Overdriven! 56

Queen of the Universe

Many, many years ago, I fell under the spell of a certain lass who should have been born a redhead. Her eyes, like mischievous children that should be spanked and sent to bed without their supper, held my gaze but once, and I became lost forevermore.

Since today is her special day, I thought I’d share some thoughts…

Queen of the Universe
I came back downstairs
Pillows under the blankets
Made me think of you

Warm sleepy eyes blink
Arms stretching to the headboard
Soft sighs of waking

Reality crash
Sitting here at the keyboard
Missing you so much

Deutsche Seele Am Grab meinem Vorfahren Tobben zerstörte Steine Ausgegrabenen Krallen Unendliches Später Schwöre ich ihre Geister Ich bin dein

Teutonic Soul At the grave of my ancestors Tumbled stones dance riotously Unearthed talons Infinitely later I swore to their ghosts I am yours

Mood Ring
My wife has many mood swings
So I bought her a mood ring
Hoping I could judge her mood
And see just where things stood

When she’s in a good mood
……….It turns to a bright emerald
When she’s in a bad mood
……….It leaves a red mark on my forehead

Schlaf Schön
Jetzt geh’ ich schlafen, um mit dir zu sein
In meine Träume kommst du rein
Keine Sorgen, keinen Schmerz
Nur das himmliche Liebesverkehrs
Und am Morgen bin ich wieder allein

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:

Well, well, well! This is an interesting mashup of Hate Bears with Death & Taxes, with just a smidgen of Jund thrown in for flavor!

Aven Mindcensor, Leonin Arbiter, and Ghost Quarter can certainly ruin your opponent’s day in this age of greedy manabases where fetchlands are almost de rigeur. You want to search up a Blood Crypt? Ok! Pay 2 for the privilege, and hope your Blood Crypt is in the top 4 cards! And then I’m going to blast it anyway!

The disruption package of Lili, Thoughtseize, and Tidehollow Sculler has the potential to rip your opponent’s hand apart, as well. Not to mention Ghost Quarter to deal with those pesky opposing lands.

Spot removal? Dismember, Path to Exile, Lili… check!

Hero of Bladehold is a nasty beater if you can get it to stick. Even more so with a sword in her hand! And of course, the Lingering Souls chumps.

While this deck did take first place in a PTQ, I don’t know how well this deck would fare in the long run. Yes, it is a nasty build. But with “limited” hate, aggro, and disruption, and looking at how well “regular” Hate Bears and Death & Taxes are doing in general(not that well), this deck seems to be more of a rogue that caught everyone with their pants down instead of a contender. We’ll see. I could be wrong, and it could very well be the next big thing.

Other people are more optimistic: “This is a scarily fantastic decklist. 4-ofs of Arbiter, Mindcensor, and Quarter to deny mana, DRS to utilize both graveyards, fetches for Overgrown Tomb when you have DRS active, discard from Liliana, Thoughtseize, and Sculler, then Hero to win the game. Very efficient, very fast, and I like it a lot.”

Another person says “…this Junk version seems pretty good. Deathrite gives some extra utility, while making the graveyard a resource (which happens to be something I felt the deck was lacking). The hand disruption in black also helps quite a bit. Hitting stuff like Supreme Verdict with Tidehollow Sculler is nice, and flicking it with the trigger on the stack is sweet tech.” (Author’s note: I don’t see any flickering effects in this list? Am I missing something?) [Editor’s note: I also don’t see any. Maybe “flicking” is different than “flickering”? – PlanetWalls]

This deck does have a single source of G, for Deathrite Shaman lifegain, and Ancient Grudge flashback.

I don’t really have to explain how Delver likes to plop down its namesake, flip it, protect it, and keep swinging with it till yer dead, do I? Or how Dark Confidant is card advantage, albeit painful at times?

Delver decks are certainly not new. However, after their overwhelmingly dominant performance in Q2 & Q3 of 2012, they have become almost an endangered species. Every few weeks there’ll be a sighting. People will get excited. Then it lapses back into obscurity. When this list appeared, people were again excited. Doubly so because UBR is not a wedge one normally associates with Delver. We’ll see.

Storm lives! Using Simian Spirit Guides instead of rituals to generate mana may seem counter-intuitive, since that doesn’t add to the storm count, but apparently this deck gets the job done!

This list does seem to be fairly reliant on Goblin Electromancer to cheapen the casting cost on spells. I don’t see any other way to storm out at “full cost” without Seething Song. If you have all 3 apes in your opener, chances are you’re going to toss that back. I don’t know about you, bubu, but cards like Goblin Electromancer are crack for my removal spells.

Pyromancer’s Swath is damage pumping tech we haven’t seen since the early days of Modern, and it tickles me to see it in use again. But beware! It’s very much a double-edged sword! Note the last line of the rules text: Discard your hand.

When the announcement of the Bloodbraid Elf was made, xMiMx had just started to put up consistent numbers with his Bloody Zoo powerhouse, and copies were starting to appear from other players. With the ban, Bloody Zoo disappeared. Until now!

This deck is much more “midrangy” than the traditional Zoo philosophy of cheap, efficient beaters. Instead of 1CMC aggressive creatures, it has mana dorks (Deathrite Shaman and Noble Hierarch) to help smooth the way for those high cost critters, in addition to their other utilities.

This deck does have some nice higher-cost bombs at its disposal, namely Thundermaw Hellkite. Also note the pair of Hero of Bladehold in the sideboard!

I’m not sure about Domri Rade in this build. With a dozen noncreature spells (on top of the pair of Rades), it would seem to me his +1 would fizzle a fair percentage of the time.

Manlands are not forgotten! Raging Ravine, as always, is a house once there’s enough mana on the field to activate it.

And the “Bloody” part? Why, Blood Moon, of course! With so many Modern decks relying on greedy manabases, Blood Moon is an all star.

PTQ Round-up

Some of these are a few weeks old, but didn’t arrive until after Overdriven! 55 “went to press.”

2/9/2013

Overland Park, KS US
1st: Kiki Pod
2nd: Robots
T4: Robots, RUG Delver
T8: Living End, UWR Midrange, Melira Pod, UWR Midrange

Louisville, KY US
1st: Aura Aggro
2nd: Blackshift
T4: Huntmaster Jund, UWR Midrange
T8: 2nd Breakfast, 4c Gifts(?), Huntmaster Jund, UWR Midrange

Fairbanks, AK US
1st: GR/b Tron
2nd: Huntmaster Jund
T4: UWR Midrange, Robots
T8: Huntmaster Jund, Robots, 2nd Breakfast, GR/b Tron

2/10/2013

Kanazawa JP
1st: Black Jund
2nd: Eternal Command
T4: Kiki Pod, GR Tron
T9: UWR Midrange, GR/b Tron, Kiki Pod, UW Solar Midrange

Memphis, TN US
1st: UW Solar Midrange
2nd: WB Tokens
T4: RUG Twin, Glass Cannon Breach
T8: Aura Aggro, GR Tron, UWR Midrange, GR/b Tron

2/23/2013

Lund (Malmö) SE
1st: GR Tron
2nd: BUG Infect
T4: Kiki Pod, UWR Midrange
T8: RUG Twinx2, Aura Aggro, Affinity

Talinn EE
1st: GBW Midrange
2nd: UWR Midrange
T4: Jund, 2nd Breakfast
T8: GB, GRuul Zoo, Robots, Jund

Dublin IE
1st: Boros
2nd: UWR Midrange
T4: UWR Delver, UWR Midrange
T8: TFO Jund, Twin x2, GR Tron

Green Bay, WI US
1st: Tribal Flames
2nd: UBR Delver
T4: Kiki Pod, GR Tron
T8: Splinter Twin, UWR Midrange, Infect, Kiki Pod

Plano, TX US
T2: Jund, Twin
T4: Aura Aggro, GR Tron
T8: GR Tron, Burn, Scapeshift, RUG
Results not in database pending further clarification.

2/24/2013

Napoli IT
1st: Jund
2nd: UWR (Midrange?)
T4: Zoo, Jund
T8: Jundx2, Zoo, Merfolk
Results not in database pending further clarification.

Verona IT
1st: Jund
2nd: UWR (Midrange?)
T4: Goblins, Kiki Pod
T8: Robots, Bant, Rb (Burn?), UW Fae
Results not in database pending further clarification.

Metz FR
1st: GR Tron
2nd: BUG Midrange
T4: TFO Jund, Eternal Command
T8: GR(b) Zoo, Scapeshift, UWR Delver, Kiki Pod

Brno CZ
1st: BW Haterator (featured above)
2nd: Robots
T4: URW Midrange, Blackshift
T8: 2nd Breakfast, Dredgevine, Scapeshift, U Tron

Break It Down!

You might notice the separation of GR/b Tron and U Tron. While both of these decks use the Tron engine, their approach to the game is totally different. GR/b is all about the ramp and plopping out Karn Liberated, while U is a more “controlly” build using Wurmcoil Engine and Sundering Titan to smash face.

MTGO Modern Meta Madness

With all the brouhaha of PTQ season going on, I haven’t been neglecting the online Scheduled Event meta. And ya know what? It’s a wild, wacky, wonderfully weird meta!

“Blue-based control” decks are at the top of the pops! This is something I never would have dreamed of last year. Keep in mind that these are not your “traditional” MUC (Mono-U Control) decks, but stuff like 4c Gifts, Eternal Command, and UWR Control (UWR Midrange’s cousin). I’m still including the Restoration archetype under U/x/x Control, but with fewer and fewer appearances, I may pull it out of there again.

One deck that evolved out of the Restoration category is UW Solar Midrange. This deck will typically run 1 or 2 Sun Titan, Snappys, Restoration Angels, Wall of Omens, and Cliques. While Restoration also runs Snappys and Angels, it’s usually a playset of each instead of 1 or 2. Some will have Blade Splicers, as well. I pulled UW Solar Midrange out of “Control” and put it in it’s own category.

Again, please notice is the separation of GR/b Tron and U Tron.

The Wall of Voodoo

With the “nerfing” of Jund, the Junk shell of GB(W) is starting to come alive. Please remember “Junk” refers to a color combination, and does not mean “trash”. This color combo is also called “Rock” by a lot of people. When the GW Hate Bears deck started splashing B (for removal & disruption), the urge for punishing deck names overcame me, and I called it Hate Rock.

Pod has “devolved”, if you can call it that, into just 2 varieties: Kiki & Melira. There may be some Realmrazer, Twin, or Blasting Station builds lurking out there, but I don’t see ‘em.

This is what I was talking about above, with regard to U/x/x Control not being the U “counter counter counter” decks one usually thinks of when thinking “control”. Modern control is much more tempo-oriented than “traditional” control.

Fire on the mountain! Not much else to say here.

PE World

Here’s what’s happening in the Premier Event world. This meta was not “reset to 0″ with the B&R announcement, so will still include some Jund.

Overdrive! #84 Champion: punkid_41_86 / Bump
Overdrive! #85 Champion: justcanceled / Tribal Flames
Eurodrive! #64 Champion: Nyzzeh / UG Infect
Eurodrive! #65 Champion: Nyzzeh / UG Infect
Decks from all Overdrive! can be found here.
Decks from all Eurodrive! can be found here.

 

Where Angels Fear To Tread #45
Players: 20
4-0: pk23 ~ 3-1: olioolli, FlxEx, _Kumagoro_, Gilipolleces
Where Angels Fear To Tread #46
Players: 22
4-0: olioolli ~ 3-1: fatkiddestroyers, PSparks10, NivekVamps2821, Nyzzeh, pk23, longtimegone
Decks from all WAFTT events can be found here.

Interesting Tidbits

GP San Diego, our next Modern GP, will be coming up in just a week and a half! Woo hoo! And again, it falls on a weekend immediately following my submission deadline. Blarg.

We lost PT Dublin. That is to say, it’s still there, it’s just not Modern anymore. Instead, Modern got pushed off to Winter 2013, as PT TBD.

Modern attendance looks to be tapering off a bit. I expect another drop in attendance come the end of PTQ season.