Flavor Wins of Theros #3: Witches' Eye and Fleetfeather Sandals

We're doing another double dip on Flavor Wins of Theros this time because both the Witches' Eye and Fleetfeather Sandals are from the myth of Perseus!

Sweet kicks ya got there, lemme get a closer look.

So Perseus, one of Zeus' many, many, many, I can't stress this enough, many bastard children, is most famous for killing Medusa the Gorgon and staring in terrible movies along side Liam Neeson.

He looks like he's trying to remember if he left
the stove on.

But these mythical equipment didn't make the films.

But this guy did And Perseus still looks confused.

First we have the Witches's Eye. In Greek Mythology there were three witches called the Graeae. Among the three of them they shared one eye and one tooth. Just stop for a moment and thing about how you won't let someone else drink out of your water bottle. The three of them were instrumental in Perseus' quest to kill Medusa since like most Greek Heroes he had no god damned idea how to go about it. But unlike out friend Hercules he was more clever than most and when seeing that the Witches shared an eye between them he slipped his way into the rotation and held it hostage until they told him what he needed to know. Nothing like extorting information from the elderly to get your story going! But knowing is only half the battle, next he needed to actually get the gear. Thankfully this proved easier than you'd think. At one point Hermes and Athena got bored of watching him wander ancient Greece and just dropped by and armed up their half brother. Hermes gave him his winged sandals, made by Hephaestus (Purphoros?) himself and granting him the ability to fly and move extremely fast. As for what Athena gave him? I'm not going to go into it today because I expect we'll see something for it before the end of the block. Thanks for reading folks and I'll see you next time.

Flavor Wins of Theros #2: Titan of Eternal Fire is Chained to the Rocks

This time we're going to double dip on Flavor Wins of Theros with Titan of Eternal Fire and Chained to the Rocks.

I wonder who gets chained to the rocks...

Titan of Eternal Fire is a riff on Prometheus. Prometheus was one of the Titans, the generation that ruled before Zeus other threw Chronos, his father and notorious baby eater, and brought about the rule of the traditional Greek Gods. This is important because it basically casts Prometheus as a traitor to his people to fight with the Gods. 

Not the first Prometheus to betray people.

But Prometheus loved us. Us being humans. You see in Greek Mythology we didn't always have fancy things like Tools or even Fire. We were huddling naked, cold and alone, pretty much existing to give Zeus something to have sex with that wasn't his wife. And Prometheus didn't think that this was good enough for humanity. So he stole fire and gave it to the humans, and in some versions brought them enlightenment with it, creating arts and music. Music being represented by pinging for a red.

But this left Zeus pretty unhappy. Like chain a guy to a mountaintop unhappy. Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock with eagles to tear at his liver until Zeus saw fit to release him. Then he forgot all about it, probably because he was busy having sex with women while in the form of a swan or something else equally ridiculous.

So was that it for Prometheus? Of course not, the Greeks weren't one to leave a plot thread dangling, even if it took them a while to work it out. Prometheus was eventually freed from his chains by everyone's favorite oaf Hercules!

Nope, still not this guy.

Herc was on his way by while doing the 11th of his twelve Labors, gather golden apples, he found Prometheus chained to his rock with an eagle eating his liver and did what any sane person would do. He killed the eagle. Then he talked to Promethues and let him know that he had no idea where the apples were or how to get them. Lucky for Herc Prometheus knew where he needed to go and even walked him through the trickery he'd need to execute to get them. Hercules breaks the chains free with his freakish demigod strength and Prometheus was free!

Flavor Wins of Theros #1: Hercules and the Lion

The new Magic: The Gathering set is almost out and its shaping up to be one of the sweetest sets for Flavor in years. One of the coolest things is that so many of the cards are pulled directly from Greek Mythology. Cards like Fleecemane Lion.

But while you might think that thanks to the name Fleecemane its a reference to Jason, The Argonauts, and the quest for the Golden Fleece I think you'd be wrong. It's totally a Hercules riff.

No, not this guy.

The first Labor of Hercules was to kill the Nemeian Lion, a seemingly invulnerable lion that had been stalking... Nemea. Hercules found that both arrows and clubs were unable to damage the beast, so he did what any idiot would do. He went into hand to hand with a freaking monster lion and god damned choked it to death. Hercules was many, many things but he wasn't a quitter. Or overly intelligent. And to add insult to injury some versions say that he skinned the bastard and wore him as a cloak after.

Nah, it was no big deal. Lemmie tell you
about the snake in my nursery...

And this was just Herc's first Labor. It's also not the only one that gets referenced in Theros, but that'll be for another post.

MTG Stats!

So recently a website called Kavu.ru has put up a program that you can use to generate your lifetime stats for sanctioned play at MTG and I thought it would be fun to break mine down some.

Overall Stats:

Overall record: 993-539-62

Win percentage ignoring draws: 64.817232
Win percentage including draws: 62.296110

A nearly 65% is pretty solid. I'm a little sad that I haven't gotten 1000 match wins yet. I might have to keep track of the next event I play in so that I can know when match 1000 is.

Booster Draft:

Overall record: 461-235-17

Win percentage ignoring draws: 66.235632
Win percentage including draws: 64.656381

Hey, I'm slightly stronger in booster draft that I am overall. That's a bit of a surprise as I've never considered myself much of a limited player. Of course part of this is mitigated by most of my drafts being played at the local FNM level. The competition isn't as fierce as GPs or PTQs. But these are just raw numbers, not the whole story.

Modern:

Overall record: 25-16-2

Win percentage ignoring draws: 60.975610

Win percentage including draws: 58.139535

Well this is disappointing. I really enjoy Modern as a format. I think that part of this is because I rarely play any of the tier one decks in older formats, preferring to rock cards that I love over the pure strongest strategy. Lets see if I can't get this stat up some if I get to go to GP Detroit next month.

Casual - Limited:

Overall record: 5-4-0

Win percentage ignoring draws: 55.555556

Win percentage including draws: 55.555556

I have no idea what this was. At all. Nothing to see here folks, move on...

Casual - Magic League:

Overall record: 6-1-1

Win percentage ignoring draws: 85.714286

Win percentage including draws: 75.000000

When was I in a Magic League? I guess I did pretty well in it.

Legacy:

Overall record: 28-23-1

Win percentage ignoring draws: 54.901961

Win percentage including draws: 53.846154

This is even more disappointing than Modern. I don't remember ever really tanking out of a bunch of Legacy Tournaments. In fact one of my Day Two appearances at a GP was in Legacy. Maybe events I played in were sanctioned as Legacy as a catchall and I sucked at them? I dunno man.

Extended:

Overall record: 33-13-8

Win percentage ignoring draws: 71.739130

Win percentage including draws: 61.111111

I was clearly the end boss of Extended when it was a format. Thank you Scepter Chant. Thank you Chase Rare Control.

2 HG Sealed:

Overall record: 4-1-0

Win percentage ignoring draws: 80.000000

Win percentage including draws: 80.000000

I remember this one! That was a Pre-Release back when they still did big events for them instead of in store. We lost round one to mana screw then wrecked the rest of the day. As a side note my buddy Pete was in that event with a random partner, got at least two unintentional draws and still made prize.

Trios - Constructed:

Overall record: 0-3-0

Win percentage ignoring draws: 0.000000

Win percentage including draws: 0.000000

I remember this one too. That day was terrible.

Standard:

Overall record: 247-136-14

Win percentage ignoring draws: 64.490862

Win percentage including draws: 62.216625

The main event. Standard. over 64%, but like draft I think that a lot of that is down to mainly playing locally. I've never made top 8 of a PTQ in standard.

Sealed:

Overall record: 179-100-16

Win percentage ignoring draws: 64.157706

Win percentage including draws: 60.677966

I only play sealed when I have to so this is 100% made up of PTQs, GPs and Pre-Releases. Hoenstly, I'm glad that the release event is gone because its one less time I have to play sealed.

Block Constructed:

Overall record: 4-5-3

Win percentage ignoring draws: 44.444444

Win percentage including draws: 33.333333

I hated Block Constructed back when it was regularly ran as a PTQ season. Hated it. My record shows it too.

Trios - Limited:

Overall record: 1-2-0

Win percentage ignoring draws: 33.333333

Win percentage including draws: 33.333333

I think that this was a PTQ in Columbus... which makes me wonder where my GP Pittsburgh event is. It was team sealed and I remember doing fairly well, even with one teammate passing out after every round. Maybe I've got another DCI number out there that I need to get merged.

So what did I learn from this? Not much actually, but I do think its sweet that we can check this now. Especially since the ELO rating is gone. Lifetime win percentage seems like a good way to rank players. Or possibly seasonal win percentage. But right now players can only check their own stats so whoever compiled that would be unable to update the data themselves. Sounds like a mess

The Holes in my Game, On and Off the Table

Week before last I went to a TCG Player Platinum Qualifier at the Empire Game Center. I did... poorly. But since then I've been thinking about why and what I need to do to improve as a player.

1. I can't play aggro. At all.

People talk about how much they hate skill-less aggro decks. One drop two drop three drop burn spell burn spell! Fun game! Derdeeder! And when you get steamrolled by one it looks like it was the simplest thing in the world. If that's the case then why can't I buy a win with a deck that's dedicated to attacking in a tournament? Probably because I don't have the skill-set to play the deck. I don't know when to hold back my guys, I don't know when the right time to burn a removal spell or to let my guy trade. I sure as hell don't know what to do against an opposing Boros Reckoner. Its something that I need to work on.

2. I get bored with a deck easily.

I've been on junk since Ravnica came out, but I've play a donze different versions of it. I started by just trying to build a midrange deck, then i went to tokens, then I went to reanimator, then to Aristocrats, then to BG control. And those are just the decks that I can remember. And whenever I sweet brew shows up in top eights, like that Zvi Mowshowitz built GW Elf/Ramp deck I want to build it. I want to play it. Instead of thinking about how I can adapt what I'm playing against it I get infatuated. Its not good for my results in tournaments and its not good for my collection.

3. I won't play the best deck.

The only time in the last five years that I can remember playing the defualt vest deck was UB Fairies. And I didn't want to play it then, I had RG Snow Ramp built too and jammed that whenever there wasn't something extremely serious on the line. Let me tell you how good RG Snow Ramp was then. It wasn't. But I had to be different and not in a good way.

4. I don't listen to Pros

I played Naya at the TCG Player. I looked up a bunch of different decklists before I built mine. Then I ignored common threads and did what I wanted to. Some of what I did, like maindeck Domri Rade has, been adopted by most players as seen at the StarCity Invitational. Some of what I did was fucking stupid. When I'm working with an established deck like Naya I need to trust the collective instead of being convinced tat I know better.

5. I don't playtest properly.

When I playtest, which is rare enough, its an unorganized affair against my roomate where we jam untuned lists against each other. No gauntlet. No records. And never any mirror testing. They're just bad brews being slammed with most of the players involved knowing that they're not playing what they've got infront of them. This plays a big part in the next point.

6. My sideboards are normally terrible.

This is mainly an extension of the lack of playtesting. If I don't know my deck well enough how will I sideboard properly? Even when I know what cards are supposed to come in I rarely know what to take out. I need to make sure I have a plan for common matches going into the tournament.

7. I play too fast.

I missed an Obzedat trigger today. I pass turn after attacking without dropping the elf that will let me play Angel of Serenity next turn. I say OK with a counterspell in hand to something I NEED to stop. I just act without thinking. I need to slow down and make sure I do what I need to so that I don't loose games to stupid mistakes.

So I have some work to do, don't I?

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.

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.