When I sat down to play this I thought to myself I hope this is fun. When I got to be the Arch-Enemy I became the juggernaut and it felt good. Flipping schemes is exciting and fun you never know what your gonna get and the rest of the table sits there waiting for you to see how badly your gonna screw them.Taking on 5 people and almost winning is a feat in of itself and its epic. Before I play again though I need to make a Arch-Enemy EDH deck and a normal deck for when I'm the Arch-Enemy. My idea centers around hard to kill creatures that smash face with selective creature wipe and a little bit of life gain. Next week I will have deck list because this is gonna take a lot of brainstorming I'm so pumped!
TLDR version:I love ARCH its great multiplayer format and I hope wizard continues to make more. This how it feels to be the Arch-Enemy Kicking ass Link the spear is a fireball.
Now for house rules that should help your ARC experience.
Stay away from combo decks.
5 vs the ARCH should be the max but if you feel you want more go for it.
More to come as I play more.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Outside Information – The New Extended
For those of you “in the loop” this won’t be anything much besides my own observations, but for anyone who hasn’t fully read the changes to extended, go check this out.
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/95b.
If that doesn’t throw the format on its head I don’t know what will. Let’s take a look at what sets are going to be relevant
Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight, Tenth Edition, Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmooe, Eventide, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn, Magic 2010, Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise of the Eldrazi. At least until Scars of Mirrodin comes out, then the Time Spiral block and Tenth Edition will rotate as well.
For the majority of us, we will be looking at extended as just being Lorwyn/M10 and up, since the only thing that will include TSP block in high level play is Pro Tour Amsterdam. The past four years of magic that had the new extended legal sets in them brought us some of the most interesting and hated decks I can remember, a quick glance gives us this list.
5CC
RW Cruise Control (aka Boat Brew)
Faeries
UW Fish
Planeswalker Control
UW control (all variants of)
Jund
Naya
Bant (all forms of)
RW Aggro
Time Sieve (Yeah!)
Elves (combo and BG)
That’s a lot of really REALLY good decks, and while some held their place longer than others, all of them had an impact, but seeing that list, we see a trend; of the twelve decks there, seven of them rely heavily on blue, after that the next most common color is white. What does this tell us? If you don’t have a set of Jace TMS, Cryptic Commands, and Mystic Gates, go get them. Now. Like right now. Stop reading this article and go buy them. If you don’t have them they will go up in price, and probably spike as extended season gets closer. To those of you bitching about your Goyf’s, they are still a legacy staple. If you don’t want to play Legacy, then get rid of them for cryptic commands and other cards you should be on the lookout for. Here is a great place to start
http://www.deckcheck.net/mpc.php?format=Lrw_M10_SoA
Other than that, do some research yourself on whats been good the past couple of years, it shouldn’t be too hard with the decks listed above and the deck check link. That’s all for now. As the format gets explored more and I get more relevant information, look for updates on both Standard and Double Standard (new extended).
Stephen Moss
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Outside Information – Looking forward
The current state of the metagame is one that is dominated by aggro. For combo/control players like myself, we find it rather boring. Sure, sending guys into the red zone over and over is fun, watching your bloodbraid elf cascade into win far more often than it should never gets old, right? Time Sieve/Open the Vaults is a deck I champion every chance I get to, but honestly the metagame has shifted out of its favorable slice of the pie. This forces us to either play a subpar deck for the format, adapt, or move to aggro. Personally, I choose to adapt, and with that I present today’s Outside Information
Mono Black Control
A Standard Magic deck, by Paul Beemer
4th place at a Nationals Qualifier tournament in California, United States on 2010-05-16
As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Events.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/natqual10/california
Creatures
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Gatekeeper Of Malakir
3 Hypnotic Specter
3 Vampire Hexmage
Instants
3 Consume The Meek
3 Smother
4 Tendrils Of Corruption
Planeswalkers
1 Liliana Vess
1 Sorin Markov
Sorceries
3 Consuming Vapors
3 Mind Sludge
3 Sign In Blood
Basic Lands
23 Swamp
Lands
2 Dread Statuary
Sideboard:
3 Pithing Needle
3 Scepter Of Fugue
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Vampire Hexmage
3 Doom Blade
1 Smother
1 Haunting Echoes
1 All Is Dust
Ahhhh good ol MBC. I’m partial to the deck myself; I stated competitive magic with MBC in Odyssey/Onslaught standard. Enough nostalgia though, let’s look at why I believe this is the control deck to play.
The creature package is impressive. 2/1 first strikers that deal with planeswalkers and provide a solid defense against most of the creatures currently played. Gatekeepers give you the 2 for 1 removal you need, more often than not taking something out with it on the block. Hypnotic specter is a vastly underrated card, and is a must answer card. It may be a slow clock, but it’s still a clock, still flies, and discards at random. Persecutors are a much better wincon than most people give credit. Its often left on the field a turn or two too long, and ends up winning the game from advantage since the deck doesn’t lack ways to kill it off when its time.
The removal package does its job well, consume, smother, and tendrils are the three best black removal spells around, since they aren’t restricted in the same way doom blade is (non black is bad right now I hear) and consuming vapors paired with tendrils gives you the life resources to outlast and take control of the board situation.
Mind sludge paired with specter provide six sources of quality hand disruption, the sign in blood gives you the much needed card draw, and the planeswalkers should speak for themselves. 25 lands may seem light at first, but seeing the overall curve feels correct. The deck wants to draw black sources, so I agree with the lack of fetchlands. Dread statuary is often forgotten about until it kills an attacking creature, or an unaware opponent.
Where I find the deck lacking is the sideboard. It’s rather chaotic. Black has trouble with planeswalkers as a whole outside of hexmage, so I agree with the 4th one in the board, but I think pithing needle should go to a 4 of. It never lacks targets in an environment of walkers, manlands, fetchlands, and multiple creatures and other cards with an activated ability (like time sieve!). A single Bloodwitch makes me cry, since it should be interchangeable straight across for persecutor in most situations. Heres the board I would take to a PTQ tomorrow.
4 Pithing Needle
4 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Haunting Echoes
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Smother
1 Vampire Hexmage
Ya know whats scary? Vengevine. Ravenous trap and echos stops it dead, as well as providing side hate against any graveyard shenanigans, and echos wrecks midrange and control. The singletons here provide the fine tuning against whatever matchup your playing against, and they should all be self explanatory. The most important thing here is that all of the board cards cover a wide range of decks that they provide value against. Depending on your metagame you can go without some cards, and some other cards like Duress or Deathmark may better suit your needs. Give the deck a thought if you’re looking for something off radar to play, it takes a lot of people by surprise. Till next time,
Stephen Moss
Mono Black Control
A Standard Magic deck, by Paul Beemer
4th place at a Nationals Qualifier tournament in California, United States on 2010-05-16
As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Events.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/natqual10/california
Creatures
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Gatekeeper Of Malakir
3 Hypnotic Specter
3 Vampire Hexmage
Instants
3 Consume The Meek
3 Smother
4 Tendrils Of Corruption
Planeswalkers
1 Liliana Vess
1 Sorin Markov
Sorceries
3 Consuming Vapors
3 Mind Sludge
3 Sign In Blood
Basic Lands
23 Swamp
Lands
2 Dread Statuary
Sideboard:
3 Pithing Needle
3 Scepter Of Fugue
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Vampire Hexmage
3 Doom Blade
1 Smother
1 Haunting Echoes
1 All Is Dust
Ahhhh good ol MBC. I’m partial to the deck myself; I stated competitive magic with MBC in Odyssey/Onslaught standard. Enough nostalgia though, let’s look at why I believe this is the control deck to play.
The creature package is impressive. 2/1 first strikers that deal with planeswalkers and provide a solid defense against most of the creatures currently played. Gatekeepers give you the 2 for 1 removal you need, more often than not taking something out with it on the block. Hypnotic specter is a vastly underrated card, and is a must answer card. It may be a slow clock, but it’s still a clock, still flies, and discards at random. Persecutors are a much better wincon than most people give credit. Its often left on the field a turn or two too long, and ends up winning the game from advantage since the deck doesn’t lack ways to kill it off when its time.
The removal package does its job well, consume, smother, and tendrils are the three best black removal spells around, since they aren’t restricted in the same way doom blade is (non black is bad right now I hear) and consuming vapors paired with tendrils gives you the life resources to outlast and take control of the board situation.
Mind sludge paired with specter provide six sources of quality hand disruption, the sign in blood gives you the much needed card draw, and the planeswalkers should speak for themselves. 25 lands may seem light at first, but seeing the overall curve feels correct. The deck wants to draw black sources, so I agree with the lack of fetchlands. Dread statuary is often forgotten about until it kills an attacking creature, or an unaware opponent.
Where I find the deck lacking is the sideboard. It’s rather chaotic. Black has trouble with planeswalkers as a whole outside of hexmage, so I agree with the 4th one in the board, but I think pithing needle should go to a 4 of. It never lacks targets in an environment of walkers, manlands, fetchlands, and multiple creatures and other cards with an activated ability (like time sieve!). A single Bloodwitch makes me cry, since it should be interchangeable straight across for persecutor in most situations. Heres the board I would take to a PTQ tomorrow.
4 Pithing Needle
4 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Haunting Echoes
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Hypnotic Specter
1 Smother
1 Vampire Hexmage
Ya know whats scary? Vengevine. Ravenous trap and echos stops it dead, as well as providing side hate against any graveyard shenanigans, and echos wrecks midrange and control. The singletons here provide the fine tuning against whatever matchup your playing against, and they should all be self explanatory. The most important thing here is that all of the board cards cover a wide range of decks that they provide value against. Depending on your metagame you can go without some cards, and some other cards like Duress or Deathmark may better suit your needs. Give the deck a thought if you’re looking for something off radar to play, it takes a lot of people by surprise. Till next time,
Stephen Moss
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
How focus ties into Magic.
We all get to a point, no matter the time or situation where we tell ourselves to focus. Whether its deck building, the beginning, middle, or end of a tournament, and life in general.
Magic players are a little ADD by design. Things are constantly changing. The internet brings constant change to almost every format. One constant is focus. Focus on what you want in deck design. The theme, flow of the deck and mana base all must tie in and be focused on a singular goal of being a functional deck.
I have a specific scenario in mind. We have a player at our local shop. I overheard that he lost all his matches that night so I told him to bring me his deck and his extras. His deck had a theme (totem armor) and a fairly balanced mana base. But it was all over the map after that. His 1-of's were
Sphinx of Magosi
Archon of Justice
Path to Exile
Lone Missionary
Goliath Sphinx
Marshal's Anthem
This is a small sample. But he had some Umbra's, several aura's, and 4 Totem Guide Hartebeast.
I took a look at his extras and I find some ways to stabilize his mana a bit more. I take out his 1 of's and a few of the weaker aura's. Add more aggressive cards, lower the average cost of the cards in his deck, and add a little better removal, the final addition was adding the creature that makes all his aura's Totem Armors. It's not going to win a PTQ but I guarantee he'll hang in better at the local FNM.
All of this is done without any outside help. All I looked at was his spare cards. The best part was that I was able to strengthen what he wanted to do without overhauling the core of the deck.
This isn't just deckbuilding, its about gameplay as well. I've been in half a dozen bigger tournaments starting 3 - 1 or 4 - 1 even 5 - 2. Once the pressure builds I lose focus. This leads to sloppy play which leads to me starting a 9 round 5k tournament 4 - 1 and finishing 5 - 4. The sad part was that all of my losses were winnable matches. My own lack of focus (never forget about your opponent's Garruk) cost me a chance to win $2000 dollars.
How do we counteract this lack of focus. Well in the above scenario I go way too concerned with going 8 - 1 instead of focusing in round 6 on going 5 - 1. That's a big start. I can't control what happens in three round. I can control the game in front of me. Even further I can focus on the play in front of me. One play at a time. We can only focus on what we can control.
There are many ways to make yourself a better player. Focus is a big part of that stride.
Magic players are a little ADD by design. Things are constantly changing. The internet brings constant change to almost every format. One constant is focus. Focus on what you want in deck design. The theme, flow of the deck and mana base all must tie in and be focused on a singular goal of being a functional deck.
I have a specific scenario in mind. We have a player at our local shop. I overheard that he lost all his matches that night so I told him to bring me his deck and his extras. His deck had a theme (totem armor) and a fairly balanced mana base. But it was all over the map after that. His 1-of's were
Sphinx of Magosi
Archon of Justice
Path to Exile
Lone Missionary
Goliath Sphinx
Marshal's Anthem
This is a small sample. But he had some Umbra's, several aura's, and 4 Totem Guide Hartebeast.
I took a look at his extras and I find some ways to stabilize his mana a bit more. I take out his 1 of's and a few of the weaker aura's. Add more aggressive cards, lower the average cost of the cards in his deck, and add a little better removal, the final addition was adding the creature that makes all his aura's Totem Armors. It's not going to win a PTQ but I guarantee he'll hang in better at the local FNM.
All of this is done without any outside help. All I looked at was his spare cards. The best part was that I was able to strengthen what he wanted to do without overhauling the core of the deck.
This isn't just deckbuilding, its about gameplay as well. I've been in half a dozen bigger tournaments starting 3 - 1 or 4 - 1 even 5 - 2. Once the pressure builds I lose focus. This leads to sloppy play which leads to me starting a 9 round 5k tournament 4 - 1 and finishing 5 - 4. The sad part was that all of my losses were winnable matches. My own lack of focus (never forget about your opponent's Garruk) cost me a chance to win $2000 dollars.
How do we counteract this lack of focus. Well in the above scenario I go way too concerned with going 8 - 1 instead of focusing in round 6 on going 5 - 1. That's a big start. I can't control what happens in three round. I can control the game in front of me. Even further I can focus on the play in front of me. One play at a time. We can only focus on what we can control.
There are many ways to make yourself a better player. Focus is a big part of that stride.
Rant:Winning=Fun?
Rant:Does Winning=Fun?
When I first started playing it was a lot of fun to play magic with my friends. Then something terrible happen I wanted to win more and more. My only goal was to finally win a FNM I went to great lengths to better my game and try to perfect it. And some where along the line the fun got lost in the shuffle to be the best. Instead of just having some people over to play cops and aliens or go to Carl's Jr after the FNM and play multi-player it all just became play testing. Play test for this play test for that nobody wants to play multiplayer anymore.
For a time I thought this was ok but now I just want to have fun again. So I decided to try to get people to excited about other formats besides standard. I have been pushing EDH in my circle now with great success slowly but surely my friends are coming back to there senses and realizing hey I used to just play for fun. Winning is always good but winning should be a bonus not what you focus on all the time. The journey to a win or lost is what you should focus on not the outcome because hey you won't win them all. Might as well have fun.
Moral:Play something you like not something that wins and you will enjoy the game much longer.
When I first started playing it was a lot of fun to play magic with my friends. Then something terrible happen I wanted to win more and more. My only goal was to finally win a FNM I went to great lengths to better my game and try to perfect it. And some where along the line the fun got lost in the shuffle to be the best. Instead of just having some people over to play cops and aliens or go to Carl's Jr after the FNM and play multi-player it all just became play testing. Play test for this play test for that nobody wants to play multiplayer anymore.
For a time I thought this was ok but now I just want to have fun again. So I decided to try to get people to excited about other formats besides standard. I have been pushing EDH in my circle now with great success slowly but surely my friends are coming back to there senses and realizing hey I used to just play for fun. Winning is always good but winning should be a bonus not what you focus on all the time. The journey to a win or lost is what you should focus on not the outcome because hey you won't win them all. Might as well have fun.
Moral:Play something you like not something that wins and you will enjoy the game much longer.
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