See what I did there?

Anyway, back to States. While my ride down was mild-mannered, and I managed about six hours of sleep in the back of the car, I sat in front of my first round opponent as he started playing artifacts, and I just had to laugh.

Game one went to him handily, as in the final turn before I was to kill him, he comboed off and had to kill me with a depleted then revived Tezzeret. Game two was a shock to his system though, because as I shuffled through my sideboard, looking for something to board in against this nightmare match, my mind clicked on the Quest for Ancient secrets. A few fetches and Knight activations later, I had an active Quest. As my opponent tried to go off, I let him read the common enchantment and we went to game three. Of course, I am the one who screws up here, because though I played two quests, I got blown out by double resounding wave and a Day. I was also stuck on three lands, so...

0-1 (1-2)

My opponent in round two seemed like a tightwad of a Valukut player, but I loosened him up, killing him with jokes as well as dudes. He nearly had me in game two, but he was off my four points of damage...not too much to say though, because both games were he plays bad ramp, and I kill him with good stuff.

2-0 (3-2)

Now my opponent for round three? Though it took all match for him to warm up to me, I cracked into his facade in game three after we both got stuck on no lands in one game each. A completely clogged ground left me only an out in the air, but Honor made his Skyfisher big enough to bloc my Emeria Angel, so we sat there looking stupid for a while, him having to draw all four Paths to stall against me in the long game. Of course I had death on board when time was up and I only needed one more attack phase, but, a friend earned is a friend gained, no?

1-1-1 (4-3-1)

Real chill guy like me in round four. His deck, though mono-green looking in game one was in fact R/G not Eldrazi elves. I only found this out because I made him feel at ease after I destroyed him game one. When I say destroyed though, I mean it really ridiculously...as in turn five Overrun, turn six Overrun, and I'm still not dead...More funny part? I had the feeling he had no artifacts before he told me and that I wouldn't need the Pridemages. I mull to four game two and play a quick game three off of Baneslayer, double Journey, double Path...Yeah, she did twenty-five damage, and she's pretty good.

2-1 (6-4-1)

The best part of my match against Turbo Fog round five? In game two where I mise him with a turn one Quest and his concession after he tells me he thought I was G/W/b and that he didn't bring in his hate...of course, triple Pithing Needle and milling away all my Pridemages don't vote well for game three.

1-2 (7-6-1)

I'd like to say, this dude was a douche bag because a Judge called him on his cheating, and though he didn't get DQed for it, he was still a dickbag...Of course I wasn't it it, as I didn't want to play him, so he got me fastlike in two off the back of AJ Vengeance.

0-2 (7-8-1)

As I had no way to top 16, I decided to have fun in my last round, and I found myself why I don't do it more. By Bant Miracle grow, I mean Jace, Jenara, Divination, Mind Spring, and Lorescale Coatl. Man, I wish I would've played the snake, it would've been like a 5/5+ all day. Either way, my more expensive and more powerful cards get me the win over his FNM deck. I did love the dude's deck though, and I might play it for fun soon enough.

2-0 (9-8-1)

Positive for the day, if just barely. But, all's well that plays well. I love States for the fun, not the competition. I already can't wait until next year, where hopefully I'll have some notes.



Speaking of notes, how about a States report from a buddy of mine who top foured?
Alright, I'll work it out and get it posted with the last part of my adventure: the drive home.

______________________________________

Oh, and the mind-taking...



Well?

Alright were did we leave off...Ah, yes, the deck. Well, to begin with, I made my deck from a Frank Karsten-like hybridazation of Martin Juza's Worlds G/W/b deck and LSV's in work G/W. Last minute changes made the deck into this:

// Lands
2 [ZEN] Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
2 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
5 [ZEN] Plains (1)
6 [ZEN] Forest (1)
2 [M10] Gargoyle Castle
1 [ZEN] Island (3)
3 [ZEN] Marsh Flats

// Creatures
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
3 [ALA] Battlegrace Angel
3 [M10] Master of the Wild Hunt
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
3 [M10] Birds of Paradise
2 [CFX] Thornling
4 [ZEN] Emeria Angel
3 [ALA] Rhox War Monk (Defiantly an under-performer. Might be changing to only G/W in the main)
1 [M10] Baneslayer Angel (Was a fourth Master, but her power alone won me a game with a hand full of removal, so mise...)

// Spells
2 [ZEN] Journey to Nowhere
3 [ZEN] Vines of Vastwood
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ZEN] Day of Judgment (Maybe should have probably been Telemin Performance)
SB: 1 [ARB] Pithing Needle
SB: 3 [CFX] Wall of Reverence
SB: 2 [ARB] Grizzled Leotau
SB: 4 [ZEN] Quest for Ancient Secrets
SB: 3 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage

The Baneslayer change was actually really powerful in the end, so I was fine with it, and the swap from the Sledge in the sideboard to the Needle was after realizing I only had the Sledge in my SB because of the G/W mirror. The addition of more fetchlands was strictly a power call because I wanted 4/4 Knights on turn two...

For a quick note before we go into an overview of the decks that were played at my states, I just was to shout out to my buddy Doug who lent me nearly all the money in this deck. Without him, I'm sure I would've had to take something sub-par. Thanks again!

I feel as if I should give a small listing of the decks my group played as well, because though some of them did badly, good ideas abounded. With two Jund, two Grixis control, a Spread 'Em, two Naya Lightsaber, and my deck, you can probably tell who the more fun oriented players are in my group...

Regardless, my matches were as followed:

Round 1 Time Sieve
Round 2 Valukut Combo
Round 3 8 Land WW
Round 4 G/R (not) Eldrazi Elves
Round 5 Turbo Fog
Round 6 UWr Control ala Pedro Rodrigez
Round 7 Bant Miracle Grow

Hmm...round one vs the deck I knew would be there...and then round five against a deck I feared I couldn't beat? I think this my be a good point to put an elipsis and start a tournament report in my next post.

...,
~BTsume

Here we go...

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
2 [ZEN] Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
2 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
5 [ZEN] Plains (1)
6 [ZEN] Forest (1)
2 [M10] Gargoyle Castle
1 [ZEN] Island (3)
3 [ZEN] Marsh Flats

// Creatures
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
3 [ALA] Battlegrace Angel
4 [M10] Master of the Wild Hunt
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
3 [M10] Birds of Paradise
2 [CFX] Thornling
4 [ZEN] Emeria Angel
3 [ALA] Rhox War Monk

// Spells
2 [ZEN] Journey to Nowhere
3 [ZEN] Vines of Vastwood
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ZEN] Day of Judgment
SB: 1 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
SB: 3 [CFX] Wall of Reverence
SB: 2 [ARB] Grizzled Leotau
SB: 4 [ZEN] Quest for Ancient Secrets
SB: 3 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage


_______________________________________

I'll explain everything later, but this post is more for me then you.

(Before I get into this post, I'd like to set a note for myself...How much of a correlation between the money you spend on a format and the success you achieve exists? Further, which format is the most cheap-per win percentage.)

Now then, as the title suggests, my G/W deck has been proving to be a bit lackluster following a few more weeks of testing. With Zendikar, I've added Emeria Angel, Captain of the Watch, Mycoid Shepard, and contemplated red, blue, and black splashes...but all these have proved to only sure up places where I was strong anyway, or fail to meet my goals for them. With that in mind, I went over my options for color changing again and boiled it down to it's essentials.

Red
+Burn (Bolt, Punishing Fire, Burst lightning)
+Uril, the Miststalker
+Sweepers (Pyroclasm, Fallout)

Black
+Removal (Pulse, Doom Blade)
+Discard (Hippy, Duress)
+Putrid Leech

Blue
+Removal (Bant Charm)
+Counterspells (Negate, Remove Soul, Flashfreeze)
+Rhox War Monk

This little fight has been going on in my head for weeks now, and I can't figure out truly which one would be better. I pride myself on being able to understand the metagame, don'tcha know. So, why not find a list of possible decks to face in the Type 2 metagame, add in a few Teir 2 rougish decks, and try to find which of the three would be best adept at dealing with that. So, I did just that:

Jund
4 color Cascade
Vampires
4 Color Control
Naya Zoo
Monored
Elf green
Planeswalker Control
R/W control
Bushwacker
Time Sieve (You don't believe me yet, do you!)
Dredge
Bant
Mono White Control
Mono Blue Polymorph
Soldiers
U/W Control
GWB Knight
And...

Is that all? Jeez. It's like we have a diverse meta or something...

Anyway, I'm not going to cover every deck specifically (Maybe I should), but instead make a few generalizations that might come back and bite me.

Against aggro decks, Bant charm is a strictly better O-ring, as they can't really win outside the red zone. War Monk is also just huge in the butt. Red has removal for the earlier guys, but I have to assume things will have four power eventually, and my deck would have to preform well even with it. Smaller aggro decks, like Bushwacker and Zoo though, would be fearful of sweepers. Black can disrupt, gaining me advantage, as well as use cheap removal on most aggro strategies, but black itself lends towards a more aggressive ideology, and I don't think I'll be able to out race Bushwacker...

Versus Control, Red obviously fails pretty hard. I'd rather be making threats then casting spells which don't do anything to their fatties or, if game winning, would only get countered anyway. Black has promise, allowing disruption to slow their plans enough to play my own game of fatty fatty boom boom, plus removal for a 'walker is great when I can also have removal for Baneslayer in the same card. Blue, gives me a good hope with counter spells, even letting bant charm get more action, but without direct removal for a walker all the Rhox War Monks in the world will continue to die, and my losses would be immanent.

Combo is a strange beast, and though each of the colors fail in similar ways: Black's removal doesn't work, blue's counters are on the wrong side of threats and answers, and red's threats aren't good or fast enough. Though each color does get a mark for having a somewhat idea on how to tackle the issue, Red's burn goes to the face, Black disruption could let me get lucky, and blue counters (though not great for the matches) are there and available.

Well, with that out of the way, let create a chart showing the value of the color verses the type of deck, with a correlation of how many decks of that type there are in the environment:


Aggro: Vampires, Naya Zoo, Monored, Elf green, Bushwacker, Bant, Soldiers, GWB Knight. Final Count: 8/ 17 ~ 47%

Control: 4 color Cascade, 4 Color Control, Planeswalker Control, R/W control, U/W Control, Mono White Control. Final Count: 6/ 17 ~ 35%

Combo: Time Sieve, Dredge, Mono Blue Polymorph. Final Count: 3/ 17 ~ 18%
Note: some deck fall into multiple categories, thus these results may be a bit skewed, but I tried to place each deck where it felt like it should be.


Well, now that we've done that, we need to quantitate how each color splash would preform against each archetype:

Aggro Control Combo
Black: 7/10 8/10 7/10
Blue: 8/10 6/10 7/10
Red: 6/10 3/10 5/10

Note: These are my guesses on how much each color would allow my deck to preform better against the mentioned deck types.

Okay, so aggro is roughly 47% of the field, control 35%, and combo 18%. This is where my math might fall apart, so if I'm wrong, point it out in the comments.

So, with Blue leading against Aggro, Black in control, and the two sharing the same score in Combo, it's really close. Blue's lead in aggro is only one point, while black leads by two in control. However, there are more aggro in the meta so the two are stalemated. Is the aggro match really the most important, or are most of the tier two decks just in there? Well, I figure I can contemplate on this while I'm testing in the next few weeks and figure it out some more. I should have my final choice for color addition by the end of the month, just in time for States on Dec. 5th (YAY! I love States a lot for some reason) Either way, because hopefully I'll be post a lot more on what I'm doing for the run up, as well as weekly or even daily deck lists.

Until then, keep rocking.

Time Sieve 2.0 by Bill Stark of thestarkingtonpost.com

8 Island
4 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
3 Plains
4 Mistvein Borderpost
4 Fieldmist Borderpost

4 Glassdust Hulk
4 Architects of Will

4 Angelsong
4 Time Sieve
4 Time Warp
4 Open the Vaults

4 Kaleidostone
4 Howling Mine
4 Jace Beleren

Sideboard:
4 Flashfreeze
4 Dispeller’s Capsule
3 Duress
4 Day of Judgment

20/20 Ledgendary, Flying, Indestructible critters and wins on turn two?

Well then, how about this from LSV at PT: Austin...



Wow, I remember back when Ether Snap was a good enough combo with the card. Let's see how this diamond in the rough works out over the next few days, eh?

//Dark Depths by LSV

// Lands
3 [RAV] Watery Grave
4 [CS] Dark Depths
1 [ZEN] Swamp (1)
4 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 [FUT] River of Tears
3 [FUT] Tolaria West
4 [SHM] Sunken Ruins

// Creatures
4 [RAV] Dark Confidant
4 [ZEN] Vampire Hexmage
3 [MOR] Vendilion Clique

// Spells
3 [GP] Repeal
4 [MR] Chalice of the Void
2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
2 [BOK] Threads of Disloyalty
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
4 [RAV] Muddle the Mixture
3 [SHM] Beseech the Queen

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 1 [10E] Pithing Needle
SB: 1 [M10] Doom Blade
SB: 2 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 [PLC] Damnation
SB: 1 [FUT] Slaughter Pact
SB: 2 [RAV] Darkblast
SB: 4 [MOR] Bitterblossom

Alright, I somewhat lost my notes for the FMN, so what we're going to do is a video deck-tech for my new standard deck.



Enjoy and decklist is below.

//GW by BTsume

// Lands
9 [ARE] Forest (4)
2 [M10] Gargoyle Castle
5 [ARE] Plains (8)
4 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
2 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
2 [ZEN] Marsh Flats

// Creatures
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [M10] Llanowar Elves
4 [CFX] Thornling
3 [M10] Great Sable Stag
3 [M10] Baneslayer Angel

// Spells
3 [M10] Garruk Wildspeaker
4 [CFX] Path to Exile
2 [ALA] Oblivion Ring
2 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
3 [M10] Celestial Purge

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
SB: 3 [ARB] Dauntless Escort
SB: 2 [CFX] Martial Coup
SB: 3 [ARB] Captured Sunlight
SB: 3 [M10] Pithing Needle

Hmm. Just an interesting and quick note on Rosewater's artical...












































A slpash from Maro's article, when he was referring to Zendikar...The art is defiantly more than just a look-a-like thing, so, keep your minds open, people.

Hey guys, I'll be participating in the Star City 5K in Dallas as well as the PTQ the next day. If you're in the area, please come check it out.

Also, GGsLive will be covering at least the 5K, so match sure to watch them here.

Alright then, this'll be my first FMN report on this blog, and my first, in general, so it'll be a little rough. I didn't manage to capture every move exactly, so you'll all forgive me if this a bit miscewed, right?

Round 1 vs Andy playing "Men in Black"

Game 1:

Andy's deck was a simple mono-black aggro/control list with a lot of M10 cards, and when I asked him how long he's been playing, I somewhat understood when he said about 3 months. I won the roll and went first, playing a Savage Lands and passing. Andy played a Swamp and passed back. Land go came from me as his turn two saw him playing a second Swamp and a Sign in Blood targeting me. I dunno' about that...My turn three was another land, the last in my hand, and a Noble Hierarch. His third turn saw a Looming Shade come into play and he passed the turn back. I didn't draw a fourth land, but the Hierarch allowed a devistaing Chamelion Collosus to came down with a thud. Andy had to read it, and seemed rather unaffected even though at this point he should have known it destroyed his deck. His third turn saw a Looming shade come into the red zone, and two pump to make it a 3/3. Not sure why only two, but I untaped, and beated for ten via the exalted and pumping CC. I passed it back, and he left the Shade on the D. even though it was black. The pointing out of said Pro-blackness won me the game at my next attack step.

Sideboarding:
I didn't side for this match as I figure any amount of CC or Stag would get me the two oh.

Game 2:

Andy chooses to go first, and I choose to mull a hand with one land. I keep my six, and the first play of the game is his turn two Child of Night. I get beated for a turn, sticking a third turn Kitchen Finks. His following attack send the scores to 22 to 24, with Andy leading, but me still having a creature. Andy fixes that but playing a Warpath Ghoul after I attack for two with my Finks. The scores stands at 19 to 21 with Andy's attack, but CC comes down on turn five or so to do a little something. Attacking him with Finks, the score was 19 all when, I assume, he ran his Ghoul into my Colossus. I end up playing a Hierarch and an attack for five with CC playing another Main phase two should have been the game, but instead, the next attack of ten with him doing nothing was good enough.

1-0

Round Two vs Zakk playing Time Seive Combo

Game 1:

Apparently Zakk is posting his side of not only this game, but the entire FNM on his Facebook, so if you know Zakk from El Dorado (I think) make sure to check his stuff too. I know Zakk is a tight player and I'd honestly never played the combo deck until this game, needless to same, this was going to be fun.

I won the roll and played a first turn Llanowar Elf, while he played a CIPT land in a boderpost. My hand was ery sausy, so a second land didn't do anything crazy as i just beat for one with Llany. I wasn't sure what deck he was playing at this point, so another Boarderpost or so and a go kinda confused me...isn't Lark suppose to do stuff? Of course, I can talk because I rip a Stag like a champ. and play it much to the delight of my no third land. He played some more artifacts (I didn't write them down, though I assume a Howling mine and a Flask or two were among them) and passed back. I ended up going to attack phase and hitting for four with Llany and Stag before playing my third land with little else to do. Of course, my lack of activity allowed him to combo off in my face the following turn. I made him play it out because I wanted info on his deck as well as to see how the combo worked in it's entirely. Who know just drawing seven cards a turn worked that well...

Sideboarding:
I did a few swaps, but I ended up bringing in my Duresses, Pithing Needles, Guttural Responses, and Haunting Echoes. I took out my removal in the form of my Profanes and Eyeblights, as well as a guy I didn't think would be of much help at all in Cloudthresher.

Game 2 was a spot on riveter as I go first keeping a six card hand of Land, Land, Land, Land, Duress, Pithing Needle. I'm not sure why I kept, but a turn one Duress saw a hand of Boarderpost, Tezzeret, Jace, Time Sieve, Open the Vaults, Howling Mine, and something else. His dialog at this point was burned into my mind as, out of the blue in my eyes there, he said "If you picked the right card, we can go to game three right now." Of course, I think and think for a while, figuring finally that if I take the Tezz and Needle Jace, he couldn't win (who runs more than one Tezzeret anyway?) He picks his hand back up and says I picked wrong. I'm still happy with my choice, but a drawn card during his draw step initiates scoop mode anyway.

In retrospect, obviously, taking boarderpost was the right play, but I guess I just didn't see it. He also didn't have a land in hand so I should have picked up on that very quickly, but didn't...

Game 3:

A turn one Pithing Neddle seemed to put a quick nail in his coffin vs his lowly land, but for the second time this tournament, a clearly devastating play didn't even seem to phase him. After our big turn one last game Zakk was a little more chummy with me and we bantered about the best Needle target. I stuck to my guns, saying that if I Pithed the Sieve, his combo was ka-put. He retorted that was the Cryptic commands have two mode, and, at that moment, I knew what the Guttural Response in my hand was for. The decks played out like they should, with a few artifacts for him and a turn two Putrid Leech into turn three Stag for me. The beats in-sued and the only play that really matter was when he was dead on board but had to try a Cryptic bouncing the Needle. A Guttural later and I was reporting a match I shouldn't have won (probably) as a 2-1 in favor of me. About Zakk as a player, he's probably one of the nicest guys you'll meet, but don't mess with his money. You know who you are, and he's still waiting.

2-0

At this point, I was feeling extreamly sick, straight vomit sick after beating an unwinnable match with sideboard cards for 5CC. And reliving the experiance is making me a little nausious now, so instead of finishing the tourney report all in one post, I'll simply pause it here, half-way between our seventeen man, four round FNM, and I'll catch you up in a little while with the rest of the swiss, as well as the top four. Untill then, here's a quick vid acting as a primer to future MWS videos I'll be posting starring myself on bottem and a rotating cast of my friends up top. This is BSA playing 1.5 B/W Pallies, but there's no commentary on it...yet.



Enjoy, and Love life,
~BT

Well, I guess I've dodged a new topic long enough, now, eh?

To start off with, GGs did a wonderful job of bringing us about ten tournaments from GenCon, and to them, I and say thanks. I know I, for one, was zombied out for hours while my woman yelled at me for "still watching Magic". Guess I can't really blame her. I never thought so many people played Stax/Shops in Vintage/Legacy...it's kinda' redonkulous. Maybe I'd still be the Counter/Top/Goyf dude (see the Japanese vintage tourneys put up by T2MTGume), course, I like honest decks...

Moving on from eternal formats, GGs gave a good selection of Standard and Block, even showing Gerry T, one of my regular reads, in action. If I remember right he won his match 2-0 vs Jund while piloting 5CC in Block...I could be making it up though...anyway. On block, I wish I could play Japanese G/W...nuff said? I mean, Thornlings, Angels, Sleges, and "good stuff" is fine by me and I might play it in standard if G/B just wasn't so darn pretty...

Now, standard. Well, I plan on trying my luck at not only the StarCity 5K in Dallas next weekend, but also the PTQ the following day. Should make for an interesting weekend. I'm wondering if 5CC is really the top deck, though. I mean, I'm sure everyone is going to be running with it, and I'm sure that the top echelon of players will pilot it all the way to the Top 8, but it just seems that "so and so stomps 5CC" and "this wrecks CIPT ((CIBFT??)) land decks". Well, if so many people can beat it with sure a wide variety of decks, why doesn't it die like, say, Scarecrows...I guess I shouldn't bite the hands that feeds me, but I'm just making some observations.So, while I'm making observations, why not some decklists?

I was right. GG's Live is broadcasting tonight, but they're starting with Vitage.

Feel free to watch the live feed and join in the discussion as well as check out the other vids at ggslive.

Well, it looks like at Gen Con we were treated to some Zendikar spoilers via the Planechase decks. Here's the lists from Mr. Evan Erwin

Beast Hunt
Sorcery
Reveal the top three cards from your library. Put all creatures revealed in this way into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
Artist: Kieran Yanner


Kor Sanctifiers
Creature — Kor Cleric
Kicker
When Kor Sanctifiers enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, destroy target artifact or enchantment.
2/3
Artist: Dan Scott


Hideous End
Instant
Destroy target nonblack creature. That creature’s controller loses 2 life.
Artist: Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai


Whiplash Trap
Instant — Trap
If an opponent had 2 or more creatures enter the battlefield under his or her control this turn, you may pay rather than Whiplash Trap’s casting cost.
Return two target creatures on the battlefield to their owner’s hand.
Artist: Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

So, it looks like kicker is back, as well as a new subtype "Trap". Yes, yes, I know. Yugioh. Doesn't matter to me. Please god just give me something good to play once my manabase goes out the window...

In other news, GGs Live is going to be streaming a few of the matches from Gen Con, hopefully starting today with the Shards block championship. Here's hopeing for more Magic, more of the time.

________________________________


For all thoes wondering about my manabase problems, here's a list of my deck. Feel free to comment on it as well.

// G/B Rock by BTsume

// Lands
4 [LRW] Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 [UNH] Swamp
4 [EVE] Twilight Mire
2 [M10] Gargoyle Castle
1 [10E] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ALA] Savage Lands
4 [UNH] Forest

// Creatures
3 [LRW] Cloudthresher
4 [SHM] Wilt-Leaf Liege
3 [MOR] Chameleon Colossus
4 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
3 [10E] Llanowar Elves
3 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Putrid Leech
3 [M10] Great Sable Stag

// Spells
3 [LRW] Profane Command
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [LRW] Eyeblight's Ending

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [10E] Pithing Needle
SB: 2 [LRW] Primal Command
SB: 2 [SHM] Guttural Response
SB: 3 [ALA] Infest
SB: 2 [M10] Haunting Echoes
SB: 1 [M10] Doom Blade
SB: 3 [US] Duress

Thanks right, I play a lot of MWS because I'm broke. If GG's are streaming today, I'll embed it up here.

Welcome one and all to a blog by me, for you...This is Titus's Advantage, a Magic: The Gathering strategy and news blog written by yours truly, a Titus. What is a Titus you say? Well, in the next few mins, let's find out...

"On May 07 in the year 2007, Mark Rosewater introduced us to Melvin and Vorthos. If you haven’t met these two, please read Melvin and Vorthos by Maro. Even if you have, it is still an enjoyable read. It is my belief that there is a third demographic to complete this triad. I call him Titus. If you haven’t ever recognized the third, it is perfectly understandable. The presence of Titus is subtle and difficult to pin down. If you have a moment, I would like to introduce you to our neglected member of the Magic family.

Ever watch the show Frasier? When I think of Melvin and Vorthos, Dr. Niles and Frasier Krane come to mind. These TV characters dive deep into the philosophy of about anything on the show. I like to think of them as intellectual junkies. They must continually analyze and inspect every thought-provoking question to get their continual fix. It can be anything from the complexities of the human mind to the subtleties of a fine wine. In the show Frasier, Titus would be Mr. Martin Crane. Starting to get the picture? Titus is the blue-collar psychological aspect of the Magic Community, in a sense. "

from Off Topic: Meet Titus, MTG Salvation


Well, long story short, a Titus is a magic player who, for our definition, runs the most straightforward cards, build on power because just that: They're powerful. It's not a Spike type of thing, as Titus doesn't need to be a high level tournament player, but rather it likes to take on everything.

Another example. My deck of choise has always been The Rock. Currently it's build is G/B elvsish with Putrid Leech, Maelstrom Pulse, Collosus, and Great Sable Stag (a note on this card. Titus doesn't normally like hosers, but GSS is so powerful it's crazy. Try Bit blasting him, and I'll laugh.)

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Of course none of that really matters, right? I just wanted to explain the name choice. As for the blog itself, this will be a catch-all. I photoshop a bit, Role play on an awesome forum called Anime Redux, and play alot of Magic. We'll all see how much I can improve my play as well as write interesting peices over the next so often, and to everyone reading this. Make sure you comment to give positive or negative thins about my blogging...I migt not change for you, but at least I'll know you're out there listening.