(Michifus) Podcast Episode 1: Born of the Gods Set Review: Rares and Mythics

Episode can be streamed or downloaded below:


In Episode 1, Willis, Pieter, Penn, and Kyle discuss the rares and mythic rares from the upcoming Born of the Gods set coming out in February.

I am looking into hosting options or publishing to iTunes, so bear with me until that is worked out.

(Michifus) SCG Open: Baltimore - Legacy Recap

So, fair warning, I'm still incredibly new to the game of Legacy, so my understanding of the game and commentary/assessments on the game may be underdeveloped or even way off, so feel free to leave any commentary or corrections if you see me derping it up.

With 402 players, we were looking at a full nine rounds of Legacy action. Being my second ever Legacy tournament and with a new deck in hand, I was excited to see how the day went, as just about anything was going to be better than the 0-X scrubfest I had at Grand Prix Washington, D.C.

The Deck

Merfolk (a.k.a. Fish Slap)

Creatures

3 x Cosi's Trickster

4 x Cursecatcher

4 x Lord of Atlantis

4 x Master of the Pearl Trident

3 x Phantasmal Image

4 x Silvergill Adept

3 x Merrow Reejerey

4 x True-Name Nemesis

Spells

3 x AEther Vial

4 x Daze

4 x Force of Will

Lands

4 x Cavern of Souls

12 x Island

4 x Mutavault

Sideboard

1 x Grafdigger's Cage

1 x Pithing Needle

2 x Relic of Progenitus

1 x Spell Pierce

4 x Swan Song

1 x Vision Charm

1 x Umezawa's Jitte

1 x Llawan, Cephalid Empress

3 x Submerge

While Burn was a fine deck for starting the format with minimal investment, this seemed like a much better path for starting to build up a "real" Legacy deck, as the investment was pretty reasonable, already owning Mutavaults, Cavern of Souls, and most of the other newer spells and creatures. Force of Will is never a bad purchase, and True-Name Nemesis will probably be a good investment for the long haul.

Plus, there's this:

Ask me a year or so ago when I was getting into the swing of competitive Magic if I would ever shell out for a set of Force of Will and I would have called you crazy, but here we are...

Round 1 - Loss, 0-2 (Black & White)

Not sure what this deck is called, but it ran a ton of hand disruption spells, Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Stoneforge Mystic (along with Umezawa's Jitte, and Batterskull). With no hand and answers to anything I could topdeck, it was easy pickings for my opponent.

Round 2 - Win, 2-1 (Tendrils Storm)

The board state was looking mighty fine in game one, but he was able to combo off and got there.

Game two saw a spicy no-land-hand keep from my opponent, and he had plenty of combo fuel in there, but stopping that first Dark Ritual kept things in my favor as he never saw another mana source.

Game three also saw me keeping the black sources in check, as he couldn't combo off with no black hands.

Round 3 - Win, 2-1 (Warrens Storm)

With 14 Goblins on board, I was still able to hold them off with my creatures until a Lord of Atlantis brought a lethal swing in for me.

Game two saw Silence and hand disruption pick apart my answers and he was able to overrun me with the gobbos.

In three, True-Name Nemesis and Umezawa's Jitte provided an answer for the Xantid Swarm, which allowed me to punch in to victory.

Round 4 - Win, 2-0 (??????)

This was a very odd round, as the only spells I saw game one were Sensei's Divining Top and Liliana of the Veil and the Top again in game 2. Spinning the top was yielding no results as my opponent couldn't dig for what he needed in either game.

Round 5 - Win,  2-0 (UWR Delver)

Cavern of Souls is ridiculously good to have in game 1, as most of his hand was useless against uncounterable creatures and the ensuing beatdown.

Game 2 saw AEther Vial finally shine, as sneaking in Masters/Lords to blank Lightning Bolt or to get more damage in combat is pretty darn good. Llawan, Cephalid Empress also came in for this game, and ended up removing the flipped Delver, which swung the game hard in my favor.

Round 6 - Loss, 0-2 (BUG Delver)

Good god these were brutal. T1 Deathrite Shaman, T2 double Delver of Secrets, T3 flip = beatdown city. I had no way of stopping the pain train.

Game 2 saw me getting Wasteland'd and not drawing any basics.

Round 7 - Loss, 1-2 (Dark Maverick)

With 4 True-Name Nemesis on board and 1 in hand, the game was mine to win, but I got greedy with an attack and over-extended, allowing my opponent to hit on the backswing and finish with his Deathrite Shaman and Batterskull.

Game 2 saw Pithing Needle shutting down DRS, which slowed down the ramp to good stuff enough for me to get the win. Cosi's Trickster was also a stud here, as it made fetching lands with no DRS value sting that much more.

Game 3 was another land drought game, as I got stuck on an Island and Mutavault  with a handful of UU spells.

Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (Elves)

Game one saw the Natural Order combo get off and game two saw ol' Stompy getting hardcast when I had a Swan Song in hand. A little more pressure on board would have been good for me to race the combo, but, alas, it was not there.

Round 9 - Drop

We decided to make it back to State at a decent hour, since we were all 4-4 or worse at that point.

Wrapping Up

4-4 wasn't too bad of a finish for a brand new format, and I definitely feel as if I learned a lot. Now that I've played the deck and have seen it in action against some other decks, reading/watching videos about the the deck will make a lot more sense for future improvements, tweaks, and changes.

I'm not really sure if this is good or bad, but I think this weekend saw me getting bitten by the Legacy bug. There's something incredibly fun about playing with some of the most powerful cards in Magic's history and all of the completely crazy interactions, spells, and brews that can populate the format.

As I said in my Standard Recap post, we should be posting a Born of the Gods set review soon this week, so keep an eye out for it.

Don't tilt,

-- Michifus

(Michifus) SCG Open: Baltimore - Standard Recap

This weekend saw three of us making the journey down to Baltimore for the SCG Open for the Standard portion of the tournament on Saturday and Legacy on Sunday. I'll have a followup post for the Legacy portion after this post and Pietart should have his recap up shortly, as well.

For whatever reason, I decided taking pictures was for nerds, so I don't have any photos from the events.

The Deck

Boros Midrange

Creatures

4 x Young Pyromancer

4 x Boros Reckoner

4 x Chandra's Phoenix

2 x Purphoros, God of the Forge

2 x Stormbreath Dragon

Spells

2 x Chained to the Rocks

4 x Lightning Strike

4 x Magma Jet

2 x Mizzium Mortars

2 x Chandra, Pyromaster

2 x Warleader's Helix

2 x Assemble the Legion

1 x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Lands

1 x Boros Guildgate

11 x Mountain

2 x Mutavault

3 x Plains

4 x Sacred Foundry

4 x Temple of Triumph

Sideboard

2 x Chained to the Rocks

1 x Pithing Needle

2 x Wear // Tear

2 x Glare of Heresy

2 x Last Breath

1 x Mizzium Mortars

2 x Anger of the Gods

2 x Stormbreath Dragon

1 x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

This deck has seen decent success in the past few weeks, and I liked its mix of on-board aggression and relevant answers for most decks in the format. It can usually pull ahead of Monoblack, can shut down Monoblue, and has enough recurring threats to give UW players a headache.

With that said, it was time to play ten rounds of swiss in a pool of 643 players...

Round 1 - Win, 2-0 (Jund)

Both of these were fairly easy games, as I didn't take any damage in game one and was dropped to 12 in game two. 

After getting Thoughtseize cast in game one, the rest of my opponent's disruption blanked, as Duress and Lifebane Zombie failed to hit targets. The triple threat of Young Pyromancer, Chandra's Phoenix, and burn kept the board filled and my threats recurring as Chandra sealed the deal by plinking Lifebane Zombie and keeping Desecration Demon in check.

Game two saw the Pyromancer on board with Purphoros along with plenty of burn in hand. Two Reckoners on board also kept the board completely under my control.

Round 2 - Loss, 0-2 (Boros Devotion)

This deck seems like a bit of a problem for me, since I ended up losing to it twice this tournament. It also seems to be making a bit of a comeback, so it might be worth testing this matchup.

In game one, the Hammer of Purphoros, high devotion, and a Fanatic of Mogis was able to punch in for a big chunk of damage out of nowhere.

Game two was much closer and came down to a lucky topdeck on my end. I was able to swing in for 8 of the 10 needed and drew a... Purphoros. The Magma Jet would have been next, but my opponent's Hammer + golem token took care of Chandra I had that would have drawn me the winning card.

Round 3 - Loss, 0-2 (Boros Devotion)

Again, this game came down to a huge swing in damage thanks to a Fanatic of Mogis being dropped on top of a Boros Reckoner and Hammer of Purphoros. I had used my removal at that point to keep the early-game devotion under control.

Game two saw a Stormbreath Dragon drop when I didn't have an immediate answer for it and then it become monstrous and was well out of reach.

Round 4 - Draw, 1-1-1 (Prophet Bant)

Both of these games were super, super grindy as my damage was being blanked by his Sphinx's Revelations, but he was unable to keep any board pressure due to my removal. Thankfully I had the burn in hand for Prophet of Kruphix and he wasn't holding any creatures to flash in as a response.

Game two saw an Advent of the Wurm, Armada Wurm, Archangel of Thune, and a Primeval Bounty beating me within an inch of my life. I held on as long as I could, but his creatures got out of reach in a hurry.

Game three started with only 7 or so minutes on the clock. We chipped each other down to 10-12, but Stormbreath Dragon was able to hold off the assault and some play errors on my opponent's end kept it to a draw instead of a loss.

Round 5 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Midrange)

Mizzium Mortars stole the show by answering the Blood Baron of Vizkopa while two Chained to the Rocks shut down the Pack Rat and "in response" token. From there, the board was mine as I could ride Assemble the Legion to the win.

Game two was looking bad for me, as Blind Obedience and Obzedat, Ghost Council made things a headache for me. Reckoner was a huge board denial though, and Purphoros along with cheap guys hitting regularly won the war of attrition for me.

Round 6 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Aggro)

Both of these games were pretty much smooth sailing, as Pyromancer plus burn kept me rolling in blockers for the flimsy creatures that could have been thrown at me, which Boros Reckoner kept the threat of a 2-for-1 real. With the ground stalled, Chandra's Phoenix chipped in damage until the Stormbreath Dragon came in.

Round 7 - Win, 2-0 (Monoblack Devotion)

With one of my Assemble the Legion picked away due to Thoughtseize, I had to keep Desecration Demon under control with Chandra while chipping away with a Reckoner and Chandra's Phoenix. With plenty of burn to keep the Phoenix coming back as Demon food, game one was no problem.

Game two saw Assemble the Legion and Chandra, Pyromaster removed from my hand, but Purphoros, two Phoenix, and a Stormbreath Dragon punished my opponent for getting greedy with an attack of Lifebane Zombie and two Mutavaults.

Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (Naya Monsters)

Both of these were very close games, coming down to 6-4 life in both before my opponent got the best of me. Xenagos pumping out satyrs along with a Stormbreath Dragon was had to deal with when there was no removal in hand for them.

Round 9 - Win, 2-0 (Opponent no show)

Woot. Time to play some Pokemon.

Round 10 - Win, 2-0 (Monoblack Devotion)

Pithing Needle naming Mutavault held the early game down as I watched his board get more and more clogged with Pack Rats. Boros Reckoner, however is a stud against the rat swarm, guaranteeing a 2-for-1 with every combat. After dropping three Reckoners, the board was stable enough for me to wait for Assemble to Legion to turn things back in my favor.

Game two was much of the same, with Purphoros, Reckoners, and burn holding down the fort until Elspeth showed up to machine gun in six damage with her +1.

Wrapping Up

I finished up 90 of 643, which wasn't too bad, but ultimately disappointing, as I was under-prepared for the Boros Devotion match up and it showed.

That said, I finished the day feeling really good about the deck. It can be quick and brutal when it needs to, or it can ride the grind train and try to win the war of attrition with some hard to answer threats. With no Standard on the horizon for the next few weeks, I might have to shelve this temporarily, but I think it will definitely be making a comeback.

Coming Up

On Tuesday night, we should start working on a set review for Born of the Gods, so keep an eye on the blog for our first podcast!

(Pietart) Get Excited!

This weekend marks #teamswag's first SCG Open of the new year, in sunny, wonderful, Baltimore!  While it isn't our first tournament of the year, I'm pretty excited to play in a tournament that doesn't end in "Q," as the qualification is an upside rather than the whole tournament.  Let's just say the top heavy tournaments this January haven't been as good as I'd hoped (1-2 PTQ with Monoblue, 3-3 IQ and 0-3 PTQ with UW Control, 11th in PTQ Millersville with Monoblack), but things are looking up.

Despite knowing full well that Monoblack is likely the best deck in the format, I hesitated to pick it up.  Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I like drawing and gaining X a little too much, or maybe it was something different.  Either way, after revelating for 6 lands one time too many, I decided to sleeve up Monoblack devotion for last weekend.

And I'm never looking back.

After starting the PTQ 5-0, I lost on camera (first time seeing coverage at a PTQ, pretty exciting) to Monoblue, and then again to UG Devotion (Green base, splashing for Zegana, Cyclonic Rift, Prophet).  The UG deck seemed pretty beatable, but the first game I flooded out horribly after keeping a 4-lander and never seeing another spell.  The second game was much quicker, as I never drew out of my Swamp/Double Mutavault opener and died with a fistful of double-black cards.

At the start of the last round, me and my opponent were at the top of the X-2s, dead for Top 8 unless something absurd happened at tables 1-6 (spoiler: nothing happened).  I won a pretty easy match after my opponent received a game loss for failing to de-sideboard, landing me in 11th for a cool nine (9!) packs.

For only playing the deck at FNM the night before, I'm feeling pretty good great about it.  It's sad to not play blue, but I guess we have Temple of Deceit and Nightveil Specter, so I'm not too far from my roots.  For reference, here's the 75 I'm planning on keeping sleeved for the Open.

4 Temple of Deceit
4 Mutavault
18 Swamp

4 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
4 Underworld Connections
3 Devour Flesh
2 Pharika's Cure
1 Ultimate Price
--
3 Duress
3 Lifebane Zombie
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Pharika's Cure

There really isn't much to say about this list as it is clearly quite stock.  The singleton Ultimate Price in the main (and Doom Blades in the board) are here to help shore up the RG Monsters matchup, where Devour Flesh doesn't always cut it and we need more 2 mana removal.

(Brief note on spoilers: I don't really like trying to predict where the format is going without seeing a full spoiler, but we can safely assume I'll play at least one tournament with Bile Blight/Drown in Sorrow added to the glory above.)

While I'm pretty pumped up about more Monoblack, it's even more exciting to play Legacy again!  I've only done two Legacy tournaments before, with vastly different results.  The first was SCG Baltimore a little over a year ago, and I play TES.  TES is not a friendly deck, especially for someone with little experience piloting combo.  I managed to eke out a match win, but it couldn't make up for conceding mid-combo because I made the wrong mana with Lion's Eye Diamond.  Yikes.

The second tournament was GP DC, where I made Day 2 piloting UWR Delver.  I played a lot of Delver when it was in standard (even, embarrassingly, after Ponder rotated), and this deck is 100% in my wheelhouse.  It's funny, I still remember the sick tempo swings of playing a first turn Delver and shooting their bird in the gut before Mana Leaking and Vapor Snagging any threats.  UWR is like that, except with Wasteland, Force of Will and Lightning Bolt instead of their better-behaved cousins.

vs

The exact 75 has yet to be determined, as I'll be restricted by what cards I'm actually able to borrow.  In an ideal world, here's what I'd play:

4 Arid Mesa

4 Flooded Strand

1 Misty Rainforest

4 Tundra

3 Volcanic Island

4 Wasteland

4 Delver of Secrets

4 Stoneforge Mystic

2 True-Name Nemesis

1 Batterskull

4 Brainstorm

4 Daze

4 Force of Will

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Spell Pierce

4 Swords to Plowshares

1 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Ponder

--

1 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

2 Grim Lavamancer

4 Meddling Mage

2 Rest in Peace

1 Pyroblast

2 Red Elemental Blast

1 Wear // Tear

Super efficient threats, free counterspells and the best 1 mana removal spells printed.  Seems good!  As a still slightly new magic player, there isn't much that feels as good as slamming a double-sleeved Force of Will onto the table.  Given my lack of experience with the format, I won't really be able to say anything insightful til after the tournament.  

Good luck out there, see you all next weekend!

Pietart

#showthemyourteeth

(Michifus) Grand Prix Sacramento recap

While sitting in the Sacramento International Airport waiting for flight one of three to return back home, I figured it would be a good time to do a Grand Prix recap.

After departing Thursday afternoon from State College, I arrived in Sacramento from D.C. at about 7:30p, which was a bit ahead of schedule. After a brief cab ride downtown, I was at my destination: the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel.

Greetings from Room 1911

Hungry and with some time to burn before Casey made it in at 10:30 from San Francisco, I checked in and went exploring.

Maybe I'm spoiled from living in a college town for the last decade, but I was surprised to see that EVERYTHING was closed at 8pm on a Thursday night. Hell, even three different liquor and beer stores I looked up were closed. I settled on some snacks from 7-11 and stocked up on a couple of things I forgot to bring with me (aspirin, Chapstick, etc.)

Grand Prix Friday

Fast forward to Friday. After lunch at the Claim Jumper (or as I initially thought, the Clam Jumper), it was time to get into some Grand Prix action. About 10 minutes late for the free Mini Masters we got for pre-registering, Casey and I played some Standard until the 2HG event we were interested in fired at two. Christopher Rush and rk post were also setup already, so we got some cards signed.

The 2HG tournament was underway. Our pool was... mediocre. Casey built a decent UG build looking to abuse Master of Waves, while I piloted a BW build looking at maximizing removal, disruption, and life leach with Gray Merchant and Scholar of Athreos, both of which remind me of the back-breaking nature of Extort in 2HG from last season.

We ended up finishing the tournament 2-3, just missing a prize payout. Two of our losses were to some really close games that ended up swinging out of control due to a well-placed Cutthroat Maneuvers. Our third loss was due to getting our Scholar exiled while their's got to stay online for 6+ turns.

Grand Prix Saturday

Sacramento Convention Center

Time for the main event!

Even though I had two byes from the previous season and an included Sleep-In Special from my VIP registration, I ended up making the Player's Meeting since it was Casey's first Grand Prix, which can be overwhelming if you don't know what's going on.

At 1,854 people, this was the largest Magic Grand Prix in California history and the exhibition hall was PACKED.

Blue side of the pairings

Pass to the right

After round one, it was time to receive my pool and register a deck.

The registered deck with my four common sideboard cards on the right 

The stuff I ended up not using

The white in my pool was pretty mediocre, with a couple of playables but nothing I was super excited about.

Red was almost there, as it had a lot of Heroic enablers, but my good Heroic creatures were spread amongst two colors and I didn't like them on my slower curve.

Blue had some solid spells and disruption in Voyage's End and Nimbus Naiad, but, again, nothing I was super-excited about.

With that said, Black and Green were shaping up to be the best colors for the pool and home of most of my rares. Agent of the Fates is a total stud if you land him and get to begin the Heroic engine. Boon of Erebos was also a star in this deck, as Theros removal is generally pretty bad and trading one mana and a card to negate their removal AND trigger Heroic is usually a good value.

Nessian Asp did his usual work as a beater, and he almost always slowed the game down to my pace when he dropped. Shipwreck Singer was also another star of this deck, as her abilities come out of nowhere and completely change the pace of the game and board state.

Agent of the Horizons was the darkhorse of the deck and ended up carrying several games for me, as unblockable + recurrence outlets for him are pretty good.

Round 1 - Bye

Round 2 - Bye

Round 3 - Loss, 1-0-1

Game 1 took us almost 45 minutes to complete, as it was his Scholar of Athreos + 12 mana (at the end of the game) versus my creatures and Whip of Erebos. I was able to keep most of his early and midgame board presence on board due to Agent of the Fates and enablers, but my removal for Scholar came late and my graveyard was picked apart by Whip of Erebos at that point.

This was also the first of several times over the weekend, where I dropped my opponent to 1 health and couldn't seal the deal.

My life total:20-19-16-15-19-23-20-28-26-24-21-31-30-29-41-40-44-41-44-41-43-40-38-40-38-36-34-32-28-11-12
Opponent's life total: 20-19-20-12-14-17-7-8-9-1-2-5-3-6-4-7-5-7-9-13-11-10

31 to 1 at one point, and he was able to battle back. Sigh.

With 10 minutes to play in Game 2, we ended up drawing, so my opponent got the round.

Round 4 - Win, 2-0

As much as I complained about it in round three, my opponent got me to 1 health twice in Game 2.

This was the round where Shipwreck Singer was an absolute all-star, as my opponent dropped an Elspeth and had 13 soldiers on the board at one point which I was sitting on 7 health and blanked his removal with a Boon of Erebos. Whipping back my Asps AND having the mana to make them Monstrous was also a pretty spicy maneuver and highlight form this round.

Thankfully, Sip of Hemlock has that 2 damage built in, as that was my finisher in game two after holding off the Elspeth beatdown.

Round 5 - Win, 2-1

Nessian Asp was the all-star of this round and carried me in games one and three. Bringing in the Bow of Nylea as a sideboard card also proved to be a surprise for my opponent, as the lifegain and +1/+1 counters on the Asp proved to be hard to deal with.

This was yet another time that Sip of Hemlock's 2 damage was enough to seal the deal for me.

Round 6 - Win, 2-1

After a mulligan in game one, I was unable to gain any traction against my opponent's deck. No green mana rendered half of my hand useless.

Game two was probably the most stressful I played in the tournament. Fade to Antiquity came in to combat my opponent's Spear of Heliod, and I ended up drawing it the turn after he Bestowed a then-unseen Celestial Archon. With no answer in hand to the flying first striker, I had to leave the Spear and exile the Enchantment Creature. With no Whip on board, attacking into the Spear wasn't really in the cards with minimal bombs on board and in deck. Bow of Nylea again did some heavy work by loading up Nessian Asp and Agent of the Horizons with counters to make an alpha strike.

Game three saw the Bow of Nylea stay in, which made a nasty combo with Agent of the Horizon and the Whip of Erebos, which allowed me to come back from 10-23 to a total of 63-3 before my opponent scooped.

Round 7 - Loss, 0-2

With my deck, you can imagine how backbreaking a mulligan to four can be. No chance whatsoever in game one as I got steamrolled hard.

Game two saw Prophet of Kruphix flooding the board before I was able to draw an answer for her. At that point, my opponent's Bow of Nylea was on board and I was stumbling to catch up.

Round 8 - Loss, 1-2

My opponent was running a tight deck of Heroic and Bestow, which made Feral Invocation that much better. I had removal and answers for creatures, but having to deal with the Bestow creatures after they dropped off proved to be too much to deal with.

Shipwreck Singer had another field day in Game 2, though, and was able to allow me to dictate the board state.

Round 9 - Win, 2-1

I actually didn't take any notes on this game, as I was starting to tilt from missing Day 2. From the life pad, it looks like it was a very grindy matchup in my favor, with life gain negating chunk damage my opponent threw at me while slowly whittling his life total down.

Wrap-up

As my opponent and I discussed afterwards, it's almost better feeling to lose that final round, so you finish 5-4 instead of 6-3, as it makes the near miss sting a lot less. Even in the 0-2 loss in round 7, I never felt like winning was completely out of grasp with the deck, and, honestly, I was surprised that it did as well as it did. 

The round three loss was also a point of disappointment, as having only one game determine who made it was a total bummer, especially since I got him to 1 life at a point in the game and ended up losing it.

Also, I'm not really sure why or how I missed them, but I think Returned Phalanx should have had a home in this deck. I know I passed on it in early construction due to the Defender and blue mana requirement (and having a very light blue splash), but I think one or both would have made a fine addition to the deck.

Checking the rankings today, I came in 268 of 1,854, which is nice I suppose. 208 points is also a nice jumpstart to the current season, especially with Richmond and Cincinnati coming up soon.

At that point, things were wrapped up in the Convention Center and it was time to call it a night. 

Afterwards, it was off to try to find SOMETHING in Sacramento that was open on Friday at 9 at night. Thankfully, we found Mayahuel and got some delicious Mexican and spicy tequila drinks.

Dat wall art = <3

Grand Prix Sunday

Still kind of on tilt from a disappointing run on Saturday, Sunday didn't go much better. A 1-3 run with Monoblack in the Sunday Super Series Standard and two first round bump offs in win-a-box events proved to be incredibly disheartening.

At that point, it was about 4:30 in the afternoon. Surprisingly, the artist's lines were still really long (for those that were still there), so I decided I wanted to round up some grub and call it an early day. Again, NOTHING WAS OPEN WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS CITY?!

After wandering around a bit, I ended up finding a place called Pizza Rock and got their Ol' Smokey pizza. Finished off the bottle of bourbon and watched some sports on tv before calling it a night.

Goodbye from Room 1911

Wrapping Up

With SCG Open: Baltimore and Grand Prix Richmond and Grand Prix Cincinnati looming on the horizon, I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of non-PTQ, large-scale tournaments. I'm excited to see where Born of the Gods takes the meta, as this was an uneasy Standard season for me, as no deck ever seemed to properly "click" with me.

Thanks for the great time, GP Sacramento and Channel Fireball... this was definitely a great first impression of the west coast Magic community.

-- Michifus

(Michifus) Humble beginnings and mission statement

For a while now, Pietart and I have discussed the idea of starting a website dedicated to #teamswag and our adventures in Magic the Gathering.

Our thought process was that by writing about Magic and creating content related to playing, we would hone our focus on what was happening in our games, what we did well, what we could have done differently, and allowing for our teammates and others to provide commentary and criticism.

Beyond being a review of what HAS happened, we're also excited as using this as a platform to think about the future. Be that in deck brews, set reviews, or any other aspect of the game, we're looking forward to writing about what could happen and where the game grows from here.

With that said and those loose goals, we're looking to see how this grows in a very organic fashion, shaped by what interests us and what type of content we would like to produce.

Anyway, thanks for checking us out and we hope you find something enjoyable or informative while you're here!



-- Michifus