Overdriven! 49

Happy Birthday to Me! Slugapalooza 2012!

I may be old, but I refuse to grow up! Yeppers, I’m 53 today. I can’t read, or work on the computer, without glasses on. My joints creak when I wake up in the mornings. I can no longer fool myself into thinking my silver looks like highlights, and my beard is almost all white. But I’m still teh sexeh! Woo hoo! If any of you are thinking of getting me a present, I do love textless and full-art promos! And Goyfs! And planeswalkers!

I’ve been celebrating Slugapalooza all weekend by giving away Spitting Slugs to everyone who entered into one of my events (playsets of foils to event winners), and playing a Slug deck in Tribal Apocalypse. Any Slugs that I have left over after Overdrive! tonight, I’ll be handing out to anyone and everyone I meet until they’re all gone.

Modern: Huge Tracts of Unexplored Land

It has been said of Modern: “The most important thing about Modern is diversity. It’s by and far the most open format right now, there are huge tracts of land no one has explored. It’s the new frontier of competitive Magic.“, and “The nice thing about Modern is that the format is very open. There’s a lot of room to explore and find decks that can work.” And just to hammer that point, here are maps from some recent explorations:

Even with redacted results, I still manage to find a nugget once in a while! Here’s a tasty little treat that can be found lurking in the shadows of a back alley. Tons of hand disruption, and bringing the pain via The Rack and Shrieking Affliction, this deck is nasty indeed. Extirpate is almost guaranteed to wreck your opponent’s day.

The New Jund and the Decline(?) of Infect

The breakout deck from GP Chicago a few weeks back was, as I’m sure you’re all aware by now, Jund. Not just any ol’ Jund, mind you! But a new version of Jund that splashes W for Lingering Souls, which has come to be known as Spirit Jund.

This interesting piece of tech allows Jund to grind it out much better against quick aggro decks like Robots or Infect. In fact, Lingering Souls almost completely shuts down Infect. Since Infect doesn’t run many creatures, and most of those creatures are 1/1 unpumped, Infect is forced to use its pump to try and power through those flying chump spirits.

Spirit Jund works so well against Infect, during the GP Chicago finals I predicted that this deck would soon start appearing in large numbers online, where Infect runneth rampant. (What can I say? I like that phrase.)

This card could well be the “silver bullet” that will quell the infestation that currently exists. In fact, I’ll go one step further and predict that other archetypes that currently do not pack it will indeed start running Lingering Souls, either main or side, to grind it out against Infect. We’ll see how that prediction pans out next time.

This also means there are now three distinct Jund builds in the Jund sub-meta: “Plain ol’ Jund”, Black Jund (which has a high B commitment to run Geralfs Messenger), and Spirit Jund. When I started work on this article, “Plain ol’ Jund” was the highest-played variety, with 91.3% of the pie, with only an occasional peep out of Black Jund (5.8%), and Spirit Jund (2.9%) had made its first visible appearance. Here’s what the Jund sub-meta looks like now:

Now, let’s see what effect this had on Infect. Two weeks ago, Infect was 20.8% of the (filtered) meta. Now…

While the percentage is only down a little, that doesn’t mean much. Infect is still only a few decks behind Jund in the number of appearances. However, it is showing up more in the 3-1′s than the 4-0′s.

*doing a bad Lena Horne impression* Don’t know why ~ There’s no sun up in the sky ~ Stormy weather ~ ~ ~ Oh, yeah! Storm has gone to the asylum for some shock treatment, and has undergone a radical shift and resurgence. Almost every event result I look at features one or more Storm decks, in a swath of flavors. The new poster boy for Storm is Goblin Electromancer. He, along with the craziness that is Epic Experiment, have both drastically changed the stormscape of the sub-meta.

Delver has also started putting in some appearances again in the past few days. Apparently, the Delver archetype has only been on vacation, not moved away to woo woo land.

I have to warn you once again that all this information is based only on what I can see of the online Modern meta. A goodly chunk is still being withheld by WotC. Grrrrr! Anything could be hidden in that redacted section.

A Token of My Extreme
Quest for Street Creds

A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to start getting serious in my playing. After all, how can I claim to know what the hell’s going on in the Modern world if I don’t play it at a higher level than the Just For Fun room? I need to gird my loins and join in the fray, not just comment from the safety of my cave. I was impressed with how BUG Infect was doing, so I used that deck and jumped into a few of the Daily Scheduled Events.

The very first one I entered, I went 3-1. I thought this was an auspicious start, and used the proceeds from my various articles and events to enter a few more. But alas, I racked up a string of 0-2-drop, and 1-2-drop finishes. BUG Infect just wasn’t cutting it for me. I needed something a bit more resilient, and a bit less hated.

There was a catch-22 involved as well. I didn’t/don’t have Noble Hierarchs. They were replaced with Abrupt Decay. If I would have bought the Nobles, I couldn’t have entered the events, and vice versa. Since hindsight is always 20/20, I should have bought the Nobles, then gone into the SEs.

Playing in all of these events also meant I wasn’t building up my collection. I pored over the few (GRRRR!) results that were available, looked at what I had on hand, and decided that Tokens would be decently positioned. I also decided to resume my quest in a slightly less competitive environment. Since TNMO for November 15 was Modern, I decided to start there. I had originally planned on playing in all four events that day, but budget constraints limited me to one. I jumped into the last one of the day.

A couple things right off the bat, before you even ask. First off, I don’t have Godless Shrine. Yet. Second, as soon as I get more Auriok Champions, they are going mainboard. Finally, I’m well aware the sideboard needs work. As stated previously, I built this with what I had laying about.

You can see for yourself how I played this deck. These videos are silent, do not adjust your volume. They are also unedited. This means there are long periods where nothing happens.

So. After a few ducats came in, I worked on the deck a little, especially the sideboard (still no Godless Shrine), and entered into SE 4596400. I still believe Tokens is well positioned in the current meta.

Kataki is there for Robots. Rule of Law is for Storm. I expect to see a lot of these two decks today. Rest in Peace is for Living End, “Dredge”, and other graveyard shenanigans. Nevermore is there as an answer for Echoing Truth, or Restoration Angel, or whatever. Let’s ride this rocket!

I had planned on recording these matches, but as Robert Burns wrote: the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley. Which also describes Round 1. In this Round, I faced Blue Naya Pod. Not much to say. I got my butt handed to me on a platter both games. I had to mully to 4 to see a land in Game 2. ‘Twasn’t pretty. 0-1

Round 2 I faced off against Electrostorm. After getting thrashed in Game 1, I sided out Path to Exile for Rule of Law. I had RoL in my opening hand in each of the next two games (Game 2 after mullying), and my opponent conceded both games as soon as it hit the table. 1-1

Round 3 it was 4c Gifts. Again, after getting thrashed in Game 1, I sided out one Hero, and both Zealous Persecutions for Rest in Peace. He did try to Gift me in Game 2 with a Wurmcoil Engine and three wipes. I let him keep two wipes because I had plenty of token makers in hand. Game 2 was close, but I eked out a win. Game 3 I pretty much blew him out of the water. 2-1

And lost Round 4 0-2 versus Hate Bears. Blarg. Game 1 was brutal, with a mully to 5. After siding in Nevermore and Oblivion Ring, I held him off for a while in Game 2. But in the end, I was dead, Dead, DEAD! 2-2

All in all, though, I’d like to think with a little more sideboard work, and a bit more testing, this deck could do well. We’ll see in the next event I enter with it. What would you do with this deck?

Overdrive! #70

Overdrive! #71

Eurodrive! #51

Eurodrive! #52

Where Angels Fear To Tread #31

Players: 15(16) (I played to even pairings)
4-0: pk23
3-1: arcaniathe, Ortie, romellos, raf.azevedo

Players, pairings, and results from WAFTT #31 can be found here.
All decks from WAFTT #31 can be found here.

Where Angels Fear To Tread #32

Players: 18
4-0: Houmeris, pk23
3-1: FlxEx, StrattonAlex

Players, pairings, and results from WAFTT #32 can be found here.
All decks from WAFTT #32 can be found here.

Dark Wars: A Legacy Of Evil
Season 1 Qualifier 2
Players: 19
Players, tables, and results can be found here.
Season 1 Championship: January 30, 2013
11/07/12 Bigwilly5555
11/21/12 Super_Secret_Tech
12/05/12 Seat 3
12/19/12 Seat 4
01/02/13 Seat 5
01/16/13 Seat 6

Interesting Tidbits

It has been announced (tweeted, and a “by the way” sentence in a Daily MTG article) that Modern will be an option for sanctioned FNM play effective January 2013. Woo hoo!

GP Toronto, our next Modern GP, will be happening in just two short weeks, on December 8.

This will be followed up with a Modern PTQ Season (for PT Dragon’s Maze) beginning December 22. The spreadsheets for this are ready and waiting to be filled in!

Modern attendance has been on par. I expect a large attendance spike between Christmas and New Year.