Games are great, but sometime you don't have enough time to really enjoy them. Here at Snack, Play, Love we are devoting time to exploring bite size games and opinions on those games that don't seem to get as much mainstream exposure.
Well - as with last years edition it seems no-one has collected all the card lists for this. Unlike last year I'm going to put them all in one post. As with last year this set is for starting out players with small collections. it comprises ENTIRELY of commons and uncommons (and not many uncommons - 2 per colour and then 4 per deck fragment - 26 in total) but the cards contained would be more expensive to buy outside of this pack purely because of the boosters. The boosters give you another 12+ uncommons and 4+ rares (due to flip cards and foils you can get more than this) and basically make up 80% of the cost of the box. For me - even if I give most of the cards away this year (which I will likely do) I get the boosters, the cool box and the joy of all this typing again...
See you next year.
The Boosters are Innistrad Block:
Innistrad
Dark Ascension
Avacyn Restored
M13
This makes sense as now the product is perfectly positioned to last a whole standard season - kudos WOTC!
The Semi Random packs (gold dashed section) are:
Blue Black Evasion:
Curiosity
Talrand's Invocation
Welkin Tern
Faerie Invaders
2x Searchlight Geist
Invisible Stalker
Harbor Bandit
Gryff Vanguard
Bloodhunter Bat
Humans:
Fiend Hunter
Crusader of Odric
Gather the Townsfolk
Bonds of Faith
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Commander's Authority
Hamlet Captain
Bonds of Faith
Heavy Mattock
Timberland Guide
Library Depletion:
Jace's Phantasm
Stern Mentor
2x Mind Sculpt
Curse of the Bloody Tome
Dreadwaters
Fog Bank
Cellar Door
Vedalken Entrancer
Dream Twist
Tokens:
Intangible Virtue
Moan of the Unhallowed
Captain's Call
Gather the Townsfolk
2x Vile Rebirth
Lingering Souls
Goldnight Redeemer
Attended Knight
Glorious Charge
Exalted:
Knight of Glory
Angelic Benediction
2x Guardians of Akrasa
Aven Squire
Duty-Bound Dead
Knight of Infamy
Duskmantle Prowler
Servant of Nefarox
Cobbled Wings
Angels:
Defy death
Emancipation angel
Seraph of dwn
2x scroll of Avacyn
Serra sanctuary
Serra angel
Archangel
Angelic wall
Bladed bracers
Vampires:
Vampire nighthawk
Rakish heir
Vampiric fury
Stormkirk captain
2x crossway vampire
Vampire interloper
Falkenrath noble
Bloodcrazed neonate
Victim of the night
Zombies: (from poster - may be elsewhere in kit)
Diregraf Captain
Armoured Skaab
Thought Scour
Abattoir Ghoul
Red Burn: (from poster - may be elsewhere in kit)
Volcanic Geyser
Thunderous Wrath
Pitchburn Devils
Rummaging Goblin
You also always get 4 Evolving Wilds
Credit for the typing up of these goes to the posters in the message board thread below: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=432032 I added my own semi-random decks and checked the ones I had. As you can see of the 11 deck fragments, you have the 5 tribal themes from Innistrad block (vampires, spirits, humans, angels, zombies) - notable for the absence of Werewolves which has been worked into the Midrange Green cards but without any DFC (but you get one in the INN & DKA packs so I'm not sure why this was excluded). We have the returning mechanic deck in Exalted, the Library Depletion (Mill) and Burn. The most interesting are the Evasion & Tokens which were not in last years selection but are thematically from the recent block. Non Random Cards. White Banded Pack - commons Ghoulcaller's Bell Elgaud Inquisitor Voice of the Provinces Attended Knight Cathedral Sanctifier Chapel Geist Niblis of the Mist Seraph of Dawn Griffin Protector Glorious Charge Safe Passage 2x Pacifism Cloudshift Urgent Exorcism Mist Raven Gryff Vangard Archaeomancer Stormbound Geist Deranged Assistant 2x Welkin Tern Scroll theif Thought Scour Essence Scatter Negate Divination Curse of the Bloody Tome Encrust Vampire Interloper Liliana's Shade Ravenous Rats Bloodhunter Bat Tormented Soul Driver of the Dead Markov Patrician Ghoulcaller's Chant Sign in blood 2x Murder Duress Dead weight Victim of Night Pitchburn Devils Torch Fiend Bladetusk Boar Forge Devil Heirs of Stromkirk Rummaging Goblin Fire Elemental Searing Spear Traitorous Blood Brimstone Volley Demolish Krenko's Command Pillar of Flame Borderland Ranger Avacyn's Pilgrim Elvish visionary Red banded pack - green commons + uncommons + start of lands 2x Arbor Elf Ambush Viper Geist Trappers Pathbreaker Wurm Wildwood Geist Titanic Growth Farseek Ranger's Path Natural End Prey Upon Crusader of Odric Oblivion Ring Talrand's Invocation Niblis of the Breath Vampire Nighthawk Abattoir Ghoul Falkenrath Exterminator Gang of Devils Roaring Primadox Hollowhenge Scavenger M13 land (Two copies of all 4 M13 designs) so: 8 Plains 8 Island 8 Swamp 8 Mountain 8 Forest Gold banded pack: remaining lands
I don't really get around to writing up that many events these days, except for the Digital Dragons ones as they are more relaxed and about fun more than winning. I thought I'd make an exception for this one, even though I only managed to take one picture all day. This is the picture.
That's 8 boosters, one Xathrid Gorgon Promo and a BIG Planeswalkers mug - and it comprises the winners prize that I got to take home with me! No one was more surprised than me, as I didn't originally think my card selection was that exciting. I had a big Green Mythic & Jace Planeswalker card in my pool so people were telling me that I had a good pool, but the fact is I played neither for the majority of the day.
Here is the deck that played Round 5:
Land:
Sunpetal Grove (rare 1)
9 Forest
7 Plains
Creatures
2 x Bond Beetle
Flinthoof Boar (u)
Timberpack Wolf (which I never drew in the tournament!)
Aven Squire
Attended Knight
Crusader of Odric (u)
Centaur Courser
2x Roaring Primadox (2u)
Primal Huntbeast
Griffin Protector
Healer of the Pride (u)
Silklash Spider (my other rare)
Serra Angel (u)
Other Spells
Prey Upon
Pacifism
Giant Growth
Oblivion Ring (u)
2x Safe Passage
2x Captains Call
Divine verdict
Thats a main deck with 16 basic lands, 2 rares (one of which is a dual land), 7 uncommons and 15 commons. Hardly a bomb filled deck!
Sideboard cards over the matches included:
2x Ring of Thune (started round 1 with one in the deck - after game 1 round 2 I never played them again)
Erase
Naturalize
Glorious Charge (flirted with this one - I never drew it so was hard to evaluate)
Plummet (goodbye nighthawk!)
and my other Mythic Elderscale Worm (I planned to put him in for long matches, after siding in and casting him in game 2 round 1 he never found my hand again. He didn't really combo with much in my deck really).
Round 1
This was against our buddy Phil who was playing Black and Red and I think Blue too. Game 1 he overwhelmed me with nighthawk so I sided in all the killing it tools meaning he never found nighthawk in game 2. He got out his Xathrid Gorgon and began to destroy me - and if he had the day would have been very different, but I pacified and then Oblivion ringed it. Unfortunately I blocked something I didn't need to and lost my Primadox so couldn't slow flicker the Mythic that had turned to stone. Luckily I just kept hitting him with other things so got my first win to take it to 1-1. Game 3 was all about playing too many colours and I won with a combination of my 3/3 and 4/4 buddies.
Round 2
This was against my friend Rob who I really respect as a player and have lost to in constructed a very large number of times. Fortunately I seem to have the edge in limited. Round 1 I found myself with gear and no creatures and a lack of answers to a flyer with enchantments and artefacts on it. As my sideboard shows I was ready for this and switched gears to punish the single creature focused strategies. Combo decks can play control pretty easily and then flick back to aggro as needed. This worked pretty well although mainly because he didn't find his Hydra to stomp me with. I won 2-1 and pointed out that the Rancor in his sideboard was worth playing. He still played a big fat deck full of all the fun spells, which I think cost him wins but won him friends and a little cheer when he got the random prize of the Primeval Titan Playmat at the end of the night.
Round 3
This was played against Don - one of the talented Magic playing students. This is the match I remember least about - I do remember a sleeping dragon that I had to keep an eye on and strategically timed my attacks so I could blow it up on the first turn it was useful to him. I'm evil like that. I do think the card is important in limited as most people played a lot less answers than I did. This was the first point at which I felt my deck was truly working. No 7 cost creatures, no clunky equipment that is only useful to half my deck, and only siding in and out things that influenced the battle. It was at this point I settled on 41 cards too - frankly the two bond beetles meant that the chances of getting land screwed were minimal, and the extra removal spell helped a lot.
I'd built a blue black control mill deck out of the remaining cards, mainly to relax me. I played this against Don and lost in short order - one card away from finding Jace. I'd managed to unsummon his sleeping dragon at a couple of perfect opportunities but he had tokens and pressure which I lost to. I really want to fix this deck and play it again though.
Round 4
This was against one of the best regular players that the store Jamie, who played a similar deck to the one in the last round. There were lots of mana problems and inconsistencies here too, and I think I was the only person to beat all three of the players I played in the last three rounds. He seemed to have mana problems round 2 I think and I got my slow-flicker the bond beetle combo going making Crusader of Odric something like an 11/11 taking out a creature per attack. I was also gaining at least 2 life per turn due to this. I think that a different draw on his part would have made this a much harder game. The luck was with me.
Round 5
This round I faced down Alex, probably the best of the local student players. I'd beaten him at the last pre-release 2-1 and was convinced he'd get his revenge on me but it wasn't to be. Game 1 was fairly fast and I didn't really know how to sideboard. Game 2 I thought I had him on a couple of occasions and I just had to keep attacking all out as I had both of my Safe Passage in hand meaning if the blocks turned out bad for me I could prevent them. In the end after two of them he conceded having just drawn three blank turns.
I was a bit emotional at this point and had to go outside...
Aftterwards I looked at Alex's deck and he had a couple of massive cards like Krenko, Mob boss that could have easily swung either game. His deck was also as consistent as mine and as we both table shuffled it was just pure random unluckiness of the draws that saw me getting my first Pre-release victory and not him. He's the kind of player I expect to see doing well at the PTQs pretty soon and I felt honoured to have beaten such worthy players on the way to my win. My overall game win percentage was in the 86% region which is amazing for me.
I had to check the stats page - 34 players, only one was undefeated.
I haven't opened my 8 prize packs yet - yesterday was also my 33rd birthday so was rather busy. Pretty memorable though - I think you'll agree!
Digital Dragons Lichfield is running it's first ever Magic The Gathering League for the new M13 set starting on Friday 13th July and Saturday 14th July. Store owner Paul is in charge, but local Magic player Rich will be helping out with organisation & rules as Tournament Organiser.
Full details are below, but this is the store's first ever weekly Magic: The Gathering event and depending on how popular this is we may be able to increase the events we can run. The top finishers at the end of the league will get a Nichol Bolas - Planeswalker poster with all entrants receiving an alternate art Goblin token! There will also be a grand prize for the player who comes top of the league of a Planeswalker shoulder bag. Each player that pays the week 2 league fee will receive two booster packs as part of their prizes on the final week.
When you join the Magic 2013 League, you will be given the opportunity to play with the newest cards in an on-going, five-week league. There will be prizes, and special rules for the league that change weekly. The format for the Magic 2013 league is Sealed Deck— with three options on how to build your deck (see below).
Over the course of the league, you will be able to add more boosters to your league deck, but you cannot add cards from your collection or trade the cards from the league until it is over.
If you miss a week or need start late and to catch up then you can do this too - just talk to the store owner Paul.
Simply turn up on the dates below, choose and pay for one of the deck options below and build and play away. If you can bring your own basic land cards then do so, and if you want to protect your cards then you can bring or buy sleeves.
Week 2 - Saturday 21st July (also a Standard Monthly Magic Tournament at 12:30 on this day!)
Week 3 - Saturday 28th July
Week 4 - Saturday 4th August
Week 5 - Saturday 11th August (also a Standard Monthly Magic Tournament day at 12:30 on this day!)
The league matches can be played in store at any point during these days and in the following week. All results should be reported directly to Paul.
Rules Overview
Sealed decks...
● must contain a minimum of 40 cards.
● have no maximum deck size (but you must be able to shuffle your deck with no assistance)● have no maximum number of duplicate cards allowed in the deck. (e.g. if you open 5 of the same card in your Booster Packs, you can play with all five in your deck). ● can be built using your own Basic Lands, or you may borrow from the store stock, provided you return them at the end of the League.
Matches
● League games should be played in the Store if possible, but if Paul or Rich are Ok with it then the local cafe's and similar local venues can be used if the store is not available. It is up to Paul if the result of a match not played in store counts.
● A match consists of the best of 3 games between two players; matches are not timed. ● As with other Sealed Deck events, you may make adjustments to your deck from your sideboard between games. You may construct an entirely new deck between matches. ● Each player can play no more than 25 League matches during each 5-Week League and cannot play more than 5 matches per Week. The only players allowed to play more than 5 scoring matches per Week will be those that join the League late. Catch up matches for players already in the League will NOT be allowed. A player that has already played 5 scoring matches in a Week may, however, play additional non-scoring matches against players that still need scoring matches for that Week.
● In a single week (Wednesday – Tuesday) each player may not play an opponent more than once (with the exception of players joining late: see below). ● Matches may be continued over more than one day if there is not enough time to complete all the games at once, though an incomplete game is considered a draw game (it can be played over if both players choose). A match must be completed within the same League Week, however. ● When each match is completed, you and your opponent will inform Paul of the result. If the match is not played in store then let Digital Dragons know the result as soon as possible via either FaceBook group or popping into the store. ● Sportsmanship is a must for League. We encourage everyone to have fun! If someone is looking for a match and you are too, and they ask you to play, you cannot deny them a game just because you don’t like them, or because you are looking for an easier opponent.
Joining Late
● Players who sign up for the League late will be allowed to purchase all the Booster Packs at once to catch them up with everyone else (the original 6, plus 1 per Week for Weeks 2 through 5). Please note: Additional Booster Pack purchases can ONLY occur once the Week has officially ended and the results for that Week have been tallied. In other words, after Tuesday.
● Players joining late can play extra matches in the Weeks they play to catch up with everyone else. (e.g. a player joining in Week 3 could play 15 scoring matches that week, or 10 scoring matches each in Week 3 and Week 4).
● Players trying to make up matches may play the same opponent more than once in a Week; however, not more times than the number of Weeks late they are joining (e.g. if a player joins in Week 2, they could play the same opponent twice (but not more than) during Week 2 to catch up).
Scoring
● Each player in a match gets 1 point just for playing, and the winner gets 2 bonus points in addition for a total of 3.
● As long as one game is completed, both players will get the minimum 1 point.
● League results will be tallied up every Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
● The League Standings will be posted online and in-store.
There are also rules players use during their matches. These rules change every week.
Week 1: No effect.
Week 2: Whenever a creature attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
Week 3: Creatures have ": Add to your mana pool."
Week 4: Creatures have vigilance.
Week 5: Instant and sorcery spells cost less to cast.
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Standard Entry - Total cost - £40 (minimum cost £26)
This is how a Standard sealed deck / MTG league normally works. It's designed for players that are experienced with building Magic: The Gathering decks in short spaces of time and want a completely custom made deck. You receive random cards and build a deck of your choosing and modify it as the weeks go on.
Week 1 - Pay £20 to receive 6 M13 boosters and build a 40 card deck of your choosing - Play 5 league matches!
Week 2 - Pay league fee for prize pool. Buy one optional M13 booster pack at the discounted league price of £3.50 to change the cards in your deck as you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 3 - Buy one optional M13 booster pack at the discounted league price of £3.50 to change the cards in your deck as you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 4 - Buy one optional M13 booster pack at the discounted league price of £3.50 to change the cards in your deck as you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 5 - Buy one optional M13 booster pack at the discounted league price of £3.50 to change the cards in your deck as you wish. Play 5 league matches! Collect prizes!!
Intro Level Entry - Total cost £25 (Minimum cost £18)
This introductory version of the league deck means that you get a fully formed deck from the below 5 of your choosing to play with over the weeks.
This removes the building process in week one and makes decisions about cards to add simpler as you only have two colours. You will also be starting with a 60 card deck which means that it's the same as standard constructed Magic. It does mean that any great cards you open in the future packs in the other three colours may be harder to use, but the more experienced players in the store will be able to advise on this. It's also the cheapest option.
Week 1 - Buy an M13 Intro deck of your choosing (keeping the two included boosters sealed) and Play! It really is that simple, you enter the league with a pre-made 60 card deck that is based around two colours. Play 5 league matches!
Week 2 - Pay league fee for prize pool. Use the first M13 booster from your Intro Deck box to change the cards in your deck if you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 3 - Use the second M13 booster pack from your Intro Deck to change the cards in your deck as you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 4 - Buy one optional M13 booster pack at the discounted league price of £3.50 to change the cards in your deck as you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 5 - Buy one optional M13 booster pack at the discounted league price of £3.50 to change the cards in your deck as you wish. Play 5 league matches!
If you miss any weeks you can catch up the matches (max 5 per week) as mentioned, or purchase the boosters you missed out on. Play 5 league matches! Collect prizes!!
Collector's Edition Entry - The 'Fat Pack' - Total cost £43.50 (Minimum cost £40)
This has been requested by some of the players who were already planning to pick up a Fat Pack. This is a box that contains everything you need for the new set - 9 boosters, a spindown counter (life die), a book listing all the cards, some land, and two small cardboard boxes. As this is almost perfect for a league (all you need to add are optional protective sleeves) we are allowing players to pick one up and use it for the league - and it covers everything except for that 10th and final booster (which is optional) and the league fee for the prize pool. Supplies of Fat Packs are limited so make sure you book in advance if you plan to take advantage of this option!
Week 1 - Buy a Fat Pack in store and select 6 boosters to use for the League. Build a 40 card deck of your choosing. Play 5 league matches!
Week 2 - Pay league fee for prize pool. Use 1 of your fat Pack boosters to change the cards in your deck if you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 3 - Use 1 of your fat Pack boosters to change the cards in your deck if you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 4 - Use 1 of your fat Pack boosters to change the cards in your deck if you wish. Play 5 league matches!
Week 5 - Use 1 of your fat Pack boosters to change the cards in your deck if you wish. Play 5 league matches! Collect Prizes!!
OK - a very short write up of our latest casual games day at Digital Dragons in Lichfield. Only 6 players, which was less than I'd hoped for and kept us at three rounds plus possible play off action (which was cancelled - see later).
Round 1 was me Vs Paul the shop owner and was a fairly lacklustre affair seeing me loose out as I didn't really see the right parts of the angel deck. Playing the shop owner while customers are about is always dangerous (but means we have a 'floater' that can jump in to make even numbers and is better than a bye). We mostly talked toot about the events and the cards we had. Due to retail happenings I conceded as time was called. Then I spent a good 30 mins hovering over the one remaining game that was still on it's game 1. It seems the elves had spawned all their mana producers and Birthing Pod couldn't break through! Eventually (ironically as I put them on turns) Pod missed a combat trick and Elves found their Ezuri to break through for the win.
Round 2 saw me against the Birthing Pod. I expected to loose badly to this Event Deck++ after stalling in round 1, but I seemed to nail the starting hand with a mix of lands and a few angels for when I got there. And then I got to reveal the secret reason for wanting to play my Angels - the oversized promo cards!
Hooray - Sigarda, Host of Herons hits the board and grows too! As the keen player may have spotted my opponent is a little mana screwed here. Infact the only play he did have was a turn 4 Skinrender whose only legal target was itself! (oops) This was a far cry from both of our last games and didn't really show off the cards I'd suggested for the pod deck so we rushed to game two.
This happened in game two - double mythic promo angelic action! I started with Giesela in hand and Double Abundant growth followed by Scroll of Avacyn was ripping through my deck to find what I needed to get her into play. The pod was racing me handily, but doom-bladed my life linker angel on the turn before I dropped the Blade of Goldenight teaching the important lesson to wait with your instants! My pod buddy was very nice about the 20 in the air that ensued, but we didn't get chance for a game 3 as the Elves had caused a massive rout on the other table lining them up to fight the mono white humans deck that one of the local players had got.
My game 3 was another slow affair against the other local player with his white Angels & Humans deck - we were both grinding out and playing similar cards (I did loose my Bruna, Light of Alabaster a little too hastily to try to trade) until the White Mikeaus started to get going. This caused me to loose very slowly indeed as I found all my mana guys and BOTH birds of Paradise that I put in to ease the lack of white that side-boarding all the dual lands caused. After many turns of not doing much he finally got big enough to be close -then silent departured all my guys - nooooo! That was a 1-0 loss that put me at the bottom of the standings, but with a big smile on my face.
During the last round a family came in with two small boys and after sheepishly watching a few games decided to make their first ever Magic purchase in the Venser Vs Koth Duel decks (that I'd been tempted to pick up earlier but resisted due to all the Planechase goodies). This was during my match so out of respect I didn't leave it to go and advise. They did pop back in later to complete the purchase and pick up boxes and sleeves too - so I rushed over and found them some of the promo cards from the Gateway things we had so they had a Gather The Townsfolk and a Nearheath Stalker to add to their collections. I had a flick through my trades folder to see if there was anything else suitable (idiotically forgetting about all the Avacyn commons I'd dumped in the store collection earlier) but decided not to confuse things. While the Duel Deck would not have been my choice for two young players I think that the balance and flashiness of it all was what attracted them to it. I offered to help them if they ever came to one of the store events in future.
Elves smashed the humans in the last round, and in the standings this meant that Elves were top just above the Humans so it seemed silly to have a play off and we moved all the tables and had a massive 6 player game of Zombie Fluxx instead with some of the YuGiOh Players joining in while the shop was cashed up.
Another great day had by all with more to come soon in June!
Sometimes in Magic: The Gathering (as well as in real life) it's hard to play fair. This isn't due to pre-ordained cheating strategies or even 'forgetting' to activate triggers but due to things that occur outside the game.
This realisation came after organising the first real sanctioned tournament at Digital Dragons in Lichfield and coming away the winner - with a deck I'd designed to either win fast or loose fast. It turns out that just having a good card pool to pull from and throwing together a green and white humans deck made almost entirely out of promotional rares can do quite a lot! The deck was essentially Fateful hour based which meant that it punished the other player a little too much and wasn't all that fun.
In the run up to the second 'big' tournament (we schedule casual events frequently when there happen to be games in store) I decided to make a deck that was competitive but would be fun to loose to, and hopefully fun to beat.
Here is my basic mana curve:
As you can see (if you tilt your head) this is all the Angel creature cards from Innistrad block. And the 1 M12 Angel too. And Angelic Wall as I figured it was lonely. There are some very overpowered (in terms of the players that may turn up's collections) cards here in the 5 AVR Mythic Rares, but this time they are singletons. No more will they have to battle through multiple copies of the same depressing Humans - now there are Singleton Angels to have to read - if I can race up the mana curve. I figured that this strategy will give me a lot of variability, while also allowing me to try out the new cards in a fun setting.
Last time I put up all the prizes and intend to do the same again - I skipped myself and started the prizes at 2nd and 3rd place. This means I'm not too worried if I do happen to win, but I am worried that the less experienced players won't have as much fun. This is reflected in my support cards.
I've put in Borderland Ranger instead of Scorned Villager, but kept the Avacyn's Pilgrims.
I've dropped Ponder entirely and reduced Gitaxian Probe to a two of in favour of Fleeting Distraction (it has little fairies in the art to help with the theme).
I am playing 4 Seraph's Sanctuary and 4 Scroll of Avacyn. I'm also starting with all basic lands, with the 9 dual lands hiding in my sideboard for when I face the couple of experienced players that will be going.
I also have a few more tricks that should help the deck plough through it's cards in search of it's 18 Angels and help with the multicolour deck. I will post back a report next week.
I am now officially a Tournament Organiser for Digital Dragons (and have figured out phone blogging)!
This means I can set up events and keep an eye on things from home which will be a lot more convenient , if less sociable.
Yesterday we did a mini casual event of mini masters using my boosters I'd just bought. Good fun all round. I now have three Moonsilver Spears which I think will turn out I be much more
Important than people currently realise...
Off to a launch event this morning, but the store seems to be closed still. We will see...
Today was the first, real, proper Magic event with outside players at Digital Dragons in Lichfield as organised by me, Paul the shop owner and a mutual friend Tom who hooked us up. We'd done a little bit of promotion and ended up having two spontaneous practice days (where I was in store and so we did mini events) so knew what we were in for.
I got there a bit early to teach Tom how to play his new event deck, and got chatting to a few of the local players. When it came time to start we had 7 people present so the store owner Paul agreed to play single round games and to join in - I lent him a Standard legal zombie deck that was a bit basic but fun. After poking about at the odd Wizards tool for starting games we were ready a bit later than planned.
As I was the most experienced player I'd built a white + green splash humans & angels deck out of all the White promo cards I'd collected but never even played. I expected it to be solid and easy to play against, and this turned out to be true but it was better than I'd predicted.
Round one seemed to pit experience against rookies in every pairing so almost became a teaching round where people were figuring out their cards. Round two I got paired against Tom as we'd both won in Round 1 and we played a massive long drawn out single game that went on for about an hour due to my lack of lands which kept getting blown up (we decided timers would be a bad idea as we had plenty of time for the 3 rounds) and was only won by me as he didn't spot he could have used birthing pod to fetch a blocker. As he'd already fetched out most of his creatures there were only a few mana point values he could hit!
Best interaction saw me with Gideon PW (a singleton - forces his guys to attack), Gideon's Avenger (he taps, I get +1/+1) and Norn's Annex (he has to pay 2 life for each attacking creature). This would have been a game ender after only 15 or so mins, but in our practice game I taught him to pod a 2 drop into the corrupter to destroy the Annex. The Avenger got huge and was what won the game, but my unexpected combo would have seen him loose 12 life per turn so was neatly avoided.
Final round saw me play local player Vicky with her so far undefeated monsters deck. Having both Vampires and Zombies and a few black spirits I wasn't sure what to expect. Game 1 had me being beaten down in the air by the Aristocrat over two turns while I had 5 human tokens and 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim and the Doomsayer (tap to get a human). She took me to three life and would kill me in the next turn. My human deck was built around fateful hour mechanics and luckily the Doomsayer added +2/+2 to all creatures on my team giving me an attack of 20 against a fully tapped out opponent. It was a quick and sneaky win which I felt a bit bad for.
Game 2 was more even until I hit my 6 drop - an enchantment that gave all creatures double strike and lifelink. I'd not expected to manage to get to 6 so this was a cool bonus. Two turns later it was all over and as we were not doing playoffs I'd won the tournament!
I took a comfort break, and played another of the local players Chris with my back-up deck (was 1-1) while the 3rd 4th place match was finished and won by Vicky's brother Rob (also a friend of mine) and had the idea to buy a booster for the top three players out of my own funds to reward their turnout (the tournament was free entry to encourage more players which almost didn't work!). All packs had good card in and karma rewarded me with my 2nd Drogskol Reaver which will be fun to build around.
As every player bought at least one booster I think an entry fee + prize pack would be a safe option for the next event (last Sat of every month until we get tired of it is the plan!). Hopefully we can mimic The Road To WPN and get Core status just like internet hero and general nice guy Don did!
Afterwards some of us went back to Robs to gaze at his fish and talk toot and play a 3 player card game that was more about the tea and chat than the game. A pretty good Saturday all in all!
Wizards have quietly been releasing two decks every two months for Planeswalkers while I've been busy with FNM and real life and I thought it may be useful to share the links to the full deck lists here.
They are theme decks and seem to be quite popular (especially the Knights one which currently seems a little more powerful than the rest). The names are March to War (White Red), Ghoulkeeper (Black grave returns), Forest's Fury (Treefolk tribal in Green), Dark Heavens (Black & White and similar to a DKA intro deck), Beknighted (White Knights), and Trinity of Elements (Riku of Two Reflections Blue Green Red).
Hopefully DLC 2 for the Dark Ascension paper block will be announced this week - i'm expecting it to come out after the launch of the block but to contain more cards from it because of this. I don't think Wizards were keen that we knew a bunch of cards before they released the info due to people peeking into the game files!
Speaking of Ascension we've been playing that in the house almost as much as Magic: The Gathering so I may do a quick write up of that one of the days...
