Dies to Removal

I went 4-0 with BW control; 3-1 with BW control and 3-1 with Br tempo. Black is so deep compared to the other colours and there are so many great commons and uncommons; importantly there's a lot of death touch guys which (Pharika's Chosen, Baleful Eidolon, Keepsake Gorgon) are awesome against heroic OR monsters; they supplement your other removal quite well and make Asphyxiate MUCH better.

Sadly no good pulls; highest value card was a Reaper of the Wilds (didn't play) and a Temple of Malice.

I got the Eidolon of the Great Revel and the UR God in prize packs, but nothing else worth mentioning... 2x Atlas... lmfao

@Kaze - That does look like a great deck. Pharika looks like a monster in limited with seemingly unlimited death touchers to lock down the field with. I like how you were able to make a deck with a strong constellation focus. People at my prerelease were wondering if anyone was able to make that archetype work.

@Zman - Great results. I was in the same boat with my pulls. I didn't open anything worthwhile in my packs. I think my best card was Hydra Broodmaster. I got to activate its monstrosity a couple times during the tournament. Thing is ridiculous if you can monstrous for 3 or 4. Ridiculous enough that I wonder if it could work in some sort of standard devotion deck. Like, cheat it in with Garruk and then hold up 7 mana to get 3 3/3 hydras if they try to kill your dude, but that's a lot of hoops on a 6 mana creature that doesn't do anything the turn it comes out.

Constellation and Strive are both absurdly powerful.

Agreed on both. Some of those strive cards, like Hour of Need are nuts. What? 5 mana and 2 creatures that were going to die anyway for 2 4/4 fliers? Sure!

Oh yeah Zman, what's your thoughts on the RW god? My buddy pulled one and I'm wondering if I should trade it off or hang on to it for this standard on the one come post rotation.

So fucking garbage.

All right. I'll trade it off ASAP.

If standard becomes a creature fest after rotation (I think it will) the RW God will be good (that said if he doesn't see any play now his price should be fairly low so sell him early when you make a nice buck ).

All the good enablers leave the format so it would need to be a format dedicated to enabling gods for that to happen; history suggests that won't be the case; they try to keep the format to keep changing so it stays fresh.gods have had their time and everyone is sick of playing with and against them.

All the good enablers leave the format so it would need to be a format dedicated to enabling gods for that to happen; history suggests that won't be the case; they try to keep the format to keep changing so it stays fresh.gods have had their time and everyone is sick of playing with and against them.

Agreed.

I don't have a very optimistic view of standard post rotation, I think its just going to be creature pile vs creature pile - if that is the cards like the Keranos, God of Storms, Pharika, God of Affliction and Iroas, God of Victory have a chance to shine since you don't need them as creatures for them too be effective.

That said I think the god weapons and enchantments are fine as enablers.

I played again tonight and got 1st playing GW. They were all junk rares, but good junk rares for limited (Hero's Bane, the 7/7 Hydra, and the white promo). That one 6/6 for 4 Giant is an all-star.

It's too bad I pulled nothing worthy in the prize pool packs. You would think out of 8 packs I would get something decent.

Scrubbed out so hard at prerelease. Picked black, got dealt literally the worst Sealed pool I've ever had and went 2-3. Only kept playing because I was socializing.

Also didn't help when my match 3 opponent went turn three Xenawalker into turn four Hero's Bane both games.

Constellation and Strive are both absurdly powerful.

Isn't Strive just multikicker?

If standard becomes a creature fest after rotation (I think it will) the RW God will be good (that said if he doesn't see any play now his price should be fairly low so sell him early when you make a nice buck ).

I just traded him off for a Mana Confluence.

I think you're on to something post rotation. If the meta does become a creature orgy, he would be a good way to punch through at the end.

I don't have a very optimistic view of standard post rotation, I think its just going to be creature pile vs creature pile…

Why is that not optimistic? I kinda like formats like that.

If standard becomes a creature fest after rotation (I think it will) the RW God will be good (that said if he doesn't see any play now his price should be fairly low so sell him early when you make a nice buck ).

I just traded him off for a Mana Confluence.

I think you're on to something post rotation. If the meta does become a creature orgy, he would be a good way to punch through at the end.

That's a really good trade. Mana Confluence is a
conservative value choice since it will be a Standard staple for the next 1.5 years and also has eternal implications. Iroas is a great card but it's unclear how the meta will develop after JOU.

I'm fucking pumped to play some music today. The Down 'N Dirties are playing their second show; this time as a power trio.

Faces will be melted. Ear pussies will be fucked. Make some fuckin' noise and throw your goddamn hands in the fucking air!

Scrubbed out of the prerelease. picked black and had a pretty solid BG aggro/constellation deck, had mana problems every game.

Scrubbed out of the prerelease. picked black and had a pretty solid BG aggro/constellation deck, had mana problems every game.

Weird, I started white, ended up in [mana]wbg[/mana] constellation and did really well with it.

I just realized all my pre-release 1st places had [mana]GW[/mana]. Bant in Dragon's Maze, Junk in Theros, and just GW in Journey. The ones where blue was played had the worst results.

Won prerelease today. Played BW lifegain flyers. Master of the Feast and Gary got there. Didn't pull much of worth, got a Worst Fears, BG Temple, Purphorus out of a theros pack and afterwords pulled a Brimaz

Missed the PR due to budget constraints. I guess I'll catch up by drafting this release. Is the order TBJ or JBT?

Jbt, it's always most recent set first.

SCG nashville coming up, and I have no idea what deck I want to play. Not sure if it worth going to without a deck I am confident in.

What's the format, Purp?

Why is everyone opening up Brimaz in their single Born pack? All three pre-releases I played in had at least two people open them.

Standard for sure, might stay for legacy on the next day. Debating between burn, big red, rdw or mono b aggro splashing red. Will have to see how the first open next weekend goes.

I want G/B or Junk control to happen

Does anyone else ever find themselves putting command tower in monocolor decks out of habit and not realizing until the end that it is contextually worse than a basic?

Went 3-2 placing 7th with B/W devo lifelink fliers. Supply-Crane is good.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... yx-review/

Also, I have been working with Australian team Sneak and Show, so you can check out our collaborations at: www.sneakandshow.com.au

Did they remaster Steins;Gate or something? It seems to have came back in vogue.

Went 3-0 then ID'd in the last round so we could both cash to 7 packs as I needed to get home to nap before work. Went white, got a decent pull to play it primary, then went black for my second as I had excellent synergy for a life gain/drain deck. I was really, really tempted to try to push into blue as I had some great flyers and spells (2x Cloaked Siren, Aerial Formation,Hubris, Pin to Earth, Crystalline Nautilus) but needs for black were too mana-intensive given all the ability cards and blue didn't go deep enough by itself. I could have used more solid removal for the controllish build (I had Feast of Dreams, Glare of Heresy and Revoke Existence), but the deck was good at
stopping up the board and letting me either get in with flyers or use abilities to kill over time. Nyx-Fleece Ram did serious work...when I got it out on T2, people would just groan. I also had [cards]Grim Guardian[/cards], Doomwake Giant, Rotted Hulk, and Lagonna-Band Trailblazer putting their big butts in the way of aggressive creatures, backed up by Aspect of the Gorgon, Hopeful Eidelon and a foil Eidolon of Countless Battles. 2x Supply-Line Cranes, Dawnbringer Charioteers, Sentry of the Underworld and Decorated Griffin provided evasion, while Underworld Coinsmith and Scholar of Athreos
actively widened the life gap that the Ram and Grim Guardian were passively providing. Akroan Mastiff and Gnarled Scarhide were strong as well...Scarhide played on the other guy's Colossus of Akros while the mastiff was keeping his Charioteer tapped down and a "Grimaced" Coinsmith and flyers ran him over turn after turn was comedy.

Of note, all of the top 8 or so had gone either white or black, though there were a variety of color mixes from there.

No great winnings...I got one of each scry land and Flamespeaker, but not much else. I didn't have time to look over my son's pull and he didn't mention anything in particular, so I'll see if he fared any better for Constructed value.

Does anyone else ever find themselves putting command tower in monocolor decks out of habit and not realizing until the end that it is contextually worse than a basic?

No. I don't have many Command Tower cards, so they only end up in three color decks for me.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... yx-review/

Also, I have been working with Australian team Sneak and Show, so you can check out our collaborations at: http://www.sneakandshow.com.au

I had a couple of small disagreements, but nevertheless it was a strong article. Good job!

Cards I need to pick up from JOU:

3x Eidolon of the Great Revel (traded for one at the prerelease; this is exactly what aggressive red strategies needed in Legacy and Modern)
4x Mogis's Warhound (because 3cmc for a 2/2 with pseudo-haste that is resistant to removal is insane)
2x Mana Confluence (I think running more than 3 of these is suicide)
4x Brain Maggot
4x Gnarled Scarhide
4x Satyr Hoplite
4x Temple of Malady
3x Nyx Weaver (on the off chance I decide to play dredge right before and/or immediately after rotation)
3x Harness by Force (because this card is insane)
4x Blinding Flare (because heroic)

I'm holding off on Prophetic Flamespeaker because I think it will sink to $2-3 status, giving me the opportunity to buy in before potential price increases.

I picked up a playset of Thoughtseize at my major LGS with the store credit I had floating there, so I have everything for my BR aggro deck except for the
JOU cards which I can have reserved for me at another local LGS.

I want to make Hour of Need work in MUD.

Pet peeve #135: when people call mono blue devotion MUD.

I probably cringe the way Zem does when someone says "mainboard".