I've got a hole in my pocket ...

Ouch, my computer's had a few issues since last week. Sorry for the delay in posting. I have some very important non-Magic related files on my machine, and I had to make sure that nothing was compromised after last week's Flash vulnerability issues were addressed.

For me, that meant setting up a few extra precautions for protecting my data ... and completely removing the files from my current machine and going with a complete reinstall of my OS and programs. Ouch.

Just remember folks, better safe than sorry -- especially where computer security is concerned. The good news is that I now have a completely separate network for my important files and a dedicated gaming network for stuff like this.

Speaking of stuff like this, you're probably not here to listen to me discuss the finer points of my real life work. So let's talk about Magic!

Well, with the Shadowmoor release scheduled for this weekend on MTGO, it's not too hard to figure out where I WANT to spend my money for the month, but is it the BEST way to spend my $15?

Probably not, but what the heck!

In this case, it's actually liable to be a touch over the month's budget ... but except for watching The Incredible Hulk this weekend, spending some quality time with MTGO is much better than going outside where it's 186 degrees right now. Well, maybe it's only in the mid-90s, but it feels much closer to the boiling point of water than anything the weatherman's telling me.

My goal for the weekend is to play in one of the new casual tourneys with the flatter payout. If I can win just 2 of my 5 matches, I'll get two packs of cards -- that I can resell and use to bolster my collection of commons. If I can manage to win three matches, I could enter a release draft, or sell the packs. Heaven forbid, should I win four or five matches ... muhahahahahahaha!!! (evil laugh).

If nothing else, I hope to pick up a few of the Shadowmoor commons that will be really good for casual play. The multicolor/hybrid cards rock. You'll see them everywhere. They're specially broken in limited -- and when combined with other multicolor cards. Multicolor critter + multicolor enchantment = good times.

But there's not as much goodness in the mono-color cards. I'm looking forward to Briarberry Cohort and Crabapple Cohort myself. I know Faerie Macabre will be a tourney sideboard card, and Burn Trail will be broken in limited. Possibly my favorite card right now is Hungry Spriggan -- I just love the art and text. If nothing else, I'll try to get a signed artist's proof ... but if I see the original artwork go on sale ... I might invest. Just the look on the guy's face makes me laugh. Plus the flavor of the card as a whole makes my day. However, my first thought from looking at the single color commons is that you're going to see a lot of Sickle Rippers and Ballynock Cohorts. But not near as much as you will the multicolor cards in the set.

Maybe it's just me -- but this is a set that looks a lot more fun at the uncommon and rare levels. Kitchen Finks will be a 1+ ticket card right off the bat I bet. This set has a lot of love for the constructed serious player, I think. But there's also going to be a a few more tribes to build fun decks around, especially the Scarecrows. In addition, I love the idea of playing Twilight Shepherd in my Angel deck. That's definitely a card that will swing games. I'm hoping the 3WWW cost will keep it from becoming too constructed-worthy, so I can afford to get at least one or two for my decks on the cheap.

The one card that I will build a deck around at some point is Knollspine Invocation. Let me think, what's a card that I can discard and get back into my hand cheaply. And when I say cheaply, I mean ... free! What rhymes with free, oh yeah, Squee! I see the beginnings of a beautiful deck there.

Anyway, I'll post back eariler next week with all the gory details on how I did in the release events and the options I have for the rest of the month.

Oh, and if anyone has any ideas on how to get an artist's proof or such for Hungry Spriggan -- let me know. I looked at Drew Tucker's site on the web -- but I don't think it's still active.

As always, if there's anything I can do to make your MTGO time a little nicer -- let me know via this site, or by dropping me an e-mail to thrifty.djinn@gmail.com or just chat me up in game when you can catch me!

Later,

Don!

Darn you Age of Conan and the evil Flash vulnerability released this week!

Hey all, this will be a short post for the moment. I've been a touch busy trying to fix some issues -- mostly trying to repair some issues related to the recent Flash vulnerability on my home network.

Don't panic -- this site is safe -- but please do go to

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash

and upgrade your version of Flash to protect yourself from some malicious software issues. Especially if you play World of Warcraft or any other big online game ... and I'm assuming you play MTGO if you're visiting here.

A couple of the larger WoW sites have been exploited through this vulnerability, and I hear PureMTGO has had issues as well. Fortunately, both WotC and Blizzard keep database records of transactions -- so I doubt there will be any large-scale damage to the economy at large -- but there is definitely room for individuals to get hurt by the sort of folks who hack accounts to sell the contents to unknowing customers.

For right now, be just a touch extra careful -- and if someone you don't know offers you a deal that's too good to be true -- be just a touch extra wary. I'd stick to dealing with folks I trust for a bit until the issue gets resolved.

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My other big time waster this week is Age of Conan. I've been playing around with it for the last little while since it's release -- and it's definitely a different take on the post-WoW philosophy for MMOs. I haven't played enough to say whether it's good or bad, but it is worth checking out if you're so inclined. Be aware, it is rated for "Mature" audiences -- and yes, female characters can run about with their naked boobies bouncing around. Plus, there's "Fatalities" in the game play where every so often, you get a particularly grisly death when you kill a NPC or another player. If you want to know more about what I think of the game -- flip me an e-mail and I'll be more than happy to tell you.

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Okay, back to the business of MTGO for just a moment. I've played a lot of standard games in the casual room this week -- and I think the two cheap rares (less than a ticket, often 2-for-1) that have worked out really well for me have been Voice of All and Story Circle. Those two cards are a near death sentence to any mono-colored deck, and can also make it tough on a two-color deck that runs it's second color for removal or direct damage.

I played a Black-Red goblins deck the other night, and with a Voice of All set to protection from Black and a Story Circle set to protection from Red -- I kept my opponent locked out from a lot of his normal game play options. When you combine those two cards with some other flexible White removal spells, like Disenchant and Oblivion Ring -- you have the basis for a good cheap deck. Heck, add in some 4-for-1 ticket Serra Angels, and you have 75% of a deck.

Kind of like this one:

Those Pesky Angels (Standard)

Land

4 Quicksand
4 New Benalia
16 Plains

Creatures

4 Serra Angel
4 Voice of All
4 Angel of Mercy
1 Reya Dawnbringer
1 Angel of Salvation
1 Platinum Angel
3 Malach of the Dawn

Spells

4 Oblivion Ring
2 Disenchant
2 Crib Swap
1 Spirit Link
1 Spirit Loop
4 Story Circle
3 Sunscour (The poor Djinn's Wrath of God!)
1 Akroma's Memorial


The Platinum Angel is a bit pricey, but it's easily replaceable. The Akroma's Memorial is kind of superfluous as well -- but it's more a fun card than anything else. You can build this whole deck for around 10-15 tickets depending on how much time you take putting into getting the cards. I really love the Sunscour. It's a really cheap WoG for the deck -- both in terms of ticket cost and in casting cost. Sunscour will really punish a player for overcommitting to a lot of critters on the board to try and out race the Story Circle -- and the ability to pay the alternate casting cost and then follow it up with a Serra Angel or Angel of Mercy can really cripple an aggressive deck that had you down low on life.

The Oblivion Rings are the best cheap removal spell in Standard right now. Disenchant is always good as are the Crib Swaps. The biggest problem the deck seems to have is with aggressive decks that can get around the Story Circle with either multiple colors of creatures/damage -- or artifact sources of damage. The deck will sometimes get pushed around by a true control deck, since it relies heavily upon resolving a few key spells each game. The deck itself works more like a toolbox deck, meaning it has different ways to win from one game to the next. Sometimes you're the agro deck, playing spells every turn and using the Angels in beatdown mode -- and other times, it's very reactive ... especially in those games where you can hide behind the Story Circle and deal with the opponent's other threats retroactively with the Crib Swap and Oblivion Ring.

Anyway, give the deck a spin if you like it. Or catch me online and I'll play you in a game or two!

Later,

Don!

Playing in a Standard PDC tourney ... or how I learned how to hate Goblins in just three short hours!

I knew I should have voted for Goblins in last week’s poll of most hated tribes. I played in my first Standard PDC event Thursday night, and all I saw were those pointy-nosed demons of doom on the other side of the virtual table across from me!

Unfortunately, the Goblins got the best of me – taking 2 out of 3 games from me in the Swiss portion of the event – but every game was close. Oh, and as a random thought, why are Goblins green – but normally on Red cards?

I played my Faerie Burn deck, with a few modifications since the last time I tested it in the PDC and Casual rooms. At the 9 p.m. close of entries, 26 players had entered the tourney for 3-rounds of Swiss pairings followed by a Top 8 final.

Here's my deck for the evening. It should look familiar to my regular readers.

PDC Burning Faeries v2.3

MAINDECK

4 Latchkey Faerie
4 Looter il-Kor
4 Pestermite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Mudbutton Torchrunner
2 Mulldrifter

4 Broken Ambitions
4 Incinerate
4 Lash Out
4 Ponder
2 Unsummon

11 Island
7 Mountain
4 Terramorphic Expanse

SIDEBOARD

4 Remove Soul
3 Hurly-Burly
2 Mudbutton Torchrunner
2 Mulldrifter
2 Sentinels of Glen Elendra
2 Unsummon

In the first round, I played Zipstein who was playing … wait for it … GOBLINS! He led off with a Raging Goblin, Mogg War Marshal and then … Fiery Temper? I had to think that through for a minute. Fiery Temper is a common in Tempest, and legal in Standard – but only because it was reprinted as a purple-rarity card in Time Spiral. That means it’s Standard legal, but not Standard PDC legal – at least I didn’t think so.

Zipstein didn’t know the card’s legality either, so we continued playing while waiting for Icrodx (the tourney organizer) to pop in and tell us what to do. I watched my life whittle away but eventually stabilized at 3 life with a pair of Pestermites and a Looter il-Kor on the board. I countered an Incinerate pointed at my dome with a Spellstutter Sprite, and knocked him down to 5 with enough creatures on the board to win the next turn – but he drew another Fiery Temper (darn that card again!) and killed me dead.

However, somewhere between the first Fiery Temper and the one that killed me, Icarodx came over to the room and let us know that the card wasn’t legal – and worse, it was a match loss infraction for Zipstein. He could continue in the event – but he would have to replace the Fiery Tempers in his deck. I felt really bad about how that turn of events turned out – and I wanted to help Zipstein if I could. He asked if I had any Bloodshot Cyclops – and I gave him three from my 10^th Edition playset – since I’m not using them in any decks at the moment.

So after my first 20 minutes of playing in a serious PDC tourney, I’m at 1-0, but feeling like poo about it. But, life goes on, and about 30 minutes later the pairings for Round 2 came down from Icardox.

I get a PM from Roynot who has started a match for me to enter and play. I lost the roll, and Roynot played a mountain and passed. I kept a solid hand with two Looters and a Spellstutter Faerie and a Ponder. I played an Island, Pondered my next three cards, and kept a Mountain from the draw. Roynot started his next turn and played another mountain and … wait for it … a GOBLIN! An Emberwilde Augur to be specific. I untapped and played a Looter, then Roynot untapped and played another Augur, while burning my Looter. I ate 2 from the first Augur and he passed the turn. I played a land and a second Looter, then passed the turn. Roynot once again burned the Looter and then sent his pair of Augurs at me for 4 damage. This begun an annoying cycle for the next two turns – I play a critter, he burns it and attacks for 4. Not long after, one of the Augurs goes to my dome for lethal damage during his upkeep.

Game 2, I get to go first. I get a Pestermite to stick when I counter his burn with a Spellstutter. I eventually get six power of flying faerie on the board and end the game quickly. On to Game 3!

This game has to be one of the coolest games I’ve ever played in MTGO. We both have good games, and he is bleeding me to death with an Augur followed up by a pair of Needle Drops. I have a Pestermite down, an active Looter and a rogue-cast Latchkey Faerie doing damage on the board. Roynot has played a lot of land and poked me a bit in tactical battle. At the mid-game, I have him down to 12, and he has me at 9. I draw an Incinerate to go along with the Lash Out I have in my hand. I attack him down to 6, and I know he’s holding a bit of burn in his hand. I don’t want to go to his upkeep when he can sac the Augur and possibly burn me to death.

So I cast the Lash Out on his Augur and win the clash with a Pestermite over his Incinerate. I only have the one counter left, and it’s a Broken Ambitions which is mostly useless as Roynot has a lot of land on the board. So I go for the win with an Incinerate to the dome.

Bad move.

Did I mention I’m at 9 life? With lethal Incinerate damage on the stack, Roynot hits me with an Incinerate, followed by a Shard Volley. I cast my Broken Ambitions for a measly one in response, just to hopefully get him to tap enough mana to not be able to cast anything. He taps an extra land to pay for the soft counter and follows up with a second Shard Volley. 3+3+3 damage at the end of my turn = dead Djinn. So I almost won. Almost.

Now I’m in the 1-1 bracket and needing to win my final match to have a chance to make Top 8. One of the best things about the PDC tourneys is that there’s only three matches of Swiss. So it’s not a big commitment if you’re not going to have a chance to win. Win 2 of 3 and you’re likely to make Top 8, lose more than one and you can do something else with your evening. A number of these tourneys also have door prizes – but not the one for this evening. So you can win without winning a thing sometimes. As for me, if I want to win anything this evening, I have to win my last Swiss match. If I was lucky, maybe I would get something other than Goblins.

My third round opponent was Teliot. And the first land he played after winning the dice roll was an Island! Outstanding. I played a Terramorphic Expanse and sacked it for a Mountain and we both played Islands on our next turns. I tapped my island and mountain for a Looter, and he responded with a Remove Soul. Teliot dropped a Mountain on his next turn and passed. No Goblins yet, that’s a good sign. I played another looter and passed. During Teliot’s next turn he Tarfired the Looter and suspended an Errant Ephemeron. Hmm, Tarfire is a goblin tribal spell … bad sign perhaps?

Well the next few turns were uneventful with the exception of me getting a hard-cast Latchkey to stick on Turn 6. Unfortunately, getting him to stick left me tapped out. During Teliot’s next turn he cast a Ponder, burned the Latchkey with another Tarfire and then played Empty the Warrens.

I now officially hate Goblins. Especially the six staring me in the face from Teliot’s side of the board.

On my next turn, I drop a land, Looter and evoke Mulldrifter for two cards. No help. The Errant comes out of suspension and two turns later, I’m toast from those darn goblins and a flying 4/4.

Off to Game 2. I have three copies of Hurly-Burly in my sideboard, just in case of the mirror match or a herd of 1/1s. Empty the Warrens makes 1/1s – so in goes the Hurly-Burlies. I also kept spare Unsummons for the Errants, a card I considered for my sideboard as well. So with those changes in place, off we go. The game was actually uneventful. I got an active looter down on Turn 2 and saved him from a Tarfire on Turn 3 with a Spellstutter. Teliot said he hated those darn faeries – and played PDC a lot just to avoid them. I kept the pressure on with my small flying armada – while Teliot made six goblins on Turn 6 again. Fortunately, I had the Hurly in hand, and the game in hand after casting it on my next turn. Teliot had six land, not seven – so he suspended an Errant, and never lived long enough to see it come out.

Match Three, Game Three. Do or die. Teliot went first, and dropped a Martyr of Ashes. That really sucked for me, seeing as I kept a three Looter draw. I played the first Looter on Turn 2, and took a few points of Martyr beatdown, when the Martyr offed itself when I attacked with the looter on Turn 3. I played a second Looter, who met Mr. Tarfire as the turn ended. I played a third Looter on my next turn, and protected it with a Spellstutter. On the next turn, I played a Latchkey with rogue and felt good about life, since I also had a Spellstutter to protect them from anything casting 3 or less.

Teliot untapped, and casually pointed an Incinerate at my Latchkey. I spellstuttered and felt good about life.

For about two seconds.

Teliot pondered, cast another Martyr, and then he introduced me to his other stormy friend – Mr. Grapeshot. Mr. Grapeshot didn’t like Mr. Looter, Mr. Latchkey or the Spellstutter sisters. Or me. Ouch. So my board was clear, and all I had in my hand was another Latchkey and a Terramorphic I was saving to pitch to Mr. Looter the next turn. Teliot suspended a 3/1 blue shadow creature and I hard cast a Mulldrifter for two cards and a warm 2/2 flying body. A turn later, Telliot’s shadow critter came out, the Mulldrifter was Incinerated and the Latchkey burned. Oh, and 8 1/1 goblins stopped in for tea over at Telliot’s house too.

I drew a ponder, and pondered looking at two Islands and my last looter. So I pondered shuffling my library and hoped like heck for a Hurly-Burly. I got another Ponder and pondered up three cards not named Hurly-Burly. I shuffled up a Latchkey and cast it. My flying 3/1 met a random goblin on Teliot’s next turn and I drew an Incinerate to flambé the 3/1 shadow critter. Unfortunately that left 7 goblins on the wrong side of the table – and drawing and playing a Pestermite and a sideboarded Remove Soul didn’t help.

Death by goblins again. But hey, at least I could still get in bed by midnight.

I really enjoyed playing in this PDC tourney. It felt a lot like playing in a tourney back in my old paper Magic shop. The folks in the chatroom were generally friendly, as were the players. Icardox was nice to both me and Zipstein when we had problems in the first match, and I’m looking forward to playing in some future events. The whole event felt almost … human – as opposed to the antiseptic environment found in the game’s official sanctioned events. Players talked, some talked smack, others joked – and everyone actually seemed to be part of a community.

All in all I give the experience two big thumbs up. If you’re interested in a good, cheap entry to the world of competitive (while still casual) tourney Magic – PDC is highly recommended. In the next month or so, I hope to get a bit further back in my commons collection – and then I’ll play some Extended and Future-Extended PDC events.

Until then – I hope you enjoyed this post. As always, let me know if I can be of help to anyone out there and feel free to chat me up or play me a game in the MTGO casual room when you can catch me there!

Later,

Don!

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Bonus: PDC Burning Faeries v2.4 (based on last night!)
The biggest change was in finding answers for smaller creature swarms and more actual useable choices in the sideboard. I never felt comfortable with having the Sentinels in there and never used them – and I really wished I had 8 Hurly-Burly in there too. The Martyr of Ashes solves those problems – at least I think they would. If you can get the Rune Snags, I'd put them in over the Negates and Remove Souls in the main deck.

PDC Burning Faeries v2.4

MAINDECK

4 Latchkey Faerie
4 Looter il-Kor
4 Pestermite
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Martyr of Ashes
2 Mulldrifter

2 Remove Soul
2 Negate
4 Incinerate
4 Lash Out
4 Ponder
2 Unsummon

11 Island
7 Mountain
4 Terramorphic Expanse

SIDEBOARD

2 Remove Soul
2 Negate
4 Hurly-Burly
2 Mulldrifter
2 Unsummon
3 Errant Ephemeron

Weekend PDC

I really wanted to hold off on this column until I had a chance to play in a PDC tourney, but the evil RL (real life) is seriously interfering with both my MTGO and World of Warcraft time this week.

I'm really comfortable with my Blue/Red Faeries deck in PDC at the moment. I'm set on about 56-58 cards at any given time. The biggest questions I have, pre-tourney revolve around the Mudbutton Torchrunners. I've been running four, but I've been siding them out as much as any card between games in a match. Usually, I'll side out two for the last two Lash Out(s) or sometimes all four for a combination of Lash Outs and Remove Souls. I also realized I'm somehow short one Unsummon -- so I have to make sure I pick one up from the MTGO Traders card bot the next time I can remember. I'm glad they credited the account from earlier, it's let me pick up a few commons I missed before.

Anyway, I'm currently trying to find a good Standard PDC format tourney to play in this week. I'm not sure how much is going on over the upcoming holiday weekend -- but it's a four-day holiday for me. However, I also have to coordinate with the wife and kids -- and I'm sure they have dreams about things like sunshine, the beach, movies ... Indiana Jones does come out this weekend -- and that's a "Must See" in my household. But, as soon as I can get a good tourney under my belt -- I'll be back to tell you all about it.

Until then, I've learned a few things in playing PDC in MTGO.

The first thing is how few people read the game descriptions in the casual room. I'll advertise my games as "PDC Decks Please" or "PDC" or even "PDC DECKS (ALL COMMONS) ONLY" ... and 2/3rds of the time -- I still see other random standard decks. It's not so bad when the person honestly didn't realize what they were clicking -- but when a person busts out a Llanowar Wastes, BoP first turn, and Doran on the second ... I just think they're looking for an easy win to boost their ego. Especially when they try to drop the Thoughtsieze on the next turn.

Ehh, it happens -- and I've actually beat a couple of those decks once or twice -- with a few mysterious disconnects when I have fatal damage on the stack. That makes me chuckle.

I've also noticed a lot of folks playing pseudo-PDC decks with the Vivid lands. Some players didn't realize they''re uncommon -- others thought you can play PDC with up to 5 uncommons, and others gave various rationalizations. The Vivid lands don't bug me in the least for the format, and they usually wind up being less effective than using Expanses in the same decks, at least in my opinion. I love the Vivid lands for my 5-color budget decks, but even if they were PDC-legal, I have yet to see a deck that really was worth their come-into-play-tapped clause worth it.

As far as any sort of scouting report, I'd say I saw a lot of mono-white Kithkin decks, and a number of R/G warrior decks as well. Both seem pretty solid, but I'd be interested in playing them in a tourney since I think I've handled them well in casual match play. I've seen a few sliver decks, and a few mono-blue control decks as well. One of the better games I played this week involved a mono-blue deck where I had a pair of Pestermites go all the way past a couple of counter wars involving his Errant Ephemerons and my Looter il-Kors. The last turn involved him countering a third Pestermite at the end of his turn, keeping his Errant from being tapped -- only to have me top deck another Pestermite.

Another thing I noticed was that some PDC decks aren't cheap -- even in standard. The above mentioned mono-blue deck ran all Snow-Covered Islands and all four copies of Rune Snag, and the best R/U deck I saw featured Snow-Covered mountains along with their Island counterparts -- and I don't think anything in this format can survive a 12-point Skred. I'm just thankful they can't point that at the dome -- or the format would be seriously doinked!

Okay, let me transition back to what I'm planning for this week. There's a SPDC event hosted by MTGO Traders scheduled for Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. EST -- at least according to the calendar. I hope to be there and play if it goes off -- and if not, I'll bust my humps to put together a future extended deck for the regularly scheduled Sunday event run by the PCDMagic.com folks.

In building a deck for future extended, I'm leaning towards either running my current standard deck almost as is except for a few sideboard options -- or building a White-Blue control deck. I do loves me some Oblivion Ring ... and I've really learned that a protected Errant Ephemeron can be pretty annoying. I fear for swarms of Elves and such though, so I might have to make it an All-American R/U/W deck much along the same designs. I'll have to see what's available to me at this point though, since all the cards I've picked up along the way have been standard.

Okay, as for the poll to the right this week. I've noticed about half the decks in the casual room right now are strictly tribal based. I've also noticed a fair amount of hate for Faeries and Kithkin and Merfolk decks from folks in the room. I don't really mind, and I normally love to play a tribal deck -- but since the last few blocks have kind of force fed that concept to us -- are these decks really casual any more?

Anyway, let me know what your LEAST favorite tribal deck is right now -- and I'll make sure to avoid it in my cheap decks lists coming up after another couple of PDC posts.

As always -- thanks for reading!

Later,

Don!