MTG Salvation

As I was discussing sideboard options with some friends, I looked at adding a second Spellskite to the 75 somewhere. I just felt like, more often than not, I wanted to be attacking, and playing a zero power non-spirit was not going to be great in enough matchups and situations that it wasn't worth it to me.

I think there are metagame situations where it might be appropriate. But if you aren't sure about the status of the metagame, a Spellskite in the main seems suboptimal to me.

Adaptive Automaton is strictly worse than Captain, is probably worse than Spell Queller, and dies to any artifact hate your opponent may have. I don't think the deck can afford to add anymore 3 drops.

Well, it has been awhile. Apparently for everyone. I've been checking the site this week because a) it's spoiler season, and b) I was checking the Modern Bant Spirits thread for some input. I played that deck at an rptq last weekend. Started bad: 0-2, but then I kept at it (since my friends were still in), won the next 5 rounds, and finished top 16. Even though none of my friends qualified, we still had a fun road trip to Nashville and played some good Magic.

I'm heading to Milwaukee this weekend for the GP. A good weekend there, and I'll have earned one bye again. Woot!

It's been fun to see a few names pop up in events and in the community from time to time. @Tahn has been kicking butt recently. @Sene's spreadsheet work finally got Wizards to actually do its job and keep a player of the year leaderboard available for the community. He even got a Hall of Fame vote too! Well done both of you.

To anyone who reads this, Happy Holidays.

Round 1, game 1, I mulled two one 1 land hands that had no one drops in game 1. I then got stuck on 2 lands after he killed my Hierarch. Game 2 I mulled a hand that had all three drops. I then flooded out.

Round 2, I mulled to six both times, I think it was lack of lands (zero game 1, one game 2). Both games my opponent had enough hand disruption to take my key cards as I drew more lands than spells.

The rest of the day I did take some mulligans, but did not have major mana issues. 22 lands and 4 mana dorks seems sketchy, but over the course of the tournament, I felt that I lost more games to flood than to screw.

I played Caleb's list at the RPTQ in Nashville. Unfortunately I had to mulligan and keep some sketch hands in my first two matches. So after an 0-2 start I was out of contention for top 8. My friends were still in so I stuck it out. Ended up winning my last 5 matches to make top 16. The deck does have its share of awkward draws, but if it gets moving, it can really punish your opponent quickly.

I lost my first two rounds to Jund and an Abzan Evolution brew. Then I beat Infect, Jeskai Control, Through the Breach twice, and a traditional Abzan list.

Abzan gave me some major trouble as Lingering Souls can be a really problem. Should EE come in against decks that play Lingering Souls?

I really had fun playing the deck. It can have issues if it gets behind or if my hand got mauled by discard spells like it did against Jund. I think I am going to continue playing the deck for now because it is super fun to play.

@Saydee180 -- my plan for burn was:

+1 Spellskite
+2 Qasali Pridemage
+2 Blessed Alliance
+1 Rhox War Monk

-2 Phantasmal Image
-1 Geist of Saint Traft
-3 Selfless Spirit

Edit: looked over my list again, changed what I was going to take out.

Not sure how this will work with our mana base, but has Avatar of the Resolute been considered for the two drop spot? It's not as sticky as Rakshasa, but works with the +1/+1 counter theme of the deck. Double green may not be feasible, but it still seemed like it deserved a look.

Tahn, congrats. Well done at the rptq.

I have not been around in awhile. Between teaching and working on a masters degree, I haven't been able to get here much. I've been playing as much Magic as I can. I've been wasting time in the magicmtg subreddit even though there really isn't much useful content there. I miss this place more than I realize. Some highlights from the past few months:

• I won a $25 in credit from tcgplayer from Mike Flores's "Make the Play Monday" column. Since then, he has been ignoring my correct assessments of his scenarios for other people's correct assessments.
• I built Raphael Levy's modern Loam Pox deck. It seems really fun. I took it to a shop that does weekly modern nights, and got paired round one against a janky mill deck. Things did not go well. I haven't played it since. I probably should, because I really like the deck.
• I needed a weekend away, so I traveled to Toronto for the GP. I decided to play a WU tokens deck that seemed kind of fun. It made top 8 at the Kansas rptq. I tested it online, and enjoyed it. I have a buddy in Toronto who I was staying with, and felt comfortable in the fact that if I failed to make day 2, my buddy would take me sailing. I took two early losses, but then started wrecking bad players on my way to a 7-2 record (including a first round bye). Day 2 went terribly, as I lost twice to Abzan aggro and once to Esper Dragons. All three losses could have been prevented had I played better. Still missed out on sailing, but got to enjoy some delicious thai food and some quality time with my buddy. Plus Canada is awesome. They posted the deck I played as the best performer with my archetype (or in this case the only deck of this archetype). See 170th place.
• Sometime I'll post my "I got on the wrong bus trying to get to the venue, but the bus driver ended up being way too helpful and nice and helped me get to where I needed to go even though it wasn't his route because Canada" story.
• After contemplating whether or not I could actually compete at two day events, as my play on day 2 reflected a combination of typical play errors coupled with errors resulting from being mentally drained from the day before, I go to FNM the next weekend to see some friends and remember why I like playing Magic. I discover that there is a sealed pptq the next day. I reluctantly decide to go even though I'm not feeling great. I 3-0 the draft at FNM.
• The next morning I drag myself out of bed and get in the Sealed pptq. I lose round 1 to a local guy who has been to the pro tour before. I don't feel too bad until I find out I was his only win that day. I get a bye round 2, and then win my next three rounds. It's only a 5 round tournament, but because my tie breakers are so bad, I had to play and win that last round to get in. In the top 8 the draft goes weird. There are at least 4 other competent to great drafters at the table, but I keep receiving gifts I don't deserve. I start to wonder if there is some kind of joke when in pack three I open Supplant Form and am passed Supplant Form 3rd and 5th picks. I maindeck all three because why not. I win round one despite my opponent having Ugin. I win round two against a guy who has been on the pro tour before (and who I respect as a very good player). He is visibly angry that I was passed the Supplant Form that he opened (the one I got 5th). I then win the final during which my opponent managed to manifest Volcanic Vision both games. I'm feeling really good because the next rptq is sealed.

So that's what's been happening.

@bateleur Indeed it would be somewhat ridiculous to be caught "off guard." That being said, my opponent did not seem to be the strongest. Game 2, which I won, I had Jeskai Ascendancy on board with two creatures. I attacked. He chose to block neither. I then happily played a couple of spells, stacked my triggers, and won the game. Blocking meant he was almost certainly losing a creature, but he seemed to think there wasn't much chance of me actually having the spells in hand to win at that point. When I mentioned to him after the match that I had combinations of cards in games 1 and 3 that would have gotten me very close to winning, he was shocked. His has simply assumed that being at 16 or 17 life was perfectly safe, which is why I think he may not have blocked game one, and I might have missed the opportunity to steal a win. Ah well.

I was hoping that I would be able to head down to Memphis this weekend to play my Temur Aggro deck at the GP. Unfortunately, this is the week that my professor decided to load us up with homework, so taking a trip this weekend would be very ill-advised. (Also, I don't really have the money for it.) So instead I will try to get some work done, then try out the last PPTQ in our area. A local shop has 3 different stores, so they are hosting three PPTQs at their larger location (Standard and Sealed on Saturday and Mondern on Sunday). I can't play on Sunday, plus I don't play much Modern. So Saturday will be interesting. My chances of opening another broken pool seem low, but the sealed tournament will most likely be smaller. I have had some good success with my Standard deck (a PTQ top 8 and a PPTQ top 4) and still feel good about it and some changes I've made since FRF was released. So unless there are fewer than 20 people doing Sealed, I will probably play in standard and hope for the best.

So, played in a sealed PPTQ last weekend. Ended up getting shipped a disgustingly good sealed pool. I was able to play all 6 rares: Abzan Ascendancy, Mastery of the Unseen, Dromoka, the Eternal, Mardu Strike Leader, Utter End, and Wingmate Roc. I had some other nice removal and a couple uncommon dragons. All in all, a deck I couldn't help but be happy with. Of course, Swiss rounds weren't quite as smooth as I would have hoped. I drew round 2 because I may have played against my opponent's Yasova incorrectly (plus I never drew any removal for it). And round 5, I lost partly because of some mana issues (screw game one after keeping a two lander on the draw, and flood game 3). Still had a shot game 3, but couldn't quite get things to line up the way I needed.

Either way, I finished 4-1-1 and ended up in the top 8 draft. I first picked a Mastery of the Unseen, and found myself in Jeskai, which is the color combination I struggle with the most. Also, all but one person at the table ended up in white. Awkward.

I did end up getting a Jeskai Ascendancy, which was fun. Unfortunately, I didn't play my games well enough. I realized 2 things after the match. Both games I lost, I could have been swinging in a bit more because my opponent would not have blocked fearing prowess shenanigans. Game 1, I had lethal on board, but I was afraid my opponent would block one of my guys, and then I'd lose next turn. I realized that based upon how my opponent played out the rest of the match, he probably wouldn't have blocked and been blindsided by a Defiant Strike, Trumpet Blast, Temur Battlerage, prowess trigger lethal attack. I think that has been my problem piloting Jeskai decks in the past, is that with prowess, I can bluff a lot to get in more early damage and then swing big and catch my opponents off guard.

Either way, it was fun and a nice change from all the Standard PPTQ's I've had to play in.

I'm desperately hoping that we can keep Temur alive. I both enjoyed the deck and had great success with it during the last standard. I'm still trying to figure out what from the new set will work best. One (from an old set) that I have been trying to figure out is whether or not to try a couple Prophetic Flamespeaker. Mostly I like the idea of getting a couple counters from Shaman of the Great Hunt during each attack, but am not sure if it's simply a cute interaction or a potentially nice source of damage and card advantage.

I was hoping that the new set would clear up what to do with the 3-drop slot next to Knuckles, but it seems to have only muddied the waters by adding Yasova Dragonclaw and Flamewake Phoenix.

I do like the idea of moving in a more aggro direction. I'm really curious to see where this goes.

Changing the subject a little: I'm pretty sure this won't work, but I really want to brew a Soulflayer deck right now. I want to live this dream:

Turn 1: Land
Turn 2: Land, Satyr Wayfinder or Commune with the Gods
Turn 3: Soulflayer (exiling Stormbreath, Caryatid, and Prophetic Flamespeaker)

Seems like a 4/4 with flying, haste, hexproof, trample, and double strike would be pretty cool.

Played 3 pre-release events (one of which was 2HG). Manifest was interesting. It seemed that most of the time it was not a threat to flip or something that wouldn't be an issue. My big problem with it was how often I ended up manifesting creature with ETB effects that I wouldn't be able to enjoy. On the flip side, the white manifest enchantment was a lot of fun in 2HG (especially when we were able to manifest or morph one of our Ponyback Brigades. We gained a lot of life with that thing.

Manifest will be more dangerous in draft, I think, because there are more big creatures in Khans than in FRF. So we will be more likely to hit those big creatures or big morphs with manifest. One of the keys will be bluffing effectively. I too often found myself just glancing at and forgetting about lands I had manifested, while staring at and rereading creatures a lot. Gotta be careful there.

As for the new banned and restricted changes, it seems that with the new bans in modern that Tarmogoyf gets better (and even more expensive). It will also be interesting to see if Dredge makes a comeback. That can be an interesting deck. I don't know enough about vintage or legacy to really comment on those changes, though.

Manifest is going to definitely be weird. Now I see why they printed morph tokens, as keeping track of the difference between morph cards and manifest cards will lead to some confusion (especially if this continues to be an environment filled with clogged board states).

A friend did point out that if you manage to manifest Hooded Hydra, you can flip it for GG. That could be fun.

I finally had a successful Cube draft. I am usually horrible at cubes of all kinds, but I had some time and a handful of phantom points, so I figured what the heck. I got into a swiss queue, took an early Sol Ring and a Gaea's Cradle, then proceeded to take anything that ramped, made tokens, or was big. And yes, I did live the dream by hard casting Emrakul, and my round three opponent ran their reanimation spells into my Containment Priest 2 out of 3 games. It felt good. Now I'm 3-0 in my Khans Sealed DE. It's a good day.

@Tahn, that draft deck is insane. Well done. Sorry draft one didn't go as well. The deck doesn't look too bad though.

I'm happy to finally hear confirmation of what everyone assumed: MM2! The only bummer is that the MM2 GP weekend is my school's graduation weekend. Ah, well. I just hope that it's half as fun to draft as the first Modern Masters was!