The r/spikes series continues with a great report from Timothy Mezoff. Going from a disappointing 0-3 scoop to an impressive 8-2, 14th place finish in a short time, Timothy discusses his day filled with lucky topdecks, missed triggers and a Magic mountain that reminded him to keep his head and power through tilt. Enjoy! -Jason

Last month, I decided to go to the Star City Games Open in Providence Rhode Island. I dropped after round three without winning a single match. I had decided to play burn at the tournament and after playing against a Junk deck that maindecked [card]Whip of Erebos[/card] and a black white humans deck that mained [card]Fiendslayer Paladin[/card], I wasn’t feeling much up to continuing.

This past weekend, I decided that I’m a glutton for punishment and to sleeved up Boros Burn once again for my run into SCG Worcester. I honestly haven’t kept up with recent tournament results and decided to play what I was comfortable with. The list I played looked like this:

[deck title= Boros Burn – SCG Open Worcester 2014]
[Creatures]
*4 Chandra’s Phoenix
*4 Young Pyromancer
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
*3 Chained to the Rocks
*4 Boros Charm
*4 Lightning Strike
*4 Magma Jet
*3 Searing Blood
*3 Shock
*4 Skullcrack
*4 Warleader’s Helix
*1 Mizzium Mortars
[/Spells]
[Land]
*7 Mountain
*1 Boros Guildgate
*1 Mana Confluence
*3 Mutavault
*4 Sacred Foundry
*2 Temple of Malice
*4 Temple of Triumph
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
*2 Spark Trooper
*1 Banishing Light
*2 Nyx-Fleece Ram
*4 Satyr Firedancer
*1 Searing Blood
*2 Wear
*1 Act of Treason
*2 Toil
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Going into the tournament, I felt good about my maindeck but unsure of the sideboard. Just a month ago, Burn was in huge numbers at the Open in Providence so I gave it a nod with the added Nyx-Fleece Rams. The deck is a lot tougher to pilot well than it is given credit for. With so many lines of play that can ruin the maximum output of damage the deck is capable of in the first few turns, most simply chalk the deck up to autopilot. But Burn has been good to me in the past and with a little luck and a lot of superstition, I went head-first into the fray.

Round 1 vs Bant Control

This match was a blur. I won game one in the typical Burn vs Control fashion. Game two he landed a turn two [card]Nyx-Fleece Ram[/card] which promptly ate a Wear//Tear. Eventually he on- for-oned all of my important spells with counters, kept my [card]Mutavault[/card] a land with a Kiora the Crashing Wave and I was out of gas. A few turns later he freed my Mutavault and released some Krakens swinging in for game. Game three played out very much like the first one. He played no Rams to slow his impending demise.
1-0

Round 2 vs RG devotion

I was never a fan of this matchup. While burn can be fast and hit you for 3+ every turn, after turn 2 a well-sculpted devotion list can hit you for 5 every turn after turn 3, which doesn’t make for a good race. Game one my opponent leads with turn 1 [card]Elvish Mystic[/card] into turn two [card]Burning-Tree Emissary[/card], Burning-Tree Emissary, [card]Nykthos Shrine to Nyx[/card] into [card]Polukranos, World Eater[/card]. As I look at my board of land, land, Young Pyromancer I decide if I don’t draw a Chained to the Rocks I’m just dead. DRAW! I’m just dead. Game 2 ends in similar fashion, except instead of a turn 3 Polukranos he sticks a turn 4 [card]Ruric-Thar the Unbowed[/card]. GG.

1-1

Round 3 vs Mono Blue Devotion

My opponent leads game one off with turn 1 land into [card]Cloudfin Raptor[/card] and my response was a Mutavault. Turn 2 he plays a land and passes. No evolve triggers, no nothing. I think about what he could have in hand and decided it must be all 3 drops. I activate my Mutavault and swing into a Rapid Hybridization on his Raptor. I immediately go on tilt for not seeing that play. His next few turns are runner, runner Master of Waves while mine are spent just trying to keep up. With my head down I decide to go to game 2. I’ve always known that Mono Blue isn’t an amazing matchup for me, but I know I can beat it with a little luck. Game two I look at my opening 7 and see double Young Pyro and a [card]Shock[/card] with enough lands to curve it out perfectly on turn 3. Eventually, double Pyromancer does an impressive impression of Master of Waves and I grind a win. Game 3 I’m once again feeling good about my starting hand as I look at an almost exact copy of that beautiful turn 3 curve. I lead off with turn 2 Pyro into turn 3 [card]Satyr Firedancer[/card] while my opponent looks on as all my spells hit him to the face, kill one of his creatures and give me a dude.

2-1

Round 4 vs Izzet Midrange

My opponent shows up late and receives a game loss. My opponent goes first and leads off with a turn one [card]Steam Vents[/card] which throws me for a loop. His turn two Island into Frostborn Weird had me peg him on Blue Devotion splashing red for Purphoros. Boy was I wrong. He promptly played a [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card] and started to smash in. I traded attacks with his dragon for as long as I could with my Phoenix, eventually getting him to 11 life. End of his turn, I [card]Boros Charm[/card]ed him to 7 and knew I had to draw a burn spell off the top to win. I draw. Burn spell. I cast the burn that was in my hand and the one I drew and took the game from my opponent.

3-1

Round 5 vs Mono Black Devotion

My opponent leads off with a first turn [card]Thoughtseize[/card] and grimaces at my hand. He takes a [card]Skullcrack[/card] over my [card]Magma Jet[/card] after I show him only two lands. I make a mental note of Grey Merchant most likely being in his hand and go through the motions. I Magma Jet into another Magma Jet which finds me a Skullcrack just in time for him to slam a [card]Grey Merchant of Asphodel[/card]. Game two is mostly uneventful. He hits me twice with a [card]Desecration Demon[/card] before I can kill him.

4-1

Round 6 vs Jund Monsters

Game one, my opponent plays an accelerated Polukranos into Stormbreath. Needless to say, I lose. After game one I only saw Red and Green lands so I put him on RG monsters and side in [card]Spark Trooper[/card] for the cute plays. He leads game two off with a BG scryland and I kick myself. He slams Ruric Thar down while sitting at a comfortable life total and I can’t race without killing myself.

At this point in the tournament I walk over and chat with my friend who only came to trade. We chat for a while and when I go to walk away I notice a lone mountain sitting on a table. I pick it up and casually walk away. As I sit down to play my opponent I put it on the table in between the table numbers and play my game.

4-2

Round 7 vs Jund

I lose game one and wasn’t looking forward to playing this matchup twice in a row after a loss. Game two was extremely close. He had a [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] eating creatures and gaining life. I eventually closed out the game at 3 life. Game 3 was very much the same. At one point my friend came over and watched the game over my shoulder. I had been mana screwed out of white and soon took a [card]Rakdos’ Return[/card] to the face for 4, discarding two Chained to the Rocks and a Mountain. Soon after that play my buddy walked away thinking I had lost. What he had missed was my drawing of a [card]Temple of Triumph[/card]. I slammed it down and looked at my top card. [card]Warleader’s Helix[/card]. I had done a good job stalling to this point with Elemental tokens from a long dead Pyromancer. He swings in with a giant Scavenging Ooze and a Monstrous’d Stormbreath. I block the Ooze with my last token and go to 3 life. I end of turn [card]Lightning Strike[/card] him to 2 and he eats more creatures to go back to 4 after seeing I had no cards in hand. I untap and cast my spell for exactly lethal. I take my slip and shake his hand. Packing up I remember the mountain and take it as a token of luck. I hand in my slip and bump into my friend. He’s shocked and ecstatic that I somehow went from mana screw and a 1/1, facing down a monstrous’d dragon and giant Ooze, to victory. I take my Mountain and roll it up tight and tuck it behind my ear for the rest of the tournament.

5-2

Round 8 vs Mono Blue Devotion

This had to have been what truly made me think my Mountain was lucky. As I had said, mono Blue isn’t really a good matchup for my deck, but I looked at my opening seven of game one and saw Young Pyro, Young Pyro and Magma Jet. I curve out with Young Pyro followed by next turn Pyro, followed by next turn Pyro and Magma Jet. Each spell I cast from that point on got me three tokens. By the time he hit his Master, my army was more impressive. Game two couldn’t possibly be as lucky for me, could it? Turn 2 Young Pyromancer, turn 3 Satyr Firedancer and shock. Kill a guy, get a guy. My turn 4? Satyr Firedancer and Boros Charm. Better lucky than good.
6-2

Round 9 vs Mono Black Devotion

Game one I ended up missing a Phoenix trigger on my opponent’s attack step. I had cast a Warleader’s Helix during the attack, marked the life changes and asked him total damage so I could mark that too while I was writing. Finished with the change I pointed at my Chandra’s Phoenix and announced my trigger. My opponent shook his finger and said “uh, uh uh. You missed the trigger.” I was taken aback. I immediately started to tilt. Game 2 started to go the same way. I had missed a Young Pyromancer trigger and almost lost again. I had cast a Magma Jet with the ‘mancer on the field. I had marked the damage when I realized I hadn’t announced the trigger. I took a deep breath and reached my hand behind my ear and felt the Mountain secure in its place. I told my opponent I wasn’t finished resolving the spell and scried a scry I had almost missed as well. My head started to clear and I barely won. I cast a Magma Jet while I was stuck on 3 lands with Boros Charm and Lightning Strike in hand. I looked at the top two and saw the fourth land I so desperately needed. I untap draw and play my land and double burn him for the win. Game 3 was a true test of my Mountain’s power. I tried to cast Shock on my opponents Pack Rat to which he responded by tapping Mutavaults to make it a 3/3. I held it together and took that misplay with my chin up. Eventually I had one card in hand and he sat back with two Pack Rats, a Whip of Erebos and a Grey Merchant in the bin. On my turn I played a scry land and kept a Warleader’s Helix on top. I passed turn and he played a Duress. I respond with the only card that could have saved me. I Skullcrack. This time my opponent goes on tilt and thinks about what he can do. After a moment of mulling over his cracked skull he asks me. “Do you have a burn spell?” I tell him there is one on top of my library. “Show me.” He says. I become cautious at this time. The entire time we were playing he seemed a little shady and seemed like he would do anything for the win. I ask him if he is passing turn. He asks me to show him again and my response is the same. Eventually he tells me he passes turn and I flip over my Helix. He scoops up his cards and congratulates me for having the one card that would have won me the game.

7-2

Round 10 vs Mono Red Devotion

These games played out fast and furious. I lost game one to a giant hit from a [card]Fanatic of Xenagos[/card]. Took game 2 with some burn to the face and finally wound up the tournament with a game 3 win. These games were close but eventually I was able to control the amount of damage I took while still managing to kill my opponent.

8-2 and 14th place.

I took my lucky Mountain and my prize and went home for the night. I have always been a superstitious person while playing this game. I don’t honestly believe there was some magical property in the Mountain but do concede to the fact that just by having it lead me to have a more focused mentality. It saved me from going full tilt after a ton of my games. This event truly showed me the negative effects of tilt and how a simple token such as a Mountain can completely change your perspective and make you play better.

Going forward with the deck I would cut the [card]Act of Treason[/card] and the [card]Nyx-Fleece Ram[/card]s from the sideboard for two [card]Chandra, Pyromaster[/card] and possibly a third Toil//Trouble. While I didn’t bring in the Troubles often, it is a card that you really want to cast on turn three and the more copies the better chances of drawing them. I really didn’t use my sideboard to its full potential. Against the aggressive decks, I cut the Chandra’s Phoenixes and brought in the Satyr Firedancers. I sideboard the Phoenixes out so I did not dilute the decks already tight requirements. If I had left them in, my Pyromancers, Phoenixes and Firedancers would all be weaker and I felt that in those given situations, Firedancer/Pyromancer was the stronger option. Against the midrange decks I didn’t side in much except the Act of Treason but never got to cast it. I felt the overall sideboard was weak for the matches I played and only brought in the Firedancers and [card]Searing Blood[/card] consistently. That said I do not think they warrant a spot in the maindeck, while they are strong in the matches they are good against, they are extremely weak against the matches in which they are bad against making the overall power of the deck a lot worse game one.

I feel the deck is still strong given the current Meta and only going to get stronger in the few months after M15 is released before rotation. I’m going to keep playing the deck for now while I watch the world Burn. Good luck to everyone playing the deck.

Welcome back, brewers. Today we are going to talk about little-known format called Legacy. Legacy is a great format because you can basically play any deck you want. Every play style is represented; even the person who only wants to play lands can win. It Is also a format where every turn matters. Turn one can be riddled with options and you can make mistakes turn one that can lose you the game. What other format has pressure like that? Play skill rewards legacy players. Because the format is so diverse and every turn matters, it is very important to know your deck.

One of the reasons I did so well in standard was because I ran the same GW deck for over a year. Sure, there were tweaks to the deck; adding Ajani, playing around certain cards, coping with the rise and fall of Mono Blue, but the basic play of the deck remained the same. I have played the Mono Black match up so many times I can usually tell who will win by turn 4. If they play removal spell on two and removal spell on three, you’re probably dead.  I also know a lot of the tricks with the deck; all of the subtle nuisances for each deck do not come easily. You need to practice and playtest and the more you play with a certain deck the better you get with it. Duh.

Legacy does not rotate. Also, there have not really been a lot of banning announcements that have affected the legacy format. This means that your deck and the legacy environment will not change very much. You will play against a [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] deck. You will play against a combo deck. You will play against dredge players, as much as I hate playing against them. If you learn the matchup you will have this knowledge for a long time. What does this all mean? Well in my opinion, to get better at legacy you should pick one deck and stick to it.

I am new to legacy. I have made that clear in many articles, but I have decided to take my own advice. I have found a deck that I love to play and will continue to play it and hone my skills. This article series, Learning Legacy, will highlight how I grow as a Legacy player, my first reaction to cards and decks and how that changes with experience. Hopefully, many of the people reading this are in the same boat and can learn something from this approach. We will look at what works and what doesn’t and reactions to cards, strategies, combos, and decks. This is something that I think new players and experienced players can relate to and hopefully learn from . The deck I chose?

RUG Delver. (yes I have fun when my opponents can’t cast spells).

RUG Delver is a brutally-fast tempo deck. You want to start a fast clock (Delver) and stop them from doing anything. This can be achieved by denying them land with cards like [card]Stifle[/card] and [card]Wasteland[/card], countering their spells with your free counter magic with [card]Daze[/card] and [card]Force of Will[/card], or by burning their creatures with [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] or [card]Forked Bolt[/card]. If things go right, you will be done with your round in a matter of minutes. When things go wrong you have to fight for your win and it’s a lot more difficult.

To start, let’s go through RUG Delver very quickly so you understand what the deck is doing and why it plays certain cards. Here’s what I played at the invitational.

[deck title= Imperial Painter]

[Creatures]

*4 Delver of Secrets

*4 Tarmogoy

*4 Nimble Mongoose

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

*4 Brainstorm

*4 Ponder

*4 Force of Will

*4 Daze

*2 Spell Pierce

*2 Spell Snare

*4 Lightning Bolt

*2 Forked Bolt

*4 Stifle

[/Spells]

[Land]

*4 Misty Rainforest

*4 Scalding Tarn

*4 Wasteland

*3 Tropical Island

*3 Volcanic Island

[/Land]

[/deck]

The Deck

[card]Delver of Secrets[/card]

The deck’s namesake. The deck is half instants and sorceries so it will flip a lot. Also, flying is extremely relevant to get over other creatures.

[card]Tarmogoyf[/card]

Another cheap threat. It is often huge very quickly with all the cantrips in the deck.

[card]Nimble Mongoose[/card]

Often underrated. It quickly becomes a 3/3 and not being able to target it often strands [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s, [card]Abrupt Decay[/card]s, and [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card] in your opponents hands.

[card]Brainstorm[/card]

The best card in legacy. Lets you find exactly what you need and shuffle away the chaff.

[card]Ponder[/card]

Again, RUG Delver is trying to find the exact card to disrupt what your opponent is doing. You can often ponder, find it, and shuffle away the rest.

[card]Stifle[/card]

Some decks don’t play this but I love it. Most often used to stone rain an opponent’s fetch land but has lots of other uses.

[card]Force of Will[/card]

To stop what ever your opponent is doing. The card disadvantage makes it not great against fair decks, but it’s essential against the combo decks.

[card]Daze[/card]

Another free counter spell. RUG delver will deny your opponent mana which means that they usually don’t have time to play around Daze.

[card]Spell Pierce[/card]

Some of the best cards in legacy cost two. [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card] comes to mind.

[card]Spell Pierce[/card]

Same as daze your opponent will not have enough mana to play around it if things are going well. A lot of the most powerful things to do in Legacy are not creatures

[card]Lightning Bolt[/card]

Kill their guys or make them take it to the face. A very quick way to close out a game

[card]Forked Bolt[/card]

Especially good against Maverick or Elves and two damages usually is enough to take out whatever creature you need to.

Fetchlands

All your fetchlands find all your duals. Fetch lands help to shuffle away bad cards from Ponder or Brainstorm. They also help turn on [card]Nimble Mongoose[/card] and [card]Tarmogoyf[/card].

[card]Wasteland[/card]

Especially important to take out your opponents land. Sometimes times they will get color screwed or they might not even have another land. It’s also important to note that wasteland isn’t able to cast a single card in your maindeck outside of Tarmogoyf. (You want to be using the free side of your counterspells.)

This was the first installment of “Learning Legacy” so I decided to keep it light. In the future, I would like to talk about RUG Delver’s Sideboard, The strategies against other decks, as well as how other decks operate. I want to look at legacy’s interactions and combos, along with strategies to get better at a format that doesn’t rotate. Like I said my goal is to get better at this format and I’d like to take you all along for the ride. I would also like to do a mini column within each Learning Legacy and that is to talk about one of the more complicated and less intuitive cards out there, [card]Stifle[/card]. For this we will look at relevant cards that you can stifle that may not seem so intuitive.  The name?

You can Stifle that?

Did you know that you can Stifle miracle cards? That’s right; when an opponent reveals a miracle card with its ability the miracle trigger goes on the stack. You can then stifle the trigger so that they do not get to cast the card with its miracle cost. They do get to draw the card as normal but they will have to pay full price if they want to cast it now. This is not a problem for RUG Delver as we can stop their mana growth and counter the overly costed spell with [card]Daze[/card] and [card]Spell Pierce[/card].

Thanks for reading. If you have any specific requests for article topics feel free to leave them in the comments.

This is another installment in our series of submissions from the r/spikes subreddit. This is a two-fer; Max Perlmutter played the same 75 in two back-to-back events and learned a lot about how Big Zoo fares in the Modern meta in the Philadelphia area. Enjoy! -Jason

Philadelphia Zoo

Hey people!

Let’s start out by getting these formalities out of the way. My name is Max Perlmutter.” I got into Magic in September of 2011 at the outset of Innistrad Block thanks to two friends and teachers; my Physics teacher Zach Cullimore a former competitive player/Judge and my English teacher Jeremy Collins a former Comic shop owner. I identify most with the Timmy psychographic yet somehow I found myself living in and loving the world of competitive Magic. I hope through my articles I can share the knowledge I have gained and my love of attacking with [card]Wild Nacatl[/card], [card]Tarmogoyf[/card], and [/card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card].

SCG IQ/Boston GPT
Six Feet Under Games
New Holland PA

[deck title= Philadelphia Zoo]
[Creatures]
*4 Wild Nacatl
*4 Noble Hierarch
*4 Tarmogoyf
*4 Scavenging Ooze
*4 Qasali Pridemage
*4 Knight of the Reliquary
*1 Thundermaw Hellkite
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
*4 Lightning Bolt
*4 Path to Exile
*3 Lightning Helix
*2 Chandra Pyromaster
[/Spells]

[Land]
*4 Misty Rainforest
*4 Arid Mesa
*3 Verdant Catacombs
*1 Marsh Flats
*2 Stomping Ground
*1 Temple Garden
*1 Sacred Foundry
*2 Forest
*2 Plains
*1 Kessig Wolf Run
*1 Horizon Canopy
[/Land]

[Sideboard]
*3 Choke
*2 Blood Moon
*2 Stony Silence
*2 Ancient Grudge
*2 Batterskull
*2 Spellskite
*2 Grafdiggers Cage
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Sideboarding Guide:
[card]Choke[/card] – Choke is obviously solid against most blue decks in the format can take blue players completely out of the game. I recommend bringing it in against all versions of Twin as well as Control, Delver, UR Fae, U-Tron, Merfolk, and anything else that requires Islands.

[card]Blood Moon[/card] – Blood Moon serves a similar role to Choke and in many matchups I will bring both in together to lock someone out. I like Blood Moon against Control, BGx, real Faeries (UB), both Pod decks, Affinity, Ad Nauseam, Living End, and any deck requiring large amounts of nonbasic land to function.

[card]Stony Silence[/card] – Stony is very strong in both Tron matchups by turning off their cantrips, board wiping ability, and in Mono U’s case win conditions. I also like to bring it in for both Pod decks, Affinity, and Ad Nauseam to completely shut them down.

[card]Ancient Grudge[/card] – Grudge is good for blowing out Affinity and just beefing up your removal against decks like U Tron and RG Tron for their limited number of threats. The card is borderline playable vs. Pod decks but with 4 Qasali Pridemage you don’t really need it.

[card]Batterskull[/card] – Batterskull is great when you need to go big and I like it when you need a resilient threat against decks like Control, Living End, BGx, Melira Pod, RUG Twin, Big Zoo, Merfolk, BW Midrange (not tokens), and decks where a late game bomb crushes them.

[card]Spellskite[/card] – I like using the cute little guy against Splinter Twin, Boggles, Ad Nauseam, and some control and mid range decks depending on how removal heavy and board wipe heavy there are. If Affinity decks are slamming Etched Champion these little guys are solid blockers and can also attempt to steal modular counters if your opponent isn’t thinking.

[card]Grafdigger’s Cage[/card] – This card slot could go to [card]Relic of Progenitus[/card] or [card]Rest in Peace[/card] but I really don’t care enough about [card]Living End[/card] because I know how to fight the creature battle there so well. I like Cage against both Pod decks and if someone has a reanimator deck running around you have solid tech against that. Because Living End exiles creatures from the graveyard before they come back you cannot stop it with this. If Living End becomes a problem for you locally because it is one of our worst matchups I recommend [card]Eidolon of Rhetoric[/card] to stop them casting off of cascade or if they are heavy on creature removal but not Beast Within go for the harder to remove Rule of Law. I only like the Eidolon more because they can Living End it back for you if you deal with their threats.

Round 1 – [card]Ad Nauseam[/card]

Played by Sam Savage.

Before the tournament I decided to not add extra hate for either storm or Ad Nauseam.

Game 1 I kept a hand of 2 [card]Tarmogoyf[/card]s 1 [card]Path to Exile[/card], 1 [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] and 3 lands. While strong, this hand almost bit me in the butt. I drew, resolved a few two drops followed by [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] and [card]Chandra, Pyromaster[/card], then quickly revealed [card]Lightning Helix[/card] and Lighting Bolt off of Chandra, Pyromaster for the win. My Opponent tried to have a “GOTCHA!” moment against me with Conflagrate targeting my [card]Qasali Pridemage[/card] and even tried arguing a with the judge that it had already resolved. Luckily the judge ruled in my favor and I killed his [card]Phyrexian Unlife[/card] to let me get in with the bolts off of Chandra.

I brought in Spellskite, Ancient Grudge, Stony Silence and Blood Moon. I boarded out 4 Path to Exile and 4 Scavenging Ooze. This was the first time I had ever played against Ad Nauseam and I found that those cards were mostly dead in the match up nothing fancy about the sideboard plan there.

Game 2, I was able to get a turn 4 Blood Moon on him to lock him out and closed out the game with my turn 1 2/2 Wild Nacatl. 1-0

Round 2 – BW Wescoe Midrange

Played by Zach Dobbin

Game 1 I had the nuts and ran him over with 2 Goyfs and an 8/8 KOTR; no contest. I wish I had more to add here but I will save that for (Spoiler Alert) the Top 8.

Game 2 I mulled to 5 and almost was able to grind it out until he drew 2 [card]Mutavault[/card]s for the win.

Game 3 I went turn 1 [card]Noble Hierarch[/card], turn 2 Qasali Pridemage and start beating with exalted. I ran him out of cards and he only had Mutavault, Swamp and [card]Godless Shrine[/card] in play. I played Blood Moon and got the concession.

4-1 on games 2-0 on matches.

I boarded in 2 Batterskull and 2 Blood Moon and removed Qasali Pridemage Game 2, but I got blown out by Rest In Peace, so I swapped the Pridemage for [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] and it all worked out. This match-up is definitely hit or miss. You have to get an aggro hand with burn to end it before they can get online with [card]Vault of the Archangel[/card].

Round 3 – UG Infect

Played by Ben Schaeffer.

Game 1 I kept a greedy 7 of 4 fetches a Plains KOTR and a Chandra. I lucked my way into Path To Exile to kill a [card]Blighted Agent[/card] and then followed it by using Qasali Pridemage to do away with a [card]Wild Defiance[/card]. I dropped Chandra to kill another 1/1 and rode KOTR to victory.

Game 2 he comboed me out quickly; no contest.

Game 3 I landed turn two Spellskite but he almost got me with [card]Pendlehaven[/card] and exalted Blighted Agent. I have two Knights and used one to get [card]Kessig Wold Run[/card] and win the game.

Sideboarding against Infect is very straightforward. I added 2 Spellskite and cut 2 Scavenging Oozes. In this match up I feel it is best to mulligan aggressively for disruption if your 7 isn’t solid, but it’s definitely possible to mulligan your way out of the game, so be cautious.

Round 4 – RG Tron

Played by Michael Hunter.

Mike is a friend of mine who I travel to events with all the time. We decided to draw because that locked us both for Top 8 with 10 points.

Game 1 of the Tron match up you want to be aggro on the play and hope you don’t get blown out.
Games 2-3 you want to bring in disruption like Stony Silence, Blood Moon, and Ancient Grudge. I like to take out 2 Lightning Helix here and the full set of Scavenging Ooze.

Round 5 – UB Faeries

Played by Barrett Goss.

I was paired down against Barrett and with him at 9 points I offered to draw him into Top 8. Barrett is another friend of mine and also my driving and hotel buddy so this was a no brainer because I like seeing my friends succeed.

Game 1 you want to deploy threats with the key thing trying to play multiple 1 drops or a 3 drop on turn 2 or even just bait the spell snare.

Games 2-3 I want to bring in Blood Moons and Batterskull while again taking out the Scavenging Oozes. The reason you do not [card]Choke[/card] Faeries is because good lists only run 4-5 actual Islands and it is, at best, a [card]Stone Rain[/card] in the match-up.

[Editor’s Note] – Boo! We want to see blood! Murder your friends!

Round 6 – Top 8 BW Wescoe Midrange

Played by Zach Dobbin.

Game 1 I stumbled on lands and lost to [card]Lingering Souls[/card] and spot removal.

Game 2 we attritionws the hell out of each other until we hit a top deck war. I endws up staring at 6 spirits but I playws Batterskull and top-decked a Knight to fetch up Kessig Wolf Run and start trampling shortly after.

Game 3 was a true formality. He got a spirit with a [card]Sword Of Fire and Ice[/card] on it and blew past Chandra and me to a victory.

I did not change my Sideboarding plan since my first game 3 against him and I don’t know yet how to view this match-up. I like to think this is a solid match up for me but Zach is a phenomenal player and earned his wins here through and through.

Barrett ended up beating Zach in the Semis before beating Mike in the finals to win 2 byes for Boston and an invite to an SCG Invitational.

PTQ Time!

Alternate Universes Double Tree Hilton
Wilmington Delaware.

Round 1 GW Hatebears

I hate this match up and it can come down a lot to who is on the play. I wasn’t. Game 1 I kept what felt like a strong 7 although it was lacking in removal. I saw a turn one [card]Ghost Quarter[/card] into [card]Aether Vial[/card], which was followed by a [card]Leonin Arbiter[/card] to keep me locked out until he could beat down.

Game 2 I kept a hyper aggressive hand, which almost blew up in my face. I ended up drawing 2 fetches with a [card]Thundermaw Hellkite[/card] stuck in my hand staring down 2 [card]Flickerwisp[/card] and an [card]Aven Mindcensor[/card]. I luckily top-decked a Stomping Ground to win the game.

Game 3 was mostly a repeat of game 1 and was no contest, with him winning even through my removal.

This match-up I am not a big fan of. I sideboarded into 2 Blood Moons and 2 Batterskull while removing 2 Chandra and 2 Oozes. I think cutting the Ooze was wrong there and maybe not siding in Batterskull is the stronger play. 0-1. Not starting off strong…

Round 2 RG Tron

Game 1 my opponent was able to resolve multiple [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card]s and grind me out quickly.

I boarded in 2 Blood Moon, 2 Stony Silence, and 2 Ancient Grudge. I took out 2 Helix and 4 Scavenging Ooze.

Game 2 I kept a hand of 2 lands, 1 Nacatl, 1 Stony Silence, 2 Ancient Grudge, and 1 Lightning Bolt on the play.

I lost.

My opponent mulliganed/drew into natural Tron and cast [card]All Is Dust[/card] to clear my board and unlock his artifacts. Each time I stabilized, he would cast another [card]Oblivion Stone[/card] and there was nothing I could do. A play I really liked in this game was when my opponent was tapped out and had Wurmcoil and O-Stone in play while I had 2 ¾ Tarmogoyfs. I had 5 mana open 2 red 2 plains and a Forest and I top-decked Chandra so I saw my lines of play as being either play her and tick up, bringing my opponent down to 1 life and letting them wrath the board and get 2 Wurm tokens after attacking me for 6 or I use her +0 and try to rip Path to Exile off of my deck. I flipped Noble Hierarch instead and lost the game but I still think that play was what gave me the best chance to win.

0-2- Playing for points and prizes.

Round 3 Scapeshift

Game 1 I was able to get on the aggro beat down plan unimpeded with 2 Tarmogoyf. I made a mistake; when I attacked him, he flashed a [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] in which I killed before blocks, but only assigned 6 damage instead of 8 to my opponent. I caught it in my opponent’s upkeep and we both got warnings but I was able to untap and bolt him to death so it all worked out.

I boarded in 3 Chokes and 2 Blood Moons and took out 4 Qasali Pridemage and a Lightning Helix.

Game 2 I resolved a turn 3 Blood Moon and while my opponent furiously rushed to combo out, I beat him down with Tarmogoyfs for the win. After the match I corrected his play that he could not combo through Blood Moon.

1-2; on the board!

Round 4 UWR Kiki Control

Game 1 I got on the aggro beatdown plan and flooded my board to kill him ASAP while convincing him I was on Kiki Pod because all I used was 1 Qasali, 1 ‘Goyf and 2 Nobles.

In this match up I really like bringing in 3 Chokes and 2 Blood Moons and 2 Batterskull while cutting 4 Qasali Pridemage and 3 Scavenging Ooze. Game 3 if it gets there I would bring back Pridemages or Ancient Grudge if I get shown a worthy target.

Game 2 I played turn 1 Wild Nacatl, so the cat was out of the bag. My Nacatl ate a bolt but I was able to drop another the following turn. Turn 3 my opponent Snapcasters to bolt my Nacatl and I cast Choke turn 3. I resolved a Batterskull and Knight of the Reliquary and ran to victory unimpeded.

2-2; can I win out?

Round 5 Jund

Game 1 developed into a top-decking war and my opponent challenged me to out-top-deck him. I ripped Nacatl followed by Kessig and crushed him.

I cut 4 Qasali Pridemage and boarded in 2 Batterskull and 2 Blood Moon.

Game 2 he ripped my hand apart and I had no good plays against him.

Game 3 I mulliganed to 3 cards and played the game as a formality.

I consider this match up 40-45% in our favor and is highly dependent on game 1 and seeing sideboard cards game 2.

2-3

Round 6 RUG Twin

Game 1 my opponent got starved on land and I beat him down quickly.

This match up I bring in 3 Chokes and 2 Spellskite and remove 2 Chandra 1 Lighting Helix and 2 Scavenging Ooze.

Game 2 He boarded out the combo, but I still brought in Spellskite just to be safe. I resolved an early KOTR and was able to bash face a couple times and get the quick win.

3-3

Round 7 UB Tezzerator

Game 1 my opponent lead with [card]Creeping Tar Pit[/card] into [card]River of Tears[/card] and [card]Bitterblossom[/card] so naturally I assumed Faeries and cracked a Qasali Pridemage to get rid of it. I then overextend into Damnation. Off the top of my deck I ripped 2 Noble Hierarchs and Kessig Wolf Run while my opponent played Ensnaring Bridge. Noble beat down got there.

In this Match up I like Blood Moon, Ancient Grudge, and Batterskull. I took out 4 Scavenging Ooze and 2 Lightning Helix. This game is about the grind but when they have no creatures, those spells just aren’t as good.

Game 2 we got in a staring contest with my 6/7 Goyf vs. his 5/5 [card]Darksteel Citadel[/card]. Eventually, after beating in with Qasali and Goyf, I top decked Kessig Wolf Run to trample over to win. My favorite play this match was easily when he Ghost Quartered my only red source I cast Ancient Grudge on his Citadel so I would still be able to flash it back. The play worked out and I was able to kill an Ensnaring Bridge.

4-3

Round 8 UR Vial Faeries Kiki Combo

Game 1 [card]Mistbind Clique[/card], [card]Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker[/card] and Mutavault locked me out.

I brought in Choke and Blood Moon and took out Qasali and 1 Ooze but I didn’t see Aether Vial until game 3 so in the future I would take out 4 Ooze and only 1 Qasali or 4 Ooze and a Lightning Helix.

Game 2 I was able to build a big board state and crush him with no resistance.

Game 3 My Blood Moon was countered when I tried to lock him off of blue mana. He ended up stealing my 5/5 Scavenging Ooze and just crushing me.

I really enjoyed the list I played this weekend and although my overall record on the weekend was 7-5-2 I still felt like each match I sat down in I felt confident could be won with Big Zoo. A change I have been mulling over is changing up the number of Chokes and Blood Moons in the sideboard. Splinter Twin and Boggles still feel like my worst matchups and those cards when landed early can shut them out to steal a win. If I were to play a tournament tomorrow it would probably be nearly this same 75 but cutting something like 1 stony silence for a 3rd Blood Moon I don’t think should be out of the question especially when you need to turn off Boggles before they can get going. Another more narrow hate card I like in the Boggles matchup is [card]Back to Nature[/card]. The card is a blowout and it is pretty straightforward how it works but it just feels too narrow to include in my sideboard.

If you are playing this deck and your local meta is centered more strongly in Combo/Control instead of Midrange/Combo, I suggest changing the maindeck Thundermaw Hellkite into a [card]Thrun, the Last Troll[/card] and changing one of the Batterskulls into a second copy. Another way to be stronger in a control-heavy meta is by adding [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card] while removing cards like Lightning Helix or even Qasali Pridemage if you do not expect to see a lot of Splinter Twin. I really like [card]Ajani Vengeant[/card] over Chandra for a control-dominated meta and the main play to go for is locking them out of a land or creature and ticking up to use his ultimate. By shooting for Ajani’s ultimate, you put a lot of pressure on them to use their burn spells on him, letting your other creatures squeak through to steal games or you just [card]Armageddon[/card] and get the same results.

I hope this has been interesting to you all and that you enjoyed hearing about a lesser-played archetype in the format but can still pack a punch and take many people by surprise.

If you have any further questions about the deck please don’t hesitate to ask in the comments section and I will try to check in and answer whatever I can.

Here they come to save the day, Clash packs!  They’re like duel decks with standard legal reprints, right?  But no sweet alternate art foils or older popular cards…. Wait, you mean they have alternate art foils now?  That’s right folks, the M15 clash pack comes with 1 of each in a new art foil: Prophet of Kruphix, Temple of Mystery, Prognostic Sphinx, Font of Fertility, Fated Intervention, and Hydra Broodmaster.  And to top it all off, that’s not even all of the value in the deck!  It comes with 4 Elvish Mystics, 2 Reclamation Mage (probably going to be one of the premier uncommons in m15), Arbor Colossus, Hypnotic Siren, Curse of the Swine, Aetherspouts, Genesis Hydra, and a Courser of Kruphix.  At the MSRP of $30, this looks like insane value!  If the previous duel decks are any precedent, this clash pack should also be available at big box stores (Walmart, Target, etc) for a reasonable price.

And now, the financial implications!

This is probably one of the best (if not the best) sealed deck product that WotC has released with only standard legal cards in a long time.  The Mono-black Born of the Gods event deck is the most recent deck that comes anywhere close.  But even if you only account for the $20 retail Courser of Kruphix, this is almost as much value as getting Mind Seize decks for MSRP at release.  This deck hits high notes for so many different players I can’t not see it sell well.  It has the ease of play and the fact that it includes 2 decks means the casual duel deck players want them.  The sweet alternate art foils (including the especially popular Commander staple, Prophet of Kruphix) will appeal to collectors and Commander players. The expensive power house from Born of the Gods, Courser of Kruphix will help to ease the price for standard grinders.  This is a perfect recipe for these packs to be flying off the shelf and the majority of the cards becoming in high supply.

What does this mean for the future?  Well I don’t know if every Clash Pack can hit this kind of a home run but it’s important to know now that standard legal rares are likely targets for alternate art foil reprints instead of just commons and uncommons (which are FNM promos).  Many people bought tons of Prophet of Kruphix hoping to capitalize on the long term growth of a powerful casual card but the new printing (especially in foil) really hurts people’s ability to speculate on that kind of card.  Even more odd is the alternate art dual land, which almost never happens.  The already not in high demand temple may drop further due to increased supply.  If it hits $1 or less I may see myself buying some Temple of Mystery and hope a breakout deck needs 4 of them during Khans of Tarkir block.   It wouldn’t be hard to see it rebound to $5-8 with heavier demand.

I personally have already pre-ordered one box in order to get the Prophet of Kruphix and Hydra Broodmaster for my Commander deck but it will be interesting to see if all of these cards have the M15 card frames.  It’s not clear from the article on the mothership if they will or will not but if the new frame takes off it could keep some of these reprints higher in value than their older frame cousins.

This is the first in what promises to be a series of submissions from Reddit’s r/spikes community. We’re excited to host the reports on our site and expose this work to a larger audience. There are a lot of up-and-comers in the reddit spikes community and we’re proud to feature them here on Brainstorm Brewery. Enjoy! – Jason

Hello, Brainstorm Brewery readers! My name is Benjamin Sullivan and my reddit username is /u/BenEBeats. This is my first foray into actually sitting down and writing out my thoughts about MtG, much less writing an actual article for people to read. My Magic career has been one of competitive mediocrity. An 80 person IQ top 8, a 4-4 drop SCG Open, and my best finish was 28th out of 250 people. Going into any larger tournament I can depend on not being the most skilled player in the room. I know that I need to play tight, to my outs, and I need to have those outs show up more often than not if I am to do well. Knowing all this I wanted to go into the [TCG Player] 5k [in Fort Worth]  to improve, to focus on my play and to keep it tight all day even if I went 0-X I wanted to know what my mistakes were and how I could not make those mistakes again.

I’m sure that B/g has been beaten to death and the list has been hammered out and discussed by many people. Still, a few of the minor things that may stand out is the lack of [card]Devour Flesh[/card] in my 75. In testing for the tournament, Devour flesh was the worst 2 cmc removal in the list. It usually just picked off [card]Sylvan Caryatids[/card] instead of its main target, [card]Blood Baron of Vizkopa[/card]. The decks that run Braon now also run 4 Sylvan Caryatid making Devour Flesh a poor way to deal with the Baron. When Esper and Orzhov control ran Baron in the sideboard as tech against Mono-B Devotion it was much better, but now that the meta has shifted to Junk and Jund, it is dead with a Caryatid on board. I still needed a way to deal with Blood Baron, so I dropped the playset of [card]Nightveil Specter[/card]s and sleeved up [card]Lifebane Zombie[/card]s and made all of my removal targeted to deal with a wider range of threats. The addition of Zombie gave me a way to deal with a drawn Blood Baron before turn 4-5 if [card]Thoughtseize[/card] misses. I was more comfortable with this list and it performed much better than the configuration with 4 Nightveil Specter and 2 Devour Flesh.

I tested against all the major decks in the meta, including Mono-U, the mirror with the Green, White, and no splash, U/W/x, Jund, Sligh, Burn, and Junk. The U/W/x matchup was the only matchup I had trouble with and I completely missed playing against the Planar Cleansing list, but I trusted the list enough to be able to muddle through and pull out some wins.

After all that explanation here’s the list I ended up piloting:

[deck title= B/g Midrange]
[Creatures]
4 Pack Rat
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Desecration Demon
4 Grey Merchant of Asphodel
[/Creatures]

[Spells]
4 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price
4 Hero’s Downfall
4 Underworld Connections
[/Spells]

[Land]
12 Swamp
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Temple of Malady
1 Golgari Guildgate
4 Mutavault
[/Land]

[Sideboard]
4 Duress
3 Pharika’s Cure
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Doom blade
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Whip of Erebos
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Round 1 vs Esper Control (0-0)

We sit down and introduce ourselves and he goes first, playing a Temple of Enlightenment and I start hoping he’s on U/w or W/u aggro. On my turn I ‘Seize him to see [card]Elspeth, Sun’s Champion[/card], [card]Aetherling[/card], [card]Banishing Light[/card], and [card]Dissolve[/card]. With [card]Mutavault[/card] and [card[Pack Rat[/card] in hand I take the [card]Banishing Light[/card] to try and put some pressure on him underneath his Dissolve. I put some early pressure on him and resolve some threats after he deals with mine. I draw him out with a resolved Underworld Connections and he never manages to find a [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card] to draw into more gas. I end the game after I attack with my Mutavault a few times, and Downfall the Aetherling he played on his last turn to blink it and take him to 0. Game 2 plays out the same way except Erebos gets in through 3 Banishing Lights that are taken care of with Abrupt Decay. I resolve two Underworld Connections to keep Erebos on line long enough to beat him down to 0.

In

4 Duress
2 Erebos
1 Whip
1 Abrupt Decay

Out

2 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price
2 Pack Rat
2 Grey Merchant

Round 2 vs Junk Midrange (1-0)

I [card]Thoughtseize[/card] turn one to see a Hero’s Downfall, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, [card]Courser of Kruphix[/card], [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] and a [card]Reaper of the Wilds[/card]. I take the Baron, and then draw nothing really relevant the rest of the game after my only threat dies to the Downfall. Game 2 I Thoughtseize him take his Reaper, his only creature, leaving him a grip full of removal. I jam threat after threat, beat him down and resolve a Grey Merchant to take him to zero. Game 3 presented me with the most interesting Thoughtseize decision of the day when I Thoughtseize into a hand of Sin Collector, Blood Baron of Vizkopa, Reaper of the Wilds, and a Hero’s Downfall. I take his Sin Collector. With a Lifebane Zombie and a Downfall in hand I decide the best line of play is to take his Sin Collector, get the BBoV with Lifebane and force him to play Reaper before he has enough mana to play and protect it. I jump on that plan and it turns out to be the correct play and I take Game 3.

In

2 Doomblade
1 Whip

Out

1 Abrupt Decay
2 Bile Blight

Round 3 vs Burn (2-0)

He mulls down to 5 and I Thoughtseize him turn 1 to see [card]Young Pyromancer[/card], [card]Chain to the Rocks[/card], [card]Skullcrack[/card], and [card]Magma Jet[/card]. I take the jet and only take 2 damage the entire game. Game 2, I [card]Duress[/card] him and take Skullcrack, and [card]Pharika’s Cure[/card] on my turn the Young Pyro he plays on his. Grey Merchants and Cures get there and I finish him with Merchant beats.

In

3 Pharika’s Cures
4 Duress
1 Whip

Out

4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Pack Rat
2 Underworld Connections

Round 4 vs Mono-B (3-0)

Game 1, I Thoughtseize and kill everything he plays, Merchant for 4 and just beat him to death with Pack Rats. Game 2 he beats me with Demon and Nightveils as I can’t stick anything for long enough to stop the Demon from turning sideways into my life total. Game 3 is long and grindy. I stick a Pack Rat late enough to dodge Bile Blight and then play around it. I rip a Bile Blight late in the game to take care of the 2 Nightveils he has on board and swing into him for game.

In

1 Abrupt Decay
2 Erebos
1 Whip

Out

4 Lifebane Zombie

Round 5 vs Gruul Monsters (4-0)

I’m actually more comfortable against the Jund version of this deck, because it’s a little slower than the G/R version, and it showed here. He kills me quickly Game 1 and Game 2. [card]Ghor-Clan Rampager[/card] is one of the hardest threats for me to deal with Game 1 and he killed me with it by tapping my Demon down with Xenagos tokens and then Flesh/Blooding a [card]Polukranos, World Eater[/card] to my face. Game 2 was much more explosive from his side of the table after I kept a sketchy but keepable hand of Lifebane into Demon. He drops his green creatures before I can Lifebane them and beats me to death the same way he did Game 1 and I fold. The G/R version of Monsters is much more explosive and if you stumble on removal it punishes you dearly. Going forward, Ghor-Clan needs to be dealt with easier. A 4cmc multi-colored beater is only answered by 4 pieces of removal main board and 6 post board does not seem to be enough.

In

2 Doom Blade

Out

2 Bile Blight

Round 6 vs Jund Monsters (4-1)

This is the Monsters list I am most comfortable with. Game 1 he gets an explosive hand and takes me to 8 with a [card]Stormbreath Dragon[/card] then shows me the second dragon on his turn and I scoop. This game played out much differently. I Thoughtseize him, take his only threat, and play creatures into his removal until I can finally make a Pack Rat stick. After a few turns of Pack Rat beats, it was onto Game 3. Game 3 is another grinder and I ping him for 1 with the loneliest Pack Rat for a few turns as he kills any copies and then finish him with a Merchant plus Rat beats when he draws into no threats that I can’t deal with.

In

2 Doom Blade

Out

2 Bile Blight

Round 7 vs Mono-B (5-1)

Game 1, I’m in the driver’s seat as I kill 2 [card]Desecration Demon[/card]s while keeping mine on the table. It was uneventful with no one playing a Thoughtseize. Game 2 we trade kill spells for dudes until he stabilizes with back-to-back top-decked Gray Merchants and then a Nightveil swing to finish me off. Game 3 is a nail-biter that comes down to the last two turns of time. We have a stalled board with several rats on each side of the board. His rats have triple Mutavault backups to my one. On his last turn, he has lethal with 2 rats a merchant and an online Erebos versus my two rats Merchant and Erebos. I have a Bile Blight to deal with his Mutavaults and swamp in hand to make another rat to survive. He thinks for a while, mans up his Mutavaults and swings in for lethal. I Bile Blight his vaults, make a rat to block Erebos and survive with apparent lethal damage on board. He has one card in hand and 2 swamps open. Here’s where my mistakes for the day begin: at the end of his turn I draw a card with Connections to draw into a Thoughtseize, but I miss my draw for turn. I fire off a precombat Thoughtseize to play around a Bile Blight or any other shenanigans he may blow me out with. He shows me Connections and I swing in for the match.

This game I should have first off drawn for turn and kept the Thoughtseize in hand to still play around Bile Blight and still deliver lethal, instead of firing it off and manning up my Mutavault in response, which was my original plan. Nerves were affecting me and it was a detriment to my play. Even though it didn’t cost me the match it was still disappointing.

In

2 Doom Blade

Out

2 Bile Blight

Round 8 vs Planar Cleansing U/W (6-1)

This is my win and in and my lack of play testing against this deck becomes painfully apparent. He wins Game 1 and I sideboard like I would if he was playing a full suite of [card]Detention Sphere[/card]s and Banishing Lights. I bring in Erebos the Whip and the last Abrupt Decay. He is playing none of the 3CMC enchantments and my Decays are completely dead. Luckily, Game 2 I open a hand of Temple of Malady, Mutavault, 3 Duress, and 2 Lifebane Zombies. I Temple, pass, draw into a Swamp and double Duress and then begin to beat him turn 4 with Lifebane + Mutavault. He draws pretty much only lands and can’t do anything relevant and he dies to Zombie beats. Game 3 my board plan kills me. I draw 3 Decays this game and the lack of action ends my top 8 run. He [card]Planar Cleansing[/card]s and [card]Supreme Verdict[/card]s all of my threats away and I roll over and die to Aetherling.

In

1 Abrupt Decay
2 Erebos
1 Whip of Erebos

Out

2 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price

Round 9 vs Naya Tokens (6-2)

I have never played nor tested this matchup, and it showed. He plays [card]Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice[/card] and the combination of Voice tokens and Trostani kills me putting me to 6-3 for the day.

In

2 Doom Blade

Out

2 Ultimate Price

Overall, I played well for most of the day. The deck is extremely powerful and ran very well. The green splash is awesome and I was never disappointed to have Abrupt Decay except when I boarded poorly. Going forward I need to play test more thoroughly. Drown in Sorrow was never brought in and I think that Sligh plans were hated out by over-preparation. Those slots should have been [card]Golgari Charm[/card]s. The versatility provided by the Charms would have been much better than Drown in Sorrow.

I can see the improvement in my play. I’m getting better at playing to my outs, understanding tempo and dealing with unfavorable board states. I’m disappointed in my play in the last rounds of the tournament, but next time I know to be better prepared. If you have any comments or questions about the list or lines of play, let me know on reddit at /u/BenEBeats or in the comments.

After my unexpected month-long vacation from writing, I thought a macro article would be a good way to start again. Today I’m going to explain why I think it will be difficult to make money speculating on Magic in the future.

I’m using the term “speculation” here to mean buying cards you believe will increase in price at retail and then selling them at the new higher price if/when that price is achieved. Successful speculation is dependent on the retail price of a card increasing substantially (you need around 20% just to cover fees).

This is the type of thing that many of us do on the side, not to be confused with what stores do. Stores buy cards at buylist prices and sell at retail, which is a model that will always be viable and does not depend on increasing card prices.

The pillar that has been propping up Magic speculation for the last few years is the general upward movement in Magic card prices. The influx of new players (and their money) has consistently pushed card prices higher over this time period. Those with some insight into the game were able to pick the cards that benefited most, but just about everything was a reasonably good buy five years ago.

I’m starting to see cracks in this pillar, though. Here are my concerns.

1. Wizards is catching up on reprints.

Two years ago, Wizards was woefully unprepared for the success of the Modern format. They clearly did not have a plan to get more copies of key Modern cards into circulation when they created the format. After three years, it appears that they are finally getting their feet under them.

Yes, it is laughable that we still don’t have fetchlands, but all signs point to that being corrected as soon as this fall (the omission of Onslaught fetchlands from Vintage Masters is telling).

Fetches aside, we now see a more aggressive reprint plan coming to fruition. Modern Masters was a big first step and the consensus is that we will see the sequel next summer. Wizards has replaced half-hearted casual Core Set reprints like [card]Nantuko Shade[/card] and [card]Serra Avatar[/card] with Modern relevant cards like [card]Mutavault[/card] and [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card]. This year, [card]Chord of Calling[/card] and [card]Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth[/card] continue the trend. The previous two fall sets have also featured reprinted Modern staples in the shocklands and [card]Thoughtseize[/card], and I expect to see more of these in the future.

On top of this, Wizards has more supplemental product than ever. The now-annual Commander product is perfect for reprints because there are no format, balance, or even thematic concerns. You can drop literally anything into those decks. We also can’t forget about Duel Decks, we did just get a [card]Remand[/card] reprint there.

Even Legacy got some reprint love this year between Conspiracy and the [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card] reprint in From the Vault.

Wow, that’s a lot of reprint outlets. Can you think of anything reprintable that wouldn’t fit in at least one of those products? No, neither can I.

The increased threat of reprint makes speculation a lot trickier. If you are good at predicting the Standard meta you will always have that, but holding Modern and Commander cards is now substantially riskier. Cards like [card]Abrupt Decay[/card] and [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card] – cards that I would normally be loading up on during rotation – could very well end up in Modern Masters II (or a Duel Deck, Commander deck, etc.) in the next 18 months. As a speculator, I can’t be sure that is enough time for the cards to appreciate.

It’s a risk I’m not sure I’m willing to take. Picking winners is hard enough without having to dodge the barrage of reprints.

2. The market is being flooded with new products.

Not flooded as in overly large print runs, but as in a huge number of new products.

Journey into Nyx, Conspiracy, Vintage Masters, M15, Commander 2014, From the Vault: Annihilation and Khans of Tarkir are all going to hit in a 6 month span. I’m not complaining about this, I think it is great, but that is a ton of new product. The finance issue is that there is only so much money to go around and these new products are going to suck up a lot of the money that might have gone into the secondary market in the past.

It’s even more concerning when you combine this with the reprint issue. Players usually have to choose between buying cards on the secondary market and buying new product. If the new product includes reprints of the cards they need anyway, there is no decision. Why buy [card]Stifle[/card]s from a store when you can draft Conspiracy and probably end up with one?

All this cash being diverted to new product is going to make it harder for cards to maintain their prices in the secondary market.

Magic Online offers a great illustration. Standard prices tanked when Vintage Masters came out. Why? Because people wanted to play VM and needed to sell Standard cards to raise the money to do that. I know the upcoming client switch is playing a factor, but there’s just not enough money to go around.

From Wizards perspective, this is not cannibalization. The new products are not fighting with each other for money (well, they are to some degree) as much as they are fighting with the secondary market for money. Wizards makes zero dollars when an Onslaught [card]Polluted Delta[/card] gets sold at an LGS. They are going to make a boatload of dollars when people are furiously cracking Khans packs in search of [card]Polluted Delta[/card]s (I think). This is a great strategy for Wizards and I’m not sure why it took them so long to cash in on their assets. Speculators, unfortunately, don’t get a cut of any of this.

3. There are no new formats on the horizon.

One of the biggest drivers of secondary market prices over the past few years has been the rise in popularity of new formats, specifically Modern and Commander. When these formats started gaining momentum, it prompted players to go out and buy a lot of cards they would not have otherwise bought.

Most people have their Commander and Modern cards by this time or have consciously decided not to play those formats. Now what? Sure, the continued growth of the player base will put some upward pressure on card prices (barring reprints), but we’re talking 30% annual player growth in a good year. Speculators are dependent on cards doubling (that’s 100% growth, kids) in much shorter time periods.

The days of pulling formerly-bulk rares that are now $20 out of your collection may be behind us unless something new comes along. I don’t see it yet.

What Now?

The market has stabilized quite a bit. This is good for players, but the problem for financiers is that we have been living on market volatility for the past two years.

As I said, Standard speculation is still a fine place to be if you are good at it. It was never a good place to be if you aren’t. As for Modern, I expect a pretty quiet year. Shocks to the system (surprise reprints, bannings and unbannings, new cards that impact the format) will still be important, but I think there will be far fewer cards spiking out of seemingly nowhere. Holding Modern cards is becoming increasingly risky and less likely to pay off. I’m drawing my stock down.

Reserved List cards are an option, but I’m not sold. People perceive the Reserved List as a “flight to quality,” but I’m not sure they are right. That’s another article.

Sealed product is going to be hit as well. The baseline price for sealed product is always the expected value of the cards inside, and reprints hurt that. There is a draft premium, but there are literally three current draft formats I want to be playing right now (Theros block, Vintage Masters, Conspiracy) with M15 on the way, so why would I pay $160 for a box of Innistrad? Why would I pay $400 for a box of Modern Masters when I can play Vintage Masters now or just wait for Modern Masters II next year?

It looks to me like most of the easy money is made. I remember thinking in the middle of all those Modern spikes, “this has got to stop.” Well, it has.

Thanks for reading.