It is usually around this time of year where we all get to stop and reflect on our lives over the past year. While a year seems to come and go so quickly, it always amazes me to think about how much my life has changed from one year to the next. I have been very fortunate this year in many facets of my life and now I would like to express a little thankfulness. I won’t bore you with my personal life, but I did want to share the ten things MTG that I am thankful for as we leave 2015 and make way for 2016.
10- Prereleases: I love these things. I find the prerelease experience to be just about the most fun you can have and the two-headed giant variant is my personal fav. I make a point of attending these whenever possible and the one in January is already on my calendar. At its core a prerelease is a fun tournament that brings out all sorts of different players and not just your local game store grinders which can make it so much more fun. As a father of a young family with not a lot of time to spend haunting my LGS, the pre-release experience allows me to whet my competitive juices, meet new people, have tons of fun with my buddy, and just really enjoy Magic.
9- YouTube: YouTube has been a blessing because it allows me to find so many different content producers, videos, and general MTG news all in one spot. When you are a little limited in the amount you can actually play, watching another (usually more skilled) player can really help you to make up some of the gap that exists between those who play sparingly and those who play more frequently. My weekly consumption of YouTube videos is pretty high and I am very thankful that they exist.
8- Hearthstone: It seems strange to put the competition on this list, but I am thankful for the advent of Hearthstone from a number of perspectives. The first is that it gives MTG players an alternative to sinking a huge amount of time into a tournament on MTGO. With Hearthstone you always have the option to get in, jam a couple of games, and then get out without feeling like you are missing something. Yes, you can jam some games in one of the other play lobbies on MTGO, but that isn’t the same as being to be able to jam some games that matter in a fairly short time frame and feel like you accomplished something. Leagues are step in the right direction on MTGO, but there is likely still a little work to be done in this regard.
The second reason I’m thankful for Hearthstone is that it gives MTGO an honest competitor in lots of regards and that’s awesome. Competition is healthy for the average consumer because it means that companies need to be mindful of what their customers want and continue to improve their product. That means that WoTC needs to continue to improve their online products or risk losing customers to playing Hearthstone. We have seen a number of recent changes to how MTGO works and some improvements to play options as a response to the growing pressure that Hearthstone is putting on the market. Sure, MTGO is very different in many respects, but they can’t simply ignore Hearthstone and that will ultimately benefit players as MTGO will continue to evolve and improve thanks to the growing competition between the two products.
7- Pucatrade: Pucatrade has seen a real explosion over the last year and it is a real benefit to players. When I signed up Pucatrade had made less than a million trades. Today they are nearing 3 million and counting. With over a 100,000 users and more changes to the online trading features of the program magic players are going to continue to see more value from the site. Personally, it means I can continue to trade cards I no longer want or need and look to pick up cards I am interested in without trolling through online vendors and dropping yet more of my hard earned money on cards.
6- The Expeditions: These have a huge revelation for a number of reasons. First off, they are beautiful. Second, unless you are a hardened enfranchised collector they represent you opening up a rather large sum of money that you can trade/sell to further offset the cost of playing the game. Case in point, my friend Dave opened a Verdant Catacombs and turned that into a healthy chunk of change that he could use to buy the cards he wanted to play. The third side effect is that because so many people were looking for the expeditions that record amounts of boxes of BFZ have been opened this fall. As a result, the price of just about every other card in the set is way down meaning that it is cheaper for the rest of us to get the singles we want for that sweet deck we’re building. Anytime this game can be more affordable is a win for the average player and the Expeditions have been a big force in that regard this fall.
5- MTGO: now I did say I wouldn’t go too far into my personal circumstances, but I think it is relevant to mention that I have two young children, a beautiful wife, a full time career and am a busy person. I don’t have many opportunities to go to the local LGS and play Magic nearly as frequently as I would like. That would mean I forgo bedtime with my boys, don’t get to spend time with my wife or take care of any other chores that need to be finished up before the end of the day. However, MTGO mitigates this somewhat by making the playing of Magic more convenient because all I need to do is turn on my computer and I can access all sorts of tournaments and game experiences. It is that convenience that I appreciate more than anything. Is MTGO perfect? No. But given the alternative of not playing it is vastly preferable.
4- Limited: I am thankful for limited formats because I like the mental challenge of building a deck from a smaller pool of cards. I know many players enjoy playing constructed, but I relish the challenge and diverse game play limited offers. From Draft, to Sealed, to Cube it is that experience playing these ever changing formats that is super refreshing and helps keep Magic fresh and exciting for me.
3- Siege Rhino: Only the most omnipresent card in Standard since he dropped in Khans. Abzan is everywhere and this is in every Abzan deck. He’s not easy to cast but a 4/5 trample plus a 6 point life swing at 4 mana is worth the time and energy. Personally, I’ll be sad to see him rotate out in 2016 because he’s my boy, but he’s had a good run and is likely good enough to see play in modern going forward meaning he’ll get a renewed lease on life.
2- Fetch Lands: These have helped make casting tri-coloured spells like Siege Rhino, Crackling Doom, and Mantis Rider a thing and have now pushed mana to the point where 4 colour decks are the norm. The fetches have been hugely influential for Standard and have uses in every constructed format making them highly sought after. I have often stressed that good mana is paramount in any format you happen to play because if you get blanked on one type of land your game plan falls apart. The fetches have helped mitigate this substantially and have been extremely powerful and important cards for all of 2015 and I wouldn’t be doing my job if they weren’t on my list somewhere.
1- Double-Sided Planeswalkers: I was very thankful for these guys this summer when Origins was released because I like the flavor that each of them brought to the game. The way they changed from a Creature to a Planeswalker, and how they each did it, was a very interesting and fun dynamic to have as part of the game. Now, not all of them are equally good, but their abilities and the lore they each brought to the game was fun and exciting. I feel like these were excellent additions to the pantheon of Planeswalkers and I was happy to see them arrive on the scene. Let’s ignore the fact that Jace is silly expensive, the design was good, the flavor was a nice addition, and the cards have a been a fun addition.
Well, that’s it for me in 2015. Thank you to all of you who stop in and read my little corner of the internet. I’ve had plenty of fun and spoken to lots of interesting people this year thanks to Magic and I look forward to continuing with what I’ve started in 2016, So, until then, enjoy the time with your family and a friends and find a little MTG thankfulness in your life. See you all soon for another Casual Encounter!
By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters
@bgray8791 on Twitter
It feels like it has been a long time since I’ve sat down and played much in the way of Magic recently. There are times when playing Magic is largely inconsequential and events in the world around us put things in perspective. For those of you who don’t know I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and our community was recently touched by a tragic act of violence. I won’t recap what happened because you can find all that relevant information online if you’re interested. However, as a result of the events on October 22nd , 2014 we have been trying to put things back to normal and get things back to the way they were. However, when events like what happened in Ottawa take place it makes playing Magic seem very trivial. What really matters is ensuring that your friends and family are all safe and that you value your time with all of them. If you haven’t done so recently, pick up your phone and call your friends and family and just have a chat with them and be sure to tell them how much they mean to you.
From my end, I am teacher. The events of Oct 22nd were extra scary because I was organizing a soccer tournament. We had 300 plus 9 and 10 year olds out playing soccer and had to stop our tournament on account of what happened and find some place safe to go and shelter until we got the signal that things were all clear. It was a very stressful day for all the coaches and students but everyone handled the situation very well. However, as the guy who is organizing the tournament I have spent much of my time since trying to organize a chance to re-play our tournament, on short notice, before the snow flies. Needless to say, I have been busy.
But today I wanted to take some time and go back to Magic, crack a pack, and allow Magic to be the diversion that it is, even if only for a little while. Let’s bust open a pack and see what we’ve got!
So…Siege Rhino? As my rare? Well, that is a snap first pick if I’ve ever seen one. 4/5 for 4 mana? Sweet enter the battlefield trigger? Trample? Hell YEAH ! This wins on every metric I can find. The card is efficiently costed, a huge beater, comes with a sweet upside in terms of an enter the battlefield trigger and is even worth a pretty penny on the secondary market. This is a slam dunk.
Swiftwater Cliffs actually gets my attention because in draft 5 colour Morph decks are a thing. You need all the fixing you can find to pull it off, but the potential power level is through the roof. I’ve watched a number of players draft the 5 colour morph deck and it looks sweet and very potent (and surprisingly reliable). I would be seriously eye-balling this card.
Sultai Scavenger is a pretty nice 3/3 flier. The Delve on this is what makes it very viable because it makes this so much cheaper to play. The single Black mana in the casting cost makes it very splashable, but the real treat is a 3/3 flier. Flying is crazy relevant in this format because fliers are hard to come by and the evasion allows you to bust up a board stall really quickly. This is a super solid common and something that really gets my attention and a solid push to play Black.
Sultai Flayer is still a solid 3/4 for 4 mana and comes with a solid upside. I wrote about this card a couple of weeks back and I’m still a fan. I think it brings enough presence and pressure to the board, has a relevant upside to help your position and is just an efficient creature to slide in your deck. I’m on board.
Scaldkin is another creature that gets my attention, but I’m not really sold on it yet. It’s a little pricey for a flying 2/2, but the flying really helps restore this creature. The fact that it can also be used as a Shock to handle those pesky Morphs is useful and relevant and makes this a nice mid-round pick.
Dragon Grip is kind of spicy, but the issue I have with it is that it doesn’t add any toughness to my creature. Think about it, Hammerhand and Titan’s Strength at least pump your creature a little in the toughness department so that it can rumble a little more effectively than it could before. Inferno Fist, another recent enchantment, allows you to clear the path with a “Shock” and remove something. This simply gets used as a pricey combat trick to pile on the damage, but then leaves your creature no better able to stave off dying because the toughness hasn’t taken a boost (and leaves you open to a 2 for 1 later). Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE me some flash, but I’ll likely take this mid to late round because I’m not big on it.
Shambling Attendants. These guys are everywhere in these packs. They are solid, but unexciting and expensive. I’ve spoken about this in previous weeks…go check them out here on Three Kings Loot to read my thoughts.
Glacial Stalker and Canyon Lurker are both nice Morph cards that I’m likely to prioritize. They can be played in any deck and if you can Morph them back then you get to seriously ambush your opponent and smash face. I’m a fan…and I’m increasingly a fan of the 5 colour Morph deck so I might prioritize these higher than some other cards.
Salt Road Patrol is another nice card that is relatively inexpensive and outlasts nicely. Unexciting and a tad clunky, but if you can get a +1/+1 counter on it you are likely laughing because fighting through a 3/6 (or better) is really tough..
Tusked Colossodon is another curve topper and is a pretty healthy fatty to play. I would put this down near the bottom of my selection pile, but can still be serviceable. I usually figure that for the 7 mana I spend on this guy that I would rather do a number of more impactful things, but if you need a big body, this fella will do nicely.
Alpine Grizzly is another reasonable 4/2 for 3 mana. I’m not excited for it, but I won’t be sad to see this either because it trigger Ferocious…plus 4 power is nothing to sneeze at.
Awaken the bear…umm…no thanks…
So, once again this week, it is really a non-issue. My first pick is quite clearly Siege Rhino because it outclasses everything else in this pack by a fair margin. Efficient and devastating is nice…and the Enter the Battlefield trigger is a nice addition as well. It’s hard to argue with this card and when it sees extensive play in Constructed formats you know it has to be good.
The other cards on this list are other efficient critters or provide useful upside…and Swiftwater Cliffs enables a whole ton of interesting deck options if you go down the 5 colour deck road. One of the interesting pieces I’ve started to see in these decks is that when there are no really good choices for you to draft and you can opt to take a land card, you’ll grab the land. If this becomes an early strategy in Pack 1 you have opened the door for a deck where the upwards power level is extremely high because you can honestly select the most powerful you see at every pick from there on afterwards, making a very reliable strategy. Now, this will likely dry up as more people get on board this and get wise to the ploy, but at this relatively early stage of things it feels like a perfectly viable strategy and route to success.
Well, there we go. We have another pretty diverse Khans pack and a nice new Siege Rhino to rumble with. Sweet! I’ll keep crossing my fingers for a few other sweet treats to come my way, but on the whole this was a nice pack and well worth the time to sit down and have look at it.
Until next week, may you open nothing but Mythic Rares…have a great one ladies and gents!
By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters @bgray8791 on Twitter
Today I wanted to take a moment and share some of my other random thoughts that I’ve had since I last sat down to write. I’ll be honest, getting back into the grind of the school year has been a challenge and left me without too many chances to sit down and play Magic, let alone write. However, I’ve had lots of thoughts and ideas and finally had a chance to collect some of those thoughts. So, I apologize if my ideas jump around a little, but that’s the stage I’m at this point in my playing.
So, I wanted to share just how excited I was the other day when I opened up my email and was notified that apparently I was selected to win one of Garruk’s Axes from the M15 pre-releases. SWEET! My brother and I took a terrible photo at our pre-release event and were certain we’d never win. However, when there were only 22 entries from across Canada and 16 potential axes to win, the odds were pretty good. So, when the email landed in my inbox I was pumped. Sure, the odds were pretty much in my favor, but it is still neat to be selected. I can hardly wait for the axe to arrive at my house because it is going to be hilarious. My wife is going to ask why there is a giant foam axe at my house and just roll her eyes! Just priceless. Also, it will get carted to every Casual card night we play as just another ridiculous MTG thing in my collection. I can hardly wait.
So, as the fallout from my brother and I placing second at our Two-Headed Giant pre-release in July we had something extra nice come our way. The Local Game Store we go to holds an invitational tournament for all players who finish in the top 4 of a “premier event”. Basically, any “premiere event” (as defined by the store) is an event played on the Weekend such as a GP trial, Game Day, or even a Pre-release. So…my brother and I, for inadvertently placing second at the Pre-release got invited to play at another event. Sweet!! The issue becomes this…I’m more of a Casual/Limited sort of guy and this event, which is hosted October 11th in conjunction with Canadian Thanksgiving, will be a Constructed event. That leaves me in a bit of a quandary. I don’t have the deepest of pockets and can’t spring for cases of Khans…so I’m, in a bit of a tough spot rolling into the new Standard environment with only a few weeks to brew and get set up. Also, I sort of pride myself on the home brew/budget approach to playing Magic but am concerned that my deck building skills won’t be up to that sort of a test.
With that said I think I’m on to something that could be pretty useful. I’ve been struck with the combination of aggressive creatures and controlling nature of the Abzan clan from Khans and feel like they might lead to something in the upcoming Standard format. Basically, I like the ground and pound game the Abzan provide and immediately said “there’s my boys”. That means I’ll need to learn to play some Black for a change, but that is likely healthy for me in order to continue to grow and develop as a player. Here’s what I’ve got as an early decklist.
This game plan is actually pretty straightforward. Sylvan Caryatid and Courser come down early to play some early D and help you ramp up to some of your more expensive things. The fact that half the mana base comes in tapped is an issue so the ramp could be pretty key. Fleecemane is pretty beast as a 3/3 for 2 mana that is even better once Monstruous. Anafenza comes down as a 4/4 for 3 mana and hates out graveyards pretty hard. Polukranos is just about the best thing you can do for 4 mana and then can act as a Pit Fight if you need it. Dawnbringer Charioteer is a disgusting 2/4 with Heroic, Flying, and Lifelink. I feel like this is a card that is a little under utilized, but could be just what this sort of deck wants and needs to gain back a little life, and if you can trigger the Heroic ability things could get out of hand…fast. Siege Rhino is just another efficient fatty and enters with a gross Enter the Battlefield trigger. Nylea is an automatic because she could just tip the scales in your favour so badly. The High Sentinels synergize nicely with all the creatures that make +1/+1 counters through a number of methods and can just be a killer. The last piece is the Abzan Falconer, because nothing is scarier than when all your creatures with +1/+1 counters take to the skies and can overload the air born defense of your opponent.
The removal package is pretty robust. Abzan Charm has three relevant modes including an exile mode for other creature with power 3 or greater. Banishing Light is a nice catch all, and Hero’s Downfall just crushes just about anything. The Abzan Ascendancy is a nice addition because it can dump counters on all your creatures to enable the Falconer (or just pump your team), but the second mode, that of making 1/1 flying spirits is pretty useful and could totally enable a plan B approach with Pharika (out of the sideboard) to flood the board with tokens. Reap What is Sown again enables all sorts of Counters and Heroic stuff. Elspeth and Lili are just too powerful to overlook for a number of reasons and I’m sad I can only squeeze in a pair.
Now, I am absolutely aware that this is not a Budget deck…heck, the mana base alone ensures that it isn’t a budget deck. However, there are some interesting options to help bring the budget factor of the deck down. The Fleecemane Lions can totally be subbed out and replaced with the Ajani Pridemate. The Pridemate is very realistically a 3/3 for the same two mana…but likely a turn later. The way this works is you drop some of the Temples and replace them with the Refuge lands from Khans and every time you gain a life when they enter the Pridemate grabs a counter. So, turn 1 drop a land…turn 2 is better if your land is untapped and cast Pridemate. Turn 3 drop a Refuge land and your Pridemate is now a 3/3 and you are basically on par with the Lion. Siege Rhino can be dropped in favour of the Reaper of the Wilds and there are lots of other options at the 4 slot to play perfectly viable creatures instead of Nylea. There are really no alternatives to the Caryatid or the Courser, but things like Voyaging Satyr or Golden Hind can do reasonable approximations of these all-stars but at a fraction of the cost.
The sideboard is whole other issue that I’m not sure about. I’m not 100% sure I know what the meta will be playing, and seeing as I am only dabbling in Constructed I’m likely pretty screwed so I might just pack a sideboard full of removal and some Ajani’s Presence…and some Nyx-Fleece Ram to put the crews to Burn decks everywhere. It isn’t a perfect fix, and I’m open to suggestions from anyone out there in the community.
Well, there we have another week. The good news, I’ve picked up some Khans boosters and some Crack a packs are on the way for those who love to draft. For those out there with a penchant for Constructed, let me know what you think about my deck for the Invitational. Do you have some suggestions? I’m all ears. Let me know because I at least want to put up a reasonable result (i.e. not embarrass myself). And we’ve got a Casual night coming up complete with a Fresh Hobo deck to share with all of you. Lots to come, that’s for sure.
Until next time, keep it safe, keep it fun…keep it casual.
by Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters @bgray8791 on Twitter
1st at SCG Indianapolis Standard Open on Sep 27th 2014
And so we have the winner from that other SCG Open happening in Indianapolis. As it wasn’t broadcasting live it would seem that some of the hype was lost in the shuffle, especially with the Jeskai Tempo deck causing financial ripples in the secondary market. But this is not a deck to dismiss as it placed 11 similar decks between both top 32, including the second place at this tournament, and Midrange strategies added another 7 to pull just over 28% of the field. This could be the dawning of the Age of Midrange, or just anomalous opening weekend numbers. Regardless you can be sure that this is a deck you’ll need to beat if you want to be victorious of the next few months at least.
Eric J Seltzer @ejseltzer on Twitter Email: ejseltzer@hotmail.com
