#FF Blog - Follow Friday, Epic Draft and Who gotz da skillz?

Friday has arrived. I'm getting pretty pumped for the new set to shake up draft. Probably going to stick to standard until then. But, since the new set is coming up, #FF to @modogodot and @marshallLRCast if you seriously haven't checked out their cast yet, CHECK IT OUT FOR SET REVIEW. SERIOUSLY. They put hours upon hours into this and its extremely detailed. They gather all the relevant info, present all the interactions, make predictions, talk about what types of decks might like a card, etc.

#FollowFriday @semisober. This guy has really stepped it up over on his blog tommartell.com He's previously been posting his drafts, but now he's posting other peoples drafts, and commentating. Its great. He's also beginning to try and breakdown a framework of vocabulary for breaking down drafting decisions. This is going to get interesting real quick.

#followfriday @neiltyson This is one of the NOVA hosts from PBS. I love science documentaries, so this guy is basically my hero, but he always has clever things to say about current events related to science.

#followfriday @rogueinsight His blog is pretty sweet, he's always brewin up something sweet. He has an idea of running mindcrank with bloodchief ascension, and i want to build it so bad. My version would be grixis would tezzeret shell, lots of cantrip artifacts, jinxed idol, perilous myr, bloodghast, bolts, preordain... sounds fun. NOt sure if it will be good, but it will be fun.

#followfriday @dzimet He's a local Level 2 judge, and all around awesome dude. He was my teammate in the 3v3 kamigawa draft, and the two of us were undefeated. We crushed so badly even one of our teammates went home sick...

so at this point in the post, the author fell asleep... *sigh*.

So i'm going to just slam some more #ff's in here, and move on.
@two_eyes
@hobbesq
@samstod
@cardboardwitch
@kstube
@swordstoplow
@bgardnerdurbin
@josephlocascio
@mulldrifting
@kellyreid
@fatecreatr
@chosler88
@auranalchemist
@grant_champion
@cavemankellen
Also the usual caveat, of there being a bunch of people i follow, and nearly all of them are awesome.

Onward, and forward!
Last night I drafted Kamigawa block for the first time. Everyone talked about how weird the format was, and wow, they were right. I got a sick bomb in each pack (Yes, it was nice.) but I found it funny how the power level of some cards was so low, while others was so high. First Pack I opened the Mind Control Dragon, Keiga. Second pack, I obv opened a Jitte, and Third pack, I got an Undying Flames.  My first game, I resolved a Jitte, and my opponent immediately scooped. Second game I cast a turn 6 Keiga, Turn 7 Undying Flames, but just then, David Caruso popped in and said, "This draft is gonna be...." *Puts on his sunglasses* "Epic." YEEEEEEAAAAAHHH
Okay, well I won every game there after by simply casting Undying Flames, and blocking. Epic, to say the least.

"Who gotz da skillz?"
Yesterday a very interesting debate was brought up between @marshallLRcast and @auranalchemist. Their initial debate was about which deck was more skill intensive to play in standard between BUG/RUG and RDW. I mostly played devils advocate in this debate to anyone who said it was an obvious choice one way or the other, because to me, it isn't that obvious.

Some fun excerpts:

@cardboardwitch: "To answer your question in detail my reply: "Play both decks 100 times each and then come laugh with me at how dumb the question is" #truth"

 

and:

'Let's try a few more "Who's a better hockey player; Pavel Datsyuk or my cousin Dave?" how about "What tastes better shit or a ham sandwich?"'

 

Then, @modogodot, in his infinite wisdom, defined a deck's skill intensity as:

"A graph with two axis: "Pilot Skill Level" & "Expected Win % in Meta" would be an interesting way to define it for each deck"

 

And @mrfridays defined it as:

"Number of possible lines of play that aren't readily noticeable or represented by the current or future board states. Roughly."

 

So where do I weigh in on this? I'm leaning towards @modogodot's definition. But ultimately, now does this actually help us answer the question? It really depends on the actual pilots skill level, how skill intensive the deck is. I think a true beginner could play RDW about as well as a average-below average player. I think beyond that, the ability to play RDW well goes in tiers, in a staircase. While with BUG/RUG a true beginner might not be able to even play the deck at all, but with practice their skill with it would increase linearly until it is mastered. Another possible definition would be, "Which deck is more difficult to pilot flawlessly?" I'd say RDW.  But I want to try and illustrate what I'm getting at here, and why there is no cut and dry answer as everyone wants there to be. @marshallLRcast says i'm just trying to be cool by eschewing Bug/rug. But in all honestly, cast a jace. how hard is that? I kid.

 

My contention is that an argument can easily be made for either deck.

 

Arguments for RDW:

A really deep decision tree exists from RDW in which your first turn is going to affect all your possible decisions down the road. It involves planning multiple turns in advance while committing to one plan of action from turn 1.

 

Arguments against RDW:  Just burn and attack! according to marshall: "Just fucking attack"

 

I posed a sample starting hand for RDW and asked what the correct play would be. And while, I admit, this probably isn't even the trickiest decision tree to come up with, but the fact that I got different answers from people, just shows that its not as straightforward as it seems.

 

Opening hand:

Mountain

Fetchland

Goblin Guide

Spikeshot Elder

Geopede

Lightning Bolt

Searing Blaze

 

What would you do Turn 1 on the play against the mirror? I got a few different responses here, while I do agree with @mrfridays that his suggestion of Mountain->spikeshot is probably best, there certainly are  a lot of scenarios to play out in your head to arrive at that decision. If he's tested enough of the matchup where that is now engrained and intuitive, I can see why he snap-called that answer, but in reality, that decision tree goes pretty deep.

 

Arguments for BUG/RUG: Managing a Jace, Cobra and fetchlands is complicated! (i dont agree with this) Any deck with counterspells faces a whole new set of decisions as compared to a deck that doesn't, and the same can be said for a planeswalker that has 4 abilities, 3 of which can be used on nearly any turn. (This i do agree with)

 

Arguments against Bug/Rug: An opening hand that consists of Island Forest scalding tarn, preordain, jace, cobra and a titan has really only one line of play. Turn 2 cobra, turn 3 jace, turn 4 preordain, turn 5 titan.

Anything else is uncivilized. and the deck just plays itself. The cards themselves are so powerful that even misplaying this to play a turn 1 preordain, probably doesn't put you very far behind. I mean,  you have a jace! Jace on his own can be complicated to use correctly, but the bottom line is this deck can win THROUGH punts if you just draw like a champ. Burn spells and 1-2 drop creatures wont do that for you. You have to be focused on each play to maximize the value of every play you make to have a chance.

 

I'm kind of settling in to say that for someone at MY skill level, RDW is mroe skill intensive. I could pick up a RUG deck, take it to an FNM and do just fine. I pick up RDW and I'll likely be kicking myself for punts all weekend. While I might punt just as ofted with RUG, it's more forgiving because of the raw power of the deck. Also because all the real decisions that are hard, happen much later in the game when the board is developed, and you have more information about your opponents situation. I'm certainly in 100% agreement that a beginner is better off picking up RDW at a random tournament, because sometimes brute aggression can just get there, even if poorly played. And its true, its hard to misplay "just fucking attack" so once the creatures are in play, i think even a beginner can attack with them properly, but its setting up your line optimally from the start which is where i think they'll lose most of their games.

 

i'd really like to see what people have to say about this. its a very interesting concept to me. and if i didn't fall asleep writing this last night, i had planned to mock up some charts of this, but maybe another time.

 

Happy weekend, all... I hope its epic.

Pyromancer Update and MTGO=LifeTilt

So this past weekend I played in a WPN 1-invite Nat Qualifier at one of our local shops.
The event was very interesting to say the least.

Pros- Held at a sports bar to prepare for the (unneccessary) overflow.
Lunch was included at the sports bar in entry fee.
@dzimet was judge

Cons- Held at the store I dont normally play at, so had to pay cash ($25)
Only 36 (about) people signed up, which i believe is what made prize support so awful.

I played Pyromancer Ascension, as voted by you loyal blog readers, and I registered this:

4 Pyromancer Ascension

4 Preordain
4 See Beyond
4 Arc Trail
1 Call to Mind

2 Jace Beleren

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning
4 Spell Pierce
4 Into the Roil
2 Jace's Ingenuity

4 Halimar Depths
4 Scalding Tarn
8 Island
7 Mountains

Sideboard:
3 Conundrum Sphinx
3 Precursor Golem
3 Echo Mage
4 Spreading Seas
2 Spell Pierce

You can find @dtlerch's article about this here and my original write up on the deck.

R1 I played U/B infect, after a quick curb-stomping game 1, i boarded in all my creatures, as the opponent moaned about all the "dead cards" in his hand when he lost. Obviously this means I board in 9 creatures. He can't answer my turn 4 sphinx into turn 5 precursor golem, and that's that.

R2 I played a B/G Infect deck. He mulls to 6 and keeps, and says forest go. I go about my normal cantripping plan, as he land goes, eventually he missis some land drops and ends up discarding interesting cards like plague stinger, and vatmother. Hmmm. He finally gets double black mana and casts a Phyrexian Crusader, which I bounced some number of times before I comboed off and killed him. G2 I boarded in the creature plan, my opponent gets a turn 3 memoricide off a bird of paradise, and time walks himself when i have no pyromancers in my deck. I kill his bird, and he never plays another land.  I later on find out that this guys deck was bonkers, and I was his only loss in the swiss. *shrug* Mise?

R3 I played U/B control against a guy from our LGS. I lose a long grinding G1 that found me needing 1 burnspell off a draw 6 (copied ingenuity) I didn't find it, and lost G1 (this is the only g1 loss on the day). I bring in the creature plan, dodge another memoricide, and win via sphinx (which courtesy of 2x Halimar depths, drew me 3 cards). Game 3 we both mulligan to 6. I brought a mixture of creature plan with pyromancer, he was able to find a grave titan, and i wasn't able to answer it.

R4 I played Big Red, was a pretty straight forward curb stomp. I out raced his artifact ramp, and bounced his wurmcoils once he landed one. Also this opponent was telegraphing his Koth pretty clearly, which helped me win this one.

R5 I played against valakut. It was a kid from our LGS who is one of the best 12 year olds i've ever played. He usually plays pretty tight, but not quite perfect. i had the god draw g1. punted g2 and won game3. These games were all pretty straight forward, and were over by turn 6 or 7. .

R6 Intentional Draw to top8

Top8 R1, Paired with same U/B Control deck I lost to in the swiss. I won G1, and we both joked about how the sideboarding would go. Game 2 i mulliganed inot a pretty weak hand, but up a game i decided to keep, and gamble with it. Didn't pay off. Game 3 was a very tight game. There was one spot where I could have played differently, but not to sure how it would have panned out. It involved me kicking a into the roil to draw a card i knew was there from halimar depths, then using that burst drawn to kill another creature. Instead i went for the (potential) win, i gripped the burst, so i could untap, level my echo mage, burst and copy to win. He had the counterspell. (he boarded in flashfreezes, he actually ran no counters main)

So, my only losses were to the same deck twice... ruh roh. To be fair, he was running both duress and Inquizition of kozilek mainboard, which is really difficult for this deck to deal with. i was really happy with my play, there was only 2 major misplays I made, one cost me a game, the other didn't. My friend, as an observer, said he would have shuffled different cards away on a see beyond a couple times, but i still don't agree with him.

So, losing in the first round of top 8 was worth 4 (faction) booster packs. *sigh* I think this TO really could have done better here. I think they spent too much of their budget renting this area in the sports bar to provide too much prize support, and the free lunch for everyone probably cut into that too. The fact that only 36 people were there, means they could have just held it at their game tables at the store, and boosted the prize support a little. i would have gladly bought my own lunch. I really want to qualify for nats, and I know this deck has what it takes, but not sure I'm willing to drive up to LA to try again this weekend. There's a Standard PTQ in san diego just after NPH comes out, so i may wait till i get some more tools to really give this deck another shot. depends on how bored i get this weekend.

Onto the Rant. I hate MTGO. Yeah, that's Bold, Italic ANNNND underlined... I really hate it.
Before I start on this rant, I must say. I am not a slow player. I verrrrrrry rarely go to draws in paper magic, and when I do I take fault for not calling a judge on my opponent. I think the appropriate amount of time, and then I act quickly. Part of my play style is to keep the mental pressure on the opponent, by having my plays ready to go as soon as possible. Part of what makes this easy, is I can communicate verbally with my opponent while I execute the motions of what I'm doing. I really don't think that anyone who knows me would ever consider me to be, in any way, a slow player. And for the record, I also don't double queue on MTGO.

"So what's the problem with MTGO, Chad?"

Great question, hypothetical reader! Well, I dont know. But I really hate the 25 minute round timer, and on top of that, I hate the way the round timer operates in general. I've lost 3 consecutive drafts now to time outs, the only 3 i've played since the round timer has changed to 25 minutes.

Last night was the straw that broke the gamer's morale.

I drafted an INSANE U/W aggro deck in an 8-4 MSS draft. I smashed my R1 opponent in quick fashion, that involved all kinds of fliers smashing his face. Note: This was a 3 game match, and we were the first ones finished. It's not like I have a time issue in every match.
In R2, I mulligan to 5 G1, and keep 3 land, a Kemba and a Sunspear Shikari. I beat a few times, but never find an equipment, and get ground down to about 9 life once he finds some guys bigger than mine. I find a kemba's skyguard, and a mimic vat, and am using my vat to endlessly hold off his Hellkite Ignite (and gain 2 each time). He plays some other threats, but i'm able to neutralize all of them. All the while, just trying to dig for one of my 3 equipments to stick on my kemba, so i can actually attack and win this game. He kills the first equipment i find with a shatter, and ultimately I deck my opponent out while i'm at some absurd amount of life. This game went forever. Each turn he was clearly F6'ing and attackign with his dragon, and I would have to activate my vat, and f2 through the lifegain trigger, declare a blocker.  Keep in mind, I can't auto-yield the gain 2 life trigger, because each token the mimic vat makes is a "different" kemba skyguard and it doesn't recognize it as the same trigger. he was using about 5-10 seconds less than me each turn. The game ended with my 5 min on the clock to his 6, with me up a game. But basically, this is an unwinnable situation.
<aside>
 I recently listened to a Limited Resources Podcast on MTGcast.com where Ryan addressed some issues about timing out and said something like: "You should never be in a situtation where you might run out of time. Just make sure you always have more time than them." How exactly am I supposed to just make sure to have more time than them? Obviously, they aren't going to make that easy for me to do. That's assuming my reaction time and hand-eye coordination is equivalent to my opponents, and that we both are taking actions that should take the same amount of time during our priorities. For example, when I have to firebreathe a steel hellkite 6 times to win, that takes a significant amount of time off my clock. In paper magic, i just tap all my lands and say, "pump for 6". I can understand the strict time limits for Constructed, because you should know all the interactions of your deck, its easy to set up yields for your triggers, because you know them all, and most opponents decks are also known quantities. That being said, it is not unusual for a draft game in this format to go extremely long, where both players use up much of their clock. In such matches, the winner is in no way tied to who won G1, but who can more efficiently use their clock. This is extremely frustrating.
</aside>
 We go to game 2, i know i'm behind on clock, mulligan to a really good 6, that has 3 land, shikari, kemba and shield. I plop a kemba turn 3 (after F6ing aggressively up to this point), turn 4 shield her up, and attack (18) T5 make a token, cast shikari, and a strider harness, attack (16). Now my opponent casts a dragon, but im pretty sure i can just race it, i'm now under 3 minutes on my clock. I make a token, equip shikari, attack with sshikari and tokens, he blocks shikari (12) and move the harness back to kemba. I take 5 next turn from dragon. He also plays a wall. I make 2 tokens, swing in and connect for 4 (8) He plays another blocker, I make 2 tokens I alpha again, get him to 2. I obviously run out of time before my next attack.
He had no business winning this match. Period. i never punted, and I didn't play slow. I use my shortcut keys whenever possible, and i used auto-yields, for my mimic vat, kemba and glint hawk idol. People keep make suggestions to me, but these are all things I consider and they don't seem to make a difference.
Is MTGO seriously cutting me out of this game because my reaciton time is too slow? Because I like to build draft decks that have lots of interesting interactions? I love drafting, and I love that MTGo gives me an opportuity to do so at any hour of the night. I like drafting 8-4 so i can play with other people who take drafting seriously. But when I lose to a clock, in a match i would NEVER have lost in paper magic, I seriously want to die. Such a waste of money, and time. I know this is a ME problem, not an MTGO problem. The treatment is fair, in the sense, that it applies equally to both players. But, especially in draft, some decks are simply going to have more activated abilities, that need to be used to win the game. These necessitate mroe time off the clock for tapping mana, and activating abilities, and saying yes or no to may triggers. I'd probably say, in this case, that i was actually playing faster than my opponent, i just simply had more things i had to do (because my deck was simply way better).

I'm left not knowing what to do. I really want to be able to draft on MTGO, its great practice, its loads of fun, and I love drafting. But, do I just give up? Do I just say, welp, i guess my ring finger on my left hand isn't fast enough to F2 at the optimal interval to even be able to compete? While i understand the need to limit the time people take, this shortening of rounds to 25minutes seriously is affecting my desire to play MTGO. I understand they want to limit people who double queue, but this fix isn't working for me. that extra 5 minutes is really relevant to me, and MTGO is pretty likely to lose a customer in me.

I'm really open to ideas to how to speed up my play. Things I am already aware of are: Use F2 for "OK" Use F4 to pass till EOT unless opponent takes an action and F6 to pass turn except to declare attackers/blockers. I use these as aggressively as possible, sometimes to detriment by using the wrong button at the wrong time. This is a hand eye coordination issue, where my left hand just simply isn't as sharp as it needs to be. I also use auto-yields by right clicking on a activated/triggered ability on the stack, if its something i'll never need to respond to.

Today, its tilting me more than i'm used to. It's beyond frustrating, and i dont know what to do other than rant about it on my blog. So.... here ya go.

#FF Blog - Follow Friday, Spoilers, and Pick the Deck!

Happy Friday!

Sorry I couldn't post last week, I know many of you were in great dispair with out me. First, I have to give a shameless self plug, to check out my latest from Quietspeculation.com, its in the insider section, so sign up, and read it. Also lots of other great stuff on there, like @chosler88, and @mtgstephenmoss. The free section has some of my favorite twitter 'pals' like @cavemankellen and @bgardnerdurbin. So #FF all them peeps.

Also, always #ff to the Limited Resources Podcasters, @marshallLRcast and @modogodot. I really want to take a moment to pat Marshall on the back. He has attained the level of troll, that only I (and maybe @semisober) can appreciate. He trolls ever so subtly... jussssst enough to get you to nibble. I love when he rakes @smi77y through the coals... (not so much when I'm the recipient, but win-some-lose-some).

This week I asked some of my new-ish followers to introduce themselves, and both @mtgtroll (an employee of @card_kingdom) and @gamedoll said hello. I can already tell I'm going to enjoy @mtgtroll's humor, and @gamedoll is a chick from texas who is into MTG and swings a katana! she promised to post a picture when she gets a chance...

Also want to reccomend that everyone follows @two_eyes... He's an Econ student who's sharp and prepared to jump in on any give twitter topic. You'll find him in various forums around the interwebz as well.

Also a quick shoutout to the san diego peoples, @hobbesq, @josephlocascio, @gkstull and our own local Level 2 judge @dzimet who is just getting the hang of twitter (and doing so much more swiftly than he admits).

On a local note, some of the guys from my LGS started up a website/blog about commander at http://www.thecommandzone.com/ Check it out, they'll be posting videos of matches, among many other things there. I've been watching them work on things for quite a while over at the ol' gaming shop.

There's a bunch of people I highly reccomend following, and there's literally no one on the 250+ people I follow that I wouldn't reccomend. If i haven't gotten to you yet, remind me why you're awesome!

So, on to some chit-chat. Spoilers. Yeah, so leaked... godbook... lawsuit... whatever, drama. I have mixed emotions about the spoilers, and I've heard a lot of the same sentiment around the twitterverse. I really just feel bad for the smaller sites that depend on spoiler season to draw traffic to their sites. Boo. As much as I'm always clamoring for spoilers, i think WotC does a good job of doling them out responsibly, and this is quite literally, shooting the wad.

But now, the highlight of the day, Pick the Deck!
Tommorrow , i'll be playing in a WPN Nat Qualifier, that offers one bid to Nationals. I'm letting YOU pick the deck I play. Which ever deck receives the most votes, either here or on twitter, I'll run tomorrow.
Sorry, no Caw-Blade or Valakut here... you have to choose between my awful homebrews... MUAHAHA.

1- Pyromancer Ascension aka #JustPlayPA
I've written about this deck at length on this here blog, I'm taking @dtlerch's suggestion in removing treasure hunt in favor of 2x Jace Beleren and 1x Call to Mind. The Sideboard is TBD.

2-  Tezztructive Force aka #carbrew
This is a pretty standard Tezzeret Grixis deck, similar to what @thepchapin played in paris, but less lands, more artifact ramp, and destructive force. Game plan is to ramp with artifacts, armageddon, and win by making 5/5's or by jace-fatesealing off lands, or casting a wurmcoil of artifact mana. It's really fun, and REALLY swingy. Can simply win a game out of no where, but can totally fizzle with a board of mana artifacts...

3- MBC aka #getinthevat
This deck is a mono-black control deck, that revolves around abusing mimic vat, and tons of card advantage. Cards like Liliana's specter, (and liliana herself) phyrexian rager, skinrender, inquizition, massacre wurm and wurmcoil, all come together to produce medium sized bodies that no one wants to kill, because they can't survive them under the vat! Specter+vat lockouts, Skinrender+vat destruction, Massacre Wurm+vat hilarity!

To place your vote, do so in the comments below, or by tweeting at me with the corresponding hashtag.
Presuming the experience isn't a total nightmare, and more than 2-3 of you vote, i'll do a write up on the the tournament that i will guilt all of you into reading .

Goin to the padres game tonight, should be cool, don't be jelly.
Happy friday!

#FF Blog update with a splash of Legacy Drama

Happy Friday, all. Thanks for reading!

Not much exciting news on the twitter front for me, had a pretty busy week. Going to fire off the auto-includes: @marshallLRcast and @modogodot from Limited Resource Podcast over at MTGcast.com.
I will note that i got a new follower today, @EWDraftCast who is apparently a competitor to LR, i'll certainly check them out. (also on MTGcast.com) I dont expect them to eclipse LR, but maybe a good supplement to my weekly content consumption.

Also, a big #FF to @dtlerch and @chosler88, both QuietSpeculation.com writers {*cough* did you read my latest at QuietSpeculation Insider, yet?} They are also both headed to GP Dallas this weekend, and @dtlerch is running a slightly modified version of my Pyromancer brew. I know Corbin is/was considering it, but i think he went with a safer play (can't blame him). DO WORK! Thanks for the ManaScrewed plug, Corbin!

Other people I'm happy I follow:
@wrongwaygoback

@samstod

@kstube
@cavemankellen
@smi77y
@manadeprived
@steve032
@alawley
@two_eyes
@hobbesq
@thebrandondrury
@stillhadthese
@ejsetzer
@affinityforblue

there's more, but those are a bunch of them, some of which i hadn't shown any #ff love for awhile, so i hope you go follow any of them you aren't already. really good stuff, all around.

Today, I am going to briefly talk rant about the Legacy tirades going on all over the internet. First off, I don't play legacy. At all. Some will make the snap-judgement to say, "then what do you know or care about it?!?!" Well, I honestly think I'm in a good position to make some unbiased commentary, without any emotional attachment to whether the format grows or dies. That aside, I would play some legacy if there was more of it available in local tournaments and the cards were a bit more affordable. The Legacy tournaments that are currently available, overlap with a draft at our LGS, so it's easy for me to not feel too bad about it.

So, where to begin? I've trolled @joshjmtg a bit about his #savelegacy campaign, but at least I can understand why he feels the way he does, and why he's pushing for what he wants. He wants wizards to reprint staples, to bring prices down, and increase availability for cards. His reasoning, from what I understand, is that SCG will stop holding events for Legacy, if they aren't able to hold a stock to sell Legacy singles at the events, this would in turn create a crash in the Legacy market, and put Legacy back into the "fringe" areas of competetive play. I have two issues with his claims, but I'll only spend brief time on them, because at least he has a valid concern. First, WotC has no need to do this, they are already peaking with their current marketing strategy, and making changes to that may please some people, but there's simply no incentive for them to repring said staples. Some would argue that it helps sell existing sets, but they aren't exactly having a problem with that, lately. Same goes with From the Vaults, and other special offerings. Second, if SCG is holding huge cash tournaments every weekend, and the market can't withstand the demand for the cards, then it simply wasn't meant to be. Not that I'd be happy to see Legacy fade into the background again, but it's just the way it is. I applaud him for being passionate about something he feels strongly about, but really, there's no big deal here. It's not like Legacy didn't exist before, it still will be around, there will still be cash tournaments, just not as frequent.

I thought this would be the end of my tirade on Legacy, but sadly, no, I was unable to stay away from the shitstorm that occured earlier this week over on Mananation. I really hate to provide any incentive to drive more traffic to their site, as unwarranted bashing has turned into a marketing scheme, but you can find the article here. I commented extensively in the comments section, as did many others, but due to time constraints, i really wasn't able to give the topic my full attention, and per special request to @marshallLRcast I've decided to do my best to point out the serious flaws in this article.

I should start by saying, that Sean Morgan, the author of said article, is an educator with a Masters in a relevant field. Unfortunately (and not all that uncommon), he chose to hide his loosely veiled liable behind some actual (academic) economic terms. This caused some people to rally behind him, praising his wealth of knowledge. Meanwhile, Ben Bleiwiess, the subject of the article, chimed in to refute many of Seans claims. Which Ben did with perfect (n)ettiquette and did so in a very complete manner. Most of my feelings about the subject mirror Ben's. So again, I'll be brief on this, as my real axe to grind is an issue parallel to this.

1. Starcitygames.com (SCG) obtains no benefit from artificially raising the price on Legacy staples they do not have currently in stock. The common argument is that SCG is trying to corner the market by buying up all the cards, and capitalizing on inflated prices quickly before they drop again. This is near impossible. Not only do competing sites ALSO jack up their buy prices, but prices also climb on EBay and Local Gaming Stores(LGS) around the globe. SCG is not at any advantage to these other sites, as far as their ability to buy cards at higher prices goes. Second, raising the price as they buy, is only going to have a negligible effect on their profit per card. Buying a Force of Will for $30 to flip and sell for $50, makes the same profit as buying for $40 and selling for $60. If they had an absurd amount of units on hand already, then perhaps price-gouging could be claimed, but they don't. If they did, they wouldn't need to jack up their buy prices so quickly. In Ben's (paraphrased) words, "We bought 50 Force of Wills since last week, and now there's only 3 left." The cards are flying off their shelves, and they simply have to raise their buy prices to maintain a stock to offer their customers at their events.
2. There is a fixed quantity of Legacy staples in the marketplace, and as demand increases, there is an exponential effect on pricing, because the dealers are forced to increase buy prices simply to keep units in stock. Even if speculators are driving prices higher than actual demand (which is unprovable, and has a minor effect if any) the pricing will normalize to an equilibrium price. When buy prices go higher, people who once didn't want to sell their cards, may suddenly decide to do so. Eventually, there will be a flood of people dumping cards, and the price will come back down until there's a nice balance again. This is the way a competetive market works. There's no government regulation or interference in this market, and no 3rd parties driving market movement for derivative gains (mortgage market).

So, that's that. But why do i have a pinecone up my ass over his misrepresentation of the situation to his audience? Because he's attempting to use academic economics to back up his claims, and he's doing so in a fallacious manner. Usually, what this means, is people who aren't educated on the topic assume the guy with the Masters degree is right, and jump on board. I'm quite sure this is the effect he was going for. He draws parallels to "every major market bubble in the past century". No one balked at this but me. Seriously dude? You're trying to tell me that the housing bubble has parralels to this? Not a chance. The housing bubble was created by the banks, who had the ability to offer "amazing" (See: misleading) loans to unqualified buyers. Mortgage offices were bombarded my smokin-hot account executives who pushed cleavage in the face of Mortgage Brokers to sell these products (that were not a good fit for the buyers, but sounded good at first) at high commissions. This caused way more people to go out and buy homes, than could afford them, driving the prices higher. As more and more people started defaulting on these loans, credit became tighter, no one could qualify to buy homes, and prices plummeted. Not to mention, these mortgages were packaged up as investments and sold to the everyday investor. Mortgages the banks KNEW had high risk of default (which is why they are called sub-prime loans, and now basically don't exist). Government stepped in, and now our economy has been faultering for years, but hey, i can totally see the parallels to Legacy Magic cards. The Mortgage crisis was started by the banks (and the Fed for allowing it) by pushing products that affected the housing market, that they knew would have a high rate of defaulted loans. Sean's argument, is that SCG opens are like the mortgage brokers here, pushing the prices of cards up. This part is true, but SCG is not in a position to gain from said price increases, they do however gain from more people attending their events, which would actually be incentive to keep prices lower. Their margin on a card is set to a pretty standard % of their buy price, and the actual price they buy/sell at is not extremely indicitave of what type of profits they are bringing in. They make money off of volume...

This is what a fixed supply (vertical line) looks like. You can see, as demand (the curved line, representing consumer's willingness to pay) shifts to the right (this means an increase in the quantity demanded at a given price, and/or a willingness to pay more for the same quantity) there is a gradual increase in price. Where the two lines intersect (shown with the dotted horizontal line) is the equilibrium price, where there is an equal number of people who want to buy and sell at that price. You can put your left hand up to that curved line in the shape of an L, and slide your hand to the right. The intersection point (where your thumb crosses the vertical line) is the price of the product, and it slowly increases, until you hit the corner where your thumb meets your hand. There is a scarcity of the good, and prices start to jump up rapidly for very small changes (shifts L->R of your hand) in demand. There is no bubble here.  In reality, the demand (your Left hand) moved all at once and SCG (and other vendors) don't know how far it moved until they reach a buy price that people are finally willing to start dumping their goods to them. It starts out with a gradual change, but SCG has events every weekend and needs to fill their inventory, so they are aggressively seeking that equilibrium price.  "But Chad, you said they make money on volume, what does that have to do with anything?" Good question, when prices increase more people are willing to part with their cards and sell them to dealers who can flip for a profit. When prices decrease, SCG gets to buy cards on the cheap from the people who are scared prices will continue to decline, and their sales volume increases as more people want to buy at the lower price. This is the basis for his claim that SCG is artificially moving prices, but is so far from the truth. It's only possible for them to actually gain money when they are moving units AS THE PRICES ARE MOVING. But as of now, all the items on their "Hot Buys" list that are moving the fastest,  have 0 units in stock. Even if Sean claims that they are sandbagging these units to sell at a later date, they are missing out on the most opportune time to move these cards, PRICES ARE AT RECORD HIGHS.

The "bubble" that Sean is predicting, is only an actuality if SCG stops offering their events AND no other company steps in to replace them. Then the desire to hold these valuable cards, without the opportunity to use them in sanctioned play will fall off to a certain group of players, and the Demand will shift back to the left. You could consider this a "bubble bursting" if you wanted, but really its an external factor affecting the market, not the playability of the format or the cards. It's the incentive to play legacy is higher, and if that subsides, then yes the prices will too. That's what an equilibrium is, its a balance between buyers and sellers, and everytime a price corrects downward to meet that equilibrium point, there will always be someone claiming that there is a "bubble bursting" or that the "herd mentality" forced buying upward, but in fact it was an increase in ACTUAL demand in active legacy players. Period. I honestly can't understand how an educated Economist would make such claims with a straight face.

In summary, should the demand get so high that retailers literally can't hold any stock, then yes, SCG may stop offering Legacy events (i'd contend they'd continue holding them as an opportunity to buy stock) which would bring prices back down, but there just simply can't be a bubble here. Magic has a pretty open marketplace that heavily depends on AUCTIONS (ebay) to determine pricepoints. Auctions do a great job of depicting true willingness to pay, and real market price.

I hope this wasn't a boring lesson, but it really gets my goat when someone makes a bold claim, and backs it up with economic terms that are very incorrectly applied. A) he's bashing a company like SCG who is doing a great service to the community by putting on the events, and B) he's misusing economics to drive a madhouse of people to rally behind him, that are "homers" because they follow his article, or they read his side first, or it just seems cool to bash SCG.

For the record, I am not in anyway affiliated with Starcitygames.com

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend.

#FF Blog 4/1/2011

Happy Friday, all!

I'd like to give my first #FF to @dr_jeebus! Oh wait, april fools. har har har, so funny.
People do seem to love his stuff on @quietspec, and i do enjoy it too, but man i can't stand the abrasive tweets....

Anyone who actually takes the time to click my #FF blog knows i'm always starting it off with the Limited Resource podcast crew, @marshallLRcast and @modogodot. Ryan was quieter than usual this week, but marshall always chimes in on the hot topics... Solid follows even if you aren't into limited. If you are, you should be listening to their cast weekly on MTGcast.com

Next is my favorite twitter-ite to troll of the week: @joshjmtg He puts up awesome constructed material at quietspeculation.com but his twitter rants are Menendian-esque. Which brings me great joy. I had a lot of fun trolling him this week, as he prophelatized the death of Legacy, and searches for solutions. While I admire his commitment, I feel its a lost cause. At this point, if it would take reprinting classic (reserved or otherwise) staples to save the format, then its simply not meant to be. His entire argument revolves around the idea that if SCG can't stock Legacy cards, they'll stop holding legacy opens. This may or may not be true. They would still have an awesome opportunity for them to BUY legacy cards, and they still overlap the event with the Draft Open, so even if the number in attendance subsided, i dont see those going anywhere. BUT, even if they did, it wouldn't mean the "death" of legacy. Legacy was around (in smaller #s) before SCG opens, and there's no reason it wouldn't simply return to the way it was. It wasn't dead, cards were reasonably priced, and those who wanted to play the format still had opportunities to play in big events. Maybe not everyweekend, but who says there has to be a 5k legacy event everyweekend? Expecting WotC to want to adjust their marketing strategies to prop up a format that is doing just fine, is a little extreme.
Anyhow, Josh posed the question to @mtgaaron if WotC still wants legacy to me "accessible" i dont know if there was a response. Regardless, Josh is a good follow, he's very opinionated, and you can listen to me trolling him. :-) good times.

Sorta swamped today, but some of the people I really enjoy having on my list this week are:
@hobbesq
@stillhadthese (has a great blog at stillhadallthese.com great april fools joke!)
@semisober (which means you must also follow @kkrouner to get both sides of this trollscapade)
@franklepore
@wmap (Loved the chat on the basic lands this week which also included others, such as:)
@samstod
@affinityforblue (Just changed the name of Yo MTV Taps!, i never listened, but that name was classic, too bad)
@mixedknuts (he also trolls all the top writers constantly, fun)
@feb31st
@mrfridays
@two_eyes
@mtgcolorpie
@ertaislament (i thought he disappeared, turns out my twitter just unfollowed him, boo)
@kstube
@rwildernessr
@alawley
@necr0mancer
@chosler88
@dtlerch
@fatecreatr
@quietspec

Okay! so if you're not following those people, GO DO IT.
TTFN!
have a great friday (night magic)!

StarCityGames.com Open Los Angeles **NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO BRAG ABOUT** (Part 2)

Welcome back, folks. I teased you in the last post, with the promise of a tournament report, but didn't really get into the tournament. I felt like this report needed some context so you all could understand why this tournament felt so different to me. I felt untouchable with this deck, but obviously that was a bit of a stretch. If I had known going in, that I'd finish 5-3-1 I probably wouldn't have attended, but now, I feel like it was worth every grueling round, and I'm a better player for it. I also have more confidence in the deck than ever, if that was even possible, and wish I had another chance to do it again (after changing the negates in the board to Leaks of course).

I carpooled up to the tournament with my friend John. I shipped him about 65 of the 75 cards for the Kibler infect deck, and he had arranged to borrow the remainder at the venue. We arrived, registered, and prepared for battle. {Side Note: SCG are money grubbing jerks, they charge $1 for a plain ballpoint bic pen, really? Most tournaments, the judge staff provides those at deck reg. I lost multiple pens, this was expensive and annoying. Opponents walking off with it after signing the slip, etc. I had assumed it would be run similar to PTQ's and the like, where there was competeing dealer booths. This should have been obvious to me, but I didn't consider it.}

Round 1 (B/r Vampires):
In this first round, I'm paired against a guy who I had recently met at our LGS in San Diego. He was new getting back to the game, but was a long time player before. We tested Game 1's a bit as he was getting familiar with the deck, and I knew the Game 1 was bad, and my only prayer was to win with the Shape Anew package. The first game was as bad as I expected, I didn't draw many answers, and his deck just kept asking questions such as, "Can you deal with 3 Vampire Lacerators, a Seer, and a Highborn?" This time, my answer was, "Guess not." I then proceeded to mutter something about how all 4 copies of Arc Trail in my main board were within the bottom 5 cards of my deck when I go to Sideboard. I bring in the Shape Anew Package, and shuffle up. I keep a sweet opener, including Arc Trail x2, Trinket Mage, Pyromancer Ascension, Halimar Depths, Mountain, Island. On the play, i plop down the Halimar depths, and see another Halimar, a Shape Anew, and a Bolt. I wanted the shape anew to be the card I draw on turn 3, so when I tutor with Trinket Mage I don't lose it, but don't unneccesarily expose it to duress for a turn. I pass, and he shoots an Inquisition at me, and I reveal my hand. He makes no comment of the Trinket Mage in my hand, and takes the Ascension (obv). My next turn is land-go, and his turn 2 is a Seer and a Lascerator. I draw shape anew, cast the trinket mage, fetch an axe and pass. He tapps out for a kicked Gatekeeper... ... ... Uh-oh. He didn't board these out against me? Someone at the LGS informed him of my trix? I sac my trinket mage, and start thinking about what a waste of a drive this trip was, in the meanwhile he's asking me if i'm taking 3... oh yeah, take 3. The next turn I arc Trail two dudes, and cast my axe, leaving a bolt ready. He casts an unkicked Gatekeeper the next turn, and i let out a huge sigh of relief. He's only got 2 left! I untap and shape anew, praying he isn't gripping the 3rd Gatekeeper. Sure enough he's not, and that's the game. I'm cursing myself for not running leak in my board instead of negate, and as I mash my 15 cards into my deck, I'm trying to decide what to do for G3. I go back to the main board configureation, but leave the trinket mages in and the axe for block/beat option, treasure hunts and 1 jaces ingenuity got cut. This configuration netted me a blank Memoricide naming shape anew, and one of the longest Vamp matchup games ever. I quickly activated an ascension, and things were looking good, until..... Vampire Hexmage. This deck is seriously punishing me for not running a way to counter creatures. I hate my life. Luckily I had copied some draw spells, and was juiced up to quickly reactivate. 2 hexmages later, he wins the race.
1-2... (0-1, 1-2)

Round 2 U/B Intezzorable Tide (i just named his deck for him)
I sit down at table number Infinity to start round 2, across from a guy with a huge smile, named Traf.
Game 1 left me thinking I was playing a fairly typical Tezz deck, that just had some bad draws. I didn't really see much other than Artifact Ramp, Inkmoth Nexus and Tezzeret before I threw a triple-Burst Lightning-kicked at him for 12 damage to finish the game. In game 2, I brought in Negates, and got ready to battle. This time his artifact ramp actually ramped him into a turn 3 Tezz and turn 4 Inexorable Tide?! Woah. I mean, this card isn't even playable in Draft, right? Wow. I sorta start taking a nap, because I cockily assume this guy can't win (i should know better). he's also mentioned it's his first tournament, and he's playing quite slow. Before I know it, I'm out of spells in my hand, and I'm being poked by an Inkmoth and and every 0 drop artifact he casts is proliferating me farther. I look up at the clock while shuffling for Game 3, and I must have really napped because there is not much time left. I mull to 6 and keep a reasonable hand of counters, already thinking I'm hoping to not lose. He plays a jace and fateseals me. I take my turn, play some cantrips as time is called. On turn 1 he fateseals me (7) and pokes me with inkmoth (2 poison) and casts his Inexorable Tide. Extra Turn 2 I I play another draw spell (into lands) and pass. Extra turn 3 he casts a preordain, and proliferates my poison(3) and his jace(8), He then casts another preordain! (4,9) Then a trinket mage (5,10) then the chalice he fetched from said trinket mage (6,11) THEN he plays a mox opal (7,12) and legend bombs himself. Then he attacks me to 8 poison with the nexus, and then after combat ULTIMATES HIS JACE. This mistake cost him the match. I put the two lands in my hand in the empty space where my library once was. I go to turn 4, draw a mountain, and say go. He draws, shows me the land he drew, attacks me to 9, and we draw. If he just brainstormed his jace instead of going ultimate, he likely finds a spell to get the final poison via proliferate. I was definitely not happy about this draw, but wow, i did nearly lose. I'm signing the match slip and seriously considering marking an X in the drop slot next to my name. I decide to hang in there, as I did wake up early to drive up here for the day.
1-1-1 (0-1-1 matches, 2-3-1 games)

Round 3: U/W Caw Blade
This round wasn't too exciting. My opponent sat down, with his score pad facing me, and it was quite obvious he had just drawn against RDW or Goblins, and he was playing Caw. My opponent was very new to the game. He kept his lands spread out all over the play area, was reading each card as he drew it (The ones that took a while to process were likely Gideon or Jace). After a very long and drawn out game that has me with 2 active ascensions, but not enough burn to really win the game, I'm just bouncing and countering, and drawing cards, but the game is never anyone's but mine. At some point I bounced a SoFaF, a Gideon and a Jace and drew 3 cards from Into the Roil. he took his time to read my spell, I looked down after he said ok, so I could draw my cards, and we continued our dance. A few turns later, he rebuilt his board, but with different permanents, like hawks and stoneforges. I'm confused why he hasn't recast his jace or gideon. At his endstep i bounce his 3 creatures, and draw 3, and I notice him sweep them into the graveyard. I said, "Those just go back to your hand, man!" He looks down, and sees the previous cards I bounced sitting in his graveyard, and looks to pick those up to his hand too. At this point, he had squadron hawked, and would have had too many cards in hand etc etc, so I called a judge, full knowing I'd get a warning for this for not maintaing the game state correctly. The Judge made the play from a few turns ago stand (with the gideon jace and sword in the graveyard) and warned us both. I ended up winning the game shortly after, with about 7 cards left in my deck (I did draw 9 off a Jace's Ingenuity this game). There was 3 minutes left on the clock, and we didn't get anywhere close to finishing game 2. I was tempted to hurry him up, but i could tell he was really uncomfortable, and I wasn't trying to rush someone when I'm sitting at 0-1-1 myself.

1-0-1 (1-1-1 match, 3-3-2 games)

Round 4 Boros:
This is the easiest of the aggro matchups. 100% of the dudes die to Arc Trail, and they have little-to-no disruption. I win the game handily with 7 cards in hand to his none. Next game I board into Shape Anew, curve out, and resolve Shape anew on turn 5. GG.
2-0 (2-1-1 match, 5-3-2 games)

Round 5 U/B Infect:
I dodged some inquisitions, killed manlands, and killed him with burn in the usual fashion. Negates were great out of the board, but would have been just as good/better as mana leaks (*mutter*).
One notable thing came up here. He duresses me G2, and places the card out in front of me. I spell pierce  and announce the trigger to put a counter on my ascension, and put my spell pierce right next to his duress. He says okay to the trigger then tanks. Then He places the duress in his graveyard. I bin my pierce, and its back to his priority, or so i think. He fiddles with mana, and then says, "I'll pay 2 for pierce." I can't be sure how much time had passed, but WAYYYY to much for me to think this was kosher. I called a judge, who simply encouraged him to play more clearly, even though my opponent agreed 100% with my description of the events. I then simply negate his duress, protecting my burn spells. In either case, I win this game, but thought for sure I'd get that judge call. His intention seemed pretty clear when he binned his duress.
2-0 (3-1-1 match, 7-3-2 games)

Round 6 Valakut:
After a deckcheck, I find I'm up game 1, as my opponent had misregistered. Cool, i guess. He runs me over pretty quickly on the play with a Cobra build of Valakut. Turn 4 Primeval, I simply can't outrace.
I bring in shape anew from the board for the final game, and bounce his khalani heart expiditions a couple times, and kill a few cobras. I natrually draw my axe to match up with my shape anew, and win the game.
2-1 (4-1-1 match, 8-4-2 games) {obviously not counting his game loss as a win...}

It's at this point I realize, wow, I'm actually in this tournament still. I look around as all my San Diego friends are starting to drop, and how I can't believe i'm trying to back door my way into this thing. I know my breakers will be bad, so I need to stay on my game.


Round 7 Caw Blade w/ Black:
Giving hand disruption to Caw blade is exactly what they need to beat me. Lame. I guess heavy mulligans also help. *shrug* this game sucked. I mulled to 5 game one, and he had 2 inquisitions in the first 2 turns which led to a pretty quick scoop, on my part, maybe too premature. In the 2nd game, i decide to try out the blightsteel package, along with the negates, to see if I can dodge memoricide, and add more counter backup. My first 7 is 6 lands+Blightsteel, and gets shipped for a moderate 6. My 6 were Mountain, Island, Trinket mage, Shape anew, Negate and Preordain. I lead off with a preordain, which nets me a land, and he opens on inquisition. He sees my hand and his eyes widen. He takes the mage. On turn 5 he has a memoricide with a spell pierce to back it up and takes my shape anews out of the equation. I scoop, and go get a sandwich, while i consider my chances to make the money at x-2-1. I really didn't want to keep a hand with shape anew in it, for that exact reason. I wanted to be able to draw it and play it the same turn, but the mulligan prevented that.
0-2 (4-2-1 match, 8-6-2 games)

Round 8 U/B Infect:
This opponent made me chuckle several times. He had been complaining about how he had one of his losses to a Trap version of Pyromancer (I'm pretty sure I know which guy he's talking about) and how it was his worst matchup. i lead with a preordain, and he says, "Oh, Caw-Blade, yippee." when i drop a Turn 2 Ascension, followed by turn 3 double preordain, he groans. I proceed to two-for-one my way through all of his permanents and spells, untill he runs out of cards to my full grip.
Game 2 was not much different, I drew all 4 into the roils which bounced skitherix 4 turns in a row, at which point he said, "I just want to go home." and picks up his cards and signs the slip. The game was by no means over, but I think he had simply had enough Magic for the day. It was clear he wasn't playing very sharp.
2-0 (5-2-1 match, 10-6-2 games).

Now I check the standings prior to the final round. Of all the 16 pointers, I'm near the bottom of breakers, and know even with a win I may not make the top 32 as I had hoped. Turns out my first round acquantaince from San Diego dropped at Round 2 when he was 1-1 to go to the pornstar convention next door... *shrug* guess I can't really blame him.

Round 9 U/W Caw-Blade:
Finally! Caw-Blade! Every one is talking about how much Caw there was in the room, but I didn't see as much of it as I expected. I guess that's what happens when you lose Round 1. Game 1 goes strictly to plan, which involves bouncing swords, and drawing cards, and being poked for 1 by squadron hawks until i hit a critical mass of burn with an active ascension. I bring in negates and combusts, but don't see the combusts game 2, and get beat down by a lone collonade with no ascension or double burn to kill it. I had an ascension on the table, but came down a bit too late, by the time i activated it, I didn't get a chance to play a draw spell before I died. A single combust, or burst lightning probably wins that game. Game 3, i mash in my full 15, but leave my configuration the same as game 2. I mulligan to 6, and have 4 red cards in hand with 2 blue lands. turn two finds me a mountain, and we both land-go to turn 5. by now i have a spell pierce, but the rest of my hand is burn/removal. He plops a Baneslayer T5, which I combust Eot. He plopts a Baneslayer T6, which I combust Eot, he pauses here, with a blue mana up, and looks like he wants to pierce it, before he realizes its futile. T7, he casts Sun Titan. I look at my grip....fucking Negate. FML. If this was leak, i win the game, period. After Sun Titan, pierce was the only card in his hand. I'd have had enough to pay for pierce, if i did have a leak, and I had cards in my hand to activate the ascension. He then proceeds to tec edge 2 of my halimar depths (2 of my 4 non-basics... *mutter*) and then I'm choked off, and his spell pierce becomes live. I get hit for 10 twice, and die.
He then says, that he only has 2 Baneslayers and 1 Titan, and he just happened to draw all 3. Must. Be. Nice.
1-2 (5-3-1 match, 11-8-2 games)

I finished around 70 something, which is really disappointing. But the matches I won, were not even close, and the matches I lost were very very close, the U/W/b match being the exception, but I was forced to mulligan pretty heavily both games. I know this deck is for real, and if i was a better pilot, there's no question this deck could have swept the tournament, and no doubt even my sorry ass could have finished x-1-1 if i had leaks over negates. *facepalm*

Some people have been asking about my deck, and I love that! makes me happy to know that others are willing to try and fight the metagame from this angle, and I strongly reccomend this deck. I never reccomend constructed decks, because I play so much limited, but I've done the testing this time, and put in the work, and I can honestly stand behind this one.

Feel free to comment or make suggestions on the build!
Thanks for reading!

Star City Games Los Angeles Standard Open **NOT HIGH ENOUGH TO BRAG ABOUT** (Part 1 - Preface)

So, I'm writing a constructed tournament report. I really never thought such a day would come. I'm sure there's a bit of TL;DR, but that's fine. I'm putting this down for me, and I hope to share it with anyone interested. I really feel like I need to process the whole development, both of this deck, and my experience with constructed in general. This is part 1, the Preface, so to speak.

Anyone who knows even the smallest bit about me and Magic, knows I play about 90% limited. I dabble with standard when I think there's a combo deck that will be fun to play, or the occasional rogue deck I brew up. The first 'real' standard deck I played was Grixis control, (post Lorwyn rotation). Standard bored me, and I kept it built until it rotated, in case the need for a deck arose. Then was the printing of Zendikar. This moved me to Standard for a couple reasons. 1) I had finally owned a full "standard" collection (started drafting in Conflux). 2) I hated the limited format. (2-drop, beat you, go) 3) Pyromancer Ascension came into existence.

Short introspective on my short Standard career (feel free to skip):
My friend built a 4-color Pyromancer deck, and I'd watch him play it between rounds of my drafts. He explained to me how it worked briefly, but I didn't really follow it (and wasn't that interested at the time). Then, I saw it played. I walked up, and I had assumed the game had ended. He was grabbing 4 cards off the top of his library, taking one out, then did that 2 more times. I figured he had scooped, and was sideboarding the next match, or maybe just looking at the top of his library in frustration. In actuality, he had cast a Worldly Counsel copied twice. I was immediately hooked to watch how this game played out. Later that game, he took the rest of the turns, and won via Banefire (other weeks, it would be different kill cards to dodge haters that ran Thought Hemmorage). He helped me learn how to play the deck, and I did. For a long time. When ROE came out, i played Brilliant Ultimatum for a little while, but went back to Pyromancer when I saw Mike Flores first version of the Archive Trap version. Since then I'd abandoned the deck, as I really liked ROE & M11 Limited, but Scars has been a bit underwhelming for me. When Flores "revisited" his Archive Trap version, I dusted mine off, and wow, he only changed a few cards. So I ran it. It did poorly, but I played poorly, and I started tweaking with it over the last 2 months. My goal was to fine tune the deck for the Star City Games open...

The Deck:
Most of you have probably heard me talking about my deck for quite some time. I've posted various iterations of the deck, and I've never played the same 75 in any given tournament. It started with the stock Flores Archive Trap version, and after getting hammered by aggro decks, I came up with a Shape Anew->Blightsteel Colossus plan that seemed cute, and I wanted to try it. It turned out to be amazing. Then I realized the power of the transformational sideboard, and decided to put the Traps into the board also, so I could begin the game as Counter/Burn, and side into traps for control, and Shape Anew for aggro. This was successful, but left me very narrow sideboarding options as the trap package took 7 cards and the Shape Anew package took 8. Ultimately, I cut the traps from the board, in favor of a package that was good against Caw-Blade, but also had other applications. Initially, it was 3 Combust, 4 Spreading Seas, but at the Final FNM before the SCG, I didn't side them in once. I also, was losing with Mana Leak in my hand, and having repeated issues beating a Gideon or a Collonade (Combust helps this alot***). I decided I'd up the spell pierce count to 4, and cut Mana Leak all together. I was debating putting the Leaks in the board over the Seas, but at about 1am me and my friend who first introduced me to Pyromancer Ascension settled on Negate instead. I'm pretty sure this decision cost me 2 of my 3 losses.

Here is the deck I registered:

4 Pyromancer Ascension

4 Preordain
4 See Beyond
4 Arc Trail
3 Treasure Hunt


4 Lightning Bolt
4 Burst Lightning
4 Spell Pierce
4 Into the Roil
2 Jace's Ingenuity

4 Halimar Depths
4 Scalding Tarn
8 Island
7 Mountains

Sideboard:
3 Shape Anew
3 Trinket Mage
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Blightsteel Colossus
3 Combust
4 Negate

One of the card choices of interest are Jace's Ingenuity, over Foresee. I read an old article about Fact or Fiction recently, by Mike Flores, about how casting it at the end of the opponents turn, would simply win the game. When my friend and I were brewing, he joked about Mana Short, and my mind exploded. Casting an end-step Jace's Ingenuity simply wins the game. If your Ascension(s) is online, then you should just untap and win. Even if its not, you're perfectly positioned to win within 2-3 turns. If your opponent counters it, then you get to untap and have an uninhibited turn-a la Mana Short. If they don't you're fully reloaded, which is just as amazing. The other reason I like the card over Foresee, is because burn spells don't cantrip. Against aggro sometimes you just run out of cards, I do normally board this out against aggro, in favor of the Shape Anew, however.

Shape Anew package is another interesting feature, the deck has. It provides a lot of resilience for Aggro decks. If they are fast enough, the matchup is rough, the Trinket Mage supplies a blocker (and tutor) and their sideboard for my deck is already narrow, and I love blanking people's Memoricide (vamps).

The superstar of the deck is Into the Roil, it does what you need it to do against every deck. It took me a while to be willing to simply cast it unkicked, as I always wanted value out of it, but once I was able to figure out when I need to be kicking it, versus simply bouncing a permanent that NEEDED to be dealt with, I realized this card has to be x4 in this deck.

That's the deck, I'm going to post more about my tournament experience in a separate post, to try and break this up a bit. In short, if Caw-Blade continues to be the "best deck", I'm 100% confident that my deck runs all over it, and has favorable matchups against most of the top decks. Decks with black potentially pose a threat if they are able to board into both 4xDuress and 4xInquisition. Memoricide isn't too bad, since it costs 4, and you can usually find a counterspell by then.  Aggro decks are tough, Game 1, while with the right draw of removal, are certainly winnable. Game 2 is almost an auto-win, barring an awful set of mulligans, which leaves game 3 up to how you decide to board for the final match. Sometimes going back to the maindeck is the right call. I make this decision on a matchup by matchup basis.

If you want to find out more about the matches I played at SCGLA, and my experience, stay tuned for the next part tomorrow. :)
Thanks for reading!
Part 2 is up here, with a break down of each match.
***FYI: If you Combust a Gideon while it's a creature, not only is damage marked on it (because it's a creature), but it also loses Loyalty counters (because its still a planeswalker). What this normally means is:
Opponent, casts gideon, and +2's to 8. Their next turn they activate to creature, you respond with bolt it to 5. They usually pause here, but almost always allow it, knowing they can still attack. After they attack, you can Combust the Gideon, it loses its remaining Loyalty, and when SBA are checked, it goes to Graveyard.***