Trial by Fire

This past Saturday, I was able to play in a local Grand Prix Trial for GP Pittsburgh. The format was Gatecrash Sealed Deck and I was really excited to try out the format without the Guild Packs that the prereleases brought to the table. Below is the card pool I was given and I'd be really interested to see how you would have built a deck from it. I do think I found a really solid deck within the six packs, as evidenced by my 4-2 Ninth place finish, but I also think there is some room for improvement.

Unfortunately, I didn't keep the usual level of notes on the games I played, so I won't have a tournament summary for you, but listed below the card pool I have included the deck I registered and played on the day.

x1 Angelic Edict
x2 Basilica Guards
x2 Nav Squad Commando
x2 Smite
x1 AEtherize
x1 Frilled Oculus
x1 Hands of Binding
x2 Metropolis Sprite
x2 Sage's Row Denizen
x1 Sapphire Drake
x1 Skygames
x1 Spell Rupture
x2 Devour Flesh
x1 Gutter Skulk
x1 Horror of the Dim
x1 Illness in the Ranks
x1 Mental Vapors
x2 Midnight Recovery
x1 Slate Street Ruffian
x2 Syndicate Enforcer
x1 Bomber Corps
x1 Cracking Perimeter
x1 Ember Beast
x2 Massive Raid
x1 Ripscale Predator
x1 Structural Collapse
x2 Tin Street Market
x1 Warmind Infantry
x1 Adaptive Snapjaw
x1 Burst of Strength
x1 Crocanura
x1 Greenside Watcher
x1 Ooze Flux
x2 Slaughterhorn
x1 Sylvan Primordial
x1 Verdant Haven
x1 Bane Alley Broker
x1 Cartel Aristocrat
x1 Elusive Krasis
x1 Hydroform
x2 Kingpin's Pet
x1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind
x1 Mortis Strider
x1 Mystic Genesis
x1 Nimbus Swimmer
x1 Orzhov Charm
x1 Paranoid Delusion
x2 Primal Visitation
x1 Psychic Strike
x1 Purge the Profane
x1 Ruination Wurm
x1 Urban Evolution
x1 Vizkopa Confessor
x1 Vizkopa Guildmage
x1 Wojek Halberdiers
x1 Zameck Guildmage
x1 Burning-Tree Emissary
x1 Deathcult Rogue
x1 Merfolk of the Depths
x1 Pit Fight
x1 Shattering Blow
x2 Glaring Spotlight
x1 Skyblinder Staff
x1 Orzhov Keyrune
x2 Razortip Whip
x1 Orzhov Guildgate
x1 Sacred Foundry
x2 Simic Guildgate

ESPER EXTORT
Main Deck 
x1 Angelic Edict
x2 Basilica Guards
x2 Smite
x1 Frilled Oculus
x2 Devour Flesh
x1 Gutter Skulk
x2 Syndicate Enforcer
x1 Bane Alley Broker
x1 Cartel Aristocrat
x2 Kingpin's Pet
x1 Orzhov Charm
x1 Psychic Strike
x1 Vizkopa Confessor
x1 Vizkopa Guildmage
x1 Deathcult Rogue
x1 Orzhov Keyrune
x2 Razortip Whip
x1 Orzhov Guildgate
x3 Island
x6 Plains
x7 Swamp

Looking back on the day, I think I would have main decked the Nav Squad Commandos in place of the Whips, even though the Artifact pingers did a fair amount of work on the day. I really wanted to run Lazav, particularly because of the amount of good removal in the deck, but the double blue in his casting cost was too much for me to try.

I really liked the consistency of the deck, but felt that the lack of bombs really hurt in the later swiss rounds. In the end however, it was my unwillingness to mulligan to faster starts against two very aggressive aggro Naya builds kept me from making the top eight and getting a chance to draft for the Pittsburgh byes.

Lemme know what you think of the pool and my build and thanks for reading!!

Evolutionary Gardening

I love Limted format Magic: The Gathering. Given the choice between constructed or draft, I’ll crack the packs every time. As much as I love to hear about players going in to drafts with a solid plan in mind, as much as I would like to do the same, “forcing” a specific archetype of deck from a pod of 8 players is something I’ve never actually done. If you an avid listener (like I am) of the Limited Resources podcast, you know there are two types of drafters; the Architect is the one who has a plan and builds around it, and the Gardener is the one who plants a few seeds and watches what grows. At a recent Wednesday night draft, I embraced my inner Simic and watched what genetic harvest grew from my first blue green seed.

Rather than break down the draft and tournament (I’ll have a deck list and round summary at the end of the blog post), I’d rather devout a paragraph or two to some key bullet points; addressing each in a more general way rather than look at one event or one game and rely to much on results oriented thinking.

PACK ONE, PICK ONE
What do you take? While I try not to rare draft, admittedly pack one of this draft gave me a Godless Shrine and I all but snap-took it. I did thumb through the rest of the pack quickly, and seeing nothing that really inspired me, I opted for the money, not to mention it finished my playset of the black-white land. The upside to this pick is it left me completely open on colors, and gave me some fixing should I move in to Boros, Orzhov, or even Dimir with subsequent picks, but that’s it. As much fun as it is to open money cards while drafting, the Shocklands in particular do not win you games, so if you sit to either side of me, don’t be too surprised if you ever get passed one.

Yes, even this Guildmage.

So what cards would I considering exciting to first pick in pack one? Without getting to specific, utility 2-drops are right up there; Syndic of Tithes, Burning Tree Emissary, Wojek Halberdiers, Guildmages for all the guilds and so on. After that I’d look for 3-drop creatures with at least 3 Toughness or some form of evasion; I like a good low curve as Gatecrash draft seems to be a fairly fast environment. Very rarely do I want to pick a non-creature spell as a first pick. If I couldn’t get a decent creature at any mana cost, X spells like Aurelia’s Fury, Clan Defiance, Mind Grind, Cinder Elemental (basically any game ender) would be a solid pick.

WATCH IT TABLE

Pick two came to me and I saw the Drakewing Krasis and the Simic seed was planted. A 3/1 Flyer with Trample for three mana is a pretty sweet pick up in the format, and gives me room to look for an Evolve game plan or move in to Gruul and splash for the blue. As the packs kept getting passed, more and more playable Simic made its way to me. Less good red cards were being passed also, along with almost no white, indicating that at least two players on my right were Boros or Orzhov, likely one in each. Snagging a few mid pack picks of Cloudfin Raptor, Greenside Watcher and Crocanura, I felt like a nice curve was developing. Then came the hard decision of pack one: Zhur-Taa Swine or Adaptive Snapjaw?

Both creatures work to trigger Evolve on my entire board, but one requires a color splash while the other is a curve topper that is unlikely to ever see more than 3 toughness. That small point right there is why I picked up the beefier Swine, cutting a very playable Gruul card from a player on my left. It’s really my experience that there is a huge jump from 3 to 4 Toughness in most Limited environments, and Gatecrash is no exception. I’m also completely ok with letting my deck grow in to a red splash naturally, as there are some very good cards with single red color requirements. The Swine along with Ghor-Clan Rampager, Disciple of the Old Ways, Mugging and Arrows of Justice all are powerful and cheap enough in their opportunity cost to splash in a green based deck, especially if I can find a Gruul Guildgate or Keyrune in packs two or three. So imagine my surprise when not only did I snag the Zhur-Taa Swine, but the Adaptive Snapjaw came back around as the final card for pack one.

MY LEYLINE FOR A FISH MUTANT!!!

Play ALL the creature types!!!

Pack two presented a disheartening realization: someone on my left was in Simic too. Playbles were few and far between, and I found myself forced to pick mediocre on-color cards just to keep my creature count up while watching two Madcap Skills pass me by in favor of developing my creations’ roots. It was also in this pack that I picked up a second Crocanura over a Rapid Hybridization I knew would not table.

As the title of this subsection indicates, I was dearly hoping to grab a Shambleshark or two for my deck. I’ve seen that little 2/1 with Flash do a lot of work, and with a few Crocanura’s already in my deck, the Flash can provide a very potent combat trick under the right circumstances. If anything, I was a little heavy on 3-drops and needed to lower my curve just a bit if I wanted to have a chance against quick and swarmy Boros decks. That’s probably one on the biggest considerations you have to consider when looking at drafting a non-Boros deck, how will you slow them down so you can go over the top?

WAITING FOR THE FLOWER TO BLOSSOM

As the final packs moved around the table, I was really looking for the final touches for the deck. I picked up an early Drakewing Krasis and Cloudfin Raptor, giving me two and three copies respectively. What I really wanted however was a single unblockable for the deck, an Elusive Krasis if I was lucky enough. I showed a small amount of restraint and passed a Keymaster Rogue while picking up an Ivy Lane Denizen, and then was rewarded by finding another Keymaster in the next pack. This deck was really starting to come together.

The Gardener in me was really enjoying the success this deck was gaining before even playing a game. Part of what made the gardening process so successful for me was knowing when to prune some rotten leaves in favor of drafting a off-color playable. As you’ll see in my pool I have a few playable cards that other decks would probably have wanted. By identifying bad Simic cards early, I was able to watch them table back to me as I cut other players from cards they likely needed for their decks. The one Simic card I knew I would never play was Hydroform. Watching two copies come back to me over the course of the draft, it appears the other players in the pod knew them to be bad as well. While it looks like a solidly playable card for two mana, it really costs three, as you need the land you target to be untapped if you really want it to do any work. I’d much rather have any other of the 3 mana creatures or Keyrunes in the format, even in a splashed color, than spend 3 mana on a temporary threat your opponent can then use their removal on to cut you off an entire turn of board development on. While ultimately a subpar card in of itself yet infinitely better than Hydroform, is Burst of Strength, which ended up making the cut for my deck as the 23^rd card.

BATTLE!!!

Before I reveal the deck list and sideboard, I have a few quick card specific notes on my games. The best card I never got to cast was Mindeye Drake. This 5 mana 2/5 flyer easily made the cut for the deck over one of the Adaptive Snapjaws simple due to the inherent upsides the card has. While lacking Evolve, its high toughness will trigger Evolve on probably all my other creatures, and the Flying makes it an amazing blocker. The extra push that gave it the nod over the Snapjaw, is its mill five death trigger. This can easily snag a few good cards from your opponent and if you hit their bomb can really give you an edge in a close grindy match.

Gatecrash's Eyes in the Sky

The elephant in the room when most people talk about Gatecrash Limited is Madcap Skills. This small 2 mana Aura seems to be the cause of a lot of headaches for players. I really think that this card has a lot of over hype on it regarding its turn 2 or 3 play. The four or five games now that I’ve had someone run out an early game Madcap Skills instead of developing their board, I’ve been able to eventually stabilize, kill their Skilled Creature in a favorable manner, and then go over the top of them. There is really only one way I feel an early Madcap Skills should be played, and that’s if you have a early game Flyer against a non-Green opponent. Green has several ways of interacting with Flyers profitably, and almost all of them are playable main deck. Where I think Madcap Skills will really shine is mid to late game, when you can drop it on a hearty toughness attacker and either force through a large chunk of damage or set up a 2 for 0 bad block situation. Obviously there are corner cases everywhere, but give a little more thought to your game plan at large when before you run out that little Aura on your Foundry Street Denizen.

Now without any more rambling, here’s the deck I played and my round summary:

SIMIC DRAFT DECK
Main Deck
x1 Biovisionary
x3 Cloudfin Raptor
x2 Crocanura
x2 Drakewing Krasis
x1 Experiment One
x1 Frilled Oculus
x2 Greenside Watcher
x1 Ivy Lane Denizen
x1 Keymaster Rogue
x1 Metropolis Sprite
x1 Mindeye Drake
x1 Rust Scarab
x1 Sage's Row Denizen
x1 Scab-Clan Charger
x1 Slaughterhorn
x1 Burst of Strength
x1 Pit Fight
x1 Simic Charm
x1 Simic Guildgate
x8 Forest
x8 Island
Sideboard
x1 Angelic Edict
x1 Nav Squad Commando
x1 Keymaster Rogue
x1 Skygames
x1 Ripscale Predator
x2 Structural Collapse
x1 Adaptive Snapjaw
x2 Disciple of the Old Ways
x2 Hydroform
x1 Purge the Profane
x1 Zhur-Taa Swine
x1 Armored Transport
x1 Gruul Keyrune
x1 Skyblinder Staff
x1 Godless Shrine

In the end, I felt I had enough playables in green and blue alone that I didn't need to dilute the mana base by adding in the Gruul Keyrune and adding a few Mountains. Had I ended up doing so, the Zhur-Taa Swine replaces the Rust Scarb and the Disciples push the Greenside Watchers to the 'board. The Gruul Keyrune probably edges out the blue Denizen in this situation, but that slot could be up for debate. Here's how the tournament went down.

Round 1: Boros Rare Swarm (On the Play) Lose 1-2
Games 1 and 3 are over very quickly, with my opponent playing Boros like Boros should be played, quick, swarmy and with plenty of First Strike thanks to a Legion Loyalist Battalion trigger. The only reason we had three games is I was able to grind out a longer game by playing Pit Fight early and keeping him off a turn 3 and 4 Battalion.
Round 2: Borzhov Triple Madcap (On the Draw) Win 2-0
My opponent drops a Basilica Screecher turn 2 and the Aura's it up with Madcap Skills, attacking in to my Cloudfin and Crocanura without knowing about the Crocodile Frog's Reach. Game two, I curve out almost perfectly by going Cloudfin, Cloudfin, Drakewing, Slaughterhorn as my opponent can't get any flying defense and his life total quickly hits 0.
Round 3: Gruul Aggro (On the Draw) Win 2-1
Game one I manage a fairly quick clock, but get Bloodrushed to 0 after a few quick attacks.Game two I manage to stablize against a Madcapped Legion Loyalist then grind out the win with my Rust Scarab that threatened to take away his Skills should he ever block. Game three, I hit another quick Evolve curve and my flyers quickly race his ground pounding beasts.
Round 4: Orzhov Midrange (On the Play) Win 2-0
My opponent sets up a very good play by hitting my sole Island on turn two with a Contaminated Ground, cutting me off from the three blue creatures in my hand. Fortunately he floods out before he can put the pressure on me, and I manage to top deck three solid green creatures and win before he can Extort me out. Game three, we both hit our game plans strongly, but he doesn't see quite enough Extort and I manage to take him from 12 to 1 life in a single turn thanks to a Bloodrushed Slaughterhorn on a Drakewing Krasis and a few Cloudfins after he bounced back and forth on either side of 10 life for a few turns. He draws dead on his turn and can't mount a lethal crack back.

Call Me Ishmael

Note: The deck within this blog post was inspired from a list posted by Nina Illingworth over on LegitMTG.com in her article Chasing the White Whale. Go check out her article and follow her on twitter (@CardboardWitch). I've certainly learned a lot reading her articles and lurking her twitter conversions.

Back when I first started playing Magic: The Gathering, The Dark had just released and it was my first exposure to black bordered cards. They looked sharp and crisp compared against the rest of my Revised cards. Being young and without the internet, my dual lands saw a lot of unsleeved play, and nothing quite got me as excited to durdle as when I could use my Underground Sea to drop this bad boy on the table:

Salted braaaaains....

As unexciting as these kinds of cards are to me now, there is no way to deny they seeded a deep love of Blue and Black as color combination. Jumping ahead to the Gatecrash spoiler season, I was excited to finally see what options the featured Dimir guild and Watery Grave reprint would open up. As more and more uninspiring spoilers cropped up and time wore on, I was losing hope in my childhood addiction, focusing mostly on what the Orzhov colors might do in a world of Geralf's Messenger and Restoration Angel.

"Kneel before Zod."

Then we finally got to see Duskmantle Seer. The City-Plane of Ravnica's new Dark Confidant, it was a bigger body and had Flying, but gave the additional cards to your opponent as well. I was hooked. I immediately argued with my local players that he was good, but would never see play in the typical decks that Dark Confidant finds play in. Duskmantle Seer would find a home in an aggressive strategy, I was positive. The week before Gatecrash released, Nina posted her article on LegitMTG.com. I devoured the article, and despite the five minute disclaimers she posted along with her decklists, I knew I had to take her 60 and run with it.

Making some tweaks for my own personal playstyle and love for all things Blood Artist, I settled on the following 75, cobbling together a mediocre sideboard for a local meta-environment I wasn't 100% sure on; sleeving the Seers and their Zombie horde up, I trucked off to FNM last night.

DIMIR ZOMBIES
Main Deck
x3 Blood Artist
x2 Bloodthrone Vampire
x4 Diregraf Captain
x4 Diregraf Ghoul 
x3 Duskmantle Seer
x4 Geralf's Messenger
x4 Gravecrawler
x2 Rakdos Cackler
x3 Crippling Blight
x3 Dimir Charm
x2 Sign in Blood
x2 Tragic Slip
x2 Ultimate Price
x3 Cavern of Souls
x4 Drowned Catacomb
x1 Evolving Wilds
x1 Island
x9 Swamp
x4 Watery Grave
Sideboard
x3 Vampire Nighthawk
x2 Appetite for Brains
x4 Duress
x3 Illness in the Ranks
x3 Tribute to Hunger

After the dust settled, I was an unexciting 3-2. Since I've already rambled on long enough, instead of long game by game match reports, I'll give you brief overview.

Round 1: 4-Color Midrange (On the Draw) LOST 1-2
Duskmantle Seer closed out game 1 after my opponent made some iffy plays. Games 2 and 3, I fall to massive life gain and a bad starting hand of 6, respectively.
Round 2: UWR Flash (On the Play) WON 2-0
Fast, swarmy starts both games never allow him to really get online. He does manage to Supreme Verdict my board once, but my onboard Blood Artist deals enough life loss, I can Messenger/Sign in Blood him when I untap.
Round 3: Boros Aggro (On the Play) WON 2-0
Game one my opponent forgets about Blood Artist, and makes some very bad blocks resulting in a 16 point life swing. Game two Messenger/Sign in Blood drain the final points of life the turn after my opponent hits me for 14 out of no where with Hellrider and Battalion triggers.
Round 4: Humanimator (On the Play) LOST 1-2
Game 1 is a text book aggro game. Game 2, my opponent hits his combo early when I try a slower opening seven. Game 3 I realize midgame I've sideboarded completely wrong and can't find an out before he just beats me down with Angels of Glory's Rise.
Round 5: Boros Aggro (On the Draw) WON 2-0
I'm paired against a newer player with an unfocused deck and beat him easily. Before the match he casually mentions to me he hopes he beats me so he can win his first prize pack. As I report the match result to the TO, I make sure the TO knows I want to give my prize packs to my opponent.

FNM MVP

Despite the mediocre result, I'm still very excited about the deck. It had explosive starts, and still packed the reach needed to overcome a lot of speed bumps that could have shut other more linear strategies down. Best card of the night? Hands down, it was Dimir Charm. Removal, pseudo-EOT Ponder, and counterspell. I cast that card using every mode at least twice over the five rounds. Considering upping the card to a four of, but I do like the current spread of non-Creature spells as they are.

The card that performed the least? Surprisingly, Duskmantle Seer itself. Ironic that the card that ultimately inspired the deck should be the worst. In all but the very first game of the night, DMS was either not cast or I was too far behind for it to really matter when it did hit the battlefield. That said, I'm not gonna drop the Vampire Wizard from the deck yet; there is still much to see.

Where I am gonna make some changes is in the lands and the sideboard. All night, I never had an issue casting the Dimir Charms off my dual lands, and the Evolving Wilds/Island actually caused some small hiccups in my curve for getting my Geralf's Messengers on the table in a timely fashion. Changes there are pretty straight forward: -1 Island, -1 Evolving Wilds, +1 Cavern of Souls, +1 Swamp. The sideboard itself is another matter.

The only cards I felt completely confident boarding in were the Vampire Nighthawks, and those for against the aggro decks, dropping the Seers for a tighter curve and the Lifelink. Duress was underwhelming against the Flash deck, and were useless against the Humanimator. Cutting those for 2 more Appetite for Brains opens up two 'board slots, perhaps to customize my removal package a bit. I like the Illness in the Ranks, and really think that we'll see more token strategies moving forward. With Sacred Foundry now powering the Burn at the Stake combo decks and Godless Shrines making Lingering Souls a more consistent hard cast/Flashback card, I'll gamble on leaving them in there for another week.

Will Bant Auras and Boros Aggro/Red Deck Wins warrant the keeping of Tribute to Hunger? I'm not sure, and I'd love to hear some feedback. Check out the tweaked version of the deck I'll be playing at next week's FNM here, and as always, feedback and comments on the deck or this blog are welcome.

Thanks for reading!

-Ben

Cardboard Restored

Whew! What a lull in activity here. I'm hoping I'll be able to once again make more frequent updates here, as I do have a lot to talk about, but for now a look at my local Avacyn Restored Pre-Release!

Today I returned to my Limited adventures in Magic: The Gathering while attending the pre-release for the final set in the Innistrad block, Avacyn Restored. A large expansion set, it is solely used in Drafts and Sealed Decks, just as Innistrad was.

Today I managed a 4-2 record with the B/G/r mishmash listed below, after first trying to make a W/G/u version work. I'm glad I made the last minute swap, as the more aggressive build seemed to catch a lot of my opponents with their guards down, as they had built slower decks. As always, I'm curious how you might have assembled the pool, or if you feel I under/over judged cards.

I hope to get a feel for drafting AVR this coming Friday Night Magic. 

Creatures

1 Borderland Ranger

1 Butcher Ghoul

1 Demonic Taskmaster

1 Diregraf Escort

1 Gloom Surgeon

2 Gloomwidow

1 Hanweir Lancer

1 Hunted Ghoul

1 Kruin Striker

2 Renegade Demon

1 Pathbreaker Wurm

1 Searchlight Geist

1 Trusted Forcemage

1 Undead Executioner

1 Zealous Conscripts

Non-Creature Cards

1 Angelic Armaments

1 Death Wind

1 Essence Harvest

1 Lair Delve

1 Joint Assault

1 Mental Agony

1 Predator’s Gambit

1 Snare the Skies

Lands

7 Forest

7 Swam

2 Mountain

Sideboard

3 Angel’s Mercy

2 Angelic Wall

1 Cathar’s Crusade

1 Cloudshift

1 Cursebreak

1 Goldnight Redeemer

1 Midnight Duelist

1 Moorland Geist

1 Moorland Inquisitor

1 Seraph of Dawn

1 Spectral Gateguards

1 Zealous Strike

2 Alchemist’s Apprentice

2 Dreadwaters

1 Elgaud Shieldmate

1 Galvanic Alchemist

2 Geist Snatch

1 Havengul Skaab

1 Mass Appeal

1 Mist Raven

1 Rotcrown Ghoul

1 Scrapskin Drake

1 Stolen Goods

1 Wingcraft

1 Barter in Blood

1 Crypt Creeper

1 Descent into Madness

1 Driver of the Dead

1 Grave Exchange

1 Homicidal Seclusion

1 Marrow Bats

1 Polluted Dead

1 Aggravate

1 Banners Raised

1 Battle Hymn

2 Raging Poltergeist

1 Rush of Blood

1 Thatcher Revolt

1 Vigilante Justice

1 Flowering Lumberknot

1 Geist Trappers

1 Grounded

1 Rain of Thorns

1 Triumph of Ferocity

1 Vorstclaw

1 Angel’s Tomb

1 Haunted Guardian

1 Scroll of Avacyn

1 Vessel of Endless Rest

1 Desolate Lighthouse

2 Seraph Sanctuary

A Howling Time at Carnage

This past weekend saw my third annual trip to Vermont's premier gaming convention, Carnage on the Mountain. Again this year I was tapped by the convention's organizers to run a handful of Legend of the Five Rings events. I'll write a bit more about my role as a Tournament Organizer in a future blog, but before I forget the details I wanted to look back at the eight person Magic: The Gathering Side Draft I took part in on Sunday.

As you know if you've been reading my blog, while I've been whole-heartedly enjoying the Innistrad Limited environment, even if my performances with it have been lacking any success. That said, I'm happy to share that with some advancement along my MtG learning curve and a small bit of luck, I was able to rack up an appearance in the finals match of this Side Draft pod with G/R Werewolves.

Going in to the draft, I once again approached the drafting portion of the event with a clean slate, no agenda on my mind other than to have fun. Cracking my first pack, I see I've gotten two rares, what with my dual-faced Transforming card being a rare as well as the one normally found in the pack. The commons and uncommons in the pack were fairly generic, but a few solid options were there. After some hemming and hawing over what direction to take in the draft, I could see there where quite a few Werewolf cards cracked in this first round of packs, so I opted to see if I could avoid signaling too much and make a deck that would support the Instigator Gang/Wildblood Pack in my fresh pack, itching to cause some carnage. Howling at the moon on the inside, I quietly set the card Moon side up in front of me and casually passed the remaining picks to the left.

For my next pick, a Gatstaf Shepherd/Gatstaf Howler caught my eye right off, and while a quick glance over the other cards in the pack offered nothing really any more powerful, I decided to risk possibly committing to not just two colors early, but an entire tribal theme. As the packs continued to circle the draft pod, it became clear not many players were picking up on table signals, much less noticing my affinity for drafting Werewolves, as I picked up two Moonmist and another Lycanthrope in the first round of drafting.

With my colors and archetype now completely locked in, I spend the rest of the draft picking up a few more Werewolves, a pair of Full Moon's Rise, a spot of removal and some other utility cards. Upon laying out my pool to start deck construction, it becomes clear that the deck I'm building will certainly want to play very aggressively, and allows little room for coming back should a game go long. Sleeving up my assemblage of fur and claws, we start the single elimination rounds.

Round 1 I'm paired against a fairly aggressive G/W Human build. My opponent wins the die roll and opts to play, coming out quick and dropping an Avacyn's Pilgrim turn one. Following it up with a two more creature drops on her turn two. I untap on my turn two, dropping my Gatstaf Shepherd in to play already eager to start attacking her life total. Unfortunately she makes her third land drop, uses a Pilgrim to produce a white mana and drops a Slayer of the Wicked on to the battlefield. As my Shepherd finds it's way to the graveyard, I get attacked by her Doomed Traveler and second Pilgrim. Over the next few turns, I manage to drop at least one creature in to play a turn, and stay from dipping below 10 life.

I lose another Werewolf to a second Slayer of the Wicked, but my Ashmouth Hound and Hamlet Captain give me some breathing room on her attacks, when I'm finally able to drop my Butcher's Cleaver and equip it to the Captain. I slowly start making attacks with my now lifelinked Humans, and while she is killing them off by chump blocking, I'm very slowly getting ahead in the life total race, as I gain 4-5 life a turn, and she's only delivering 3 points of damage a turn with her flyers. Eventually, her deck stalls out on her, and she draws 3 lands in a row, allowing me to take the tempo of the game back. Flashing back a Travel Preparations and casting a Feeling of Dread to tap out her two remaining blockers, I manage to swing in for lethal damage after casting a Moonmist to flip the two Werewolves I'd manage to stick in to play without her finding what I found out was the 3rd Slayer of the Wicked she's drafted.

In game two, she opts to play again, but ends up making a fatal mistake in keeping a hand with 3 Forests in it, and the majority of her remaining hand being white spells. As I start to build a fearsome howlpack of my own, she keeps dropping Forest after Forest on to the battlefield, chump blocking with whatever small green Creature she can, but he deck denying her the white heavy hitters in her hand. I feel bad for the speed I close of the game, but her choice to not mulligan in to a white mana source really cost her the game.

Round 2 I'm paired against a B/R Vampire deck; very aggressive. My opponent decided to brag to me a bit while constructing his deck, so I know he's running 7 low cost Vamps in addition to the Bloodline Keeper/Lord of Lineage he pulled pick one, pack one. Knowing he's going to come at me quickly, I will the die roll and opt to play, but have to mulligan to 6 cards to get in to a decent hand to help fight off his onslaught of blood-feeders. Unfortunately, my opponent finds enough removal to deal with my threats, and a fourth turn Keeper that flips on turn six allows enough damage to get through to knock me to 0 life.

Game two, I opt to play again, and thankfully he gets a much slower start. We trade damage back and forth with him slowly creeping a head in the damage race, but once more I get the Butcher's Cleaver in to play. Managing to keep my Werewolves Human though some crafty spell play, I bring the game back under my control but then he drops his Bloodline Keeper again and my clock starts ticking. Thankfully, I top deck my Geistcatcher's Rig before he can hit the 5 Vamp threshold; dealing with the biggest threat in his deck, I continue my slow march to victory with my still Human lycanthropes.

Game three, I'm on the play, and it's clear that my opponent is fading fast (some hard played games after a weekend of little sleep I find out). We both start trading early damage, and I draw my Geistcatcher's Rig again, holding off on casting it until I see that dreaded Keeper again. Unfortunately, it becomes clear very soon that my opponent's heart isn't in playing anymore, and he intentionally makes bad decisions with his cards, allowing me to win and advance to the finals. I thank him for some great games and move on to meet my next opponent.

Round 3 and I'm super happy to be doing as well as I have so far. Unfortunately that excitement ends quickly, as in both my games this round, my deck fails to keep up with the very aggressive Blue and Green pool my opponent drafted, not to mention any threats I do produce fall quickly to his excellent splashed Red removal. After the match, I talk a bit with my opponent about drafting a tribal theme, Werewolves in particular, and we both agree that it's not a good strategy to go in to a draft with, but sometimes the cards fall the right way, and one can build something like I did that day.

Below is the main deck and sideboard from my pool, and as always, I'm interested to hear what you may have done differently.

Main Deck
1 Ambush Viper
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Feral Ridgewolf
1 Gatstaf Shepherd/Gatstaf Howler
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
1 Grizzled Outcasts/Krallenhorde Wantons
1 Hamlet Captain
1 Instigator Gang/Wildblood Pack
1 Kruin Outlaw/Terror of Kruin Pass
1 Pitchburn Devils
1 Somberwald Spider
1 Tormented Pariah/Rampaging Werewolf
1 Villagers of Estwald/Howlpack of Estwald
2 Caravan Vigil
1 Butcher's Cleaver
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Full Moon's Rise
1 Geistflame
2 Moonmist
1 Traitorous Blood
2 Travel Preparations
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Plains
6 Mountain
7 Forest

Sideboard
2 Ghostly Possession
1 Purify the Grave
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Voiceless Spirit
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Ghoulraiser
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Rage Thrower
1 Riot Devils
1 Full Moon's Rise
1 Grave Bramble
1 Naturalize
1 Spidery Grasp
1 Demonmail Hauberk
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Sulfur Falls

Cardboard Cares!

As many of my friends know, I'm a huge supporter of giving back, and a major factor in why I love Legend of the Five Rings' community so much is the numerous charitable opportunities that are attached to larger events. Every year, I run a storyline event as part of the Carnage gaming convention in Fairlee, Vermont. This year I decided to put my money where my mouth is and add a charity drive to my event. So without further ado, I am happy to share here my charity drive:

Restoring the Doji Treasury - A L5R Charity Fundraiser

The weekend of August 27th, Hurricane Irene made her way up the East coast of the United States. The large amounts of wind and rain brought by Irene, then downgraded to a Tropical Storm, have devastated parts of Vermont with possibly the worst flooding to occur in the past 85 years. Entire towns became cut off from all access routes as roads washed away when up to 11 inches of rain fell in parts of the state of Vermont. Although the loss of life has been small, more than 260 roads and highways were closed due to flood damage and roughly 50,000 people lost power; some are still without it a week later. This has all put a terrible burden on the disaster relief agencies in Vermont and New England, and it is my hope that the people of the amazing and charitable community that surrounds L5R can help lighten that burden.

During the Name A Celestial event at CarnageCon this year, I will be running a Penny War fundraiser to benefit the Vermont Foodbank and the American Red Cross of Vermont and the New Hampshire Valley.

How does a Penny War work?
The rules of this Penny War are simple. Upon arriving at the event, those in attendance will find 10 buckets, each marked with a Clan or Shadowlands mon. Players can gain points for the faction of their choosing by dropping Pennies into the faction they wish to support; for each Penny donated, that faction will gain 1 point. Players can also drop Nickles, Dimes, Quarters and Dollar Bills in to a bucket, but the catch is, those coins and bills reduce the points for that faction by the value of the coin or bill. After all points for and against have been counted, the faction with the most points (or least amount of negative points) wins.

So what does my faction win?
It's very hard to reward an entire playerbase, but I will be attending at least 3 Kotei this next year, and I am donating myself to playing the faction that wins the Penny War at at least one Kotei, more if the amount of money raised at my event exceeds $500.

I know I don't have the tournament resume of better known players, but I have managed 3 Top 4 finishes over the course of the Celestial arc, all in events with first class players and at least 40 participants, most notably finishing 3rd at the 2011 Ottawa Kotei. I promise no matter what faction wins, I will give it my all to represent that faction to the best of my ability.

But, I'm not making it to Carnage and I still want to help.
Awesome! The community of this great game is why I'm still dedicated as ever playing after 8 years. For those still wanting to help this cause, I will offer another chance for me to represent your faction.

Anyone wishing to send me a donation online can do so, and I will keep track of what faction you want your donation to represent. I will then total all the online donations for each faction, and the faction that has donated the most money online will be played by me at one of the other Kotei I will attend in 2012. Note: These online donations will not gain or cost points for your faction on the day of the event. Anyone wishing to make a donation online, can email me for my PayPal or mailing address.

After the event, all collected donations will be split evenly between the two charities, who doubtless will be needing them as they head in to the Thanksgiving and Holiday season. Please donate what you can, and if you have any questions for me, please do not hesitate to ask.

Please repost this to any other forums or L5R venues you may visit. Thank you for your time.

The Art of the Duel

Earlier in the week, AEG announced the upcoming rules changes to happen with the new tournament arc for Legend of the Five Rings. They've been introduced to help streamline and simplify a rules set that some have referred to as "the chess of CCGs." One of the biggest changes occurred in the subsection of rules that have handled the system of Iaijutsu contests, one on one duels between two Personalities. This is only the third or fourth major tweaking of the in depth game mechanic in the 16 years of L5R's history, and certainly on par as one of the most dynamic.


In the early stages of the dueling mechanic, a player used cards from hand for their Focus Value to add to their Personality's duel stat in an effort to get a better stat total than the opposing player's Personality. The winner would get various rewards while the loser would be forced to suffer the consequences of losing, often having their Personality destroyed. The number of cards used would only be limited by the number of cards in your hand, and how many of those cards each player wanted to risk investing in any particular duel. Once a card was used to add to the duel stat, it was discarded. This use of the duel mechanic lead to careful consideration of how to invest one's resources, but ultimately lead to Personalities with an already higher duel stat bullying on lower stated targets, rarely resulting in a loss of resources on the initiating duelist's part.

As we entered the modern era of L5R, a new dueling mechanic was instituted, that of the Focus Pool. This change used only a limited number of cards from the top of each player's deck to determine what Focus Values could be added to a Personality's duel stat and one card from a player's hand could also be added to this pool if the player so desired. Introduced at roughly the same time was the Duelist keyword for Personalities. This keyword allowed Personalities with it to circumvent the usual dueling procedure and get the first opportunity to increase their duel stat via the Focus Pool as long as their starting duel stat was equal to or lower than their opposing Personality's stat. These mechanics, when recently coupled with some powerful effects on cards that would occur when their card was used to increase the duel stat, lead to some player griping about the overpowered nature of the current dueling environment. Not to allow a potentially degenerate mechanic to continue to invade their game, L5R's current Design Team once again moved the proverbial cheese and shifted the mechanic again.

Now as we enter the Emperor Edition arc, dueling has taken on a seemingly more risky nature with the current changes. Now instead of having a set pool of cards to use, you are still limited to four the number of times to can use a card to boost your duel stat, but where these cards comes from has changed significantly. Now the four cards can come from any combination of the top of your deck and your hand, with the catch that the cards from the top of your deck cannot be looked at prior to you using them to boost your duel stat. Do you invest resources from your hand, knowing by how much you've pump your stat? Or do you risk the unknown, and keep you hand flush with other options?

Also changed in Emperor Edition is how the Duelist keyword works. Gone is the option to pump your stat first if you have an equal or lesser duel stat, now the keyword allows you to win duels where the outcome is tied (tied duels still result in a double loss) as well as accessing some card manipulation after players are done boosting their duel stat. Have you found the card you used blindly from the top of your deck to be a low enough Focus Value that you'll lose the duel? The Duelist keyword now allows you, before effects from card's used resolve, to remove one of your used cards from pumping your stat and replace it with another, either from your hand or the top of your deck.

So where does these new rules leave players, like myself, who have enjoyed employing them while playing the game? Personally, I like the new direction the Design Team is taking the mechanic. Removing the ability to have the first action to pump a duel stat allows Design to create strong effects on these focused cards, while avoiding the Negative Play Experiences many players perceived in dueling's second incarnation. Unfortunately, the new system does seem to hearken a return to "bully dueling" tactics, where the dueling player would use his duel actions on his largest stat Personality and target a much lower stat opposing Personality. While this would likely be seen as a negative change to the casual observer, Design has had the foresight to already have seeded the Emperor arc card pool with enough "negative" Focus Effects that these bullied players will choose to pump their duel with. While these effects won't save their Personality from losing the duel (save for one card right now, and even that's only a delay), they do help mitigate the effects for losing what some have argued are the potentiality strongest pool of actions in the game.

At first, I'll admit, I was sure that these changes would spell a complete flavor-nerf of L5R's most unique mechanics, but after looking at all the facts we have at this time, it seems like Design just might know what they are doing. Ultimately, I don't see these dueling changes as good or bad for the game, at least not yet. All but the entire Emperor Edition base set of cards is still unknown, and who knows how that will shape the dueling metagame at the start of the arc. The mechanics by themselves certainly present us with a new approach on a classic mechanic however, and I for one welcome the opportunity to take these new tools out for a test drive.