WB in a brand new field

It’s been a long time since I posted or have done something on the blog.

Between the improvements I wanted to add to the blog but never finished and a report from nationals that I never started, it got put on hold.

Anyway, the improvements will somehow find a way to get in but the report from nationals would be pretty much useless now.

Well, it was like I took a vacation from my blog.

Since my last post two editions were released, M11 and Scars of Mirrodin, and there was a rotation when Scars got released, which brought big changes to the metagame and a bunch of new decks. While this is a big step down for netdeckers it’s a new playground for people who like to explore the tools they have been given.

M11 Sketch

So here's the thing:

2 weeks now, I got a ptq. It's with M11. So no netdecking I think.

I expect the majority of the control decks to include things like condemn and mana leak, which, are good to stop Jund.

So, I am thinking in taking something like this:

// Lands

3 [SHM] Swamp (2)

3 [ON] Plains (1)

2 [MR] Island (4)

4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats

2 [M10] Glacial Fortress

3 [ALA] Arcane Sanctum

3 [WWK] Celestial Colonnade

3 [WWK] Creeping Tar Pit

2 [M10] Drowned Catacomb

// Creatures

4 [M11] Baneslayer Angel

4 [WWK] Abyssal Persecutor

4 [ROE] Wall of Omens

// Spells

3 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 [ROE] Gideon Jura

3 [M11] Day of Judgment

4 [MPR] Mana Leak

4 [MPR] Condemn

4 [ALA] Esper Charm

// Sideboard

SB: 3 [FNM] Oblivion Ring

SB: 4 [M11] Duress

SB: 2 [ARB] Identity Crisis

SB: 2 [CFX] Path to Exile

SB: 4 [ZEN] Spreading Seas

It's mainly the Conley Woods deck, but I dropped the spreading seas to the side, since they are there exclusively against jund. Besides, if I want to be mana leaking, I can't spend turns spreading the seas. Against jund, spreading seas is effectively a mana leak, since holds their next play.

The side is a bit random yet. So help needed.

Some tips for Nationals.

When you know that you are going to nationals, the first thing that most people ask themselves is which deck to pick.

Abyssal Jund

So, as I have seen yesterday's SCG 5k, one deck has caught my eye, Wescoe's Jund. I really like abyssal on the deck, since it provides great approach against Bant, Turboland and decks with Sphinx of Jwar Isle.

But I didn't like his side, so I will try as I write this post to merge my decklist with his, so I can get the best of the two worlds.

Leeching the format

So here I am, a little less than 2 weeks from the nationals. And the day will finally come, the day I will play Jund.
After struggling so much against it, the afterhours of a ptq fail with mythic were spent amusing myself on the dark side playing leeches and cascading into some blightnings.

Leveling up

So I am about 3 weeks to nationals.
The training sessions have begun, both draft as well constructed.
As for constructed I am currently playing the chapin bant, but the list is quite tight and I am not figuring much slots to improve the deck. As for one matchup that really bothers me, which is mirror.

Deck Discussion: Why Brilliant is not that brilliant.

So this time I will look at a list and write about what I like or dislike on the list.

And this time it will be Brilliant Esper.

Here’s the list I tried:

Adressing Mythic Rarity

For quite some time there are a lot of people nagging about the price of some mythics.

And I’m one of them.

Paying 50 to 80 dollars for a card is almost prohibitive for me, and when the decks I would like to play have 4-10 cards of this type this is even worse. To top it all this can not be addressed by any other way than buying them or been lucky on a draft.

But drafting for this kind of cards is not worth it, because if you aren’t able to hit them you will most likely lose money.

Sculpting Standard

I have to say, I am thrilled about tomorrow's GP. I think it will shape my natz standard. Sure there will be other 2 GP's, but those will just tweak the main decks, I really don't believe some new crazy high tech will be coming for those.
So yeah, it's all about this weekend.
Maybe this post will be absolutely useless since the decks I wanted to talk about maybe completely changed tomorrow, but still, I am gonna give it a try.
So to include the decks in a context, I have to specify the latter. So I am talking about a standard which the most played decks are:

Getting Brilliant

It's been a while since I play competitive magic, so I have been wandering in the regionals checking out decklists and new t3chs.
So I got a few impressions:

- Sovereign Mythic is actually decaying now since the UW fever has been dropping since many players shifted to UWr Walkers which is a thougher matchup, and the consequent raise of jund players since it can beat walkers.

- The geojund, isn't actually better than the normal jund. It just gives a little better odd's against control while hurting mirror.

- Mono red decks are officially out of the competition. The approach of devasting summons is just terrible.

Basically the meta is stabling into a circle of UWr, UW and various takes of Jund. I think I can consider Mythic as a tier1 also.

Report - Stepping on 4 Polymorphs before top 8

I got the chance to go to another Regional.

This time it played very well for me as I was able to get in the top8.

However the day didn’t start so well. After we arrived at Coimbra and went in some circles around it I was pointed by a woman that we were on the wrong place, and that I had the wrong address (GoogleMaps let me down for the first time). I got really upset which only got me to get the name of the place where we were going to play wrong. Luckily the place with the wrong name (that place actually existed) was not that far away from the tournament place. And after some time and when I have the right name we finally get there.

O Vingador está de volta!

Boas
Ultimamente tenho andado um pouco afastado de magic, mas tenho de tentar manter o blog “activo”.
Agora que o standard começa a ganhar a sua forma final, começamos a ver os novos decks em acção. UW tappout afirmou-se como tier1 perfeitamente capaz de bater jund.

Eldrazi's - Edição limitada

Boas!

Ontem foi o pre release, e devo dizer que gosto bastante desta expansão para limited. Também já tenho feito alguns drafts e tenho gostado bastante.
Parece-me equilibrada, em que todas as cores têm boas cartas, e não há a predominância de uma especifica, ao contrário do que acontecia em Zendikar.
Sendo assim, vou fazer uma curta análise ao limited desta expansão.

Report - 5 Steps closer to Nationals but still 2 far away.

So this time I’m going to play Standard in the regionals.

So what deck should I take?

I was playing turbo fog in standard and I also have a Boros deck. My first choices was between this 2 at first, but when a friend of mine said he couldn’t go Jund joined my possibilities  and I ended playing Jund, borrowing my 2 decks to other people.

So I was going to play the deck that most people play but there are quite a bit of different builds.  So which one should I play or rather which one I wanted to play? There was another guy that was with me in this, since he would play Jund too but hadn’t decided which build to play.

So basically, we entered a quest to find the right build for which one of us.

INVITATIONAL TOP4: Miranda goes Controlish

Ora boas,
Finalmente vou entrar em férias de mtg uma vez que a altura competitiva fechou para mim, uma vez que não vou jogar regionais.
Não foi grande season para mim, apenas tive um near top8 em 4 ptq’s, e pronto, fiz o top64 no GP que é bastante decente e ainda top4 no invitational de ontem da ML. AH brincam???
First things first, e começo por falar no ptq. Desde o GP que ando a testar DDT, e tendo a chegado a uma lista, que por mim considero óptima, andava a espancar completamente zoo, mirror’s e w/ever.

Quando tudo virará pó... CONTÉM SPOILERS

Ora boas,
Cá estou eu de novo, desta vez vou tentar abordar um pouco do futuro de t2 com rise of the eldrazi.
Sim, eu sei que ainda só sairam 50 cartas para além dos terrenos básicos, mas mesmo assim já dá para um vislumbre do que está para vir.
A carta que até agora mais me chamou a atenção foi a All is Dust, a carta é absurda. É simplesmente brutal. O efeito é poderosissimo, e a maior caracteristica é que é incolor.
O que significa isto? A priori, que qualquer deck pode usa-lo. Mas se pensarmos melhor, isto é uma solução para monoblacks, mono blues e mono red's de modo a lidarem com encantamentos e artefactos que até agora era impossível.
Esta carta, aliada ao facto de existir o everflowing chalice, implica o aparecimento de novos arquetipos, e quem sabe se não é desta que o big red cola no ambiente.

Contagem descrescente em Bruxelas *top64*

Hey
Regressado de Bruxelas, após um top64, concluo que a minha escolha foi a certa.
Fiz 12-4 com um bye, perdendo para 2 jund dia 1, e 2 naya no dia 2.
De facto, estava a trabalhar para um top16, de modo a qualificar me para san juan, mas não deu, e tive de me contentar com os 200 USD's.
Eu tinha deck para melhor de facto, mas as derrotas nem foram próximas e não deu mesmo para o top16.
A lista que joguei foi:

Quando começamos o jogo a 17 com apenas 5 cartas na mão

Boas,
Ao contrário dos outros posts anteriores, este vai ser em português.
Ora bem, faltam apenas 4 dias para o meu 3º ptq de extended e tou a pouco mais de uma semana para o GP Bruxelas.
Começando por extended, devo manter-me fiel a Dark Depths, mais precisamente à lista verde e preta uma vez que na minha opinião é o melhor deck de extended, já que possui os melhor mu's contra tudo. A sério, não tou no gozo. Com 8 duress's de main, é possível quebrar todas as defesas de controlo, mirror e atrasar combo's o tempo suficiente.

Report - Crashing at GP Madrid

So, 2 weeks ago I went to GP Madrid, since I won GPT in  OPorto which gave me 3 byes and some cash to help with traveling expenses, with 2 friend (that are judges by the way).

PTQ Report: Dark North *4-3*

Hi again!!
It's been about 2 days since the ptq, which was rightfully won by a friend of mine, Gonçalo Sequeira, who some of you may know as GFSS, that Magic-League über-legend.
So, this blog is mine, not his, so I will stop talk about him (please continue to read, I am a decent player too!!). Jokes aside, he did rightfully won the tournment since he practiced hard with the deck, which is a Zoo btw, not really high tech, just the Boros Fury-Shield on the sideboard. Gonçalo is a pretty solid player, and in my humble opinion, he's struggling as the best national constructed player with Márcio Carvalho. He sucks on limited though.

Report : Next Level Ajani - Whooot?

Hello!

So I am here to talk about a new deck I have been brewing with some friends. We call it Next Level Ajani, so the list:

Deck Tech: Developing MeekWalker for Extended

Hi there.

For those that don't know me my name is Rui Gomes, you can call me Gomes since it’s easier to spell.

As Miranda did, I also went to PTQ San Juan at Oporto. I did 4 – 2 – 1 winning against 2 Dark Depths, 1 Vampires and a Zoo deck; lost against a zoo deck and a Dark Depths and got a drawn with a Bant Deck. I did better than I though despite doing some mistakes, my bad draws (I suck at top decking) and since we made the deck at 2 am on the tourney day.

Dark Depths: Report of a PTQ *9th*

Hi again!
Today I will post about my ptq report where I played Dark Depths. First, the list:

Deck Tech: Mirandoran

Hi everyone.

Last Saturday, me and some friends attended the PTQ San Juan at Oporto. Personally I sticked to the best-deck-in-format, Thepts. However, this post is not about what I playes, but about the deck that 2 friends of mine piloted to top4 and top12.