Had one more card altered, worthy one since it's the first thing in my end when I saw the card name for the first time.
- Jial
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crexalbo posted a message on [Primer] Lantern Control@odber: Congrats on placing so well in your tournament! Burn is a really rough matchup, and I'm glad I didn't face it myself.Posted in: Control
Tournament Report
4th Place at Card Kingdom's GPT / 1K
This was a 72-person event held in Seattle, and my first tournament at competitive REL with decklist sheets, waivers, and official judges in Wizards' attire. First place would be awarded two byes at GP Vegas, which is honestly the only thing I really cared about. The event was televised on Twitch, and I end up playing three matches on camera. (They got my name wrong; it's "James Luckhurst". :rolleyes2:) This was most certainly my first time playing on camera, but I found that it's generally not any different than a normal match, except you need huge dice and can watch yourself afterward. That was a weird feeling.
I take time in between matches again, to eat, walk in the cool mist outside, and just relax in general. The on-site cafe is more like a high-class gaming-themed restaurant, and I went there once or twice to get something to eat after shorter matches. My only complaint was their lack of vegan options, which essentially meant I was limited to chips and salsa. I went full-on commando style for the tournament in practice for the GP; I carried only my deckbox, a pad of paper, a pen, and a coin in my pockets, and put everything else in my backpack (making sure to loop the straps around the chair leg when I sat down). This made it much easier to pack up after a completed match and maneuver the nerd stampede that formed around the matchup board.
Fateseal by crexalboMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards Draw Control (12)
4 Lantern of Insight
4 Codex Shredder
2 Ghoulcaller's Bell
2 Pyxis of Pandemonium
Hand Control (9)
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Collective Brutality
Board Control (10)
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Pithing Needle
1 Pyrite SpellbombConsistency & Utility (8)
4 Ancient Stirrings
2 Mishra's Bauble
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Crucible of Worlds
Mana Sources (21)
4 Mox Opal
3 Glimmervoid
1 Spire of Industry
4 Blooming Marsh
1 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Inventors' Fair
2 Academy Ruins
3 Ghost QuarterSIDEBOARD
4 Welding Jar
2 Spellskite
2 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Extirpate
1 Lost Legacy
1 Nature's Claim
1 Quiet Disrepair
1 Mechanized Production
Extirpate is my weakest link in the sideboard now; I might be replacing it with something else, like a form of graveyard hate that Skitzafreak has been mentioning. However, Lost Legacy was probably the MVP from the sideboard (besides the ubiquitous Jars). I'm 100% glad I'm not using Slaughter Games anymore.
Match 1
1-1
Mono-blue Tron
Glad to see Mindslaver alive and kicking! My opponent says they've been playing their deck for only a couple of weeks, but seem to have much enthusiasm for their archetype. Their shirt, sleeves, deckbox, playmat, and other accesories are covered in U symbols. He was really excited to just play Magic, and I respect that. I checked in with him several times later in the tournament.
Game 1: Honestly, I'm surprised I won this game. I don't remember much about it.
Game 2: My opponent resolved Gifts Ungiven with only a single blue source, and got Hurkyl's Recall in the 'yard and Snapcaster in hand. We went to turns, and I milled their second blue source on turn 5 (instead of shuffling), forgetting they had played Crucible. He played the Island I milled and Snap-Recalled for the win!
Match 2
1-0-1
Grixis Delver
Featuring Delver himself, and Young Pyromancer. This deck really got hit hard with the Probe ban. My opponent is sweaty and extremely nervous, and I use that to my advantage during the match. To top it off, he goes into the first game saying he ignored his friend's advice to prepare for Lantern.
Game 1: They play Pyromancer, I play Bridge. 'Nuff said.
Game 2: My opponent gets a few slow play warnings when the judges begin spectating my match, because everyone knows he has no outs except for him. I use Quarters to manage his mana and prevent him from effectively playing his Kommands.
Match 3
2-0
Bantdrazi
My opponent knew what I was playing, and jokingly said that the best way for him to win was to concede the first game and move quickly to the second. I figured out why when he played Brushland on the first turn.
Game 1: Not much to say, they scooped to Turn 3 Bridge and a Needle on Engineered Explosives.
Game 2: They were shaky in their keep, which reinforced my decision to keep a hand with Claim in it. Like clockwork, turn 2 Stony met a turn 3 Claim after I played out my rocks. From there, it was just digging to and playing Bridge, and milling their deck from there.
Match 4
2-1
Infect
This person had sleeves from the Hareruya shop in Tokyo, and was a great sport about the whole thing. We got randomly deck checked, which took ten minutes out of the match, but since the games themselves only took fifteen minutes or so, it didn't matter much.
Game 1: Glistener Elf, Might of Old Krosa, Groundswell, Mutagenic Growth, GG?
Game 2: I cheesed my own virtual Turn 2 win with Bridge, and had a basic lock + hellbent Bridge with Jar backup on Turn 3.
Game 3: Brutality did some work here, by killing an Agent to slow their game plan and taking their best pump spell. I used the Pyrite Spellbomb lock to close out within a minute a game that would have taken a lot longer.
I take the remaining thirty minutes or so to chat with the surrounding players and judges, and grab myself something to eat. The judges playfully scorn my deck, but actually are understanding that my long games have been due to my opponents taking their sweet time when they've already lost, and they're thankful that I put Pyrite Spellbomb in my deck. They note that the other Lantern player at the tournament has been consistently going to time, which must feel awful.
Match 5 (Featured!)
2-0
GW Hatebears
Flickerwisp, Little Thalia, Qasali Pridemage, Aether Vial, the works. Also features Collected Company as their late game. This match was super fun, and was my first time ever playing on camera. It felt really cool. Seeing as this match is recorded, and the gameplay is intricate, I'll just summarize what my general game plan was, and if anyone has questions, you can just ask.
Game 1: The idea here was to slow him by attacking his lands. Him playing an Arbiter was just gravy, since I was able to use it against him by blowing up his lands and denying him more using the lock.
Game 2: I might have made a misplay here, with the whole Forest / Glimmervoid thing. I think it would have been legal had I not played Glimmervoid that turn.
Match 6
2-0
Taking Turns
OMG I live for this matchup! I absolutely love the idea of this deck, and the games are always so interesting because both of us draw so many cards. My opponent had all foil Unhinged Islands, and they looked beautiful. He was very committed to his deck, and I'm glad he made it this far. The judge who watched us said we deserved each other, and there's a lot of truth to that statement!
Game 1: He's drawing a lot of cards, but my lock makes sure they're all Islands. His hand looks beautiful! ... And does nothing.
Game 2: I use Surgical to look through his deck and count his outs. I play around some counterspells to resolve Lost Legacy, and name one of his two win conditions, Part the Waterveil. Fetching Pithing Needle for Inkmoth Nexus, his other wincon, seals the game.
Match 7
Intentional Draw
Eldrazitron
Soooooo glad I decided to ID against this person, since I didn't know what they were on until after drawing into Top 8.
Quarter-Finals (Featured!)
2-0
Jeskai Control
No Nahiris (thank goodness), just straight-up control with plainswalkers and manlands as win conditions. Twitch chat apparently really wanted to see this matchup, so it was featured against the commentator's will. It was pretty epic.
Games 1 & 2: Honestly, I didn't really have a hard plan. I just adjusted my strategy based on what the game state was like at the time. Oh, and I totally stand by my decision to Extract Commands in the first game. My opponent could have tried to burn me out, but I knew that'd be hard to do with Fair active. Their only true out was Cryptic. In the second game, I sided out Surgicals because I knew Rest in Peace was coming. And I'm glad that my opponent took the bait and countered my second-turn mill rock!
Semi-Finals (Featured!)
1-2
Eldrazitron
Same player I drawed against in Round 7. I do not feel bad losing to this deck, as I really feel this is Lantern's absolute worst matchup in the entire meta. No other deck can attack from so many other angles, but I surely fought valiantly in this match.
Game 1: I don't remember, but the Twitch stream does.
Game 2: Now this is why I put Mechanized Production in my sideboard. My opponent was noticeably fatigued, and when I drew Production, I tried to keep them distracted by talking about or otherwise focusing on other aspects of the game board. I feel like mind games are extremely important, especially when playing a deck like Lantern. My opponent audibly laughed when i played Production on my Needle, but his attitude quickly soured as he saw me go beastmode on the lock and shut down his entire deck in just a few turns. You can see the power of Production in this match, and how it took over the game completely, even with just an extra Needle on Endbringer.
Game 3: Despite my best efforts, my deck seemed to want to give me as many lands as I could possibly hold in my hand. An argument could have been made for taking Reshaper instead of Thought-Knot, and I should have Decayed the Reshaper earlier. I don't know if it would have mattered, though.
My opponent immediately conceded the finals to the winner of the other bracket, which felt really bad. Why couldn't they have conceded to me?
All things considered, I feel like I did really well, especially since this is my first truly large tournament. Every time I play with the deck now, I feel stronger and more confident, which in turn causes me to play better. I'm going to continue practicing with the deck exclusively in paper, and hopefully get a couple of byes to take with me to the GP!
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Skitzafreak posted a message on [Primer] Lantern ControlOMG! >____> *looks at forum title*Posted in: Control
WE MADE IT LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! WE ARE OUT OF DEVELOPING COMPETITIVE!!! (I feel like I am late and missed the celebrations)
.....
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crexalbo posted a message on [Primer] Lantern ControlI'm just happy that Lantern is officially at the Tier 2 status it deserves. Here's to making it Tier 1!Posted in: Control -
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Bradipo322 posted a message on Modern Masters 2017 Mythic Cycle PredictionsPosted in: Speculation
I will remenber this.Quote from Tolarian PC Principal »Snapcaster Mage will be a rare in the set. 100% guaranteed. I will eat my Masterpiece Aether Vial if it turns out I'm wrong. -
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JCaleb posted a message on Modern Masters 2017 Mythic Cycle PredictionsPosted in: SpeculationQuote from Havrekjex »There is absolutely no way they`re printing Snapcaster Mage at rare after bumping Tarmogoyf and Confidant and Clique to mythic. No way, forget about it instead of setting yourself up for disappointment. Should it be rare? Sure. Will it? Hell no. I`ll take anyone`s bet on eating a basic Island on camera if it`s printed as a rare. I also think Ancestral Vision will be mythic if it`s in the set, drawing three for U and mimicing a P9 card certainly makes it justifiable.
Damnation, on the other hand... if they dare to print a four mana Wrath at mythic solely because they let its price get out of hand in the first place, I`ll rage.
Both your lists seem a little bit optimistic. There will be Comet Storms. That Mycosynth Lattice as a "wtf mythic" makes your list look a lot more realistic. Omniscience isn`t a Modern card afaik, so it would be a weird inclusion.
Liliana of the Veil means no Tarmogoyf. I repeat, no Tarmogoyf. If they are both in, the remaining 247 cards would be horrible, as they actually do have to balance out the EV.
Edit: I haven`t fleshed out a list yet, but my optimistic prediction for the chase mythics is:
Noble Hierarch
Voice of Resurgence
Liliana of the Veil
Snapcaster Mage
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
WIth that list of valuables plus Damnation at rare, the last 9 mythics should range between $8 and $1.50, distributed evenly between flavourful, Modern relevant inclusions and wtf mythics (stupid stuff like Darksteel Forge, Eternity Vessel or whatever).
the difference between the rarity shift of Tarmogoyf, Confidant and Clique to mythic and a possible shift of snappy is that the former 3 cards were printed originally when mythic rarity wasn't present and they probably would be mythic from the beginning if the rariry was present. Snappy in contrast was a rare when mythic alredy existed, the same way Noble Hierarch was rare and was kept rare in MM even if it was quite pricey.
This set (like alla Masters) main purpose is to reprint cards and increase the quantity on the market so that more people can play with them, Hierarch was not bumped even if it was high priced beause people tend to play with 3-4 of them and having him in low quantity (due to mythic) would only increase the demand but not the supply. The same can be applied to snappy, so I think that he will be kept in the rare slot. -
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bruizar posted a message on [Primer] Lantern Control@purkle:Posted in: Control
I dont think its the lantern player playing most of the minutes in the round. Rather, its the opponent wasting minutes by pondering nonexistant lines of play on useless turns. -
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TheOnlyOne652089 posted a message on I'm so tired of "limited" being used as an excuse to print terrible cardsPosted in: Magic GeneralQuote from Sam I am »People wouldn't stop playing limited if every draft felt like a cube draft
I really dislike cube drafts which simply pack only "good" cards.
They are way more boring and the random element in them is even higher, as some "good" cards will simply be worse than others, and you will have allmost dead cards, or you simply have way too much removal, in which case it becomes super stupid again.
The real deal with Limited is to get a feeling in every set how good the "normal" cards truly are. The bombs are bombs, you will fairly easily see if a card is just pushed to be efficient as a midrange creature.
The 2/2 for 1 mana are often just slighty better in Limited, but never truly good, you just dont need them, while they are critical for constructed to make a good aggressive deck.
If every creature would be on the level of something like Polukranos, World Eater or a Titan, you would lose way faster. Dont have removal ? Sure you are dead, done, next game.
In the normal Limited, you can stumble for some turns, no have your land, and come back, simply because you have the time, and your opponent does not get tons of value out of every creature they have.
Limited has to be slower and has to have a lower power level compared to constructed, otherwise it would simply become constructed too, and then theres simply no point to it.
And even more important, if you keep printing cards that have to be exactly as strong as the best card you printed, you lose a ton of design space.
Lightning Bolt, yea every burn spell has to be "equal" to that. How do you want to manage that ? Yea it does not work, as a 5 mana burn spell would deal what, 10 damage ? How do you want to implement an X-Spell if a 1 mana spell allready deals 3 damage ? It has to deal 2 times X as damage to be at least somehow fair ?
It does not work, removal cant all be 3 mana kill anything, as then, creatures that cost more than 3 mana, would need forms of protection so you cant just kill anything, which would result in creatures all having some form of "hexproof" , "protection" or some other ridiculous form of stickiness to compensate for the quality removal ; which then again leads to a gigantic spiral of power creep that will kill the game pretty quickly.
The other way around, just printing like ~5 cards per set that actual matter in the grand scheme of magic, makes sure you get something new to play, but not too much, and just enough to keep formats changing and adapting ; and from time to time, they still overdo it, and have to bann some cards that simply got pushed "a little bit" too much.
If you understand how important "bad" cards are for the game, you actual understand how the game could survive for so long. -
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shadowgripper posted a message on [Primer] Lantern ControlPaulo's article on Lantern that he played at GP Detroit: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/lantern-control-deck-guide/Posted in: Control
EDIT: This is a very good well-written article that highlights many of the key aspects of correctly playing lantern. Highly suggest reading. - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
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1UG - Uncommon
Creature - Fish Lizard
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield, you may tap or untap target creature.
3/3
No image because the source didn't embed it well. I'll add it in if the picture ever gets uploaded correctly.
LINK
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https://twitter.com/samstod/status/602502299726970880
"For example, I tried Opt in Origins for a while, but Delve + JeskaiAscendency + MonestaryMentor meant it was not the time for it."
One good thing though is that they were testing Opt at all for release into Standard, which means it isn't impossible to see later, just highly unlikely for a while.
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https://twitter.com/blakepr/status/607935442848129025
Please, no killing the messenger.
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Gideon - Combat damage to a player / multiple creatures attacking along with him
Jace - Drawing 1 or 2 more cards beyond your first in a turn / milling the opponent (please not this!)
Liliana - Known
Chandra - Burning down a creature / X damage to a player
Nissa - Controlling X number of creatures (maybe keyed to green creatures specifically) / playing multiple lands in a turn
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Welp, there's our fixing!
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Total list of what was there in our normal group of 30-ish players:
6(!) Derevi decks
4 Prossh combo decks
3 creatureless Narset decks
1 Skullbriar deck
With nearly half of the playgroup shifting back to some of the more toxic generals I am forced to either do the same or give up on what was a very fun and diverse playgroup. Would tuck have solved all of this? No. However, I talked with most of the people who were running the above and most listed this change as to why they went back to their "favorite" deck since it could not be effectively punished any more.
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