Josh and I went down to New Brighton, not far from my aunt's house to Funtastic Cards, a card/skateboard/bait shop with a better drink selection than Wal*Mart has. They have Friday Night Magic (FNM). We decided to attend. Over the course of this past week, we were worried about what to play. Well, Josh was settled on UW control or Red Deck Wins. Both of his decks were, for the most part aside from Mutavaults, completed. THe only decks I had that were even remotley close to completion were Mono Black Control or Gb Elf Warriors. Neither was done though. MBC needed Thoughtseize and Oona's Prowler. GB Elves needed Chameleon Colossus and Gilt-Leaf Palaces. Both decks needed Mutavaults.
I decided early on that MBC would be my best bet, so I spent all week getting ready. I completely neglected GB knowing I wouldn't run it. Friday, after I arrived home and got my new car (well, new to me. 1994 isnt too new), Josh and I went to my house and decided to go over our decks. We were close to making my MBC deck UB control, but at the last minute, opted out of it.
We get there, and Josh suggested I run Gb, as it could do well even without the key cards because its aggro. I knew this to be true, so I did. I knew the deck was outdated and unfinished, but relied on faith in that deck to bring me through it. Also, I didn't know how outdated my deck was. Apparently the "lightning-fast Obsidian-Battle Axe Warrior deck" proved to be as fast as a think soup.
Round 1: U/W Revilark.
I really don't remmeber many details. Only that Extripate turned out to be the key card. I won 1 of the 3 games. The last game, I messed up and Nameless Inversioned his Revilark, causing the deck to combo out with Merrow Whitsnipper. I do not blame my skills for that. I was completely unfamiliar with how Project R worked. I accredit this blunder to the fact that I am unable to test any decks while I am at school, due to the way our server works. I pretty much blamed the entire night on the server. Then again, I feel it is justified because I was unable to modify decks because I couldn't test. I relied heavily on netdecking, which I hate to do.
Round 2: G/b Elves
His sidebaord held all of the black cards, and he didn't sideboard at all. He pretty much faced me with Mono Green Elves. I got trounced 2-0. Lingify turned out to be a key player against Chameleon Colossus, which would help later on with Shriekmaw to clear the 0/4 blocker I just gave them.
Round 3: G/b Elves
Jon Burton. I lost 2/1 to Burton. I was super angry, but whatever. It happend. The same reasons as above too. It was funny though, Burton, who wants to take a Judge test, screwed up. He attacked and I asked who he was attacking, me or Garruk. He said he didn't have to tell until I assign blockers. I knew he was wrong, and I was too tired to argue. As it turns out, the Judge was playing next to us and when Burton tried to get his Chameleon Colossus to trample over Garruk and to me, the Judge corrected Burton's blunder and also said that yes, Burton had to declare me or Garruk before I declared blockers. He was noticibly confused, so we showed him on flavor terms. I set Garruk out at arm's length and said "See, Garruk isn't protecting me. He's my buddy who showed up to help out for a bit." I love making Burton feel like an ass.
Round 4: I got the By.
Finals: Josh faced a Treefolk deck which was remarkably similar to Ray's, only done properly. He lost and faced off for 3rd and 2 backs of Morningtide. I joked saying "You'd better open them before you get out of my car and if you pull a Colossus, I'll buy it right now." He said "Like that would happen. He pulled the Colossus.
Another few interesting things that happened was I got a playset of Hypnotic Specters and got a Regular Colossus and a Thoughtseize out of my foil Chameleon Colossus, plus the Colossus I got off of Josh, so I am a happy camper.
I'm going to refrain from posting the list I ran as I don't have it together anymore. However, a few changes that I picked up on and will integrate into my deck are:
Heritage Druid
Nameless Inversion
Hunting Triad
In the end, I did terrible and was probably labeled as the mediocre player. Josh kept apologizing for telling me to run Elves. Then again, neither of us counted on seeing a total of 6/15 Elf decks, completely finished. I didn't think New Brighton had that many Chameleon Colossus, Mutavaults, or Thoughtseize. Geeze. Though I did terrible, I will work on a new deck to crush the decks there. I really do think a good Mono Black Control or UB control will do nicely. Then again, this will have to wait until I can get 3 more Bitterblossoms, 1 more Damnation, and 3 more Thoughtseize, as well as 4 Mutavault. Also, I got to consider Shadowmoor. Demigod of Revenge, Ghastlord of Fugue, Oona, Queen of the Fae, and Midnight Banshee are all my friends. Well ok, maybe not Ghastlord of Fugue, but his art is fricken bad ass.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Good Morningtide: The Dawn of the Third Generation.
Long ago, in a city far, far away, was a hobby shop called New Dimension Comics. Not many would want to venture into such a place, but there were those who did just that. This group played this game called Magic: The Gathering. This group consisted of legends, some I knew personally, such as Andrew Launi. Towards the end of this era, some new people began to arrive. People such as Josh and Chad. These few newcomers forged what became known as the second generation. This generation consisted of legends including:
Josh "The Fishfood" Court
Chad "Self Proclaimed god of arrogance" Heinz
Trevor "Loxodon Hierarch" Weingardner
Ben "*does Ben face*" Lordi
Jon "Brain cancer" Burton.
Others too came and went, such as Chubbs and Nick, Eric Young and his brother Lola. But two others arrived. Myself, and my colleague Raymond C. Norris (even though his middle name is Lee.) The second generation fell. I would like to think it was partially my fault too. Chad and I have conflicting points of view and are both dominant people. We were destined to clash. It eventually peaked at an argument involving Solar Flare v. Solar Pox. I was told Chad never like me anyways. The feeling was mutual. Josh quit shortly after the personal attacks between me and Chad ceased. He said the game wasn't fun for him anymore. I can't help but wonder if me and Chad had anything to do with it too. Either way, whats done is done, and I proved that a personal attack on me never ends well for the attacker. The final "battle" if you will was the day of Exit Interviews. I gathered a group to do a Time Spiral-Planar Chaos-Future Sight draft and Chad was saying how he was going to help Ray and the others. I snapped on him saying that we are here for fun and the likes of him are not welcome so he can but out. I didn't care if he helped people, but if he would have done that, it would have been like he was playing, thus sucking the fun out of it.
Its been about one year since the Solar Flare incident went down. Josh has been out of the game for one year. My Magic skills have increased drastically, as well as the value of my overall collection. Then suddenly, a few weeks ago, I think it was the 10Th of February, the weekend after the Morningtide Release. I was sitting in my dorm doing not much of anything and I got an email from Josh. He wanted to know if I was interested in any of his dual lands. My initial reaction was "Oh Crap." He was thinking about joining the game again, but wasn't sure. My assumption was he was selling to deplete the last of his collection. I said yes, because I was interested in said dual lands (Fountains and Gardens). He said he wanted to keep the wealth and card pool in the EC area, which is good. The next thing he said turned my attitude around though. He said he wants rid of his old stuff because he was looking at new, specifically Blue stuff. Over the course of that week, he had looked farther into Lorwyn, which he playfully calls Loalolaiyladl (Or any combination of L's, Y's, and other letters). By the end of that week, he had decided to build Mannequin.
Long story short, Josh is now building Mannequin and UB Faeries simultaneously. He also has a UW control deck floating around (and it runs Gully, his name for Guile). Its not the same as it was. Josh's collection isn't golden yet. His decks aren't completely done, but he still has that fierce Spike in him. I put up much more of a fight.
Recalling the meta game that survives, we have dubbed it the third generation. The dominating players in this meta include the members of the Triumvirate: Me, Josh, and Ray. Our play styles are all very different, and we balance each other out. We intend to rule the new generation as Chad had done before us (although a lot nicer) and Andrew had done before that.
If you are in the Ellwood City area and you wish to join this third Generation, you are always welcome to come into the comic shop and play a few games. Also, do not fear the Triumvirate. We are kind, and nothing like Chad. And yes, I speak of the Triumvirate with a hint of arrogance.
Josh "The Fishfood" Court
Chad "Self Proclaimed god of arrogance" Heinz
Trevor "Loxodon Hierarch" Weingardner
Ben "*does Ben face*" Lordi
Jon "Brain cancer" Burton.
Others too came and went, such as Chubbs and Nick, Eric Young and his brother Lola. But two others arrived. Myself, and my colleague Raymond C. Norris (even though his middle name is Lee.) The second generation fell. I would like to think it was partially my fault too. Chad and I have conflicting points of view and are both dominant people. We were destined to clash. It eventually peaked at an argument involving Solar Flare v. Solar Pox. I was told Chad never like me anyways. The feeling was mutual. Josh quit shortly after the personal attacks between me and Chad ceased. He said the game wasn't fun for him anymore. I can't help but wonder if me and Chad had anything to do with it too. Either way, whats done is done, and I proved that a personal attack on me never ends well for the attacker. The final "battle" if you will was the day of Exit Interviews. I gathered a group to do a Time Spiral-Planar Chaos-Future Sight draft and Chad was saying how he was going to help Ray and the others. I snapped on him saying that we are here for fun and the likes of him are not welcome so he can but out. I didn't care if he helped people, but if he would have done that, it would have been like he was playing, thus sucking the fun out of it.
Its been about one year since the Solar Flare incident went down. Josh has been out of the game for one year. My Magic skills have increased drastically, as well as the value of my overall collection. Then suddenly, a few weeks ago, I think it was the 10Th of February, the weekend after the Morningtide Release. I was sitting in my dorm doing not much of anything and I got an email from Josh. He wanted to know if I was interested in any of his dual lands. My initial reaction was "Oh Crap." He was thinking about joining the game again, but wasn't sure. My assumption was he was selling to deplete the last of his collection. I said yes, because I was interested in said dual lands (Fountains and Gardens). He said he wanted to keep the wealth and card pool in the EC area, which is good. The next thing he said turned my attitude around though. He said he wants rid of his old stuff because he was looking at new, specifically Blue stuff. Over the course of that week, he had looked farther into Lorwyn, which he playfully calls Loalolaiyladl (Or any combination of L's, Y's, and other letters). By the end of that week, he had decided to build Mannequin.
Long story short, Josh is now building Mannequin and UB Faeries simultaneously. He also has a UW control deck floating around (and it runs Gully, his name for Guile). Its not the same as it was. Josh's collection isn't golden yet. His decks aren't completely done, but he still has that fierce Spike in him. I put up much more of a fight.
Recalling the meta game that survives, we have dubbed it the third generation. The dominating players in this meta include the members of the Triumvirate: Me, Josh, and Ray. Our play styles are all very different, and we balance each other out. We intend to rule the new generation as Chad had done before us (although a lot nicer) and Andrew had done before that.
If you are in the Ellwood City area and you wish to join this third Generation, you are always welcome to come into the comic shop and play a few games. Also, do not fear the Triumvirate. We are kind, and nothing like Chad. And yes, I speak of the Triumvirate with a hint of arrogance.
Monday, January 21, 2008
[MY STAND] Anti-Tarmogoyf....A Tarmo-Rant
Hey all who read this first Magic blog. I actually hope to update this weekly, but we'll see how that turns out. I actually intend to do different types of posts, with a sub topic after it. Things such as [DECK] for decklists, or [MY STAND] for my opinions and beliefs on the game. Also, I intend that this blog will be even more active, like almost daily, once my web page becomes active again this fall for the next T2 Rotation.
But enough of my future plans. Let's start my Tarmo-Rant
------
I am sure you are all familiar with this little creature. You know, that massive two drops that n00bishly beats face in. That $30-ish card that takes all skill out of the game? Yeah, I thought you'd remember him.
Let's face the truth guys. This guy is one of the few cards to impact every single format in which he is legal. I mean, this beast has impacted even Legacy and Vintage. However, I am not here to debate those formats. In fact, I am not an expert beyond Kamigawa block. I know I may be fairly new, so even my Extended knowledge is limited. Hence why I will not start my webpage until post Ext Rotation. But back on topic, Tarmogoyf has impacted every format and is destined to stick with us for the rest of the game.
Now, here is my expertise on the card. Tarmogoyf, while being a good card, does not belong in every deck that runs green. I may be a Spike, but I do love that flavor. For example, I see tons of Standard Elf decks that run 4 Tarmogoyf and 3 Troll Ascetic. Now, I know I am dragging Troll into this, but it furthers my point. As a flavor junkie, this is the nail to the face for me. Is Tarmogofy an Elf? No. Is Troll? No. Then simply do not call the deck Elves. Elves is a tribal theme that is good. Its a NO NON-ELVES ALLOWED thing. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that the so-called "Elf" Decks that run it are bad, but they live under a false name.
But now that this part of my rant is over, let me go into my opinion of how overrated this card is. At its best, it is a 8/9 for two mana. Not bad by any means. But is it worth the title of "Best Creature Ever" like Evan Erwin would say. I think not. To be the Best Creature Ever, I think it should be a requirement that the creature should do more than attack and block. Others like Psychatog and Dark Confidant, which are the two most common comparisions as the Best Creature Ever, do so much more. For example, I am partial to Confidant because of card advantage, while a Johnny would prefer Psychatog. My proposal is not that Tarmogofy is the best creature ever, but the best Timmy creature ever, as Psychatog is to Johnny and Dark Confidant is to Spike. But the best ever.....I think not.
Now, on to Tarmy in decks. When Evan Erwin was discussing how sick he thinks Tarmogoyf is, though I am not sure which of the past 30-some episodes that was, I saw something that disturbed me. Let me recreate a similar representation for you below:
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Ornithopter
4 Tarmogoyfy
Is something wrong with this portion of list? Yeah, I think so. Tarmogoyf is in a Ravager deck. While, yes, I can see the logic with Ravager's reknown sacrificing everything to make Ravager huge, it doesn't feel right. I am sure there are better options that a Tarmy for Ravager. But thats just how I feel. You make your own call and run the Tarmy and pray someone doesn't drop the Shriekmaw on it to make you sad.
Another thing that I dislike is how almost every deck out there is willing to splash Green for Tarmogofy....end of story. Yes, I can see splashing Green for the sake of Green cards, but only Tarmogoyf? At least throw a Krosan Grip in the sideboard....geeze. To me, this shows how players who have Tarmogofys, show them off, even if the deck would do just as fine without them.
Finally, the stupid-ass names that are spawned from Tarmogoyf. GoyfRack. Goyfsieze, Goyf this and Goyf that. Ok, so we know Tarmogofy is in the deck. Thanks for telling me. I am also a fan of crazy names (Pickles and Sonic Boom are just amazing in that case). I can guarantee this won't change, but it just lacks originality. I mean come on people, a random name is the way to go. It makes your deck stand out, even if it is the completely same list as someone else.
In conclusion, I want to get a few things strait. Tarmogoyf is a great card, don't get me wrong there. I think it is amazing in Mono and Gx Aggro, as well as the Rock. However, leave it out of the RavagerAffinity, the Elves, and that random Red Goblin deck with Green for Tamogofy in it. We are in a new era of Magic. No longer are we restricted to 3 playable decks like when Mirrodin was T2 legal. Make that original deck without the Goyf.
Another thing I want out there before I am crucified for this, is that no, this post is not a rant about its price (which is on average $120 for four cards, which is against my policy and disgusts me that it goes for that much). If I wanted to go on that thought, I would have brought in cards like Wrath of God, Damnation, Promotional, Foil Textless verisions of those cards, Pithing Needle, Thoughtsieze, Garruk and many more.
Until next time, this is Minti signing out
-J~Minti
But enough of my future plans. Let's start my Tarmo-Rant
------
I am sure you are all familiar with this little creature. You know, that massive two drops that n00bishly beats face in. That $30-ish card that takes all skill out of the game? Yeah, I thought you'd remember him. Let's face the truth guys. This guy is one of the few cards to impact every single format in which he is legal. I mean, this beast has impacted even Legacy and Vintage. However, I am not here to debate those formats. In fact, I am not an expert beyond Kamigawa block. I know I may be fairly new, so even my Extended knowledge is limited. Hence why I will not start my webpage until post Ext Rotation. But back on topic, Tarmogoyf has impacted every format and is destined to stick with us for the rest of the game.
Now, here is my expertise on the card. Tarmogoyf, while being a good card, does not belong in every deck that runs green. I may be a Spike, but I do love that flavor. For example, I see tons of Standard Elf decks that run 4 Tarmogoyf and 3 Troll Ascetic. Now, I know I am dragging Troll into this, but it furthers my point. As a flavor junkie, this is the nail to the face for me. Is Tarmogofy an Elf? No. Is Troll? No. Then simply do not call the deck Elves. Elves is a tribal theme that is good. Its a NO NON-ELVES ALLOWED thing. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not saying that the so-called "Elf" Decks that run it are bad, but they live under a false name.
But now that this part of my rant is over, let me go into my opinion of how overrated this card is. At its best, it is a 8/9 for two mana. Not bad by any means. But is it worth the title of "Best Creature Ever" like Evan Erwin would say. I think not. To be the Best Creature Ever, I think it should be a requirement that the creature should do more than attack and block. Others like Psychatog and Dark Confidant, which are the two most common comparisions as the Best Creature Ever, do so much more. For example, I am partial to Confidant because of card advantage, while a Johnny would prefer Psychatog. My proposal is not that Tarmogofy is the best creature ever, but the best Timmy creature ever, as Psychatog is to Johnny and Dark Confidant is to Spike. But the best ever.....I think not.
Now, on to Tarmy in decks. When Evan Erwin was discussing how sick he thinks Tarmogoyf is, though I am not sure which of the past 30-some episodes that was, I saw something that disturbed me. Let me recreate a similar representation for you below:
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Ornithopter
4 Tarmogoyfy
Is something wrong with this portion of list? Yeah, I think so. Tarmogoyf is in a Ravager deck. While, yes, I can see the logic with Ravager's reknown sacrificing everything to make Ravager huge, it doesn't feel right. I am sure there are better options that a Tarmy for Ravager. But thats just how I feel. You make your own call and run the Tarmy and pray someone doesn't drop the Shriekmaw on it to make you sad.
Another thing that I dislike is how almost every deck out there is willing to splash Green for Tarmogofy....end of story. Yes, I can see splashing Green for the sake of Green cards, but only Tarmogoyf? At least throw a Krosan Grip in the sideboard....geeze. To me, this shows how players who have Tarmogofys, show them off, even if the deck would do just as fine without them.
Finally, the stupid-ass names that are spawned from Tarmogoyf. GoyfRack. Goyfsieze, Goyf this and Goyf that. Ok, so we know Tarmogofy is in the deck. Thanks for telling me. I am also a fan of crazy names (Pickles and Sonic Boom are just amazing in that case). I can guarantee this won't change, but it just lacks originality. I mean come on people, a random name is the way to go. It makes your deck stand out, even if it is the completely same list as someone else.
In conclusion, I want to get a few things strait. Tarmogoyf is a great card, don't get me wrong there. I think it is amazing in Mono and Gx Aggro, as well as the Rock. However, leave it out of the RavagerAffinity, the Elves, and that random Red Goblin deck with Green for Tamogofy in it. We are in a new era of Magic. No longer are we restricted to 3 playable decks like when Mirrodin was T2 legal. Make that original deck without the Goyf.
Another thing I want out there before I am crucified for this, is that no, this post is not a rant about its price (which is on average $120 for four cards, which is against my policy and disgusts me that it goes for that much). If I wanted to go on that thought, I would have brought in cards like Wrath of God, Damnation, Promotional, Foil Textless verisions of those cards, Pithing Needle, Thoughtsieze, Garruk and many more.
Until next time, this is Minti signing out
-J~Minti
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