I don’t get
a lot of comments about the articles on this website (I’m still trying to
decide how disappointing that is) but one person (she doesn’t even play Magic)
did message me on Facebook with a lesson that stuck with me enough to want to
talk about more in depth.
Essentially,
her position was that for someone who spends as much time and effort on the
game as I do, I come across as not enjoying it that much. Her advice was to remind myself of what I
love about the game and maybe I would have fun again.
I’m not
sure, to quote somewhere I can’t remember, if this is “Alanis irony” or “real
irony”, but ironically, after submitting my rant Sunday afternoon, I’ve gone on
an incredible streak on MTGO with UW Shape Anew.
As of this
writing, I have won 28 Standard 2-man queues and lost only 4. Here’s the breakdown:
|
Opposing Deck
|
Match Score
|
Game Score
|
Game Win Percentage
|
|
Wolf
Run Ramp
|
12-0
|
24-3
|
89%
|
|
Township
Tokens
|
3-1
|
7-2
|
78%
|
|
Mono-Red
Aggro
|
4-0
|
8-4
|
67%
|
|
UW
Blade
|
1-1
|
2-2
|
50%
|
|
UW
Control
|
0-1
|
1-2
|
33%
|
|
UB
Control
|
1-1
|
3-3
|
50%
|
|
Mono
Black Infect
|
5-0
|
10-2
|
83%
|
|
Goblins
|
1-0
|
2-0
|
100%
|
|
Illusions
|
1-0
|
2-1
|
66%
|
Basically,
this is exactly what I needed to happen in order to make me feel like quite an
idiot for writing the whole 4,000 word opus I sent in on Sunday.
Some Analysis
Wolf Run Ramp is a plague on MTGO right
now. I made the mistake of not recording
the names of the players I squared off against, so I may have been playing the
same guy over and over, but I highly doubt that. I’m genuinely surprised by its popularity,
since it really isn’t that fun to play.
But, as Sondag proved during the SCG Open, you can play like an idiot
and the deck will still pull wins out of its ass for you, so maybe that
explains the prevalence of the archetype.
·
More importantly, as you can tell by the
results, I’m extremely happy every time my opponent opens with Copperline
Gorge. The deck has almost no way to
beat UW Anew. It plays 6 relevant cards
in 3 Beast Within and 3 Slagstorm, and if they are holding up mana to cast
those spells in response to your Shape Anew, then they aren’t casting any
spells at all, and eventually you can Shape Anew with counterspell back up, or
Snapcaster Mage it back after they blow their relevant cards. Sometimes, you just slowly kill them with Myr
and Blade Splicers because they know that if they tap out at any point, they’ll
be staring down the ichor-dripping maw of a Big Dirty Robot.
·
The deck initially ran 2 maindeck Twisted Image
as a way to deal with Spellskite on the draw.
Spellskite is currently becoming more popular again, but Wolf Run
doesn’t play them often. The losses to
the UW and UB decks were primarily because of Spellskite, as my current build
does not have a lot of ways to deal with it.
So, lesson number two? I’m adding
Twisted Image back into the sideboard, and they may even find their way to the
main (the imagined expression I see on my opponent’s face when I block their
Nexus with mine and Twisted Image theirs after they pump it with Wolf Run is so
hilarious that even thinking about it makes babies smile).
·
Mono-Black Infect’s Memoricides are annoying,
but hardly the end of the world. If they
turn two Distress into Surgical Extraction, into Memoricide, it becomes much
more difficult to deal with. As
Mono-Black Infect grows in popularity, Mental Misstep may be needed to curb
Surgical Extraction issues. You don’t
want to Mana Leak an Extraction and walk into Memoricide…
·
The Goblins deck I played against was
interesting, although it had no real way of winning against me. But it drove me nuts that he was playing with
Shock over Galvanic Blast. I’ve said
this a million times, but it bears mentioning again. Even if all you have are 4 Inkmoth Nexus and
4 Shrine of Burning Rage, you have to run Blast. Even if you only have 3 Shrine and no
Inkmoths, you run Blast. Basically,
there is never a situation in which Shock is better than Galvanic Blast, and
you should never be playing it, unless you already have 4 Galvanic Blast in
your deck, and need more for some really bizarre reason. Or if you forgot that Galvanic Blast
existed. Which I totally didn’t when I
first started testing the new Standard.
(Ok, yeah, I did)
Why I’m Grinning Like an Idiot Again
If you, for
some very strange reason, are reading this without having read my “History
Lesson” from Monday, go back and take a look.
But to sum it up briefly, one of the reasons I was so angry and
disappointed by Zac Hill’s development article that was featured on the
Mothership was because he listed a bunch of things that Wizards has essentially
solemnly sworn to never allow to happen again, all of which happened to be the
things that made Magic fun for me in the first place.
I was
obviously aware of this deck by that point (I had been writing about it for two
weeks) but since MTGO didn’t really have Innistrad
yet, I had only played it in one live tournament and a couple of
playtesting sessions. I mean no
disrespect to the people I played with, but they weren’t exactly fantastic
players, either. So, while I presented
them as such, the results weren’t really spectacular. Now, having played in some Gold queues and 32
2-man events, I can say that I feel like my deck is the best deck in Standard
and actually have data to back that up.
What’s even
better is that I said something about making the cards seem bad, so that only a
small group of players (mostly my friends and readers) would have access to the
deck. This is exactly what
happened. Out of the fifty or so matches
I’ve played total online (including Tournament Practice matches) approximately
forty of my opponents have conceded to lethal Blightsteel with a “play real
cards, noob” or “you are such a f-c-u-k-i-n-g bad player” or “I can’t believe
you spent 80 tickets on Snapcaster for that pile, you idiot”.
Hey, thanks
to Elspeth jumping from 12 to 20 tickets, I’ve already made my monthly goal of
200 tix. (Unfortunately, the Liliana’s I
bought at 35 are down to 17, so I lost a bit there, but I’ll hold them for a
while, mise)
Innistrad Limited:
After
playing two PTQs, a Sealed event, and a dozen drafts, I can fairly honestly say
that the format is robust, entertaining, and dramatic in ways that I haven’t
experienced playing Magic before. There
is a huge difference between the skilled players and amateurs, and I am excited
to keep going with the drafts and Sealed deck events.
A few notes:
·
Invisible Stalker: This is the worst card in the format to play
against and the best card to have in your deck.
Like Snapcaster Mage in Constructed, having one or two of these feels
like cheating, and once you have any relevant equipment, it actually is cheating. Rolling Tremblor and Tribute to Night are the
only realistic methods of dealing with the card, and Tribute doesn’t even work
after turn three. Yes, Blasphemous Act
can kill it, so sure, we’ll put that on the list, but if you are resolving
Blasphemous Act, then you were going to win any way. Same goes for any of the other rares or
Mythics that can take him down. The
biggest thing I have to put in this section is: DO NOT PASS INVISIBLE STALKER
OVER ANY NON-MYTHIC INCLUDING MOST RARES.
If you do, expect to lose to it, every time. In 14 Innistrad
drafts, I’ve had Invisible Stalker 8 times.
I’ve won all 8 of those drafts, almost always on the back of the 1/1 for
1U. I’ve lost 4 drafts, and in every
case, I lost to Invisible Stalker.
·
The other rares and Mythics are not nearly as
gamebreaking as Invisible Stalker. For
one, if you are playing blue, Dissipate and Lost in Mist are real cards, and
they are worth playing. Frightful
Delusion is not a real card, but if you don’t think that they will play around
it (even accidently), then you can side that in, too.
·
Some key cards I recommend always picking up
when you have a chance:
·
Rolling Tremblor – Against R/B Aggro, Army of
the Damned, Invisible Stalker, Humans
·
Naturalize and Urgent Exorcism– This format has tons of
relevant enchantments and artifacts. I
play Naturalize main in most decks, Urgent Exorcism I play main in all decks.
·
Purify the Grave – Goes around the table
usually, but it’s a key counter to many cards.
I’ll add
more to the list, and suggest some building strategies possibly next week.
The Infinite Challenge
Most writers seem to be doing
this, so I thought I’d have some fun with it as well. I started with $100 and 9 packs of Innistrad. Through investing and playing, my goal is
1000 tickets by the end of November. In
this section, I’ll list any speculation I’m doing, and also track my
performance in the queues. So far this
week I am at 76 tickets and 24 packs.
There is a PTQ in Arizona this
weekend, so I should be in the Mesa/Tempe area on Saturday. If you game in the area, come on over and say
hi, and hopefully I’ll be able to show you my PTQ winning deck with 3 Invisible
Stalkers and 2 Silver-Inlaid Daggers (I really don’t care what else is in the
deck at all if it has those five cards, it should never lose a game).
Until next time,
@snglmaltproof, BJSnyder8478 at gmail dot com, or Stormskull on MTGO
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