LoreWeaver

I took the kids out to see the new location for MonsterGaming, downstairs from some of the best shakes in Burien, at Paul's Burgers (they'll even deliver downstairs!) There were once again two full tables of drafters and we split into even pods of eight. My first picks were; Peel from Reality, Grifter's Blade, Szadek, Lord of Secrets, and a Tattered Drake which put me on the look for blue and black from the start as I was not seeing any good early green, red, or white. I recall the Demon's Jestors and Ratcatcher being fairly late picks which is a sure sign of black being under-drafted. Here is what I ended up with:

// Land
1 Duskmantle, House of Shadow
SB: Vitu-Gazi, the City Tree

// Artifact
1 Grifter's Blade
SB: Izzet Signet

// Blue
1 Peel from Reality
1 Repeal
2 Compulsive Research
2 Minister of Impediments
1 Court Hussar
1 Enigma Eidolon
1 Tattered Drake
2 Vedalken Entrancer
SB: Simic Guildmage
SB: Ocular Halo
SB: Vision Skeins
SB: Petrahydrox
SB: Torch Drake
SB: Crystal Seer

// Black
1 Orzhov Guildmage
1 Douse in Gloom
1 Restless Bones
1 Daggarclaw Imp
2 Demon's Jester
1 Ratcatcher
SB: Vesper Ghoul
SB: Ragamuffyn
SB: Enemy of the Guildpact
SB: Slaughterhouse Bouncer
SB: Poisonbelly Ogre

// Red
SB: Surge of Zeal
SB: Stoneshaker Shaman

// Gold
1 Szadek, Lord of Secrets
2 Pillory of the Sleepless
2 Perplex
1 Agent of Masks
SB: Cerebral Vortex
SB: Conjurer's Ban

Thoughts
Perplex fetches Pillory of the Sleepless and other goodness; 13 cards, or just over half the deck, nuff said.

Minister of Impediments is generally helpful against flyers and phat, nice to see two.

Compulsive Research is good I hear...

This is a stall/mill deck. That usually doesn't win in limited, though card advantage, in general, does. Still, there are 4 fair, and 2 good, removal spells, and two more ways to fetch the good stuff. That should help control the board to get a card advantage engine going.

First round I lost to a five-color deck that had massive removal and phat flyers, ie ., Zeppelids and Predators... I dropped after that in order to get the kiddas over to movie night on time. In retrospect, I think the deck would have performed well post 1st round, perhaps going 3-1, but not having good tie-breakers - important when your going for the foil.

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© 2006 LoreWeaver, last updated 2 years ago |

Recently re-discovered how fun it is to play Magic: The Gathering semi-competitively when I stumbled into a local gaming store Monster Gaming in Burien. Last night's format was RGD draft and 16 folks showed up, the perfect number for two pods of 8, including a couple of highly ranked limited players from the region. I drafted U/B exclusively out of the first Ravnica pack. The second pack I opened Sanguine Praetor and Savage Twister, tough pick (not!) but I took the Praetor as it was in my colors. That twister went all the way around to Javier who was working on U/G/R to my left. I was seeing a lot of playable G/R cards so I started splashing those colors in the second pack. Javier was scooping up all the good U and B was mostly subpar. Third Pack saw so many flying U/G beatdown machines that I started grabbing those up. Ended up with three Assault Zeppelid, one Trygon Predator, and one Vigean Hydropod. Here's what I ended up playing:

//Land
1 Novijen, Heart of Progress
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Gruul Turf

//Artifacts
1 Simic Signet

//Creatures
1 Roofstalker Wight
1 Restless Bones
1 Gelectrode
1 Vigean Hydropod
1 Trygon Predator
3 Assault Zeppelid
1 Steamcore Weird
1 Torch Drake
1 Snapping Drake
1 Tattered Drake
1 Golgari Rotwurm
1 Izzet Chronarch
1 Sanguine Praetor

//Other
1 Seal of Fire
1 Remand
1 Convolute
1 Gaze of the Gorgon
2 Schismotivate
1 Disembowel

Thoughts
Not bad, four colors but also 8 flyers and a few decent removal spells. In limited, the game is reduced to these basics; evasion + removal usually = win. It worked for me as I went 2-1/1-2/2-0/2-1 and placed 4th overall. I made a few mistakes with my mana and a few n00b mistakes because I am not familiar with this format yet but I had a blast and won a foil Wild Mongrel and a Dissention booster for the effort. Not bad for a rusty old grognard!

Ninjitsu
A Peel From Reality would have helped this deck, as would another removal spell or two, such as; Disembowl, Cackling Flames, Wrecking Ball, or even Remand coupled + Izzet Chronarch + Followed Footsteps is a 'soft' lock on the opponent if you have board control. Macabre Waltz might have been a good midpack pick that I let go. I regret not picking the twister.

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© 2006 LoreWeaver, last updated 2 years ago |

testing, is this thing on?

let's try a page generated by aaron's asciinator...

how about a jedi knight class for d&d.

Original Magic Rules

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© 2006 LoreWeaver, last updated 2 years ago |