With only nine posts from our major writers (aka the paid ones) here on tcgplayer in the last eleven days there has been plenty of time to focus on us bloggers. In this tight knit community we bounce around decks, opinions and draft results, and even good tips for stew. Around here, one person can peel the carrots while another one cuts them up, and yet another person prepares the meat- and that's just offline. Once you edit- I mean spice up your stew, it may be ready for everyone to gobble up and give criticism.
Well today there are two chefs in the kitchen- Captaineddie and SpiffyKyote. Yes, two writers in one blog given one subject and two completely different outcomes. Both of these writers participated this week in FNM and will be writing back and forth about their experiences and perceptions on this week's draft and will hopefully be able to give accurate insight about how to make a good stew- I mean deck.
Without further ado, the first to the chopping block is Captaineddie.
Captain Eddie: FNM time! Woot!
I live in a town where there is no regular FNM, so I usually get FNM action in my hometown, which I did that day. I sat down on my table, my friend who drove me here on my left (name is John), and a guy named Chuck on my right, both are very smart Magic players, and talented as well.
I opened my pack, and see nothing there sadly, Enchanted Evening and Illuminated Folio, but I decided to pick a merrow wavebreaker, hoping to get through my favorite archetype, Mono Blue Flyers, and toss away an Aethertow to John, hoping it'll go a bit farther after reading that same day on the draft picks results page here on tcgplayer.com, that Aethertow was an 8 or 9th pick.
I pick another creature in my second pack, Glamer spiners, fitting my mono blue flyers archetype, note that there was another Aethertow in the pack, and I ship it along thinking that Blue/White is open. Then it stopped, like my oven just got turned off, my stew stopped cooking for a minute as I ran out of ingredients to throw in. Picks 3-8 were nowhere near my colours that I was getting from the gentleman on my right, while he was keeping on windmilling cards down on the table.
I managed to grab some cards like hungry spriggans, but it took a long time to consider as I was stiff to stick to my archetype, hoping to get a good record with it. Picks that I was trying to make my glamer spinner playable were favoured towards white at this point, like safehold duo. It was pick 6-7 that I got a seedcradle witch, and it made me think and change, I took it, thinking that it was time to start over and to play this archetype, G/W beats, that was unfamiliar territory to me.
Two picks later I got another witch, cementing me and telling me that G/W was open, I take it, and started grabbing stuff like safehold elite at the end- and this is where I knew I made the right choice.
I open a wilt leaf liege, and I chuckle to myself and pass the rest of the pack on to Chuck, containing good U/W stuff for him or the person next to him. For the next 5 picks, stuff like shield of the oversoul and Raven's Run Dragoon came over, and I rode this momentum all the way to the end, and the deck is what I got.
2 Hungry Spriggan
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Wilt-Leaf Liege
1 Medicine Runner
1 Safehold Elite
2 Seedcradle Witch
2 Rune-Cervin Rider
1 Old Ghastbark
2 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Elvish Hexhunter
2 Safehold Duo
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
2 Shield of the Oversoul
2 Manamorphose
12 Forest
5 Plains
Significant Sideboard includes-
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Turn to Mist
SpiffyKyote: Wow, that looks a lot like my sealed deck.
Captain Eddie: That's the archetype. =P
SpiffyKyote: Jeez, I even got the Wilt-Leaf just like you. I am honestly jealous that you pulled it off in draft! My only problem is all your weenies. Where's the punch?
Captain Eddie: Don't worry about it- there is no punch.G/W is an aggro deck, there is no big "finisher" to the deck. In an ideal world, a thoughtweft gambit or two will finish things off. Back on Friday, there was nothing there, so I just relied on getting as much damage through in the earliest turns, race the opponent, and force them to leave a guy back to block every time they attack. You'd be surprised at how efficient a wilt leaf liege and a mistmeadow skulk is at getting through damage.
SpiffyKyote: Alright that makes sense. Carryon.
Captain Eddie: As you can tell this desert pie turned out wonderfully after it started as a stew, don't be afraid to switch colours in the middle of a draft, it can/will benefit you if you read the signals right. This deck could've turned out a lot worse, as you can see, there is nothing in terms of removal. I just bash face and hope that their creatures are smaller then my creatures.
Opponent #1: Blue Black evasion, -1/-1 counters
My first opponent looked pretty keen, I managed to slap a shield on a duo at the end but he bashed my face clean. The second game was a bit better, as I raced him down to zero, he was always on his back foot as a turn one seedcradle witch provided enough firepower to get through twenty points of damage.
I hit my curve, witch Elite Shield Raven run's dragoon, he had a really hard time keeping up with my fliers, and in the end a mistmeadow skulk and a shielded Elite got through for the win.
Opponent #2 R/G RampWhen your opponent plays wort the raidmother, be prepared for some shenanigains.
It was the end of the of the 2nd game, I had a shielded Liege, 6/6 flier, He attacks all in with a Scuzzback Maurader and a Wort the raidmother, leaving the token behind. Me, not thinking, blocks the maurader wanting to take as little damage as possible, he throws up a jaws of stone, conspiring off a new Marader that just came back thanks to lovely persist and the token. And burns my face for the win. Oh yah, the first game I lost to an ember gale.
Opponent # 3 G/W AggroIt was a mirror match, and the lesson of the day here is, whoever plays first, wins. And it so happens I won the dice roll.
Opponent #4 U/R goodstuffThere wasn't much to say for any of these games, if i wrote down my plays like SpiffyKyote, this would've been much more interesting.
SpiffyKyote: It's ok, you'll do it next time. ;)
Captain Eddie: All three games I play a shield on someone, sadly on the second game he scar-ed my medicine runner after mulling down to five. I ended up losing that one to a swarm.
RECAP:
After all said and done, I came in second place, finishing after opponent #3 (who won all four games) out of 14 people.
Spiffykyote: Hello all. Let me start off by saying that my draft did not go nearly as well as Eddie's here. I got fourth of ten due to a few complications and so I am just going to go with it. My section is more about some good combos that came out Friday and what to do in a sticky situation. You know, the kind where you were are stuck between a rock and a hard place.
My Rock was a guy named Benny who quite often places first or second. Mr. Hard Place (haha i know, total innuendo) was the guy who gets first or second when Benny does not, and his name is Alex. In this week's FNM I was situated right inbetween them. Yeah, literally between a Rock and a Hard Place. So my not unimpressive track record (numerous second places and a few more thirds) was set to unfavorable odds this week.
So when it came to drafting packs, pack one and three were coming from Hard Place (hereafter referred to HP) and pack two was coming from Rock. Later what I found out was that Rock was drafting r/g and HP drafted r/b. This would have left me with w/u, however, little did I know that the players that were reach 2 from me were both doing those colors. No matter what way you look at it I was screwed.
My advantage came in this small group of drafters actually being a friendly group of people. Most of us were talking while we were passing cards, although of course not mentioning what we had in our hands, save for one n00b. What really helped me here was the fact that first pack, I knew what colors I was drafting. I chose r/g because my first rare was crap so I selected a tower above. Now the advantage of everyone talking was that they were all joking around and laughing about the fact that they were all hate drafting. During the first pack, everyone else was hate drafting so I was able to get a lot of good things first pack.
Second and third packs I was not getting so much of what I wanted except for opening the Mossbridge Troll and then the Fire-Lit Thicket. In the end, I wound up with the following decklist, with two Raking Canopies for sideboarding.
2 devoted druid
2 morselhoarder
2 roughshod mentor
2 hungry spriggan
2 blistering dieflyn
1 farhaven elf
1 tattermunge maniac
1 mossbridge troll
1 wildslayer elves
1 scuzzback marauders
3 crimson wisps
2 tower aboves
1 shield of the oversoul
1 runes of deus
7 forests
8 mountains
1 fire-lit thicket
Captain Eddie: This seems like a good winning deck, The only things I gotta pick on it's the three crimson wisp and 2 blistering dieflyn. The Wisps are good in a deck like these, but I don't know if I'd put in three, two seems to be the max and one it's what I usually go with, I also worry about the blistering dieflyn.
SpiffyKyote: I like 'em- it's one drop card draw in all colors with (usually) good side effects. In draft a well played wisp can help you win the game. But what's wrong with the Dief?
Captain Eddie: They are a 4 mana investment in the beginning, and at the end, they suck up more mana then you can let go. The point with playing the dieflyn and any other pump creature in this format is that when you drop it down, don't block or do anything with it. Leave it alone for the time being, worry about increasing your board advantage by dropping down bigger creatures (which you definitely have).
SpiffyKyote: Yeah that is exactly what I did. Used it and exploited it as much as I could, but only when I had a good set up otherwise so I wouldn't leave myself open. I find it's best to exploid Dief as much as you can tho, especially when they don't have any fliers.
Captain Eddie: Other then that, the two tower aboves are awesome-
SpiffyKyote: Thank you.
Captain Eddie: I like your creatures to others ratio (15:7, perfect). Colours seem balanced, and your curve lots rather late, but thats alright considering your archetype and the two devoted druid.
SpiffyKyote: Anything else?
Captain Eddie: Nope, I'm good.
First match, game one was against the n00b. He was one of the w/u folks and first game he was mana screwed, so I took the first win with playing both Tower Aboves and just generally smashing face.
Game two we both did well in terms of mana but he was afraid of loosing his creatures and so he was not blocking a lot of my attacks. My Scuzzback Marauder repeatedly attacked him and so he finally played Sinking Feeling on the thing. At this point he was at three life and I was at 14. Fortunately, the great thing about Sinking Feeling is that it makes your opponent completely forget about your creature. The card however still allows you to pay one to untap your creature and so that is exactly what I did once the time was right and I had to block. Next turn I attacked with Blistering Dieflyn and swept the match.
In the end I game him the advice to use his sideboard and actually block every now and again.
Second match, game one was against HP. R/g met R/g in a not so epic dual to the death. He chose r/g because earlier when he was hate drafting he managed to get two Boggart Ram Gangs. In this first game he pulled one of them out and stomped me.
Game two we were matching blow for blow with pretty much the same decks and at the very end he Flame Javelined, however conceded due to confusing player errors where the end game either meant I was at one life and I win or negative two life he wins. I was figuring out what to block when he assumed I wasn't blocking and revealed his Javelin too early, allowing me to accurately block and then swing all next turn. Lesson here- make sure all blockers are declared for sure. My advice is to ask them "Is that your final answer?" with a bit of an eyebrow raise to ease the tension.
Game three he Ram Ganged turn three. I conceded.
Third match, game one was against a guy I call Stalin, because almost every match he plays winds up getting time called on him because he is a notorious Staller. In this game we were both mana flooded but I eventually managed to play Blistering Dieflyn and then equip Runes of Deus to it. Next turn I used all my forests to play Morselhoarder and then used morselhoarders counters on Dief's ability and four mountains to make it a 8/2 flying doublestriker. First game was mine.
Game two I eventually had Wildslayer Elves and Mossbridge Troll out but he won due to Aethertowing them both to the top of my library. This same game he also managed to whip out the Order of Whiteclay and Presence of Gond combo where you make an elf baby and then bring back a creature from your graveyard with cmc three or less for two white and one of anything. I was pretty swarmed.
Game three was epic because true to his name, Stalin was the reason for time to be called on this one. The last few turns I had a few big creatures out including Mossbridge Troll and Roughshod Mentor. He had two Old Ghastbarks. The game ended in a draw because on the final turn I could only bring him to five life while I was at sixteen. Had I one more mana or just one more turn I could have played a Scuzzback Marauder and tapped that for Mossbridge's ability and then swung with Mossbridge and the Mentor for the win. Shame shame....
And so after all that HP got first, Rock got second, and I got fourth. What a herrowing night! It only makes me look forward to next week.
Captain Eddie: The lesson of the day here is, don't always try to stick to your colours, when someone passes you a card you think it's worth trying outside of your colours, try it! Maybe it'll reward you in the end. Never be afraid to jump ship to try to build a new one.
SpiffyKyote: Seconded.
......
So now what?
Captain Eddie: I dunno. That was pretty fun. Wanna do it again?
SpiffyKyote: Hellz yeah. What about what we talked about earlier?
Captain Eddie: Sure. Wanna do the honors?
SpiffyKyote: No no no you do it. Make it official sounding.
Captain Eddie: Okay, what about this- For our next article, we will visit the main archetypes around this set, and what decks you are most likely to see in a draft. Take heed next time when we also reveal what cards are great signals to steer toward a certain color!
Tags: Draft FNM Shadowmoor
**Originally written at 2am 5/9/08 and not posted until 3 due to my last post still being on the front page. I wanted to give the other one space, but nuts, I want to post this one too. I hope that this one still stands a chance of being featured. Thanks for reading everyone. ;)
Ever since the midnight rantings of my last post my mind’s been going crazy debating on what subject to cover next- Oona, Queen or Painter’s Servant? Enchanted Scorn or wait ‘til draft on Friday? Lo and behold, I’m typing up what is another midnight rant and chose none of the above. I am at the same time nervous and excited because it is awesome to finally have a reason again to use the computer other than looking up cards, values, e-mail, or mapquest, so I didn’t want to mess things up. This is because Magic has become more than a game, it is transcending those boundaries and becoming an entity… a storm entity… A passion really. One that can be personified in this first deck I am going to cover which I fondly call Grinning Storm.
Grinning Storm was just inches away from being another RDW until just this last Tuesday when it’s main combo presented itself in front of me. This deck is very different from RDW in that it’s beefy; it has combos and big fatty juicy creatures to spit out at your opponent like chewing tobacco in some western movie. Because of this, it’s name was almost “POW” which stands for…
Power Often Wins. This deck has power, and the use of the word “often” seemed a little less arrogant than the finality of “Red Deck Wins”. But hey, that name didn’t make it to the presses, so further back story can be forgotten. With that said, let it be known that this deck is intended for beating face by upping your storm count. Why in elementals though? Because of that great card, Storm Entity. Just thinking about it makes me wonder what else will be in the set that card will make it’s appearance in…
Now what I intend to do is display the decklist in order of how it should be played. The key components are all in playsets because I am a believer in consistency- also this deck is not intended for burn, however it could be if you wanted to throw in Grapeshot or some other awesome burn spell with mana cost X.
4x Manaforge Cinder
4x Brighthearth Banneret
4x Grinning Ignus
4x Storm Entity
4x Flamekin Harbinger
Did you catch it yet? Well, in case you did, what follows are ways to spend all of your excess mana or even to help you explode more.
3x Ceaseless Searblades
4x Bogardan Hellkite (now what’s going on here?)
3x Dragonstorm (makes sense now, right?)
4x Grapeshot
3x Lotus Bloom
3x Rite of Flame
Incandescent Soulstoke is unfortunately cut for now, further testing may warrant its reinstatement however its tap ability just was not getting used. +1/+1 is nice, but using that ability back in the Lorwyn days of my elementals was King. Nova Chaser and Smokebraider also did not make the cut merely because they were remnants of the old deck and weren’t keeping up with the new themes. Sorry guys, I still love you- especially you Chaser! Perhaps I will see you again in the r/b elementals with Kulrath Knight and Everlasting Torment.
As for lands- I could care less. This is a straight red deck that you can run any sort of trickery you fancy with mountains. You can either abide by KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) or you can toss in Dark Depths from Cold Snap as another good outlet for your mana. As for me- two Dark Depths and I’m golden.
Now here’s the breakdown of how this deck works from the ground up. It is elementals, so obviously it is cheap and can survive off of only two lands if it has to. Harbinger always searches for what you need so if you don’t have enough- then search! But "Search for what?" I hear you asking…
Turn one: play a land and Manaforger, assuming you do not need to harbinge for anything.
Turn two: another land, Banneret. (If you Rite of Flame here, you may play the second Banneret)
Turn three: land- and this is possibly the last land you really need- and then play a second Manaforger and a Grinning Ignus.
Turn four: By now you can play anything you like. The basic idea is to utilize Bannerets by making Grinning Ignus a one red-drop creature that bounces back for one red to add one red and two of anything to your mana pool. He plays himself back, and you have two colorless floating. Do this again and again, do the math, and you increase your storm count. If you run out of land then start using Manaforger’s ability to filter through the colorless mana you have floating thereby making your Grapeshot incredibly powerful or a Dragonstorm scary (for which if you really intend on using properly you need more dragons in the deck) and a Storm Entity huge.
And on a side note: if you have Ceaseless Searblades while all this is going on, every time you bounce Ignus and filter mana through the forger your Searblades will also become bigger.
Now yes, this is complicated and yes, there may be mana burn, but as long as you can follow up with the combo and play it wisely there is nothing to worry about, Dark Depths can make this an easy feat. Just manage your mana well and if the game goes on long enough you too can have your very own 20/20 indestructible flyer within as little as three turns. True, this does require a good number of cards, but even with just one Banneret, a Forger, and the Ignus, you can still up your storm count to make your other spells that much more impressive. Assuming you decided to run it, if you Lotus Bloomed on turn one it comes into play turn four adding one to the count, and if you saved a rite until now that’s another one, and eventually you may still have a Grapeshot worth casting.
As for sideboard there’s Door of Destinies (oh come on, you didn’t think I wouldn’t put that card in what with Grinning Ignus constantly bouncing around) and Vexing Shusher. Doors is more of a card I would like to playtest with but that is generally what my sideboards are- cards that I will eventually play with that sound like a good idea for the deck. Other good ideas include any beefy elementals that I can easily cast because of Primal Beyond or Smokebraider if she is ever re-added.
Lastly- If you really wanted to, you could throw in any big red creature that would be surprisingly easy to hardcast. Hellkite can be hardcast no prob, same with the unexpected Gargadon, which is almost never hardcast, only comboed with and suspended. Imagine the look on their face when that comes into play from your hand! Whatever you do with this crazy elemental combo, keep a paper and pen ready to count up all your colorless floating mana, your spell count, and possibly even your activated ability count for Searblades. Just be careful about Forger, because each one can only grant your wish three times each turn.
Playtesting to come in a future blog…
**Afterthought- Freaking Wizards! They just posted what I intended on blogging about in the future. The lid has officially been blown off of Painter’s Servant and the Enchanted Scorn deck (separately of course) beyond just tcgplayer. This is why I shouldn’t wait to post what I have already been thinking about, which can unfortunately be said about five different topics– because someone else is bound to think of it too. Nevertheless- my own Scorn deck has been built and saw lots of play today and so hopefully next time I post there will be results of both decks to talk about. Until next time, fell free to message me.
Tags: Elemental Storm Deck Red Type II
