Cavern of Souls, Ponder, Mana Leak and Snapcaster Mage....

Today there's been quite the stir on my Twitter feed, in response to Master Deveoloper @zdch's article. I chimed in a couple times, but mostly been soaking in the awesome discussion. I do have some thoughts on the matter, and it goes something like this:

"Delver/Snapcaster are not the problem in Standard, it's Ponder/Mana Leak"

This is both true and misleading, in my opinion. Sure, Ponder and Mana Leak may be making Delver and Snapcaster much stronger respectively, and the inherent powerlevel of Ponder specifically is much higher than of Delver of Secrets in most formats. So if we want to solve the Ponder + Delver = Unfair problem (and maybe we don't, but if we did...), you'd need to remove either Ponder or Delver. My contention is while Ponder is the much stronger card, Delver would be the one that can go. Delver can't really function as a card in Standard without Ponder, otherwise we have a 1/1 way too often, and a deck with such a low threat density would never be able to close out a game. Ponder on the other hand, is a very good card for a lot of decks. It itself is not broken, it simply gives you tons of choices and as long as those choices don't interact with Ponder in a broken way, it actually increases the diversity of the format allowing for more deck types to be possible. While at the same time, many decks that play Blue don't even need Ponder. So yes, the power of Ponder is what turns Delver of Secrets from an awful card into a reasonable threat in Standard, but without cards like Ponder, Standard as a format (with such a limited card pool) is extremely boring, slow, inconsistent and unbalanced.

"Mana Leak is too good. Creatures should be resolving, and late game threats are important to force through to be able to go over-the-top of Aggro-Control."


Ugh, this one is a tough one for me. "Too good" is a tough statement to support. Mana Leak is arguably one of the worst cards in all the control decks that play it, but one of the best cards in U/x Delver variants. Mana Leak is a perfectly fair counterspell for control decks. Control decks want the game to go long so they need a flexible answer to a variety of threats from turn 2-5 until they can stabilize via Wrath, at which point their plan is to halt the game with a Planeswalker, Utility Land, or large protectable creature. The drawback, is since they intend to take the game long, there's no doubt these Mana Leaks will lose tons of value when drawn later in the game, and they are also unable to deal with spells cast on Turn 1 (and even Turn 2 when on the draw, or when dealing with awkward manabases that don't allow an untapped land all the time on Turn 2). Aggro Control on the other hand, is trying to do something very different. They want to apply a aggressively costed threat and protect it from the control decks using Mana Leak, forcing the control decks to survive until turn 6 or 7 to safely resolve a Sweeper. At the same time, against all-in aggro decks, they can turn the mana leaks into removal once they have advantage on board to prevent additional threats or problem permanents from hitting the board. Since these decks want to win the game before either play hits 6 mana, these Mana Leaks are always amazing for them. It solves every problem they could face, and it does it for a very low cost. The fact that their main source of damage against a control deck comes down on Turn 1 before Mana Leak, and then can be protected by Mana Leak for at least 3-4 turns from spot removal, and even longer from sweepers is why its such a perfect fit in those decks.

I personally prefer reactive control decks, as a result, I get scared when I hear developers say they want to nerf counterspells and blue style control in general. I understand they have metrics that dictate what types of mechanics to buff/nerf  based on sales (among other things), so I have to have some faith that they do these things intelligently. I will say, the more frequently I hear someone from R&D say "We messed that up..." I'm less likely to just blindly trust that this game will still be awesome in a couple years. For quite a while, I never questioned it, but in the last couple years especially, we have Jace, the Mindsculptor, Stoneforge Mystic, Mental Misstep, Mana Leak and Snapcaster Mage all as cards some R&D member has said shouldn't have been printed. Even more so, there's been some reprints that have been mistakes (Titans repeat...) Now, none of these individual "mistakes" are damning to the R&D team (they are obviously awesome), but if it becomes their echoing claim, "Hey we make mistakes, sorry..." I'm going to become a much more skeptical consumer. Especially when you combine that with the fact that they've determined nerfing the major section of the types of spells I personally prefer.... and who knows. I'm not jumping to any radical conclusions, or slipping down any slopes, but it's something to consider. For me personally, if we're going to lose cards like Mana Leak (which already are not that amazing in decks I like to play), I'm hoping I at least continue to get access to the more narrow hard-counters, like Negate. I love Negate. Negate solves tons of problems, yet is extremely efficient. Control decks get sweepers to deal with multiple creatures and they often net huge card advantage. But battling against Planeswalkers is a Control deck's nightmare, and Negate is just the stones against it. Especially with Snapcaster Mage in the format, I'm much happier to have a toolbox off efficient narrow counters that I can use with Forbidden Alchemy/Snapcaster Mage, using other control elements to stop creatures that are "immune" to sweepers (like Primeval Titan or other ETB effects) as there's /tons/ of other ways to build contorl decks to mitigate that power and card advantage.

Who cares?


This is why it matters. If there is no fear of your spells resolving, defining the best deck in the format is just a calculation of which deck can deal 20 damage the fastest. Sure, there will be variance in draws, but ultimately, there's less choices to be made. R&D's Future-Future-League is disadvantaged in the sense they have a limited size to their Developing team. While they are very skilled, the MtG hivemind gets to run through deck iterations at alarming rates, and tuning a deck becomes a consequential detail that a majority of players never even think about. It scares me that if the toughest decision someone has to make is which haymaker to throw, and not how to play around the counterpunch.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who participated in this conversation today.

GPSeaTac!

So, i went to GPSeaTac this past weekend. And let's just say, the experience was quite different than my last GP. The last one was my first and was local, and I had no byes, and i was alive to make day 2 until round 9 which had an anti-climactic end. This time, I travelled to Tacoma, had 2 byes, and then immediately lost 3 rounds in a row in surgical fashion. My pool and deck were atrocious, i likely misbuilt it, i may or may not post the pool, it just really sucked. I initially built a R/U deck, that didn't quite have enough aggression, and ended up in a durdly G/R werewolf deck. Removal just wasn't deep enough in any of my colors, and my deck didn't have answers to simple commons like Chapel Geist.

However, this GP experience was awesome, instead of running around the site checking on all my local crowd and their results, i was meeting new people at every turn, and constantly playing magic! I got to meet lots of twitter folk for the first (or even second) time, and that was awesome!

I met @fatecreatr Chris McNutt, which was really cool. We've connected through QuietSpeculation.com stuff early on, and stayed in close touch even though he's no longer actively working with the site. He put up a good run Saturday, but missed Round 9 to go 6-3, sounds like my local GP in San Diego. maybe its the local's curse?

I also got to chit chat with @marshall_lr briefly a couple times, he was obviously swamped with coverage stuff, and what i did see of it from the hotel room during breaks was spectacular, I hope thye sign him on for more of this.

I also got to meet @jonloucks, and get some LR stickers, which was pretty cool too!

I got to spell sling against Ryan Spain @modogodot former host of Limited Resources and now WotC employee. This was actually my only prize earned of the weekend! *sigh* It was cool to just shake his hand and say hi.

I got to meet one of @thebg_d's friends Drew, @generalfish, as he smashed me in Round 2 of a Legacy win-a-box, but i got some good tips from him for beating Delver in the future.

I ran into @tom_martell a couple times at the Hotel, bought him a drink with his $napcaster mage money, and he said something to me that i've still been pondering since then. "...I x-2 (edit: fixed) or better ever Day 1 sealed at a GP anyway, so sealed is just sealed." That really stuck for me. I hate sealed, I have very Feast/Famine success with it, and made me wonder how bad at building pools i really must be. :/ not really sure how to work on this. I practice building pools a lot, but there's not really a great way to get feedback on if you built it correctly or not, aside from tournament results, so re-building pools over and over again only really gets you so far.

I also met @inkwell_looter! we just so happened to sign up for the same 8-man draft! he recognized me, and we chatted a bit before our event started. A really really friendly guy, and good competitor. i didn't get a chance to play with him, but we were both defeated by the same opponent. It was also kinda late on sunday at this point, and i didn't get a chance to try out his "Potluck" format afterward. His Draft deck looked pretty sweet when I peeked at it. He also gave me some of his awesome wolf tokens! Gonna put them in a Mayor of Avabruck deck, I think. Always refreshing when someone who you suspected is pretty damn cool actually turns out to be pretty damn cool.

It's really hard to actually hang out with people at these events, people all have different schedules and priorities, and everyone is also trying to play their event(s). It sure feels good to meet these people in person, but i had envisioned this giant dinner where everyone would drop everything and want to do some big get together. Not really sure how/why i thought that would happen, but was definitely a bit dissapointed Saturday/Sunday night when i was still just hanging out with people I already knew from prior to the weekend.

Aside from Magic, I got to do some pretty cool sight-seeing in both Tacoma and Seattle, and I had a blast both at and away from the GP site. Fun trip, hopefully I'll Q for PT Seattle later this year so I can return.

After feeling pretty confident in this format, and putting together a somewhat respectable run at my last GP, i figured the 2 bye's i had earned would help me make the bump to Day 2, and when I couldn't even win a single round, i was a bit dejected, but after that passed, and i started just playing magic for fun and exploring the city, the trip turned out great. I'd love to be able to do more travelling to these sorts of things, but it's a bit insane the more I think about it. Even if i had done well, it would have been impossible to recoup my costs unless I won the event or qualified for a flight to barcelona, and of course, everything always turns out more expensive than what you'd expect. in retrospect, if I had made it to 9th place (for arguments sake), I likely would have had a much worse trip. Sure, i'd recover a decent fraction of what i'd spent, but have not much else to show for it, and not nearly as much time to adventure around the city or meet new poeple like i did after i dropped from the event.

Thanks to all of you who helped make it an awesome trip for me!

Game Theory for Gamers

This week I have been covering Game Theory with a chunk of my students. They take a course called "Management Science" as required by the Business school at University of San Diego. In this course they do a very loose survey of many topics related to Management Science, one of which is Game Theory. I was a Management Science major in school, so basically each "module" of their course was a entire course or series of courses for me. This is how I ended up with the tutoring gig. I attended UCSD, and had friends at all the neighboring universities. One friend (may or may not have been an attractive female) asked me for some help with her Management Science class because, "That's, like, your major, right?" Well, we got her through that class, and the next semester some of her friends needed help, and I started charging a nominal fee. As time went on, and demand increased, pricing and marketing plans changed. Now, 8 years later, I get approximately 20% of the students taking this course meeting with me at least once a semester, most on a weekly basis.

Earlier this week, I tweeted a link to an example I covered this week. I saw that a solid handful of people "favorited" it, maybe because they wanted to explore the topic further at a later time. Since I didn't get any direct feedback, maybe the example was too simple, or maybe they never got around to it, or maybe it was too unfamiliar or challenging to warrant a comment or question. I want to give those people a little more of this type of content, and maybe spark interest in others. Today, I thought, "Why is it I hear so many Game Theory terms in Magic, but so few actual Game Theory discussions?" The linked example has some pretty good parallels to Magic, and I want to talk about them. Part of that, will force me to discuss the linked example to some degree, so you may want to scope it out, but if academic minutia is absolutely abhorrent to you, you could probably get the gist by reading on.

Game Theory models typically are presented in a matrix (or grid) as shown in the linked example. Each row represents a strategy that you may select once the game begins, and each column represents a strategy your opponent could select. Where each column and row intersects, we see the outcome that you would receive. In the linked example, If the row player (you) chooses Strategy A, and the column player (opponent) chooses Strategy C, you would receive an outcome of +13, while your opponent would receive an outcome of -13 (because this is a zero-sum game, anything you gain, your opponent must lose, and vice versa).

While, I don't intend on exploding about "strictly better" here (like i've done previously), there is a good example in this problem. For the Row Player, Strategy B is dominated by Strategy A and also by Strategy C. Meaning, that Strategy A is strictly better than B, and C is also strictly better than B. Regardless of what the opponent chooses, the row player will always prefer the outcomes in Row A or C to those in Row B. Once you identify Row B as a dominated strategy, you know you won't take it as the Row player, but the column player also knows you won't take it. It could essentially be removed from the matrix, leaving us with only two rows (A,C) and 3 columns (A,B,C). This is where the commonly used term "Next Level" comes in. If we know what our opponent won't do, we plan our strategy around that, and plan for what they will do.

	A	B	C
A	2	10	13
B	-4	-6	-10
C	14	4	8

Now let's look at what options the column player has, with that row removed. Now remembering that each outcome represents the gain to the row player, the column player wants a smaller (or preferably negative) outcome. After removing Row B, there are no negative outcomes, only Positive, so Column player will want to get the least possible outcome for the Row Player. With the Row B values eliminated, Column C is now dominated by Column B. All of the remaining outcomes in Column B are now lower than the remaining outcomes in Column C. We can now eliminate this column from our matrix, as both players are aware of this.

	A	B	C
A	2	10	13
B	-4	-6	-10
C	14	4	8

Now, we have a simple 2 options for each team, and it can be left to a guessing game (or not) what is the best choice. In reality, with some algebra, we determine that a mixture of strategies is best. In magic that might mean a portion of your team chooses A while the other portion chooses C (as the row team).

Academic Aside
To those interested in what this academic solution looks like, it takes a small amount of algebra, and also some assumptions about Gaming. The assumptions we make is that both sides are equally intelligent and have the same information available to them. This is rarely true in Magic. Especially with Pro Tours typically following the release of a new set, there is always the possibility one team or player is considering a deck that no one else is considering. Further, there's always some type of discrepency in general intelligence and in-game skill. Regardless, we want to determine what % of our strategy should be commited to A and what % to C. We'll assign Probability 'P' to selecting A and therefore (1-'P') to selecting C. We also assume our opponent is doing something similar, with what we'll call Q and (1-Q). Using weighted averages, we find the best solution is to select A 5/9 of the time and C 4/9 of the time. While our opponent will select A 1/3 of the time and B 2/3 of the time. If anyone is curious enough to want to see the algebra behind this, let me know, but I fear I may already be reaching the TL;DR threshold.
/Aside

In Magic, the initial Grid is actually much simpler, with each row/column being a deck option. Each outcome (or payoff) is the win% against that opponents choice. I've always been most interested in the fact that a format (or metagame) can be "solved" in Magic. And given enough time (a lot), man power (a lot), and resources (a lot), I think a team could realistically test enough to get statistically significant win% (as opposed to Mr Derp saying, "I'm 75% against RDW" because he won 3/4) for each individual matchup. Then if the team had, lets say, 10 people, they'd be able to mix their strategies approximately according to the appropriate mix that the Game Matrix solution provides for a given Pro Tour Event. While Game Theory provdies some untrue assumptions, these can actually be exploited slightly. As when it comes time to assign each team member a deck according to the suggested ratio, personal preference and playstyle can be used to put people with better skill at that particular strategy holding the appropriate deck. I dont know how closely this resembles what the "top teams" do in preparation, but i'm sure it has some paralels, even if not approached using the same academic means.

Game On!

Everyday I'm Foggin'...

Here's my final Turbo Fog list. It's extremely fun. I've had a few friends test it out, and they all have good things to say about it. I guess we'll see how SCGLA treats me. The reason I chose to play this deck this weekend, is it's matchups against the aggro decks of the format are as good or better than what the control decks have. The control decks on the other hand, vary widely by build. U/W control is a pretty decent matchup, as none of their win conditions but White Sun Zenith can win the game all at once, and Elspeth is really the only other threat in the deck that you care about. While U/B is tough. Shutting down some of their win conditions with Witchbane Orb mainboard helps, but the quantity of countermagic hurts quite a bit Game 1. It's not unwinnable if you're on the play, and it gets much better post board when you can bring in Autumn's Veil and cut some dead cards. In reality, any non-blue deck simply can't do anything against you. Which is nice. The best part of the deck is the ability to troll people constantly. I love the *eyeroll* i get when i cast my first fog while they attack for lethal. Again, a big edge with this deck is most people won't know what they're playing against until you have a Jace in play and cast your first Fog. By then, its too late. If anyone is foolish enough to play Wolf Run, this weekend, i hope i play them. I love responding to the wolf run activation with Fog.

Turbo Fog
3x Jace, Memory Adept

3x Gideon Jura

4x Fog

4x Visions of Beyond

3x Negate

2x Blue Sun's Zenith

1x Beast Within

4x Day of Judgement

2x Witchbane Orb

4x Rites of Flourishing

4x Snapcaster Mage

26x land

4 Glacial Fortress

4 Hinterland Harbor

4 Sunpetal grove

6 Island

4 Forest

4 Plains

 

Current Sideboard:

1x Naturalize

1x Divine Offering

3x Beast Within

1x Tree of Redemption
3x Autumn's Veil

1x Witchbane Orb

2x Celestial Purge

2x Timely Reinforcements
1x Noxious Revival

Typical Sideboard plans, normally they only have a couple annoying cards, so adjustable if you see cute one-ofs you need to deal with:

U/B Control
-4 Rites of Flourishing -4 Fog -2 Day of Judgement +3 Autmn's Veil +2 Celestial Purge +3 Beast Within +1 Witchbane Orb +1 Noxious Revival

U/W control
-4 Rites of Flourishing -2 Witchbane Orb -2 Fog +3 Autumn's Veil +3 Beast Within +1 Naturalize +1 Noxious Revival

RDW
-1 Blue Sun's Zenith -4 Visions of Beyond -1 Beast Within +2 Celestial Purge +1 Witchbane Orb +2 Timely Reinforcements +1 Tree of Redemption

U/W Delver
-2 Witchbane Orb -4 Visions of Beyond +3 Beast Within +2 Timely Reinforcements +1 Naturalize

U/W Humans
-2 Witchbane Orb -4 Visions of Beyond -1 Blue Sun's Zenith +3 Beast Within +2 Timely Reinforcements +1 Naturalize +1 Divine Offering

Tokens
-2 Witchbane Orb +2 Timely Reinforcements


Legacy- Solidarity- I haven't been playing much legacy, and this is a solitaire deck that I enjoy, so i'm just gonna jam it.

4x Snapcaster Mage
3x Flash of Insight
4x Reset
2x Turnabout
4x High Tide
4x Remand
3x Cunning Wish
3x Meditate
4x Brainstorm
4x Mental Note
2x Snap
2x Brain Freeze

8x Fetchland
13x Island

Sideboard:
3x Back to Basics
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
1x Brain Freeze
1x Submerge
1x Ravenous Trap
1x Mindbreak Trap
1x Force of Will
1x Misdirection
1x Turnabout
1x Snap
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Wipe Away

How to Game a Gamer...

"Nuh Uh...."

"Yeah huh!"

"Wanna bet?"

Do you remember the first time this happened to you? I don't. I don't remember the first time, or how it was explained to me, or how things would proceed from here, but whenever that first time was, was apparently a very influential moment for me. I do remember many times coaxing a bet out of someone, and we're not just talking about the outcome of a Boxing match or a Football game (those too) but specifically a Prop Bet.

What is a Prop Bet?

I'm going to presume most of you are at least somewhat familiar with the term, you can find more lengthy explanation here. But we're basically talking about two people wagering on an otherwise arbitrary future event. Gamers, especially poker players and golfers, are known for placing prop bets on just about anything. At a poker table, I've wagered on the following. "How many of the tiny complementary waterbottles can you drink in 45 seconds?" "How many people will drop out of this table before a female sits down?" On the golf course I've had wagers like, "Closest to the pin." or "Longest Drive." These aren't exactly the traditional prop bet, but technically fit the definition because they are arbitrary to the actual outcome of the golf match.

Prop Bets of Recent History
Most of you who read my blog know about my bet with @semisober. I sold him an options contract. If you're familiar with options, I sold him 75 puts on snapcaster mage, at a average cost of $4.50 each, and a strike price of $22 expiring Dec 1. For those of you who aren't, I made 75(x-17.50) where x is the current cost of a snapcaster, but my winnings are capped at $4.50 per card. While he wins if price falls below 17.50, and he would make 75(17.50-x). I won this one, and we settled on a final amount owed of $150, or $2/card. Yay money. This isn't my typical prop bet, but I enjoyed it. I don't typically take prop bets that are "sharp". This one was pretty sharp. I was willing to take on some amount of risk here, but I also wanted to prey upon @semisober talking in superlative about the future of Snapcaster Mage.

I've also won a few recent bets against @SoupaJoeViola (this guy is an EDH king, and an overall funny guy, #FF etc). After a draft at our LGS, he shows me his deck saying how strong it is, and he's guaranteeing a trip to the finals. I grin, and peek at his deck. I bet him $5 that he wouldn't make the finals with said deck. He was offended, but snap called. What did I know that he didn't? Even if his deck was amazing (which it was OK but not something to write home about) and he had a 60% chance of winning each match, thats only a 36% of making the finals, and i'm betting him 1-to-1. After I won this bet, and the next one he drafted I won another $5, I think he learned his lesson.

My proudest Prop Bet...
For those of you who've met me, I'm not exactly an athletic guy anymore. I played sports in high school, but sports was always a distant third in priorities behind academics and social life. I played on the UCSD ultimate frisbee team my first few years of college, but that quickly fell down my list of college-life priorities also. My senior year, my closest friend coaxed me into joining the Water Polo team with him. He'd payed all 4 years, and was a local star. I, on the other hand, didn't know how to swim. At least, not much more than survival level. He sold me on it because the JV squad needed a goalie, and there was some caveat that Seniors could play JV if they hadn't played in the previous years (kinda like red-shirting I guess?). Anyway, long story short (Too Late!), I played the year, led our team to a 13-1 season, and the take away is I'm now a pretty strong swimmer. Fast Forward 4 years to my senior year of college.... My room mate, some friends and I are participating in some illicit entertainment at our apartment, and he gets to talking about how when he went to visit his folks, he exercised in their pool. He was surprised how exhausting treading water could be, and that he could only do it for about 10 minutes without getting winded. I laughed in his face. Being in my worst shape of my life as a senior in high school, he's certain he'd be better at this physical activity than I. After about an hour of discussion, I say... "I could tread water for an hour." The room quiets down. Everyone knows what's going to happen next. My room mate hits the tank for about 45 seconds, and then says, "Can you do it tomorrow?" The rest is negotiating the details of the wager (no Floating-must stay verticle, chin can't touch the water for an hour), and me making sure we can pool up enough action where i'm willing to make an ass of myself in a swimming pool in front of everyone. After $300 in action is on the table, we wake up early the next day and hit the local Pool. It's hard to give much detail to the actual event itself. I mean it was probably the most boring thing in the world if you didn't have any action on it. But my friends were either Cheering or Jeering depending on what side of the bet they were on, as i calmly cycle my legs around in the diving well of this local pool. Parents of kids getting swimming lessons were staring and whispering, but I just kept treading. Surely enough, I completed the hour (as I well knew I could a few hours if needed), a bunch of money changed hands, and we had a huge party.


Why make prop bets?

Prop Bets, in my opinion, are the gamer's games. There are no fixed rules to the prop bet, the two gamers decide them when the bet is place. This is where the 'magic' happens. The definition of the prop bet at the beginning is often times a big indicator on who will win. But not always. The "Wanna Bet?" moment becomes very loaded when both parties know the other is likely to accept. In reality, one person is acting on emotion, and who ever isn't, usually wins. In my Treading Water example, my roommate, a decent athelete, wasn't willing to admit I might have an edge on him in this physical activity, even though I'm in much worse shape. He just had to pick an amount of time where he was sure that edge would show. 1 hour wasn't it, and he lost the bet. Notice here, that I had all the information, and all the power. I knew what I could do, and for those of you who haven't had formal swim training, treading water in a deep enough pool is actually easier than standing up, if you have the proper technique. The key is finding a gamer who makes a superlative or hyperbole-ridden comment that they may be too stubborn or emotional to back down from. Believe it or not, this happens all the time. The terms of the bet need to be clear, with minimal loop holes. It's okay to make them complicated too. Lots of caveats, or exceptions or situations that guarantee a double-action. Don't waste your energy convincing them, spend the time crafting the bet. Keep in mind, many times a simple, "wanna bet?" is all thats needed. Usually once money is on the line they'll already curb their over-enthusiasm, and you can see where they're really at, and if you want to make a bet. It's equivalent to a trader saying, "What do you value this at?"

The best Prop bet ever...
This is an amazing story about some online poker grinders that made a prop bet that changed their lives and friendship. Not exactly the type of prop bet I'd reccomend, but its an awesome read.

This weekend, make a prop bet. Even if you're not the gambling type, maybe it's playing the Credit Card game at dinner, or gambling on who has to drive first on the road trip to the Vegas PTQ this weekend. Just do it. When you out game a gamer, nothing feels better.

Happy Friday!

Grand Prix San Diego - Diligent. Patient.

It seems I only actually write on this blog when my emotions are at one extreme or the other (or both). I think that's the only time I feel like i'm venting way too much on Twitter, and need a more complete forum to get all my thoughts out. It's really kind of selfish, actually. This blog started with good intentions, bringing weekly light-hearted fun about the goings on of the MTG community across the interwebs, but the weeks where I didn't have anything i was passionate enough to write about, were really dry and boring, and soon enough, i just skipped those weeks, and soon enough, months would pass without writing... Until I feel the need to vent or gush or whatever. The people who pay me the courtesy "pat on the back" make it work for me, and I appreciate them. Looking back, its unlikely they got much useful from anything I've written thus far, but hopefully at least a chuckle here or there.

I used to care how many people read this blog. I used to actually look at the statistics, and see how many people clicked my morning link and my afternoon link. This is really just for me, and I've got some kind of mental block against just a journal of my own. So I have to put these emotional pieces under the ruse of a blog about Magic: the Gathering.

Back on 6/24/11, I wrote one of my lengthier, emotion ridden, blog posts. Near the end, I talked about how good it was for me to set a goal on my performance for a StarCity Event. I spent some time thinking of a new goal. I wanted it to be realistic, and not too distant. I chose GP San Diego, and Day 2 as a very respectable goal. What I said on my blog that day: "I need to be diligent in preparation and patient in execution. Diligent. Patient. Not my two best qualities."
Diligent in Preparation
With nearly 5 months to prepare, for what i thought was going to be constructed, I know I can create a plan that will put me in the best spot to attain my goal. When the format changed to Limited, my chances only improved. I've actually been grinding PTQ's this season pretty hard, trying to Qualify for Hawaii to attend with some friends of mine. I've been drafting many times a week. I've been building sample pools, sharing them with friends and rebuilding them. I've been watching videos of pros playing the format. I've been opening/participating in some great productive conversations about card valuations and archetypes. I will say, that up until 11/11/11, I was following my plan to a T. The more I knew the format, the more scared I was of sealed. I knew I wanted a strong pool, and was confident in my abilities if I got one.

Patient in Execution:
Since I set this goal, my actual game play finally started edging out of the plateau I had been experiencing, but very slowly. I punted my way out of a Standard PTQ top8 in round 9, when I was the only X-1 who couldn't draw. (notably, this is the last time i was emotional enough to blog about magic) I've been also playing a lot of MTGO both by myself, and with my local ringers. My execution was improving. I don't typically make a punt where someone points it out later, and I never saw it. That does happen sometimes though. Usually I see it the second I commit to the exact opposite line of play. This is why I wanted to focus on patience. I now feel that may have been a mistake in my mindset. It's the actual physical execution that i need to focus on. I need to play every turn the same way whether I have a trick or not. I need to focus on playing the same whether I feel the game is locked up or already lost or down to the wire. I need to execute my lines of play perfectly. I see the lines, even in the moment, I just don't execute them correctly. Sometimes I think too far ahead and get confused as to where I am in the line once I get half way through it (This happens when I'm playing Solidarity in Legacy, more than limited and also chess). I also need to not let my EMOTIONS affect my execution. not only does my body language reflect how I'm feeling and likely tip off my opponent that i have 4 lands in hand, but it makes me play worse. I've been forcing myself to close my eyes, take a deep breath, and re-evaluate the board in these cases. It helps. But sometimes i don't catch myself until its too late.

The Trainwreck

So I opened a pretty amazing pool. In the hulabaloo that is the GP, I ended up with way too many sealed pools to keep them all separated for further review. But I did save my maindeck, and remember all sideboard cards I actually played:

White:
Mikaeus, the Lunarch
Geist-honored Monk
Rebuke
Silvertail Fox
Midnight Haunting
Mausaleum Guard
Thranben Sentry
Avacyn's Priest
Voiceless Spirit (x2)
Smite the Monsterous
Slayer of the Wicked

Black:
Abatoir Ghoul
Bloodline Keeper
Night Terrors
Victim of Night (x2)
Deadweight
Tribute to Hunger
Walking Corpse

Artifact:
Juggernaut

Green:
Garruk, the Veil-Cursed
Parallel Lives (While, I used this card to AWESOME effect every time i cast it, i decided that was just really lucky, and i boarded it out EVERY round, usually for an urgent exorcism, or sometimes just a stromkirk patrol)

Lands:
Shimmering Grotto
Forest x2
Plains x6
Swamp x8

SB cards I used:
Night Terrors (second copy)
Urgent exorcism x2
Stromkirk Patrol
Purify the Grave

Round 1 (yeah, no byes, i suck etc etc. I had a bye for a while, but been rough beats this PTQ season)
I show up about 45 seconds late to my round from a restroom break, to see I've got a Game Loss. NBD. I play Tapper, into Mikaeus into bloodline keeper. My opponent played a pump wolf or something. Next Game, I played Mikaeus into Garruk. Was never close either game. At this point I'm feeling pretty good, just won two in a row in the face of a game loss. (1-0)

Round 2 I played a nice guy, by the name of Kelvin. He must have been somewhat local, because a lot of my friends knew who he was. He played solid, but game 1 i resolved a bloodline keeper and a garruk with a parallel lives in play. Game 2 I curved out against his mana screw and put it away. Now i'm ready to take on the world. haven't lost a game yet, and loving my deck. (2-0)

Round 3 I played Jiann, from Australia. I lost game 1, on a marginal keep. Certainly owning that. I kept 5 lands (all 3 colors) Night terrors, and Geist Honored Monk. When I never drew another spell, I never had a chance. I won Game 2 on the back of a mikaeus on x=6, pumping a field of dudes. Game 3 had some play to it, and I didn't win. I'm pretty sure I played it right, but couldn't get there. I made an attack that would set me up to win the next turn, supposing my opponent didn't top deck brimstone volley (i just night terrors him, and knew it wasn't in hand). He did. I lost. Bleh. After Fallin gto 2-1 it made me sad I never got there on a GPT. I knew this was a big setback, but was pretty confident my deck could easily 5-1 the rest of the day.
(2-1)
Round 4 I misplaced my notes on this round, but it was very short, I remember eating lunch before round 5, and my opponent playing some marginal cards. (3-1)

Round 5. This is the most important round of the day to me, for several reasons. 1, i played my strongest opponent of the day. Noah Long, CAN nationals team member. 2, I played very poorly. 3, I was a dick. Noah's deck was pretty poor, IMO. Game 1 I won on the back of a quick curve out. Game 2 he won with a team of moon herons, i couldn't find removal for. (removal was my only out to multiple fliers). Game 3, however, is the reason why a great player with a bad deck wins over a mediocre player with a good deck. I punted 3 times to my memory thsi game, and any one of them probably saves me the game/match. I neglected to remember a geistflame in the graveyard that was milled to a splinterfright, which cost me the creature I was applying pressure with. I also used the wrong removal spell on the wrong creature. I had a rebuke and a victim of night in hand, and i Knew his deck had werewolves, but i still used the rebuke on a moon heron, when i could have used the victim, and saved rebuke for a werewolf (which ultimately killed me). And third, when he played a trick I wasn't expecting, i responded and used that victim i didn't use earlier on a creature that basically didn't matter to "offset" his trick. I was saving that removal for an actually relevant creature, and totally putned. After all is said and done, all of our threats had traded off (instead of me still having a 5/4 trample thranben sentry in play) and we were topdecking. He had very few cards left due to splinter fright, and we were matching threat for removal and vice versa. I was at a decent life total, while his was fairly low. Eventually he flops down a villagers of estewald 2/3. It soon becomes a 4/6 and is beating me down, i hit a pocket of lands, finally get down a chumper, which he grasps 2 turns, and i replay it the 3rd time, he top decks a kessig wolf run with 3 cards left in his deck. The activation was well-enough to finish me off. I lost this match. It was my fault completely, and it was frustrating. My opponents deck was not that strong, but he played tight, and deserved to win. I made a couple comments earlier on in the match, that i believed to be light-hearted, but it seemed as though he thought i was taunting him or being salty. I just backed off with my jokes, as to not continue giving that impression. One such comment was when I night terrored him, and he had 3 lands in play, none in hand and 2 double-R spells, among other cards he couldn't yet cast (no mountains in play). i said, "wow i'm bad, but you kept that?" Respectfully, he said, "I would never insult another player like that, I probably just drew them." I nodded. This part, i'm not embarrased about. But after he won game 3, i said, "I guess Noah brings me the flood!" I was joking, obviously, but still, it was rude of me to say anything like that, especially since it wasn't the flood pocket at the end that cost me, but my play error. I said after, "I know who you are, I know you're a good player, i'm not trying to talk down on you, i'm just frustrated." but i think my tone still may not have come off right. He walked away kind of abruptly. This bothered me for a while after (continued). Now I"m x-2, and need to win out 4 in a row. Again, i know my deck is capable, but i no longer have room for variance, and certainly not to play as badly as i just had. (3-2)

Round 6

i played a player who was clearly pretty new. He was unclear about rulings, and asking a lot of elementary questions. His deck was bad, but he wasn't making awful plays or anything. This match was nothing noteworthy. I'm sure i made mistakes, but none of them were notable because my opponents deck didn't do very much. (4-2)

Round 7
I played a "very nice gentleman" by the name of Matt Kurtin.
I stomped this fool into the ground with my bombs. Yeah, I had bombs, it was nice.
This was my best story of the event. This guy is an angle shooter. He admitted being an angleshooter, and then called me a dick for calling him an angleshooter. He indicated no blocks by asking "6?" the amount of damage he was about to take with his pen in hand about to adjust life totals, when I said no, and went to play a midnight haunting to increase the size of my geist-honored monk, he claimed he never passed his blocks. I told him right then, that it was shady, he argued with me and got aggressive, i won the next turn anyway so i didn't bother with a judge. Prior to this, we were both very friendly, but when i called him out on the shadiness, he just totally flipped modes. (huge mistake, seriously, just call a judge in this case) After I beat him, he started trying to twist the story to get his buddy Matt Nass to not realize what a prick he is, i cleared it up promptly. After our voices escalate a bit, I start just walking away with my match slip, and he shouts behind me, "I hope this tilts you out of the next round." I replied, "I'm not the one tilted, you're the one going home." Albeit, not the "bigger man" thing to do, but it does give a nice punchline to the end of the story. (5-2)

Round 8
I won this round with @marshall_lr sweating me immediately on my right. My first game, marshall was getting deck checked and was watching my first several turns. I played especially bad that game. Threw me off when i noticed out of the corner of my eye he was taking a picture! Ack! I didn't actually mind, but it did kind of startle me. It ended up not being relevant, but i tried to cast smite the monstrous on a 3 power creature, just dumb. During game 2, my opponent cast a garruk, and killed my voiceless spirit, then the next turn made a wolf. I followed that up by casting my own garruk. This was the first time i had to cast a planeswalker to kill another planeswalker in limited, hopefully it will also be the last time. I lost that game, but went on to win the match when my opponent boarded into a completely different (see: much worse) deck game 3. (6-2)

Round 9
I played a guy who had a very aggressive red deck, with tons of burn spells. I lost two quick games, one of which was a mull to 5, and likely should have shipped that in for 4. My deck literally took a nap this round, and of all the rounds this was the only one where i felt totally hopeless. This was my variance round, and I shouldnt' have put myself in such a situation where I couldn't afford this to happen at least once. When I scooped game 2, i picked up 15 face up cards off the table, 3 of them were spells, one of which was my most recent drawstep. I was seated right next to my good friend who was simultaneously losing his win-and-in. We had our whole team of friends behind us watching us get pushed out of day 2. fucking heartbreak. (6-3)

So that was my GP experience. That was the result of the "Diligent" preparation and the "Patient" execution. It's clearly the execution I need work on. Focus on each round, each play, each turn, each line. Keep centered at all times, leave the emotions for telling stories between rounds. All much easier said than done.

Sunday was a nightmare, I dropped 0-2 from the PTQ, after being shafted by a bad judgecall that i didn't appeal, but the Head Judge later told me i should have (and yes i should have). Played a bunch of side events, and about half my rounds were no-shows because people think its really cool to double queue and just max their pwp. Once i'm out of the GP, i'm trying to have some fun and play some magic. Thanks a lot for ruining that guys. Even in an X-0 bracket, the free win is nice and all but after 4 or 5 times of just sitting theri waiting for the 10 minute match loss is really annoying, its like disconnecting on someone in MTGO, except i can see you in the Standard event across the hall, and i still have to sit here and wait.

The good part (Yeah, there was a good part)
I got to meet a few twitter people like Kenji (@numotthenummy) and Marshall (@marshall_lr) which was pretty cool. We only got a brief chat, but was pretty cool to put real faces to the voices I know. When I sat next to marshall, it was almost as if i was listening to a podcast while i play, because i could hear him announcing his plays and such right next to me, and he has a very distinctive voice. Was a bit surreal. I also got to meet Tom Martell (@semisober), and tease him about my Snapcaster play. I was waiting for an opening to introduce myself, but tried my best to pick a moment when he wasn't surrounded by 100 other pros, as to not come off as the biggest barn in history. Tom was really cool, which was refreshing. Most pros i've met so far have not been cool at all. I get it, I'm not a pro, I am there for not capable of understanding your intellectually superior speak. Assholes. Anyway, Tom's not like that, seemed like a genuinely good person. Or, at the least, fooled me. Had a lot of fun with my buddies just playing magic. Between rounds of the side events, or when we had no shows, we battled legacy, and birded our other friends. Sunday definitely had a gloomy feel to it, as most of us were pretty disapointed in not making day 2, but we made the most of it, met some pretty cool people, and played a bunch of magic. 5 of us joined a 32man sealed event, winner takes home a foil set of ISD. My friend Justin won, and we finally got to go home, in the last event before the hall closed. We all got to smile a bit, knowing at least someone got to leave with something, and so closed the weekend.

Thanks for reading this purge. I know it was long, but thanks. I just don't understand how Pros do it. how do they play perfectly every time. WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO PERFECT MY EXECUTION?! I see things correctly, i just don't DO them correctly. I've tried slowing down, i've tried speeding up, i've tried sitting on my hands, I've tried counting to 3 once i've made my decision before i announce any plays. I'm not rage quitting magic, or anything, but i'm just not sure playing competetive magic is something I"m going to excel at. Prior to saturday, i was confident i'd get there one way or the other some day. Now i'm not so sure. I had a perfect pool, and i couldn't do it. I was prepared (diligently). I had the tools to do it. I didn't do it. Only one thing wasn't perfect. Me. *sigh*

The last time I wrote like this, i set a new goal (to day 2 gp san diego). I dont have a goal now. I have 1 ptq left before hawaii, and i honestly dont even want to play. I doubt i'll be travelling to any non-limited GPs, and this last 5 months i've committed the maximum amount of time (and other resources) i have available to preparation and improving my game. Either I'm just not ready, and I need to hone on a smaller stage, or i wont be ready, and i should just be happy drafting at my local store and performing well there. Unfortunately, thats not the way I operate. I'm a passionate person, I like to do things full-measure (breaking bad, anyone?). I know if Magic becomes less competetive for me, and more fun, I'll simply stop playing. Just like I did with Poker 6-7 years ago (i now play on and off at low limits if friends invite me). Just like I did with basketball 10-12 years ago (haven't laced up the sneaks in years), just like I did with MAGIC 15 years ago. These are all things I am/was VERY good at. But I ran out of room to grow, or when I tried to advance, i was forced to retreat. A week ago, I'd have told you I'd play magic for life. now i'm not sure. i'd like to think so. it really is a great game. But if I don't feel like i have room to continue to grow, i wont keep doing it. I'm never satisfied when things are stagnant, and i likely wont have another big opportunity like the GP to prove myself worthy on a higher level of competition for sometime. I guess after the post-GP depression wears off, we'll see if i can find another big event to prepare for. If not, who knows....

Final Ascension - Pyromancer Destination

Luckily for all you @torerotutor fans, the blathering about Pyromancer Ascension is likely nearing its finale. The namesake card will rotate from Standard soon, and while I may brew up a Modern version, I doubt I'll have many opportunities to play the format, unless GP San Diego is indeed changed.

I have however, had a great deal of success with my most recent version, and I want to share some of the progress since my last post about this deck. An important thing to note, is that this deck is /MEANT/ to be flexible. The only required cards are the Ascension and cantrips. The win-con (in this case: burn) can vary to be mill using Archive Traps etc. I played this list in a PTQ and did pretty well, forced to play the 9th round as the worst-breakered 7-1 and lost finishing 15th at 7-2 :(. I have slightly tweaked the sideboard since then, but not many changes. As the format morphs, this deck needs to too. So if you have thoughts of improving other matchups, there's certainly room to do that.

The Decklist:

4x Pyromancer Ascension

4x Mana Leak
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Visions of Beyond
4x Twisted Image
3x Into the Roil

4x Ponder
4x Preordain
4x Gitaxian Probe
2x Red Sun's Zenith

4x Halimar Depths
4x Scalding Tarn
8x Island
7x Mountain

SB: The sideboard needs to be flexible, but as of now, I'm playing
3x Frost Breath (will likely cut this to 2 or remove it all together)
1x Flashfreeze
2x Mental Misstep
2x Spell Pierce
4x Deceiver Exarch
3x Splinter Twin

Note on the Splinter Twin Combo. I've had a ton of success boarding this in against almost everything, but i've been told that on MTGO its nearly expected, and the surprise factor is non-existant. I've just started playing this deck on MTGO and i'm 3-1 in 2-man queues. (0-1 in an 8man also). I haven't run into people packing too much hate for twin g2, but there were some instances of dismembers. My plan is usually to leave Ascensions in against most decks, while bringing in the twin combo, so even if they left dismembers in the deck, they may see a Ascension, and think they boarded wrong, and leave you an opening to win via Twin. If they don't give you that opening, the Ascension itself needs to be answered, or winning that way is just as easy.

There is only 2 G1 matchups that are tough. Vampires and RDW/Goblins. This version doesn't run a ton of removal, so you are literally racing. Using up too many bolts to kill guys could mean you have trouble finishing the game. that does NOT mean to save your RSZ's. You should kill dudes with it whenever possible. You'll always be able to find it again once you're active and ready to win through a chain of cantrips. You probably need to use some bolts too, just be smart about it. Usually winning a G1 against these decks involves getting multiple ascensions online. Burning up a couple bolts early to stay alive, using one PA to dig and load up another one, so that your cantrips are all refilling your hand every turn. Eventually into the roils will bounce their whole team, and a single Red Suns Zenith finishes 'er up. I know it sound slike a lot of pieces have to fit the puzzle, but remember there are 20 1mana cantrips in this deck mainboard, so digging to pieces isn't exactly hard, especially when 8 of those cantrips dig fairly deep. there is also the Into the Roils, which when kicked aid in the digging. Also remember, this is one of the worst G1 matchups. Typically the splinter twin plan is pretty effective G2, and it takes a bit of a read on your opponent g3 to figure out how the board plan should go. Be sure to slam your full 15 cards in to your deck each game, pulling out the 15 you wont play. Even if its the same 60 you had the previous game. I need to figure out a way to work on this methodology for MTGO, because I rely on it heavily "over-the-table." Even if your opponent employs the same strategy, of hiding their plan by shuffling all 15 in, then pulling 15 out, a resounding number of opponents will groan about dead cards in their hand. At high levels, obviously people won't do this, but you'd be surprised. I had an opponent at the PTQ in Round 7 X-1 bracket, show me a hand of 3 removal spells after I won g1, and did no amount of work to disguise the fact that they were immediately going into the SB. If Twin is truly expected, then maybe it doesn't even need to be in the board to do its job. If my opponent is keeping dismember in their deck, then i should be able to just win using my normal plan and adding removal or counters to firm up the given matchup. Maybe arc-trail/slagstorm needs to replace those slots and an increase on spell pierce and flashfreeze. IDK.

Against Control decks: Please, just don't punt.Every time I lose to a control deck, I can usually point to multiple punts that created a perfect storm where I could lose that game. You can win with 5 cards against a control deck, please read mulligan portion below. I've had a lot of people ask me how to play a variety of matchups, especially U/B or Caw. Both should be literal cake-walks G1. you only have to counte rtheir big threats, and nearly everything else can be ignored while you cantrip your way to victory. Against Caw that means Hero/Angels/Planeswalkers against U/B that's really just the 6-drops whether its sphinx/titan or wurmcoil. U/W players think their o-ring is good against you. Tip: it's not. Just into the roil your asension in response, they'll have to exile their own permanent. G2 I rarely bring in the Twin combo against CawBlade, but i sometimes bring it in G3 if i dorp g2. Depending on the variety of hate they have, the mainboard is usually good enough after swapping the twisted images for the 2xpierce 2xmisstep. If I fizzle g2, sometimes I'll bring in twin g3 if i think it will be surprising enough, otherwise, the same plan on the play should be just fine. Against U/B i run both wincons PA and Twin. Mainly to protect yoruself form Memoricide. Missteps are a must here too, likely spell pierces also. This means you cut Visions for sure, but only cut image if you think they don't have spellskite. Sometimes when running both plans I"ll cut one PA and one RSZ to open up some slots. YMMV. A rule of thumb, your hand size should almost always be 7 against a control deck, unless you're about to win the game. You're only playing cantrips till they hit a big spell you want to counter, or you're trying to land a PA.

Against Combo/Valakut: Against valakut, use images to kill walls/birds. Use counters to stop explores, rampants, and avoid countering creatures lest you're sure they dont' have traps. You may need to counter a slime to protect your acsension, but thats fine. The into the roil trick can work to save an ascension if needed, because they don' thave many permanents you want to bounce other than walls/expeditions. Literally you should just be able to hinder their ramp just enough to out race their titan. Usually i win the turn they cast their titan, but before they can attack/killme with it.Post board, twin-combo is usually heartbreaking for them. Again, my experience comes from real-paper-Magic not MTGO, so if they have some anti-twin hate other than natures claim, then maybe an adjustment to the trap plan is better. Mental Misstep and spell pierce come in here too. both stop natures claim fairly well, and spell pierce also hits the mana rampers and traps.
Against Twin, or even a mirror, into the roil is the best card in your deck. be stingy with them, waiting till the last possible moment to start a counterwar at their endstep so you can untap and win the game.

I'm going to find out what it takes to record some games on MTGO. Some people birding me at the PTQ said i made some really interesting lines that they wouldn't have seen, so I dont know how to describe those, or the strategy. After two years of playing this deck, it just takes experience looking a few turns ahead as to how you want the game to progress. Just remember you're in the drivers seat, you decide what happens each game.

Some stuff that i thought was straight forward, that a few people didn't realize.
If you have 2x ponder and 1x preordain, but no PA yet. You cast ponder T1, then Preordain T2, hopefully finding an ascension by then (having dug up to 8 cards deep if you count the draw-step inbetween). That means on T3, when you cast asension, you can cast ponder and immediately put your first counter on. You should really really avoid casting your 2nd copy of any cantrip until you have an ascension in play, UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER ACTION. You need to be doing something every turn, unless your hand size starts dwindling. If you're wiffing on cantrips, start bluffing counters. you can't let your hand size get too low. Also. YOUR LIFE TOTAL IS A RESOURCE. Take beats to the face. You don't lose till you hit 0. Be wary of goblin grenade though. I win a lot of games under 4 life. If your opponent has a creature in play, you always cast twisted image before visions, unless of course you know they have 0/x creatures in their deck you want to kill with it. A lot of it is using probe to see what they are playing, and how to sculpt the action of the next few turns aroudn it. Other times its god draw of: PA, PA preordain preordain preordain Island mountain. halimar depths is a sweet Turn 1 play. And you should almost never pay 2 life for probe turn 1. better to wait till turn 2, because thats when it actually matters, and they've drawn an extra card by then. The exception to this is against aggro, because you never really want to pay 2 life for probe against them. It's an auto-exclude post board.


MULLIGANNING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF SUCCESS WITH THIS DECK. People tell me they are losing matchups that I say are easy. I watch them play and they just don't mulligan enough. There are a lot of 7 card hands that are basically 5-6 card hands anyway (multiple ascensions early, RSZ in your opener, etc), so sending them back for a fresh 6 is fine if the opener isnt impressive. I dont feel hindered until I have a 5 card hand, and even then, I'd rather have a shot at a fresh 5 than an awful 6. Your hand must have a blue source. Period. There are 16 of them, so it's not that hard, but you have to have one. Your hand has to have one of the 3: Halimar Depths, Preordain, Ponder. That on its own doesn't mean keep, but you want it to have one of those 3 with an ascension, one of those three with some removal/counters, or two+ of those cards. Alternatively, you can keep a hand with a nice mix of land, and no draw spells, just leaks/bolts/roils. Just keep in mind you're playing a more control role from the onset, and you'll just want to use those resources wisely to find the drawspells to find the pa to win the game... Once you get down to 5 cards, then you have to be willing to take some chances, depending on what configuration you're in. Mountains become a bit more valuable with the twin plan in. I once kept a loose 6 of Mountain Mountain Probe probe probe Into the Roil  G1. I managed to win that game, but he also stumbled and I was really unhappy with the keep later. Blue mana is important, it drives all of your action until you're ready to win the game.

I'm putting this up now on friday night, but will include more tomorrow, and hopefully some videos. (and probably also some copy editing)