Roy Tang

Programmer, engineer, scientist, critic, gamer, dreamer, and kid-at-heart.

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May 2008

Apr 2008

  • Deck Building for an Unknown Metagame

    This coming weekend is the release of Shadowmoor. As with any new set coming in, this means a new environment with an unknown metagame, and is especially true for the large set Shadowmoor. It’s an opportunity for those of us who believe we have some modicum of deck-building skills. I plan to be playing Standard on Saturday, one day after set release so I will try to build a deck to take advantage of the wide open field.

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  • Shadowmoor Sneak Peek

    In the Philippines, the Sneak Peak serves as our release party, and the format is the same as the prerelease: Four rounds of sealed, each win gets you a Shadowmoor booster pack. 4-0 wins a Shadowmoor deck box.

    The sealed pool I opened and registered was a mediocre pile with limited removal and rares like Rage Reflection, Reaper King, Vexing Shusher and Demigod of Revenge. This not being the prerelease, the pools were shuffled around after registration.

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  • Pre-Shadowmoor Triple Treat I -- Under the Sea
    Tournament was last April 6 2008 at NG Galleria, with 3 formats: Block, Standard and Extended. I was thinking of playing block but shifted to standard at the last minute because I only had one Mutavault. This was deck I assembled on Saturday: Lands 4 Faerie Conclave 19 Island Creatures 4 Tideshaper Mystic 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Merfolk Reejerey 4 Stonybrook Banneret 4 Silvergill Adept 2 Sower of Temptation Spells 4 Ancestral Vision 4 Sage's Dousing 4 Delay 3 Psionic Blast Sideboard 4 Rune Snag 4 Flash Freeze 3 Surgespanner 2 Sower of Temptation 2 Voidmage Prodigy Of course I went in again with no playtesting.

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Mar 2008

  • City Champs Trials IV: Reveillark Blink
    The tournament was last Saturday, March 15, Standard. Slightly modified list from last week: Lands 6 Islands 5 Plains 4 Adarkar Waster 4 Nimbus Maze 4 Desert Creatures 4 Mulldrifter 4 Reveillark 3 Mirror Entity 2 Bonded Fetch 3 Body Double 2 Riftwing Cloudskate 2 Venser, Shaper Savant 3 Aven Riftwatcher Spells 3 Prismatic Lens 2 Mind Stone 4 Wrath of God 3 Momentary Blink 2 Condemn Sideboard 2 Windborn Muse 2 Crovax, Ascendant Hero 2 Condemn 2 Stonecloaker 2 Sower of Temptation 2 Draining Whelk 2 Teferi's Moat 1 Magus of the Moat Just a quick summary this time:

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  • City Champs Trials III 2008: Reveillark Blink
    The tournament format is Morningtide standard, 09 March at NG Galleria. My decklist, pirated from Benjamin Peebles-Mundy, with slight modifications: Lands 6 Islands 5 Plains 4 Adarkar Waster 4 Nimbus Maze 4 Desert Creatures 4 Mulldrifter 4 Reveillark 3 Mirror Entity 3 Bonded Fetch 3 Body Double 3 Riftwing Cloudskate 2 Venser, Shaper Savant Spells 3 Prismatic Lens 2 Mind Stone 4 Wrath of God 3 Momentary Blink 3 Condemn Sideboard 3 Windborn Muse 3 Aven Riftwatcher 2 Stonecloaker 2 Sower of Temptation 2 Draining Whelk 2 Teferi's Moat 1 Magus of the Moat Tournament report follows.

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Feb 2008

  • Opening a Morningtide Box
    A box and five boosters actually. We drafted the packs, but the final distribution of rares we got were: White 1 Battletide Alchemist 1 Feudkiller's Verdict 1 Idyllic Tutor 1 Kinsbaile Borderguard 1 Preeminent captain 1 Reveillark 1 Stonehewer Giant Blue 3 Declaration of Naught 1 Knowledge Exploitation 1 Slithermuse 1 Supreme Exemplar 1 Vendillion Clique Black 3 Bitterblossom 1 Earwig Squad 2 Fendeep Summoner 1 Maralen of the Mornsong 1 Scarblade Elite 1 Stenchskipper Red 3 Boldwyr Heavyweights 1 Countryside Crusher 1 Shared Animosity 1 Sensation Gorger 1 Titan's Revenge 1 Vengeful Firebrand Green 1 Chameleon Colossus 1 Greatbow Doyen 1 Leaf-crowned Elder 1 Reach of Branches 1 Rhys the Exiled 1 Scapeshift 1 Unstoppable Ash Lands 1 Mutavault 2 Rustic Clachan Foils 1 Reveillark Not a bad box.

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  • Morningtide Release Event

    Flight B, February 2, 2008, Saturday at Neutral Grounds Galleria. The format is LOR/MOR sealed.

    I get my product and check it out. No outright bombs or cash rares, but I immediately spot the Drowner of Secrets + Merrow Commerce + 2 Stonybrook Schoolmasters. I had reasonable fliers and permission, so I built the blue-white deck. My only removal being a Weight of Conscience that I did not actually put in the maindeck.

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Jan 2008

  • Pre Morningtide Constructed: Standard @ NG Galleria
    Tournament was at January 5 2008 in Robinson’s Galleria. I only found out the day before, so I brought the only deck I had – Mannequin. Round 1: 0-2 loss vs UG Faeries Round 2: 0-2 loss vs BGW Doran Round 3: 2-0 win vs BW unknown deck Round 4: 0-2 loss vs UG Faeries Round 5: 0-2 loss vs BG Tarmorack Ugh. Terrible way to start the year. My own fault for bringing an outdated version of Mannequin to the tournament without even any testing.

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Dec 2007

  • Magic Stats! (And Year in Review)
    I believe that this year, I have managed to improve my Magic-playing a bit (despite the abundance of embarassing mistakes).I also believe I’m slightly better at Limited than I am at Constructed. TO back up these beliefs, I could point to my DCI ratings. But as a programmer who loves stats, I compiled additional stats for my own pleasure: My Playing Stats. A bit of background: I’ve been playing Magic on and off since Revised, but only gotten into the tournament scene seriously in 2006.

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  • The Importance of Having a Team
    A couple of weeks ago, just before the last PTQ of the season, I was thinking of quitting Magic. Not because I’m tired of it or anything, but because I’ve run out of people to play with. Unlike last year where we had enough players in the office to occasionally have an 8-man draft, this year most of the Magic players have either switched to WoW or moved to a different company/country.

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  • PTQ Kuala Lumpur #4
    The last qualifier in the Philippines, held last December 16. I wasn’t able to attend the Gold Rush the day before due to prior commitments, so this was my last tournament for the year. I opened a pool with a lot of removal: White 1 Hillcomber Giant 1 Judge of Currents 1 Kinsbaile Balloonist 1 Kinsbaile Skirmisher 1 Kithkin Greatheart 1 Kithkin Harbinger 2 Kithkin Healer 1 Lairwatch Giant 1 Sentry Oak 2 Springjack Knight Blue 1 Amoeboid Changeling 1 Aquitect's Will 2 Deeptread Merrow 1 Drowner of Secrets 1 Faerie Trickery 1 Familiar's Ruse 1 Merrow Reejerey 1 Mulldrifter 2 Ponder 1 Protective Bubble 1 Ringskipper 1 Whirlpool Whelm Black 1 Bog Hoodlums 1 Boggart Loggers 1 Colfenor's Plans 1 Dread 1 Exiled Boggart 1 Fodder Launch 2 Footbottom Feast 1 Hornet Harasser 1 Hunter of Eyeblights 1 Marsh Flitter 1 Prowess of the Fair 1 Scarred Vinebreeder 1 Skeletal Changeling 1 Spiderwig Boggart 1 Thieving Sprite 2 Weed Strangle Red 1 Adder-Staff Boggart 2 Axegrinder Giant 1 Blind-Spot Giant 1 Faultgrinder 1 Fire-Belly Changeling 2 Lash Out 1 Lowland Oaf 1 Rebellion of the Flamekin 2 Tar Pitcher Green 1 Briarhorn 1 Fertile Ground 1 Immaculate Magistrate 1 Kithkin Daggerdare 2 Lace with Moonglove 2 Lignify 2 Sylvan Echoes 1 Timber Protector 1 Warren-Scourge Elf 1 Woodland Changeling Others 1 Herbal Poultice 1 Moonglove Extract 1 Island 1 Shelldock Isle 1 Vivid Marsh I built some deck with Goblins and Giants:

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  • PTQ Kuala Lumpur #3
    Dec-2, Sunday. Lorwyn Sealed. The usual location of course, NG Galleria. I find your lack of socks… disturbing I played a couple MTGO drafts the day before but did not do very well, I hoped my luck would be better this time. But my day did not start very well as I found that I had forgotten to bring sleeves to the event. I had to buy some rough-backed Ultra Pros.

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  • Standard @ NG Galleria 24-Nov-2007
    Yeah, I post these late, I’m a busy man. But I want to have a record so here we go. Same deck as the last time , except I removed the 2 grim harvests from the board and put in +2 sudden death (to improve the pickles matchup) Round 1: My opponent had a BUw Mannequin deck, splashing for O-Ring and Blink. He obviously put the deck together at the last minute though.

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  • I Play Too Quickly
    The first step is admitting you have a problem. I’ve thrown away games because I played spells without thinking and attacked without thinking. I go on autopilot far too often. It has got to stop. What’s the preventive measure? I’ll count to 3 before making every decision.
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Nov 2007

  • The Perils of Magic Online Multitasking
    My single greatest problem with Magic Online is the fact that it’s on a computer. Which means that unlike a real draft where I can focus 100% on the draft, in Magic Online I could possibly be doing several other things such as coding, blogging, random surfing, IM, etc. that may cause terrible misclicks such as a first-pick Faultgrinder (true story) I should stop writing this post now and maybe try to salvage the draft.

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  • PTQ Kuala Lumpur #2
    Tournament was last Sunday, November 18. Format was Lorwyn Sealed. I open a pretty good sealed pool this time. Notable cards include Mistbind Clique, Profane Command, Mulldrifter, Cloudgoat Ranger, Oblivion Ring, Shriekmaw and Silvergill Douser. Haven’t written up the sealed pool yet, will probably do so later. I play major blue, minor black and white. Round 1: 2-0 win vs BG Goblin/Elf Round 2: 2-0 win vs UB Faeries Round 3 vs merfolk, things start getting interesting.

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  • Lorwyn Inaugurals
    Tournament was on Saturday, November 10. Format was Standard. I didn’t have any good deck ideas this time around (some would argue I never do!), so I played a netdeck. I played the Mannequin deck that originally appeared in US States, as reported by BDM here. I had to change the board around a bit, I went with: 4 Nameless Inversion (to help kill black/artifact critters) 3 Vesuvan Shapeshifter (get random tricks off pickles, and kill legends) 3 extirpate 3 bottle gnomes 2 damnation I had very minimal testing, but I was fairly sure aggro decks were a cakewalk, and control decks are winnable headaches.

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  • PTQ Kuala Lumpur #1
    The format is Lorwyn Sealed. Note here that I they had a shortage of boosters and had to split tournament packs into 3 boosters to be able to accomodate all the players. Decklist/Card pool later, I’m too lazy to type it up. Unfortunately, I failed to learn from the previous mistakes as I got blinded by the shiny again, thinking I could actually cast Horde of Notions, so I went with an almost-five color build, major red-blue-and-green.

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  • The Mysterious Fertile Ground
    (7:51:16 PM) Roy: I dug into the invasion box to look for fertile grounds (invasion common, reprinted in lorwyn) guess how many I found? (7:51:26 PM) switch: 1? (7:51:31 PM) switch: 0? (7:51:34 PM) Roy: zero (7:51:46 PM) switch: hmmm. that’s oddish (7:51:59 PM) switch: then again, it’s common in lor (7:52:10 PM) Roy: yes, but I wanted to play with Invasion ones! (7:52:33 PM) switch: oh well

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  • States / Champs 2007 Data
    I still have no idea what to play for Lorwyn Standard, so I was eagerly awaiting this year’s States/Champs results. There are already partial results up at MTG.com, and I had some time so I did some of my programming hocus-pocus and extracted some fun data. States / Champs 2007 Card Counts The data is of course extracted from top eight decklists, so what we have here are literally the best decks this past weekend.

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Oct 2007

  • GPT Bangkok 4
    Ugh, I feel like an idiot. Lowryn Sealed card pool: White 1 Cloudgoat Ranger 2 Goldmeadow Stalwart 1 Kinsbaile Balloonist 2 Kinsbaile Skirmisher 1 Kithkin Greatheart 1 Neck Snap 1 Oaken Brawler 1 Pollen Lullaby 2 Springjack Knight 1 Surge of Thoughtweft 1 Thoughtweft Trio 1 Triclopean Sight Blue 1 Æthersnipe 1 Amoeboid Changeling 1 Drowner of Secrets 1 Ego Erasure 1 Faerie Harbinger 1 Faerie Trickery 1 Mistbind Clique 1 Mulldrifter 2 Pestermite 2 Ponder 1 Protective Bubble 1 Tideshaper Mystic Black 2 Bog Hoodlums 1 Boggart Loggers 1 Faerie Tauntings 1 Footbottom Feast 1 Hornet Harasser 1 Makeshift Mannequin 1 Marsh Flitter 1 Nightshade Stinger 1 Peppersmoke 1 Prowess of the Fair 1 Quill-Slinger Boggart 3 Scarred Vinebreeder 1 Warren Pilferers Red 1 Ashling’s Prerogative 1 Axegrinder Giant 1 Boggart Shenanigans 1 Boggart Sprite-Chaser 1 Consuming Bonfire 1 Faultgrinder 1 Flamekin Brawler 1 Glarewielder 1 Hurly-Burly 1 Inner-Flame Acolyte 1 Inner-Flame Igniter 1 Lowland Oaf 1 Tarfire Green 1 Cloudcrown Oak 1 Fistful of Force 1 Guardian of Cloverdell 3 Lace with Moonglove 1 Lammastide Weave 1 Leaf Gilder 2 Lys Alana Huntmaster 1 Rootgrapple 1 Timber Protector 1 Woodland Changeling Others 1 Runed Stalactite 1 Wanderer’s Twig 1 Wort, Boggart Auntie My build:

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  • Ravnica's Last Hurrah
    I wasn’t too keen on playing, but that Dark Confidant kept whispering at me to give him one more chance. Rakdos again, except I removed Martyr of Ashes from the board and put in Avalanche Riders to help the terrible Angelfire matchup. Round 1: 2-1 win vs BWR Slivers I kept Hit/Run in the main because I thought he had Solifuges, he did not. Round 2: 2-1 win vs White Weenie

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Sep 2007

  • Lorwyn -- Prerelease
    Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the AM flights yesterdat, so I hung around Galleria for a few hours watching people play. A lot of people seemed to be playing blue or green stuff. There are people saying Needle Drop is good, what? Just because it cantrips? My flight manages to start around 4 PM, and I open the sealed pool I’m registering. The first two rares I see are Jace Beleren and Chandra Nalar!

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  • Lorwyn -- Some Other Cards of Note
    Lorwyn prerelease in two days, and of course MTG Salvation is spoiler-complete. Some thoughts on cards: Thoughtseize – B Sorcery (Rare) Target player reveals his or her hand. Choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life. My take: Undercosted cards that demand a 2 life payment are usually pretty good. (See: Shocklands, Char, Psionic Blast, Vampiric Tutor). Thoughtseize is widely anticipated to be the chase rare of the set, with starcitygames.

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  • Lorwyn -- Planeswalkers
    The full spoiler is of course now available at MtgSalvation; I’ll talk about planeswalkers first. Each planeswalker is rare and has 3 abilities: a normal attack, a special move, and a finishing move. Ajani Goldmane 2ww Planeswalker – Ajani +1: You gain 2 life -1: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Those creatures gain vigilance until end of turn. -6: Put a white Avatar creature token into play with “This creature’s power and toughness are each equal to your life total.

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  • Friday Night Magic
    I played at an FNM for the first time last Friday, in a cramped room at the back of the Neutral Grounds in Galleria. It was definitely… different than the usual weekend tournaments. I mean people playing Rhox different. Asking whether equip costs needed to be paid every turn different. Not that I’m picking on noobs or anything; it was all fun and refreshing. Everything was a lot more casual than the highly competitive PTQs or GPTs.

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  • Roy on Magic
    Obviously, I’ve started playing a lot of Magic since last year. I’ve been a long-time player, having started around the time of Revised more than twelve years ago, but I’ve never seriously started playing in tournaments in such until I had a job, which meant more money to spend on Magic (also meant less free time though =/) As anyone who has immersed himself in this game knows, Magic is an addictive experience.

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  • GPT Bangkok 3
    It’s my first time playing at BCI Greenhills. During deck registration, I open a Damnation and a Graven Cairns. If I got up then, I’d have gotten my money’s worth. But I didn’t come here to buy a Damnation, I came here to play. My sealed deck: Lands 8 Mountains 7 Forest 1 Swamp 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Kher Keep Creatures 1 Gemhide Sliver 1 Thornweald Archer 1 Thallid Germinator 1 Citanul Woodreaders 1 Giant Dustwasp 1 Durkwood Baloth 1 Basalt Gargoyle 1 Coal Stoker 1 Two-headed Sliver 1 Bonesplitter Sliver 1 Sedge Sliver 1 Gathan Raiders 1 Scourge of Kher Ridges Spells 1 Tromp the Domains 1 Dead/Gone 1 Rift Bolt 1 Orcish Cannonade 1 Shivan Meteor 1 Death Rattle 1 Strangling Soot 1 Prismatic Lens I’m pretty sure I misbuilt this, you can see the complete pool here.

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  • Pre-Lorwyn Triple Treat I: Standard
    This weekend was the first of three “Pre-Lorwyn Triple Treats” at Neutral Ground, featuring Saturdays with three tournaments: one each of Standard, Block Constructed and Legacy. I tried preparing a deck for block but I couldn’t come up with anything consistent enough. Lazily, I just picked up the Standard Rakdos deck the day before the tourney, tweaked the sideboard for the inevitable TarmoRack decks (-4 Bottle Gnomes +4 Dodecapod). I lacked a 15th sideboard card, so I toss in a random Seize the Soul.

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  • GPT Bangkok
    Yeah, I actually did play at the Standard Open at Trinoma Mall a couple of weekends ago, but my performance was so piss-poor I didn’t bother writing a report. Long and short of it, I played Rakdos, but didn’t have time to look for Rain of Gores for the board. They would have really helped against the two Angelfire losses I got in rounds 3 and 5, including the one where the opponent drew all four Lightning Helixes :/ The decks record against Angelfire decks is something 1-3 I believe.

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Jul 2007

  • I Suck At Standard
    Just to make it, y’know, official: I suck at Standard. I played in two Nationals qualifiers over the past two weekends. The first one with the Mishra deck (Flores’ Legends of Team CMU) to a disappointing 4-3 finish in a sea of Angelfire, Solar Flare and Gruul. Disappointed with the decks performance, I took a look at the result of Australian Nationals that same weekend, and decided to play the Rakdos “Satanic Sligh” build that had won that event in today’s qualifier, which was incidentally the last one I could play given my schedule.

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  • Magic Game Day
    Today is of course the release of Magic’s Xth edition, Magic Game Day. As usual, I played at Neutral Grounds in Galleria. Helluva lot of people there, more than I was expecting for a Core Set Release tournament. The format is, as usual, Sealed Deck with four rounds of Swiss pairings. Players were grouped in Flights of 32 people each (previous prerelease tournaments had 48-people flights), each win gets you an Xth booster pack and the top 2 of each flight (the ones who went 4-0) get something extra.

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  • PTQ Valencia 2007-06-30 @ NG Galleria
    I was playing UG shifters. Lands 4 terramorphic Expans 9 Island 6 Forest 3 Llanowar Reborn 1 Pendelhaven Creatures 4 Vesuvan Shapeshifter 4 Wall of Roots 4 Riftwing Cloudskate 3 Mystic Snake 2 Thelonite Hermit 2 Brine Elemental 2 Aeon Chronicler 2 Willbender 1 Draining Whelk Spells 3 Search for Tomorrow 3 Foresee 2 Psionic Blast 2 Call of the Herd 2 Take Posession 1 Spell Burst Sideboard 3 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss 2 Krosan Grip 3 Delay 2 Riftsweeper 2 Penumbra Spider 3 Serrated Arrows It was my first Block Constructed tourney.

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Jun 2007

  • Magic -- Regionals 2007
    The venue is, as always, NG Galleria. The format, Standard. I was playing Mike Flores’ “Legends of Team CMU” – the Mishra/Korlash aggro/control/combo deck that placed seventh in New Jersey Regionals, with a modified sideboard since I couldn’t get all of the cards in time. Flores discusses the deck in detail here (requries a Premium SCG.com account) Round 1 0-2 Loss vs GUB NarcoBridge (Dregde combo) Round 2 2-1 Win vs Mono-black Rack

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  • Standard @ NG Galleria 02-Jun-2007
    The saga of the mightiest deck in the universe continues. My previous outing showed me a solid control matchup and maybe 60% aggro matchup. I tweaked the sideboard to improve the aggro game post-board, dropping the useless Yixlid Jailers for 4 Last Gasps. Here’s how I did: Round 1 2-0 win vs MGA Round 2 0-2 loss vs RUW control (no angels) Round 3 2-0 win vs RGW mid-range aggro (elephants/avalanche riders)

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May 2007

  • Future Sight Inaugural @ NG Galleria 26-May-2007
    (edit 24-Dec-2008: Imported decklist from the wiki, removed the dead link below, anchor tag retained for posterity) Lands 20 Swamp 3 Blood Crypt Creatures 4 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade 4 Dimir House Guard 4 Dark Confidant 3 Withered Wretch 2 Detritivore Spells 2 Grim Harvest 3 Damnation 1 Persecute 2 Demonfire 4 Tendrils of Corruption 4 Sudden Death 4 Rakdos Signet Bearing the deck I’ve named “the mightiest deck in the universe”, I got the following results:

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  • Time Spiral Sealed -- 13 May @ NG Galleria
    Before actually going to the elections last Monday, I played some Limited-format Magic last Sunday at Galleria. The format was Time Spiral Block Sealed, and I was feeling good. I opened a card pool with no outstanding rares. The only real bomb was the red uncommon Pyrohemia. Spotting the Deep-Sea Kraken and wanting to play it, I decided to go red-blue. I tested the build for a few minutes before realizing it completely stunk and had very few creatures.

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Apr 2007

  • Future Sight Prerelease
    A bit lazy today, just a quick summary. As usual for a prerelease, lots of people at NG yesterday. I got there before Galleria opened and whiled away time on the DS. The NG staff was a lot more efficient today, they were able to start the first 3 flights as early as 10:30. I got on flight C, and proceeded to open one of the most mediocre card pools I’ve ever seen.

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  • I Should Stup Sucking on MTGO
    I scrubbed out of the last 3 TSP-TSP-PLC drafts, how annoying. :/ I tend to make bad plays at the worst possible time, and also don’t mulligan very well. If I’m not good at it, I suppose I should stop. Maybe I’ll get better once Future Sight comes out.
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Mar 2007

  • PTQ: San Diego
    So yeah, it was a Two-Headed Giant Limited PTQ at NG Galleria yesterday. I played with my friend Paul, and we had a rather good sealed pool, coming up with a pair of decks that had the basic strategy of “Do not block!” Unfortunately, we were only able to go 5-2, ending up as the team in 10th place. Well, it’s not like we would’ve been able to go to San Diego, but still the 750USD would have been nice.

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  • So Many Bad Plays
    Under Development Standard @ NG Galleria 24-Mar-2007 Lands 4 Breeding Pool 3 Stomping Ground 1 Steam Vents 2 Mountain 7 Island 5 Forest 1 Skargg, the Rage Pits Creatures 3 Plaxmanta 3 Sulfur Elemental 3 Giant Solifuge 4 Fathom Seer 2 Mystic Snake 2 Vesuvan Shapeshifter 1 Brine Elemental Spells 2 Demonfire 3 Research // Development 3 Search for Tomorrow 4 Farseek 3 Think Twice 4 Remand Sideboard 3 Krosan Grip 2 Detritivore 2 Tormod's Crypt 2 Electrolyze 2 Serrated Arrows 2 Pyroclasm This deck is named “Under Development” because I basically threw it together two days ago with almost no playtesting.

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Jan 2007

  • Planar Chaos Prerelease
    Played yesterday at Galleria. With a whole bunch of people: three from the Zu crowd and I think five or six from the office. Insane number of people, as expected. I got there about ten minutes after the mall opened (I came from work), and I was already preregistered, but I only got to sign up for the sixth flight (Flight F). They had to buy extra tables from a nearby Office Warehouse.

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  • Nameless Deck Does Not Win
    I played the same deck again this past weekend, but I forgot to name it “Nameless Deck Wins” this time, so I posted a much worse record. =( I went 2-3-drop, with the losses all going to aggro decks (2 Boros, 1 KarstenBot). The Boros matchup is winnable, but really tight, with no room for error. Anyway, with Planar Chaos coming out, my colors (Red/Green/Black) look like they’re getting a good boost, so hopefully I can further improve this deck.

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  • Nameless Deck Wins
    I played the following decklist last Saturday at NG Galleria, giving it the incredibly clever name “Nameless Deck Wins” Creatures 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Llanowar Elves 4 Spike Feeder 4 Yavimaya Dryad 3 Giant Solifuge 4 Call of the Herd Spells 3 Demonfire 4 Cryoclasm 4 Mwonvuli Acid-moss 4 Hit // Run 1 Krosan Grip Lands 3 Stomping Ground 3 Overgrown Tomb 3 Blood Crypt 1 Karplusan Forest 1 Molten Slagheap 2 Gemstone Mine 2 Gruul Turf 1 Desert 1 Pendlehaven 5 Forest Sideboard 4 Strangling Soot 2 Fortune Thief 2 Persecute 2 Rain of Gore 2 Krosan Grip 3 Magus of the Scroll The strategy is simple:

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Dec 2006

  • 8-Man Drafts on MTGO
    One of the nice things about Magic: Online is the concept of “Nix Tix”. Basically, for a few days during holidays, 8-man drafts no longer require the usual 2 tickets to play. You simply need the product used for the draft (3 booster packs) in order to join an 8-man draft. And since the payout is also in booster packs, distributed as 4-3-2-2, you can basically keep playing 8-man drafts for free as long as you get at least two wins per draft.

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