Broken Fatties.dec

I'm sort of sure its a good idea to put several large fat creatures into a deck, when they cost 5 or less mana and you have several good efficient ways of getting around there drawbacks available.

Firstly the fatties:
Hunted Troll - 2GG
Creature - Troll Warrior (R)
When Hunted Troll comes into play, put four 1/1 blue faerie tokens with flying into play under the control of target opponent.
G: Regenerate Hunted Troll.
8/4

Hunted Dragon - 3RR
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying, haste
When Hunted Dragon comes into play, put three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens with first strike into play under target opponent's control.
6/6

The ways to fully capitilise on the under costed fatties:
O-Naginata
Loxodon Warhammer

The ways to get around the drawbacks:
Pyroclasm
Jiwari, the Earth Aflame (also a decent dude who appreciates a O-Naginata or a Loxodon Warhammer)
Yamabushi's Storm (only kills the faeries, not the knights)
Wildfires (also kills the Troll, but he has regenerate)

So a rough decklist:
8 Forest
8 Mountain
4 Karpulsan Forest
4 Tendo Ice Bridge (will have to wait for a later set for uber Ravnica duals)

4 Hunted Troll
4 Hunted Dragon

4 O-Naginata
2 Loxodon Warhammer

4 Pyroclasm
4 Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
2 Wildfires

4 Gnarled Mass
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Naturalize

The sideboard of this deck is calling out for what ever RG burn/destruction spell gets printed.

With whom does the Buck Stop

Why do tournament results take so long to appear on the DCI's reports? Only 2 of the events that I competed in at Nationals have shown up yet. One being a PTQ and the other being one of the sealed side events, Saturdays lucky dip if my memory of who played in what is right.

Either DCI reporter is such a bad application to use that it is so horrendous to use that people avoid it as much as possible or everyone who manages to become a local tournament organiser is a very lazy person. I suspect that both of the above are at least slightly true.

The most interaction a TO should have with DCI reporter after they are happy with the result (which should be ~10 seconds after the end of the tournament in 99% of all tournaments run) is possibly hitting 'Submit', or even better they should be asked to submit by the program as soon as an internet connection is found.

I can understand the reluctance of the DCI to 'encourage' TOs to submit any quicker than they already do as it might discourage them from running more tournaments. Which is a Bad ThingTM. What I can't understand is why so many TOs don't report things quicker to make us players more happy.

Ahhhh! Dragons

What do people like more than dragons?

Dragons on turn 5 - with no mana acceleration

Dragons on turn 3 - with a single seething song

6/6 Dragons, with haste!

What people don't like though is giving their opponents creatures:

Hunted Dragon 3RR
Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying, haste
When Hunted Dragon comes into play, put three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens with first strike into play under target opponent's control.
6/6

Mmmm that's what I'm talking about, naturally it sits nicely next to Pyroclasm :)

I can't believe it's not TnN

Chord of Calling - XGGG
Instant (R)
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature's color.)
Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.

I just love how close minded 99% of people are. They see this hot new rare that will be printed in Ravnica and go OMGWTFBBQ!!!!11111oneone! Its the new Tooth and Nail. It's nothing like TnN, this card is completely different.

Even more importantly though is that this card doesn't go into a deck that resembles TnN decks at all. The decks will resemble EnN much more, as the convoke means you'll want to be playing with many small creatures. Even then though it'll me Elves, Saprolings and Friends (ESF). A deck list could look something like:

Chord of Calling
Llanowar Elf
Bird of Paradise
Dark Elf
Rushing Rot
Aura of Rot
X tool box creatures

That list has plenty of room left for other Good CardsTM.

Rushing Rot 3GG
Instant (C)
Convoke (Each creature you tap while playing this spell reduces its cost by 1 or by one mana of that creature's color.)
Put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.

Aura of Rot 1G
Enchant creature
When ^^^^^ comes into play, put two 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.
Enchanted creature has trample.

Stupid Saviours

Has anyone noticed a theme: "Gareth Hates stupidity". I hate it when implied that I'm stupid (see previous entry). I hate it when I am stupid (see and on e of the numerous mistakes I makes during any given tournament, or when I don't do the work for university subjects). I hate it when other people are stupid.

Like when 2 out of 3 people on the mtgSalvation.com forums talk about the hot new duel lands in Ravnica. I keep reminding people that WotC isn't printing:



What they are printing though is some of the best duals since Alpha:

Stupid Advertisers

One of my largest pet peeves is when advertisers treat us all as idiots. For instance when is a certain battery manufacturer going to realise that saying "last up to 3 times longer" doesn't match the advert they just showed us with the bunny running over 3 times as far as the competing bunny?

Now two of my most visited web sites have just started doing some cross promotion and there using there own images that they generated for the complain wrongly.

This comic depicts two of the main characters doing what they do best (play games) and ends with the cell depicted to the right. What's wrong though is that the advertising for StarCityGames.com shows Brent saying "Owned" at Francis, and then explains that to not get owned you should build your decks with cards you buy from StarCityGames.com. The problem is that Francis brought his deck from SCG and not Brent, so the SCG deck was owned!

Do they think we're stupid enough not to notice, or are they just sloppy enough to not care

Answer

If a copy of a ESG gets returned to hand and then you are asked to pay mana, you will be given an oportunity to play mana abilities, so you can then remove the copy from the game and generate mana. This works as long as the oportunity to produce mana is inside the same resolving effect that has returned the ESG to hand.

Rules 401

Ok, occasionaly I'm going to post the occasional odd rules situation that I've come across that interest me.

Is it possible to remove from the game a copy of an Elvish Spirit Guide to generate mana?

Is this Australia's Capital?

Just a collection of thoughts about the nations capital:

• Student concessions on public transport are only for ACT students and students from other countries
• Just because a judge is judging at nationals doesn't mean they understand the rules well
• Just because a judge is head judging a nationals side event doesn't mean they understand the rules
• Vintage players should have to call a judge over in the first place to work out how much Yawgmoth's Will (or an Ornithopter) costs to play under Sphere of Resistance and Trinisphere (its 3 you bosos).

Whoops there I go diverting into a rant, tsk tsk.

Lucky Dip

I un-equivocally love this format, sure I suck at it but I'll put that down to me being a good player and therefore someone at a disadvatage the more random the format.

So why do I love a format that I suck at? Who wouldn't love a format where you can seal the game with a Lumbering Satyr sitting next to a Flailing Ogre?

Nationals

This last weekend I went up to Nationals in Canberra, I staid with a good friend of mines family out in the suburbs. Except for the silliness of needing to catch a taxi home at 10.00 Sunday night as all the busses have already stopped (and taxi drivers who can hardly stay on the road) it was a very nice arrangement, making the weekend much cheaper for us.

On Saturday I paid my $100 for the all day ticket and signed up for the first sealed event, we had a super annoying 68 (or some such) players sign up so we had to have a first round with many many byes, I didn't get one. Comfortably beating my opponent in 3 games I go onto the second round, and by weird coincidences I still had to play someone to make it into the 3rd round. Finally I play someone with something resembling a decent deck and get eliminated in the third round.

Next I join my first constructed grinder (around 2.00pm), have a fun but un-eventful first round match that I win, then move onto the second round. I get rather surprised when my opponent drops a Howling Mine on turn 2, and then the penny drops when he drops a Underworld Dreams a turn later. I think to my self that this shouldn't be too hard I have 4 Viridian Zealots main deck and 4 Naturalizes in the sideboard. So just after he plays the first Underworld Dreams I persecute him for 'Black' to have him reveal a hand 3 swamps and another Underworld Dreams. My luck seams against me when he drops a top-decked UWD the next turn though, for some reason my deck can't cope with having a guaranteed 4 damage each turn, especially after I had already used 1 or 2 Night's Whispers.

Game 2 didn't go my way either, with my opponent dropping 2 Underworld Dreams and a Night of All Soul's Betrayal, without me seeing a single Naturalize :(

Oh well, I might post some other tales of woe in grinders and/or side events later.

Getlaidmagic.com

Ok so magic web sites are now trying to give you tips on how to pick up girls? Whats next, how to make money while playing magic???

Linkage

Old Cards

Warning: those readers who have moral objections to rants or public criticism of WotC are advised that the following message maybe distressing.

I love change. No really I do. Well as long as its change for the good. Printing Quicksand in 9th is kewl, I like being introduced to old cards that I've never experienced before. I like T2 changing noticeably with changes in the core set.

I also like the introduction of Cruel Edict into T2, its a powerful but fair card. Making the edict sorcery speed makes it more fair, and allows for more powerful edict effects to be printed in the expert level expansions.

No, I am not a whore, MaRo is the only person I let stick his hand up my back.

What I don't like about this situation is that it's essentially impossible to get any Cruel Edicts, they just don't exist on the second hand market, StarCityGames is completely out of stock as is CardHeaven (Melbourne's biggest card store), and all the people on mtgParadise are out of stock as well. This is a vast contrast to Quicksand, as CardHeaven had around 20 of them still in stock.

I know that Wizards needs to make money, but this is extortion, the only plausible way for me to get enough cruel edicts would be for me to buy a whole box, and even then it wouldn't guarantee that I'd get the 3 more I need.

PS: if anyone has any that they'd like to lend me for nationals, or sell to me at an silly price, please leave a comment :P

My Precious Darkness

I'm wondering at the moment if the following cards are an essential building block to many of today's decks:

4x Hypnotic Specter
4x Sword of Fire and Ice
4x Will-o'-the-Wisp

These 3 cards are so powerful, and have such great synergy its hard to think of a deck with swamps in it that doesn't want to run them. I'm sure pretty soon I'm going to be adding (and replacing SoFI with Jitte) :

Dimir Cutpurse 1UB
Creature - Spirit (r)
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card and you draw a card.
2/2

This has to be one of the best creatures I've seen printed while I've been playing magic.

Has anyone noticed that all these creatures are spirits?

Rumour Season 2

Is everyone else getting excited about Ravnica: City of Guilds?

The sheer number of good cards seams to be stagering, and rumour that it will contain the second best ever dual lands (behind the original duals) is amazing. Thats in adition to the filter artifacts:

Boros Signet 2
Artifact (c)
1, T: Add BR to your mana pool

I mean there strictly better than the talismans except when you want to only produce 1 mana (which is rare, and when you do these will just cause 1 pain, which is still better than the talismans). These also don't suffer from the problems of the filter lands, just the normal problems of a mana accelerant.

The Joys of a New Format

In preperation for My upcoming Two Headed Giant tournament I am trying to keep upto date with all the rulings and so on todo with the format. So to my immense enjoyment I was reading the 2HG FAQ today and found that they have put a rule into the comprehensive rules incorrectly :(

If an effect sets a single player’s life total to a number, what number so I set the Team’s life total to?

If an effect would set a single player’s life total to a number, that player’s individual life total becomes that number. The team's life total is adjusted by the amount that player's life total was adjusted.

Example: In a Two-Headed Giant game, a player on a team that has 25 life plays a spell that reads, “your life total becomes 20.” That player’s life total is considered to be 13 for the purpose of the spell, so that player’s life total becomes 20 and the team’s life total becomes 32.

Note: The rule and example in section 606.9c of the Comprehensive Rules that relate to this question are incorrect. The answer listed above is an official correction to the Comprehensive Rules. (The Comp Rules will be updated at a later date.)

This does make things a lot more normal though, this way Beacon of Immortality in 2HG will opperate as if it read "Increase your teams life total by 50%" which will typicaly give a similar life swing to the Beacon in single player games, but makes it less useful in a general life gaining strategy. (This is much better than the way the comprehensive rules describe it which makes it round your teams life total upto the nearest even number).