|
Okay, so the last league didn't go so well, because it was only one week. So I've decided to do another, proper, four week one. It's a Ravnica and Guildpact league, starting with a Ravnica tournament pack and two Guildpact boosters. I will open them live, as I did last time. Here we go... WHITE
BLUE
BLACK
RED
GREEN
ARTIFACT
MULTICOLOR
LAND
Well, those rares are kinda shit. Quicken boo (dear me, that's an Animaniacs pun, sorry), Bloodbond March is no good in limited, Hunted Phantasm is very questionable. Chord of Calling is vaguely playable, and I've been stomped by Wurmweaver Coil before, so I know it's not bad. Faith's Fetters must be played, Pillory of the Sleepless is also very good, I love Blind Hunter and Dimir House Guard... I'm thinking black/green/white again. Let's see what I can slap together. 6 Forest
1 Blind Hunter
1 Chord of Calling
Here's the decklist. When I play limited, I try to go for as much evasion as possible, favoring it over big, meaty creatures that smash their way through enemy walls. We can see that here in Dimir House Guard, Screeching Griffin, Blind Hunter, Silhana Ledgewalker and Mourning Thrull, with Mortipede thrown in to basically make everything else unblockable. Let's see what happens when I play it... First game, I won handily. Second game, I lost. Third game, I lost in large part due to making a huge mistake on my opponent's third turn. I never recovered from it. Whether I would have recovered even if I hadn't made that mistake is debatable. I'm going to make some adjustments. Remove Screeching Griffin and a Plains, add Golgari Brownscale and a Forest. I think I'd rather have the extra green creature for Wurmweaver Coil to target, plus the potential lifegain. Second match was very good, and very long. I won the first game pretty easily. Almost won the second, but got taken out quite skillfully at the end, and pretty much dominated the third. Faith's Fetters plus Douse in Gloom plus Pillory of the Sleepless plus Last Gasp makes for a lot of creatures that are either removed or inconsequential. I like the deck so far, though I worry a bit about its mana. Particularly its black mana. I had an opponent steal a Swamp from me early in one game, and it took me several turns to draw more black mana, which filled my hand with necessary black cards. This deck depends on black, really. In another game, I had a lot of trouble drawing the second black mana I needed to play Hissing Miasma. I'm kinda second guessing the two "Karoos," as they form a white base, and white is the color this deck needs least. I also wonder how worthwhile Grifter's Blade is. Ghost Warden is pretty fun, but it can be used at instant speed, and Grifter's Blade can't beyond its first application. I'm not sure how useful Orzhov Euthanist is, but I guess it does come with two chances to kill something, albeit in very specialized circumstances. I don't tend to attack into blockers, though, so it's tough for me to get off damage-dependant sorcery-speed removal (in fact, I wonder why this card was even made, as it doesn't seem to fit the Orzhov philosophy). Finally, I question Sinstriker's Will, as I don't have a lot of creatures that make it really worthwhile (though Sinstriker's Will on a Mortipede is something to behold). Though it can take down a toughness of 4 when put on a creature with 1 power if that creature blocks and has Ghost Warden backing it up. MATCHES PLAYED: 2
I made a few more tweaks. I figured mass unblockability is better than +1/+1, so I exchanged Grifter's Blade for Bathe in Light. Decided that, if I just wanted another green creature with potential lifegain, Centaur Safeguard was a better choice than Golgari Brownscale. Then exchanged a Forest for a Swamp, so I have basically six of each land, except that two of the Plains are Karoos. So the deck looks like this now... 6 Forest
1 Blind Hunter
1 Bathe in Light
I played a match with this deck. Won a game easily, lost a game badly, then won a game easily. So I have a winning record right now. With 208 people in the league and two matches left to play, I am in an 18-way tie for 92nd place. Guaranteed to go up to at least 54th if I play the remaining two games. Before my next match, I'm going to try replacing Orzhov Euthanist with Lurking Informant. *plays match* This deck is working really well. I just won another match, 2-1, and the one game I lost was very close (my opponent was down to 1 life when he won). Lurking Informant is more useful than Orzhov Euthanist, in that it does something besides sit there and be 2/2. I'm now in 55th, guaranteed to go up to at least 35th place. Let's try again... *plays match* Okay, I went 2-0 in that one. I am now up to 17th place. This deck just dominates. I questioned it after the first two matches, but Orzhov Guildmage is a sweet, sweet card, and has won me more than one game. I'm just gonna go ahead and replace Sinstriker's Will with Screeching Griffin here, and we'll leave it for the time being. I've played my five games, so the rest will just be tiebreakers. If I got enough points in tiebreakers, I could potentially go all the way up to 7th. Goodness. So here is the deck I'm leaving off with: 6 Forest
1 Blind Hunter
1 Bathe in Light
MATCHES PLAYED: 5
I played a tiebreaker and won 2-0, so yay for me. I think the deck is pretty much as perfect as it can get right now, so I can't post much here about tinkering with it. But as I thought about it, I started to wonder... if the deck is so good, what am I going to change next week when I get to add a pack of Guildpact? So I have decided to look over the Guildpact card list and scout out potential changes. I see a number of things I'd like to get, and I think I could take out Screeching Griffin, Lurking Informant, Mortipede and/or Selesnya Evangel if the right replacements came along, and I can't imagine getting any more than four better cards in a single pack. On the card list, I can see eight commons I'd like, which are of course what I'm most likely to get, I think about twelve uncommons I wouldn't mind, and six or seven rares (actually eight, since I wouldn't turn down a Steam Vents just because I'm not playing its colors). I guess we'll see on Tuesday. I just played another tiebreaker, and lost 0-2. The guy's deck seemed a lot like mine; I only saw a couple of cards I don't have. So now I know how it feels to play against this deck. MATCHES PLAYED: 7
I decided to make one little tweak to the deck, which was to remove Lurking Informant and replace it with Spectral Searchlight. And I've been playing tiebreakers, with mixed results. Tiebreakers are very tricky business, because you actually lose a tiebreaker point for each match you lose. So it is kind of a gamble. Not much else to say about it, except that my losses tend to come from other black/white decks, usually with green or red. Coincidentally, everyone seems to be playing those decks now. I'm questioning Mortipede. I have never used it for its intended purpose. But I do think it's rather intimidating to attack into, so I guess it does a good job as a wall. We'll see. I'm also beginning to reconsider Bathe in Light, because everyone plays black and white, so its effect applies to my opponents as well. It is rarely useful. I'm thinking of replacing it with Withstand, or even Leave No Trace. Wait a minute... no, Leave No Trace would be very bad. Since Bathe in Light is failing and Leave No Trace would be terrible, I have to mention an opinion I have: radiance is a horrible ability, especially in Sealed. When I first saw this article that introduced us all to radiance, my first thought was, "So all your opponent's creatures get the bonus too." And this is proving extra true in Sealed, where everyone plays the same colors. There are ten cards with radiance. Bathe in Light is potentially useful, but could easily backfire by causing your own Faith's Fetters and Pillories of the Sleepless to fall off. Brightflame is great because it gives you life even if it wipes out some of your creatures.Cleansing Beam is dangerous, like Brightflame without the good side. Incite Hysteria is good because you won't care that your creatures can't block on your own turn. Leave No Trace could be good if there were decent, common enchantments that weren't white, which there aren't. Rally the Righteous is very questionable, because the bonus could easily be applied to your opponent's creatures, which would be very bad if you were the defending player since their attackers would not only get bigger, but also untap for blocking purposes. Surge of Zeal may as well not have radiance at all, and still sucks. Wojek Apothecary could create a bit of a stalemate, so yay for that. Wojek Embermage has actually given me difficulty, and single-handedly cripples decks that make lots of Saprolings, but becomes almost useless if the opponent is playing Veteran Armorer, which everyone does. Wojek Siren's effect is too small and two-sided to be worth the card slot. So what we see here is that, of these ten cards, only four are potentially useful. The ability would be better if you faced threats that weren't in your own colors, but as I said, everyone plays at least white, and usually red as well. So radiance can suck my nuts. MATCHES PLAYED: 13
Okay, it's week two. This is the deck I had at the end of week one: 6 Forest
1 Blind Hunter
1 Bathe in Light
Now I get to add... hm, I thought it was a Guildpact booster, but it looks like a Ravnica one. Oh well, let's see what happens... As soon as the damn thing arrives... Okay, let's see. Come on, something awesome! Boros Fury-Shield
Hmm. Farseek is good, Dimir House Guard is good, I can probably do something with Moonlight Bargain and Infectious Host, Elves of Deep Shadow ain't bad. Do I really need another Selesnya Evangel? My thoughts right now are these: Which leaves us with Farseek, Elves of Deep Shadow, and land. I wonder if I can afford to remove a land in favor of Farseek. Currently, fifteen of my twenty-two nonland cards cost two or three mana. That's cheap. I'm gonna try one less land, but with Farseek. Here's the deck I will start week two with: 4 Forest
1 Blind Hunter
1 Douse in Gloom
We'll see what happens... While I managed to play thirteen matches last week, I've fallen behind this week, and have only played two so far. But I won both matches handily, by scores of 2-1 and 2-0. Here are some things I've noticed:
I've replaced a Selesnya Evangel with Centaur Safeguard. Let's see what happens now. ... Well, I lost that match 0-2. His was essentially a Boros deck, red and white with a hint of green (see?), and effectively applied tons of weenie pressure, often with flying. Maybe now that people's Ravnica cards outnumber their Guildpact cards by a two-to-one ratio (which is stupid, by the way, because if they had given a Guildpact booster for week two instead of a Ravnica one, the numbers would have been even), people are falling back to the original guilds simply due to number. I guess that pack arrangement would make sense in other blocks, where the large set is the base one that includes necessities that the small sets build on. But Ravnica block has a weird thing going with these guilds, and each set is relatively self-contained. If you give people sixty cards to build a green/black, black/blue, white/red or green/white deck from, and then thirty to build a black/white, red/blue or green/red one, obviously one set of options is going to be superior. I'm not complaining that the deck I faced was unfair, I'm just saying that now Ravnica is going to outnumber Guildpact for all but the last week of the league, which I think is dumb. Match number four I won 2-1, and I should note that the game I lost was due to drawing eleven lands over the course of nine turns. Match number five, I won 2-0. Silhana Ledgewalker + Moldervine Cloak = ♥. Adding the Infectious Host seems to have been a good idea, as people seem to attack into it without a second thought, which is exactly why I put it in there. Also, those last two decks were green/red and blue/red, both Guildpact combinations. So maybe my rant was meritless. The deck is pretty much firing on all cylinders right now, and I think I can leave it alone until I get my next pack on Tuesday. As of right now, I'm in 16th place, which is good for winning six packs. That'll probably decrease as people play tiebreakers, though. I could potentially go down to around 20th. MATCHES PLAYED: 19
Okay, it's time to add a Guildpact pack. Let's see what I get. I hope it's tender Orzhov goodies. An Agent of Masks would not go amiss. Or even a Pillory of the Sleepless. I'm too realistic to hope for a Ghost Council of Orzhova or Godless Shrine. Another Orzhov Guildmage or Mouring Thrull would be nice. Heck, I can't go wrong if I just keep naming all the black and/or white cards, can I? I'm just killing time until the pack arrives. It's sure taking its sweet time. Hum hum... Oh, come on! Why is this taking so long? Ah, there it is. Okay, let's open it up! Benediction of Moons
Tibor and Lumia? I got that rare in the last league! Okay, so there's six cards in my colors, plus an artifact:
The deck is working so well as it is, I'm hesitant to make changes. I really would like Ostiary Thrull, though. Perhaps I can pull out Screeching Griffin. I also have a feeling that Shadow Lance would be delicious. But what can I remove to make room? Ghost Warden? I'll give that a try. Also, as I think of it, I'm gonna experiment with replacing Spectral Searchlight with Selesnya Signet. With three mana in play, I can play a Searchlight and get one mana, or play a Signet and get two. So here's the deck: 4 Forest
1 Blind Hunter
1 Douse in Gloom
Did you notice the mistake? I didn't. I left the Ghost Warden in after I said I was going to take it out, and ended up playing with a 41-card deck. But I still won the match 2-1, which is encouraging. I decided to remove the Selesnya Evangel, as I like the Ghost Warden too much to remove it. The second match I played was re-fucking-tarded. I drew ten lands and seven nonlands (two of which made mana) in the first game, which of course was a loss. Then won the second game, and then took forever to draw one Forest in the third game, while my hand filled with green cards. I drew all seven of my Swamps, two of my Plains and the Orzhov Basilica, almost all of my nongreen mana. Third match, I lost 0-2, and the second game was because I didn't draw any green. This is a serious enough problem that I'm going to adjust my mana. I'm replacing the Selesnya Sanctuary and the Orzhov Basilica with Forests. I am not sold on those "Karoos'" usefulness. Though I worry a bit about the white I'm removing. I think I'll replace a Swamp with a Plains as well. Lost the fourth match 0-2, thanks to poor draws and my opponent's endless supply of answers, and Szadek. Szadek reads "You win." in limited. I'm becoming really jaded on this. I'm 1-3 in my last four games, which I have not been used to in this league. I may as well suffer through the last match and see what happens. Well, I lost that one 0-2, putting me at 1-4 for matches, 3-9 for games this week. That's the worst I've done in this league yet. And judging from the cards I'm seeing other people playing, I'm putting the blame on my Guildpact booster. Two playable cards, one of which (Shadow Lance) has been useless thus far, and is probably going to be cut very soon. Everyone else seems to have had better luck, pulling incredible things like Szadek and Debtor's Knell (which is insane when combined with Blind Hunter, Transluminant, Dimir House Guard... lots of things). So I'm left worried. I'm effectively a pack behind everyone else, and my mana has started having problems. That's not a good place to be in. Heck, I could easily end up with a losing record by the end of the league. MATCHES PLAYED: 24
Okay, ready? Here comes the last booster, and it better be better than last week's. Withstand
The Blind Hunter makes it all worthwhile, and in fact, I now own four of them. Not hard, since it's common, but I like it a lot. The Daggerclaw Imp doesn't hurt, either. Let's see here. I haven't been impressed by Shadow Lance, so I'll remove that. I also don't think Farseek is great in this deck, so I'll remove it as well. That makes room for the Blind Hunter and Daggerclaw Imp. I'm curious about Wildsize, and I think I'll try it instead of Ghost Warden for awhile. I'm also going to pull out one Forest and one Plains and replace them with an Orzhov Basilica and Selesnya Sanctuary for the time being, which reverses the changes to land I made last time, but I worry about getting enough white mana. Which leaves us here: 5 Forest
2 Blind Hunter
1 Douse in Gloom
Let's play. I lost that one 1-2, and hey, guess what? I was short on green mana in the third fucking game! Goodbye, Orzhov Basilica. Hello, Forest. I'm actually starting to wonder if I can cut out green entirely. Second match I won 2-1, but that game I lost was worrying. I didn't draw any white mana. So I wonder if I could remove the green. What would I lose, and what would I add? I'd only have to take out six cards: Transluminant, Golgari Rotwurm, Silhana Ledgewalker, Silhana Starfletcher, Moldervine Cloak and Wildsize. What could I put in instead? Shadow Lance, Ghost Warden, Screeching Griffin, Lurking Informant, and maybe two Withstand? Let's try it, just for fun. Fun indeed. I won that match 2-0, though the last game was close. I had the opponent down to 1 life, but he was hitting me for 7 each turn, and managed to gain 2 life. Then I drew Orzhov Guildmage. Whew! At this point, if I play my two remaining matches, even if I lose, I'll briefly be number one in the league. That ranking will go down as more people play their remaining matches, but it'll be fun to be up there for awhile. As I type this, with two matches left, I'm at number six. Match number four, I lost 1-2, but I can't complain about how I lost. The opponent just had a better deck, and a bomb rare (Glimpse the Unthinkable) combined with very nice companion cards (Duskmantle, Dimir Infiltrator, Lurking Informant). Speaking of Lurking Informant, I'm not sold on it. I rarely have the mana lying around to activate it. On a whim, I think I'll replace it with Boros Recruit for now. On to my final game of the league! ...Which I lost handily, 0-2. Another one of those black/green/white decks that are so dominant. So my record for this week is 2-3. M'eh. I could play tiebreakers now, but the guy ahead of me has 43 tiebreaker points to my 6, so there's really no point. So the final deck is this: 1 Orzhov Basilica
2 Blind Hunter
1 Douse in Gloom
Though, just for fun, I think I'll try to build a blue/red deck. After all, I can lose up to five times without jeopardizing my position in the standings, and I expect I could fall to up to 90th place, anyway. 10 Island
1 Hunted Phantasm
1 Compulsive Research
This oughta be interesting. *plays match* Okay, I won't do that again. I'll quit while I still have a winning record. No, I'll just sit and wait for the Visions release events before I play in a league again. My final record: MATCHES PLAYED: 30
I am typing this at 2pm. The league ends, I believe, at 3:30pm. I am currently in sole possession of 64th place. 33rd to 64th place is worth a pack each of Ravnica and Guildpact, while 65th to 128th is worth just a pack of Guildpact. Ties round down, so if even one person gets ahead of me or even ties me within the next hour and a half, I go down to 66th and lose that Ravnica pack. I can try to win a match and earn tiebreaker points to provide a cushion, but if I lose, I go down to 66th. There are actually very few people who threaten my position, and none of them are online right now, so I think I'm safe. I'm going to just wait, but it's pretty worrying... 2:23pm - Someone got ahead of me! Now I may as well play tiebreakers, since I have nothing to lose. 2:57pm - Lost 0-2. I'll play another, though it's pointless now. I can't get up to 64th in half an hour. 2:58pm - For some reason, my second opponent conceded the match after the first turn. So I win 2-0. So maybe I do have time. I'll try one more match. If I win, I'll go to 62nd or so. 3:12pm - I won 2-0! I'm up to 60th place! I don't believe it! I don't know why that guy conceded in that last match, but he most likely won me a pack of Ravnica. So thanks, rhythmicon! 3:24pm - Two people who could displace me are playing matches right now, and each match is tied 1-1. I don't think I can be forced below 64th... and as I type, I go down to 61st. This is gonna be tight... Also, I see rhythmicon is just playing and conceding because he hasn't played all his matches, and he's just mining for single points. Damn, and he needs just one point to win a pack. I already played him, so I can't. I feel bad for the guy. Ooh, I hit 62nd. And rhythmicon got his point, so yay for him! Meanwhile, I can still drop to 63rd. Yikes. The frenzy of the last few moments of a league. One game left to finish before the league ends, involving a guy who can directly affect my place. But even if he wins, I'll still be at 63rd, I think. 3:53pm - It's all over. I finished in 63rd place, good for a pack each of Ravnica and Guildpact. Now, let's see what's in them. First the Ravnica pack... Dimir Aqueduct
Okay, now let's see what's in the Guildpact pack... Blind Hunter
I could have used that pack in week three. So here's my final statistics... MATCHES PLAYED: 33
|