Thinking of UB for States? Think again.

I've been testing variations of blue/black for the upcoming Standard season and I think even with all the Timeshifted goodies in Time Spiral, it's just too slow. The biggest problem is that there's no mass removal for blue or black right now. The closest there is is Evacuation and that costs five, and it doesn't actually solve the problem. If you cast it turn five your opponent is just going to replay half of those spells. If you wait to play it later you'll probably find yourself dead.

A simple turn one Kird Ape presents significant problems for BU. You can bounce it or kill it but often you've taken eight or ten damage before you do that.

This is one build I've been tinkering with. It does pretty well against everything except RG gruul or snow-aggro (both of which I expect to see at States), along with some thoughts on possible changes. Build it if you must but I think it's going to be too slow.

Creatures (12)
--------------
4 Dimir Cutpurse
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
Spells (26)
----------
4 Boomerang (awesome with Cutpurse, Hippy and Funeral Charm)
4 Funeral Charm (instant speed discard plus limited removal or even a finisher on a Shadowmage)
3 Mana Leak
4 Psionic Blast
4 Remand (great in this build)
3 Telling Time (I like this but I'm not 100% sold on it)
4 Whispers of the Muse

Land (22)
---------
8 Island
6 Swamp
4 Underground River
4 Watery Grave

Possible main board changes:
1) out: Cutpurse, in: ? Ravenous Rats? Withered Wretch? I'm not sure I like 12 creatures at the 3 spot in the curve but all three are so good
2) I'm intrigued by Deep Sea Kraken but I think it's probably too slow
3) Lotus Bloom? I'm thinking you couldn't quite sub in four of those for land since you'd need land early for permission or card draw. Maybe take out two land and two other cards? If so, what?
4) Cancel will probably go in for Mana Leak. I seem to always have UUB open except very early and there are a lot of decks which accelerate past the Mana Leak threshold. At this pioint I don't have a hard counter and I think I need one.


Sideboard (somewhat random at this point)
-----------------------------------------
3 Blackmail (for the control mirror match)
3 Flashfreeze (RG/snow aggro and the random creature decks which always show up)
3 Last Gasp (against snow aggro and boros)
2 Nightmare Void (also vs control)
4 Remove Soul (aggro)

Possible cards for the board:
1) Withered Wretch
2) Tormod's Crypt


My next version is going to splash green for Coiling Oracle, Voidslime (instead of the Leaks) and Crime // Punishment, which hopefully will be the mass removal I'm looking for.

Time Spiral Prerelease - Portland, OR - September 23, 2006

I saw the notice about the Timeshifted cards a couple of days before the prerelease on a spoiler site. I was dubious about it because the list brought back so many cards which break the color pie wide open, like Disenchant and Psionic Blast, but at the same time I thought it would be cool to see so many old favorites again.

When the guy across from me opened a Psionic Blast I knew the rumors were true.

I didn't get anything quite that good but I had playable cards in every color. I had some good blue and white but the best cards required double blue or white and I liked the removal I had in red and black. I chose to go with those two colors even though my mana curve was a bit high and I didn't have any acceleration.

I went with this build:

Creatures (19)
--------------
1 Basalt Gargoyle
1 Bogardan Hellkite (I actually cast him several times and never lost when he hit the table.)
2 Drudge Reavers
1 Flamecore Elemental
1 Fury Sliver
1 Goblin Skycutter
1 Jhoria's Timebug (to power out the Pardic Dragon, although I never got that combo)
2 Mana Skimmer (black fliers which tap down your opponent are good)
1 Nether Traitor
1 Pardic Dragon (the Dragonmaster is back!)
1 Pit Keeper (usually just a 2/1 for 1B, not as good as I thought he'd be)
1 Sangrophage
1 Subterranean Shambler (awesome in limited and could be a good board card against Glare decks)
1 Thick-Skinned Goblin (to power out those Echo creatures)
1 Urborg Syphon-Mage (this will be great in black Madness decks)
2 Vampiric Sliver

Spells (3)
---------
2 Lightning Axe (the discard cost wasn't much of a drawback, between Sangrophage which is useless late and cards which I sometimes can't cast)
1 Orcish Cannonade

Artifacts (1)
------------
1 Hivestone (Never made a difference but sure scared my opponents. I probably should have just main decked the Assembly-Worker.)

Land (17)
---------
1 Molten Slagheap
8 Mountain
8 Swamp

Sideboard (used)
-----------------
1 Assembly-Worker (brought in for the Fury Sliver against faster decks)

Round 1 - Christopher Rubio - RB (somehow, with no removal)

Chris was slow. Not dumb at all, just Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssslow. If this were a more serious tournament I would have called a judge on him for stalling. It took him like ten minutes to look through his deck and shuffle up before the first game. I beat him pretty quickly with an early Sangrophage Mana Skimmers and a Vampiric Sliver. Then he took another five or ten to sideboard. I reminded him that he only had five minutes to sideboard and he wrapped it up. Then I beat him down with Nether Traitor (I think he did eight damage by himself) and then some four casting cost creatures.

Rounds: 1-0
Games: 2-0

Round 2 - Frank Diaz - RBU

There was a ton of red/black running around. There is a lot of good black removal in this set and the red Echo creatures are quite good in sealed so expect to fight over red and black in Time Spiral drafts.

I got another quick start in game one and Frank never did any damage to me. He laid down a Molten Slagheap on turn one and tried to tap it to put a counter on it. Sorry, no can do. I'm pretty sure he just made a mistake rather than trying to cheat. Then he put down another Slagheap. Then land. Then more mountains and swamps. Then an Urza's Factory, which he actually used to generate a 2/2 for 7. Unfortunately for Frank that was the only creature he cast. Meanwhile I had the Flamecore Elemental on turn four and he went to town, doing 15 damage in three turns until Frank generated the 2/2 for one chump block.

In game two it became apparent what had happened when he led with an Island. He played creatures pretty quickly this time and the game was very close. Then I top decked Bogardan Hellkite with him at four.

Rounds: 2-0
Games: 4-0

Round 3 - William (Shawn) Walter - RGW

I kept a two swamp hand with a mix of red and black cards, but I had the Nether Traitor and I figured I'd draw into a Mountain. Fortunately I drew one on the first turn. I played creatures, he played creatures, eventually I beat down. Sorry, but for some reason a lot of these games tended to blend together with all the red critters running about.

Game two turned into a huge, classic Sealed-style creature stalemate. He had some white flyers but I had the Basalt Gargoyle and tons of sources of red. In fact, went went through a lot of "draw go" turns where one of us drew a land, played it, and said go. I had 14 of 17 land in play at the end of the game and at one point I had ten counters on the Slagheap.

Shawn had beaten me down to ten with his white shadow guy when I top decked the Hellkite. I attacked with my Gargoyle, figuring he'd probably let it through but hoping he'd block with one of his flyers (he had a Plated Pegasus and a Serra Avenger). He blocked with the Pegasus. Then on his turn he attacked with Avenger. I Flashed the Hellkite into play, killed the Avenger, and sealed the game.

Rounds: 3-0
Games: 6-0

Round 4 - Tyson Gilbert - RW

Tyson is the guy who sat across from me and opened the Psionic Blast. He also opened (and played!) Orgg. But he beat me with good old fashioned mana screw on my part in both games. I played a Thick-Skinned Goblin and Tyson took great glee in killing with Tivadar (thank goodness they didn't bring his Crusade back). I continued to not play land (my only source of black was the Slagheap) and he continued to play creatures. I fought him off as long as I could but he ended the game at 24 life and I never attacked.

Game two was a replay. I got to four land by turn six or seven but was only able to cast one creature a turn while Tyson already had three in play. He just swarmed me with little guys.

Rounds: 3-1
Games: 6-2

Round 5 - Eric Faulk - RB

Eric and I decided before the match started to take the intentional draw so we'd both get six packs. The other choice was to play it out which would have left the winner with 12 packs but the loser with none. I didn't want to start the day 3-0 and walk away with nothing.

As it turned out I made the right choice because the mana gods had definitely abandoned me. I got mana screwed again and it wasn't much of a challenge for Eric. Game two was more competitive but I was still short on mana.

Rounds: 3-1-1 (really 3-2)
Games: 6-4

Time Spiral looks fun!

For those of you who haven't read Mark Rosewater's post from yesterday yet, here are the results he reported from the Time Spiral orb.

buyback – 7
echo – 13
flanking - 21
flashback – 23
madness – 10
morph - 18
shadow – 28
spellshaper – 6
storm - 5
thallid - 14
sliver – 54
slivers - 26

This set does look like fun. 54 sliver-related cards! That's nuts---almost 18% of the set deals with slivers?! Snap up those Sliver Queens now because they're going to shoot up in price shortly. They've always been popular with casual players even before 54 new cards.

Some of my own experiments with the Time Spiral Orb:

goblin - 16
elf - 5
mishra - 1
walk - 1 (but time walk - 0)
end of turn - 0 (surprising)
next turn - 0
extra turn - 0
demon - 2
akroma - 0 (guess they're not going to do an outright reprint)
angel - 1
tog - 0
atog - 1
psychatog - 0
sacrifice - 41 (!!)

Friday Night Magic - Ravnica block draft - September 1, 2006

Before we started drafting I was trying to remember my Ravnica block draft strategy. I usually like to go red if it's open because that sets you up to either go Izzet in Guildpact or to splash black and set up Rakdos in Dissension. I opened Sunforger in the first pack so that reinforced my strategy.

I got passed more Ravnica red so I was feeling pretty good after the first pack, but the Guildpact didn't give me as much good Orzhov as I'd hoped. Dissension didn't seem much better although everyone kept passing me Freewind Equenauts. I know it's a 2/2 for three but it flies, which is even better when carrying a big hammer. I was also getting nervous about my manabase in Guildpact after passing multiple Terrarions but fortunately I got a 15th(!) pick Basilica and a late Orzhov Signet.


So my RW/BWR/BWR strategy worked out this way:

Creatures (15)
--------------
1 Azorius Guildmage
1 Beacon Hawk
1 Blind Hunter
1 Demon's Jester
1 Droning Bureaucrats
4 Freewind Equenaut
1 Order of the Stars
1 Ostiary Thrull
1 Sewerdreg
1 Souls of the Faultless
1 Viashino Fangtail
1 Wojek Embermage (my 2nd or 3rd pick)

Spells (5)
---------
1 Brainspoil
1 Castigate
1 Douse in Gloom
1 Pyromantics
1 Wrecking Ball (a valid Sunforger target, yay!)

Artifacts (2)
------------
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sunforger

Enchantments (2)
-----------------
1 Galvanic Arc
1 Seal of Doom

Land (16)
---------
2 Boros Garrison
4 Mountain
2 Orzhov Basilica
4 Plains
4 Swamp

Sideboard (used)
----------------
1 Absolver Thrull (a relatively cheap 3/1 which I brought in against faster decks)
1 Sadistic Augermage (anti-enchantment)

I joked that my deck didn't have a mana curve so much as a plateau. I have one one drop (and it's a wall that I'll often hold in game one to see what colors they're playing) but I did rework it after my first cut to get more into the two slot. I wish I could have found more Sunforger targets but +4/+0 by itself is good, especially on a flyer. And I had plenty of those.

Round 1 - Cal (unknown last name but big fuzzy pink hat) - RG weenie

Cal was joking through the entire draft that he was ignoring mana fixing and going strictly for grizzly bears. You know, two drops for a converted mana cost of two. Turns out he wasn't joking. He started off with a creature on turn two and started swinging, but then I found my defense. Order of the Stars shut off his red cards (and, I hoped, his removal). Then I started finding flyers. Then the Bureaucrat, which is almost game over for him because most of his deck has the same cmc. Azorius Guildmage sealed the deal.

He was stunned that I was actually playing walls but let me say that Order of the Stars is quite good, especially in a format with so many gold spells and creatures.

Game two was more of the same except I also found Souls of the Faultless. I took damage early and then locked him down and swung over with flyers and pings from the Fangtail.

Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0

Round 2 - Michael House - RGw

Michael and I had a standoff for awhile, playing land-go and then playing similar creatures. Eventually the Guildmage came out and I was able to tap his flyers (or green creatures which blocked flyers) and swing. One fun note: he played a Silhana Starfletcher (the 1/3 guy which produces mana and can block flyers) and named red. I took out the little slip of paper from the first match where I had written "red" (for the Order) and dropped it on the Starfletcher. Michael was quite surprised.

I played a Wojek Embermage relatively early and he had a lot of x/1 creatures which I kept killing. As game one started to turn he shook his head and said, "I haven't played anyone of your...uh, skill in awhile. Certainly no-one of your age." I think he meant experience rather than an old man crack but I still got a chuckle out of it.

Game two he got a slower start, which was very good for me because I was stuck on two land until at least turn six or seven. When I finally found land the flyers and the removal started coming out. I also cast a well-timed Castigate revealing a land, Valor Made Real and Stalking Vengeance. A 5/5 haste which hurts me when creatures die, yikes! He got removed and my flyers and red Timmy's did the rest.

I found out after the match that he was playing 20 land, two signets and two bounce lands. I suggested he go down to 16 land after game one. I guess he won the next round because I know Joel beat him in round 4 in the 2-1 slot.

Matches: 2-0
Games: 4-0

Round 3 - Jesus Molina - BRG

Jesus keeps crushing me in constructed so I wasn't too happy to see him sit down across the table from me, other than the fact that he is a very nice guy. He was 1-0-1 after just drawing with Peter (and knowing that Peter would have beaten him given more time) and wasn't too sure about his deck.

Game one he and I both played land-go, then I found a cheap creature, removal and Sunforger. I also found the Guildmage to tap his remaining creature so the Sunforger'ed dude could get through.

Game two was very back and forth. He got an early creature rush and I was down to 10 before I knew it. Then I started hitting the top of my mana plateau and playing creatures. I found a Equenaut and equipped it and started swinging for 6. He played a Goliath Spider but I unequipped a creature and found Wrecking Ball for the spider. He went from 24 life to zero in, well, four turns. He got me down to four and I was waiting for Cackling Flames or Demonfire but fortunately if he had them, he didn't find them.

Matches: 3-0
Games: 6-0

Round 4 - Ben Watson (aka Mr. Owling Mine) - URB

Ben usually plays some variety of UR in constructed. The last time we played he beat my slow BRW control deck (which is designed around drawing cards) with a UR variant that still plays Sudden Impact.

He thought my tiebreakers were better and wanted to intentionally draw, thus giving me first and him second as we were the only 3-0's. I was getting tired and figured what the heck so I agreed. We still played it out for fun.

Game one I found plenty of removal and Sunforger and hit him pretty quickly. I was starting to regret the whole draw thing.

Game two took awhile and I could tell I was getting tired because I kept making stupid mistakes with bounce land timing. He killed two of my creatures with a replicated Last Gasp (via Izzet Guildmage), which was also dumb because I could have killed the Guildmage earlier with Douse in Gloom. I let it live because I'd never seen it actually be a threat before. Eventually he got three enchantments on his Flaring Flame-Kin and I couldn't kill it.

I couldn't find quite as many creatures as game two but I found good ones, especially against his deck. I had dropped Sunforger on turn three and kept finding flyers and then a Sewerdreg but he managed to kill them before I could swing with the Forger. He ended the game with six but I had zero. So I guess that draw was a good idea after all, although I think I could have won the match with better use of my removal and tighter play.

Matches: 3-0-1
Games: (unofficially) 7-2

I wound up second because every one of my prior opponents lost in the last round, but that was fine with me. I was pretty tired at the end of the night and 3-1 would have dropped me farther down than second.

I'm definitely liking the red in Ravnica strategy. Cal's experience (he finished 2-2) also reinforced my thinking that going with fast, cheap creatures usually doesn't work in draft or limited unless you somehow also get a lot of burn or other removal. You run out of cards too quickly and lose when your opponent starts casting beef.