Dech Tech: Modern Affinity

Well, it's that time to get ready for modern season.  As I am not going to be able to attend the Grand Prix in Minneapolis, I will be piloting Affinity for those that need playtesting, and also to grind some PTQs with, there is the current list that got 2nd at Grand Prix Richmond.

After I play with this list for a while, I will probably make some modifications due to MTGO meta and what I will probably see out there at the tournaments.

Caleb's fun with magic!

Hey everyone this is my first article ever. My name is Caleb VanVacter a little about me. I have been playing Magic for 15ish years most of them have been in the casual side. After moving to Cedar Falls I became more competitive and have a single PTQ top 8 as the highlight of my magic career.

Now I’m here for an experiment of sorts for people looking to become competitive but don’t have the initial funds to immediately buy in as it can be expensive. This series will be similar to the John Medina style FNM hero, but with slightly different rules in order to make it, what I feel is, more realistic. I am going to be the Event Deck Hero. The rules are as follows and if you have comments, complaints, or suggestions leave them in the comment section.

The Rules


1. Starting funds $100 (this is for initial buy-in costs deck, sleeve and tournament entry)
2. Add $5 a week to spend
3. Can only trade cards I open as the Event Deck Hero.
4. No freebies besides non-foil basic lands
5. End Game is a current Tier 1 deck and getting consistent 1st or 2nd at local tournament.

So those are the rules pretty straight forward. The initial $100 is a standard for what others have done with this type of challenge. The $5 a week is to ensure I can enter a tournament or try to make my deck better my LGS does not sell singles and doesn’t do store credit we get prize packs for $5 entry fee and luckily since singles aren’t available the packs in the store are $2.49 each plus 20% off things like event decks and sleeves. The cards can only come from what I open in prize packs or packs I buy to help my deck. I don’t want this challenge to just be someone handing me a tier 1 deck at every local standard tournament to win packs until I have a good deck, but if I open the cards for a good black/blue deck at most LGS’s including my own someone would give you the basics. The end game seems reasonable as that means I am in the prizes at every tournament.

Now to begin I decided to go with the newest event deck the Theros deck, I don’t know how long this will take but this gives me the most mileage on my cards. My first purchase was the event deck, sleeves, 5 booster packs and the tournament entry for a total of $41.52 leaving my with $58.48. The deck list I am starting with:

4 Azorius Guildgate
1 Hallowed Fountain
5 Island
14 Plains

2 Ascended Lawmage
2 Banisher Priest
3 Battlewise Hoplite
3 Dryad Militant
1 Fabled Hero
1 Frontline Medic
3 Hopeful Eidolon
2 Imposing Sovereign
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
3 Lyev Skyknight
1 New Prahv Guildmage
1 Precinct Captain
1 Skymark Roc
1 Soldier of the Pantheon

2 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Detention Sphere
2 Gods Willing
1 Ordeal of Heliod
2 Ordeal of Thassa
2 Pacifism

Sideboard
2 Arrest
2 Gainsay
2 Gift of Orzhova
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Negate
3 Solemn Offering
2 Triton Tactics

In my booster packs I opened Desecration Demon, Gyre Sage, Steam Augury, Renegade Krasis, Ring of Three Wishes, and a foil Treasury Thrull. I also opened a few other cards to adjust the deck but it wasn’t much and I forgot to write it down (try not to let it happen after this article). The tournament had 8 people for three rounds.

Round 1: Esper Midrange/Humans
Once again notes were not great for this first article but I lost this round. My deck is trying its hardest to make one guy hard to kill and my opponent had removal for all of my creatures.

Loss

Round 2: G/R Monsters
In game one of this round I was able to get up to 60 life and my opponent was down as low as 6, but in the end this game lack a reach and ways to get through a stabilized board and after many more turns my opponent finished me off.

Loss

Round 3: Mono Red
This round I was able to get a guy life link or pump up a life linker and my opponent could not keep up and I was able to take the round down.

Win

This tournament was able to give me an idea what the deck can do. The all in strategy was not what you want most of the time and I learned that in round one as he killed all of the creatures. I was also able to learn from round 2 that I need a way to push through a little more damage with evasion. After the tournament I was able to make a trade to improve my deck the trade was my Desecration Demon and Gyre Sage for their 2x Spear of Heliod, Hallowed Fountain, and Daxos of Meletis.

I went to another tournament 2 weeks later so I was +$10 for a total of $68.58 with the packs I bought 2 Theros and 1 Dragon’s Maze plus the entry fee I went - $13 now at $55.58 I was able to open a 3rd Spear of Heliod and another God’s Willing to add to the deck. After the tournament I was able to trade off a newly opened Sire of Insanity for a Seacoast Drake, Bone Scythe Sliver, Gruul Ragebeast, and Trait Doctoring.

Round 1: Mono Red
This was against the same opponent as last time with the same result I was able to race by getting lifelink on one of my creatures and I was off to a good start.

Win

Round 2: Esper Midrange
Once again the same opponent as last time and same results, he was able to remove the creatures that I was able to put out.

Loss

Round 3: BW Midrange
These games were very close and fun, but in the end I feel as though I lost to variance which will happen in Magic. Game one I was able to land a creature on the play early he promptly doom bladed it. I laid another creature he attempted a doom blade, I God’s Willing pro Black, he doom blades again I God’s Willing again, and then he doom blades again to kill it all 4 doom blades in the top 11-12 cards of his deck. After that we are off to the races but Blood Baron in the end wins it for him. Game 2 I was able to suit up a creature and beat him in a race as he was unable to land a Blood Baron. On to Game 3 again variance strikes we are racing and its close then he hits gray merchant, and swing it’s a little but I’m still winning the race. Then another gray merchant now I’m behind in life but might still be able to race. Then incomes a third gray merchant and I’m dead.

Overall this tournament wasn’t as bad as the first I was able to hang with the other decks. The spears where good for me all day, but still no packs. So far I am 2-4 with the deck but could easily be 3-3 which I’m happy with all things considered.

I was unable to make it to a tournament the next week but with the release of Born of the Gods I have more cards to try to find. I was able to make it to the shop though after a couple weeks so I was +$10 to $65.58 then I purchased 12 packs 3 Return to Ravnica, 3 Theros, and 6 Born of the Gods for a total of $31.97 and down to $33.61. While I didn’t open any rares for my deck I was able to open a few commons and uncommons that should help. Also my rares weren’t bad and could make nice trade stock:

My thoughts on where to go with the deck is a white weenie splashing blue for a few cards like detention sphere and skyknight. My current deck list is:

Creatures:
3 Hopeful Eidolon
3 Dryad Militant
1 Soldier of Pantheon
1 Judge’s Familiar
1 Vanguard of Brimaz
1 Battlewise Hoplite
1 Akroan Skyguard
1 Precinct Captain
2 Imposing Sovereign
1 Daxos of Meletis
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Fabled Hero
1 Wingsteed Rider
2 Banisher Priest
3 Lyev Skyknight

Spells:
3 Gods Willing
2 Ethereal Armor
2 Ordeal of Thassa
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Detention Sphere
3 Spear of Heliod

Lands:
12 Plains
5 Island
4 AzoriusGuildgate
2 Hallowed Fountain

Sideboard:
1 Frontline Medic
1 Triton Tactics
1 Last Breath
2 Dauntless Onslaught
2 Revoke Existence
2 Arrest
2 Pacifism
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Gift of Orzhova

Hope you enjoyed the article I am excited to see how this will turn out and how fast it will go. If you have any comments or questions remember to post in the comment section. Thanks for reading and hope you continue.


-Caleb VanVacter
Twitter- @calebvanvacter
E-mail- Cvanvacter77@gmail.com

How not to play Magic: the Gathering

When you are in a competitive level event, there are ways to play the correctly so that you win the game, and there are ways to play that you win and you opponents don't get to have fun.  What I mean is, sure you know how to play the game, but not to be a great big bully about what you are doing.  There was an instance like this that just happened at the Grand Prix that I had attended to this past weekend.

During day one, a friend of mine was playing and he was doing everything correctly with short cuts and communicating with his opponent.  But his opponent was being such bad player by criticizing him by saying in a arrogant voice, "Enter Combat Phase, Enter Combat Step, In Response I do this!" Also, his opponent went, "You need to hurry up, COME ON!".  The opponent proceeded to call, "JUDGE, my opponent is slow playing!" This put my friend on a serious tilt and could not concentrate during his whole entire match.  This player was then frowned upon by the rest of the players because of this and backed up my friend in this situation, because they knew how the game should be played.

Any player, new or pro, should know that this is not how to play the game.  Sure communication is key and we just can't show off that you know what are the steps or try to make the game go in your favor.  If you want to do that, then stick with MTGO and not show your face in a store or event.  All of the attendees came to Cincinnati for a reason, to play magic with our friends and have a great time.  People like my friend's opponent should be take this seriously.

My ending statement is this. Just play and respect your opponent just as you would like to be played against and be respected in the same fashion. The golden rule of playing Magic: the Gathering is to have fun, and I stand by this infinity times, even greater than 100%.

Jund Monsters!

Here is the list that we ran at the Grand Prix:

Creatures:27

4 Elvish Mystic

2 Scavenging Ooze

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Courser of Kruphix

4 Polukranos, World Eater

4 Reaper of the Wilds

4 Stormbreath Dragon

1 Xenagos, God of Revels

Spells:9

3 Dreadbore

2 Mizzium Mortars

4 Domri Rade

Lands:24

4 Blood Crypt

4 Forest

1 Mountain

2 Mutavault

4 Overgrown Tomb

4 Stomping Ground

4 Temple of Abandon

1 Temple of Malice

Sideboard:15

2 Abrupt Decay

1 Dreadbore

2 Golgari Charm

1 Mizzium Mortars

2 Rakdos's Return

3 Ultimate Price

1 Putrefy

1 Deadbridge Chant

2 Sire of Insanity

Alex and I started talking about last Wednesday about what deck to play.  When I saw an original list, I knew that I wanted to play it. It was like playing original magic all over again. Playing big creatures and attacking with brute force just seemed right.

We wanted a deck that wanted to resilient to certain match ups; mono black, mono blue, GR monsters, and UW control.  The one deck that we really feared was RW burn and thankfully we didn't have to face that deck a lot but.

Before day one of the Grand Prix, we really felt that the numbers needed to be changed and maybe some cards needed to be added.

The original sideboard had a one of Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and one of Sire of Insanity. After some talk to other players that we met up with, we decided that Sire of Insanity was more powerful than the other, especially in the control matchup, which was proven successful.

The "super secret tech" that we put into the sideboard was Deadbridge Chant.  Why in good graces are we playing this card?  Well, is a great way to get cards back that we can use again. With the Scavenging Oozes that are in the main board, we can filter our graveyard so that we have a higher probability of getting a spell or creature that can secure the match. This card was really useful in getting a Mizzium Mortars and overloading it to kill two Blood Baron of Vizkopa.  Win!!!

The last card we put in the sideboard was a one of Putrefy.  BW midrange/control was probably our worst matchup because of Obzedat, Ghost Council.  By draining us two a turn with no instant speed removal just made the it all but a necessity for this deck.  Plus it's a great way to deal with the legendary weapons too.

The only deck that I lost to for the three losses were to BW midrange / control. But that was to be expected. But the decks that we beat are as follows and in no particular order:

-GW aggro

-Mono Black Devotion

-Mono Black Devotion splash White

-Naya agro / combo

-UW Control

-Bant Control

-Jund Monsters (with plansewalkers)

-Esper Midrange

-Esper Control

Over all, I was completely satisfied and happy I played this list.  I went 7-2 day one of the Grand Prix and 5-1 day two which put me in 24th place. Out of 1734 players, well, that's pretty good!  I will be working more on this deck and trying to improve for future tournaments!

Later!

GP Cincinnati End Report

So here are the stats from the tournament from both Matt and Alex:

Total players: 1734

Matt:

Total record: 12-3-0

Finished 24th

Winnings: $400.00 and 2 pro points

Alex:

Total record 6-3

Finished: 298th

Winnings: none

Congratulations to both of them and especially to Alex for his first Grand Prix appearance.

Matt and Alex will be writing up reports and prep work for this Grand Prix soon.

Make sure to keep up with these two in there streams and other content.

Hello from Grand Prix Cincinatti!!!

All right ladies and gents, Matt Britten and Alex Sawyer are here at the GP.  They will keep you updated with records, stories, and even photos of the event.  They might be tempted to stream more this weekend so that they can keep up there game with there super secret deck that they are going to be running *cough**cough* Jund Monsters *cough**cough*.  Anyways if you see Ghostlyflow or MTGJehuty, stop by and say hi and even take a picture to be part of the PLAYMATT history!

Bant Midrange - PTQ Springfield, IL 3/2/2014

Here is the list that Alex played at the PTQ in Springfield, IL

Main Deck: 60 Cards

4 Temple Garden
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Plenty
4 Temple Mystery
1 Temple of Enlightenment
3 Forest
1 Plains
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Detention Sphere
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Advent of the Wurm
3 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
3 Archangel of Thune
3 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Angel of Serenity
2 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard: 15 Cards

3 Last Breath 
2 Negate
1 Unravel the Aether
2 Plummet
3 Supreme Verdict
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Angel of Serenity