Just fall on it with your elbow; it's gonna hate that more than you do.

So just when I'd made up my mind the deck from the previous post should be boarding Aven Mindcensor over Ethersworn Canonist, they go and ban Mystical Tutor. Mindcensor still crimps Entomb, Knight of the Reliquary, Infernal Tutor, Natural Order, Conflux, and of course fetchlands, so I'm not ruling it out. But my suspicion is the meta will now shift in a different direction entirely, obviating much hard thought.

To wit: Zoo was already really, really strong. And with Grim Monolith coming off the list, I suspect Stax just got better, although I'm not sure by how much. Where's it been, anyway? I figure there's this thing running around called Qasali Pridemage, see, and dealing with it via Suppression Field messes up Stax's whole plan with Grim Monolith again. Harumph!

With fewer combo-decks around to goldfish it into the ground, 43lands got better.

Oh, and there's some buzz about Death and Taxes stepping up - note the NINE sideboard cards against Storm Combo. Anyway I can see D+T profiting in an aggro meta, but I suspect it's over-hyped because the deck is popular online. Survival might come out a winner from the absence of more combo-ey combo as well.

Anyway. Stuff that I've liked lately:

B/w Aggro made top 8 at SCG: Seattle. He plays both Swords to Plowshares and Gatekeeper of Malakir so either color Iona names is the wrong one. Plus Vampire Nighthawk trades for almost anything out of Reanimator except the first-striking Akrobot, and can even take that out if it gears up either Sword in time.

Grim Discovery is an interesting choice, getting back +1 dude and Wasteland seems good, especially after folding up and throwing away the opponent's hand. The one thing I really dislike here is his having to board four CoP: Red for Zoo and probably Goblins. So perhaps not a great choice going forward from the B+R shift.

In a similar vein you have The Gate, which balances the steep downside of Abyssal Persecutor by running 12 sac-outlets: Therapy, Innocent Blood and Gatekeeper. The deck also pisses life up the wall with two-drops that just beg to be Spell-Snared, like Dark Confidant and Bitterblossom. If they get through that lifeloss is counteracted by the aforementioned Nighthawk as well as the ubiquitous Jitte.

I kind of wish it ran Dark Ritual to be a bit more explosive, and I'm not sure maindeck Faerie Macabre will be needed anymore. The first version of this I ever saw ran mainboard Deathmark - what a maniac. He says it actually plays more like control.

Speaking of Maniacs, tell Team Jedi the secret is out, as their silly deck made it to Germany. I shouldn't hate too bad though; other people, including apparently at least one Dragon Stompy fan, are trying silly shit to cheat out Emrakul as well.

Past that, well, I already linked to Landstill and Dreadstill, didn't I?

'Til next time, put Bob on the stack, THEN trigger Mirri's Guile.

Yep.

-Dan

4-1-1 with GWB at TNLG in Nashville

I placed 2/11 at Donnie's today with this list:

4 Mother of Runes
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Serra Avenger
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
4 Aether Vial
2 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Windswept Heath
3 Marsh Flats
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Karakas
3 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Savannah
2 Bayou
2 Scrubland

SB:
2 Path to Exile
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Krosan Grip
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Umezawa's Jitte

I beat Reanimator three times (!) as well as Merfolk and lost to New Horizons in the finals. There was a round four ID against U/W tempo in there because that match-up seemed unfun for both of us.

Some thoughts on the cards:

- Mother of Runes is fantastic, especially in conjunction with Basilisk Collar. I took four or five hits from a Sphinx of the Steel Wind by racing it with a Collared Goyf protected by Mom, and then lived long enough to find mana to cast and equip Serra Avenger and further top-deck Swords to Plowshares.
- Maelstrom Pulse didn't show up that often, but I did kill two massive Terravores with one against New Horizons, which was cool. Plus I like not having all my removal in one color, so I can get around both Iona naming White and the pro-green on Sphinx.
- I only got to Wastelock Reanimator via Knight of the Reliquary once, and then also naturally in the above-mentioned game involving the Collar, which was against Eli, plus also ridiculous.
- Be it resolved that sticking Dark Confidant just rules basically always.
- Do not board out Gaddock Teeg against Merfolk; they board in Submerge. Also, did you realize you can Submerge a motherfucker in response to its controller cracking a fetchland? Lucas took me to school on that one.
- Awkward mana hurt me a few times against New Horizons. So did my inability to remain focused after five rounds of Magic when I'm late for a date. Anyway to shore up that match-up probably I should add a second plains, and/or cut a Bayou for the third Savannah.

Bottom line, for my trouble I won 14 packs of WWK (Jace lottery, haven't opened 'em yet) plus a Grindstone and All Is Dust. Between that and the Sinkhole and other random level-up and foil jank I picked up for my cube off Blake last night in exchange for a buncha dumb planeswalkers I never touch, I'm actually out of cards to covet right now, which is very strange... Must be time for a new set to come out.

Oh, and by the way... I feel fat.

-Dan

Kira + Jitte = Nonbo, plus also I hate Paramore with all my guts

In the last post I mentioned Landstill might not be as dead as it appeared. Sure enough, take a look. See also: Dreadstill.

Interestingly, higher up that Top 8, and in fact the winner of the 500-man event in Europe, is this Merfolk build, which eschews Standstill outright to free up room for lords 13-16: Coralhelm Commander. Yeah no dude for real I'm going to trade this Adept for your Nacatl kthxbai.

And while we're glutting ourselves on that particular Top8: Baneslayer Control. What can I say? Esper Charm seems like a house. It deals with Counterbalance by way of its illustrious 3-mana CMC, and it's a Hymn to Tourach that discards to Force of Will. (Side note, speaking of Hymn, anybody besides me ever miss Rise / Fall? Why isn't it in my cube? Is my head bleeding?)

Anyway. G/W Stoneforge decks with Kitchen Finks and Knight of the Reliquary keep showing up, and I love them, but I really don't understand how they beat combo at all, and in fact question their game against Reanimator as well. My solution is to splash black, but I already filled up quite a bit of space below yammering about going 5-3 on that presumption.

In other news, I realized the reason the Bant Charm deck plays only one Brainstorm is it cold sucks once you have Sylvan Library out, whereas Ponder shuffles away whatever wasn't worth paying 4 life to draw. As to the utility of 4x Brainstorm in a deck sporting 3x Jace, Face Sculptor, you'll have to consult Wafo-Tapa, re: the above-linked Landstill list. (Further, did you notice Lightning Greaves is fucking five dollars? Beats the hell out of me)

Last thing: Zoo devoured the top 16 for SCG Philly, alongside relative newcomer New Horizons, but one good thing did come of it.

Yep.

Broke is the New Fixed

Legacy is a format where a two-card combo can deck your opponent or cheat an unstoppable 15/15 into play, and yet such decks are only marginally competitive.
Folks argue if you're doing nothing broken you're doing nothing period.

I don't buy that. Take Zoo and Merfolk as examples. They play dudes and they turn those dudes sideways. Maybe along the way they hit a curve of islandwalking Muscle Slivers via Aether Vial while Wastelanding and Dazing your attempts to develop. Maybe they drop a 4/5 for 1G, draw three burn spells off Sylvan Library and sacrifice two mountains to kill your ass.

And yeah, that's rough and stuff. But my point is Legacy is not a format defined by who can stick Iona first and effectively make the other player quit Magic.

(onward)

Maybe that's why I like Rock decks lately. They're not doing anything particularly effing insane, but on the whole they are raping your hand, fucking the board, dropping better guys than you have, and ratcheting up card advantage all the while. I dunno what the last three cards of this list should have been, but it's a pretty solid framework to build from.

It's weird to me how Grim Lavamancer tends to wind up alongside Tarmogoyf, but there's no denying it's good. Last summer I had a deck very similar to this, except with Cloud of Faeries into Standstill into Ninja of the Deep Hours, and running white for Swords to Plowshares instead of red for Lightning Bolt. It was effing hard to deal with, but by no means would I call any of it broken.

Speaking of pretty far from broken, I'm pretty amazed mono-blue control has been fighting its way up the lists lately, but you don't hear me complaining. See also: Soldiers. How in the hell? Nevermind, whatever, it's awesome. Shit, Landstill might not be as dead as once seemed either.

Alright, this is bugging me: the Bant Charm decks with Cold-Eyed Selkie are often seen running ONE Brainstorm. Are these budget Vintage decks that folks randomly sling in Legacy events? What the hell? And I'm surprised by the inclusion of Lightning Greaves, but I fully intend to try it and in fact hope to like it.

And while we're on the subject of decks sporting Stoneforge packages and Sylvan Library, look at this. It's like Land Hax without the Fathom Seer and Force of Will. So basically it's like if someone reworked Land Hax in a form I could fully embrace.

Anyway, to close out our theme of allegedly "fair" decks - those that don't cast three Cruel Ultimatums and a Bogarden Hellkite on turn two - I'll leave you with one silly combo: Legacy Hive Mind.

Yep.

-Dan