Fred and James were running in the woods and around the trees in a game of chase without any actual chasing. The boys' laughter echoed throughout the forest causing villagers to randomly stop what they're doing to look up and smile. Their bright spirits were known by all of the townsfolk and everyone could feel that they were destined for greatness. Fred and James were unrelated, but their fathers had been best friends and were neighbors so naturally they spent time and grew up together. Although they were only eight years old they already had some small responsibilities such as meeting up with the old folks and helping bring kindling to homes in the morning. The virtual brothers never separated from one another whether they had to go to school, church or play. They knew that when they would need to face their prophesied challenge leading them to greatness they would only have each other to depend on.
````````````````````````````````````````
"Aha! I've rolled a three and will summon a mighty centaur to fend off your puny merfolk." Fred exclaimed as he gathered just enough mana to conjure a small green centaur illusion on the stump of a once mighty oak tree. The stump had so many rings that as kids Fred and James could never count high enough and when they became older they decided to not try and count again. The boys were playing a game of wizards' war by the creek to pass some time before they needed to return to their studies. "Oy, no fair. You always make centaurs! Why don't you try making something different for once? Even trying to make a bear would do ya good" James said as he leaned his head against his arm on the stump. He sighed and rolled his die which landed on a four. After thinking a bit he collected four wizard units of blue mana and decided to surround his merfolk with water by creating a pond for it. "What's that going to do?" Fred asked. "I'm not sure yet, but I figured that since he's a merfolk that water oughta protect 'im." "That seems right, if my centaur attacked him he wouldn't get too hurt underwater."
The chapel bells rang and reverberated between the trees. Fred quickly rolled his die and saw that it landed on a one before moving his hand through the centaur illusion to dissipate his creation. "Time to go back!" "Ey, I saw that one!" Fred began running and James started chasing him just like the old days. Soon they were running alongside each other and about to race when they noticed the area around the town fountain was gathering a group of people. They slowed their pace to go around and get a better view when they heard a sultry voice start to speak. "Humans of Truvensdale! I have arrived here today to save you all from having to suffer and work through a common challenge in life. Come up everyone and I shall reveal to you the secret to solving the problem of.... finding love."
````````````````````````
Lolani held onto the arm of one the grey ogres standing next to her in order to pull herself up onto the ledge of the village fountain. Now everyone could see her and she could see everyone, just how she liked it. She patted down the front roll of her dress to make sure she was still decent even if she had some skin showing. The plated crimson dress was modeled after the infamous Liliana's and the well-known Chandra's usual attire. Lolani liked to believe she was the better version of those two combined.
"Good good. Now that I've got your attention I'm going to tell you a story" she said to the people of Truvensdale. "Hey! Will the secret you reveal work on you?" a young man heckled. She cast a quick spell and shot water from the fountain towards him. The murmuring of the townspeople stopped. The only people who knew how to utilize the abundant mana in their little village were Fred and James. "That's what you get for interrupting, but to answer your question yes the secret works on me. However, you are going to have to master love better than I in order to be successful."
~~~~~~
The woman speaking was the most gorgeous creature Fred had ever seen. She looked human but he felt like there was more to her. No one in town had hair or eyes nearly as dark or mysterious as hers. He was immediately entranced and couldn't take his eyes off of her, especially since the two hideous ogres guarding her enhanced her beauty so intensely and were not pleasing to look at. It was a trap and he knew it, but he didn't mind. Fred was the kind of guy who enjoyed things while they lasted.
"Ya see that? She made the water come outta the fountain and hit Nate!" James exclaimed. He looked over to his best friend just to realize that Fred was completely smitten and let out an overly exaggerated groan. "Not again... She's just going to be another Sherry, Fred. Aren't ya curious about how she's usin' the mana 'round here? Maybe we could learn from her!" James wanted to practice using the plentiful resources he could feel circling around him, but he never found another spellcaster besides Fred until now...
````````````````
Friday, September 21, 2012
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Opening Sigarda
Drafted again on Tuesday!
I feel like the regular 8-4 draft I did last night was a little more exciting because I got to play against someone I think is really good for the first time... and I beat him! n_n
Anyway, here goes what happened. I first picked Sigarda and knew my colors right away even though I passed really good black cards like Barter in Blood, Marrow Bats and four Death Winds. Sigarda is such an awesome bomb!!! No black removal can get rid of her and the only thing that really can are two rares: Bonfire of the Damned and Terminus. After passing all of the good black cards to the guy on my left he passed me all of the good white and green cards! It was basically perfect. I had enough playables except once again I had Terrifying Presence. I feel like that card is growing on me, but it really shouldn't!
Here's how my deck turned out:
Creatures (16) Spells (6) Lands (23)
1 Moorland Inquisitor 2 Joint Assault 8 Forest
2 Nearheath Pilgrim 1 Terrifying Presence 7 Plains
1 Farbog Explorer 2 Eaten By Spiders 2 Swamp
1 Gloomwidow 1 Homicidal Seclusion
2 Borderland Ranger
2 Devout Chaplain Artifacts (1)
1 Trusted Forcemage 1 Angel's Tomb
1 Seraph of Dawn
1 Midvast Protector
1 Geist Trappers
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Vorstclaw
1 Archangel
Yeah, it's kind of funny that I splashed black JUST for Homicidal Seclusion, but really it's one of my all-time favorite Avacyn Restored cards. It's just SO GOOD. +3/+1 and LIFELINK! That means I can hold onto all of my cards and play them one at a time! Ha. I really love Devout Chaplains for things like Triumph of Ferocity, Angelic Armaments and Bladed Bracers. My boyfriend doesn't think she's amazing, but she's SO USEFUL. I also love the mana curve of my deck. 16 out of 23 of my cards could be played with three lands or less. Having a fast deck is so important in the slower format of Avacyn Restored.
My first round opponent is a fairly good player, but in his mind he can never beat me. I don't think I've lost to him, but still that mindset really gives me an advantage. Always believe in yourself and try your best!!! During our first game he played Latch Seeker on turn three which terrified me because I have no removal for that whatsoever. The only thing I could do was race and boy was it a close race!!! Fortunately I managed to continually throw creatures onto the board and ended up with 2 life left when I won the game because of Joint Assault with my Neatheath Pilgrim and Midvast Protector. If I didn't manage to gain some life from bonding with Nearheath Pilgrim I would have been dead in that first game for sure! He really is an amazing card in draft. In the second game Moorland Inquisitor and Trusted Forcemage attacked for 10 on turn 4 with Joint Assault. It only took a few more turns of non stop attacks to finish him off. The match ended very quickly.
My second round opponent is the player who I think is really good. He's won several thousand from Magic tournaments and used to fly around to play, so he intimidated me. Game 1 I mulliganed to 6 and kept a one land hand... the land was a swamp. Ha. It was so tempting to keep though!!! I had a Nearheath Pilgrim, Moorland Inquisitor, 2 Devout Chaplains, Eaten By Spiders and a Joint Assault. Turn 1 and 2 I did not draw a land, but instead Sigarda and Terrifying Presence... But on turn 3 I played a Plains and got out the Inquisitor. It was a tough game of survival, but I was really mana screwed. I'd block to gain two life and play a creature to bond with the pilgrim again. If I could have gotten my fifth land to play Sigarda I bet would have won... Don't keep one land hands! Especially the splashed color land. Game two I kept the perfect hand and won quickly. Game three was intense! I must have gained at least 40 life in it, it was pretty ridiculous. At first his aggressive deck of two drops were winning until I played a Farbog Explorer. He had two Tandem Lookouts that were bonded to a Wolfir Avenger and a Wandering Wolf. Also, he had Triumph of Ferocity (which I later exiled with Devout Chaplain!!!) out so he was drawing cards like a mad man! He must have drawn at least 10-15 extra cards that game, not exaggerating. Anyway, I was finally able to stabilize with two Nearheath Pilgrims out on the board and slowly chipped away at his life with Seraph of Dawn. At the end of the game he didn't have any fliers and I was stuck with Terrifying Presence and two Eaten By Spiders in my hand, relieved that I finally won.
Usually after two rounds in an 8-4 draft players split to each get 6 packs. However, my opponent said that it was one of his rare nights off so he wanted to play and bought me a rootbeer to make up for it. I don't really mind playing it out, but I do love free things. He played a WU lifegain deck that I hear is a really popular good archetype for AVR drafts. Although he did gain a lot of life and stalled the game for a long time, his creatures just weren't as good as mine late game, such as my Archangel and Vorstclaw, which I ended up having both out. He had a few Angels, but they weren't big enough to get through to my life very much and I did use my Eaten By Spiders. It was quite tiring to watch him continuously gaining life... especially with the same Cathedral Sanctifier for 12 life. In the second game he was getting out a lot of Angels and making me scared to attack with Archangel until I found an Eaten By Spiders. When I finally attacked he double-blocked her with Goldnight Redeemer and Voice of the Provinces so I used Eaten By Spiders on Goldnight Redeemer before combat damage. Then he played Into the Void on Vorstclaw and Archangel before attacking me with everything and bringing me down to 8. However, I had a Midvast Protector and Homicidal Seclusion out and attacked for 5 lifelink before playing my Angel and a Nearheath Pilgrim bonded. After I won soon after we shook hands and he said that I deserved to win. :)
I feel like the regular 8-4 draft I did last night was a little more exciting because I got to play against someone I think is really good for the first time... and I beat him! n_n
Here's how my deck turned out:
Creatures (16) Spells (6) Lands (23)
1 Moorland Inquisitor 2 Joint Assault 8 Forest
2 Nearheath Pilgrim 1 Terrifying Presence 7 Plains
1 Farbog Explorer 2 Eaten By Spiders 2 Swamp
1 Gloomwidow 1 Homicidal Seclusion
2 Borderland Ranger
2 Devout Chaplain Artifacts (1)
1 Trusted Forcemage 1 Angel's Tomb
1 Seraph of Dawn
1 Midvast Protector
1 Geist Trappers
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Vorstclaw
1 Archangel
Yeah, it's kind of funny that I splashed black JUST for Homicidal Seclusion, but really it's one of my all-time favorite Avacyn Restored cards. It's just SO GOOD. +3/+1 and LIFELINK! That means I can hold onto all of my cards and play them one at a time! Ha. I really love Devout Chaplains for things like Triumph of Ferocity, Angelic Armaments and Bladed Bracers. My boyfriend doesn't think she's amazing, but she's SO USEFUL. I also love the mana curve of my deck. 16 out of 23 of my cards could be played with three lands or less. Having a fast deck is so important in the slower format of Avacyn Restored.
My second round opponent is the player who I think is really good. He's won several thousand from Magic tournaments and used to fly around to play, so he intimidated me. Game 1 I mulliganed to 6 and kept a one land hand... the land was a swamp. Ha. It was so tempting to keep though!!! I had a Nearheath Pilgrim, Moorland Inquisitor, 2 Devout Chaplains, Eaten By Spiders and a Joint Assault. Turn 1 and 2 I did not draw a land, but instead Sigarda and Terrifying Presence... But on turn 3 I played a Plains and got out the Inquisitor. It was a tough game of survival, but I was really mana screwed. I'd block to gain two life and play a creature to bond with the pilgrim again. If I could have gotten my fifth land to play Sigarda I bet would have won... Don't keep one land hands! Especially the splashed color land. Game two I kept the perfect hand and won quickly. Game three was intense! I must have gained at least 40 life in it, it was pretty ridiculous. At first his aggressive deck of two drops were winning until I played a Farbog Explorer. He had two Tandem Lookouts that were bonded to a Wolfir Avenger and a Wandering Wolf. Also, he had Triumph of Ferocity (which I later exiled with Devout Chaplain!!!) out so he was drawing cards like a mad man! He must have drawn at least 10-15 extra cards that game, not exaggerating. Anyway, I was finally able to stabilize with two Nearheath Pilgrims out on the board and slowly chipped away at his life with Seraph of Dawn. At the end of the game he didn't have any fliers and I was stuck with Terrifying Presence and two Eaten By Spiders in my hand, relieved that I finally won.
Usually after two rounds in an 8-4 draft players split to each get 6 packs. However, my opponent said that it was one of his rare nights off so he wanted to play and bought me a rootbeer to make up for it. I don't really mind playing it out, but I do love free things. He played a WU lifegain deck that I hear is a really popular good archetype for AVR drafts. Although he did gain a lot of life and stalled the game for a long time, his creatures just weren't as good as mine late game, such as my Archangel and Vorstclaw, which I ended up having both out. He had a few Angels, but they weren't big enough to get through to my life very much and I did use my Eaten By Spiders. It was quite tiring to watch him continuously gaining life... especially with the same Cathedral Sanctifier for 12 life. In the second game he was getting out a lot of Angels and making me scared to attack with Archangel until I found an Eaten By Spiders. When I finally attacked he double-blocked her with Goldnight Redeemer and Voice of the Provinces so I used Eaten By Spiders on Goldnight Redeemer before combat damage. Then he played Into the Void on Vorstclaw and Archangel before attacking me with everything and bringing me down to 8. However, I had a Midvast Protector and Homicidal Seclusion out and attacked for 5 lifelink before playing my Angel and a Nearheath Pilgrim bonded. After I won soon after we shook hands and he said that I deserved to win. :)
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Earning My Acidic Slime Promo
Hello. I'm back from visiting Spain and experiencing Pro Tour Barcelona!
Anyway, today's blog entry is of my draft for FNM yesterday.
We had a six man pod and I generally do not like this because I feel like there aren't ever enough cards in one. More packs means more options, right? My first pick was Death Wind for three reasons: 1. my rare was awful, 2. my uncommons were awful, and 3. I really like playing black. I just feel that the people at my LGS are good enough to know it's a bad color and will do their best not to draft it which then leaves me with any good uncommons later in the draft. Second pick for me was an Eaten By Spiders because I love this card. I always maindeck any Eaten By Spiders I get because what deck doesn't want flyers in it? Avacyn Restored doesn't really have a RG aggro draft deck and that's the only deck I can think of now that wouldn't have flyers. Also, Angelic Armaments is always a pain in the butt whenever I encounter one that isn't mine. Later in the first pack I found a Barter in Blood so I was definitely going to try my best to stay in black.
One card I feel like I must have in every draft deck with black in it is Homicidal Seclusion. I cannot rave about this card enough! In fact, I would definitely splash for it whenever I can if I'm playing green with Borderland Rangers and or Abundant Growths. Lucky me, about halfway during the third pack I found a Homicidal Seclusion! I thanked that Magic gods and felt like my deck was complete. In the end, this is what my deck consisted of:
Creatures (17) Spells (6) Lands (17)
1 Blood Artist 1 Barter In Blood 7 Forest
1 Borderland Ranger 1 Bone Splinters 10 Swamp
2 Butcher Ghoul 1 Death Wind
2 Driver of the Dead 1 Eaten By Spiders
1 Evernight Shade 1 Homicidal Seclusion
1 Geist Trappers 1 Terrifying Presence
1 Howlgeist
1 Maalfeld Twins
1 Marrow Bats
2 Nettle Swine
1 Nightshade Peddler
1 Renegade Demon
1 Searchlight Geist
1 Yew Spirit
If Homicidal Seclusion wasn't in my deck, I probably wouldn't like my deck at all. It was a very, very slow deck most of the time. I felt like I wouldn't get any creatures out until turn 4 and by then I would have already taken some damage. My hopes were always to have a creature out turn 4 and play Homicidal Seclusion turn 5. Luckily for me, I was able to curve out pretty often in my deck. Also, I really don't like the card Terrifying Presence. I only have it in my deck because I didn't have enough playables. This is because I hate drafted a lot and also didn't get any sideboard cards. Anyway, I feel like Terrifying Presence is a slightly better Fog, but I would try my best to find a better card. I would take an Abundant Growth over Terrifying Presence any day.
My first round opponent was playing UR humans. In all three of our games he was able to somehow get his one of Wingcrafter in his opening hands. During game 1 he had paired Wingcrafter with Riot Ringleader while I had Eaten By Spiders in my hand. When he attacked with them I killed his Riot Ringleader before blocking Wingcrafter with my Butcher Ghoul. After that I had more creatures than him and won the race. In game 2 he just crushed me and it was beautiful. Turn 1 Wingcrafter, turn 2 Lightning Mauler (no bond), turn 3 Riot Ringleader (bond) and turn 4 Into the Void. During game 3 I crushed him almost as fast with Butcher Ghoul, Searchlight Geist, Nettle Swine and then my Renegade Demon.
Round 2 was definitely intense for me. During both games I felt so close to winning until my dreams would be harshly crushed by Spirit Away. During the first game he had multiple creatures out and stole my lone Renegade Demon with Homicidal Seclusion out. Then in game 2 he Spirited Away my precious Howlgeist with Homicidal Seclusion out. It was a sad game as I tried to stay alive with my Terrifying Presence and hoped to top deck my Eaten By Spiders...
After losing round 2 I felt defeated and knew I would not place first. To make things worse, I just found out that my round 3 opponent was going to be my boyfriend! At least for the three games we played I was able to play casually, comfortably and on auto-pilot. I won game 1 with Howlgeist and Homicidal Seclusion. During game 2 my boyfriend was able to pair Mist Raven with his Deadeye Navigator so I desperately hoped to draw Eaten By Spiders or Death Wind but did not. Game 3 my boyfriend played Deadeye Navigator on turn 6 and the only creature I had to play was Nettle Swine which I sacrificed to kill Deadeye Navigator with my Bone Splinters. It was such a perfect opportunity and I didn't mind losing my 4/3. After that though I accidentally made an awful play with Barter in Blood while I had Evernight Shade, Geist Trappers and an undead Butcher Ghoul out. He was at 6 and I should have kept my creatures to keep attacking him. Luckily I drew into Homicidal Seclusion the next turn to kill him with my shade.
Round 4 I faced WU humans and the first game was a really fast and intense race. My opponent made an awful mistake turn 5 when he Peeled From Reality his Cathedral Sanctifier instead of his Mist Raven. I was down to four life that game! In game 2 he was mana screwed, stuck on three lands, so I completely crushed him. After all of the rounds, I ended up in 4th place and earned my promo Acidic Slime, which is the main reason I play FNM these days. I just want to collect all of the promos! Even though I didn't really like my draft deck in the beginning, all of my wins made it grow on me. Also, Homicidal Seclusion is really, really, really good.
Anyway, today's blog entry is of my draft for FNM yesterday.
One card I feel like I must have in every draft deck with black in it is Homicidal Seclusion. I cannot rave about this card enough! In fact, I would definitely splash for it whenever I can if I'm playing green with Borderland Rangers and or Abundant Growths. Lucky me, about halfway during the third pack I found a Homicidal Seclusion! I thanked that Magic gods and felt like my deck was complete. In the end, this is what my deck consisted of:
Creatures (17) Spells (6) Lands (17)
1 Blood Artist 1 Barter In Blood 7 Forest
1 Borderland Ranger 1 Bone Splinters 10 Swamp
2 Butcher Ghoul 1 Death Wind
2 Driver of the Dead 1 Eaten By Spiders
1 Evernight Shade 1 Homicidal Seclusion
1 Geist Trappers 1 Terrifying Presence
1 Howlgeist
1 Maalfeld Twins
1 Marrow Bats
2 Nettle Swine
1 Nightshade Peddler
1 Renegade Demon
1 Searchlight Geist
1 Yew Spirit
If Homicidal Seclusion wasn't in my deck, I probably wouldn't like my deck at all. It was a very, very slow deck most of the time. I felt like I wouldn't get any creatures out until turn 4 and by then I would have already taken some damage. My hopes were always to have a creature out turn 4 and play Homicidal Seclusion turn 5. Luckily for me, I was able to curve out pretty often in my deck. Also, I really don't like the card Terrifying Presence. I only have it in my deck because I didn't have enough playables. This is because I hate drafted a lot and also didn't get any sideboard cards. Anyway, I feel like Terrifying Presence is a slightly better Fog, but I would try my best to find a better card. I would take an Abundant Growth over Terrifying Presence any day.
Round 2 was definitely intense for me. During both games I felt so close to winning until my dreams would be harshly crushed by Spirit Away. During the first game he had multiple creatures out and stole my lone Renegade Demon with Homicidal Seclusion out. Then in game 2 he Spirited Away my precious Howlgeist with Homicidal Seclusion out. It was a sad game as I tried to stay alive with my Terrifying Presence and hoped to top deck my Eaten By Spiders...
After losing round 2 I felt defeated and knew I would not place first. To make things worse, I just found out that my round 3 opponent was going to be my boyfriend! At least for the three games we played I was able to play casually, comfortably and on auto-pilot. I won game 1 with Howlgeist and Homicidal Seclusion. During game 2 my boyfriend was able to pair Mist Raven with his Deadeye Navigator so I desperately hoped to draw Eaten By Spiders or Death Wind but did not. Game 3 my boyfriend played Deadeye Navigator on turn 6 and the only creature I had to play was Nettle Swine which I sacrificed to kill Deadeye Navigator with my Bone Splinters. It was such a perfect opportunity and I didn't mind losing my 4/3. After that though I accidentally made an awful play with Barter in Blood while I had Evernight Shade, Geist Trappers and an undead Butcher Ghoul out. He was at 6 and I should have kept my creatures to keep attacking him. Luckily I drew into Homicidal Seclusion the next turn to kill him with my shade.
Round 4 I faced WU humans and the first game was a really fast and intense race. My opponent made an awful mistake turn 5 when he Peeled From Reality his Cathedral Sanctifier instead of his Mist Raven. I was down to four life that game! In game 2 he was mana screwed, stuck on three lands, so I completely crushed him. After all of the rounds, I ended up in 4th place and earned my promo Acidic Slime, which is the main reason I play FNM these days. I just want to collect all of the promos! Even though I didn't really like my draft deck in the beginning, all of my wins made it grow on me. Also, Homicidal Seclusion is really, really, really good.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Brains!!! Zombie Draft Deck
Hello again. I have not written a blog entry in a while but I will try my best to keep up with it! I have finals next week so that makes things a wee bit tough. After that though I don't have anymore classes, and that means more time for Magic! However, today I am making time to write an entry because I drafted a really, really awesome deck.
It was an 8 man draft and I first picked a Gravecrawler because let's be honest, that's basically not a bad "money card" and it's easy to trade off. Also, it's about what my draft would have cost me if I didn't use store credit! I started drafting seriously though and was passed a Tragic Slip, and then another, and then another! THREE Tragic Slips. Now with a nice rare and three great removal spells I was pretty satisfied so I started making a fun deck. I tried to pick as many Zombies as possible to bring back Gravecrawler since I did first pick him. When there weren't any Zombies in a pack I would choose the best card available and ended up with WB. When I opened my Innistrad pack I kept a Woodland Cemetery even though I was not playing green because I'm sure it'll be worth more soon. Again, I started taking all of the Zombies and did a bit of rare drafting.
For the last round of packs I felt okay about my Zombie themed deck and could probably have stayed mono black, but I kind of have a thing for Moment of Heroism and other combat tricks. I also started hate drafting all of the really good cards and picked more Zombies when I saw them. Then I saw an Endless Ranks of the Dead and chuckled to myself a bit. I did not pick it though because I was more than confident that it would wheel. Next came an Unbreathing Horde which I let pass too because I highly doubt that anyone else at this draft had any Zombies. I took them all! Boom! They both come back to me and I was successful in taking some really good cards away from possible opponents. What are the odds of me drafting three great Zombie rares?! If only I had Zombie Apocalypse... This is how my deck ended up:
1 Gravecrawler 1 Altar's Reap 10 Swamp
1 Diregraf Ghoul 1 Ghoulcaller's Chant 7 Plains
3 Walking Corpse 3 Tragic Slip
2 Highborn Ghoul 2 Moment of Heroism
1 Unbreathing Horde 1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
2 Ghoulraiser
1 Markov Patrician
1 Sightless Ghoul
1 Elgaud Inquisitor
1 Mausoleum Guard
1 Hollowhenge Spirit
I was probably way too excited about my deck and laid it for my boyfriend Andrew and my friend Robby to see. They both warned me about Endless Ranks of the Dead not being good in draft because I might get it too late or that it might just be a useless enchantment. They also said that Unbreathing Horde was unreliable because I only have 10 other Zombies, but I felt like that was so many!
My first round was against a guy playing BR. I won the dice roll and played first with Swamps, Plains, Endless Ranks of the Dead,
Highborn Ghoul,
Tragic Slip and
Sightless Ghoul in my hand. He played a turn one Typhoid Rats and passed. Turn two I had
Highborn Ghoul out and found
Gravecrawler on turn three. I just had to play
Endless Ranks of the Dead and was so excited to get my first Zombie token! My opponent was pretty surprised and saw what was about to happen with that enchantment out. I drew an
Unbreathing Horde, played him instead of Sightless Ghoul, kept up mana for
Tragic Slip and started attacking next turn. Neither of us were attacking before, but now I was continuously gaining Zombie tokens and had Gravecrawler out. I attacked with everything and Typhoid Rats blocked my Highborn Ghoul while Feral Ridgewolf blocked Gravecrawler letting Unbreathing Horde and my Zombie token go through for five. Then he used Tragic Slip on Unbreathing Horde but I was doing fine because I casted Gravecrawler and would get two more Zombies next turn with my three tokens and him out. After that I won the game pretty fast and had nine Zombies out before winning!
Game two was a bit more difficult. He was on the play and eventually brought out Hinterland Hermit, Falkenrath Torturer and Falkenrath Noble (I'm always so scared of him). This time I played Gravecrawler, Walking Corpse, Walking Corpse and then Elgaud Inquisitor. I attacked with Gravecrawler and Walking Corpse in hopes to use Tragic Slip on Falkenrath Noble. He managed to attack me once with Falkenrath Noble and passed the turn to let Hinterland Hermit flip into Hinterland Scourge. On my turn I drew Altar's Reap and attacked with Gravecrawler and a Walking Corpse once again. This time my opponent decided to block Gravecrawler with his Falkenrath Torturer and Walking Corpse with Hinterland Scourge, but I finally got to Tragic Slip his Falkenrath Noble. However, he also had a Tragic Slip and used it on my other Walking Corpse.
After combat I casted Gravecrawler to sacrifice for Altar's Reap before casting him again and drawing into Endless Ranks of the Dead. During his turn he played Kessig Wolf and passed. I drew into a Ghoulraiser which I played to get a Walking Corpse back and then cast. Afterwards he had Abbattoir Ghoul after attacking with Kessig Wolf. I drew Ghoulcaller's Chant but didn't need to use it so I cast Endless Ranks of the Dead. It was getting bit scary though, I was at 13 and he was at 22! Next turn I drew Moment of Heroism and attacked with my Elgaud Inquisitor and Walking Corpse. Both were blocked and I used Moment of Heroism on Walking Corpse which was being blocked by Abbattoir Ghoul. Now I had 17 life since he gave Kessig Wolf first strike. Slowly after that though I started building a Zombie army and eventually won while he kept drawing into lands. I also won my next two rounds similarly with Endless Ranks of the Dead in four games. When I told my friends what happened they were surprised but happy for me and that was the end of my favorite draft deck ever so far. The end.
It was an 8 man draft and I first picked a Gravecrawler because let's be honest, that's basically not a bad "money card" and it's easy to trade off. Also, it's about what my draft would have cost me if I didn't use store credit! I started drafting seriously though and was passed a Tragic Slip, and then another, and then another! THREE Tragic Slips. Now with a nice rare and three great removal spells I was pretty satisfied so I started making a fun deck. I tried to pick as many Zombies as possible to bring back Gravecrawler since I did first pick him. When there weren't any Zombies in a pack I would choose the best card available and ended up with WB. When I opened my Innistrad pack I kept a Woodland Cemetery even though I was not playing green because I'm sure it'll be worth more soon. Again, I started taking all of the Zombies and did a bit of rare drafting.
For the last round of packs I felt okay about my Zombie themed deck and could probably have stayed mono black, but I kind of have a thing for Moment of Heroism and other combat tricks. I also started hate drafting all of the really good cards and picked more Zombies when I saw them. Then I saw an Endless Ranks of the Dead and chuckled to myself a bit. I did not pick it though because I was more than confident that it would wheel. Next came an Unbreathing Horde which I let pass too because I highly doubt that anyone else at this draft had any Zombies. I took them all! Boom! They both come back to me and I was successful in taking some really good cards away from possible opponents. What are the odds of me drafting three great Zombie rares?! If only I had Zombie Apocalypse... This is how my deck ended up:
1 Gravecrawler 1 Altar's Reap 10 Swamp
1 Diregraf Ghoul 1 Ghoulcaller's Chant 7 Plains
3 Walking Corpse 3 Tragic Slip
2 Highborn Ghoul 2 Moment of Heroism
1 Unbreathing Horde 1 Endless Ranks of the Dead
2 Ghoulraiser
1 Markov Patrician
1 Sightless Ghoul
1 Elgaud Inquisitor
1 Mausoleum Guard
1 Hollowhenge Spirit
I was probably way too excited about my deck and laid it for my boyfriend Andrew and my friend Robby to see. They both warned me about Endless Ranks of the Dead not being good in draft because I might get it too late or that it might just be a useless enchantment. They also said that Unbreathing Horde was unreliable because I only have 10 other Zombies, but I felt like that was so many!
Game two was a bit more difficult. He was on the play and eventually brought out Hinterland Hermit, Falkenrath Torturer and Falkenrath Noble (I'm always so scared of him). This time I played Gravecrawler, Walking Corpse, Walking Corpse and then Elgaud Inquisitor. I attacked with Gravecrawler and Walking Corpse in hopes to use Tragic Slip on Falkenrath Noble. He managed to attack me once with Falkenrath Noble and passed the turn to let Hinterland Hermit flip into Hinterland Scourge. On my turn I drew Altar's Reap and attacked with Gravecrawler and a Walking Corpse once again. This time my opponent decided to block Gravecrawler with his Falkenrath Torturer and Walking Corpse with Hinterland Scourge, but I finally got to Tragic Slip his Falkenrath Noble. However, he also had a Tragic Slip and used it on my other Walking Corpse.
After combat I casted Gravecrawler to sacrifice for Altar's Reap before casting him again and drawing into Endless Ranks of the Dead. During his turn he played Kessig Wolf and passed. I drew into a Ghoulraiser which I played to get a Walking Corpse back and then cast. Afterwards he had Abbattoir Ghoul after attacking with Kessig Wolf. I drew Ghoulcaller's Chant but didn't need to use it so I cast Endless Ranks of the Dead. It was getting bit scary though, I was at 13 and he was at 22! Next turn I drew Moment of Heroism and attacked with my Elgaud Inquisitor and Walking Corpse. Both were blocked and I used Moment of Heroism on Walking Corpse which was being blocked by Abbattoir Ghoul. Now I had 17 life since he gave Kessig Wolf first strike. Slowly after that though I started building a Zombie army and eventually won while he kept drawing into lands. I also won my next two rounds similarly with Endless Ranks of the Dead in four games. When I told my friends what happened they were surprised but happy for me and that was the end of my favorite draft deck ever so far. The end.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Mythic > 2 Rares
The day before yesterday was Tuesday! That means that I went drafting at CoolStuff mostly in hopes to open up some good money cards for trading but to also win more packs to put on credit. Also, I just love drafting in general. Ask anyone! However, drafting for packs continuously is very, very difficult and has too much variance to win regularly. Do not try to draft infinite! I have learned that the hard way and that is why I play FNM.
During a draft I had first picked a Deranged Outcast and then second picked Requiem Angel. Of course I was going to try playing GW after that, it's one of my favorite color combos in draft. Green and white are very aggressive, work fantastically well together and have great combat tricks. In the second pack I opened I was torn on between choosing a foil Forbidden Alchemy (because it was so pretty... and worth $6!) or a Devil's Play. I decided that winning six more packs would be more profitable and took the Devil's Play because it is definitely worth splashing for. Also, I drafted a Dawntreader Elk earlier so I felt confident about my splash.
My deck began to look better and better. I was thrilled to see Fiend Hunter passed over to me and then right after that Slayer of the Wicked. They are so good! Two for one cards have my heart. Anyway, when the draft finished I felt really excited to build my deck and ended up with this:
Creatures: Other Spells Lands
1 Darkthicket Wolf 1 Bonds of Faith 1 Mountain
3 Voiceless Spirit 2 Wild Hunger 9 Plains
1 Dawntreader Elk 1 Devil's Play 7 Forest
1 Slayer of the Wicked 1 Rebuke
1 Gavony Ironwright 1 Hunger of the Howlpack
1 Village Bell-Ringer
2 Chapel Geist
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Niblis of the Urn
1 Elgaud Inquisitor
1 Ambush Viper
1 Elder of Laurels
1 Requiem Angel
1 Deranged Outcast
During the first game I figured out that my opponent was playing a RG deck with some werewolves in it and also had some burn spells like Burning Oil. He had won game one pretty fast after casting Huntmaster of the Fells and then passing his next turn to let it transform. During our second game I was on the play happy and hopeful because in my hand were
Deranged Outcast,
Elder of Laurels,
Fiend Hunter and lands. After I passed the turn my opponent played Scorned Villager. I decided not to attack on my turn because I didn't want to trade
Deranged Outcast. To my horror I realized that I should have attacked when my opponent played a turn three Huntmaster, gained his two life and brought out his wolf token. This is when I played
Fiend Hunter to get rid of his wolf token and attacked with
Elder of Laurels.
I had drawn Rebuke and planned to attack with everything next turn in hopes that he would do the same during his turn. Then he played a Kessig Wolf which could gain first strike now because of the Scorned Villager. After a couple of turns of neither of us attacking he had already used two Evolving Wilds to search for a Plains and a Swamp. His werewolves transformed, Huntmaster killed my Niblis of the Urn and dealt 2 to me.
With all four colors of his deck and his transformed werewolves, my opponent decided to finally attack with everything. I blocked the Moonscarred Werewolf with Elder of Laurels, let Kessig Wolf through, and Rebuked Huntmaster. In response to Rebuke he tapped Moonscarred Werewolf for mana and then a Mountain to Fling Huntmaster at me for four! During my turn I took the opportunity to attack when he flashed in Briarpack Alpha to block my Deranged Outcast which I then sacrificed to give Elder of Laurels two +1/+1 counters.
During his turn I realized why he played four colors. He used Unburial Rites to bring back Huntmaster and after that I felt very disheartened. He attacked for 6 bringing me down to 5 and then it was my turn. I drew a Bonds of Faith and placed it on Kessig Wolf. Unfortunately, during my next turn I did not have a spell to cast so Huntmaster dealt 2 to Elder of Laurels and brought me down to 3 life. He then used Prey Upon with Kessig Wolf to kill Elder of Laurels before attacking. After that he played a Feral Ridgewolf, attacked next turn and won the game.
I realized that even with Elder of Laurels and Deranged Outcast on the board, beating a turn three Huntmaster that was flung at me and unburial rited is pretty difficult. His deck worked really well and he went on to win that draft, but I don't think he had another chance to Fling Huntmaster again. I keep thinking back to what I could have done better for future games. I realize that I should have used Fiend Hunter on Huntmaster rather that the token. Also, I could have pumped Deranged Outcast in order to trade with Briarpack Alpha instead of give Elder of Laurels counters. What would you have done in this situation? Do you have any similar stories you would like to share?
During a draft I had first picked a Deranged Outcast and then second picked Requiem Angel. Of course I was going to try playing GW after that, it's one of my favorite color combos in draft. Green and white are very aggressive, work fantastically well together and have great combat tricks. In the second pack I opened I was torn on between choosing a foil Forbidden Alchemy (because it was so pretty... and worth $6!) or a Devil's Play. I decided that winning six more packs would be more profitable and took the Devil's Play because it is definitely worth splashing for. Also, I drafted a Dawntreader Elk earlier so I felt confident about my splash.
My deck began to look better and better. I was thrilled to see Fiend Hunter passed over to me and then right after that Slayer of the Wicked. They are so good! Two for one cards have my heart. Anyway, when the draft finished I felt really excited to build my deck and ended up with this:
Creatures: Other Spells Lands
1 Darkthicket Wolf 1 Bonds of Faith 1 Mountain
3 Voiceless Spirit 2 Wild Hunger 9 Plains
1 Dawntreader Elk 1 Devil's Play 7 Forest
1 Slayer of the Wicked 1 Rebuke
1 Gavony Ironwright 1 Hunger of the Howlpack
1 Village Bell-Ringer
2 Chapel Geist
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Niblis of the Urn
1 Elgaud Inquisitor
1 Ambush Viper
1 Elder of Laurels
1 Requiem Angel
1 Deranged Outcast
I had drawn Rebuke and planned to attack with everything next turn in hopes that he would do the same during his turn. Then he played a Kessig Wolf which could gain first strike now because of the Scorned Villager. After a couple of turns of neither of us attacking he had already used two Evolving Wilds to search for a Plains and a Swamp. His werewolves transformed, Huntmaster killed my Niblis of the Urn and dealt 2 to me.
With all four colors of his deck and his transformed werewolves, my opponent decided to finally attack with everything. I blocked the Moonscarred Werewolf with Elder of Laurels, let Kessig Wolf through, and Rebuked Huntmaster. In response to Rebuke he tapped Moonscarred Werewolf for mana and then a Mountain to Fling Huntmaster at me for four! During my turn I took the opportunity to attack when he flashed in Briarpack Alpha to block my Deranged Outcast which I then sacrificed to give Elder of Laurels two +1/+1 counters.
During his turn I realized why he played four colors. He used Unburial Rites to bring back Huntmaster and after that I felt very disheartened. He attacked for 6 bringing me down to 5 and then it was my turn. I drew a Bonds of Faith and placed it on Kessig Wolf. Unfortunately, during my next turn I did not have a spell to cast so Huntmaster dealt 2 to Elder of Laurels and brought me down to 3 life. He then used Prey Upon with Kessig Wolf to kill Elder of Laurels before attacking. After that he played a Feral Ridgewolf, attacked next turn and won the game.
I realized that even with Elder of Laurels and Deranged Outcast on the board, beating a turn three Huntmaster that was flung at me and unburial rited is pretty difficult. His deck worked really well and he went on to win that draft, but I don't think he had another chance to Fling Huntmaster again. I keep thinking back to what I could have done better for future games. I realize that I should have used Fiend Hunter on Huntmaster rather that the token. Also, I could have pumped Deranged Outcast in order to trade with Briarpack Alpha instead of give Elder of Laurels counters. What would you have done in this situation? Do you have any similar stories you would like to share?
Monday, April 2, 2012
Introductions Are In Order
Hello there and welcome to my Magic blog! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nhi Pham, I am 18 and I have been playing Magic for about six months now. It all started when I was browsing Reddit back at the end August last year and clicked on the top post that day. Remember the Gizmodo fiasco with Jon Finkel? Well, that's when I started hearing about Magic: The Gathering. However, that is not when I started playing the, what I now believe to be, fantastic game. It was on that Gizmodo article when I happened to click on a hyperlink taking me to OKCupid. At first I had no intention to make an account or to try online dating, but their opening page was so compelling. E-mail address and birthday? It really was that easy? So I thought "Why not?" and decided to sign up, but mostly because I had recently turned 18 the week before and was able to legally try out the site.
Anyway, after several messages it seemed like at least 75% of the guys in my area enjoyed Magic: the Gathering. When I was younger, probably about 8-10 years ago, I played Pokemon. After that I played Yu-Gi-Oh for a few years before finally giving up trading card games in high school. So I thought "Well, I am no stranger to this scene, maybe I should start playing Magic so I can have another thing in common with these guys." Off I was looking for people to teach me how to play Magic. After posting a Facebook status about my desire to learn the game a friend of mine offered a box of old cards he had laying around since he had given up the game. Of course I accepted it! It's about 1600 commons and uncommons from Ravnica and not worth much, but I was really excited.
A month later one of my dates from OKCupid offered to teach me after dinner one night and to his surprise I was thrilled because I was much too shy to ask. (I'm one of those really, REALLY quiet and shy girls...) I borrowed one of his decks, mono green with cards mostly from Worldwake and Zendikar, and started slowly playing as he explained the rules. After that first game I understood most of the basics and was excited to start building my very own deck. The next day I went on another date with a different guy who took me to the local gaming store. This time I brought along my box of Ravnica cards which we then sorted by color. I told him I wanted to built a deck but didn't know where to begin. Then he asked me which color I liked best. Well, metallic emerald green is my favorite color so I decided to try making a green deck. My date then told me to pick out all of the cards I liked, which I did. When I was done reading through all the green cards I had a nice little pile of the ones I thought were interesting. After that we added lands and I had a deck!
It was a pretty bad deck. All of the cards were different and did not go very well together. My date had made a deck of his own using the white cards I had in my box and we started playing. That's when I truly got the gist of the game. I basically learned 90% of everything I needed to that night. I don't really remember much, but I do recall figuring out what flying and trample are which doesn't seem bad for a beginner. After that I bought a beginner's deck from Target that was GW Infect and slowly started improving it. My deck wasn't standard though. I included Invigorate, Vines of Vastwood and Armadillo Cloak. After that deck I purchased the five intro Innistrad decks and really grew to like the vampire one.
A couple weeks later my second date then brought me over to his friend's house to draft for the first time. I was told to stick to one or two colors and that the cards I choose would be placed in a deck to play against other draft decks. I read each card from every pack and chose which ones I thought were the most powerful. After drafting my cards I took out all of the ones that weren't in my colors and added lands. I played against my date's friend's wife and lost. This really confused me because I was sure I had chosen the best cards! Upset, I asked my date what I did wrong so he looked through my deck and chuckled. Turns out that four creatures is not enough for a draft deck.
After that first draft I began drafting at my local gaming store and won second place at FNM during my third draft ever! Most people told me that it was beginner's luck but I know I drafted a pretty good WU deck that night, even if I chose Doomed Traveler over Gallows Warden. The following week I decided to try out the standard FNM and borrowed a friend's mono red deck, which he told me was simple play. During my first round I felt like I was doing pretty well with Koth on the field at four. Then I learned that you can only have one of the same planeswalker on the field. My opponent let me take him back though which was pretty nice of the guy. Also, I'm pretty sure he felt bad for me since it was my first month of playing Magic. I went 3-3 that night and felt pretty good about myself. I was so surprised that everyone stayed out so late to play though, I was getting so tired!
I decided to only draft and enter the draft FNM for a couple months and began collecting cards this way. My decks slowly improved as well as my playing skills. Soon I became good enough to be feared at in my school and becoming recognized at my local gaming store. After playing for about two and a half months I was on winter break and randomly decided to take a bus to New York. Since my boyfriend knew about my Reddit story and Magic he told me that Jon Finkel lives in New York. He then texted me Finkel's twitter username and I tweeted the guy who started it all if he had time to play casual Magic with me. During my bus ride to New York I received a direct message on Twitter and was so ecstatic that he gave me a "maybe"! Playing with Jon Finkel the day I had to leave New York is probably one of my favorite memories relating to Magic. Unfortunately, I was much too shy to really talk much to him and even forgot to take a picture! However, I did manage to get my Shadowmage Infiltrator signed which is in my Wrexial Commander deck.
After New York my boyfriend gave me a werewolf deck for Christmas which I played with for quite a while. I made top 8 at a standard FNM for the first time with it and felt like I was on top of the world! Then I tried it out at a grand prix but failed quite miserably because I made top 8 the night before at CoolStuff's $500 tourney and stayed up until 4:30AM. Lesson learned. Now I just like to build my own fun decks to play standard but consider myself not too bad at Magic. On Tuesdays I draft and pay for them with the packs I've earned on credit, on Wednesdays I play casual commander and on Fridays I play standard FNM so I can earn more packs to put on credit for drafting! It's a challenging cycle.
So there you have it, my background on Magic. I really do love this game and hope to be more involved in it which why I started this blog. People have told me that writing about my experiences will help me become better. I also hope to develop my writing skills with this blog and try to at least keep you entertained for a bit! Well, I should really go to sleep now. It's past three, but I was so ready to begin this adventure! Goodnight. :)
Anyway, after several messages it seemed like at least 75% of the guys in my area enjoyed Magic: the Gathering. When I was younger, probably about 8-10 years ago, I played Pokemon. After that I played Yu-Gi-Oh for a few years before finally giving up trading card games in high school. So I thought "Well, I am no stranger to this scene, maybe I should start playing Magic so I can have another thing in common with these guys." Off I was looking for people to teach me how to play Magic. After posting a Facebook status about my desire to learn the game a friend of mine offered a box of old cards he had laying around since he had given up the game. Of course I accepted it! It's about 1600 commons and uncommons from Ravnica and not worth much, but I was really excited.
A month later one of my dates from OKCupid offered to teach me after dinner one night and to his surprise I was thrilled because I was much too shy to ask. (I'm one of those really, REALLY quiet and shy girls...) I borrowed one of his decks, mono green with cards mostly from Worldwake and Zendikar, and started slowly playing as he explained the rules. After that first game I understood most of the basics and was excited to start building my very own deck. The next day I went on another date with a different guy who took me to the local gaming store. This time I brought along my box of Ravnica cards which we then sorted by color. I told him I wanted to built a deck but didn't know where to begin. Then he asked me which color I liked best. Well, metallic emerald green is my favorite color so I decided to try making a green deck. My date then told me to pick out all of the cards I liked, which I did. When I was done reading through all the green cards I had a nice little pile of the ones I thought were interesting. After that we added lands and I had a deck!
It was a pretty bad deck. All of the cards were different and did not go very well together. My date had made a deck of his own using the white cards I had in my box and we started playing. That's when I truly got the gist of the game. I basically learned 90% of everything I needed to that night. I don't really remember much, but I do recall figuring out what flying and trample are which doesn't seem bad for a beginner. After that I bought a beginner's deck from Target that was GW Infect and slowly started improving it. My deck wasn't standard though. I included Invigorate, Vines of Vastwood and Armadillo Cloak. After that deck I purchased the five intro Innistrad decks and really grew to like the vampire one.
A couple weeks later my second date then brought me over to his friend's house to draft for the first time. I was told to stick to one or two colors and that the cards I choose would be placed in a deck to play against other draft decks. I read each card from every pack and chose which ones I thought were the most powerful. After drafting my cards I took out all of the ones that weren't in my colors and added lands. I played against my date's friend's wife and lost. This really confused me because I was sure I had chosen the best cards! Upset, I asked my date what I did wrong so he looked through my deck and chuckled. Turns out that four creatures is not enough for a draft deck.
After that first draft I began drafting at my local gaming store and won second place at FNM during my third draft ever! Most people told me that it was beginner's luck but I know I drafted a pretty good WU deck that night, even if I chose Doomed Traveler over Gallows Warden. The following week I decided to try out the standard FNM and borrowed a friend's mono red deck, which he told me was simple play. During my first round I felt like I was doing pretty well with Koth on the field at four. Then I learned that you can only have one of the same planeswalker on the field. My opponent let me take him back though which was pretty nice of the guy. Also, I'm pretty sure he felt bad for me since it was my first month of playing Magic. I went 3-3 that night and felt pretty good about myself. I was so surprised that everyone stayed out so late to play though, I was getting so tired!
I decided to only draft and enter the draft FNM for a couple months and began collecting cards this way. My decks slowly improved as well as my playing skills. Soon I became good enough to be feared at in my school and becoming recognized at my local gaming store. After playing for about two and a half months I was on winter break and randomly decided to take a bus to New York. Since my boyfriend knew about my Reddit story and Magic he told me that Jon Finkel lives in New York. He then texted me Finkel's twitter username and I tweeted the guy who started it all if he had time to play casual Magic with me. During my bus ride to New York I received a direct message on Twitter and was so ecstatic that he gave me a "maybe"! Playing with Jon Finkel the day I had to leave New York is probably one of my favorite memories relating to Magic. Unfortunately, I was much too shy to really talk much to him and even forgot to take a picture! However, I did manage to get my Shadowmage Infiltrator signed which is in my Wrexial Commander deck.
After New York my boyfriend gave me a werewolf deck for Christmas which I played with for quite a while. I made top 8 at a standard FNM for the first time with it and felt like I was on top of the world! Then I tried it out at a grand prix but failed quite miserably because I made top 8 the night before at CoolStuff's $500 tourney and stayed up until 4:30AM. Lesson learned. Now I just like to build my own fun decks to play standard but consider myself not too bad at Magic. On Tuesdays I draft and pay for them with the packs I've earned on credit, on Wednesdays I play casual commander and on Fridays I play standard FNM so I can earn more packs to put on credit for drafting! It's a challenging cycle.
So there you have it, my background on Magic. I really do love this game and hope to be more involved in it which why I started this blog. People have told me that writing about my experiences will help me become better. I also hope to develop my writing skills with this blog and try to at least keep you entertained for a bit! Well, I should really go to sleep now. It's past three, but I was so ready to begin this adventure! Goodnight. :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)