M14 Standard: The First Weekend

On the first weekend of M14 Standard I went out to Empire Games and played in a TCG Player Platinum. I did...poorly. Which I can attribute to having both a less than stellar sideboard and to generally being unfamiliar with playing an aggressive deck. I played a Naya aggro deck that topped out at 5 with Thundermaw Hellkite. I also made some mistakes building it, like putting Domri Rade in the maindeck. Not everyone I knew at the tournament did poorly as Mike Lannigan managed to take second with what looked like an ugly BW Humans deck. The other big event this weekend was the StarCity open in Richmond where BW Humans took down the room, beating Jund in the finals.

I don't think it should have won.

This is the type of deck that Jund is supposed to prey on, especially staring in Game 1. Instead we saw the match go to three with the final game being decided on a risky keep. even with that a green mana or a bonfire miricled within the first 4 turns still would have turned things around for the Jund deck. I think that if they played that match out ten more times then Jund would come out on top at least 6 or 7 times. It just doesn't look favorable at all to me.

But we did get some really sweet decks in the top 8. Like Mono-Green Ooze! More imporantly we had Bant Hexproof taking 10th, 11th and 12th. And finishing just outside the top 8 of the TCG player event. This is a deck we should sideboard for. It does exist. It is angry. And it might not be top eighting but if you ignore it you will loose to it. Pay the tax people.

The deck I like the looks of the most is the Naya aggro, although its more of a big naya deck. Unfortunatly for me to play it I'd need to get Bonfires, Thundermaws, and huntmasters, all of which are nearing the end of thier time in Standard. I'm just not willing to do that. I mean we've gotten some Theros information!

Dibs for Commander!

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M14 Pre-Release and Post Standard Thoughts

We did a few M14 pre-releases here this weekend. I played in two of them, the midnight and the 1 pm and in an impressive display of unevenness I went undefeated in the midnight and couldn't buy a win in the 1 pm. My deck at Midnight had everything you could want. spot removal in the form of 2 Liturgy of Blood, Quag Sickness, Corrupt and a Plummet, solid creatures including double of the new Muscle Sliver, Megantic Sliver, Syphon Sliver, Mutavault, Scavenging Ooze and of course good old Sengir Vampire. My 1 pm had... nothing. I mean nothing. the only pieced of removal I had in the entire pool was a Claustrophobia and a Plummet. My white had almost no actual cards, instead it was primarily Suntail Hawks. My red was full of Wild Guess and Dragon Hatchlings. my green was deceptively playable. I ran it in addition to my black in round one and got demolished by Blue White flyers. Seraph of the Sword into Serra Angel into Charging Griffin into Jace's Mindsheeker is pretty good against my one plummet. Which the Mindseeker hit and killed my blocker with. So After that beating I took a look at what I had and rebuilt into Black Blue hoping that limited all stars like Cancel and Negate would be better than double Elvish Mystic into nothing. So of course my next opponent was in a blue white flyer deck, chock full of cards I can't beat like Serra Angel, Charging Griffon, Air Servent, and for extra style Fireshrieker. Then, at the end of game three he conceded to me because he accidentally mulled to seven. Which we caught before the game started. So he beat the hell out of me on a mull to 6. So going into round 3 I'm 1-1 when I should be 0-2. What do I play against? UB flyers! With Jace! Because if you're going to get your ass kicked then at least do it consistently. Mark of the Vampire on Sengir Vampire when I can't get to a second blue for Claustrophobia is pretty good.

So what did I take away from this? Honestly, not a whole lot. Its core set sealed, and while its noce about... once a year as a bit of a pallet cleanse after a year of shenanigans I;m certainly not about to do it all the time. I do think that Draft will be better because I can see archetypes forming already. I'm eager to see how crazy the Naya or 4 color sliver deck can be/ RG beasts is always a favorite to draft for me and Advocate of the Beast is amazing. And if I don't get to open the Witch at least once and dive in as deep as I can go there I'll be extremely disappointed.

So as far as new Standard, I think its might rotate around how much play one card is seeing. 

If Burning Earth is a card everything changes. Right now we have some INSANELY powerful manabases in Standard. Insanely powerful and extreme lazy. 4x of each dual in a three color combination, maybe shaving one or two for an appropriate utility land. Shuffle up and go! Except if Burning Earth is a one sided Manabarbs then pretty much every deck in Standard that isn't RG Aggro looses. Right now I've been kicking around the idea of GW Little Kid aggro for week one. Rancor, disruptive guys like Imposing Sovereign and Thalia, and resiliant creatures like Voice of Resurgence and Strangleroot Geist all seem like they're well positioned in a Burning Earth heavy world.

But if its not a card... Then nothing changes. We keep the same decks but Jund gets Scavenging Ooze and Junk Aristocrats likely runs some number of Archangel of Thune. Bant hexproof gets more guys. 

I really hope its a card. I want to see a big shakeup in Standard. I want to see something change. And I want to see people put some thought into their lands instead of just jamming as many duals as possible.

Revising the Pull List

As it stands my current pull list is this

DC

Batman
Nightwing
Talon
Wonder Woman
The Legion of Super-Heroes

Marvel

The Avengers
New Avengers
Uncanny Avengers
Young Avengers
Captain America
Thor: God of Thunder
The Indestructible Hulk
Iron Man
Hawkeye
X-Men*
Uncanny X-Men*
All New X-Men*

Image

Saga
The Manhattan Projects
Lazarus
Fatale
Jupiter's Legacy
Bedlam
East of West
Satellite Sam
Nowhere Men
Ten Grand

And thats too damn many comics. Now some of this is being handled by the publishers for me. Legion of Super-Heroes is being cancelled and relaced by some kind of JLA based book that I'm really not all that interested in. Nightwing is getting sucked into the maw that is Forever Evil and the closest I'm getting to that is picking up the tie in issues in September that are still being written by the regular creative team. After Sept my pulls from DC will be.

Batman
Wonder Woman
Talon

Marvel is going to be culled a little more heavily. Avengers, New Avengers, Hawkeye, The Indestructible Hulk, and Thor: God of Thunder are being cut. None of them are bad. The Avengers books are dropping off because of thier connection to the upcoming Infinity crossover which I'm going to have to sit out. Thor is gone because issues are either awesome or nothing happens. I don't have room for that level of inconsistency. The Indestructible Hulk had an amazing first issue but only the most recent has come close to matching it and I've got a feeling thats more because of its Daredevil appearance. Hawkeye I get digitally and I can always catch up once the price of the issues drop. That leaves me with the following for Marvel.

Uncanny Avengers
Young Avengers
Captain America
Iron Man
X-Men*
Uncanny X-Men*
All New X-Men*

Now there's two reasons I'm doing this. First is I recently lost my job and I need to curb expenses. The second is because of the Image Comics Expo that was held recently. The only book on my Image pulls that I'd consider dropping right now is Satellite Sam. I didn't even dislike Satellite Sam. It just feels more like it should be an hour long TV series and I just saw the first ten minutes. There's clearly a lot going on in it and I've got a feeling its going to be an excellently developed series. Why is this a problem? Because it looks like my Image pulls are going to nearly double based on what they announced. I need to prepare now. Its possible that by the time the new books start coming out in October I'll be down to just a few of the big two. And thats a good thing/

*I get these books digitally by buying the redemption code found in the back of the book via certain online forums. I'm probably not dropping them because they only run me $1 an issue.

Whats Missing in M14?

I know thats kind of an odd question, but bear with me.

Without an addition from Theros we're not going to have a Rampent Growth in Standard come October for the first time in... I think forever. 

Now newer players might not know this but Rampant Growth effects being tournament playable is a pretty new development. Before the Ramp decks took off thanks to Zendikar blocks the only time the effect really saw play was in Mirrari's Wake decks thanks to Krosan Verge, and it had the double benefit of both being a land so that it didn't take up valuable spell slots and it for you two lands. There were also the Explosive Vegetation decks in Onslaught Block Constructed but most of them disappeared when Astral Slide and Lightning Rift teamed up. The last died with the release of Scourge and its hordes of hasty goblins. 

But thats about it guys. The world where Jund is the best deck in standard when it hits its Farseek is totally different. A huge part of that is that creatures are so very, very much better than they used to be. Especially the larger ones. Playing Serra Angel, or even Archangel a turn earlier isn't that big a deal. Cutting a turn off of Huntmaster into Thragtusk into Runic Tharr is huge.

So what does a lack of Rampant Growth mean for standard? Even more importantly, the analogue card for it in M14 is Verdant Haven? Well, if Wizards is really looking to scale back the power of the mana base as was said in this article then this is a huge step in that direction. Multicolored fixing not coming into play until turn 3 makes it inefficient enough to be nearly unplayable. I've considered running Verdant Haven before but cooler heads prevailed. This, combined with the lack of duals in M14 likely mean that we're looking at two color decks being the primary set of color combinations. If the Theros duals work well with the shocklands, like say the M10 lands did or possibly the Nimbus Maze cycle then we might be able to splash a third but without spell support I doubt it. 

This means that quantity and color will be equally important in our mana base. It means that the days of cards like Acidic Slime (another none reprinted card that has repercussions) cutting off a color are likely over and that if you're trying to disrupt your opponents mana you're likely trying to keep them off of a critical number.

It might be enough to put Midrange as an archtype back to bed. It was unplayable for a long time and its entirely possible that the use of Rampant Growth effects is what made it finally shine.

Comics for the Week of July 10th

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Where I Went and Where I'm Going

I stopped updating here a few months ago because work got extremely busy. I started working six days a week with several of those being open to close shifts. Then on the last day of our extended hours they called me in the office. They said that the department was moving in the wrong direction and that one of the changes they were going to make was letting me go. The job was never a very good fit for me and I should get unemployment out of it. 

I'm going to use this time for a few things. To get in better shape. To find a job that I actually enjoy. And to get back into writing. There's only one problem. I hate writing on a computer. It doesn't feel real to me at all. Writing on paper, with a pen is just more... tangible to me. It draws me in and forces me to keep moving forward. On a computer, with its ease of editing all I do is stop every 6 words and adjust. delete a word here, rephrase a sentence here, and oh god I miss spelled that word. Look at the red line. LOOK AT IT!

I don't get that with a legal pad. I'm not constantly re-reading what i wrote down. I'm just moving forward. If anyone has any tips on breaking these bad computer habits please let me know. Transcribing everything is kind of terrible.

So expect more content on the blog in the coming weeks. I'm setting a schedule of three updates a week, not counting my comic pulls for the week. They can be about anything, MTG tournament reports, reviews, short fiction or just the odd thought.

I will do this. And I will succeed. And I've edited this post at least a dozen times as I wrote it. Goddammit.