Tuesday 20 December 2011

Skinshifter and Friends (16-5 FNM Record)


Jund is back with a vengeance!

As I ‘ve been doing for the past few months, I’ll build a deck and play it for 2x weeks at 2x stores and see how it fares. I wasn’t able to win BOTH of the tournaments these past two weeks (Darn it! My 3 win in a row streak is broken!), but I won the LA Mood battle 10-1 (5-0) and only went 6-4 (2-2) at Imperial. I had to face BOTH of my playtest partners at Imperial, and lost to Eric playing WW Humans and Dobbs playing Bant Pod.

Congrats to Dobbs BTW! He not only won the tournament ON HIS BIRTHDAY but we went to the casino after and each won $17! WE’RE RICH, BITCHES!! Hahaha. HBD again Mr.D! :)

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Here is the deck list!

Creatures

4x Birds of Paradise
4x Skinshifter
4x Daybreak Ranger
3x Bloodline Keeper
2x Oliva Voldaren
2x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Inferno Titan
21

Spells

3x Arc Trail
4x Rampant Growth
3x Garruk Relentless
1x Batterskull
11

Lands

2x Kessig Wolf Run
23x Other Lands that make colors!
25

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Every single card aside from Rampant Growth is Card Advantage and has the potential to run a 2-for-1 on your opponent OR even more!

Daybreak Ranger is insane if he resolves on Turn 2. Versus control he’s a healthy 4/4 for 3 and against aggro he’s an unstoppable machine gun. I played 1x of him against a tempered steel opponent and that’s all I had to do to win! He stayed active and picked off a guy every turn… even through a resolved tempered steel!

BoP and Rampant Growth are there to set up a T3 4 drop… of which I found there to be waaayyyy too many! Sometimes you’d get stuck if you didn’t draw that 4th land, which was what happened to me when I lost VS. both Dobbs AND Eric. Even w / 25 lands and 8 accelerators you still run that risk, but I feel that the land base and accelerator choices are correct for the time being.

Olivia / Bloodline Keeper were impressive to say the least! If I was untapping w / Olivia, I was going to win. At one point I had 2x Active Bloodline Keepers with 4 other Vampires on the board… one of which was Olivia! I still lost that game to a pro-almost-my-entire-deck Mirran Crusader that I couldn’t block, but if I’d had one more turn…

I was originally trying a mix of different finishers in the 6 drop spot, but found that Inferno Titan and Wurmcoil tended to work out the best. Both are great vs. Control, but they are superior vs. Aggro. Either of them could have blocked that pesky Crusader had they been in hand! I was demating the merits of Grave Titan, but then if he gets DoJ’d, you don’t get anything out of him. With I-Titan and Wurm, at least you’ve either dealt 3 damage, or you end up w / 2x 3/3 wurms. STRONG.

I think the cards that were missing from the deck were 2-3x swords. Skinshifter + Sword = GG, and I never got to do it since I had none main. Batterskull never lets me down, and I actually had 2x kills w / Batterskull equipped birds! For as long as it’s in standard, I’m pretty sure BSkull will be run in all my midrange decks. Lol.

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I hope you enjoyed this most recent Deck Tech article!

Have a safe and happy Christmas season (or holiday season, whichever you prefer)! Best wishes to all of you and your families!

Cheers,
Carl Szalich

Friday 9 December 2011

It’s GREEN STEEL, baby! (16-3 FNM Record)

Time for another deck tech article!

First, sorry that I haven’t been as active as normal lately. My “real” job has been really busy, and I still need to get a professional looking article submitted to www.quietspeculation.com to go live for next week. BUT I wanted to hook you up with a really cool deck I’ve been playing for the past 2 weeks (1 at LA Mood and 1 at Imperial Hobbies) to a 13-3 game record.

Traditionally, Puresteel Paladins decks tended to wilt if they didn’t draw the namesake card in the deck. Sure, I guess living weapons on their own are “OK”, but they really shine when you’re drawing a card whenever you play one a la Paladin style. So sometimes you end up with a hand full of mediocre equipment and nothing else.

When I designed this build I wanted it as threat heavy as possible so that if I DIDN’T manage to draw a Paladin I could still win. When we lost Basilisk Collar it really hurt the deck, but as a fellow QS writer (Josh Justice) suggested, we can get the same effect by sacking deathtouch wolves to Mortarpod… and thus was born the green splash!

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Here is the deck list!

Creatures

4x Vault Skirge
4x Puresteel Paladin
3x Mirran Crusader
3x Etched Champion
3x Hero of Bladehold
17

Equipment

3x Flayer Husk
4x Mortarpod
2x Sword of War and Peace
2x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Batterskull
12

Spells

4x Oblivion Ring
3x Garruk Relentless
1x Mox Opal
7

Lands

2x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Gavony Township
4x Razorverge Thicket
4x Sunpetal Grove
1x Forest
12x Plains

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As you can see, this deck is creature heavy. Some of my opponents incorrectly assumed I was playing W/G tokens as there are many of the same cards cross deck, and G/W Puresteel is not an established archetype yet so it’s a good assumption, albeit incorrect.

In this deck Puresteel Paladin acts more like a “Trump Card” in the fact that you can play out a bunch of dudes, achieve metalcraft, then drop paladin to form Voltron and swing. It doesn’t matter if you have a Puresteel for this to still be an effective strategy as (most of) the equipment itself helps our team regardless. Equipping Mirran Crusader with ANY equipment is dangerous… but giving him a sword or 3 ends games right away!

Believe it or not, Gavony Township actually won me a few games! It really plays nice with Hero of Bladehold, making the team he creates 3/2’s on the swing instead. It also gets Paladin / Crusader out of “shock” range, and since people seem to have eschewed incinerate in favor of the faster spell it = win.

Garruk is amazing, as he is both removal and creates bodies to equip to! As stated above, when he’s making deathtouch wolves and throwing them with a Mortarpod he is insane.

O-Ring is the best piece of removal in the format right now IMHO. It deals with EVERYTHING except for an Inkmoth

In the 19 games (over 8 rounds) I played with this deck I won 16 of them (only dropping 1 match), so it has some great potential! Pick this up if you want to try something powerful, yet different that can attack from a lot of different angles J.

Cheers!
Carl Szalich

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Christmas Shopping: London Gaming Deals!!


Hey guys! With Christmas just around the corner, I figure it would be a great idea to get all of the store sales / specials for the holiday season on one easy to use directory!

Since I try and keep this site as impartial as I can I’ve got all of the comic / gaming stores as well as their sale description here for your viewing pleasures J.

I WILL BE UPDATING THIS LIST AS MORE INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE AND MORE SALES ARE ANNOUNCED SO PLESE KEEP CHECKING BACK!


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WORLDS AWAY

666 Dundas St
London, Ontario
N5W 2Y8
(519) 433-1267

Sale Details!

Starts on Dec 04 / 2011

Magic Card Singles: Spend $50, get 20% off. Spend $100, get 30%. Spend $150, get 40% off!
Magic Packs: $3.75 ($0.50 off!)
Backstock Comics: 40% off!
TPB’s and Hardcovers: 30% off!
Action Figures: 20% off!

Comments:
This is THE BEST MAGIC CARD DEAL around! Sure, some stores have a higher discount all the time, but NO ONE has this kind of discount on the AMAZING card selection Brad (the owner of Worlds Away) has. This discount isn’t just for dollar rares… it’s for EVERYTHING HE’S GOT!! You need dual lands? I just bought 2x Underground Sea in ex- for $109! No, that was NOT a mistype… It’s true! Get there right away before everything is gone!!


L.A. MOOD COMICS AND GAMES

350 Richmond St
London, Ontario
N6A 3C3
(888) 621-7018

Sale Details!

Dec 1st Pre-Christmas sales!
"Super" Deals Abound!

25% off Premium Back issues
50% off regular back issues
Selected 3 for a dollar in the bargain basement!
25% off T-Shirts!
25% off Toys!
20% off statues!

Dec 10-24

25% off Graphic Novels & Trade Paperbacks
(This is in ADDITION to the previous sales!!)

Saturday Dec 10th

X-Mas Open House - Drop in for some holiday cheer!
ALSO! “Kill Shakespear” Signing between 11am -> 1pm!

Comments:
Gord, Carol, and the rest of the LA Mood Crew have some great deals going on this year! Huge discount on comic back issues @ 50%, and every year I always have fun during their Christmas Open House. They have an amazing selection of premium back issues, so if you’re hunting gold / silver age, at 25% off, everyone is going to “win”. J


HEROES COMICS AND COLLECTIBLES

186 Dundas St
London, Ontario
N6A 1G7
(519) 439-4955
Twitter = @heroeslondon

COMING SOON!
NOTE: LOTS of unadvertised specials so you may want to give them a call if you need something specific!


COMIC BOOK COLLECTOR

779 Dundas St
London, Ontario
N5W 2Z6
(519) 433-6004

HUGE SALE STARTING IN JANUARY… STAY TUNED!!


FRESHERS SPORTS CARDS

639 Southdale Rd E
London, Ontario
N6E 3M2
(519) 649-6116

COMING SOON... BOXING WEEK SALES!


BA’S COMICS

426 Hamilton Rd E
London, Ontario
N5Z 1R9
(519) 439-9636

December Storewide Sale!!
Sale runs until closing for Christmas break!!

Back Issues 50% off!
40% off Hardcover / Sofcovers!
Willing to negotiate Premium Wall books 20% -> 40% off!

(NOTE: Please be sure to mention "DontTrainMyOrgg" to get the deals! :P)

Comments:
Bruno has an AMAZING selection of hard to find gold / silver age comics, and specializes in older comics with a keen eye for grading. A cozy little shop just outside of the main comic book "district", which make it a hidden gem both in location AND in their back issue bins!
 

NEO TOKYO: THE ANIME STORE

787 Dundas St
London, Ontario
N5W 2Z6
(519) 642-7862

Sale Details!

20% -> 50% off various selected Anime Titles!
Coming Soon! Boxing Week Specials...

Comments:
Have you got an Otaku (Fan of Animation) in your family? Neo Tokyo is THE premier Anime store in London and surrounding area. A huge selection of both video rentals and sales as well as anything you can think of Anime related! If they don't have what you're looking for, they're more than happy to look it up for you and try and get it ordered in.


I hope this little article helps you and have a safe and happy holiday season!

Merry Christmas!
Carl Szalich