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[WanderingWind]

That's a long time for newer players. The boxes will be quite a bit heavier on RtR/GTC cards because I bought about a million boxes of those. Not so much on DGM.

 

[kirblar]

You think this is like a 3 dollar card?

People are pricing it as though it were a manabarbs reprint. It's not, it's much better in the decks that want it. I think it's "not a .69 cent" card, so grab a cheap playset.

 

[Gorechylde]

You should probably buy singles and make a cheap Standard-legal deck, I believe that's the format at most FNMs. Check the Standard section at the mtgsalvation forums to have an idea of what's being played.
If I recall correctly, current Standard-legal sets are Innistrad block, Return to Ravnica block, M13 and M14.
Sadly blue draw-go control is no longer a thing in modern Magic.

Thanks for the info. I'll check the salvation forums and run by my comic shop on the way home and see what format they are playing currently. Appreciate the responses guys.

 

[WanderingWind]

WanderingWind's Jank FNM Deck of the Week: Mono-Black Control

 

[Sinatar]

You think this is like a 3 dollar card?

There are a lot of really greedy manabases going around right now, so that card will do some work.

 

[narcosis219]

I'm not entirely sure burning earth is great for mono red aggro.

The whole premise of the deck is that you win by turn 4. That said, putting this card in moves your curve up and thus increases the land count of the decks.

But, if you believe that mono red aggro won't win by turn 4, then burning earth makes more sense since it will shut down 80 percent of all decks in the meta right now. But if you think mono red doesn't win by turn 4 then you aren't playing the right deck.

So I dunno. It's great if you're expecting to have games go to turn 6 but with that kind of mindset you're inherently making your deck less aggro and more midrange. We all know midrange is way better when it is 2-3 colors and that's besides the point of burning earth. We all know mono red loses after turn 5. Is it worth messing up the deck to maybe have a chance of salvaging a long game?

 

[EsotericManiac]

I'm not entirely sure burning earth is great for mono red aggro.

The whole premise of the deck is that you win by turn 4. That said, putting this card in moves your curve up and thus increases the land count of the decks.

But, if you believe that mono red aggro won't win by turn 4, then burning earth makes more sense since it will shut down 80 percent of all decks in the meta right now. But if you think mono red doesn't win by turn 4 then you aren't playing the right deck.

So I dunno. It's great if you're expecting to have games go to turn 6 but with that kind of mindset you're inherently making your deck less aggro and more midrange. We all know midrange is way better when it is 2-3 colors and that's besides the point of burning earth. We all know mono red loses after turn 5. Is it worth messing up the deck to maybe have a chance of salvaging a long game?

your mainly talking about game 1 though. games 2 and 3 almost always go deeper when your opponent boards. keeping that in mind, burning earth makes more sense.

 

[narcosis219]

your mainly talking about game 1 though. games 2 and 3 almost always go deeper when your opponent boards. keeping that in mind, burning earth makes more sense.

That is true, but it still goes into the point of slowing your deck down because of it.

Boarding in Burning earth means I have to also board in mountains because my main deck only has 18-20. When you do that you'll have to abandon the mono red mission statement and go into midrange mode. The rest of your deck which consist of bears and 1 drops do nothing in the late game, so why bother with boarding in a card that will completely muck up your deck that won't even hit the board guaranteed? It's not a 4 of either which makes it even less attractive as an option in which you have to flip your deck over for.

 

[kirblar]

Or, you start playing a less "all in"strategy and start playing more cards like Bonfire.

 

[Sinatar]

Burning Earth being 4 mana is why it's the price it is, but I do agree that it's going to see some play as a SB card.

 

[kirblar]

Burning Earth being 4 mana is why it's the price it is, but I do agree that it's going to see some play as a SB card.

Oh, I'm maindecking that thing, lol

 

[bigkrev]

Oh, I'm maindecking that thing, lol

Yeah, I want to play this card. Im building RDW right now because I'm selling off most of my INN STD cards.

My Rough Draft
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Lightning Maulers
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
5 Ash Zealot/Young Pyromancer
4 Boros Reckoner
3-4 Hellrider

4 Burning Earth
4 Searing Spear
3 Pillar of Flame
3 Mizzium Mortar

X Mountains

Of course, I need to cut some cards from it, and figure out a sideboard. Any advice?

 

[WanderingWind]

Yeah, I want to play this card. Im building RDW right now because I'm selling off most of my INN STD cards.

My Rough Draft
4 Stromkirk Noble
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Lightning Maulers
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
5 Ash Zealot/Young Pyromancer
4 Boros Reckoner
3-4 Hellrider

4 Burning Earth
4 Searing Spear
3 Pillar of Flame
3 Mizzium Mortar

X Mountains

Of course, I need to cut some cards from it, and figure out a sideboard. Any advice?

Burning tree is terrible in this deck. You don't need the green mana. You must have 4 Hellriders at all time, same with Zealot. I like Bonfire over Mortar, but I think that's a meta/sideboard call.

I run 2 Thundermaws in the side for matchups where the opponent has a lot of removal, so there is an another threat late game.

 

[bigkrev]

Burning tree is terrible in this deck. You don't need the green mana. You must have 4 Hellriders at all time, same with Zealot. I like Bonfire over Mortar, but I think that's a meta/sideboard call.

I run 2 Thundermaws in the side for matchups where the opponent has a lot of removal, so there is an another threat late game.

Buning Trees seem awesome, the only card it can't cast as a follow up is Ash Zealot, which is why I'm thinking Young Pyromancers instead.

 

[narcosis219]

Burning tree is terrible in this deck. You don't need the green mana. You must have 4 Hellriders at all time, same with Zealot. I like Bonfire over Mortar, but I think that's a meta/sideboard call.

I run 2 Thundermaws in the side for matchups where the opponent has a lot of removal, so there is an another threat late game.

Burning tree is there for dropping all your 2 drops on turn 2 (minus ash zealot). I've run mono red with bte and it's helped me drop my hand to win many times.

 

[WanderingWind]

Burning tree is there for dropping all your 2 drops on turn 2 (minus ash zealot). I've run mono red with bte and it's helped me drop my hand to win many times.

My tryouts have been that you're more often than not doing nothing of interest with it. You whiff on too many things in this deck. And until rotation, you just cannot drop Ash Zealot. It's easily the best card in the deck outside of Hellrider.

 

[MjFrancis]

Burning Earth decks are going to shake up Standard for the next few months at half the price or less. The money you save dropping that double or triple mana-base alone is at least that much.

 

[An-Det]

The store my friend opened a few years back just announced they are closing at the end of the month. Damn shame, the owner has put a lot of himself into it but the competition is tough in the area. Farewell Mike's Game Lounge.

 

[scoot3r]

Made top 4 in a sealed prerelease. This set blows lol got a Chandra's Phoenix and haunted mail.

 

[WanderingWind]

Won FNM. Got a promo Cackler. I am the worlds most swingy player.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

So now that the Dragon's Maze block draft format is basically defunct, I'm curious to hear what you guys thought of it.

I kinda went through the gamut of emotions with it. When it first came out, I couldn't get enough of it. I got to draft all sorts of sweet decks and do some really fun and interesting things. But the more I played with it, the more something started to grow on me - this feeling that there was something horribly wrong behind the veneer of a shiny new format.

I'm having a hard time finding the right words to describe it, but the more I play this format the more I feel like my skill and decisions aren't the most important factor in the outcome. And I'm not just talking about variance during the game - we know that happens all the time in Magic, and we're used to it. I'm talking about draft variance. You're at the mercy of the cards during the draft more so than any other format I've seriously drafted.

I wrote something about this a while back regarding my approach to drafting the block. I said that drafting three colors was superior to drafting two colors because you broadened your exposure to being passed more playable cards during the draft. While I still think this is true, the problem is that the aggressive (or even just slightly aggressive) two-color decks are so much better than the rest of the format. If someone does manage to sit in the right seat and find that two-color hole in the draft, they're often nigh-unstoppable. But because the set in your colors only gets opened once, you're running a huge risk of having to stick crappy cards in your deck just to make playables if the draft doesn't fall right.

If I was to try to sum it up, I would say that the color-fixing isn't good enough to reward three color decks enough, but the card quality is not strong enough to reward two color decks enough. The set ends up feeling schizophrenic as a result. While I appreciate what WotC tried to do with this block (two standalone large sets that get unified by a third small set), I think that creativity ended up hurting the block format. Where I thought that Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash were skilltesting sets that rewarded tight drafting and play, the block format feels like it's out of your control most of the time.

Maybe it's just me; I had a pretty good win rate in Return to Ravnica, a very good win rate in Gatecrash (even though I didn't particularly like the format), but every time I jump into a Dragon's Maze queue I feel like I'm flipping coins. When I win, it feels good, but I often feel like I won because things just fell my way or because my opponent got screwed, rather than because of me being the better player. Am I the only one who feels this way?

 

[BlewHedgehog]

Finally put some ideas down in regards to the RWB Master of Cruelties deck I want to play. Haven't sleeved anything up yet, so the numbers are sure to be sketchy. Here it is:

Master of Cruelties: The Deck

3 Master of Cruelties
4 Crypt Ghast
4 Lingering Souls
3 Rakdos Keyrune

3 Mutilate
2 Aurelia’s Fury
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Rakdos’ Return
3 Pillar of Flame
2 Warleader’s Helix
2 Devour Flesh
2 Blind Obedience
1 Underworld Connections
1 Staff of Nin
1 Assemble the Legion
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

4 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
3 Sacred Foundry
3 Dragonskull Summit
2 Isolated Chapel
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Cavern of Souls
5 Swamp
1 Mountain

I get to play a lot of cards I really like in this deck. I just wonder if I'm actually capable of killing a real person with it. Outside of Master of Cruelties, the offense is pretty sparse. People are pretty down on new Chandra right now (and I'm certainly not gonna acquire any at $20), but she seems like a good fit. Her 0 ability should really shine in a deck like this which is hard up for card draw, plus the added bonus of being able to Mug blockers who could otherwise stop MoC from connecting. Even if you can't get through, Mug the lesser dude and force them to block a first-striking, death-touching guy with their highest valued creature. She's gonna be very fun to work with.

Any suggestions? For maindeck or sideboard?

 

[siddx]

Went to the midnight pre release, only because I was at a ravnica block draft before hand (took first). Came in second in the pre release after letting a little girl playing in her first ever tournament win. She had napped all evening so she could be up for the pre release, since her dad works all weekend and this was the only time they could go. They were both so excited, I just didn't have the heart to stomp her so I held on to my grip and let her swing through.

Anyways, I stomped everyone else, even the lucky fuck who pulled both jace and ooze. I did manage to pull a hydra and was going to do my typical green/red all creatures all the time hope you have enough removal for 23 creatures deck. But then I noticed a blue enchantment I had called Dismiss Into Dream. Total junk rare that I initially overlooked but as I thought about it, I realized I had a lot of blue cards that targeted creatures as well as a rod of ruin. I figured I'd give it a shot and if it didn't pan out (it's expensive afterall) I'd just switch to my original plan.

Hoooooly shit dismiss into dream is NASTY in limited. Every single time I played it, the game was over several turns later. There were match ups I was getting creamed in an all it took was was playing that card. Suddenly my frost breathe was a "destroy two creatures". My sensory deprivation was a one mana kill spell. My rod of a ruin was a murder on a stick. It was absurd, I wiped out entire armies so quickly. That was the only bomb I had in my deck but it came up enough to be huge. Every other match up I won because 4 out of 5 magic players don't play with enough fliers and underestimate blue disruption like tapping creatures down. It really is amazing how many matches I can win with shitty overcosted flyers.

tldr: Dismiss into dreams is way better in limited than the cost would make it seem. It wins games.

 

[bigkrev]

I 3-1'd my pre-release, good for 3rd on breakers. I had a fairly terrible pool with no playable Rares. Ended up U/B with 2 Corrupts (and 2 Acheomancer), Air Servant and Sengir as my only win conditions. Was 3-0 heading into th last round, and the other 3-0s had all 5 Planeswalkers between them.

The lack of 2 power flying creatures at common was really apparent.

 

["God's Beard!"]

If I put a +1 counter on Snake then Exile and return Kraj do I get to counter a spell? What if I just exile Snake?

 

[Sinatar]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";70107171]

If I put a +1 counter on Snake then Exile and return Kraj do I get to counter a spell? What if I just exile Snake?[/QUOTE]

The counter spell isn't an activated ability, it's an enter the battlefield trigger so no Kraj wouldn't counter anything. Blinking the snake however would give you additional counter effects.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Ok I get it now. Seems like the extra counters could be super helpful.

Also, is Teysa's ability that kills "that" creature that does damage to you count as targeting? Or does it beat hexproof?

 

[Sinatar]

Also, is Teysa's ability that kills "that" creature that does damage to you count as targeting?[/URL] Or does it beat hexproof?

It's not targeted so hexproof doesn't affect it.

 

[Jaeyden]

Went 4-1 in my pre-release. Took 5th place. Pulled a Chandra and Rise of the Dark Realms in my sealed pool then Lilianna, Archangel of Thune and Ring of 3 Wishes while cracking winnings afterwards. Quite pleased with the day for sure.

 

[ultron87]

Ended up 4-2 to take seventh place. I would have been second but I told my opponent that Zephyr Charge was not in fact an aura. He then proceeded to kill me with it twice. Oh well. Was fun enough for a Core set.

And I just opened my 4 prize packs and got a second Scavenging Ooze to go with the one I had in my pool (so much fun in limited) and a Chandra. So that worked out pretty well.

 

[Macattk15]

Beem drafting M13 tonight on MTGO.

Currently playing with a White/Green deck. Pulled an Angel of Serenity in a RTR draft earlier. Someone passed it which was weird as its still a $15 card on MTGO.

Akroma's Memorial has literally won me 3 games in a row.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

M13 was a remarkably good draft format. Nothing particularly special, but very, very solid. Lots of fun interactions. From what I've seen, M14 doesn't look to be nearly as good, but I'll hold out judgement until I hear from people who've drafted it.

 

[An-Det]

I ended up 3-1 with my sealed pool. I went with RUG since I had a Chandra, Garruk's Horde, and a bunch of blue flyers. The interaction between Chandra's +0 ability and Garruk's Horde's ability was a blast. A friend is going to the SCG invitational in two weeks so we decided to jam some Legacy to prepare him, so ended up not playing another sealed pool, but the format seems pretty fun so far.

 

[rCIZZLE]

Had a pretty insane U/R pool today and went 5-0 for first. Flyers and burn are a good combination.

 

[Transhuman]

Ended up 4-2 to take seventh place. I would have been second but I told my opponent that Zephyr Charge was not in fact an aura. He then proceeded to kill me with it twice. Oh well. Was fun enough for a Core set.

And I just opened my 4 prize packs and got a second Scavenging Ooze to go with the one I had in my pool (so much fun in limited) and a Chandra. So that worked out pretty well.

I went 5-1. I lost the final round 1-2 and it lost me first place, 8 boosters, and some store credit. All because I kept a two land hand on the draw and never got another.

Had a pretty insane U/R pool today and went 5-0 for first. Flyers and burn are a good combination.

Elite Arcanist and Frost Breath won me more games than I care to count. Being able to lock down four creatures using one is insane.

 

[Cagey]

As I PM'd a poster earlier, a friend and myself are looking to build a collection of commons/uncommons (perhaps junk rares) from sets we've not played in our lapses from MTG. Right now, the span we want to cover the most is the entirety of Ravnica, Time Spiral, Coldsnap, Lorwyn, and Alara. Since we know precious little about those four sets (myself some exposure to the best of the best in these sets due to MTGO, him none), it'd be exploring entire blocks for the first time for us.

If anyone has piles of cards from that four year window they'd like to throw out, donate, or sell in bulk, please PM me. At the very minimum I'll cover your shipping and toss you some extra cash. I post here since GAF is full of good people, and I'd rather not buy a lot from SCG and get 40 copies of some shit common from Prophecy we already saw and laughed at back when it released.

 

[siddx]

I really fucking hate getting paired down. Had a four way tie for first place (no top 8 just standings determined winners) and getting paired down one round out me in fourth place :/

 

[zoukka]

Went 4-1 in the prele sealed. M14 is weird. All decks I played had a lot of flyers, namely the two 1/3 2-cost ones that make all 2-power guys absolutely useless.

My deck was a five colour Sliver deck with splashing one offs like Colossal Whale, Mark of the vampire and clone :b It was fun to clone all the one off rare slivers people played in their decks. Everyone complimented on how ridiculous my deck was so it was a very fun night to play magic.

Excited to come back to this hobby now that my new city has an actual scene.

Btw: M14 prizes are the worst ever. Who would ever open a M14 pack in their right mind

 

[Gatekeeper]

I did decide to take the jump into block while waiting for Innistrad to rotate. 4-0ed my first daily with this list.

4x Selesnya Guildgate
4x Temple Garden
4x Overgrown Tomb
4x Godless Shrine
2x Orzhov Guildgate
2x Golgari Guildgate
3x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp

4x Experiment One
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Lotleth Troll
3x Selesnya Charm
2x Devour Flesh
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Loxodon Smiter
3x Sin Collector
2x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4x Advent of the Wurm
3x Obzedat, Ghost Council

SB
2x Golgari Charm
2x Pack Rat
1x Abrupt Decay
1x Devour Flesh
4x Unflinching Courage
1x Underworld Connections
2x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
2x Gaze of Granite

 

[Wichu]

Went 5-1 in my prerelease on Saturday, coming 4th out of 54. Easily the best I've ever done in a decently-sized tournament.

I played a green/white/black deck, with green mostly for Scavenging Ooze and a bit of fixing; I had quite a few removal spells in white/black (no Doom Blades though), topping out with Shadowborn Demon, Devout Incantation, and a foil Planar Cleansing.

Planar Cleansing turned out to be really good despite the WWW cost; with green to help fixing I could pay for it more often than not. I had enough creatures that I could stall the board after a while, then save up creatures in hand for after the Planar Cleansing and take the win. In the match I lost, I played a Planar Cleansing to clear the board, but my opponent played Howl of the Night Pack the turn after :/

Got a foil Mindsparker and a Darksteel Forge in my prizes, as well as a Door of Destinies in my pool I didn't end up using. I was hoping for a Mutavault or a Strionic Resonator, but I guess I can't complain.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Foil Strionic Resonator is going to end up being a money card a year from now if they don't reprint it (and I doubt they will). Commander players are going to eat it up.

 

[JulianImp]

All prereleases in Argentina were moved back a week due to logistic issues, so we'll be getting our hands on the cards later.

I've finally realized my dream of building an izzet deck that doesn't suck using some M14 proxies, and it's been decent so far. All I need from M14 are the Young Pyromancers, which were quite interesting alongside Guttersnipe. This is the list I'm currently using:

Lands (24)
1 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Izzet Guildgate
11 Mountain
8 Island

Creatures(16)
4 Goblin Electromancer
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Guttersnipe
2 Archaeomancer
1 Firewing Phoenix
1 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

Other spells(20)
3 Pillar of Flame
1 Bonfire of the Damned
4 Mizzium Mortars
4 Think Twice
4 Izzet Charm
2 Turn/Burn
2 Thoughtflare

I'm not sure how good Turn/Burn is, and I wish I could replace the Archaeomancers for Snapcaster Mages, but I just don't want to spend so much money on them. I've also been thinking about adding some counterspells, but I'm not sure what I should remove for them.

Having playtested only against myself using my slow BUG control deck, I'm not sure how it's going to hold up against my local FNM's aggro-filled metagame; the slowest deck out there was mine, followed by a midrange-ish rock deck, and the rest were all relatively fast aggro decks (ie: gruul, mono green, haste jund, golgari zombies and rakdos). As long as no control decks show up, I guess I'll have to fine-tune the deck to work specifically against aggro, possibly even main-decking hate cards... does anybody have any suggestions?

 

[Sinatar]

Turn/Burn is great since it cleanly answers some really hard to cleanly answer creatures like Angel of Serenity and the tusk.

 

[f0rk]

LSV had made me want to build an EDH deck with his super durdly dimir list. It's just all the good UB control cards put together so I doubt you'll ever win but everyone will hate you.

 

[Jaeyden]

All prereleases in Argentina were moved back a week due to logistic issues, so we'll be getting our hands on the cards later.

I've finally realized my dream of building an izzet deck that doesn't suck using some M14 proxies, and it's been decent so far. All I need from M14 are the Young Pyromancers, which were quite interesting alongside Guttersnipe. This is the list I'm currently using:



I'm not sure how good Turn/Burn is, and I wish I could replace the Archaeomancers for Snapcaster Mages, but I just don't want to spend so much money on them. I've also been thinking about adding some counterspells, but I'm not sure what I should remove for them.

Having playtested only against myself using my slow BUG control deck, I'm not sure how it's going to hold up against my local FNM's aggro-filled metagame; the slowest deck out there was mine, followed by a midrange-ish rock deck, and the rest were all relatively fast aggro decks (ie: gruul, mono green, haste jund, golgari zombies and rakdos). As long as no control decks show up, I guess I'll have to fine-tune the deck to work specifically against aggro, possibly even main-decking hate cards... does anybody have any suggestions?

Do you have invisible stalkers? Guttersnipe loves him with something cyphered on him...like hidden strings or hands of binding. You can consistently cast spells to get the snipe trigger plus control the board. Add in young pyromancer and now you can hold off any ground assault while pinging away at your opponent. Spear hits for 5 and all your cypher triggers hit for 2 plus make a token. It's silly. LOL

 

[divisionbyzorro]

I hate Invisible Stalker. He's the sole reason why we didn't get any constructed playable Cipher cards...

 

[JulianImp]

Turn/Burn is great since it cleanly answers some really hard to cleanly answer creatures like Angel of Serenity and the tusk.

Does it answer any other important threats? My local FNM opponents have no Angels of Serenity, and I think only a guy's rock deck has Thrragtusks in it. Would Hands of Binding work well there, too?

Do you have invisible stalkers? Guttersnipe loves him with something cyphered on him...like hidden strings or hands of binding. You can consistently cast spells to get the snipe trigger plus control the board. Add in young pyromancer and now you can hold off any ground assault while pinging away at your opponent. Spear hits for 5 and all your cypher triggers hit for 2 plus make a token. It's silly. LOL

I've been thinking about it, but I don't see what I could remove to make it work. Hands of Binding is an interesting card, but I'm not sure if its synergy with Pyromancer and Guttersnipe makes it good enough, as opposed to the times I don't have either of them on board and will barely get any value from casting Hands. Would they be any good if I wasn't running Invisible Stalker as well?

Also, what do you guys think about running Pillar of Flame? It does help against Voice of Resurgence and all, but I'm not sure if I shouldn't just run Shock or that 1RR instant that deals 3 damage and exiles (since I can cut its cost to RR with an Electromancer on board).

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Does it answer any other important threats? My local FNM opponents have no Angels of Serenity, and I think only a guy's rock deck has Thrragtusks in it. Would Hands of Binding work well there, too?

I've been thinking about it, but I don't see what I could remove to make it work. Hands of Binding is an interesting card, but I'm not sure if its synergy with Pyromancer and Guttersnipe makes it good enough, as opposed to the times I don't have either of them on board and will barely get any value from casting Hands. Would they be any good if I wasn't running Invisible Stalker as well?

Also, what do you guys think about running Pillar of Flame? It does help against Voice of Resurgence and all, but I'm not sure if I shouldn't just run Shock or that 1RR instant that deals 3 damage and exiles (since I can cut its cost to RR with an Electromancer on board).

I believe your list had 2 Turn // Burn in it, and that's probably the right number, with maybe one more in the board.

I don't support the Invisible Stalker plan; the Cipher cards just aren't very good, and you're not really running a list that supports him. He's a threat for a tempo deck with Runechanter's Pike, but you're kind of all-in on the burn plan.

I would drop Niv-Mizzet - he's sweet, but really expensive, and it looks like you want a low curve.

Cards to consider: Augur of Bolas (if you're going the control route) or Nivix Cyclops (if you want to go all aggro). Either of those guys is going to be better than Archaeomancer.

 

[divisionbyzorro]

The sketches for YMTC4 are up:

http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/256

 

[BlewHedgehog]

I don't care much for M14 as a whole and didn't think I'd bother playing in a prerelease, but tonight I got sucked into one and was glad that I did. It was a lot of fun. I went R/U/W skies with foil and regular copies each of Flames of the Firebrand and Haunted Plate-Mail. I wasn't sure whether or not to play both Plate Mails, but one turn, I got to kill my own guy who was Frost Breathed and activate both Plate Mail's to get in for 8. Didn't open any money, but split in the finals in order to win back my entry fee in store credit.

The best part of the night was getting paired up against a guy I met when I first started playing in 1998 and hadn't seen in a decade. He was always really nice to my friends and I even though we were intolerable snot-nosed kids then. I got to thank him for being such a cool guy and, since he's a teacher and I'm finishing up my teaching degree this year, I got to talk to and joke around with him and one of his co-workers who was also there about career stuff. You can really meet some great people playing this game. Even when a disaster of a set comes out, Magic is still fucking great.