From The Mouths Of Babes

I was playing some Magic with a couple of the boys here at school. When boy one was whinging a little about boy two attacking him all the time because of my superior defenses, boy two said "First I'm gonna get out the pancake, then I'll go after the butter." Coolest game slang I have heard in years! Later in the game, as I took out boy number one, I told boy number two that he was now "butter boy." Ah, good times. Leads me to wonder how many spin off expressions there will be:

Who's the butter?
What's your flap, Jack?
It's slathering time!!!!!!!

I could go on, but maybe I'd better not, it could get ugly.

Lates!
Rodolfo

The Afterglow

It has happened. Limited EDH became a reality over the past weekend. Ah, how satisfying. For me, at least. I think Tom and Neal (no Joel) enjoyed themselves as well. I get the feeling, however, that both Tom and Neal have enough other Magic happening on a regular basis to have caused them to not concentrate entirely on the challenge before them. I have nothing else going on - Magic-wise - so I really spent some time, and lots of play testing (goldfishing) my deck, so I learned about it, made a few tweaks, and I think it showed.

The decks were as follows - Tom had a GWB Teneb deck, I had GUB Vorosh, and Neal had RW Brion Stoutarm. Tom rocked us hard at first with a big combo - Panoptic Mirror imprinted with Harmonize. He got one use off thanks to a misplay on my part. Thinking he wouldn't get much use out of the Mirror for a turn, I recklessly played my General with a Putrefy in hand. Instead of two-for-oneing him, he one-for-oned me and one-for-nothinged Neal. Then, my general was dealt with quickly. But, I was drawing mad mana and all star Citanuil Woodreaders for some good card-advantage and another appearance by General Vorosh. Tom soon fell to a big Vorosh and Neal, who was quite mana-hosed, fell soon thereafter.

Game two was much longer. Here's what I remember:

My opening hand was slower, with just one mana accelerant (like that's poor, considering there are four in the deck, total - two signets, coldsteel Heart, and Darksteel Ingot) and a few unspectacular playables. But the first few draws saw an Assault Zeppelid and his best buddy - a Murkfiend Liege. Now my 5/5 trampling, flying, pseudo-vigilant dude terrorized the board for a turn. Then the removal flew. Then Teneb flew, and that was bad. Tom had managed to get a Juniper Order Ranger online and Teneb hit me for 7 and a Murkfiend Liege. Ouch. Thank goodness for Citanuil Woodreaders (all-stars, did I mention???) digging me into a Damnation.

With the board reset we started building again, and I went for my general. Tom saw my general, and raised me with a +1/+1 counter on it, having recurred his Juniper Order Rangers. No sweat. I used Slave of Bolas to swing two generals at Tom and Neal Condemned my general. Ouch. But I had a plan - I Perplexed Neal's Condemn. He had a grip of 5 or 6, so surely he would let it counter. No, he didn't. He traded his hand for the ability to seriously hose my general. Double-ouch, then. I still had a few decent cards out, but I was down to less than twenty life and 7 points away from Teneb harvesting me. Neal had not done a ton, but threatened quite a bit with Brion, Scythe of the Wretched, and any random dude he could swing and fling with. Then he whipped out Martial Coup for 6! Luckily, I had been holding back a little, and had drawn some of my recursion cards (go, Go , GO to the just-as-anticipatedly awesome Soul Manipulation).

Several turns later, a Molder dealt with the scary Scythe and gained me a few life-point cushions. Those cushions disappeared fast and I was at 4 when I finally found the pieces to make my deck hum. These included Golgari Thug, Big Game Hunter, Nantuko Husk, Diviner's Wand, and a suspended Aeon Chronicler (drawing an extra card for less than 4 mana for the next 6 turns). Unfortunately, the deck doesn't hum so great when some legendary giant flings a four power creature at you. Faced with my expanding board, copious mana, and ability to draw 4-5 cards per turn, Neal thought it was time to act. Darn him and his uncanny logic! Soon after, Tom hit him with a Curse of the Cabal, and I, of course, taunted Neal that there would have been a different target if I had still been in the game. Of course, at that point, I think I could have easily survived it. Neal limped along a few turns before getting smashed by Teneb and a few of his own creatures.

I am looking forward to next time, when Neal will use his Scion of the Elder Dragon to bust all his good cards. Neal felt his collection had good cards, but lacked depth. He was also short on generals other than the Scion, and felt Brion was solid. I don't recall what Tom said about his deck, other than wondering if he was mana-heavy. Maybe he will make up his mind after paying 16 mana for his finally triumphant Teneb in game 2.

My deck list, for those interested:
Vorosh the Hunter - General
Eterenal Witness
Nantuko Husk
Dream Stalker (good to re-use CIPs, reset artifacts with choices, and re-suspend Aeon Chroniclers)
Forgotten Ancient
Mirri, the Cursed
Trygon Predator
Simic Signet
Shoreline Ranger
Riptide Replicator
Lorescale Coatl
Twisted Abomination
Creakwood Ghoul
Dread
Favor of the Overbeing
Damnation
Golgari Signet
Krosan Tusker
Enslave
Slave of Bolas
Reshape
Tolarian Sentinel
Diviner's Wand (STRONG)
Eyeblight's Ending (and Teneb was sure an eyeblight in one game!)
Sould Manipulation (need I say it?)
Cyclical Evolution (annoying to foes at times, useless to me at others)
Creeping Mold
Echoing Courage
Viridescent Wisps
Golgari Thug
Nuisance Engine
Big Game Hunter (Nice general assassin)
Double Header (from Unhinged, returns a two-worded permanent to owners hand. Stellar for most of the reasons listed above on Dream Stalker. almost all the best targets have two-word names)
Yavimaya Dryad
Citanuil Woodreaders (drew me 6 cards in one game!)
Dimir House Guard
Murkfiend Liege
Bonesplitter
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Dimir Infiltrator (transmutes if I don't get the Bonesplitter for him to carry)
Assault Zeppelid
Snakeform
Whispersilk Cloak
Stir the Grave
Molder
Turn to Mist
Grave-Shell Scarab
Agony Warp
Skinthinner
Darksteel Ingot
Drelnoch
Isochron Scepter
Nulltread Gargantuan (beastly big and helps reuse like others mentioned)
Quiet Disrepair (if only I had drawn it that last game...)
Keening Banshee
Countersquall
Coldsteel Heart
Putrefy
Simic Guildmage
Mire Boa
Perplex
Unmake
Aeon Chronicler
Jund Panorama
Bant Panorama
Dreadship Reef
Rupture Spire
Simic Growth Chamber
Urza's Factory
12 Swamp
10 Island
9 Forest

Notable cards not played (otherwise known as tough choices or mistakes):
Pit Keeper - Pauper All-Star and should be in
Shred Memory/Muddle the Mixture - both transmute for two, so are strong candidates if I tighten the focus and two drops figure heavily
Death Denied - most likely should be in for it's ability to get multiple cards
Putrid Leech - seems too aggressive as the deck is marginally controlling, but I might be wrong
Echo Tracer - I feel I have enough bouncers, but like the transmuters, it goes in if I tighten the focus
Various fliers, land walkers and fear creatures - I had a lot and they stand ready if I go more aggro, the best being Spiketail Hatchling, Patron of the Moon, Fender Clique, and Street Wraith.

I am really looking forward to more fun with the ULCs and EDH, regular EDH, and constructed 60-card decks with the ULCs.

Until later, may you be able to cast a 16-mana general for the win!
Rodolfo

Getting Closer... Plus A Limited EDH Rules Update

Things are looking up. This Saturday is the first try for Limited EDH. I have made a few last minute addendums to the rules set.

First, in case I haven't mentioned it, THERE IS NO BANNED LIST.

Second, OFF COLOR HYBRIDS ARE LEGAL (with the caveat that any other mana symbol on the card is legal as well. So, gosh, no off-color Guildmages from Ravnica. Shoot, I think I had a Selesnya, too!).

Third, generals are handled by what I call "Joint Chiefs" style - essentially you can use multiple generals to support up to, but not over, three colors. Meaning, you can't combine generals to get four colors or five colors. You could still play five color, but you'd have to be lucky enough to get a 5-color general AND have the mana base to support it. I think this is enough of a drawback. You pay +2 for your primary general and +3 for non-primary generals each additional time you cast them in a game, facilitating the need for a +2 counter and +3 counter for tracking purposes. The primary general will be the first one you cast during the game. You may only play one general at a time. You may play a general from outside the game only if ALL generals on your joint chiefs are removed from the game. The joint chiefs count as one card when putting the deck together. So 99 non-general cards plus your general or joint chiefs.

I put my deck together and we'll see how it goes. My general is Vorosh, the Hunter (GUB), and I was close to going with Zombies, but instead approached the build similarly to the build I did for the 5-Color tournament I won (see report on StarCityGames.Com). I concentrated on maximizing utility, card advantage, and a few other synergies. So far test draws seem to be alright. But the real test will be this Saturday when it faces off against the other decks.

Can't wait, so don't be late!
Rodolfo

Oh No! The Anticipation Again.

What anticipation? Well, it comes in multiples. First, Limited EDH will happen next Saturday. And, Alara Reborn packs should be arriving any minute now. Can't wait. Why? Because Wizards has scored with this set. Sure, it was a gamble. The challenges of designing an all gold set are pretty huge. Don't believe me? Go look up a MaRo article about it. He usually does a good job of explaining, even if it seems he has a huge ego. But, hey! Wouldn't you too if you were in his shoes? He's kinda earned it. But they really did a good job. I have to give mad props for the decision to push cascade to the lower rarities. It is a really fun mechanic and having it at lower rarities means that newer or more casual players who do not get a lot of cards will still have excellent access to it, which should help in acquisitions.

Playing at the pre-release was a real blast. I went 3-1 in a field of about 18 to top 8 and lost to my only swiss round loss in the quarters. It was OK because I wanted to get back to the lake for supper and to see how the wife and kids were faring with the in-laws. But what made it even more fun was that there were so many good playables in the set that each round I faced a vastly different deck. Each play, though I knew the spoiler pretty well, was a surprise. The challenges were fun. I'd have to say it was one of the most fun pre-releases I've experienced in years because of that diversity. Alara Reborn's excellent execution is what made it happen.

It's just over a week and a half until we meet and actually play some limited EDH. Finally! I sent the ULCs home with the crew so they could spend time constructing so we weren't wasting vital playing time when we get together. Tom made a big mention on Monday Night Magic. Sounds like he's excited. I would be too if I had Teneb, Platinum Angel and Darksteel Colossuss. But watch out! Rumor is that Neal has a Ravager and other tasty affinity enablers to play with. Not sure what Joel had, but he has the time on his hands right now to do some mad experimentation (good luck in the Job hunt!).

That's where we are at. I'll let ya know what gets busted from Alara Reborn. I am hoping for some Maelstrom Pulses as much for the fantastic art as for the awesomeness of what it does.

And finally, I really meant it when I whined a post or two ago about having my GURU lands. The kids I introduced the game to have gone out and purchased cards. Wizards - are you listening?!?!

Feliz cinco de Mayo!
Rodolfo