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Piecing Jund Together

Posted on January 10, 2011January 11, 2011 by Dylan Lerch

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In LSV's most recent article, "Initial Technology - The Evolution of Extended," he claims the Extended format to look like this:

Tier 1
Faeries
Prismatic Omen
Jund
4CC

Tier 2+
Tempered Steel
Pyromancer Ascension
Elves
Mono Red

Other ("not recommended")
Merfolk
GW Summoning Trap

To these lists, I think it's important to add Mythic Conscription (Tier 1), UW Control (Tier 1/2), Naya Shaman (Tier 1/2), and Necrotic Ooze (Tier 2).

With the start of the PTQ season for PT Nagoya, I've been mostly playing Extended. The deck I've been focusing on has been Jund; of the three PTQs to run so far, Jund has taken down 6 of the 24 Top-8 slots (25%). For reference:

Top-8 Makeup
MTGO PTQs 01-02-2011, 01-07-2011; PTQ, Amsterdam, 01-07-2011
Jund: 6
Faeries: 4**
Wargate: 3
Naya: 2
UW Control: 2
GW Summong Trap: 2*
Mythic Conscription: 1
Necrotic Ooze: 1
Tempered Steel: 1
White Weenie: 1
"Splinter" RUG: 1

*s denote the winners, though this is too small of a sample size to care much right now.

Digging Deeper into Jund

Here are each of the Top 8 Jund lists.

Ch0b1, 3rd Place MTGO PTQ, 01-02-2011

Untitled Deck

Creatures

3 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

3 Fauna Shaman

3 Kitchen Finks

4 Putrid Leech

1 Shriekmaw

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

Sorceries

4 Blightning

4 Maelstrom Pulse

Lands

2 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

3 Blackcleave Cliffs

3 Copperline Gorge

2 Fire-Lit Thicket

1 Graven Cairns

1 Lavaclaw Reaches

4 Raging Ravine

3 Savage Lands

3 Twilight Mire

2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard

2 Obstinate Baloth

3 Natures Claim

1 Terminate

4 Volcanic Fallout

1 Deathmark

4 Thoughtseize

Mattijs Nijboer, 2nd Place PTQ (Amsterdam), 01-07-2011

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Putrid Leech

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Terminate

Legendary Creatures

2 Sygg, River Cutthroat

Sorceries

4 Blightning

2 Maelstrom Pulse

Lands

1 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

4 Blackcleave Cliffs

2 Copperline Gorge

1 Graven Cairns

1 Lavaclaw Reaches

4 Raging Ravine

3 Reflecting Pool

4 Savage Lands

4 Twilight Mire

Sideboard

4 Fulminator Mage

2 Goblin Ruinblaster

1 Terminate

4 Volcanic Fallout

1 Maelstrom Pulse

3 Thoughtseize

Niels de Jong, 7th Place PTQ (Amsterdam), 01-07-2011

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Putrid Leech

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Terminate

Legendary Creatures

2 Sygg, River Cutthroat

Sorceries

4 Blightning

2 Maelstrom Pulse

Lands

1 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

4 Blackcleave Cliffs

2 Copperline Gorge

1 Graven Cairns

1 Lavaclaw Reaches

4 Raging Ravine

3 Reflecting Pool

4 Savage Lands

4 Twilight Mire

Sideboard

4 Fulminator Mage

4 Guttural Response

1 Terminate

4 Volcanic Fallout

1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Thought Hemorrhage

En3myOfMyEnemy, 3rd Place MTGO PTQ, 01-07-2011

Untitled Deck

Creatures

3 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

3 Fauna Shaman

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Putrid Leech

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

Sorceries

4 Blightning

4 Maelstrom Pulse

Lands

1 Forest

1 Mountain

2 Swamp

3 Blackcleave Cliffs

3 Copperline Gorge

1 Fire-Lit Thicket

1 Graven Cairns

1 Lavaclaw Reaches

4 Raging Ravine

1 Reflecting Pool

4 Savage Lands

4 Twilight Mire

Sideboard

3 Obstinate Baloth

1 Shriekmaw

3 Natures Claim

4 Volcanic Fallout

4 Thoughtseize

Edel, 4th Place MTGO PTQ, 01-07-2011

Untitled Deck

Creatures

3 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

3 Fauna Shaman

3 Kitchen Finks

4 Putrid Leech

1 Shriekmaw

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

Sorceries

4 Blightning

4 Maelstrom Pulse

Lands

2 Forest

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

3 Blackcleave Cliffs

3 Copperline Gorge

1 Fire-Lit Thicket

1 Graven Cairns

1 Lavaclaw Reaches

4 Raging Ravine

1 Reflecting Pool

2 Savage Lands

4 Twilight Mire

2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard

2 Wurmcoil Engine

2 Great Sable Stag

3 Terminate

4 Volcanic Fallout

4 Thoughtseize

Ondriq, 5th Place MTGO PTQ, 01-07-2011

Untitled Deck

Creatures

2 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

2 Fauna Shaman

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Putrid Leech

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

Sorceries

4 Blightning

2 Duress

4 Maelstrom Pulse

Lands

1 Forest

1 Mountain

3 Swamp

4 Blackcleave Cliffs

3 Copperline Gorge

2 Fire-Lit Thicket

4 Raging Ravine

3 Savage Lands

2 Twilight Mire

3 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard

1 Anathemancer

4 Great Sable Stag

1 Obstinate Baloth

3 Natures Claim[card]

1 Terminate

3 Volcanic Fallout

2 Duress

Each deck had 26 Lands (to be examined later). Here are the 26 nonland cards that every player agreed with in their 60:

2 Anathemancer
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Demigod of Revenge
2 Kitchen Finks
4 Putrid Leech
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Blightning
2 Maelstrom Pulse

16 creatures, 6 removal spells, and 4 Blightning. That leaves just 7 cards to work with in each maindeck, and here is how each player filled those out:

3 Fauna Shaman
1 Shriekmaw
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Maelstrom Pulse

5 creatures, 3 removal spells (obviously with Shriekmaw overlapping each category).

1 Anathemancer
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
2 Terminate

5 creatures, 2 removal spells, including Sygg, River Cutthroat to provide some pretty sick card advantage instead of Fauna Shaman.

1 Anathemancer
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat
2 Terminate

Same as above.

2 Kitchen Finks
3 Fauna Shaman
2 Maelstrom Pulse

5 creatures, 2 removal spells (look familliar yet?)

1 Kitchen Finks
1 Shriekmaw
3 Fauna Shaman
2 Maelstrom Pulse

5 creatures, 3 removal spells (as well as Shriekmaw pulling double-duty once more).

2 Fauna Shaman
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Duress
2 Maelstrom Pulse

This deck bucks the trend slightly, adding in 2 Duress for 2 creatures. 3 creatures, 2 removal spells, and 2 Duress.

Filling Out the Removal Suite

Each deck played two additional removal spells: Either 2 Terminate or 2 Maelstrom Pulse. Both have their merits, but my vote goes toward Maelstrom Pulse. Pulse protects you against a wider variety of permanents, most notably Prismatic Omen, Leyline of Sanctity, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Tempered Steel. It also best protects you from most other deck's most broken draws in its ability to deal with multiple problem cards at a time. 2 Maelstrom Pulse are added to our base list.

Fauna Shaman or No?

Four of the six decks played 2 Fauna Shaman and three of the six decks played 3 Fauna Shaman. The advantages of Fauna Shaman should be pretty obvious. First, being a 2-drop plays well in a deck with only either four (4 Putrid Leech) or six (with 2 Sygg, River Cutthroat) 2-drops otherwise; Second, because it enables any creature to become a Demigod of Revenge, and/or pitch a Demigod of Revenge into the graveyard. Both are advantageous, as pitching a "useless" Demigod of Revenge early before you can pay its mana cost still hits the board when you play your first. Last, Fauna Shaman functions as a tutor effect for Shriekmaw, Bloodbraid Elf, Kitchen Finks, and Anathemancer. Postboard it can search out Great Sable Stag or Obstinate Baloth as needed.

The decks that played Fauna Shaman played either 2 or 3, so let's start with two. 2 Fauna Shaman and 1 Shriekmaw are added to the list.

Finding the Last Creatures

2 Maelstrom Pulse, 2 Fauna Shaman, and 1 Shriekmaw leave 2 cards to choose. One option is to play Fauna Shaman and either Anathemancer or Kitchen Finks. The other option, in my opinion, is to play 2 Kitchen Finks or 2 Thoughtseize.

Personally, this is the core of the maindeck Jund list that I would recommend for testing:

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Putrid Leech

3 Fauna Shaman

4 Kitchen Finks

2 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

1 Shriekmaw

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

Sorceries

4 Blightning

4 Maelstrom Pulse

Kitchen Finks is a solid threat in almost every single non-Combo match. Anathemancer is an exceptional card against the field right now, but the recent prevalence of even maindeck Leyline of Sanctity leads me to cut the maindeck total to the minimum 2. It can be tutored for with Fauna Shaman when needed, and some additional number can certainly live in the sideboard.

Now is the time to examine the mana base! 🙂

On turn 1, all we could possibly care about is R for Lightning Bolt, though there is a secondary need for B to cast Thoughtseize or Duress.

On turn 2, we want R for Lightning Bolt, BG for Putrid Leech, 1G for Fauna Shaman, and 1B for Shriekmaw. Obviously, Savage Lands is the only land that guarantees this. Best case scenario is on then 2 to be able to cast RB and BG.

On turn 3, we want all of the above, as well as 1GG for Kitchen Finks, 1RB for Anathemancer, 1RB for Blightning, 1GB for Maelstrom Pulse. Any of the 2-drops can also be tutored for & cast this turn with an extra G. Best case scenario is on turn 3 to be able to cast 1GG, 1RR, 1GB, and 1RB.

On turn 4, we want all of the above, as well as 2RG for Bloodbraid Elf. The same rule as above for Fauna Shaman applies here for 3-drops.

Past turn 4, (B/R)(B/R)(B/R)(B/R)(B/R) is the other main priority for Demigod of Revenge.

The Top-8 lists all have the following lands in common:

2 Savage Lands
2 Copperline Gorge
3 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Raging Ravine
2 Twilight Mire
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Swamp

Totaling 19 lands and leaving 7 left to choose. All but one player chose to run 1 Lavaclaw Reaches, and I completely agree. The Worldwake manlands are incredibly awesome, and I'd highly recommend including as many as a deck can handle.

Playing extra basic lands helps with Verdant Catacombs and it helps against Fulminator Mage, Tectonic Edge, and Anathemancer. Therefore, I'd recommend adding 1 Swamp and 1 Forest.

That leaves us so far with 2 RGB land, 5 BG land, 5 RG land, and 4 RB land on top of the 2 G, 2 B, and 1 R. Crude addition gives us 14 G, 13 B, and 12 R. If you look at our turn-by-turn list above, there should probably be a higher count especially of R-producing lands than we've got so far, and I'd like to start with at least two more. But should they be RG or RB? I would suggest 2 Savage Lands, 1 Copperline Gorge, and 1 Twilight Mire to round out the mana base.

Demigod of Revenge's Effect on the Land Base

Demigod of Revenge has a rather restrictive mana cost of (R/B)(R/B)(R/B)(R/B)(R/B), until you consider that the only lands in the deck that cannot make either R or B are the 2 Forests (and, to some extent, the third Verdant Catacombs). I quickly dismissed the card for my first round of testing because of its mana cost (while simultaneously including 2 Bituminous Blast that truly aren't much more difficult to cast!) without really thinking about how easy Demigod truly is to cast. So for now, I think it's safe to consider its effect as negligible.

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Putrid Leech

3 Fauna Shaman

4 Kitchen Finks

2 Anathemancer

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Demigod of Revenge

1 Shriekmaw

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

Sorceries

4 Blightning

4 Maelstrom Pulse

Land

2 Forest

2 Swamp

1 Mountain

3 Verdant Catacombs

3 Copperline Gorge

3 Blackcleave Cliffs

4 Savage Lands

3 Twilight Mire

4 Raging Ravine

1 Lavaclaw Reaches

This is the maindeck that I am going to be testing with this week. Sideboard cards to consider include Volcanic Fallout, Nature's Claim, Naturalize, Great Sable Stag, Obstinate Baloth, Thoughtseize, Duress, Terminate, Wurmcoil Engine, Deathmark, Fulminator Mage, Guttural Response, Autumn's Veil, Thought Hemorrhage, Memoricide, and Anathemancer, but further testing is required to figure out in what quantity and how to sideboard them.

My current thoughts are that Volcanic Fallout is a must, Nature's Claim is a must, Fulminator Mage would be pretty slick, Great Sable Stag is a must, & Obstinate Baloth can probably stay home. During last week's MTGO PTQ, I assumed any opponent with Green boarded them in, and usually left my Blightnings in the Sideboard. The 3 that I boarded in never got cast over 9 rounds, and they ended up being 100% irrelevant the entire day.

Coolest moment from that PTQ:

My Tempered Steel opponent had a Court Homunculus and a Tidehollow Sculler (hiding Bloodbraid Elf) in play, both tapped and attacking, along with two copies of his deck's namesake Enchantment and no cards in hand. I had an untapped Putrid Leech in play, 2 life, and just a Bituminous Blast in hand. I cast the Bituminous Blast on the Tidehollow Sculler, hit Maelstrom Pulse for both Tempered Steels with the Cascade, and traded my Putrid Leech for his Court Homunculus. 🙂 My topdecks were worse than his however and Bloodbraid Elf wasn't enough to win the race a few turns later.

Worst moment from that PTQ:

Round two, game 1. I had just come back from a savage loss in round 1, game 1 to win that round against Prismatic Omen, and I was playing the deck again in round 2. I had my opponent to a single draw step with no nonland permanents in play and about 6 lands. I pumped my Putrid Leech to take him to 4 and me to 12 with a Kitchen Finks in play as well. My opponent dug through about a billion cards with Preordain, found his Prismatic Omen, found his second Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, and had Misty Rainforest for exactsies since I got careless with my lifetotal. Remember: Valakut decks are really good at dealing damage in 3s! 13 life would have been much, much safer in that position than 12 life, even if both were longshots.

I hope this helps for those of you looking to play Jund as the Extended season progresses. If I could play in GP Atlanta, this is certainly the deck and the list that I would start with.

Thanks for reading 🙂 Please, I encourage any of you to talk about your own personal builds in the comments. Discuss what you see! It's fun, I promise 🙂

Dylan Lerch
@dtlerch on Twitter
Kinarus on MTGO
MTG Brewery

How Not to Build an Extended Deck

Posted on January 10, 2011January 11, 2011 by Gregory Marques

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Since we're into Extended season now I thought I should take a stab at the format. I wish I could be like Travis Woo and feed you 29 decks, but I haven't had that kind of time. I'm impressed, Travis. I loved that article.

I did have this one great idea for an Extended deck... well just let me show you:

Yes, that works. You have to be fast about it, though. Emrakul's shuffling ability is unusually worded as a trigger and not a replacement. Unlike Progenitus, who has an "if & instead" wording, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn has a "when" wording. This gives you a window to act, targeting it with the Instant-speed reanimator spell Makeshift Mannequin while the shuffling ability is still on the stack.

Hilarious, right?

To build a deck around this, what I really needed, was a way to put an Emrakul into my graveyard while I have 3B and Makeshift Mannequin available. The first cards I thought of were Merfolk Looter and Fauna Shaman. I threw together the following deck:

[deckbox did="a43" size="small" width="567"]

The lands are only approximately correct here. In fact, often when I first test a deck (in paper) I just play whatever lands are in the sleeves and pretend my mana always works out. If the deck fails with perfect mana, it's not going to get better when you tune the manabase, and you can save a lot of work by moving on to the next configuration or next deck before ever even considering your lands. Worldwake's creature lands make this a little more complex, but in decks that would have those I put them in properly and just make pretend with the rest of the land.

This deck, by the way, was awful. Looters seem too slow and weak for the fast and aggressive format that is our present Extended. Too many slots are devoted to finding the combo, and while it's pretty much an instant win, I never got to do it. It's possible that a more pure Control shell (without Green) could defend you long enough to assemble the combo, but I haven't had time to try it.

While poking around in Green I saw another card that made an appearance a few years ago:

So I threw together this deck:

[deckbox did="a44" size="small" width="567"]

I wouldn't have brought it up except that it was so much better than my first deck. It wasn't spectacular, but it was like 30% against Faeries, Tempered Steel, and Jund. I consider that a pretty good start considering it's untuned. Anytime the opponent gave an inch I was able to take a mile by dramatically throwing down a Terastodon and wiping out their mana.

I was trying to find a better version when I felt I realized why these decks weren't working. This style of deck simply isn't allowed by the cards in Extended. What do I mean?

This card is the ultimate Combo breaker. Unlike Duress and Inquisition of Kozilek, this card has almost no restriction on what it can take, and the overabundance of them in decks both in the present Extended (and Standard when they were legal) is a testament to its power. (The nickname "Cashseize" also tells you a lot in how many players thought you had to have four to be competitive.) I lost many games with both of the above decks to an early Thoughtseize. But lots of other decks survived in Standard against it. This is where I realized the real problem - the kind of deck I was trying to make has cards that are neither redundant, nor particularly versatile, and of course, not very fast. Consider the cards in a Red deck such as this beauty:

[deckbox did="a45" size="small" width="567"]

What do all these cards do? The same thing. What happens when you lose one to a Thoughtseize? Not much. Your opponent saves 1 damage if they take a Lightning Bolt, maybe 6 damage if they go first and take a Goblin Guide. You'd have a hard time not laughing in their face if they took a Hellspark Elemental.

You can totally play this deck without embarassment, by the way. I love the Bloodbraid Elfs, but please note that I have not spent enough time testing to know for sure if they are really better than Demigod of Revenge. I think they are, because they are a turn faster and net you a free card, but someone should break out the spreadsheet and play 100 games each way. Please post the results in a comment for me, okay?

Oh also this Sideboard is not quite realistic. I'm strongly considering moving Volcanic Fallout to the main, and I put in Relic of Progenitus here just to remind you all that it exists. If you're worried Ooze and Aahs is going to make a big showing in your next PTQ, just bring some Relics along to turn off most of their plans. Also very good against Knight of the Reliquary, and might be useful against Pyromancer's Ascension (but only if you drop it on turn 1). I don't know if Brittle Effigy helps against Kor Firewalkers (it might be far too slow). There are a ton of other cards you might put into this deck's Sideboard, including but not limited to:

Returning to my title, how not to build a deck for Extended: You should aim for a deck with redundancy, cards that are individually versatile and powerful, and avoid slower combos that consist of cards that don't stand on their own. The format is fast, and deckbuilding for a fast Constructed format means you have to be sure every card is carrying its weight. Most of your cards have to cost less than 4 mana, and also have a significant effect on the board state. The faster the format gets, the stronger cards like Disfigure and Inquisition of Kozilek become. Control decks are running 3-mana sweepers like Volcanic Fallout, and the two prominent Combo decks (Elves and Ooze) can kill you on turn 4. The plan you start with when conceiving of your deck has to be able to stand up to this speed. The cards you choose to execute your plan have to function more independently or interact well with your opponent more than they would need to in a slower format. Hopefully I'll get better at is as the season continues.

If you have interest in game design topics, be sure to check out my blog Design-side Out, and feel free to follow me on twitter (@GregoryMarques).

Thanks for reading!

How to Win Friends and Influence Games

Posted on January 10, 2011January 11, 2011 by David Lee

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Commander is a multiplayer-oriented format defined by a balance between etiquette and strategy. You might be the strongest player at the table, but without some knowledge of the social aspects of the game you may find yourself making a quicker exit from a game than you anticipated. Whether you're sitting down with friends or shuffling up with new acquaintances, social interaction is an important part of multiplayer Commander and remembering your triggers is just as important as reading other players' boards and intentions.

The social aspect of Commander goes far beyond just card choice, and it will be an experiment for me to write about the more social side of the format. I am by no means a manipulative Machiavelli at Commander for two reasons:

I am not nearly cunning enough, and
I do not want to be taken out early in a Commander game, should such a cutthroat reputation follow me from Quiet Speculation back to my local store!

But, through experience, I've learned a few things about multiplayer Commander that are equally strategic and social. Some of these you may hear for the first time; if you are an old hand at the game these may just reinforce the concepts you may already be aware of. Stay conscious of these ideas when you play and they may help you become the King of the Hill in your next Commander free-for-all.

Pace Yourself

In the first round of Shane Carwin's bout against Brock Lesnar for the UFC heavyweight title last year, Carwin lay an utter beating on the ex-wrestler. Known for his incredible punching power, Carwin sent a bloody Lesnar reeling across the cage from an onslaught of blows. By some gift of a higher power, Lesnar survived the round, and Carwin had completely punched himself out, leaving himself completely exhausted and defenseless in the second round, where he let himself get submitted via triangle choke.

Even if you're not a mixed martial arts fan, there is a lesson to take away here. Carwin made a judgment call to expend all his energy trying to finish Lesnar early in the fight, and in hindsight, it was an unwise decision.

Commander is not a game of speed, but rather a game of timing. Aggressive, damage-based strategies are at a distinct disadvantage in this format as you have to get through 40 life, multiplied by the number of opponents, in order to win. Dropping your entire hand to blitz another player is a strategy that is only remotely justifiable if that player won a previous game in a particularly unappealing fashion, or if a grudge exists (we'll get to grudges later). And even then, it's not a durable strategy, as you leave yourself open to a board sweeper.

By holding back cards and threats, you ensure that you'll always have gas, which means you'll be better prepared for the inevitable twists and swings that Commander games can bring. Don't be like Shane Carwin and blame your loss on Lactic Acidosis; blame your game plan.

Table Talk Is Allowed

Talk to other players. Strike up idle chit-chat. Comment on a signed card or a hard-to-find foil in someone's deck. Chatting is just a friendly thing to do but in many multiplayer games the quiet players are usually the most suspicious. I've been guilty of falling silent for long stretches, trying to plan ahead the next couple turns. But that only makes other players think you're up to no good and will make them more likely to put a wrench in your plans. In my experience, a greater amount of social interaction makes the game more fun.

Time Your Turns

Combo decks are the least fun to play against in Commander not because of their consistency or mechanical non-interaction, but because of the disproportionate amount of time the combo player eats up in each game trying to assemble and fire off the combo. With all the mana math and tutoring even a seasoned player can still spend a significant amount of time calculating a variety of factors and potential plays. In multiplayer that can seem like an eternity. When everyone else at the table is taking turns much quicker than yours, and you are the one everyone is waiting for, it may be time to reflect on some of your card choices. People sat down at the table to play and when they are watching another player taking an excruciatingly long turn they having anything but fun.

If you are playing with tutors make sure you know what card you need before you cast the spell. The other players won't have to wait until you sift through your entire deck and can get to their turns faster. Sensei's Divining Top is often cited as a big time-eater but I usually haven't found much of an issue with it unless the player is traditionally methodical.

Tilts and Grudges

We are only human and as a result tilt exists even in Commander. I can't tell you how many times I've punted a win and gotten angry at myself because I miscalculated my mana or forgot about a card on another player's board that completely ruins my strategy. As a game develops, the number of potential card interactions balloons exponentially. There is no harm in taking a little extra time to examine the game state when things get ridiculous. A while back Alexander Shearer wrote about applying the OODA loop to Magic gameplay and if you find yourself missing triggers or taking mental shortcuts through cards it may be a helpful read.

So if you get a little frustrated just take a deep breath and relax. And remember your triggers!

In a similar vein to tilt, grudges can arise across several games as well. Maybe someone kicked a Rite of Replication on your own Woodfall Primus, destroying five of your own lands (this happened to me once), or someone stole your Vigor and started beating you with it (also happened to me). You exact an eye for an eye, as they say, and before you know it you're both committing a ridiculous amount of resources to destroy each other while the one of the players in the background quietly cleans up the remnants and wins.

At some point you just need to swallow your pride, draw the line, and continue playing the game to win unless you want to see a grudge match to its bitter end; that's fine as well because you're entitled to play how you like. But in my experience the deeper you dive into a grudge the less likely you are to win.

Let The Rookie Win

In a recent four-player game, one of the regular Constructed players borrowed a friend's Stonebrow deck to try out the format. Unfortunately, he gassed early on (See "Pacing Yourself") and spent much of the game without a hand. Meanwhile, the mono-black ramp player spent a good portion of the game sweeping the board, tutoring for multiple cards, and building up man. While he was doing this he used Geth, Lord of the Vault on the helpless newbie multiple times. I could tell this person wasn't having that much fun. I wasn't having the best game, either, being stuck on too few lands thanks to Death Cloud.

So, I thought I'd give us both something to smile about: I cast Living Death, letting him bring back a couple dozen creatures from his graveyard. Jaws dropped as he gleefully rearranged his new board. Although the mono-black player just swept the board again on his turn, I thought it would have been a great way to finish the game. Instead, the game dragged out even longer, and the mono-black player eventually won in some way.

Aside from just venting a little bit, the point of this anecdote is that it's important to remember that people should be having fun. Unfortunately, I now know of at least two Magic players who now avoid Commander because they played against degenerate decks when they first started. When your desire to win takes the fun away from the other players, that's when the competitive aspect of the game oversteps its boundaries.

Commander is a tricky game in that there is more than gameplay to keep in mind. Yes, the goal of most gaming is to win, and there are many non-gameplay strategies that you can exercise to come out on top. But if you can win while helping make sure everyone is having fun that makes a victory just that much sweeter.

David Lee
@derfington on Twitter

Why You Should be Drafting M11

Posted on January 10, 2011May 17, 2011 by Guest Author

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So, it’s January of a New Year, but the sentiment about draft is still the same as it was a year ago. The format was triple-Zendikar: the tweets were buzzing about how everyone was sick of the format, everyone was drooling over the new spoilers, and the rumors over the anticipated Jace 2.0. Why were people still drafting ZZZ? The same reason people are still drafting ZZW. The rares are valuable. The format was linear bashing of two drops that either had landfall, evasion or both. For a card that cost more than that to be played, it had better win the game, or be a 2-for-1 at minimum. A player I know, was keeping track of how many matches in a row he would go without blocking. The fact that it hit double digits was astonishing. This was the social environment that surrounded the drafts. Because there is a cycle of 5 fetchlands at Rare, people would be foolish to stop drafting it. In fact, if 8-4 queues of ZZW were still offered, this article would likely be about ZZW.

This year, top level pros all the way down to players who began during M11, are ready for a change. So why is anyone still drafting Scars? Sometimes people are afraid to do something different, other times they are simply playing through the product they have, and yet other think drafting is an effective way to bolster their collection. (Which may be true with paper cards, but on MTGO it is not cost-efficient) This is the timing of the year where the draft format goes unchanged for the longest period of time: October to Februrary (1/3 of the year). All in all, there are 4 draft format changes each year. The Magic 2011 core-set was drafted from mid-July, until the Scars release, only two and a half months. This phenomenon will continue to repeat as long as the schedule of sets follows this pattern. It’s not a problem, but something to be aware of. It also means a ton of product gets opened up during the first set of a block, not to mention it will continue to be opened for months to come as part of future formats. Had it not been for fetchlands, I’d have switched back to M10 last year, after I got sick of ZZZ. This year, I can right that wrong. Sometimes you have to put your preferences on a sliding scale, based on financial impact, and that’s what happened last year. But, new year, new deal.

I don’t wanna be draftin’ Scars no more….

Most QS readers are looking to gain value or money from trading, but this is not the only way finance applies to Magic: the Gathering. I’m not a trader; I just draft a lot. And, since I spend most of the time I commit to MTGO firing queue after queue of 8-man drafts, maximizing the amount of free play I get is extremely important. M11 still has what you’re lookin’ for. As I write this I’m waiting for an 8-4 M11 draft to fire (and listening to Big Punisher), and it’s quite likely I’ll finish this article before that happens. I’m frequently boggled as to why these drafts fire so infrequently. I’m not a trader I just draft a lot. The reasons you should be drafting M11 instead of SOM are two-fold. First, packs of M11 are more expensive than SOM. Second, the average value of a mythic in M11 is much higher than in Scars of Mirrodin. Hopefully, after reading this, you all can help me fire off this M11 queue.

With the new addition of Gold queues to MTGO, there was a precipitous drop in pricing of Scars of Mirrodin packs. The Gold queues would take 10 tickets from both players and give 5 boosters to the winner. While constructed players rejoiced in the new higher stakes, heads-up action, tickets were being converted into packs much quicker than what we’d seen in the past. For every 2-man that fired, 20 tickets turned into 5 packs within the economy of MTGO. As a result, the market was rich with Scars of Mirrodin packs, and comparatively poor in tickets. Which brings us to the current state of affairs. The Sealed PTQ season has ended, so there is not as much need to practice the format. Anyone who drafts more than a small amount on MTGO should reconsider why they draft the format they do.

For pricing of packs, a rough average of the bots price listing in the MTGO classifieds will give a close enough estimate. Right now, Scars packs are running about 3.5 tickets, while M11 packs are about 3.9 (Just over 10% more) To some, their intuition would say, “It’s cheaper to draft Scars, so I should do that...Right?” No. You’re simply playing for more valuable prizes by drafting M11! If you’re trying to draft for a profit, playing at a higher stakes is an obvious way to maximize your time. If you convert to a ticket metric, winning 8 packs of scars is approximately 28 tickets, while 8 packs of M11 is 31.2 tickets. Another key element to this, is you pay the same “rake” or entry fee to WotC of 2 tickets, regardless of which product is opened. In essence you’re paying a higher percentage “fee” to Wizards to draft Scars rather than M11. If your goal is to keep drafting for free, this is the biggest issue. To keep the free-rolls rolling, you’ll have to sell packs (or rares) to re-up tickets, and selling an M11 pack will net you more tickets. To get down to brass tacks(Yes, awkwardly rhymes with packs): If you sell 3 Scars packs in this way, you would have had over 1 additional ticket, if you had been selling M11 packs. Depending on how much you play, this can stack up to a significant difference. There’s still over a month left until Mirrodin Besieged comes out on MTGO, so plenty of time to take advantage of this.

While the pricing of the packs was severely affected by Gold Queues, the additional reason M11 packs are more expensive is because the cards contained are likely to be more valuable. This is both because of the cycle of Titans, and also because the M11 format was so short with a portion of formats life not running during Sealed season. Using buy prices from MTGOtraders.com, the average value of an M11 mythic is 2 tickets more than an SOM mythic. (5.89 vs 3.84, approximately 50% more) The rares are worth approximately the same on average. (0.20) Since all of you are savvy traders/card-slingers, you likely will be able to leverage that value into more than what bots will pay, rather than selling your cards for bot buy prices, but these are worst case scenario numbers. Given that mythics appear in about 1 out of every 8 packs, you can expect about 0.25 tickets more in value out of each pack of M11, than you would in Scars. This is omitting that there are a few staple Core Set commons and uncommons that have value, like Lightning Bolt, Flashfreeze, Acidic Slime and Condemn. Also, the slim chance of a rare or mythic foil card means that it's possible to end up with more rares, which would slightly separate the value between the two packs even further. Some people draft to bolster their collection, for constructed purposes. If you’re one of those types, then you should be drafting which ever set gets you the cards you need, but most of the time you’re better off just buying singles. Selling cards for tickets, to keep drafting with packs, or trading them directly for more packs after a string of run-bads is also an option and these more valuable mythics come into play. Fun Fact: After 3 drafts (9 packs opened) you’re passed the statistical average of hitting a mythic. Every 3 drafts, the cards you pick alone should be on average worth two tickets more.

I base most of my presumptions and information on my experience with 8-4 queues, but the same theory would apply to both 4-3-2-2 and Swiss. I’m not the crazy hound that will say, you should only be playing 8-4. Especially with M11, the queues you want are not always firing, so I’ve been keeping a few Scars packs on hand too, in case I get bored. But also keep in mind that if you have been struggling staying even with the 8-4 SOM queues, going to a Swiss queue for a short while will both boost your confidence, give you more practice and hopefully get you back on track to free-rolling. However, if you are going to draft 4-3-2-2 (which I don’t recommend), you should be drafting ZZW, to have a chance to hit fetchlands, or the lottery ticket of Jace in pack 3. This is a pure lottery ticket gamble on the cards inside, while trying to snag a few packs in the process. Basically, a 4-3-2-2 can be looked at like this: gaming for 2 packs round 1, and then 1 pack each for round 2 and 3, with the chance of being eliminated in any round. In a Swiss queue, you game for a pack every round, for 3 rounds, win or lose.

Ultimately, if your end goal is to be able to draft whenever you want, you need to be conscious of what you’re spending. If you want to be able to draft more, or the same amount while spending less, I highly suggest switching back to M11 for the next month. You also may be surprised at how great that format was to draft. I’ve been having a blast, and if it weren’t for the recent PTQ season, I don’t know that I would have lasted as long as I did drafting Scars. See you in the queues!

Chad Havas
@torerotutor on twitter

Free: Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Prices

Posted on January 7, 2011May 17, 2011 by Chris McNutt

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Please click here or the Insider version of this article.

It’s been far too long since I last put digits to keyboard to report on the pure numbers I see floating around me. My adopted web admin responsibilities have kept me very busy (what do you think of the new look?) but I intend to get back into a more or less weekly accounting of prices, buy lists, ebay, demand indexes, and a new idea I had last night. For this edition, I decided that the time was right to bring you some Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease information.

As you know, we now have premium content that is available only to Insiders (gotta keep the lights on). I feel though that with many of the subtle aspects I cover, some leeway can be employed and I should be able to give you at least a taste of what the full on Insider counterparts will have. As I did previously with Scars of Mirrodin [link] I intend on publishing daily updates to all the numbers, charts, and downloads for the upcoming Mirrodin Besieged all the way up until its release. I haven’t really discovered what the best mix of Free vs. Insider is going to be yet so I’ll take a guess at what might be a bit useful, and hopefully enticing. After all, I can’t cheat the Insiders by giving all the secrets away.

1/7/11 - Even though we are only three weeks away from the release of Mirrodin Besieged we only have about seven spoilers reliably confirmed. Traditionally the entire set is up in the visual spoiler during the week before the prerelease tournaments and all this timing has a few repercussions from my stand point. With the very short amount of time we have to get all the details in the set Wizards has most likely cut the presales down by a ton for singles dealers (time will tell, and so will the numbers since that’s something I track) and possibly cost the secondary market a good deal of money. Conversely it has also made for some spoiler news packed days. I’m guessing that the speculative pricing is going to be especially inaccurate since we have less time to really work out the values. As such, check out the pricing in these guides, remember the card rarity you’re pre-ordering since that should be a good guide, and have a deck planned for their use as the prices start to climb. The safe bets are going to be the cards that fit into existing archetypes, and the speculative bets are those who might bring the next “tier 1” deck to the field. Baneslayer Angel (from a year ago) and Jace, the Mind Sculptor has set new bars for what we can expect the expensive cards to be. Four casting cost Planeswalkers are all but guaranteed to be $50 out of the gate, though they may fall later.

One other point to consider here is that we are at the beginning of Extended season. There is still plenty of room for break out strategies and decks no one has thought of, but there are very few slots in most of the existing competitive decks that can accept a new card from a new set. This likely means that the cards which are going to dominate standard might get overlooked for a time by those who are selling to the Extended buyers. I’m a competitive player, but not a Pro, and I’m a terrible deck designer so I’ll refrain from lending too much pricing advice based on playability. Some of my fellow writers on this site though are going to have a good perspective into which cards to watch out for so if you want your money’s worth, now is certainly a good time to join up.

1/26/11 - I started to get curious about how the pricing was breaking down by faction so I crunched some more numbers and made some charts for ya. As I currently understand it, when you get your packs for the pre-release sealed events you choose a faction, Mirran or Phyrexian. You'll be issued 3 packs of Scars of Mirrodin, and 3 packs that are from the faction you choose and then be able to build from all the cards you have opened. At this point I can only assume that the rarity distribution will be similar to that of a standard pack. The Mirran faction has 4 Mythics, 17 Rares, and 21 Uncommons. Phyrexia has 5 Mythics, 18 Rares, and 19 Uncommons. So the first question is, dispite the uneven rarity, which factions cards are worth more?

As you can see above, the Pyrexian total value is higher, but they also have one more Mythic, and one more Rare. The Mirran Mythics total more than Phyrexian even with fewer cards. The Phyrexian Rare total is higher then Mirran by a good amount and with Rares being easier to come by than Mythic, Phyrexia might just win the value battle. We'll need to weight those numbers though against general pack rarity distribution figures.

As you can see, right now the Mirran Packs have a slightly higher EV then Phyrexian. Mirran Packs also boast a higher average Mythic card value, but a lower Rare value. If the rarity distribution is standard you can expect to see one Mythic in every eight packs, so a sealed flight has a 37.5% chance of getting a Mythic. Here's the other thing to consider. (The following prices are all based on averaging store and the last two days worth of eBay prices). The Mirran high dollar Mythic is Thrun at about $19, and the highest Rare is Cryptoplasm at about $3.75. The Phyrexian money Mythic is the contoversial Blightsteel Colossus at $13.25 and the Rare is Inkmoth Nexus at $8.80 (Green Sun's Zenith is a close second at $7.18). We have a 9.4% chance of getting the Thrun, and a 7.5% chance of getting the Blightsteel Colossus in our 3 packs. We also have a 21.4% chance of opening the Cryptoplasm and a 20% chance of opening an Inkmoth Nexus. Tezz 2.0 remains an unknown factor. He's not of either faction, but does that mean he'll be in both packs, or neither? Both packs if Wizards had it's senses when constructing this thematic idea, but if he is in the faction packs and the distribution is typical then you would have a 7.5% chance of opening Tezz 2.0 in a Mirran pack and a 6.3% chance in a Phyrexian pack. The verdict is that Mirran packs have the best EV in the long run, but the Phyrexian have more higher dollar cards available. Below are the exact numbers.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=29&range=j1%3Ao3&output=html&widget=true 100% 130px]

On to the other numbers. (Insiders will see the full and exact lists)

1/7/11 – This isn’t going to be very interesting until we have some more spoilers I think.

1/13/11 - It's been almost week since I added commentary and we haven't seen any new really exciting cards spoiled. We know 12 more than last week and they have all been Uncommon and Common. I do need to give a special thanks to MTG Salvation for keeping the spoilers page up to date and assembling the printable spoilers.

1/17/11 - In the last 24 hours we've gone from 20 to 31 confirmed spoilers. Lets see how things have changed today.

1/19/11 - We've gone up to 59 confirmed spoilers in the last 2 days and I'm hoping for more later today.

1/24/11 - We're up to 111 confirmed spoilers (112 if you count Cryptoplasm). With 40-ish to go, and no official rarity breakdown yet announced, I'm unsure of just how many more Standard playables we could end up with. We have 9 Mythics, 31 Rares, 28 Uncommons and 28 Commons spoiled so far. The bulk of the remaining 44 will be Common, but since historically the small sets have only had 8 Mythics, are we going to get another one? Are we going to get another Planeswalker maybe? If not, it looks like this set isn't going to have a $50+ card in it. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas might get there if he's broken and used to win some events, but his dependence on Artifacts makes him somewhat inflexible.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=22&output=html&widget=false 100% 600px]

1/7/11 – As of right now, the top five is the same as the full list since no one has picked up any of the spoiled Uncommons in the last week…. The order on this list is pretty much what you would expect, though the Thopter Assembly might be a good one to grab for $3-$4 playset.

1/13/11 - Other than someone picking up a set of Signal Pests for over $5 each there still isn't much action.

1/17/11 - Of all the cards revealed so far, Thrun, the Last Troll seems to have grabbed the most attention with eBay sold prices of up to $22 each. This seems very high for a card that is more then, but not a great deal more than Troll Ascetic or Cudgel Troll. Don't get me wrong, he has some major upsides and only minor downsides, but his applications in Standard and Extended will at best be a combination of what Troll Ascetic was and what Great Sable Stag is and I don't think he can hold a $20 value unless the rest of MBS is completely unredeemable. Even if he ends up being a $20 card, I'm not sure if how is the time to gobble them up with so little of the set revealed.

1/19/11 - Hero of Bladehold seems to be holding pretty steady but has been firmly displaced by Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, Thrun, the Last Troll (though in my head he will always be Thrun the Barbarian thanks to Terry Prattchet) and the one shot killer Blightsteel Colossus. Coming in at 5th most expensive card we have Consecrated Sphinx which is actually more adaptable to decks then the first three. I can see decks being made around Blightsteel Colossus, Thrun is most definitely a support card (though a very good one) and Tezzeret 2.0 will probably follow a similar pricing path to Venser, the Sojourner and Elspeth Tirel. Tezz is probably more useful than either of those, but he certainly has to be in an artifact deck, or at least one with a lot of artifacts to get any use out of him. I'm suspicious that Thrun and Tezz can hold their price past a month or two. This is largely dependent on other cards in the set and what we start to see in the top 8 lists after release.

1/24/11 - Other then the still rumored (not posted on the MTG Salvation page yet) Cryptoplasm, the new list is sorted about how the old one was. Sword of Feast and Famine has dropped a bit and some other cards have been pushed aside to make room for the new ones, but there haven't been any sweeping changes.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=23&output=html&widget=false 100% 600px]

1/7/11 – Here we see exactly the same list as above, but with a bit more history on the cards. The pricing for the cards spoiled so far has been very stable. Expect a shake-up in the coming weeks though.

1/13/11 - Hero of Bladehold has been the clear leader in the current price war for MBS, but the suspected Planeswalkers and other unknown cards will probably kick that down unless she becomes crucial to an archetype.

1/17/11 - There hasn't been enough time since the new ones were spoiled for this chart to change much, but since at it's core it's partly driven by the total dollars consumed I would have to say that Thrun has made a good one day showing to be so far up the list. Conversely, this is also an indication of how the timeline of spoiled cards has effected the secondary market.

1/24/11 - Tezz 2.0 is still out in front with only a $0.25 decline from last Friday. Thrun is still holding strong which is an indication to me that there aren't very many expensive Standard and Extended playable in the set. Inkmoth Nexus is getting a lot more attention and it seems that Blightsteel Colossus is still being bought up quite vigorously. The constant popularity of Hero of Bladehold seems to keep going as well.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=24&output=html&widget=false 100% 600px]

1/7/11 – Here is where things start to get interesting. Sometimes the high volume cards are the cheaper ones that a lot of people want. Most of the time the expensive ones still see similar volumes preordered though the total volume is mostly a factor of how long it’s been since they have been spoiled. Online vendors committing to presales of large volumes or cards are right now are essentially promising to open up X number of cases to make sure that they can fill all the Mirran Crusader orders and are desperately waiting to find out the name of all the left over cards so they can get those sales running too. Without the close cooperation of some large stores I can’t say for sure what this is going to do to pricing of the rest of the set, but I think that for the short term, shortly after the release of the set, the bottom will drop out of the “crap rares” a lot faster than normal. On the flip side, the speculative cards should jump up faster.

1/13/11 - Merlira's Keepers are off like a bullet huh? There are no big changes in the list yet, though it's almost like looking at the rings of a tree to tell the age when looking at the large gaps in volume to detect the time since they were spoiled.

1/17/11 - No major changes here yet. This chart will be significantly different in another week.

1/24/11 - Phyrexian and Mirran Crusaders still have more purchases then any other single. This isn't surprising since they were spoiled almost a month and a half before any thing else was. Green Sun's Zenith seems to be selling quite a few (lots of Elves players out there?) and Inkmoth Nexus is within striking distance of the top spots.

Now on to my favorite part, the graphs. Due to some performance issues and technical limitations these are only going to be available to the Insiders.

Insiders have access an offsite link to the following charts.

Set Pack EV

Daily Volume

Total Pack EV

Highest Average Price

Daily Card Volume

Cumulative Sales Dollars

Highest Valued Cards

Average Price Per Card Spoiled

Daily Purchases

Chart comments...

Highest Average Price

1/24/11 - I remember when Zendikar was spoiled, and even Worldwake... the lines on those charts were no where near as flat. Lotus Cobra was up and down all over. Same goes with the fetch lands. To me this indicates either that we've nailed the correct pricing right away, or that the cards impact is either negligible, or not understood. We'll see in a few months.

Set Comparison Charts

1/24/11 - The totals so far seem to be trending right along with Worldwake but below most of the others. This could indicate either that it's typical of a small set, or I believe, typical of the time spoiled. This is worth looking into.

Here is another pricing matrix for you.

*This Pricing Guide is Insiders only.

This is one that will be handy to have with you at the prerelease and release events. The store prices are coming from Starcity Games, Cool Stuff Inc, Chanel Fireball, and Kelly Reid’s Dragons Den Online.

1/7/11 – Since there are only seven cards known for MBS right now, this isn’t an exciting list. If this was the entirety of what to expect I would say to just jot it down on a napkin and take it with you everywhere. It’s going to get a lot more detailed.

1/13/11 - A bit more interesting. We'll see how this one shapes up next week.

1/17/11 - Yeah! We finally can fill a whole page!

1/24/11 - It's very interesting how close the store prices are sticking to eBay for MBS. There is typically a 15% - 25% difference, but the stores are just barely above the eBay prices... Maybe they are reading these articles?

Lastly I’d like to include a link to a list indented to be used as a pricing guide for shop owners.

*This Store Guide is Insiders only.

Magic Analyist
Chris McNutt
Level 1 Judge
@fatecreatr on Twitter

Insider: Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Prices

Posted on January 7, 2011May 17, 2011 by Chris McNutt

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Learn More

If any of the terms or even perhaps concepts need more explaination, please try checking out my Primers and Glossary page. If there is still confusion, please comment or contact me and I will update the Primers and Glossary page.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=29&range=j1%3Ao3&output=html&widget=true 100% 130px]

On to the other numbers. (Insiders will see the full and exact lists)

1/7/11 – This isn’t going to be very interesting until we have some more spoilers I think.

1/17/11 - In the last 24 hours we've gone from 20 to 31 confirmed spoilers. Lets see how things have changed today.

1/19/11 - We've gone up to 59 confirmed spoilers in the last 2 days and I'm hoping for more later today.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=14&output=html&widget=false 100% 600px]

1/13/11 - Other than someone picking up a set of Signal Pests for over $5 each there still isn't much action.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=16&output=html&widget=false 100% 600px]

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=18&output=html&widget=false 100% 600px]

1/17/11 - No major changes here yet. This chart will be significantly different in another week.

Now on to my favorite part, the graphs. Due to performance issues I've decided that these are better served in separate windows. Please see the links below.

eBay Charts

Set Comparison Charts

Chart comments...

Highest Average Price

Set Comparison Charts

Here is another pricing matrix for you.

[iframe https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0AukC5EWiTvOpdFNSa1BoQTNwenVDSm1pbDByWk4xeHc&hl=en&single=true&gid=4&output=html&widget=false 100% 600px]

Here is a link to the Google Docs page if you want to print it out.

1/13/11 - A bit more interesting. We'll see how this one shapes up next week.

1/17/11 - Yeah! We finally can fill a whole page!

Lastly I’d like to include a link to a list indented to be used as a pricing guide for shop owners.

Shop Guide

Magic Analyist
Chris McNutt
Level 1 Judge
@fatecreatr on Twitter

The Month That Was

Posted on January 7, 2011May 17, 2011 by Stu Somers

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What’s shakin’ everyone? Hope you all had a fantastic holiday season! November and December are easily my busiest months buying cards, so I have been busy running to stores in the area, taking advantage of deals and dealing with people that have contacted me throughout the months. That doesn’t mean I haven't been paying attention to what is going on in the world! December might mark the end of the year, both for Magic and the rest of the world, but it is still full of fantastic happenings.

Prerelease and Release cards for Mirrodin Beseiged

The two prerelease cards:

Glissa, The Traitor BGG
3/3 Legendary Creature - Zombie Elf
Deathtouch, first strike
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, you may return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.

Hero of Bladehold 2WW
Creature - Human Knight
Battle cry (Whenever a creature with Battle Cry attacks, each other attacking creature gets +1/+0 until EOT)
Whenever Hero of Bladehold attacks, put two 1/1 white soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.

And the release:

Thopter Assembly 6
5/5 Artifact Creature - Thopter
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control no other Thopters other than ~, return ~ to its owner's hand and put 5 1/1 colourless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield.

So, my initial reactions to these cards is….man, I am pumped for this new set! The Hero clearly has incomplete data so I don’t want to guess a price, but Battle Cry is something to pay attention to. It is obvious that a good goblin will go into Legacy Gobos, but if there were to be a Merfolk, Zombie, or Elf that has this ability too, well, watch out Legacy and Casual markets! The zombie would be of high interest in casual circles while the Elf and Merfolk could push their respective decks in all formats to even higher levels.

Glissa looks like a solid EDH commander as well as Limited bomb. Fits more in the Dinosaur limited deck rather than poison, but still a solid creature with 2 keywords that are dirty together. I don’t see her being THAT high in the end ($2-$5 range really) but who knows what else is to be spoiled.

The Thopter Assembly on the other hand, well, here is a card! This is also a clear limited bomb. Pay 6, get a 5/5 blocker for a turn, and then it bounces to bring you 5 1/1 dudes. This guy could quickly take over a game, especially if something like Strider Harness is in play. For its value, well, in type 2 it is battling with all the other insane 6 drops at the moment. It does have the advantage of flying, and we will have to see if that is better than some of the other abilities on Titans at the moment. I don’t know if the Affinity deck in extended wants this card, it might be a 2 of as a late game finisher (5 3/3s!), but this is something to possibly look at for Vintage or type 2 if a good artifact deck appears.

Mirran Crusader 1WW
Double Strike
Pro Black, Pro Green
2/2

Phyrexian Crusader 1BB
First strike
Pro white, Pro red
Infect
2/2

Quick thoughts: They are knights, so that is a good creature type to be. The white one could basically spell the end of the Vampire decks, even if they have Red, it is just a better SB option against them that they have to face. The Black guy is in an important spot in the infect deck curve. If a good one drop or some sort of burn/poison spell appears, this guy could see serious play. Being rares, I don’t see either being higher than $2, maybe $3 max.

Legacy B/R List

Survival of the Fittest, we hardly knew ya. It had 3-6 months of top tier play and then was axed. Personally, I don’t think it needed to go due to its horrible combo match-up and weakness to graveyard hate, but it’s gone and there's not much we can do. This thing could nosedive down to Oath of Druids level easily. It will stay high as people will be upset to lose so much money on it and others want to fill out EDH and Cube decks, but it will drop eventually. The addition of the judge promos will only hinder its price more. Time Spiral on the other hand, can we say “Grim Monolith?” If it does something broken in legacy, $30 easy; if not, it should hover around $10-$12 on its potential alone.

(The following paragraph are my opinions and not QS.com’s)

So I guess I need to bring up stores that have rejected buy orders on this card. Two points: A) You would think people would learn this would happen after the 1^st time they tried and B) You would think stores would learn that when they jack the prices on cards that are hyped but don’t do anything and then screw customers they lose doubly. Pretty sure the first few stores that don’t reject people’s orders on newly hyped cards are going to get such a HUGE PR boost that they will be heads and shoulders above everyone else and the small loss they take on the card will be more than made up for when people continue to return to that store. Honestly, I don’t see why they don’t just take the site down for 15mins, 11:55pm to 12:10am, adjust their prices, and not screw over anyone. Hint: If the store isn’t open to sell things, it can’t get gotten. And to those owners who complain that they have “lives”, these stores are your lives. STOP BEING LAZY, and actually do work, you might be surprised how easy it is. If I have pissed any of you store owners off by saying this or you agree and want help to implement my ideas towards greater customer satisfaction, feel free to contact me, I am not hard to get a hold of. (And Ladies and Gentlemen, this is where Kelly has been getting his rage from)

Worlds

Well, Worlds was pretty exciting. The Player of the Year race is going to a tie breaker, and T8 was full of blue! Well, that actually matters as little as possible. To get a true grasp of what happened, you have to look at the side events as well as the rounds, and even then the Extended part’s value is diminished with draws and scoops for points happening. The Standard portion was full of Blue decks doing well. Blue went from being dead during Jund times to being basically the nuts right now. Frost Titan is on his way down but Grave Titan is on his way up it looks like.

The more interesting stuff happened in the side events

Standard Events breakdown over 4 events:
White Weenie: 2 T8s, 1 Win
Valakut: 10 T8s

Blue/White Control: 5 T8s

MassClone: 1 T8

Boros: 5 T8, 1 Win

RUG: 1 T8, 1 Win

Blue/Black Control: 2 T8

Mono Black Control: 1 T8

Vampires: 4 T8, 1 Win

BUG: 1 T8

G/W Token: 1T8

Pretty diverse field, not a whole lot of surprise really. The G/W Tokens and Mono Black Control are both kind of new to the scene; could be something to work on if you are tired of the current decks. The cards involved were nothing surprising. Oh wait, that Poly-Clone deck Thingy too. I have a friend that collects Clones (has nearly 1300 plus some Miscut, Crimped and Summer Magic Clones), and he will go crazy over this deck. Clone will copy either Frost Titan or the best creature on your opponents side. This might just be a pile of a deck that got lucky, but it has a card that hasn’t seen play in forever in Clone and Mass Polymorph, so they might be elevated slightly above bulk price.

Legacy Events: Break down over 2 events that were viewable were:
Team America: 3 T8s, 1 Win
Merfolk: 2 T8s
Charbelcher: 1 T8
Ad Naus: 1 T8
Hive Mind: 1 T8
Show and Tell: 3 T8s
Survival: 2 T8s, 1 Win

New Horizon: 1 T8

Zoo: 1 T8

Scapeshift: 1 T8

Quick notes: The Scapeshift deck was G/R/U with 4 Horn of Greed and 4 Personal Tutors. It’s also another deck with Tabernacle and Exploration. Could be something to look at or even speculate on with the Horns at this point.

Extended Events (1 PTQ) :

Omen/Gate: 1 T8, 1 Win

4cc: 2 T8

Boros: 1 T8

Scapeshift: 2 T8

Rock: 1 T8

Ooze: 1 T8

Quick Notes: Ooze might be real, and not just a flash in the pan like most of Conley’s Decks. I am sure there is still room to improve it and it will be exciting to see what it does. Other than that, nothing too big that will raise prices, just keep things stable really.

Vintage Events:

Oath: 2 T8, 1 Win

Tezz: 2 T8

Tezzless Tezz: 2 T8

Workshop: 2 T8

Quick notes: I won’t pretend to know anything about Vintage (I think Vintage and Magic are 2 different things actually), but the lack of a Fish deck surprises me. I do love see Oath winning, it was the first deck I had ever fully foiled out (and the last), until they banned Oath…grumble grumble

MTGO:

Well, turns out that everything extended skyrocketed this past week. Multiple cards tripled in price and well, the format is now pricey as all hell. I missed the boat on cards due to real life dealing so there was a ton of profit to be had. The stuff that hasn’t jumped too much that you can potentially speculate on are: Gilt Leaf Palace, Windbrisk Heights, Mosswort Bridge, Profane Command, Mirrorweave, and Stigma Lasher. These are all ~1 tix each and could see at least a 100% rise by the time the season rolls around (BRB, going to go by 10-20 of each).

This leads me into an announcement. During the first week of the year, I am going to be starting a MTGO article series. It will be published every Thursday due to most updates occurring on Wednesday downtime. I will do my best to give you my reaction and opinion on the change financially as well as give you stats on what is doing well in the previous week’s events and what is sneaking up on people. If there is anything else you want to know on about MTGO, feel free to recommend it in the comments below!

New Year’s Resolutions:

Here are mine, quite a few too.

General:

Make stomach flat (got that last inch to go, gotta beat Kelly to it too)

Find a new job in addition to adding at least 10 more independent consulting jobs

Pay off one half of my student loans

Magic:

Win 1 PTQ

Accumulate 10 Pro Points

Money at 2 GPs

Get bankroll up to 5 Figures.

Qualify for every MOCS season on MTGO.

Looks like I got a busy year! Let me hear yours in the comments below!

Buy High/Sell Low

Buy High:

1) I guess anytime I make money playing Fantasy Football I can’t complain

2) Extended Season- Probably my 2nd favorite format behind Legacy, I love Cryptic Command!

3) New Years Eve- Favorite drinking night!

4) A good Kelly Reid rant!

Sell Low:

1) Dumb Luck in Football- Lost $1k 1st place prize by .2 pts, losing 115.12 to 114.95. FML

2) Aaron Rodgers- Thanks for 2.56 pts, ugh

3) Cliff Lee- @%!^ You

4) My Roommate- She isn't nice. Didn't even wish me happy b-day in November. Ugh, the dog is nicer!

Contact
E-mail: tennis_stu_3001@hotmail.com
MOTL: stu55
AIM: stoopskoo15
Store: The Vault- Greensburg, PA

Introducing Insider!

Posted on January 6, 2011February 2, 2011 by Kelly Reid

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If you already know you want to sign up, just click here and get started!

As you have heard over the last few months, Quiet Speculation has planned to become a "Freemium" site since we relaunched. Freemium is a fancy way of saying that we'll have both free and paid content available to our readers. We have redesigned the site, overhauled our back end, upgraded our servers, and tripled our editorial staff and content.

Our readers thrive on new content. With new servers, new writers, and new editors, we have to pay the bills! These are all necessary features of our site, and they allow us to produce the highest level of content possible. This site has evolved from a blog into a professional daily magazine. We want nothing but the best technology and the best content we can produce, and good talent costs money. We think you'll agree. Since our financial content often helps our readers make money, we have decided to limit financial content to Insiders. Spike and Timmy content will remain free, though we may occasionally recruit guest authors for some Insider features.

So, what features will you get as an Insider? Here's a useful little chart for your reference.

You'll be able to use our forums as a free member, but the best parts are reserved for our Insider supporters. This includes the single card discussion forum for tips & tech, the reseller reviews forum, and the Ask the Author forum.

You'll notice that we keep our site mostly ad-free. We'll display info about our products like eBooks and an occasional link to Kelly's online store, Dragons Den Online, but we do so tastefully. We want to provide valuable services and products to our readers in exchange for their support. We don't want to shove banner ads and affiliate links down your throat, so we promise we'll keep them small, tasteful, and unobtrusive.

If you would like to read only the free content, please feel free to do so! We welcome all of our readers equally, but please do consider supporting us by purchasing a membership or a product that interests you.

We're going to start our subscription at a modest $5 monthly fee. This will be a promotional rate for the first 30 days of launch; if you sign up within 30 days of launch, you'll lock in the $5 rate for as long as your subscription remains active. Those who sign up after January 31st will pay the normal rate of $8.99 monthly thereafter. Of course, if you sign up before then, you'll lock in at $5 when new signups go up to $8.99. In addition to all the other benefits, you'll get a 5% discount on all singles you order from Dragons Den Online. How's that for getting your money's worth?

For the first few members, we'll have a special bonus that'll reward you for being an early adopter and a loyal subscriber: free upgrades for life! We're constantly deploying new products and services, so for the select few that sign up early, we'll reward them with complementary access to them all of them. What upgrades?

We have big plans for some tools, features and other goodies down the road, and will eventually be rolling out these features as optional upgrades, much like many online software sites do. These will be optional, and you can choose to sign up for as few or as many as you'd like. We'll have more details as they develop.

The signup process is effortless; you'll get access immediately, and payment is set up by using a recurring payment in PayPal. That means we can't steal your credit card to buy ten thousand Grizzly Bears. You'll get a short trial period, just in case you decide Insider's not for you. After the free trial period expires, you'll get billed automatically so you don't experience an interruption in service. If you don't want to keep your subscription active, you can cancel it at any time, and your subscription will be terminated at the end of your last-paid subscription period (one month from your last payment). It's that easy.

$5 is less than the cost of most sleeves you'll buy for a tournament, less than the cost of a single Mythic Rare, and less than the cost of lunch. Your cost per article will be approximately 25 cents. If you do not make more than $5 by following the advice from our talented financial columnists, we will cancel your membership and immediately refund your money without a fuss. Promise.

If you have any trouble, questions or you just want to say hi, shoot an email to quietspeculation@gmail.com and we'll get back to you promptly! We pride ourselves on the best customer service in the game. Thanks so much for being a reader, and if you'd like to get started reading all the juicy financial content, sign up now!

Live Long and Pauper

Posted on January 6, 2011January 11, 2011 by Dylan Lerch

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Welcome back to The Brewery! I hope the winter holidays have been kind to you all. It's been a few slow weeks here for Spike content at Quiet Speculation, and I look forward to getting back up to speed. The Extended format is really starting to take shape, and we should be getting bombarded with decklists and tech from PTQs, MTGO events, and Grand Prix in the coming weeks.

So why am I writing about Pauper? Because, quite simply, it is the coolest Constructed format I've ever played on Magic Online! And with the rising costs of Constructed formats these days, how awesome does it sound to be able to play any Tier 1 deck in a competitive format for a tiny percentage of what Extended or Standard would cost you?

What Is So Much Fun About Pauper?

First and foremost, it's an "Eternal" format. Every card ever released at a "common" rarity on Magic Online is available for use. Did you ever want to combine Metalcraft and Affinity without playing Legacy? Or a format where the best Counterspell is usually, quite literally, Counterspell? What about a Goblin deck that can't use Goblin Piledriver or Goblin Lackey?

As a thought exercise, try and consider what a Control deck would look like in this format. To get you on the right track, Mystical Teachings is a common.

Did it look anything like this?

Untitled Deck

Creatures

2 Ulamogs Crusher

1 Mnemonic Wall

3 Mulldrifter

Artifacts

4 Prophetic Prism

Sorceries

4 Stone Rain

2 Earth Rift

3 Flame Slash

1 Kaerveks Torch

1 Arc Lightning

3 Compulsive Research

Instants

2 Mystical Teachings

1 Capsize

1 Condescend

1 Echoing Truth

1 Lightning Bolt

2 Mana Leak

1 Mysteries of the Deep

4 Prohibit

Lands

7 Island

6 Mountain

4 Cloudpost

4 Glimmerpost

2 Terramorphic Expanse

Sideboard

1 Flame Slash

2 Halimar Wavewatch

3 Hydroblast

1 Pyroblast

4 Sea Sprite

4 Gorilla Shaman

Yeah, I didn't think so. But, seriously, how freaking cool is that deck? Ulamog's Crusher as a finisher? Cloudpost and Glimmerpost? Maindeck Stone Rain? And the best part is that this is one of the Tier 1 archetypes. No joke. The first game I played with this deck (against a mono Black deck featuring Chittering Rats, Okiba-Gang Shinobi, and various other Black card advantage) ended when I obtained a Cloudpost-fueled Capsize lock.

Now, I don't claim this to be the best version of the deck (Locust Control, UR Control, Mystical Teachings, call it what you wish), but it's the version I've been playing with lately. A few points of note:

Land Destruction can be exceptional in this format. The best Combo deck (decklist to follow, use your imagination for now!) uses Cloud of Faeries, Snap, Frantic Search, and friends to power a large Storm count (leading to Temporal Fissure usually, but also rarely Grapeshot or Empty the Warrens). These decks rely on Nightscape Familiar and Sunscape Familiar without being able to draw on Sapphire Medallion, but they also make heavy use of the Ravnica dual lands (no, not the awesome "Shocklands," but their decidedly less-awesome "Bouncelands" such as Azorius Chancery, Simic Growth Chamber, etc.). A timely Stone Rain on an enemy Cloudpost or Azorius Chancery can be enough to provide overwhelming advantage.

Mulldrifter is everywhere. This Elemental is the go-to Sorcery-speed card draw spell for most decks in the format. Other various card draw spells of note in the format include Deep Analysis, Mysteries of the Deep, Frantic Search, Compulsive Research, Sign in Blood, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Preordain, Ponder, Think Twice, Brainstorm, Ideas Unbound, and Thoughtcast. I'm sure there are others, too.

Prohibit headlines many Countermagic suites. Prohibit is fantastic. It will very often be a hard counter for 1U, and it will almost always be a hard counter for 3U. There's a reason why this was the most difficult Pauper staple for me to acquire, being a rather obscure common from Invasion, but it was well worth the 7 Ticket investment for a playset. Other Counterspells that you'll see played often are Force Spike, Counterspell, Mana Leak, Condescend, Deprive, Spell Pierce, Dispel, as well as a few more obscure options.

What an awesome Sideboard, too! Pyroblast and Hydroblast? Gorilla Shaman? Halimar Wavewatch? With any Eternal format, you typically have access to some of the strongest "hoser" cards printed. With Pauper that's not necessarily the case, but there are some fantastic options here to keep something like Affinity from being as otherwise-dominant as it might be.

Oh, and the whole thing will run you just $26.77.

Swing, Swing, Swing, From the Tangles Of...

Generic whiny lyrics aside, what do I mean? Let me start with an example. You're playing the U/B Control mirror in today's Standard. Both players have fought a long, hard attrition battle. Each player is living off the top of their deck, and both players have exhausted most of their resources. You've matched wits for 20 minutes, and you just need things to break a little bit in your way to eke out a much-deserved win.

And that's when your opponent slams down his topdecked Grave Titan on the table and you're drawing cold. Oops.

In a Pauper game, there are obviously times when your opponent (or you, for that matter) can draw that silver bullet that will simply end the game. But when the overall power level of the format is so much lower, games can be much more of a grind. Eking out every bit of card advantage starts to matter all the more. Games go longer, often require more strategy, and you really need to make every turn count. Sure, that's the case in every format, but let's face it: Constructed games lately often come down to whether or not your opponent's Summoning Trap hits an Eldrazi monster or an Overgrown Battlement; whether they have the Cryptic Command they need to both stop your imminent win (while blowing you out at the same time!); whether or not you get Goblin Guide on turn 1; and so on.

Don't get me wrong, Standard and Extended are both exceptionally fun right now. The decks are flashy, powerful-without-being-unfair, and the formats are both quite diverse. But this leads me to my final, and most practical, point:

Pauper is Cheap

Not every card is going to be a throw-in common, but you could probably buy a majority of most decks just with your leftover bot credits. A few staples are going to run you as much as 1-2 Tickets per, and a few choice cards are going to run even a little more than that, but you could purchase an entire Pauper Daily Event (literally, a playset of every card used in any Pauper Daily) for less than a couple of playsets of those filter lands that you've been eying. If you're looking to get into Extended from scratch on MTGO, it's going to cost you at least $200-$250 for the cheapest competitive deck and as much as $400, $600, $800 or more! And then you better hope that your deck stays relevant...

Here are some of the format's other defining decks, as well as some oddball ones I've taken a liking to, along with a total cost of the deck according to MTGO Traders. Feast and enjoy!

Mono Blue Aggro/Control - $15.16

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Spire Golem

4 Spellstutter Sprite

4 Pestermite

4 Ninja of the Deep Hours

2 Mulldrifter

Instants

4 Counterspell

4 Preordain

4 Piracy Charm

4 Force Spike

4 Prohibit

Lands

18 Island

4 Quicksand

Sideboard

2 Dispel

4 Hydroblast

4 Sea Sprite

2 Hindering Touch

2 Echoing Truth

1 Mulldrifter

Right now, this is my favorite deck in the format. Spire Golem is an absolute All-Star, Piracy Charm is one of the coolest spells in the format (Blue removal, evasion, or neutered Esper Charm), and this deck can really hold its own against anything you can run up against. Turning a free Spire Golem into a Ninja is exactly as cool as it sounds, and it leaves you with an untapped 2/4 blocker to boot.

And the whole deck will cost you less than a single Twilight Mire from Extended's top "budget" deck, Jund. The only playsets here that will cost you more than a dime or two (no, not that dime, either) are Prohibit and Hydroblast, and both are format staples. Suck on that, Jace, the Mind Sculptor.

Affinity - $28.24

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Disciple of the Vault

4 Auriok Sunchaser

4 Frogmite

4 Myr Enforcer

4 Atog

3 Somber Hoverguard

Artifacts

4 Chromatic Sphere

4 Chromatic Star

3 Springleaf Drum

2 Terrarion

Sorceries

4 Thoughtcast

Instants

4 Galvanic Blast

Lands

4 Great Furnace

4 Seat of the Synod

4 Vault of Whispers

4 Ancient Den

Sideboard

4 Gorilla Shaman

4 Hydroblast

3 Krark-Clan Shaman

4 Pyroblast

So far, I've played against the Affinity deck but not with it yet. It's next on my list, though, and this is a list I would start with. Some builds omit Auriok Sunchaser for Carapace Forger, and some builds omit both Metalcraft creatures for a more focused Affinity core. Whichever way you go, it's pretty obvious why this is one of the most powerful decks in the format. It's important to note here that the bulk of the deck's "hefty" cost comes from its sideboard: Gorilla Shaman is 12 Tickets for a playset, and two playsets of 'blasts will run you approximately 7 Tickets total. A closer look at Gorilla Shaman shows why it is one of the cards that, more than any other, can keep Affinity in check. If you are playing Red, you almost certainly must run 3-4 of them in your Sideboard.

Esper "Familiar" Storm - $51.14

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Cloud of Faeries

1 Mnemonic Wall

4 Mulldrifter

4 Nightscape Familiar

4 Sunscape Familiar

Sorceries

4 Compulsive Research

4 Deep Analysis

3 Foresee

Instants

4 Frantic Search

4 Snap

3 Temporal Fissure

Lands

3 Azorius Chancery

4 Dimir Aqueduct

3 Evolving Wilds

6 Island

1 Plains

1 Swamp

3 Terramorphic Expanse

Sideboard

1 Capsize

4 Galinas Knight

4 Hydroblast

3 Lone Missionary

3 Prismatic Strands

The way this deck wins should be fairly obvious, and weighing in at approximately 2.5 Thoughtseizes, it's going to be the most expensive deck in this article. Pretty awesome, right? This is also likely to be the deck in the format that does the most broken things. I've seen a version of the deck that splashed Green for mana fixing and additional Wild Growth-type effects, but Esper is the most common. This is the go-to Combo deck in the format (you'll notice Storm to be a common component of Pauper Combo decks), and it's quite effective.

Frantic Search (10 Tickets/playset), Snap (7 Tickets/playset), Cloud of Faeries (9 Tickets/playset), Deep Analysis (6 Tickets/playset) and the Familiars (~5-6 Tickets/playset) are the "big ticket" items here. Deep Analysis and Frantic Search, along with Hydroblast out of the Sideboard, are common enough to be considered format staples, so they'll give you additional value.

Goblins - $21.37

Untitled Deck

Creatures

4 Goblin Bushwhacker

4 Goblin Cohort

4 Goblin Sledder

4 Jackal Familiar

4 Mogg Conscripts

3 Mogg Flunkies

4 Mogg Raider

4 Mogg War Marshal

4 Sparksmith

Sorceries

4 Chain Lightning

Instants

4 Lightning Bolt

Lands

17 Mountain

Sideboard

3 Death Spark

4 Flame Slash

2 Gorilla Shaman

4 Pyroblast

2 Smash to Smithereens

Ahh, Goblins. Sure, reaching for Jackal Familiar or Goblin Cohort may not be ideal, but this deck has 12 2-power 1-drops, 12 excellent removal spells (including Sparksmith), and Red's excellent Sideboard options. Of course, the big problem of this deck is that so many of the deck's creatures need help to smash face; Mogg Flunkies is useless on its own, and those 2-power 1-drops require assistance to attack.

All-In Storm - $45.83

Untitled Deck

Artifacts

4 Chromatic Sphere

4 Lotus Petal

4 Chromatic Star

Sorceries

4 Empty the Warrens

4 Grapeshot

4 Ponder

2 Preordain

4 Rite of Flame

2 Ideas Unbound

4 Sign in Blood

Instants

4 Cabal Ritual

4 Dark Ritual

4 Manamorphose

Lands

4 Ancient Spring

2 Geothermal Crevice

2 Irrigation Ditch

4 Sulfur Vent

Sideboard

2 Brainstorm

4 Duress

1 Echoing Decay

1 Flaring Pain

2 Geothermal Crevice

2 Preordain

3 Shred Memory

This gets my vote for coolest Combo deck in the format, though it should be obvious that a 12-land, 12-Ritual deck is going to suffer some consistency issues. Tendrils of Agony is an Uncommon, so Grapeshot and Empty the Warrens become the Storm spells of choice for a deck like this. Lotus Petals, at almost 5 Tickets each, provide the bulk of the cost for this deck, though it's still less than half of what a single Jace, the Mind Sculptor will cost you.

So What Are You Waiting For?

There are a handful of other established decks, too. In recent Pauper Daily Events (which run a few times per week!), I've seen Mono Green Infect, Mono Green Aggro, Mono Black Aggro, UG Familiar Combo, and of course variations on all of the decklists above. However, the most exciting part about Pauper to me is that, with such a large and diverse cardpool spanning well more than 10 years, the opportunities to innovate as a deckbuilder are tremendous!

Oh, and in case you haven't been keeping track, every single decklist in this article could be purchased on MTGO for roughly 188 Tickets. That's less than any competitive Extended deck, less than most competitive Standard decks, and that's not counting any shared cards between the decks.

Pretty sweet, I'd say 🙂

Dylan Lerch
@dtlerch on Twitter
Kinarus on MTGO
The Brewery

Worst. PTQ. Ever.

Posted on January 6, 2011January 11, 2011 by Greg Peloquin

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I’m going to be honest, this article was hard for me to write. Why? Because this weekend’s limited PTQ was the worst Magic tournament I have ever played in over ten years of playing tournaments. Was I unlucky? No. Was my pool bad? No. I played absolutely terrible Magic. There wasn’t even a game where I didn’t make some colossal punt or misplay. I threw away so many games I could/should have won, I’m almost ashamed to admit it in public. I do think writing about this has value, despite the limited season coming to a close, since my sealed pool was pretty interesting and provided me quite a few deckbuilding options. I also feel like this is a Fearless Magical Inventory of sorts. I hope by going over my recent bout of horrendous play, maybe others with similar experiences can help a brother out.

Let’s start with the PTQ itself. Your lovely and esteemed author and three friends piled into my ride and we drove the 30 miles from Tacoma to Seattle to get our sealed deck on. I had in my company three of the usual suspects, Ian Kendall (_ik), Matt Hague and Brandden McDoogle (I seriously can’t spell his last name. Everyone calls him Doogle, so just roll with it). The card ride up was uneventful; we talked about Extended, other people you don’t care about, and we had a contest to see who was a part of the most stacked PTQ top 8 (highest concentration of good players).

We got to the venue itself and the tournament was 180 players strong. I attempted to blend in and make small talk at the good player table. Everyone has one of these at their PTQs, right? I mean, all the highest rated players usually sit at the same table and there are few people who sit on the edges of the table and try to make it look like they are one of the cool kids. That’s me. 🙁

After standing around for awhile, the seatings were up and, while the player meeting was going on, I just played Dragon Quest IX and killed a few Liquid Metal Slimes (I’m up to 150 hours in this game, it’s insane) to pass the time. I registered an interesting pool with Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and three other Black cards worth playing, and a Sunblast Angel with the next best White card being Kembas Skyguard. The judges enjoyed slowly torturing us by making us pass the deck we registered to the person on our right, then again and again and….again…and how about again?

I finally get my pool and nearly go to time building the thing. Here are the contents for your viewing/building pleasure:

I think we can all agree the Red is automatically out. There is not a single Red card I want to play in this pool. Next up is Blue. The Blue presents us with a gaggle of mediocre creatures and not much else. There’s nothing wrong with the Blue here, but it’s very average and wholly unexciting. I would only play this if the rest of my colors were really weak, although a Blue-based evasion deck of some sort might be possible.

The Green is the next consideration. Like Green in most Scars of Mirrodin sealed, it has a little bit of everything and a lot of nothing. It has the Slice in Twain which is obviously nice and Sylvok Replica is a solid removal spell. There’s also Untamed Might and Tel-Jilad Fallen should Infect be of interest.

The White here practically screams to be played, especially the foil Sunblast Angel, which is easily the most powerful card in the pool. Nothing says PICK MEEEEE! quite like a shiny bomb. Tempered Steel is also very strong provided we get enough support from our uncolored friends. Kemba, Kha Regent is quite powerful if you have the equipment to make her flood the board with kittens and Razor Hippogriff needs no explanation, you know it’s good.

The other strong color is Black, featuring Grasp in Darkness, Skinrender and Necrotic Ooze as well as a smattering of Infect creatures.

Finally, we get to the artifacts. There are some interesting cards here, including one of each Myr (Captain Planet! He’s our he- ok, I’ll shut up) as well as two ‘Myr Lords’ in the twin Myr Galvanizers. There’s a Contagion Clasp, which is going to make the deck regardless along with a couple of Tumble Magnets . There’s also the powerful Trigon of Corruption and a duo of Trigon of Infestations for our insect making needs. We round out the artifacts with x2 Corpse Cur and a Necropede. Whew.

We were given 30 minutes for deck construction and I have recently gotten in the habit of trying to use as much of that as possible. This means that even if I think I know the right 40 card configuration immediately, I want to try a few different builds to see what other options are available. Since there seems to be a fair amount of Infect cards in this pool, I quickly constructed an Infect deck to see what it would look like:

Untitled Deck

Contagious Nim

Grasp of Darkness

Ichor Rats

Slice in Twain

Tel-Jilad Fallen

Untamed Might

Necrotic Ooze

Contagion Clasp

Corpse Cur

Skinrender

Tainted Strike

Copper Myr

Heavy Arbalest

Leaden Myr

Necropede

Trigon of Infestation

Trigon of Corruption

Sylvok Replica

Tumble Magnet

Fume Spitter

….Yawn. One of the Myr could easily be a Bladed Pinions, but you get the idea. This deck is really, really average. No way to break through and by that I mean no Plague Stinger or Tangle Angler. No rare bombs and only a minimum amount of removal and power. This deck is ok but not great, and in this format, where everyone’s deck is awesome, this is definitely below par. Back to the drawing board.

I decided to try the next deck that jumped out at me and ultimately this is what I registered:

Untitled Deck

Gold Myr

Silver Myr

Copper Myr

Leaden Myr

Corpse Cur

Wall of Tanglecord

Necropede

Necrotic Ooze

Razor Hippogriff

Sunblast Angel

Fume Spitter

Skinrender

Chrome Steed

Bleak-Coven Vampires

Origin Spellbomb

Trigon of Corruption

Tumble Magnet

Arrest

Tempered Steel

Grasp of Darkness

Contagion Clasp

Heavy Ballista

8 Plains

8 Swamp

You could run Kemba here, but besides the Ballista, I don’t really like the equipment in this deck. If I had something sweet like a Darksteel Axe, I’d be all over it. I’m not too excited about filling a deck with mediocre equipment just for a shot at running Kemba. Also I feel the Ballista and the Vampires could be Ghalmas Warden or Kemba's Skyguard, but in the end I like this configuration the best. I’m sort of on the fence with running the Corpse Curs and Necropede, but I figure I can chain them, recur them with the Hippogriff or turn them into monsters with Tempered Steel.

The last issue to address is whether or not to jam the Iron Myr into the deck and the Galvanizers and go all in on Myr/Tempered Steel. I agonized over this possibility right up to time, and we would probably take out the Infect creatures to make that happen. Maybe I was wrong and that was the right way to go, but without Palladium Myr or any Perilous Myr, I felt that wasn’t too exciting. There are plenty of artifact creatures as is and if they removed my Galvanizer, I would end up with a bunch of mana critters that don’t do anything. I may be wrong on this though, I would be interested to hear what people say in the forums. How would you have built this pool?

As for the PTQ itself, I won game 1 of round 1 by playing constant 2-for-1s. I Skinrendered a creature, got another with Contagion Clasp, and retrieved a Chrome Steed that fell on his sword with Razor Hippogriff while I slowly ground him out.

Game 2, I managed to throw away like a master. I killed his Golem Artisan with Skinrender and unintelligently ran my Necrotic Ooze right into his Vulshok Replica, not realizing if I hang back with it, I can use the Ooze to pump my other artifact creatures. This allowed him to get back into the game and overwhelm me, whereas I would have had him on his back foot otherwise.

Game 3, I continued Puntapalooza 2010 with him at 4 life. I had a 3/3 and a Gold Myr, but only one Plains. He had three tapped guys, an untapped Forest and Mountain, and 2 cards in hand, and I drew Sunblast Angel. I decided to just attack and win right there rather than wrath his board with the Angel.

Obviously he had the Galvanic Blast I didn’t see in either game as his last card. That didn't make my play any better because clearly wiping his board was right. He got back into the game, but I drew Contagion Clasp and two Tumble Magnets. I even managed to deplete all of the counters before trying to proliferate one on with the Clasp. Pro tip: that doesn’t work.

Eventually I drew a second White source, killed two of his guys, and proliferate away his untapped Acid Web Spider to just kill him. I felt really bad winning this match because I sure as hell didn’t deserve it. Oh well, time to buck up for round 2.

The next round the judge pulled me aside and I got my first deck registration game loss in my PTQ career. I forgot to register Fume Spitter so I had a 39 card deck. Wow. No excuses there... that is just unacceptable. The last thing I wanted to do here is tilt, so I quickly collected myself. Afterall, I only needed two games to pull this out, right? I elected to draw for game 2 since I feel my deck is better suited for control. My opponent snap kept and I kept a pretty good hand myself.

I died on turn 6.

He had turn 2 Leonin Shikari, turn 3 Darksteel Axe, equip, bash. Turn 4 Tumble Magnet, turn 5 Glimmerpoint Stag, reset Tumble Magnet and turn 6 Barbed Battlegear on the stack to get in for lethal. What a beating. He showed me his deck afterwards and he had no bombs and quite a few subpar card choices, so he basically nut drew me. I felt like I could take him in 3 games, but because of my sloppiness, I didn't get the chance.

With my head hung low in shame, I sauntered over to an Extended side event going on and see my buddy (and Wizards of the Coast employee) Dwayne St. Arnauld battling.
Expecting commiseration, I complain, “Dwayne, why am I so bad?”

“Because you don’t play enough”

…

That was a little more brutally honest than I was expecting. He was absolutely right.

“Also, you aren’t as good as you think you are, and you think your opponents are worse than they are.”

Ouch. Once again he’s right. I really haven’t been playing that much Magic lately and maybe that’s why I’ve done so bad in the last year. I basically only play PTQs, the occasional draft on MODO, and FNM where most of the players are not really competitive. I’m definitely making mistakes that I normally don’t make. I usually play better than this. Really.

I collected myself for round 3 of the PTQ where, after a repair, I’m playing against Gavin ‘The Aura’ Verhey. I lost game 1 to a solid draw from him and I flooded out and died to fliers. Game 2 hurts me to recount. He got Sylvok Lifestaff going early and we trade off creatures. I resolved Tempered Steel and played some Myr. I also got both Tumble Magnets online, but he suited up every guy with the Lifestaff before they died, and he was up to 30-some life.

Gavin resolved Steel Hellkite at some point, and I kept it locked down with Tumble Magnet. I finally decided to go on the offensive when his board consisted of the Hellkite, Sylvok Lifestaff, a Myr, and one card in hand. I attacked with a Skinrender and two 3/3 mana Myr. Obviously, the card in his hand was Dispense Justice and I sacrificed the Skinrender and my Gold Myr. To my horror, I realized that I only have one Plains and Sunblast Angel in hand.

This was bad on so many levels. I didn't draw the Plains for three turns, at which point he played a Rust Tick and locked down one of my Tumble Magnets. I hit brick after brick and he managed to connect with the Hellkite to blows up my board for 3. On my next turn I found a Plains and resolved Sunblast Angel to get his dragon. He had removal for my Angel and more removal for the Trigon of Corruption I played.

I then started resolving Corpse Curs, and now the plan is poison. I topdecked Razor Hippogriff to get back Trigon of Corruption instead of a Tumble Magnet. This plan soon became atrocious when he plays his own Sunblast Angel. The Angel killed me and I dropped in disgust.

I’m not trying to be negative, although I’m sure it seems quite the opposite. Rather than dwell on my failure, I played a couple team cube drafts with Canadians and failed to win a game in the first draft where I was not mono Red, then didn't drop a game in the second draft where I was mono Red. Go figure.

As the second draft was wrapping up, Dwayne approached me and invited me to his 30th birthday bash going on that night in Bellevue. I was hesitant at first, but the allure of drinking my problems away appealed to me. This wa all fine and dandy, until I realized I have two minors in my charge, Ian and Doogle. I figured Doogle will just crash at the party regardless, but _ik is only 16 and his mom kept texting him asking when he was going to be home. Awkward

Liquor carried the day and after the second cube draft, we piled into my car and went to Dwayne’s party. The place was absolutely packed and had an awesome view of downtown Bellevue. There were about 50-60 people present, mostly gamers, and there was all kinds of awesome food, cake, alcohol, cake and that’s all I remember. Yeah, I brought minors to a party with alcohol. No, I did not give them alcohol. I mean, I was drinking when I was 16-18, but I’m not going to get a minor drunk; even I have morals.

The gameplan at first was to just have a beer, hang out for an hour, then head home. Boring. After 2-3 beers and a couple hours of Apples to Eldrazi (think Apples to Apples, but using Magic cards instead. You make up your own topics, and most topics were not PG-rated. It was a blast), that plan went right out the window. Instead, I managed to pawn Ian off on Teddy Vitro who was also heading south and volunteered to drive him home.

What followed should have been me getting blitzed, but it wasn’t to be. Someone handed me a can of Keystone Light, AKA the nut low of beers. I tried to chug it and made it about ¾ of the way through when I got horribly sick. I didn’t touch a drop of alcohol after that. I was sober by midnight. Which worked out just fine since about 20 of us gathered round for a game of Mafia.

For those of you who haven’t played it, it’s the latest non-Magic, non-karaoke pastime that has infiltrated the Northwest Magic scene. Since this article is running long, I’ll very quickly summarize: everyone is dealt a card and is assigned to be either Mafia or townsfolk. The idea is for the Mafia to kill all the townsfolk or the townsfolk to kill all the Mafia. During the day (usually a 5-10 minute period), everyone interrogates each other and tries to figure out who is Mafia and who isn’t. At the end of the day, they collectively vote to lynch one person and that person leaves the game. Then everyone closes their eyes (nighttime) and the Mafia wake up to kill one person by pointing at them. In our two games of about 20 players, we had 4 who were Mafia. There are other specialized townsfolk roles as well, but you get the basic idea.

I hadn’t played this game in years and really had no idea what was going on. I was Mafia in both of the games we played and was quickly sniffed out in both. I hadn’t fully digested the more political points of the game or how to lie/dodge suspicion. I found it very entertaining and definitely plan on playing in the future, even if I was awful.

Anyway, I was sober at the end of the second game and drove our 16 year old friend home at 3am before proceeding to crash in my bed for twelve hours.

It appears I rambled a bit, but I hope I entertained you. I feel I have come to a crossroads of sorts in my Magic career. I’m clearly not playing enough Magic right now to be operating at full capacity, and the number of stupid mistakes I’ve been making is embarrassing. The question is, do I redouble my efforts and dedicate myself fully to the game, or do I ride off into the sunset of casual-competitive play, or do I find other pursuits? I think most people reach this decision point sooner or later, and the answer is different for everyone. I guess time will tell if I can get the fire back or not.

Thanks for reading and if I meet you at a holiday party, would you kindly spike my egg nog for me?

-Cheers and Happy Holidays,

G Pelly

Spoilers: You Can’t Go Back Again

Posted on January 6, 2011January 11, 2011 by Jay Kirkman

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Another page in the book of years has turned, and now that the madness of the holidays has passed us and life begins to resume normalcy we can begin to devote our collective attentions to something of far deeper significance: Silly Season. First a drip, then a trickle, and eventually a flood. That's a sure sign that ~~you need to see a doctor~~ the new set spoilers are upon us, and by the time the set is released we'll already have knowledge of most everything the set promises us. As I write this we've nearly a dozen already, from Glissa to the Hero of Bladehold. No doubt by the time you're reading this, we'll have a few more.

This is actually an improved state of affairs.

Seems it wasn't all that long ago when sets would be leaked well before launch, and by the time the set release rolled about the cards were in some ways already old hat. As a card-carrying member of the Preconstructed Community, I have as much reason as anyone to get excited about the new offerings. Sure, I won't be salivating at what new pistons might be available for my Standard engine, or begin adjusting my draft strategies for Limited, but not only do I get the whimsy and wonder that greets a new pool of cards I also get four more Intro Decks as well as the brand-new Event Decks. Why, it's like Christmas all over again!

And if New Year's be the time of resolutions, I'm calling mine now: I hereby resolve to greedily devour every last morsel or crumb that falls from Wizard's table into my empty tin bowl. I'll read every spoiler, look up every card, and enjoy hours of speculative podcasting bliss. I will not make the same mistake I did with Scars of Mirrodin.

Yep, a mistake, like the best of them made with the very best of intentions. I think that for most as we begin to attain a certain age we start to look back at the things and experiences of youth with an overfond remembrance, which can sometimes temper the wisdom of the present. Sometimes this is minor, like buying my stepson five Star Wars figures to put under the tree rather than the agreed-upon three, because hey, what's a budget compared to the opportunity to let him experience the glories I had when I was a kid (our figures were better, by the way). Sometimes they're major, like making a ridiculous automotive choice. Fortunately the mistake I'm relating might be slightly closer to the former than the latter, but not by much.

To understand the youth I'd attempted to recapture, it probably would help to spend a few moments there. It was 1998, and without the mad chatter of the internet Magic was a game played in far more isolation. There was no "Gatherer" to speak of, though you could get card lists in arrears. Instead of spoilers, we had teaser ads. Prereleases weren't at your "local FNM," but rather held in only a very limited number of places. It's probably a fair statement to say that I was at least as excited to go to my first Prerelease as I was to go see a Maiden or Ramones show.

To me, this will forever be a "golden age," walking into a crowded venue with almost no knowledge of what cards you were about to open. Every booster busted would pare back the 'fog of war' ever-so-slightly, and tons of tricks and surprises awaited you within your opponents' libraries.

I don't remember a lot of these tricks and surprises now, but looking over the set list in Gatherer triggers a few echoing memories. Running afoul of a Bullwhip. Swinging in with a Cloud Spirit. The joy of Death Stroke, the agony of an opposing Wall of Souls. Piling back in the car with my mates after the event, passing cards back and forth amongst one another and sharing what we all saw, and continuing back at an Irish pub in Stamford over Guinnesses and the best bread pudding I've ever eaten.

See what's happening there? New cards to cameraderie and shared passion amongst friends to what I had for dinner. Like any good reminiscence, you have all sorts of feelings and sensations wrapped into one very cherished memory, and once embedded they are quite hard to shake.

Molten-Tail Masticore — The beautiful unknown...

And so sometime around last August and deep in the throes of nostalgia, I made a public pledge that I would be avoiding any and all spoilers from the upcoming set, Scars of Mirrodin. It's harder than it seems! Like some imperial court's official food taster, I had to gingerly sample everything before it was open for consumption. Scanning my Twitter feed, peeking at Magic sites through half-lidded eyes and becoming familiar with skipping over entire sections of Monday Night Magic, I almost desperately wanted to recapture that feeling I had for Stronghold, where every card you see is one you've laid eyes onto for the first time.

For the most part, my grand experiment was a success. Sure I'd heard a bit about Koth of the Hammer, and that poison counters were back, but almost all of the card pool was undiscovered country. And so the very first day I could, I came home with five Intro Decks packed under my arm. I discovered proliferate though Deadspread, infect through Phyrexian Poison, and metalcraft via, well, Metalcraft. The Myr were back, too, and of course there was the artifact-smashing Relic Breaker. Once again, each game was as much about exploration of the set as it was was about strategy and winning.

It didn't take too long for the euphoria to fade, though, for when you've layered something in the romance of time what reality could hope to compete? After a number of games with the new decks I'd seen all they had to offer, and the mystique had begun to fade. And I was left with a very sobering realisation:

I don't know shit about the new set.

Sure I could pore through the Fat Pack's Players Guide. I could spend an errant hour on Gatherer sorting and resorting. But somehow, it almost seemed like information overload. I'm far from old, but I'm at a point where I can't snap off each and every card at a fingersnap like my 12-year-old stepdaughter does. And as the world continued to turn, new decks were brewed and limited strategies developed, I felt very much like I'd missed the bus. When it came time to start rolling out the Ertai's Meddlings for my site (where I take a precon and refine/rebuild it), I was distraught. They'd virtually written themselves for M11, but here I had to improve using a card pool I just didn't have much of a feel for.

It wasn't long before the realisation dawned upon me: I'd hamstrung myself. Perhaps the virtue of Silly Season isn't that it feeds your curiosity for the new set, but rather that it does so in very digestible portions. A few cards here, a few cards there, and by the time it's out you've got a very solid working knowledge. Trying to learn over two-hundred new cards at the quick-step? Ahh, to be young again!

Glissa the Traitor — I resolve to spoil you rotten, my dear

So this time, I'm making my resolution clear- bring on the spoilers! I'll take my set dose by dose, please, and be thankful for the privilege. Although I eventually got comfortable with Scars, it was a worthy reminder that you really can't go back again. Stronghold, I'll always love you, but I'll never try to recapture you again. Instead, I'll just dust you off from time to time, and tell stories of [card Pursuit of Knowledge]drawing seven cards[/card], [card Rolling Stones]attacking walls[/card], and [card Serpent Warrior]a hiss before dying[/card].

And now, about those Crusaders...

The Basics of Trading Part 1

Posted on January 6, 2011May 17, 2011 by Noah Whinston

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Hey everyone, and welcome to Whinston’s Whisdom on Quiet Spec. I have to say, I am very excited for this new Insider launch and the way that QS has really taken off since I started writing for it, let alone reading it. Today I wanted to act like I had a fresh slate to work with (a Tabula Rasa for those of you more familiar with psychology), and try and teach the most basic elements of trading to someone who had never tried it before, but not just the trade itself, the tactics of which card stock to own, which tournaments to attend and how to keep your collection mobile enough to stay secure through rapid market changes and also be able to cash out when cards are the hot new tech. And so, with no further ado…

The Beginning Investment, or, Your Cardstock:

Obviously, the first thing necessary in order to trade, are actual cards to trade with! Choosing how to divide up your investment is going to be different by your area and local community, but here’ roughly how I like to do it.

--50% Standard Competitive Staples. I don’t mean turn half your money into the Big Bamf Jace. These staples don’t even have to be rares. But they should all be cards that will trade easily to anyone who plays Standard even at the semi competitive FNM level. Because Standard is the most populous format by far, these are the cards that you are going to turn around the quickest.

--5% Extended staples. This is one of the sections that will depend a bit on your local scene. I play and trade at Pastimes, one of the largest stores in the Midwest, so there’s a strong crop of competitive players. These are the only people who will want Extended stuff, and they will only want it when the season draws close. Extended has never been popular at all outside of the PTQ circuit, so that’s pretty much the only area you’ll be able to unload it. Thankfully, Extended staples drop WAY down in price during the offseason, so if you’re willing to wait a few months, you can usually pick up an easy 15-40%

--15% Eternal staples. Again, slightly dependent on your local area, but Eternal definitely has a larger following than Extended, so it’s not as risky. Two important things here are pimp and condition. Because Eternal players will often play the same deck for years, they are willing to spend a bit more to get a cool copy of a card, either foreign, or foil, or signed, altered, etc. Therefore eternal pimp cards have a higher difference between the non-foil and foil price than do cards for other formats. Condition is also very important. Because Eternal cards are, well, ETERNAL, they tend to not always be in mint condition. Be aware of this and adjust your pricing accordingly.

--10% Casual cards. This might be the most underrated section of a trader’s collection. I love carrying around some cards that I know any new or casual player will love. From the oldie-but-goodies like Sliver Queen to newer stuff like Kalonian Behemoth or Hellkite Overlord, the cards that these players want are not ones that will fit into any of the other categories. Often, these players won’t have much in the way of money rares to pass your way, but I tend to use these opportunities to bulk out a card. Let’s say I have a 25 cent rare that a player at my local store wants. He’ll give me 4 crappy rares in Standard, and I can sell those for 10 cents each, meaning I just made a 60% profit on that card.

--20% liquid assets. THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A TRADER’S INVESTMENT. If you don’t keep a sizable amount of your investment liquid and ready to be used, I promise you, you will regret it (Ebay doesn’t tend to accept Magic cards as payment). I’ve been guilty of skimping on this myself, and it’s always come back to hurt me. I was on Magic Online at the moment of the new Extended rotation announcement and was able to make about 200 tickets with just the spare 50 tix I had in my account, because I had no money on Paypal. But if I had thought ahead, I could’ve profited much more from my foresight, because I would then have more resources to pump into this new and profitable investment. Never leave yourself optionless, and keeping some of your investment in cash form gives you the liquidity needed to succeed.

One final note before we move on, always try to keep your collection modern. By keeping up to date on new decks, you can then shift those cards into your binder to try and trade them off (such as Jwari Shapeshifter from the rumored but never confirmed Japanese ally deck).

Pick an area:

Pick your turf. Where will you be spending most of your time trading? Where do all the players hang out to game? You always want to be at the hub of activity, as that is what brings in the profit.

--FNM: The staple area for trading. Almost any serious store will hold good sized tournaments on Fridays, usually Standad though some will be Drafts. FNM is the most diverse scene because the most types of players play in it, and also provides a convenient way to pick up hot cards before going to a big tournament on the weekend.

--Prerelease/Release tournament: Here I’m referring to the larger regional tournaments, not the local ones that have become more common since Wizards started putting the emphasis on them. But the regional tournaments still pull players in from surprisingly far. I tend to think of these as super FNMs, where you’ll be able to pick up some new stock that your local scene might not have, as well as speculate and trade for some of the new cards.

--Local Eternal tournaments: I count these as separate from FNMs even though they can be of a similar size because of the massive difference in the type of players at these two events. Personally, Eternal tournaments are my favorite to trade at, because this is where you'll get to unload all the Eternal stuff you picked up off of Standard players at FNM. It's worth keeping in mind though that Eternal players rarely if ever have type 2 cards for trade, so in the situation where we can't work out a deal that I like swapping some Eternal cards for others, it's often possible to just get cash for them.

--PTQs: Ah the sweet smell of the blue envelope. I'll be honest, every time I'm at a PTQ, I came to game, not trade. But, after a poor performance, there's no better way to pick yourself back up than by turning a profit trading. PTQs are much like Eternal tournaments in that they give you a chance to offload a subset of your collection, in this case the higher end Standard staples and the Extended staples when they're in season. Very few people at FNM are going to be interested in plunking down $80 worth of cards for a Jace, but at PTQs you'll be dealing with a more competitive crowd, who needs that last Jace for their U/W deck when they PTQ again next week. They're also the only people who care about Extended at all. At limited PTQs, I never manage to trade away very much, but picking up new cards there is always very easy because so much product is being opened, and I then like to hold that product until the season has switched and prices have risen.

--GPs/PTs (or open series tournament like Starcity Games and TCGPlayer): the cream of the crop. These are the largest Magic events that anyone can attend, and give you a huge market for cards. There's no way to determine ahead of time what kind of players will be in attendance, so bring everything you have, and play the field. Don't get too desperate and make a bad deal, but don't get too greedy either and let a fair deal fall through.

That's all for this section of looking at trading, but I'll be back with part 2 next week. A quick tip for you Extended speculators, a RUG Pestermite combo deck made the top 4 of the most recent Extended PTQ on Magic Online. This is a rogue contender, but continued success for the archetype could easily send the price of Splinter Twin through the roof, when compared to its current price of course. Otherwise, that's all for now, and I hope you'll join me again next week, but until then, be sure to check out some of this other amazing content here on Quiet Spec!

--Noah Whinston

Arcadefire on MTGO

mtgplayer@sbcglobal.net

nwhinston on Twitter

baldr7mtgstore on Ebay

Get Out of the Pool!

Posted on January 5, 2011January 11, 2011 by Usman Jamil

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So for, I've shared some cube theory and how to use it to build a pool of cards that create a cube. I've discussed establishing a cube's foundations. Now it's time to bring a concrete example to the party and discuss how to make these initial lessons come to fruition using the white section of a commons cube.

I created a pool of white cards through normal means, like looking through the Gatherer, personal experiences with cards, and checking other cube's lists.

Look at this mess! I wanted to make the hypothetical white section an even 65 cards but this pile is almost twice the size of that! It looks like a daunting task but the best way to approach this is to do it in small chunks. If you haven't already, you should sort your cards by mana cost. This is how the pile breaks down.

White Commons Cube Pool

1 CC

1 Glint Hawk

1 Martyr of Sands

1 Akrasan Squire

1 Deftblade Elite

1 Benevolent Bodyguard

1 Mosquito Guard

1 Steppe Lynx

1 Infantry Veteran

1 Shade of Trokair

1 Knight of Sursi

1 Goldmeadow Harrier

1 Origin Spellbomb

1 Clergy of the Holy Nimbus

1 Icatian Javelineers

1 Wall of Hope

1 Caravan Escort

1 Hyena Umbra

1 Seize the Initiative

1 Guilty Conscience

1 Mana Tithe

1 Kirtars Desire

1 Niveous Wisps

1 Sunlance

2 CC

1 Wall of Glare

1 Benalish Cavalry

1 Fledgling Griffin

1 Kor Skyfisher

1 Soltari Trooper

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Order of the Golden Cricket

1 Kinsbaile Skirmisher

1 Whitemane Lion

1 Order of Leitbur

1 Youthful Knight

1 Kami of Ancient Law

1 Ikiral Outrider

1 Blinding Mage

1 Knight of Cliffhaven

1 Blade of the Sixth Pride

1 Kor Line-Slinger

1 Master Decoy

1 Lone Missionary

1 Ronom Unicorn

1 Veteran Armorsmith

1 Kitsune Loreweaver

1 Dragon Scales

1 Glint Hawk Idol

1 Puncturing Light

1 Guided Strike

1 Journey to Nowhere

1 Cho-Mannos Blessing

1 Shelter

1 Temporal Isolation

1 Renewed Faith

1 Angelic Renewal

1 Disenchant

1 Seal of Cleansing

1 Raise the Alarm

1 Pacifism

1 Mighty Leap

1 Triclopean Sight

1 Judge Unworthy

3 CC

1 Veteran Swordsmith

1 Devout Witness

1 Wispmare

1 Gustcloak Harrier

1 Soltari Lancer

1 Dawnglare Invoker

1 Diving Griffin

1 Kitsune Blademaster

1 Soltari Visionary

1 Shu Cavalry

1 Kabuto Moth

1 Aven Riftwatcher

1 Kembas Skyguard

1 Kor Hookmaster

1 Apex Hawks

1 Burrenton Bombardier

1 Guardians of Akrasa

1 Righteous Charge

1 Arrest

1 Oblivion Ring

1 Kor Chant

1 Marshaling Cry

1 Safe Passage

1 Steeling Stance

1 Empyrial Armor

1 Prismatic Strands

1 Repel the Darkness

1 Fortify

1 Cage of Hands

4 CC

1 Aven Liberator

1 Flickering Spirit

1 Loxodon Anchorite

1 Aven Redeemer

1 Keeneye Aven

1 Assault Griffin

1 Makindi Griffin

1 Sanctum Gargoyle

1 Guardian of the Guildpact

1 Coalition Honor Guard

1 Ballynock Trapper

1 Kor Sanctifiers

1 False Defeat

1 Breath of Life

1 Cenns Enlistment

1 Faiths Fetters

1 Inspired Charge

1 Blinding Beam

5 CC

1 Welkin Guide

1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest

1 Lowland Tracker

1 Plover Knights

1 Castle Raptors

6 CC

1 Noble Templar

1 Conclave Equenaut

Ah, much better!

Now that you've organized your potential section by casting cost the first step is understanding what the color can do at each mana cost and keep the cards that are "above the curve" for their mana cost. Why use "above the curve" in quotation marks? You can't simply always auto-include the best cards at a given mana cost and call it a day. That is, not every cube-worthy 2-drop in green is going to be as good as Tarmogoyf and not every cube-worthy 2 mana blue spell is going to be Mana Drain. Let's look at River Boa for example. In a powered cube it's weaker than Tarmogoyf (and by a pretty big margin, but what 2-drop isn't). Yet, River Boa's a really good cube card and considered a staple at that!

Why? It's because it doesn't make sense to dismiss River Boa just because it's not Tarmogoyf. While it doesn't have three or more power for 1G like Tarmogoyf it still is excellent compared to other green cards at 2 mana. Two power isn't anything amazing, but cheap regeneration and a relevant landwalking effect make it above the curve for 2 mana creatures.

And in the context of a commons cube its power is even more relevant because its competition gets weaker!

Similarly, Lightning Bolt is the most efficient burn spell ever printed (with, perhaps, only Fireblast beating it when you cast it for free) and it's an obvious cube inclusion because there's nothing better at nearly any mana cost. YetIncinerate is still cubeworthy because even at 2 mana three damage is still very efficient given what the curve establishes for burn effects. Going further, even Volcanic Hammer and Fire Ambush, sorcery-speed versions of Incinerate (that also lose the regeneration hosing!) are often good enough for cubes because their effect remains efficient: threee damage for 2 mana, even at sorcery speed, is good enough! Does it matter that these three 2-mana burn spells are "worse" than Lightning Bolt? Nope!

Let's apply this to the white removal cards in the pool of cards. Pacifism, Journey to Nowhere, Temporal Isolation, Oblivion Ring, and Faith's Fetters are considered the top staple white enchantment-based removal spells for commons cubes. But what about other cards like AWOL, Guilty Conscience, and Neck Snap? Should they get cut from the pool?

Neck Snap's a pretty easy cut as it just gets outclassed by almost everything available. AWOL shares a pretty similar fate for similar reasons. Guilty Conscience may be dirt-cheap but its overall effect is very weak and situational. Overall, I think that none of these cards are good enough to make the cut. They each have their own benefits but aren't prime to shine here.

The next step is to do an analysis of what you want the color to do. This is best done by analyzing the color pairs since tri-color and 4-color decks are often more the exception than the rule. So let's look at the white color pairs and how they perform best:

White-Red: Generally aggressive. Goes into battle with lots of cheap creatures and stops troublesome blockers with either burn or removal, and packs artifact/enchantment answers to boot. Thanks to Red's burn, most red-white decks have a lot of reach to simply end games.
White-Blue: Generally controlling. Uses white enchantment-based removal and counterspells to prolong the game where the card advantage gained over the course of many turns allows the player to win... eventually.
White-Black: Generally aggressive, sometimes more controlling. Aggressive white-black decks utilize cheap and powerful creatures on both colors, ignoring drawbacks on bodies like Carnophage, use tons of removal to destroy opposing blockers, and apply some disruption. Control variants seek to use the same removal cards (as well as black's mass-removal cards) to prolong the game and win through through recursion effects.
White-Green: Generally aggressive, sometimes midrange. Green gives white mana acceleration and solid top-of-the-curve beef, which is why the archetype is friendly for midrange as well. Green's myriad of subtle 2-for-1s (like in Civic Wayfinder or Penumbra Spider for pauper cubes) give midrange strategies a solid base to win through card advantage.

You'll notice that only one of the archetypes in white really goes for the control route, white-blue, and that the other three color pairs are aggressive. It's important to keep this configuration in mind so that white decks will have sufficient support for its decks as you evaluate which cards stay and which cards go. It's a common pitfall for powered cube designers to put every mass-removal effect into white. Winds of Rath, Kirtar's Wrath, Austere Command, and a few others piled into a very crowded top-end.

This is wrong because it fails to acknowledge that there may not be any need for this many mass-removal effects in white. While archetypes like white-red and white-green ramp that could certainly enjoy a Wrath or two, but having every Wrath under the sun in a cube is ignoring the fact that a majority of its decks don't need these effects. Similarly, it's important to not have too many top heavy mana cost cards in general in a white section as the mana curve should have a good amount of cards at 1 mana, peak at 2 and gradually decrease along the mana curve; the curve should reflect the aggressive tendencies of the color.

For powered cubes I've found that the average mana cost for white should be not too far from 3, likely somewhere between 3 to 3.3, so that aggressive decks can thrive and have appropriate support yet control decks have their tools present and accounted for as well. However not every low-cost card is going to help aggro decks:white aggro decks in common and common/uncommon cubes won't want to use Kirtar's Desire or Condemn as these cards are awful for those archetypes. I've discussed supporting aggro decks in cube elsewhere, but to summarize it's very important to appropriately support aggro strategies in cube for the benefit of the entire experience, and the best way is through managing the mana curve.

How do you calculate this? Fellow cube designer Adam Styborski has a really nice spreadsheet that he uses for his pauper cube, but there are other online resources to use as well. Deckstats.net allows you to post just a list of cards in your cube and it'll calculate the average costs. You can even input alternate costs (like WWW for Spectral Procession instead of the n0rmally assigned 6 colorless) so that you can get a more accurate reflection of your mana curve. Just don't cheat and say that something like Woodfall Primus is a 1-drop because it gets pitched to Entomb.

This step really helps you to jettison some of the overcosted cards from a cube. Someone may keep Conclave Equenaut in their common cube initially but closely examining the mana costs helps designers ask themselves hard questions: "Is Equenaut really worth 6 mana when those effects are at a premium?"

That doesn't mean that you should never consider these cards for your cube again. I have a small box of cards for my cubes that I use as a virtual "bench" for cards that aren't in my cube right now but are very close to coming back (a topic I discussed over at Cubedrafting.com). Maybe I'll need a token generator, or another 2-drop creature, or something else entirely. Whatever reason just because those cards aren't in my cube right now doesn't mean that they're gone forever. Cards that were pared down from my initial pool, when I made my commons list, went to the bench. Eventually, some cards got taken out because of increased competition (like 5-cost green cards in my powered cube) but for the most part, those cards aren't forgotten and are just waiting for the right circumstances to change.

Feel free to continue to pour over the pile listed above and work up your own initial section for while. When you're ready, this is what my commons cube white section looks now:

Commons Cube: White Section

Creatures

1 Akrasan Squire

1 Benevolent Bodyguard

1 Caravan Escort

1 Deftblade Elite

1 Goldmeadow Harrier

1 Icatian Javelineers

1 Martyr of Sands

1 Shade of Trokair

1 Steppe Lynx

1 Benalish Cavalry

1 Blade of the Sixth Pride

1 Fledgling Griffin

1 Kami of Ancient Law

1 Knight of Cliffhaven

1 Kor Skyfisher

1 Lone Missionary

1 Order of Leitbur

1 Order of the Golden Cricket

1 Raise the Alarm

1 Ronom Unicorn

1 Soltari Trooper

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Veteran Armorsmith

1 Youthful Knight

1 Wall of Glare

1 Apex Hawks

1 Aven Riftwatcher

1 Kabuto Moth

1 Kembas Skyguard

1 Kor Hookmaster

1 Shu Cavalry

1 Soltari Lancer

1 Soltari Visionary

1 Aven Liberator

1 Cenns Enlistment

1 Coalition Honor Guard

1 Guardian of the Guildpact

1 Kor Sanctifiers

1 Sanctum Gargoyle

1 Castle Raptors

1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest

1 Noble Templar

Non-creatures

1 Hyena Umbra

1 Sunlance

1 Mana Tithe

1 Niveous Wisps

1 Kirtars Desire

1 Pacifism

1 Shelter

1 Journey to Nowhere

1 Temporal Isolation

1 Cho-Mannos Blessing

1 Disenchant

1 Angelic Renewal

1 Seal of Cleansing

1 Kor Chant

1 Burrenton Bombardier

1 Oblivion Ring

1 Cage of Hands

1 Repel the Darkness

1 Prismatic Strands

1 Breath of Life

1 False Defeat

1 Blinding Beam

1 Faiths Fetters

Like any good cube, this list is always subject to change. Refining a cube is an ongoing process which you'll be doing for as long as you have your cube; taking cards out that aren't doing that much, rebalancing archetypes and support, and many other things that impact your cube are all part of the adventure. As a cube designer, striving for Kaizen (constant improvement) is key. It's the first step in a long journey but it's an incredibly fun and rewarding one at that!

If you have been looking to start building a cube I hope that this article has helped you to take those first steps. And if you're an experienced cube designer I hope that you'll consider creating a "bench" of possibilities for your cube. Going forward I'll be discussing more advanced cube theory, around topics like opportunity cost, and will continue to reference ideas that were brought up in these introductory articles.

As always, cheers!
Cube blog: idratherbecubing.wordpress.com
Twitter: @UsmanTheRad