Theros Prerelease

As usual, I picked the Sunday prerelease at the Comic Shop for the Theros prerelease, mainly as it means I don't have to stay up as late (I have a son who is teething to do that...). As a change from my usual preparation, I didn't have time to finish listening to the Limited Resources podcast beforehand. 

I arrived in St Albans fairly early on, so wandered around briefly before waiting around outside for the shop to open. Before registration, I let Kaleb have a wander around before his granddad picked him up to look after him for the day. This did involve a couple of dashes outside to the courtyard (and to some probably wet socks). 

Getting started, I picked the green path. I was considering the black one, but wasn't impressed by the promo. Well, I wasn't blown away by any of the promos really, and green looked interesting, plus I liked the Hero card. 

Opening my pool, none of my colours seemed particularly deep, with a lot of just random bits in all the colours. I was going to be green regardless, just because I had more cards in that colour, most of which were decent enough, so went around narrowing down a second colour. Blue and White didn't seem to have a high amount of playables, and black seemed a little too thin. Some expensive removal and 2 Read the Bones, but nothing that exciting, so I went with red. This choice was helped by a number of removal spells in red.

My deck was fairly aggressive, with a little bit of reach for longer games, and overall I think I was helped by a lot of removal that I could use, and some sizable creatures. 

To be honest, I thought the deck was fairly mediocre. But I managed to go 4-1 (lost in the finals), so it can't have been that bad. 

Modern removal

This is sort of a follow on from my last post about the mono black infect deck I've been putting together. So far I have found a good sideboard card to try out so will try to get two more copies, this card being Sadistic Sacrament. Three mana is about the top end I want to be hitting for sideboard cards, and this is one that doesn't require a card to already be in my opponents graveyard.

I have also taken out a Liliana and a Rime Transfusion for two extra Plague Stingers. I've been thinking about replacing the Night's Whispers too, initially with Tezeret's Gambit, but that new card in Theros (Scry 2, draw 2, lose 2) looks equally interesting so I want to play two of each to see if one is better.

Also in Theros is Thoughtsieze which I mentioned I would like to get. Will initially just replace Inquisition with them as I get them, but I'd ideally like to play 4 Thoughtsieze and 2 Inquisition, but I'm not sure what to take out for the two extra.

I've been mulling over my removal suite. I've taken out Devour in Shadow and Disfigure for an extra Devour Flesh and Dismember (3 of each). My reasoning is that I'm usually going to be wanting to remove just one creature, so Devour Flesh does that fine while getting around indestructible and Hexproof and, as previously mentioned, the infect deck doesn't care about life gain.

I've put Dismember in as it is a good Disfigure replacement as I can cast it for one mana if I really need to, and it will kill a lot more. The bonus over Devour in Shadow is that I can spend less life sometimes and it gets around indestructible in addition to regeneration (which Devour in Shadow also gets around). Devour Flesh should handle anything over 5 toughness, but -1/-1 counters from my creatures will also shrink things down into Dismember range. The big creatures that I saw at the tournament aren't affected by Devour in Shadow anyway (both Eldrazi, one indestructible, one has protection from coloured spells, so Devour Flesh is better here as it will actually do something).

I'm not sure what I need for mass removal. Infest seems reasonable for now in the sideboard, but I'll have to play some more creature heavy decks to make up my mind. I'm not sure whether Damnation would be better here or whether the extra mana is too much of a drawback. Similarly for Mutilate, but I think Damnation would be better in that case anyway.

I'm not sure when I'll next get a chance to play the deck, hopefully I'll be able to update it some more first.

Modern Infect

After the popularity of Modern Masters, Chaos City (St Albans) decided to hold a modern tournament. It was announced well in advance to allow everyone to build decks if they didn't have one, and get cards etc.

Not sure what to play, I went with an old standard deck I had, which I had updated once already.

In the second incarnation, I lost the Vampires Bites as they had rotated out, but I could add then back in to update the deck to play in modern. I also changed it a bit to make it more efficient.

On the night, I went 3-2, coming 14 out of about 30, which I'm fairly happy about, it being the first time I've played modern and all.

Here is the deck list, somewhat organised into sections, with commentary of the reasons I put it in the deck and what I thought about playing it.

Creatures
The main core of the deck; the path to victory. I think I need to play a couple more, although I think I did OK with this number.

2 Plague Stinger - this was an extra source of infect, cheap and with evasion. I think the deck needs more creatures and this is on my list of creatures to add to increase the numbers. Did have one get Pyroclasm'd as the only creature out, so if my opponents are that desperate to get rid of it, it is certainly worth considering

4 Phyrexian Crusader - I've said before this is the best card in the deck, and it's still true. A short list of spot removal in modern this dodges: Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Lightning Helix, Doom Blade, Victim of Night.

4 Phyrexian Vatmother - this is the top end of the curve and mainly here to finish games. It's hard to find something bigger for a similar cost, and if you do, this will shrink it down significantly. I had two out at once one game and didn't get close to poisoning myself.

Pump
This is to speed up a victory with the creatures. Some as a surprise and some on board.

4 Vampire's Bite - a decent amount of power for one mana. On an unblocked Crusader and they're on 5. On an unblocked Vatmother will do 7 in one hit. When the target is 10, those are good numbers. The lifelink can occasionally be useful, but as this deck runs no shock lands and no fetches, I don't often “start” on 17 or 15 so don't always need to catch up.

2 Bonesplitter - picked up these in Modern Masters drafting. I think they worked OK; a decent turn one play (better than just playing a land), and efficient equip cost. I can usually equip and play something else in the same turn which is nice. Plus activating and equipping to an Inkmoth Nexus only requires 3 land (for the same amount in poison counters).

2 Mutagenic Growth - nice as a surprise, even when tapped out. Part of me would like to play 4, but I'm not convinced on that. Don't think I got a chance to play one this tournament, but it has finished games for me before.

3 Rime Transfusion - wait, what's that? Coldsnap was an interesting block to say the least. I don't think I saw any snow creatures at all, which effectively makes one of my creatures unblockable, with a permanent boost (Crusader hits for 4 unopposed, Vatmother ends the game in two unblockable swings). This gives the deck inevitability. I think 3 is the correct number to play here; costs more than the other pump, less of a surprise and less mana efficient, but it is nice to see once in a game, especially if it is going on a bit longer.

2 Liliana of the Dark Realms - not the best Liliana, but works well in this deck. 4 mana is the top end anyway, but it is nice to get card advantage, and be sure you can play everything you draw. The middle ability is the important one, either getting rid of a problem creature, or a decent pump to one of mine,  possibly to finish a game. Even playing 2 I managed to get both in my hand one game and I seemed to want to be playing cheaper spells instead. I think I'll keep one for certain, but I'm unsure about the second one.

Removal/Disruption/Misc
This is just a category for everything else. 

2 Devour Flesh - Good against hexproof/indestructible creatures, cheap, instant, and I don't care about my opponent gaining life. While I was playing, my opponents didn't have many creatures out that often anyway, so this would either get something good when I cast it, or, as it is cheap enough, I can cast it early enough that it will get their only creature on the board. 

2 Devour in Shadow - I had only found out about this one recently. Kills something unconditionally, which is great. Double back is doable in this deck (only 4 colourless lands, everything else gets me black mana). The life loss can be bad, but as I've mentioned, not running shocklands/fetches puts me in a good position against a lot of the other decks that might expect their opponents mana bases to lower their life for them. Can work nice with the Crusader - put -1/-1 counters on with first strike damage, and lose 2 less life when destroying it before it deals damage to the Crusader. 

2 Disfigure - These only cost 1 mana and can get a lot of annoying/utility creatures. Can also be handy to slow down fast starts, or even improve combat for my creatures. 

4 Inquisition of Kozilek - Nice to mess with my opponents early plays. As the deck is mono black, this is one of the ways to get rid of stuff I would otherwise have trouble with. The theory is that by turn 3 or 4, I should have a powerful infect creature out and ready to win in a turn or two. Unfortunately my first match was against a deck running the Urza lands, so I think Thoughtsieze would have been better here (maybe both would work well together). Heres hoping its in Theros :-)

4 Night's Whisper - Card Draw, helping me draw into extra creatures/pump. Sometimes helping smooth out land drops as I'm running 23. I chose this over Sign in Blood because I'm not killing my opponent with life loss so will hardly ever want to target them, and I can cast this off a Swamp and Inkmoth Nexus whereas I need two Swamps for the Sign in Blood. 

Land 
Need something to cast spells. 

19 Snow-Covered Swamp - Black mana, allows me to activate the ability granted by Rime Transfusion

4 Inkmoth Nexus - Extra infect creatures, and I have enough coloured mana that the colourless rarely affects what I can play. 

Sideboard
I had no idea what the meta game would be (I read about Modern decks sometimes, but the store hadn't run a Modern tournament so I didn't know what people would be playing), so got some more generic answers. 

2 Disfigure - For a total of 4. Kills less, but it means I have one drop removal which can help against really fast decks. 

1 Devour Flesh - For a total of 3. I had read about the hexproof deck recently, so wanted an extra spell that can deal with those

1 Devour in Shadow - For a total of 3. Just another targeted removal spell. 

3 Infest - I never sided these in, but then I never played any aggro decks that they would be useful for. If sideboards were 16 cards, I would probably play 4 here. I went down to three for the extra Disfigure though - it is a smaller version and as it is cheaper I can get one creature instead of many, but that will hopefully slow things down enough. The aggro strategies are more likely to be White or Red based, so Phyrexian Crusader will do more work than normal in those cases. 

4 Pithing Needle - I really like this card, usually in the sideboard (although I really enjoyed playing a Standard deck a few years back with this and Goblin Guide). It is my generic answer to something I might have trouble with otherwise. Mainly going to name a Planeswalker, although if I see a fetchland with Inquisition of Kozilek...

4 Nihil Spellbomb - Generic Graveyard hate. The instant speed card draw was useful when I sided it in against a discard deck

M14 Prerelease

Following my now somewhat tradition of sporadic Magic playing, I went along to the M14 pre-release in St Albans earlier today. My preparation had been going over the visual spoiler a few days before and listening to most of the Limited Resources set review. 

As it was a nice hot day, the tables were outside instead of in the shop, in a sort-of-tunnel that goes from the road to the shop, so we had some shade to play in. A nearby shop seemed to be doing well by selling slices of watermelon, which was welcomed on the hot day. I had wandered around the farmers market before the tournament started, picking up a small lavender plant for Liz to cook with. 

When I opened my boosters, I came to the conclusion that all my colours were fairly strong. Blue was less strong and a colour I don't play much anyway, so set that aside. I set aside most of black as there wasn't too much there either, and half my white cards, so started putting together a red/green deck. 

I originally build the deck splashing just Doom Blade for black, but also splashing three white cards (2 Pacifisms). Just before the first round started, I decided that it was being a little too greedy, so took out the white. 

Here is the deck I played at the end of the day:

1 Shock
1 Wring Flesh - this performed a lot better than I thought it would. Mainly helping out in combat as opposed to killing a creature outright
1 Rangers Guile
1 Lay of the Land - I mainly played this because I wanted to limit the number of lands I had for the splash, and also I had a lot of double colour costing cards in both Green and Red
1 Scavenging Ooze - This did really well - I got 12 or so counters on it one game
1 Doom Blade
1 Green Doom Blade Deadly Recluse
1 Kalonian Tusker
1 Goblin Shortcutter
1 Predatory Sliver
1 Flames of the Firebrand
2 Advocate of the Beast - The main issue I had with this is that I usually wanted to attack with it and a beast to keep the pressure up, so often lost this in combat before I could get something really big
1 Rumbling Baloth
2 Chandra's Outrage
1 Marauding Maulhorn
2 Pitchburn Devils - My opponents didn't block these very often, or attack into them. Not complaining too much about that
1 Enlarge - I can haz trample?
1 Woodborn Behemoth
1 Shivan Dragon

End result: I went 4-1 and came 4th overall. I'm happy with that result considering I don't usually perform well at sealed and had done minimal preparation (the one opponent who did beat me had an agressive red/blue deck that had a lot of good tempo plays; they had also played in two or three other M14 prereleases beforehand so knew the set a little better).

Modern Masters Draft 2

I was lucky enough to play another draft of modern masters the other week. Kaleb was being looked after, so both me and Liz could go which was nice. Also nice was seeing everyone from Hemel as we hadn't been for a while.

I started off the draft with a bit of OK blue cards, but also picked up some green, to keep my options open. In the second pack, I stopped seeing blue, but got some good black and green cards, including a Worm Harvest, so kept an eye out for other support cards. In the third pack, I continued on like this, picking up a couple of blue cards again.

While putting the deck together, I could just about do a two colour green/black deck, but would either have to play a bad 23rd card or an 18th land, or splash a third colour. I took the later option as some of the blue cards I wasn't playing were good even later on.

The deck looked a bit like this: Bonesplitter, Executioner's Capsule, Thallid, Peppersmoke, Mothdust Changeling, Rathi Trapper, Blightspeaker, Echoing Courage, Nacromeba, Death Denied, Stinkweed Imp, Moldervine Cloak, Mulldrifter, Kodama's Reach, Auntie's Snitch, Syphon Life, Nantuko Shaman, Greater Mossdog, Penumbra Spider, Worm Harvest, Giant Dustwasp, Riftwing Cloudskate, Sylvan Bounty, Tombstalker, Walker of the Grove, Dakmor Salvage, Vivid Grove, Terramorphic Expanse

A fairly small graveyard theme, but some fun cards nonetheless. I had more than enough fixing to support the blue splash too, which was nice.

I lost the first match playing against faeries plus Skeletal Vampire, and lost the second match to an aggressive black/red deck with a lot of goblins. Ended one game with Oona too.

I had really fun games in the last match. I got the worm harvest on the graveyard by dredging a stinkweed imp, and got to retrace it using a Dakmor Salvage, ready to retrace again. At one point, my opponent made all his lands, which were all forests into creatures to attack with, then playing Echoing Courage on them...

My main focus with drafting the set has been to play something I'd find fun. It's a shame the set is so hard to get as if I could draft it more, I would try out some of the other archetypes.

On the way home, I had a weird realisation with Liz. We were walking to our house from the train station and I realised that whenever I have walked that bit of road previously, it was either on my own, or with her and Kaleb - I had never walked that bit with just her, which I found novel for some reason.