What did it turn into?

 Back when I got a few packs of Double Masters 2022, I managed to open an Imperial Seal. I did not want said card, rather knew I should either sell it or trade it. I took the trade route at my local FNM. I did a straight up trade for:

• 1 Submerge
• 2 Foil Full art Subtlety

I had some intention on waiting on the Subtlety to see if it would climb more.  But Modern really didn't use them too much, and Legacy- even though they love free blue spells, has never really joined the party. So I put them up on DeckBox, and I found a trade partner. 

In return for those two Subtlety and a Morbid Opprtunist, I got the following:

• Full Art Aether Vial from double masters
• Full art Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes
• Regular Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes
• Monastery Mentor Fate Reforged
• Monastery Swiftspear Timespiral
• Full Art Supreme Verdict  double masters
• Vampire Hexmage timespiral old boarder
• Watery Grave Gatecrash

While I admitted the new Aether Vial full art was pretty sweet, I didn't need it.  Same with Minsc & Boo, I wound up with 5 copies, so out the door on full art... Kept the Mentor, Hexmage, and Watery Grave.

I wound trading several of these locally for stuff like a Worldgorger Dragon, Torpor Orb, retro frame Sword of Hearth and Home, and 2 more copies of Jokulhaups.

Fairly sure I did pretty good for my initial single card of Imperial Seal that I was never going to use or hold.

Naya Stompy, something new

$800 pack as seen at Level Up

Past month highlights:

• Attending two pre-releases for Brother War
• First I had weaker cards, but really good deck
• Second I had strong high end cards, but a not so synergistic deck. 
• Busted a third pre-release kit with the fellas, and pulled not only super value, but also crushed them utterly. I felt bad because ya know, Portal to Phyrexia is stupid in limited. Even at 9.
• Played more legacy than I have in a while, between friends and the weekly at Level Up
• Made several trades
• Got a play set of Minsc & Boo (might even throw together Naya depths with Minsc to see how to play the darn deck)
  
• Completed a couple playsets, getting a 4th copy of things, etc 
• Watched my 3 playsets of White Plume Adventurer shoot from 40 cents a card, to $8.  
• Card Kingdom still not giving me enough credit to dump the extras there... will seek trades to gain value
• Trying to convince a co-worker to join me at a draft night... sadly its me who needs to get there, not him. Ha.
• Somehow a beta Swamp found me on DeckBox. Wasn't looking for it, but hey- I have issues.
  
• Picked up release weekend staples I wanted at much cheaper prices
• playset of schematic Mishra's Bauble for like $1 each
• 2 foil of the same card for $4 each, thats a sit and watch card. Will never go down from what I paid
• Defense Grid for like $1 each. 
• I ought to pick up some foils for the long haul. (they cheap right now)
  

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 Thought question- Why didn't they print Lotus Petal in Brothers War? Seriously. It shouldn't be $20.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Putting together Naya Stompy

While I put S+S in time-out for now... I found a new deck that has my brain thinking of edits. It was from Andy Fernandes (his episode here), by way of The Everyday Eternal Podcast. 

The deck is Naya Stompy with initiative. (all the rage right now) Even Andy said in the podcast that he is already changing things about the deck that didn't seem to work. Which lead me to version 1 of my build. 

The deck attempts to bolt past turn 1/2 and start to drop 3s first turn. Whether that is White Plume, or Archon, or even Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. Providing extra stress on the other side of the board.

I love Archon of Emeria. Criminally underplayed in Legacy. 

One of the keys is being able to mulligan correctly, which is a skill I have yet to even be decent at. I am still at the "do I have spells and lands" phase of the world. aka limited reaction to mulligans. 

While I did like the v1, I had already started to cook up v1.5. That also felt pretty good. I played it this past week, and it does feel like it should be good with a better pilot than me behind it. Not sure about Caves of Chaos Adventurer in it yet. Not sure how strong along the initiative path I should go. The other difference is removing the "4th" color in Thought-Knots. The mana base feels just unsettled trying to wedge that card in. 

Then today, I was thinking- people are already putting sideboard cards of Dress Down and Toporal Orb in just to help combat these builds. How about an Aether Vial based deck so you can end of turn drop an initiative in, and get a second phase in your up-keep just for good measure.

Then I thought- wait- why not just remove parts of D&T, and insert some of my favorite bits of white Initiative so that you get all the goodness baked into D&T, but also cause some mayhem with stuff from the Naya build I liked. 

Here is my completely mad- D&T, Initiative build. I might just throw this stuff together for next week's Legacy weekly to see how it actually plays out.

Show and Tell, you are in time-out

Ryan F vs Paul L

 Got back to the weekly at Level Up. Killer crowd. Just stone cold players. 

I decided I didn't want to think too much, so I threw out g/u OmniTell.

Round 1 vs r/u aggro

Game 1, typical back and forth, counter somethings, I finally stuck the big nasty combo of S&T into Omni into Emurkul. Game set and match.

Game 2, He mulligaed to 5 cards. Not great, but he tried. I just powered out what I needed and stuck a Griselbrand. That was all she wrote. 

I had false sense of "this might work!" after that match. The downside was- he never had a DRC out, which is what makes that engine hum. I felt ok-ish.

Round 2 vs 8-cast (Jordan Berenhaus)

Game 1, I kept a bit of a sketchy hand and he stuck an early Chalice on 1. Pretty much shut me down as he did 8-cast things.

Game 2, I thought I had a chance when he mulligan'd down to 5 and realized one of the cards was wrong. I still lost due to my inability to find the combo or defense. He won off the back of a single Sai that I couldn't remove. It happens folks.

 

Round 3 vs Maverick (TK)

Game 1, I kept what I thought could be a good hand until I found no filtering and died with a hand consisting of 3 S+T and 2 Cunning Wish. Yeah.... ugh.

Game 2, Even worse than game 1. I don't want to talk about it.

After these results, I am putting Show and Tell based decks on hold. (actually, deconstructing my current build so I am not tempted) Just not good right now... Gonna focus on my other stable of decks.

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-

 Got a couple decent trades recently to fill out some corners of my collection for deck ideas. Nothing substantial to be honest.

 I did a spec of the latest Karn based on this one little tidbit of knowledge someone pointed out- The Karn generated Powerstone tokens only appear in the new set. Not the set it came out with. Huh.

I picked up 3 of the Foil Boarderless versions for $9 a piece. The new set is super artifact heavy, so this should be fun to watch.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I have a theory about breaking the Reserve List...

With the next set, Brothers War, Wizards is introducing the idea of limited edition versions of cards- x/500. These are special foiling, and only so many made. Only found in collectors packs.

I have a theory that they are paving the way for re-introducing RL cards at WAY higher rarity as to allow three things: 

1) max out profit
2) keep the guise of protecting investments of old RL
3) soft breaking of RL, with real playable cards 

Think- SL printings of x/500 special foil editions of dual lands. No power... just Legacy/EDH stuff. I believe this is the next step after the 30th Anniversary debacle.

The only other bellwether will be Mark Rosewater retiring. That will likely be the big signpost saying- here it comes.

Legacy Pit tourament II

 I made it to Richmond, hurricane Ian be damned. Traffic was fantastic, but most of Friday was wet. Went down with my buddies Andy and Dan. From my house to the lunch spot in Richmond, it was a little over 2 hours of driving. INSANITY!

It turned out we were staying at the same hotel as the Legacy Pit crew, ran into them on the elevator from parking garage. Guess I made the correct call on where to stay.

We were testing (read screwing around) some Friday night and made a new friend from Argentina of all places, who went by Chuck because it was easier to pronounce. He was working in DC, but still. He was running Doomsday, and was trying to be a U/R Aggro killer.

Had an absolutely BANGER of a dinner at Cafe Rustika. The wait was a bit much, but everything else was perfect about it.

Disappointed with only having 1 of things- 1 vendor who wasn't even setup by around 1. 1 artist- RK Post. I am sure they aren't cheap or whatever, but ugh.

No clue how the stream came across, but in the big venue it was nearly IMPOSSIBLE to hear announcements. The PA was AWFUL.

    My only goal was to have a better record than the two other I went with. 

There was some confusion from a mid-night email about if masks were to be require but we brought them just in case. Turned out- still needed them. The other guys didn't get the same email I got- weird. 

Round 1 vs Goblins lost die roll

    Ugh. I got wasted out game 1. 

    Game 2 I managed to Fury away his threats and clock him. Everything was clicking

    Game 3 Just did goblin things, and made a a HUGE mistake by bottoming a Dead//Gone on my mulligan to see a turn 1 Lackey which was pretty much the game for me. That was the only Lackey I saw and entirely forgot about. Crap.

Round 2 vs U/R aggro won die roll

    Game 1 He didnt do much, but I roll him up with a Chalice on 1. 

    Game 2 He was VERY frustrated and it showed. He got me down to 6, but I nuked his board and kept control. Felt good.

Round 3 vs U/R aggro lost die roll

    Game 1 Got Murktide'd even though I controlled the board until that point. Guess it doesn't matter does it?

    Game 2 All I have written down is UGH. Looks like another huge Murktide.

 Round 4 vs U/R aggro lost die roll

This last match killed my soul. Up a game, after losing the the die roll, and all I had to do was find a mana source and I could finish him off in game 2. Yet, my deck just shat the bed. Turn after turn. I wound up finding two more Leylines and spells I couldn't cast.  My opening Leyline held him off for SO long, but I couldn't get there. It was so depressing I dropped and walked back to the hotel. Wound up napping a bit. It was awful. Just sucked monkey butt. 

Things I learned:

#1 This was my first big constructed tournament ever. Seriously. 

#2 Not sure big tournaments are really my thing. Sure I knew people there, had a pretty good time outside of the event... the reason for being there is not exactly my jam at this point in my life.

#3 Every match was fairly run over by the die roll. How suckie is that? I know it isn't completely true, but can't argue with the result I saw. 

#4 I should have kept playing for the fun of it, but at the moment... good god. Three straight rounds of R/U aggro was not what I wanted from life.

Check- preping for a tourament

I am set on the deck I am going to play at the Legacy Pit Open.  Just need to get rid of the one Abrade in the SB for something else- yeah, I am that guy. There are other things I am thinking about making sure I am bringing- here they are:

• Decklist- to be submitted via MTGmelee
• Bag
• Snacks- bars
• Water- bottle(s)
• Life pad
• Pencil
• AirTag  (just in case insurance)
  
• Playmat
• Dice
• Tokens
• Mask(s)  (They are required for the event)
  
• Extra decks?
• Extra sleeves
• Draft land set(s)sideboard list

 

Do I expect to make day 2? No... but luck favors the prepared or some such. 
I've watched several people play the deck I am running enough to know kinda how to handle it in various match ups which means I am going to play completely off the wall decks that I've never see before. Huzzah. 

Still, what I have learned is that I want Sneak and Show to be good- but that is not happening. It is tier 2.5 at this point. Its that bad. It can be super lucky, but thats it. Can't depend on luck right now. 

My goal is to have more wins day one than the crew that is going to the event together. Thats it!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Something else I realized this week, I have 9 different sets of land for sealed/draft time.  Last time I checked I had 7. Since that time I have added a set of full art Innistrad and nearly completed a set of foil full art Dominaria United. 

Normally I don't give a rats butt about foil, but something about the stained glass effect and full art versions got me. I traded for roughly half of the lands, and bought the rest when they bottomed out over this past weekend. (total luck, not skill in this case. None were over $1.5 per card)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

I've noticed that Arena has a pattern of screwing me over good during draft play... I will win a couple games than usually mana floods me to 2 loses, win one, then done.  Thats with filtering too... I don't know how else to explain it. Its awful. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fun pickup for the day- I got 2 LP Unlimited Red Elemental Blast for $6 total.  Seems like a good deal to me... Betas are stupid expensive. These still have the SUPER dark contrast still... I'll take it.

Pre-release, deck selection?, and stuff

 I went to two different pre-releases for Dominara United. The first was the Friday night at Gamer-Corp,
and the second at Gritty Goblin. Over all, I went 4-2. I got a few packs. Friday night's event took WAY longer, had more people, and I had a better set of cards.  Hell, I even opened a Liliana! 

The deck felt really strong, even if I had a round one Bye among a nearly sold out event. I never felt out of the few games I played, always had an answer if I could find it- and generally had a good time.

I even managed to make a couple good trades in my book- First was trading for an Alpha Forest in MP condition. As I told the guy- I have a problem with basic lands... and the A/B/U time period is the worst problem I have. There is no logical reason for this obsession.
The second trade I made was I finally dumped my Imperial Seal for two full art foil Subtlety and a Submerge.  Reason thinking- I don't want the Imperial Seal as a longer term hold. That and I was having a very hard time finding a trade partner on-line via DeckBox for it. (yeah, I was surprised too) The Subtlety seems to be a good card for trade if nothing else... but I think it has room to grow in the near future providing me some value overall. Not a bad night of trading to be honest. 

The second pre-release was vastly meh. I did not open much of anything, did not exactly play super well, and generally felt blah about the results. Had some fun conversations with guys who hadn't played in a long time, and enjoyed myself. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-

I did discover a possible solution to my shuffling D&T- Single sleeve it. 

Here is a photo comparing 80 single sleeved lands compared with my 80 card D&T deck.

While I am fairly sure I am not playing the deck, it is good to know I was working the problem in the mean time. I think the most valuable card are the Solitudes? Maybe?

In the mean time, I am heavily leaning towards playing Dragon/Moon Stompy for the event. 

It can be very solid, give control fits, and might have a decent game vs Delver. One downside, I've noticed Delver players starting to pack Blue Blasts. sigh. That does annoy me.
I am still hoping to have a .500 record. I would chalk that up to a win for me. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-

Its open sales weekend for the new set, and I've had my eye on several things. Here is what I am currently watching prices on:

•  Shivan Devastator
• Rundvelt Hordemaster
• Vesuvan Duplimancy
• Full art foil basic lands.

I guess I should talk about the lands again. Normally I hate foil. I really do. However, these stained glass lands do something for me... not sure how to describe it... but if you have some you want to off load- let me know.

Deck (non)selection for Pit Open

 I still have no idea what I am going to play at the Legacy Pit open. Let me say this as well- I am HIGHLY likely not even make day 2 at the event. So, lets go in with something I like to play currently, at least understand the play patterns for, and can make reasonable sideboard decisions.

Current stable of decks I am considering:

• R/U Sneak and Show with Omniscience
• Mono Green Post
• Death and Taxes
• Mono Red Stompy

 Practical considerations for each deck- 

• Do I need to borrow cards?
• Yes, this is a thing.
  
• How mentally taxing is it to play for 5 rounds in one day? 
• Do I want to go to time most rounds? Do I want to be bored for hours waiting for people?
  
• How high is the variance? 
• Should I rely on chance, or some skill for the outcome?
  
• Practice issues like shuffling, depending on tokens/dice, remembering triggers, etc
• 80 cards is harder to shuffle than 60, needing a lot of tokens is a pain, etc

One factor I would like to consider is the "fun" factor... but too much of that relies on the outcome of matches. Sure I could have some really tight/interesting games, and lose... but results from play are a 0 sum result. Example- I think S&S is fun, but the results are very much in the "lets see what happens" camp of things. Where as D&T can be highly interesting and tool belty, games tend to be grindy and mentally taxing. Is that fun for 5 rounds?

 

Slotting those various versus considerations my current decks makes my decision non-too-easy. To the point that well- I don't have a clue what to run. So off to playing and testing to get a feel for each deck.

A few weeks ago I took S&S to the weekly and caught a heater. It was like I could do no wrong. It was the best I had felt with that deck.
I took it again this past week and it couldn't do anything. Nothing felt good, no decision I made mattered, the deck just pooped on me. 

    This is variance. While I like jamming friendly games of S&S, I don't think it is a practical consideration for something I want to complain about for 5 rounds. 

NEXT.

    Mono-Green post- while I like the big fat decisions of Eldrazi titans, it can feel less than good when the wrong sides of the deck show up. I've played it at the weekly where it folds to slight pressure, but any control match-ups feels extra good against. 

    I took it to test with Andy last night and it just fell on its face. It wasn't like Andy played his style deck only against me, we had a battle box of decks that it fell prey to round after round.
    One other consideration is that I could borrow a (Italian) Tabernacle for the event, that single card is worth double of the rest of the deck. (even with signed beta Forests) Makes me nervous as heck. 

 MAYBE

  Death and Taxes has been the one deck I have consistently kept the cards up to date on. It was the reason I got 3 Plateuas. Its the reason I have a fairly large stack of "slightly playable" white cards in a box. Its the reason I bought extra Beta Plains, a 4th Karakas, got Solitudes, got Urza's Saga, and own two sets of Wastelands. You get the point.... its been a very consistent deck with very little drama. 

  It performs fairly well vs most decks, and beats up on Delver enough that it really can hold its own. It makes a very strong statement, and is a deck you need a lot of time and effort to not lose with for a while. There are SO many different lines to it, and tricks that to be a D&T player, you just have to play it- A LOT.  

BETTER

 Lastly the Mono Red stompy has always been something interesting because of the shear amount of pressure it brings to the table. It comes out swinging, has some soft locks in Chalice, Trinispehere, and Moon. It can really take it to Delver and control decks to the point that the fear of god has been applied at times.
I don't own Chrome Mox, but thats the worst cards I would need to borrow for this. Dead simple deck to play, and gives game vs most of the field. Its a contender for sure. 

 

So what to do?

Over the next two weeks I plan to update both Stompy and D&T and run them at the weekly to see how I feel about them. I found it surprising D&T people are off the red splash for Saga again. I never really thought the moon plan felt great... But thats neither here nor there. The point being- I need to test options still.

Its been a while

Why haven't I posted/played legacy in awhile?  Allow me to explain:

• Vacations
• Got sick
• Friends out
• Lack of motivation

I got some scratch off tickets. Amazon had draft packs, 3 packs, for $30 14 days ago. Mine got delivered Sunday Here is the result.

 Yes, I got lucky. As lucky as you can probably get in these things. Basically tripled my investment money wise. 

Next question is- who wants to trade for this?  Seriously, so far I haven't found anyone who wants it.

Legacy play review:

One afternoon with my buddy Andy for like almost 2 hours at a store. Then last night.

I went to Level Up MD for the weekly legacy. Lets review how I did with S&S.  (Decklist via MoxField)

Round 1 vs r/u Delver (Ryan F)

Got Delvered game 1... really didn't play too well. As he literally plays 50x more than me, and it showed by my poor countering/selection.

Game 2, I had a small window where I had A+B but no C, and his shields were completely down. Turns out, you really don't need much if S+S can't find anything. Oh well. 

At this point of the evening I thought the deck had completely pooped on me, and I would be going home early. 

Round 2 vs r/w yorion D&T Kevin(?)
You show up often enough and people have you pegged for certain decks. He thought I might have been on D&T because I sometimes show up with that, so he was slightly surprised by my turn 3 Show and Tell followed by Omniscience followed by a beatdown. He had no answers. 

Game 2- I had, what I am referring to, as the god draw for S&S. I knew his only answer would have to be a Solitude, but here we go. His turn was Plains Vial. I went:
City of Traitors -> Lotus Petal -> Show and Tell -> Omniscience -> Emrakul. 

Quickest damn rounds I have had in forever, and my deck NEVER lets me do that on a regular basis. So I was shocked at how well it went. 

Round 3 vs Lands (Rory)

Game 1- I don't exactly recall how it went, but I believe it involved a Griselbrand slowly beating face. He had dropped a Tabernacle a turn too early and I could pay for it each turn.

Game 2-  I managed the turn one Omniscience, but got me no where because I never found an creature answers. He had all his answers. That was disappointing.

Game 3- I got the Omniscience out early again, and found Griselbrand which allowed me to just steam roll card advantage including the game ender of back to back Emrakul

Things learned/discovered-

When I drew my Boseiju, Who Shelters All, I did not need it. Still thinking about it.
Heavily considering removing my Grafdigger Cages for another Surgical and a Meltdown.

Mid June legacy update

Andy and Rob fighting the good fight

My schedule worked out such that I was able to head up to Titan Games on Tuesday night instead of my regular Wednesday at Level Up. Its a bit different as they go 4 rounds, and a winning record only gets payout. A tad different than I was used to. Wound up taking a close version of a G-Post deck that did well at 4 Seasons Spring in Bologna. (yes it is not listed, got it from the Discord. Felt better for fighting the field than on-line)

Round 1- Got Delvered. Specifically Stifled. That sucked hard. And god I just don't like R/U aggro that has game against everything all the time.
0-1

Round 2 vs 8 Cast
Took it down, but it was more like his deck didn't do anything and I had everything. Its what happens. I recall in two games I cast an uncontested Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger.
1-1

Round 3 vs Jeskai control (Paul Lynch)
I've played against him with this before, and it did not go well, and it continued to go poorly. It was like my decisions generally didn't matter. Which sucks.
1-2 and drop.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

After falling on my face too often to Delver and Jeskai control with G-post, I decided to consider new deck for Legacy Pit Open. While I would LOVE to play G-post, I don't think it is good enough for me to justify registering it. Unless some meta shifts where to occur, I still am not entirely sure what to play. I am somewhat interested in D&T, but not looking forward to shuffling 80 cards.
There is very much a chance things will be unsettled from Dominaria United.  In which case, I would totally bust out Sneak and Show. That deck THRIVES on change. 

In the mean time- gonna jam a g/u OmniTell deck (not entirely unclose to this winning deck) this week at LevelUp. I think I need to remove some cuteness in favor of filtering. (good bye Stifle and Endurance)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

So glad I didn't spend time picking up a copy of Alloraurus Sheppard.  The price dropped by about half with the announcement that it was being re-printed in Double Masters 2022. Will pick up a copy soon I think. 

Also, whats with the Green Sun's Zenith reprint? Its banned in Modern, and almost exclusively played in Legacy. It wasn't screaming for a reprint.... weird.

Did I dump my Commander 2019 and 2020 sets at the right time? As the Dockside Extortionist got re-print at mythic, maybe. Lets take a quick review of my trade with Card Kingdom:

Pre re-print value: $403.00
Post re-print value: $409.50

So I actually lost money by dumping when I did, exactly a month ago.

However, lets compare what I got:

Pre-value (mid May): $379.02
Post-value: (mid June): $405.72

So, once again... I pulled the trigger at the right time because it would have cost more to get the same set of cards. Most notably, the City of Traitors went up by $30. No clue why.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I went and hung out with some friends last night. Jammed A BUNCH of games. When in the middle of it all I realized I had all 5 colors in mono decks.
D&T- white
Dragon Stompy- red
Black depths- Black
G-Post- Green
8-cast- Blue

Did NOT intend on doing that... but funny.

Compare and contrast- the proxy vs real Tabby.

Lastly- I sold the last of my sports cards I had sitting in a bin. Took most of the money generated and bought a bunch of the cards I wanted off my trade list. I still have several things to trade for- I am in no rush for them.

A month of recap(s)

 I've been slacking, mostly because of crap play/results. I had one good night in the past month? Seriously.

Lets, what decks have I played at the weekly so far?

Mono-Red Dragon Stompy (aka Tokyo drift)

Mono-Black Depths

G-Post

    Guess which one actually produced a winning record for me? Oh right, Post. Good god.

I went through my texts with my buddy Andy, because thats how I recall what happened. Post was the only reasonable results, going 2-0-1. Splitting last round because I was super tired.
Mono-red gave me all the wrong sides of the deck. Couldn't draw my way out of a wet paper bag to be honest. It was awful. 0-2 drop bad. No game wins bad.

Mono-black helped me beat R/U Aggro (aka Delver) but then just fall on it's sword vs D&T and ANT of all things. Admittedly ANT is a HORRIBLE match-up. 

Sigh.

    Moving forward, I am going to start testing g-post for The Legacy Pit open for October. Gotta figure out if this is the deck I need to be running or not. I need to get reps in basically. I've been running into_plays' "standard" build for a bit. But I am VERY curious to run this version for testing at least. I like the SB plan a bit better as it can deal with Magus of the Moon more. (which seems to be growing in popularity) 

One of the reasons I want to run this deck? Being able to borrow a Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale. A card that I would never reasonably own. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Acquisitions:

I finally pulled the trigger and shipped my 2019 and 2020 Commander sets off to Card Kingdom for credit. And what I did I pick up for that?

1. City of Traitors, EX
2. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, EX
3. Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (Borderless) x2
4. Boseiju,Who Endures
5. Magda, Brazen Outlaw x8
   

I did something I never thought I would do- buy a 4th copy of City of Traitors. (posted here about the first three for $360) While I do think Ulamog is due for a reprint, I wanted to at least have a legal copy for G-Post if I decided to run in a local tournament and not the weekly where proxies are all good. I also wanted a second copy of Boseiju for either a different deck or the secondary build of G-post I might run. Good to get now instead of later. 

The Magda is nothing more than a longer term hold. I do think she is interesting an unique in her abilities. If I am able to double my money- huzzah. Gonna take an EDH thing to make her good though. Ha.

Also picked up a Commander pre-release kit for the fun. No other reason. As I say in the video, I like pre-releases, and I like draft... but the idea of a pre-release draft, NO thank you.
Also, thanks again to Gritty Goblin Games for being awesome. 

There you go- me opening a pre-release kit and 2 set boosters. Still no clue what was good other than Tasha. LOL. (just reviewed the cards, and HOLY CRAP I got housed.)

Double pre-release

 Went to Titan, semi-local store, to jam some pre-release fun with my buddy Andy. We played some legacy waiting for the event to start. He plays whack-a-doodle decks that he can't stop tinkering with. Me, I am a stock player and let others figure out the builds. 

Pre-release time- I went a grand total of 1-2. Only match win was against a guy who had only started playing the game a week or two before. Felt slightly bad for him, but he said it best- "I got better each round!" Which is the hallmark that we all should strive for.

The highlights of this particular pre-release was the crazy value I pulled. Got a Giada, Font of Hope showcase foil. Couldn't get this card out of my hands fast enough, and already sold it. (currently in a mailer ready to go out tomorrow) I made money on a pre-release? Suuurrrreeee... why not.
Also pulled an Ob Nixilis, the Adversary. Which, I drew a grad total of 1 time. I don't ever see me needing this card for any decks I like to play, so I already traded it for 4 Elvish Reclaimers. Seems good right?

Pre-release #2 was at Gritty Goblin, on Sunday. Which honestly, should be my only pre-release location. They don't overcharge, and provide very solid prize support. The event almost didn't fire, needed at least 6 players and thankfully a couple others showed up. Three players barely play, or haven't in years. The other two are decent players.

I didn't pick up much value from the kit. However, I beat round one player by just having all the answers all the time. He hated it so much he was telling me how he should have beaten me as I was leaving the store 2 hours later. I guess I left a mark?
Lost round 2 to a very aggressive deck and I got a bit mana screwed. Oh well.
Felt bad for round 3. She was very nice, but really only understood the mechanics of the game only. Sigh.

Funny note- there was table talk about when players started playing. I really didn't join in, no need to say much. Heard Nemesis as the earliest... and someone asked me, and I simply said, "I started during Revised." Funny thing I realized later, the guy who was in the 'longest' was actually starting when I got out the first time. Damn I am old. Then I the girl I was playing against said she wasn't alive yet when that set came out. *head hanging old* Now I am REALLY old.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I finalized a trade for a second set of Leyline of the Void. Kinda weird to start having second sets of cards for decks I usually play. I usually proxy or just substitute things for those. Now I have two sets of Wastelands, Leylines, and soon Reclaimers. Weird.

Finally got my 3rd Kappa done for the not so as hot blue artifact deck. Its a decent deck to have on tap and able to play if I want to. I also call it my "super proxy" deck as I have MANY proxies in there.

Started adding some new cards to my "Want List" on DeckBox and I am realizing- I am adding stuff to add it. Not that I really need any of it for a deck. Its a weird feeling.

Draft lands update

 Two years and one month ago, I posted about how I like pre-sleeved sets of basic lands for draft events. At that time I had five different sets of basic lands to choose from. Since then, I have expanded my holdings to a possible 8 different land styles. Here is my current stable of basic lands for drafting.

For the record, I consider a set of basic draft lands to be 10 of each type. And yes, I realize there are conditions that might need to get more than that, but I think that has been once in the past five years? So I am good with keeping it at 10 of each type.

From left to right, back row:
Revised, Unlimited, Double Masters- Avon, Zendikar, Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Theros, and Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.

Front row- Beta basics. 

    Tomorrow I am heading out to Titan Games & Hobbies with my buddy Andy... No clue how to approach this set- so your guess is as good as mine. Looking forward to jamming some Legacy before we get our kits, crack in, and discover like every set- we have no clue what we are doing. Great fun!

I am still not sure if I like the Streets of New Capenna full arts. (example) But knowing my problem with basics, I will likely wind up getting a set.

Legacy weekly and fake cards, a resolution!

 Finally got back to my regular weekly after two weeks of drafting. Spoiler, awful week 1 of drafting, went 2-1 week 2. Almost made 3-0 but if it wasn't a pesky black flying mythic. Dang. I was able to pick up two packs for my trouble, and cracked them for zero value. Darn you Double Feature!!!! Should have saved them for pack wars. Oh well, lesson learned.

At the weekly legacy- I brought out Titan Post. Wound up with a 1-2 record, going to 3 games each round... and nearly to time the first two. Thought for sure I would have time between rounds to do some minor shopping. (foreshadowing!)

Round 1 vs 4cc Uro control 

Game 1- I had no clue what he was on for about 4 turns, and promptly didn;t find answers for a while. I turned the corner with a a live Eye of Ugin, and fetched up my favorite Eldrazi. He couldn't stop it, and couldn't deal with it. Promtly scooped. 

Game 2- Ummmm- don't recall to be honest, but I kept a sketchy hand which promptly got riffle stomped by an Uro. 

Game 3- Crushed it with an early Carpet, getting Needle and Reclaimers removed, then turning the corner with double Titan, backed up with finding all the lands I could possibly want to deal with his threats. 

Round 2 vs Paul Lynch on Day's Undoing combo

Game 1- I had no clue what deck he was on. I had him pegged early with Day's Undoing, but never saw it so I was starting to doubt my spidey senses. Game 1 took at least 30 minutes, and felt fairly inevitable for me. There was a window that I had to COMPLETELY lock the game down with Emrakul and Karakas for replay... Paul had a known Dress Down, and I was playing around it. But for the most of the game he was spinning and search and spinning and search for Day;s Undoing and never found it. 

Game 2- I mulliganed a poor hand and somehow found a 'ok' hand which went sideways EXTREMELY quickly. He got off the Narset into Day's Undoing combo and I had NOTHING. 

Game 3- I kept a sketchy 7, and should have mulliganed. My early threats were answered, and I was in to complete top deck mode which provided no answers. Just lots of lands. He didn't need to produce the combo because he could have beat me with a flyswatter. sigh. 

Round 3 vs u/b delver

Game 1- I had no clue what he was playing. Turned out to be a Delver/Voidwalker/Murktide deck. It was nothing I had seen before... so kudos? Famous awful sketch keep and got removed from my early stuff and never turned the corner.

Game 2-  Wound up holding off the hordes with a Chasm and picked off the threats, went big with lots of Cloudpost despite the active Loam/Wasteland engine and successfully Ulamog'd his Murktide and another threat.  

Game 3- Got delvered with a Voidwalker for a friend. I drew into nothing that could block anything or help ramp into the true answers. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

On to resolution of my fake cards auction win. 

Timeline- Won an auction on March 13th. Prices were SLIGHTLY different than I understood. However, if I could sell the foils for close to TCG, I could somewhat break even on the deal. Within the week I got the cards- 3 of 6 cards were fake. (buy a loop people.)

I called the auction company that day. Nothing

I emailed the next day. Nothing.

    I contact my credit card company to file a dispute- had to wait two weeks for them to contact me back. Nothing.

My credit card company wanted an independent expert to provide information about the "fakeness." So I got that from LevelUpMD store I go to. Got that, sent in. Waited another two weeks wait for the credit card company to get back to me.

YESTERDAY, the auction house calls me. Turns out- they had no clue how to tell. (as I suspected, it took the credit card company complaint to really get things rolling) I started explaining how easy it might be to tell. They also reveal that they never replied to my email. They offer to send a return mailer to me, and the dispute will not be contested.

So I get to send the mistake back. However, I had been selling some cards to help off set the prices in anticipation of being on the hook for fakes. I took the cash I made from those cards and spent it all at the game store last night as a bit of a thank you for helping. It isn't much in the grand scheme of things for them, but its what I can do at least. 

Too bad I can't make their legacy 1k in two weeks.

Sneak and Show goes to a 1K, and the weekly

I went to my weekly legacy, packing S&S with my adjustments for Enchantress. (Veil of Summer, thank you very much)  

[Editor's note- I am going to try to start using MoxField as my deck listing site of choice. We will see how that goes moving forward]

 It was  a solid showing of players, I believe we had 22 people for the weekly. Darn tooting good for a regular.

I did fairly well!

Rd 1- Vs Enchantress player

I originally wasn't supposed to play him, but they had some last minute additions and had to re-pair at the last minute. Once I saw the guy's name pop up, I was SO ready to just make his day a living hell. And I did. I don't recall the rounds, but it was two short games. I didn't care what happened the rest of the night, I felt WAY better after trouncing the weird combo deck that got me before. Revenge!

Rd 2- Vs. Old School 12 Post

When I say old school, I mean Candelabra of Tawnos old school. Props for playing the deck, but yozzers.
I am relying on texts to a friend to sort out what I did here.. Seems I did a turn 2 S&T into Omniscience into Emrakul. Game 2 was MUCH tighter, I had one turn to get the combo off because he had 3 Canelabras out, and ready to take over, but I found victory through Griselbrand. I think.

Rd 3- Vs. Delver (Paul Lynch)

Paul is a stud at Delver. Just the bees knees. First thing first, we split the final round so we both landed with $25 credit no matter the outcome. He just wanted to play, and crushed me in three consecutive games. I didn't even pose a threat. Sigh. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

THE 1K

Then I got clearance from the home office to head out to the 1k at LevelUpMd. (same as the weekly, but they are totally worth sending out good vibes) With help from my buddy Andy lending me a couple cards, I could run my paper legal S&S. I could have run Titan Post, but I felt AWFUL at borrowing a Tabernacle. Good god, I would have been a wreck all day trying to shuffle a 3K card.
This is the list I wound up running.

Funny thing is, other buddy Rob decided to join in last minute, and caused them to make it RIGHT at the start time. Of course. Nor did they have Companion accounts. (new WoTC fanciness for pairings) I had a deck B I could play, but thankfully I didn't have to deploy that one. [though not that it mattered]

There were 30 people total, and some fairly heavy local hitters in attendance. Turns out Jarvis Yu was on 8 mulch and was wrecking people's day due to it. 

My tourament went a little something like this:  (I took notes!)

Rd 1 Vs- Izzet Delver

Game 1 He got out 2 early delvers flipped, and as my notes say- I had nothing.

Game 2 I got out TWO Carpets, and proceeded to just wreck face with an Archon. 

Game 3 He DRC'd, and I proceed to draw all my B parts of my A+B combo. (all the creatures, no cheating) 

Rd 2 Vs- Jeski Delver

Game 1 I got a turn 2 S&T into Emmy. I won so fast, I had no clue what he was on. Just saw a Tundra.

Game 2 He Delver'd me hard. Again, I got all creatures, no cheating.

Game 3 I got a turn 2 Defense Grid down to seal my cheating Archon out, and crushed him with it. 

Rd 3 Vs- G/B Helm

This was my buddy Rob, and I honestly didn't know the match-up. Combine the fact that he had a horsehoe the size of Nevada in his back pocket, and he just sent me to the X-2 "sandwich" bracket. (only playing because you like to with no chance at cashing out)

Rd 4 Vs- Dredge

I should have just dropped, but I lost 2 quick games and just dropped from the touarment, I like the smallest of sliver in game 1 to win, but completely wiffed finding that out. It is basically an unwinnable game as I have no graveyard hate to speak of other than 2 Fairies which never got used. Oh well. 

I will say this- if they do a 1K every two months for $25...  I'm down for that. Though next time, I am likely not playing S&S. Though it also depends on what I can borrow of the REALLY expensive cards from friends. 

Another week of legacy

 After my dressing down at the hands of Enchantress last week, I decided to modify my S&S deck to reflect more along the lines of this build. I thought maybe the Archon would be an interesting addition to the Griselbrand and Emrakul beat sticks. (and dancing around Karakas a bit)

I took a note from the player, dropped in a single Tropical to help power out Veils from the sideboard. Mostly because I was so cheesed at the Enchantress deck. For the record, I never cast one. I did, however, cast a couple Pyroclasm. That felt good. Oh, and one VERY timely Fury off a Sneak Attack. 

Round 1 vs Burn.

Game 1- Wait- did he just play a Swiftspear?! Did he just suspend a Rift Bolt?! I just died to a Price of Progress. Ouch.

Game 2- Opening hand had one land, City of Traitors. Nope. Second 7 had one mana source, Petal. Nope, down to five. I produced a grand total of one spell of meaning that game- a Sneak Attack and never found anything to help with it. 

As I said- "not the way I wanted to start the evening."

Round 2 vs Delver from 6 months ago minus Monkey

Game 1- Won out as I found a Griselbrand. And he just crushed face. Take that Delver player!

Sided in 11 cards. 11.

Game 2- Lost due to finding NOTHING and a Hullbreacher. I tried, but just found plenty of land.

Game 3- Won on the back of my one of Malevolent Hermit. Somewhat stupid play- I had the Hermit out, but he had two threats. I decided to Pyroclasm to wipe the board. Figuring I could recast the Hermit, locking his counter spells out of the game. Turns out- that was the right play. I proceeded to drop a Sneak Attack, then a Griselbrand. I drew 7, found my Fury, and decided in my second main to activate Sneak with Fury, and wipe his board of 3 X/1 creatures. Muahahahahaha.... Oh, next turn I sneaked in Emrukal and thats that.

Round 3 vs current/good Delver

Game 1- I won the role, Island, Ponder. Good. Turn 2- City of Traitors, Show and Tell -> FoW his FoN -> Griselbrand, he scooped. Sometimes thats what S&S does.

Sided in 11 cards again, seemed good.

Game 2- I know I lost due to finding more land than action. It was a bit more back and forth, but I just drew too much air.

Game 3- We counted after the game and he had countered 4 of my action spells- 1 S&T, 3 Sneak Attack... however, not the 5th! Muahahahaha.... I got Griselbrand into play yet again, and turned the tide. Had gotten down to 6 life at one point, but had plenty of lands to support my army of counterspells I had drawn off Griselbrand. He was drawing air with an empty board. Kinda frustrating from his side, VERY satisfying on mine.

After beating Delver twice, I took some of that winning cheddar and picked up the stores last copy of Tower of the Magistrate. Was sold on the ability to knock germ tokens off equipment and give 20/20s protection from artifacts so that 8-cast can shove it.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I made a mistake via an on-line auction.

A boo-boo, a somewhat annoying miscalculation on an auction. Not a $1000 error like my wife thought, but rather something I need to offset by selling a few things. 

My magic collection is an attempt to be not negative in terms of sunk cost. I am sure it is in some aspects, but honestly its just a hobby and I get REALLY nervous with some of the prices thrown around. So if you know anyone looking for a set of Commander 2019 still sealed, I got a deal!

Legacy weekly with Titan Post!

 I decided after pulling the Boseiju, it was time to use Titan Post to effect. I used on-line streamer- into_play's list. Marched over to Level up to challenge mighty wizards! I believe we had at least 16 players this week, showing strong come back for the scene!
The only downside to all of this was, my brain was fried from work. Example- normally I am done for the night of playing 2-3 rounds and my brain won't shut down for awhile. This particular night, I came home, and within 20 minutes I was asleep. Just fried.

Round one was vs Alex, who I met a couple years ago and he extremely fun to play. Nothing but good banter and friendly chatter. The funniest part was- he was playing Titan Post as well! We laughed, and almost giggled about the stupid nature of the match-up. I completely shot myself in the foot by playing a Needle and naming Eye of Ugin. If I hadn't done that, I could have won about 5 turns earlier because I was out racing him with Titans and such. 

We literally had no side board cards for the second game, and the only reason I won that one- I had an Emrakal in my opening hand and he didn't. 

Key point about this match-up: Cloudpost counts ALL Locus in play, just not yours. There was one point in game one where we were tapping for 8 mana off one Clouldpost. 

Round two was vs Enchantress. Yes, enchantress. I was NOT prepared for this match up. At all. Sooooo, I lost. Brilliantly to a Tendrils of Agony. 

Game 2, see game 1. 

Argothian Enchantress- go F yourself.
Note to self- next week, bring something that can kill them on site. (mission accomplished)

Round three was vs Jeskai Control

Game 1- I won, but it was on the back of my Glacial Chasm to be honest. I was able to Boseiju away a Back to Basics, crank up Eye of Ugin, find Ulamog, and even bounce my Emrukal to replay. He was laughing because he forgot about the Boseiju that I got with my Map. 

Game 2- I won, but have very little memory about. What I recall was top decking the Bosejiu and calling it a night. I also recall Green Sunning for a Rec Sage and knocking out his back to basics. 

He was a very nice opponent. I missed about 3 triggers that he was very helpful with. I had to explain how fried my brain was from the week. 

Others decks of observation-

• At least 2 Kappa decks
• Saw a third Cloud Post deck, but not entirely sure the flavor
• One guy I hadn't seen in about 2 years due to Covid was back playing the most recent Doomsday pile with Murktides and Strix. (oh, and a Malevolent Hermit) He had told me before the event that he had been jamming on MTGO, and getting a lot more reps that way. Huzzah for him
  

Draft and acquisitions

 I decided to skip the weekly legacy. Just lost that itch for a week. I went to my local draft spot- Gamer Corps in Ellicott City. 

My trade for basic Neon lands came in that day, so I felt it was a sign to go for sure. I restocked the trade binder for the first time in two years, and headed out. 

Felt good to crack some packs and pass them. 

So much so, that pack 1, pick 1 I won the entire draft. (see image to the right) Alt art, boarderless Bosejiu.  And the fabulous point, I wanted a copy of this for my Titan Post deck in Legacy. WINNING!

Oh man, so much good stuff. 

My deck was blue/green, and basically had to dance a lot to win. The removal cards didn't flow my way in black and red. It happens. And because of the size of the draft pods, there were 10 people at the table pulling cards. So I stuck to my lane and got ok-ish cards over all. I wound up going 1-2 overall. Not disappointed with results, but happy with the draft results. (I think that makes sense)

One notable thing was this AWESOME table mat made up from the cool full art lands from this set. It was pretty darn cool.

Someone told me it was a $300 item you could buy from WoTC directly if you were a store. Yikes. Not sure it is $300 cool to me... but still nice to see. 

Oh, and I traded a few things for things I did need. From what I can recall I picked up another Surgical and a couple Silence.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Mail day!

I spent a little time looking at the uncommon colorless artifacts from this set, and two peaked my interest to spend some cash on as investments.

Patchwork Automation
and
Containment Construct

Both seemed to have interesting play patterns and possible uses in different formats. They also fit my speculation requirements, so I picked two stacks of each kind for the drawer. Lets see how they do in the future and can help me find better cards later.

The Kappa Cannoneer and Malevolent Hermit are for other decks. I've got an 8-cast deck begging for the Kappa, and I think the Hermit might be used for S&S. We shall see.

Week off

 I decided to take the week off from Legacy. Reasons are as follows:

• Having a bad run
• No deck appeals to me right now
• Hard time sleeping after doing poorly, aka brain won't shut down
• Had an itch to draft Neon Dynasty. 

I also attempted to attend a monthly Legacy event at a local store- MD Game Haven, on Sunday. Actually, only my good buddy Andy showed up and we just jammed a bunch of games.

The owner Jake swung by and chatted with us for a bit as Andy knew him well. Jake was telling us about a collection he was slowly buying off this guy. All really nice cards, power, duals, etc. After we just marvel at the prices, he wanders off but comes back with this:

 

Damn.

Just damn.

I like the touch of the "ROOKIE CARD" holders. Jake laughed when I mentioned, and said that was his doing. (for the record, the far left card is signed)

Thing is- guy bought a bunch of collections in the late 90s and had just been sitting on the cards since then. Only reason he didn't have Mox was that his car needed a transmission years ago and that was his rainy day fund. Now- just play money.

Legacy weeklies

 I've been three Legacy weeklies recently... and done poorly at all 3. Took different deck each week.

1st- turbo depths, reviewed here.
2nd- Sneak and Show, went 0-2
3rd- Yorian DnT with new Neon cards, went 0-2

    Yeah, not great. To the point that I didn't feel good about posting about the results. 

The weekly jammed full of really good players. Its no knock on getting lucky, but rather I just haven't found the deck to take. 

For example, this week I saw in no particular order:

RG Lands
8-Cast with Cappa
Ooops All Spells
RB Goblins
Maverick

    All run by highly skilled players. I don't jam NEARLY as much as most of these players likely do. A couple of them jam regularly on The Legacy Pit. I haven't asked, but fairly sure they also jam on MTGO regularly. Me? I am lucky to get in some weekly games. Its trade off in time and expectations right. I just wanna play some. Most of my ingest of Legacy is podcast and recordings. So at least its something and I am staying up on events. Right?

    My current thoughts are, maybe draft for a couple weeks... maybe stick to one deck and stop being so wishy washy. Maybe just take a break? I am not in a funk, just trying to find a groove that doesn't involve me going 0-2 drop every week.

 

As part of that, I am heading out a different store that is doing a monthly (?! Yeah, I don't know either) for $6. MD Game Haven- lets see how it goes. Hopefully I can jam with a buddy. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

In Arena news, I made Mythic again before the end of the season.

 

 

Here is the deck I used to make most of the run. The deck posted a 67% win rate for me doing only Bo1. Also, I learned, when attempting to jam to Mythic- best matchups are before dinner. Just saying.

Kamigawa Neon Dynasty, pre-release

Went to a new store for me to do my first in store pre-release in over 2 years. Shout out to Gritty Goblin Games. Bit a of an odd shopping center, but whatever... I was gonna jam some brand new cards I was likely going to have to read all my opponents cards to understand. Thats how these things go.

My goal was to-  1) Hopefully come away with a winning record, 2) Pull at least one card I wanted for some legacy deck and 3) Hang out with a friend or 3 to make pre-release that much more fun in person. 

At the time of the pre-release, the legacy interesting cards consisted of:

- Lion Sash
- Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
- Boseiju, Who Endures

I got one of those cards in Lion Sash, which is likely classified as a bomb in limited due to the mechanic reconfigure. In Yorian D&T for legacy it means a card that can be tutored for from 8 different cards. (Stoneforge and Recruiter) It also presents problems on how the hell to get rid of it once it latches on to something. The only downside is requiring white to activate. Thank goodness the reconfigure is generic, whew.

Was happy that 1 of 3 friends, who made some effort to attend, was able to show up. I hadn't played in a shop with him since the small local draft location shut down 3 years ago. It was good times all around!

My deck was white-black disruption. MVP card of the day, removal. Gesh I had a lot.
I almost went Green, but just didn't have enough to get me to replace the other colors.

First round won 2-1

Game 1 got there with weenies, and just lite removal. Felt good.

Game 2 Lost due to overwhelming forces

Game 3 rinse and repeat of game 1. Huzzah for Virus Beetle. What a freaking annoying card that was.

Second round lost 0-2

Game 1 I knew something was up when my opening hand was 5 lands and 2 six-drops Mulligan to two lands and thats when things just fell off the sides. Oh well.

Game 2 Even worse than game 1. The limited lands I had were the wrong color to support what I wound up drawing. He killed the few things I had, and just crushed my undefeated hopes and dreams 

Even a pity game was awful. (because his first round opponent registered, paid, and did not show.)

Third round won 2-1

Game 1 He had a 3 color deck and didn't draw any islands for about 7 turns which crushed his blue heavy hand. Meanwhile I found just enough to make things hard for myself. I wound up getting him to 2 life and I almost milled myself when I realized- Ya know, I have 5 attackers and at most he has 3 blockers. Math took over and I won. (also notable that it was the only game all day, including mulligans, I ever drew my Lion Sash. What stupid card that things is)

Game 2 Oh deck. sigh... just stomped by very large creatures even though I removed about 5 things, I had no threats to apply pressure. Oh well

Game 3 Was of note because he completely changed decks from b/u/r to w/g. I had no clue what he was attempting to do, but my disruption was enough to stop anything he tried.

Just for playing 2 rounds, everyone there got a set booster. If you went 2-0-1 or better, you also got packs. I went home with 3 set boosters for my efforts. Within those packs was NOTHING of note. All my rares but the lion sash went up for trade on deck box. 

Super happy to have been back.

The weekly and a PRE-RELEASE!

 I went to Level Up for the weekly, and took Rainbow Depths. Only took it because I had never had a chance to jam it in person at the store because I got all the cards over Covid. I didn't think it was awesome because so many decks had ways of blocking or taking care of a flying 20/20 now. Still I had fun with it.

Also, LevelUp continues to rehab the store. Check out the new storage and displays....

Round 1 vs D&T

Game 1- I screwed up on fetching for the land I needed. Seriously. I had a dark depths in hand, and I fetched a second copy instead of stage. Still, my deck decided I was a doofus and rewarded me with a top deck answer and got there by showing a Not of This World.

Game 2- I was too slow somehow? He was the beat down? I dunno, just didn't have the right answers lined up.

Game 3- I put down a turn one Pithing Needle naming wasteland.... that was a 50/50 guess, and I was punished because he had Karakas. Of course. 

Oh well- between match we jammed some other games with stupid decks I brought like Mono Red Sneak. While it crushed in one game, the second was a complete roffle-stomp by him. It was fun.

Round 2 vs 8-Cast

I honestly don't know how a turbo depths is supposed to win this game. They have so many flyers to block a single 20/20 for days. And it was reflective in the results.

Game 1- He kept a very risky hand and STILL got there not knowing I was on Rainbow Depths. I just couldn't produce the token fast enough.

Game 2- He just overwhelmed me with flyers I had no trample ability, no way to force things and all he had were answers- 1 of Karakas, Spellbomb, Foundry.... Sigh. 

So I was in the 0-2 category and dropped to head home. Rainbow depths can be EXTREMELY powerful, but it was not for me that night. I had fun. Jammed some extra games inbetween rounds. and generally glad to be out and about. 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I've mostly convinced some buddies to hit up a local store to do the next pre-release. Oh, I am pumped! I haven't been to one since before COVID in store. (last one I blogged about was the Core 2020. So huh)

Trying out a new local I had never heard of until two weeks ago, but apparently been in the area for many years. Glad to give it a go- Gritty Goblin Games! 

Hopefully my merry band of idiots can assemble and make it a thing.

Double flashback

 First, I was visiting Mark Poole's webpage. And I found the biggest flashback from my early days of playing-

The April Fool's Island from the 1994 Duelist. 

I about crapped my pants. Seriously. I had utterly and wholly forgotten.

I attempted to find the original article on-line and came up empty. From what I could recall, WoTC was saying that there was mistake in the A/B/U naming of Island and it should have been called Islands. (notice plural) However, due to the catch they could only print it in limit number of Arabian Nights packs. I believe a riff on the AN Mountain. 

The important part here is- that image was AMAZING to me at the time. I wanted the card to be real. Really did. Now to find it as a print from Mark Poole- welp, I know what I want for my birthday. That and a Counterspell print of course. 

Sigh.

Second part- I was looking over my old DeckBox trades. And trade #483325 from May of 2017 was a bit of a kick in the pants. Why? First, it was my first international trade attempt to Canada. Second, the first set of cards was never received by the trader. I learned the hard way about tracking trades over certain values. It happens. Lastly, it was because of what I traded for that stands out: 4 Beta Island. Back when I was trying to get my playset of beta lands for drafting with. Ya know, cause I am crazy.

Well- I have no clue what I sent the second time... however, it equaled the same value of cards from the first trade. Deckbox retroactively applies values to cards, so you can't see what the values were at the time, but what they are NOW. 

 

And before you lose your s__t. I found the conversation from the exchange interesting- 

 

Yeah- I got 2 Alpha Island and 2 Beta Island for that pile. Well two piles, and I would have done it again.

There have been trades that I have done which I lost out on rising values, or unexpected values, but for the most part- I think this trade keeps me in the black for a while.