have the third one, I would have won. His deck was better in general, but it was tough to lose nevertheless.

I will be heading out to the Seattle area to visit relatives August 2nd and then traveling up to Portland to see a few more before playing GP Portland which is a team sealed event. Unfortunately, none of my friends from the Northeast were able to travel that far for the GP, so I will be teaming with some local West Coasters who I have not met yet! It should be fun regardless, as I love Core set limited, and team sealed is great. Beyond that, I plan to play one Modern PTQ at the end of August as well as the nearby limited PTQs this fall. 

I would say that my mind is in a different place now compared to last year, and I am not as hellbent on qualifying, though it would be nice. Philosophically, I feel like the deck is stacked against PTQ winners when it comes to the PT. The big pro teams just have a gigantic edge on everyone else when it comes to constructed. Also, most PTQ winners can't take a few weeks off before the event to get the crucial last minute testing in with the new set. It is a little discouraging, but of course it is great to be able to play in any PT regardless.

How much I practice will likely depend on how much I like the new fall set. To be honest, I really did not enjoy Theros block limited all that much. I had just decided before it even came out that I was going to give 100% to qualifying, and luckily I did. This time around, I hope the set is a little more fun to play as that will help my motivation to grind out drafts and sealed decks. At least now I know for a fact what it takes to qualify, and we will see if I have it in me again to make a real run at it.

If I end up with another solid GP result or a PTQ top 8, I will probably blog about it here, but beyond that I likely won't be posting too much else for a while. If I have some big ideas on M15 limited or Khans limited this fall, I may post some more.

Thanks for following my blog!

Best,

Ben Chapman  
@bchap55

GP Sacramento

Hi Everyone,

After a whirlwind trip to sunny California, I am back home, greeted by single digit temperatures and a few inches of snow. It was a fun trip, and I met both my expectations and goal for the tournament. I was expecting to make day 2, and hoping to draft well enough to cash the event. Let's kick things off by looking at what I played in the sealed deck portion:

This was an interesting pool to build due to how much removal it had and how few threats were contained in the colors with the removal. I have not seen a Theros pool with this level of removal before, and it definitely threw me a bit as to how to build the deck. If I told you I was going to give you a sealed pool with double voyage's end, grip tide, cure, sip, and a single lash, I think you would be pretty excited. I was at first as well, but a quick look at the creatures in the colors shows there not to be many attackers. Most of the creatures have less than 3 power, and a good portion are straight up walls. 

So the question was, how do you actually win!? My solution was to splash green for threats. I don't think this plan is great, which is why the deck isn't just a slam dunk, but this many removal spells along with two mnemonic walls can buy a lot of time to execute said plan. The mana also works surprisingly well for having zero fixing in the pool. Luckily all of the blue cards are single blue, and can all be played later in the game to great effect. Yes, having access to early blue for a quick voyage's end or activating a returned phalanx is a thing, but in sealed the games can go slow enough that they won't necessarily be decided by not having early blue. The mana base was 10-5-3, and actually the deck wanted an extra swamp but something had to be sacrificed. The mana symbol breakdown was 20-8-3. I could have cut a forest for an extra swamp, but given how important the green cards are to the deck, I wanted to give that a little more consistency. 

The deck performed very well. As expected, the removal got me to the late game, and I was surprised at how often I had an active Erebos, which I was not counting on, as another kill condition. Games where I didn't win with Erebos were often decided by the green cards and/or Thassa's emissary/Keepsake gorgon. Mnemonic wall was great in the deck as well. I hadn't truly played many decks in this format where the wall shines, but this was certainly one of them. Often opponents were in top deck mode and I was still sitting back with multiple removal spells in hand waiting to draw a win condition, or protecting one currently on the battlefield. 

So how did I lose my two matches on Day 1? The first loss came in round 5 where I was playing a relatively close game one against a WB deck. He was playing some really bad cards like Yoked Ox, which had me worried. Typically such cards are played to get enough playables in order to cast bomb rares. Bomb rares indeed! I lost game one to a turn 7 or 8 Elspeth. Turns out all of my removal does a very poor job of dealing with her. 

I boarded in Anvilwrought Raptor, Vaporkin, Dark Betrayal, and Stymied hopes to try and cobble together some way of beating Elspeth. The plan being to take to the skies and hope to kill her before she makes too many tokens. Or get lucky and land a Stymied Hopes. 

Game 2 saw my opponent play Turn 3 Spear of Heliod into a Turn 5 Sentry of the Underworld, which I Dark Betrayled. I played a Raptor and he played Turn 6 Eslpeth, making 3 2/2's... I ultimately was able to kill Elspeth with my fliers, Chimera had joined the party, but he had 9 2/2's by that point along with some extra creatures he had cast. Without the spear, I likely could have won that game, but alas my first loss was in the books. He later told me he also had an Abhorrent Overlord...nice deck!

The other loss came in round 7 against a RG deck that was quite good. Unfortunately I misplayed game one by being too greedy with my Erebos. I activated it one or two too many times and he Destructive Revelry'd Erebos to do exactly lethal to me the turn before I was going to take over the game. I won game 2, and then we both mulled to 5 game 3. His draw was outstanding, and mine was average, leaving me with a loss for the round. It hurt to misplay game one, but I tried not to dwell on it as I was still live for day 2. I just had to win the next two rounds. 

Round 8 went very smoothly against another RG deck that didn't put up much of a fight. 

Round 9 was against ANOTHER RG deck, this time with Hammer of Purphoros. This was a TIGHT match that went three games. I ultimately came out on top after taking control of the game with an endless stream of removal.

I was very excited to make day 2 and get a chance to draft. I had traveled across the country for this opportunity and I hoped I could take advantage of it. Of course to make Top 8, I would likely need to 3-0 both draft pods, certainly easier said than done. A more realistic goal was to 2-1 both pods and make top 64 or top 100. 

After a restful night's sleep, the first draft was on! My first pack had a nice one, Xenagos. There were other good green and red cards in the pack, but I had no choice but to take the mythic. I was then passed an Ember Swallower, which I took. The rest of the draft went fairly straightforwardly, there were some late black cards available like Lash of the whip in pack one, but there was always a red or green card of comparable power to take and I just stayed the course. Notably, I saw zero Lightning Strikes or Nessian Asps the entire draft, which was unfortunate, but the deck turned out to be very powerful, if not a little slow. Here is what it looked like:

I drafted the skullcleavers fully intending on running them, but looking at the deck they didn't really fit my plan necessarily. This deck seemed to be trying to get to the late game where I would be assembling a giant monster with all of my bestow cards. Getting in for 4 damage, possibly, and then being left with a 2/2 didn't seem like where I wanted to be. Instead I opted to play 18 lands and Boulderfall! I actually ended up siding out the Boulderfall for agent of horizons, satyr rambler, and wild celebrants depending on match up each round. 

The deck had its flaws, but it turned out my opponent's decks also had flaws, and they could not overcome my giant monsters. I won all three rounds in fairly convincing fashion, though round 1 was a little closer than the other two.

Sitting at 10-2 with three rounds to play meant I was still live for Top 8! An exciting proposition to be sure, but I had to do one more draft. This time it would certainly be tougher as a number of great known players were sitting at X-2. Luckily my pod only had one of them, Gaudenis Vidugiris, or as he is affectionately known as, the Goat Dentist. He was sitting two to my right. 

The draft was a train wreck. I first picked a Hundred Handed One over an Ordeal of Heliod, and proceeded to see no playable white cards for the remainder of pack one. The best cards I saw were Returned Phalanx, Baleful Eidolon, and Lash of the Whip. I believe I fifth picked a Dark Betrayal. I then took a Wavecrash Triton over nothing, hoping blue was open, followed by a Gainsay. The rest of the pack just had nothing but mediocre filler/sideboard cards. There were a few late Disciples of Nylea, but I was nowhere near green, and figured it best to ship the signal that I wasn't interested in green rather than pick up a fourth color. I had about 5-6 playables after pack 1, not where you want to be. I was hoping this was due to the packs being especially weak.

Pack two started off with Gray Merchant over a Phalanx Leader. This was a tough pick, because Leader is so powerful, but I decided given the signals I had to try and cobble together a UB deck, and Merchant is a good start towards that. I got passed a Bident of Thassa, which was encouraging. I also picked up two voyage's ends, and a very late Thassa's Emissary. My deck started to take form, but I was still drastically short playables after pack 2. Pack 3 brought more filler, but a 3rd pick Keepsake Gorgon which meant my deck had a chance to be competitive. Given my lack of win conditions I ended up drafting a Temple of Mystery and two Horizon Chimeras with the intent on once again splashing green for threats. They were also cute with the Bident. After deck building I knew I would need to get lucky to 2-1 the pod, let alone 3-0. I could also envision losing 0-3 if things went poorly with the deck. Here is what it looked like:

I got absolutely steam rolled round 1 by a very good green devotion deck including Arbor Colossus, multiple Disciples, Karametra's Acolytes, and Asps. He even splashed March of the Returned to bring back Disciples to gain absurd amounts of life. The games were definitely not close.

Round 14 was close, however. I went the full three games against a UW opponent, and unfortunately I feel I may have misplayed to lose the first game. I had Bident plus fliers going, but I think I got over-aggressive and did not leave enough blockers back to account for any pump spells. He ended up killing me with a Battlewise Valor that could have been avoided had I not gotten quite so greedy. It was a little frustrating because my opponent's deck was also fairly weak. Game two was close, but I won, and game 3 was kind of close but my opponent resolved a Medomai and was able to take an extra turn which sealed the match.

A disappointing end to the day, but there was still one more round to play. I faced a RG deck in the final round, and I won fairly easily 2-0. My opponent told me he had only been playing magic for a year, which I found very impressive that he made it so far in a GP. 

In the end, as stated above, I met my expectations and goals for this tournament. It would have been nice to go even deeper, but I can't complain about making my first actual money at a magic tournament by finishing in 54th place!

I have a few more weeks before the PT, and I will be practicing modern and Born of the Gods draft as much as possible between now and then. I likely won't post again until after the PT, so wish me luck!

Thanks for reading,
Ben
@bchap55

GP Sacramento and Modern

Hi Everyone,

It has been a busy month and a half since my last post with the holidays and everything they entail. Luckily I have found time to keep my Magic skills somewhat sharpened as we head into the critical few weeks before the Pro Tour. I decided to essentially skip the standard PTQ season, mainly because, for a format I don't love or have a ton of practice in, I didn't want to commit to the travel. The closest PTQs are all happening while I am either in Spain or at GP Sacramento this weekend. Given this, I decided to instead buckle down and get a good amount of Modern games in and to get a few drafts in here and there leading up to the GP.

I started testing Modern with a BW brew, essentially playing all of the good black cards, lingering souls, Sword of war and peace, tidehollow sculler, and Hero of Bladehold. I wanted to play a deck with Dark Confidant and Thoughtseize, but didn't want to spring for Goyfs just yet. The deck did okay, but was clearly not tier 1. Eventually I broke down and bought the green cards I needed to play Junk. I had been perusing the Modern daily event results and noticed Willy Edel was consistently playing a Junk deck that I quite liked the look of. I have since been playing that deck, making adjustments based on his and others lists as the daily event results roll out. It was very encouraging to see that Jeremy Dezani played a version of the deck to a Top 8 finish at GP Prague this past weekend. The deck is certainly for real, and I think has helped me better understand the format. Here is what I am currently playing:

I find the Modern format to be frustrating but also very complex. Which land you play, fetch for, and tap for mana all can be game winning/losing decisions for example. Some decks can nut draw you where you have little chance, but typically there is a good amount of back and forth interaction. This often leads to some long, drawn out games. Given this, it is hard to really jam a TON of games in the format, at least with this deck.  Even though I have played with the deck nearly every day, I still feel very under practiced with it and see myself making mistakes here and there. Who knows how many mistakes are going undetected! Probably a significant amount.

As a noob to the format, I kind of scoffed at how good Tarmogoyf was, but now that I have had the chance to really play a lot with it, the card is for real! Two drop kill conditions are pretty hard to come by in Magic and he does a good job of it. Lingering Souls is also quite the card, making chump blockers or a pseudo air elemental to finish the game. The card is critical in the Jund mirror as the games can devolve to a ground standoff, and souls allows you to break those stalemates effectively. 

If the PT were to be this weekend, I would definitely play this deck. Of course I haven't had the time or the cards to test other decks, but this one suits my style and plays two of my favorite cards to their max potential, Bob and Thoughtseize. I think it is very likely that I end up playing a version of this in the end because the format is so complex that I feel trying to learn a new deck in a few weeks would be a mistake. I will be meeting up with a group of local qualified players to formally test in Spain, so perhaps we brew up something I am comfortable playing, but I think it is more likely that they will help tune the sideboard and get some more constructive practice games in.

As I said earlier, I will be heading to GP Sacramento this weekend to make use of my three byes and hopefully to cash in on all of the Theros limited experience I have accumulated over the season. I will be quite disappointed to not make day 2 at the event and of course I hope to be able to cash the event as well. I will be tweeting updates throughout the tournament, so if you want to track how I'm doing follow: @bchap55

Thanks for reading!

-Ben

Worcester PTQ: Mission Accomplished

It has been quite the journey as I set out this summer to try and top 8, and ideally win, my first PTQ. I encourage you to read my first entry to this blog to get an idea of my mindset going into this season. As I mentioned in that post, I felt my previous attempts at PTQs and GPs were essentially undeserving of true success. I just did not put the work in before these events to honestly have a real chance at them. The reason I started this blog was to motivate myself to work harder and give myself an actual shot at having success. I am unbelievably excited to say that I made this dream come true yesterday in Worcester.

You may remember from prior entries to this blog that it has been a bit of a struggle this season. I had an absolute heartbreaking finish at GP OKC. The last five PTQs, I essentially was never close to making top 8. These results did not discourage me though. I feel that there is a lot of variance when it comes to PTQs. I remember a twitter conversation amongst some of the top pros where they decided that the theoretical "best player in the world" would only have a ~10-15% chance at winning a given PTQ. Of course, I don't give myself those sort of odds, but it helped my mindset to think in these terms. To give yourself a real chance to win a PTQ, you have to play in as many tournaments as possible to try and hit those slim odds. I felt like my previous card pools were big dogs to make top 8. In fact the only one that may have had a chance was the pool from Augusta, Maine. As I said in my last blog post, I was just hoping to crack a solid pool and give myself a chance.

A solid pool I did crack! Here is what I built for the 210 player, 8 round PTQ, in Worcester:

The black cards are an absolute no brainer in this pool. It is pretty clear you must play them. Agent of Fates is one of the premier bombs in the set, provided you have enough things to target him with, which I did here. Double cure, marauder, emissary, harpy. gray merchant with double disciple are all also good reasons to get excited about black. I feel like the cures, in a heavy black deck, are just crucial to the format. Many games are decided by early ordealed creatures, and cure is great at busting those draws. They also are great at killing voyaging satyr and unicorns from green decks which can significantly slow them down.

As for the second color, arguments can be made for green. Bow is a sick one, and I have a hard time turning down an Asp.  Ultimately, I went blue because Prognostic Sphinx is another premier bomb, and I have a harder time saying no to that and Sea God's Revenge/Voyages End/Nimbus Naiad. Another key is the blue ordeal, which was absolutely crucial in the games. With the Tormented Hero, having access to two ordeals allows for some nigh unbeatable draws.

As for the final few cards, I had a very hard time deciding between Scourgemark and Boon of Erebos. I ultimately went with the mark as it helped devotion and cycled. I did board in the Boon some against decks with noticeable removal.

Matches:

Round 1: Shawn Pate GW
I won a pretty comfortable game 1, where my opponent did not interact much. Game two I faced a fairly early Bow of Nylea followed by an Elspeth! I started to understand why my opponent played GW. I lost game 2 to those cards pretty badly. Game three I had a solid draw and while my opponent played a turn 5 or 6 Elspeth, I was able to kill it immediately with a Cavern Lampadded creature. I went on to win from there.

Round 2: Aaron Olsen RG

We had a longish game 1 where Aaron beat me down with a big Staunch Hearted Warrior, but I eventually stabilized and took the game. He did try and play a Hunt the Hunter to kill one of my creatures, but I had to inform him that he could not cast the card unless I had a green creature to target. Pretty odd.

I don't remember what happened Game 2, but I did win.

Round 3: Willliam Moore RG
William was sporting a top 8 playmat, and after some conversation I discovered he had made Top 8 a few weeks back but lost in the quarters.

Game 1 was  very one sided in my favor, I believe an early ordeal was involved that went all the way.
Game 2 saw a turn 3 Nimbus Naiad getting a blue ordeal turn 4, and a black ordeal turn 5, triggering the blue one on Turn 5. The Naiad went the distance.

Round 4: Drew Lichtenstein GW

I won a comfortable game 1, lost a very close game 2 where I was forced to try and race him and he had a battlewise valor for exact damage the turn before I was to win. Game 3 I won, but I can't remember what happened.

Round 5 Jody Brint GW

Another GW Deck! This time I had the nut draw with Tormented hero into Blue, and then black ordeal. After a voyage's end on a Fleecemane Lion, this game ended quickly.

Game 2 wasn't quite as nutty, but I still was able to ordeal up a win.

Round 6: Bryan Haak BW

Bryan and I go way back! We first met/played back at UNH in 2006 or 2007. He is a very solid player, with a lot of experience and multiple PTQ top 8s. We had actually looked at each others decks in between rounds earlier in the day and had determined his pool was significantly weaker than mine. He did have a Whip of Erebos and a Spear of Heliod to go with two Wingsteed Riders and two black ordeals, but he had to play some mediocre cards to fill out the deck.

We had a somewhat close game 1 that I took down. We had a very close Game 2 where I did not draw an island and was sitting on Voyage's End all game. He ended up with a 6/6 wingsteed rider and we were racing. If I had been able to cast the Voyage's End, it would have been a fairly easy win, but I did not and lost that game. Game 3 was a pretty comfortable win.

Sitting at 6-0, in this 8 round tournament, meant I had a good shot to Intentional Draw the next two rounds to make top 8. This happened and I had a few hours to call friends and get ready for the biggest draft of my life thus far.

Awesomely, my friend Charlie also made top 8! He lost round 1, and then won the next 7 to get there. We actually carpooled to the event as well, so it was a pretty perfect ending for us. Aside from Charlie, I did not recognize any of the others in the top 8.

Charlie actually was randomly seated to my immediate right. I felt good about this because in past drafts with Charlie, I know he likes to go for more aggressive decks, which I prefer not draft unless forced upon. I started with a first pick Phalanx Leader over not much else. I was then passed a Keepsake Gorgon with what looked like a common missing! I quickly deduced that it had to be a foil rare that Charlie took. This of course is not really a signal because he easily could have taken a foil Aborrent Overlord, Whip, Agent of Fates...any of these cards I would take over a Gorgon.

Pick 3 was very tough. My options were Sip of Hemlock, Hopeful Eidolon, and Voyage's End. Two of my favorite, and most successful, archetypes are UB and UW heroic. Voyage's End is a key card to both decks, in UB to buy time to get to the long game, and in UW to tempo out with heroic creatures. I also figured to not see too many more of the effect as it should be highly drafted. However, Sip goes pretty well with Keepsake and makes it look like black is open. Hopeful Eidolon is one of the top cards in the white heroic deck. It goes amazing on a wingsteed rider and is great with Phalanx Leader as well. I don't particularly like BW as a combination in the format, but I felt the eidolon was just more powerful than the Sip so I took it.

The draft went pretty straightforwardly from here, and a late Triad of Fates solidified me into Black/White. I picked up a Wingsteed Rider, Observant Alsied, Divine Verdict, another Eidolon and a Sentry of the Underworld in pack 2, and was feeling great about how things were going.

Pack 3 I opened a Thassa, Blue Ordeal, and a Boon of Erebos. I strongly considered just taking the Thassa as I felt I could probably wheel the boon. In the end I took the trick as I needed a few more ways to trigger heroic and I don't really believe in hate drafting in 8 man draft.

I was then passed an Agent of Fates! Slam dunk pick obviously with two eidolons to trigger heroic as well as a few tricks.

I then was passed a Whip of Erebos! I feel Whip is one of the premier bombs in the set, and was ecstatic to see it sitting there for me pick 3.

I followed that up with a Gray Merchant and another Sentry of the Underworld.

The deck's power level was way above most of my magic online drafts. The mana was definitely a bit awkward but as long as I could draw my colors I felt like I had a great chance. Here is what I built:

Quarterfinals vs Whit Froehlich UG

Game 1 saw Whit get down an early Prophet of Kruphix, which terrified me. This is one of my favorite cards in the format, and is absolutely deadly with bestow. Luckily, he did not have much action to go with it, just a bunch of random pump spells as my Disciple of Phenax told me. The game dragged out, but I eventually got a Keepsake Gorgon down, enchanted it with the Alseid, and pecked away for 4 a turn until he conceded.

Game 2 he mulled to 4, and I won comfortably, and was loving life.

Semifinals vs Michael Dalton UW

Chatting with Michael, he had made top 4 at the PTQ in Providence a few weeks back, has top 8'ed multiple other PTQs, and won a PTQ in his past.

Game 1 was close early, but eventually I was able to get him into top-deck mode while I was sitting on lots of action. Sentry of the Underworld and Gray Merchant eventually took down the win.

Game 2 he did not play many spells and I won comfortably.

Finals vs Christopher Butcher RG with Xenagos

I was watching Chris play his semi-final vs an excellent UB deck. He went off with Xenagos in the final game ramping into a monstrous Stoneshock Giant. I was certainly a little scared by Xenagos, but I felt otherwise that I had a decent matchup with my removal and Whip.

Game 1 Chris beat me down a bit but eventually I landed an Agent of Fates which did considerable work. I eventually stuck a Keepsake which locked down the board and I finished the game with a Sentry and a Gray Merchant.

Game 2 saw Chris play turn 2 Leafcrown Dryad, turn 3 Ordeal of Purphoros. I was sitting on boon of erebos and wingsteed rider which would eventually allow me to block on Turn 4 and two for one him with my boon, provided he had no removal. Luckily, I drew Phalanx leader and was able to execute the same plan a turn sooner, and it worked. I then curved out a Wingsteed Rider, Sentry of Underworld, and Keepsake gorgon. He ramped out a 5/6 Titan of Eternal Fire and attacked with it the next turn offering a trade with the gorgon. I blocked with the gorgon, and played my second boon that I had boarded in on my Phalanx leader. This pumped my squad and allowed me to eat his 5/6. After a few turns of attacking with my enormous board of fliers and a Keepsake gorgon activation later, I had won the PTQ!!!

It is hard to come up with the words to describe the feeling of taking this tournament down and achieving what I have been working so hard for the last five months. All I can say is that I will be working hard again to show a good result at the PT. I didn't work this hard to just scrub out!

I am a little worried about the modern format for the pro tour, as I have played 1 modern tournament lifetime and basically have no experience with it aside from watching videos/streams of other tournaments. I will likely be putting together some sort of deck on Magic Online so that I can play a bunch of games and get a better feel for the format before choosing a deck. My initial leanings are to play with Dark Confidant though as it is one of my favorite cards. I also know I will not play URW control! Not my style of deck.

I will certainly continue to blog about my preparations for the PT and I may even go to GP Sacramento next month to play some more limited now that I have 3 byes!

Thanks for reading,

Ben
@bchap55