Theros Speculation: Good, Bad, & Ugly Decisions...

Hello everyone, welcome back!

It’s been a long time since I’ve written, but finally feel as though there are a few things worth discussing now that Theros pre-releases are behind us and the set is due out next week.

PICKS: Hits and Misses

Well let’s talk speculating for a bit since it’s something that I enjoy almost as much as playing. Ah yes, my heart sometimes longs for the good old days when FNM was all that I yearned for, but now the thrill of playing mini-stock market with spoilers is my new love. Unfortunately, I only get to do this 4 times a year and I’ve been slacking lately, but sometimes is still better than never I guess.

A general tip about my speculating technique: I typically look for the near “penny stocks” of the set that I think have room to grow, so if a card is already $5+ I’m less likely to buy in. Sure they go up (and down) like everything else, but if I “hit” on a cheaper rare, I’ve typically bought in a much higher quantity, and invested much less capital to begin with. I try to invest in cards that I feel are at least “sure things” for the dollar or three I’m putting in so that even if they don’t necessarily increase in value, they don’t really have any room to fall any further.

I’ve organized the list into 3 sections: “Confident” / “Unsure” / “Why did I buy these”. I’ll give you my rationale as to why I think / thought they were good buys so that you can see my train of thought. I’ve also listed the quantity and price that I bought in at as well as my prediction to where the price will go and what Star City Games (SCG) is presently selling them for.

So with that said, here is my present portfolio of cheap Theros stuff for your evaluation:

“Magic costs a lot of money. We're gonna have to earn it.”

CONFIDENT!



Well after a meal, there's nothing like a quiet speculation.

12x Boon Satyr @ 0.99

When I first read this guy I did a double take. He trades with Loxodon Smiters and their ilk for the same CC but is mono color, has flash, AND can be a combat trick? Sign me up. I see him as being a major roleplayer in the new standard.
Prediction: $3-$5 / SCG Price: $3 (Winning)

12x Hammer of Purphoros @ 1.50

There will be a deck called “Stop… Hammertime!” that will run this as a 3-4 of. The haste is nice, but being able to recover from board sweep with an army of 3/3’s for the low low price of a crummy land that you don’t need anymore? Priceless.
Prediction: $3-5 / SCG Price: $3 (Winning)

8x Spear of Heliod @ 1.49
A glorious anthem that has built in removal? Strong. Aggressive decks will love this as it boosts their team and protects your poor little planeswalker body from fatties. I can certainly see almost every commander deck loving it as well since starting at higher life = can take more hits = more activations possible.
Prediction: $3-5 / SCG Price: $3 (Winning)

12x Daxos of Meletis @ 2.25

This guy really impressed me at the pre-release, and a few friends have been calling it the “kill it immediately or die to it card” of the set. It basically reads as “unblockable, life gain, card draw” and is reasonably costed. Could it be the new Geist?? The fact that it’s a rare will keep its price down, but I can see it as a 3-4x in U/W control AND U/W aggro… basically anything that’s U/W/X as well. If we can get a better manabase playing this T2 off an elf would be ridiculous!
Prediction: $4-6 / SCG Price: $4 (Winning)

UNSURE…



If we cut down my percentage... cigar?Liable to interfere with my predictions.

8x Colossus of Akros @ 0.49

Strictly commander material, but fits into any deck. Hard to go wrong with a 10/10 indestructible blocker for 8 that becomes a frackin’ 20/20 trampler for an additional 10.
Prediction: $2-3… in a year or two. / SCG Price: $0.49 (Stable)

2x Heliod, God of the Sun @ 8.93

A lot of people are saying this guy’s the worst god in the block… yet he’s the only one that can singlehandedly (as opposed to hundred handedly) win a game without any outside assistance. Sure, you can scry in U, draw cards in B, deal damage in R, and pump in G, but NONE of those will actually produce a win on their own, they all require cards to be played or drawn in order to “get there”. When Heliod comes down you get infinite blockers and sources of damage. No counterspell to play on opponents EoT? Make a dude instead. Win. He costs more $ than I normally like to spend but I feel he’s undervalued for what he does. Notable that he’s also gone up a few days this past week, has casual appeal, and is the 2^nd lowest priced of the gods ATM.
Prediction: $15+ / SCG Price: $12 OOS (Winning)

WHY DID I BUY THESE?

 

The way I figure... there's really not too much future with a sawed-off Minotaur like you.

8x Akroan Horse @ 0.49

Seemed like it could be a good finisher in a control deck or something? IDK. At $0.5 it wasn’t a big risk, does provide a body every turn (with quasi-haste!) and can threaten to overwhelm your opponent if they don’t deal with it. Meh, I can prob trade them to someone with similar thoughts in a worst case scenario, but infinite tokens can’t be THAT bad… can they? (Did I mention only $0.5 each?)
Predicton: $0.25-$1 / SCG Price: $0.49 (Stable)

8x Arbor Colossus @ 0.75

I was thinking that if mono-green devotion became a thing that this big guy could do something. I’m not writing it off yet, as a 6/6 for 5 that next turn destroys a flyer and becomes 9/9 is still pretty good. I wish I’d been able to get him at 0.5 but spoilers were just starting to come out and I could combine shipping so I got greedy. Anyways, it will be good for commander because of its large buttox and ability to deal with flyers. If there is more green based devotion that gets printed, it could get even better. Right now not sure if it’s playable…
Prediction: $0.25-$1 / SCG Price: $0.75 (Stable)

8x Ember Swallower @ 0.49

Didn’t know this guy would be the red promo card for pre-release before I bought him. Again, I think it has potential as if you make it to 7 lands vs control you’ll probably win. A 4/5 for 4 isn’t bad either way, so again there is still hope for it.
Prediction: $0.25-$1 / SCG Price: $0.49 (Stable)

12x Hundred-Handed One @ 0.51

First: How good would this guy be in bed? Ladies look out! That’s 100x the pleassuurreeee!! :P
3/5 vigilance for 4 isn’t terrible, and can block the plethora of 4/X creatures they’ve released without fear. His monstrous cost is somewhat reasonable and gives you a nice fat blocker that can realistically hold the fort while you do… stuff I guess?
Prediction: $0.25-$1 / SCG Price: $0.99 (Winning)

… So far so good! Looks like I’m at least stable (4/10) on all my picks with most of them in the winning factory (6/10)! Let’s see how they hold up once they become standard legal and have some results to back them up. Hmmm I’m thinking I should get a few more Heliod as he seems to already be up 33% and is OOS on SCG. That’s why this kind of data is so important!

(*FOLLOW-UP: Just went in on 4x more Heliod @ $9 each. I’d move him to the “CONFIDENT” section now, but am leaving him in his original position from when this was written*)
 

“You see, in this world there's two kinds of creatures, my friend:

Those with monstrous, and those who dig.

You dig.”

A Note About Monstrous

Monstrous creatures in general just seem like value when they are already (kinda) playable on their own, and have the opportunity to get better if not dealt with. Of those that I’ve selected (Arbor Colossus, Ember Swallower, Hundred Handed One) none of them are awful in a vacuum. They are all reasonably costed creatures with a decent upside if you’ve got nothing better to do with your mana. If they relied on being good solely based on being monstrous, I would not have picked any up at all. You can’t rely on getting monstrous, and you still want every card to have a board presence of their own when you play them without having to sink more mana into them to be effective.

Hey Carl! You Know What You Are?

Just A Dirty Son-Of-A *Wa-Wa-Waaaaaaaa*

And there you have it. A few of my picks, shared with you, good reader. Nothing is ever certain, and it will be interesting for me (us?) to revisit this page in a month to see if my predictions have still held true. I always like to come back to these articles as they are like an irreversible timestamp that shows how I did with my set speculations. When I look at the articles I used to write for Quiet Speculation I’ve done very well (with the exception of Hellion Crucible… damn that card!) and hope to continue to do so.

Do YOU have any tips / picks that you’d like to point out / share? POST and let’s discuss!

 

Cheers,

Carl Szalich

STD DEKTEK – Bant Wurm

HOW MUCH DO I LOVE ADVENT?

I gazed lovingly into the beady eyes of the wurm, and it stared back at me with a satisfied expression on its face and a burnt out cigarette clutched between its lips. I leaned in on my dragon-kin mistress and whispered seductively in its ear hole thingy:

“Do you want to watch ‘The Notebook’ tonight, honey?” The violent thrashing of its tail signaled that she was unwilling to cry herself to sleep, and that a romantic comedy was more up her alley.

“Well what do YOU want to do then, my dove?” The wurm smiled a tooth grin and darted out of the $50 per night motel room before I could react. I called after her, but she was out of my view before I could stop her. Was she trying to escape me? Was my performance not up to par?

“Baby nooooooooooooo!” I lamented, but she was gone. All gone. I had nothing left to remember our magical, passionate weekend together except for a broken scale, a pool of slime, and a huge bill for the mini bar.

Deflated, I collapsed in a heap on the dirty, sweaty blankets that were so pristine the night before. I bunched them up in my fists, buried my face in them and sobbed... Oh how I sobbed for the loss of my baby! Then just as the day looked its darkest, I saw something shining in the distance, closing in on me fast. The scene was something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon: A huge corona of dust advancing on the hapless Bugs Bunny. Fight or flight response active, for a minute I was frozen in place, unsure of what to do. I squinted into the sunlight… and could it be? YES! It was my lovely wurm, returned to me with presents hanging from its maw!

The corpse of a knight in full armor! How sweet!

A collection of artifacts, including a Winter Orb! Useful!!
And the piece-de-resistance: A groupon for a weekend in Niagara Falls! WOWZA!!!

My heart melted as wurm coiled me up in her serpentine form and dragged me back into our room to fornicate.

…

…
…  I like Advent of the Wurm THAT MUCH!
 

WURMING MY WAY TO VICTORY

Dragons Maze gave everyone a few new toys, but my favorite colors (G/W) seemed to really get a boost. Advent of the Wurm & Voice of Resurgence are just as incredible as my sexual prowess (Mrs. Wurm can attest to the validity of my claims) and demand to be used in every deck I build from now until rotation.

Looking at the Bant colors I see a few things that really jump out at me:

Thragtusk + Snapcaster Mage + Restoration Angel (Things to Blink)

Snapcaster + Sphinx’s Revelation + Advent of the Wurm (Snapcaster Goodness)
Snapcaster + Restoration Angel + Advent of the Wurm (Flash Creatures)
… And Voice of Resurgence is just insane, is it not?

I guess that means that each of the above is getting a slot or 4, and will look something like this as a skeleton:

4 Thragtusk

3 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Advent of the Wurm
4 Voice of Resurgence

… THAT’S ALREADY 22 CARDS!

The deck basically built itself to within 10-15 cards or so, and it then becomes a decision on how much / which removal / utility creatures to include along with my cream of the crop.

Well, Snapcaster isn’t that great without something to flashback, so we’d better add some more spells. We’re light on removal and conveniently in the colors of the best charms (IMHO), and unsummon plays nice with Snappy for a T3 Snap + play.

X Unsummon

X Selesnya Charm
X Azorious Charm

Now it looks like I’m doing nothing for the first few turns like a control deck that plays creatures, but without an endgame. Aggro will crush me if I don’t have some way to stem the bleeding before hitting 5 for Tusk, so I’m going to need some other way to stabilize. “Daddy Fat Stacks” is always ready to rumble and is undercosted for the beef he brings to the table.

X Loxodon Smiter

 

CARL SZALICH’S BANT FLASH DECK

Creatures (19)

4 Voice of Resurgence

4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

It’s beautiful. A pile of the best creatures in standard just decided to have a party and invite everyone!

Snapper is busy chugging 40s and reminiscing the days of Vapor Snag.

Tusk and Voice are having a heated debate about politics over crumpets and tea.
Smiter and Angel are off breeding in a smoke filled back room.

… Reminds me of high school! :)

Spells (16)

3 Unsummon

3 Selesnya Charm
3 Azorious Charm
3 Sphinx’s Revelation
4 Advent of the Wurm

16 spells should give me enough to reliably have Snapcaster meat. I was initially debating trying to squeeze in a Runechanters Pike, up my spell count and run Thoughtscour but the reliability of other choices vs. the cute pike trick won out after testing. T3 pike with no spells in your bin and no bodies onboard is not as good as T3 Smiter with all the aGgro running around. The situational goodness of pike loses to the consistency of fat.

Lands (25)

1 Moorland Haunt

1 Gavony Township
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Breeding Pool
3 Hinterland Harbor
4 Temple Garden
4 Sunpetal Grove

These aren’t the lands you’re looking for. Move along.

Sideboard (15)

3 Rest in Peace (C)

4 Centaur Healer (A)
1 Sphinx’s Revelation (B)
3 Supreme Verdict (A)
2 Jace, Architect of Thought (B)
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter (B)

(A)   = Aggro Package

      (B)   = Control Package
      (C)   = Graveyard Hate

I’m still looking to write that article on how to design a sideboard, but until I do, it’s bush league, baby!

The (supreme) verdict is still out on whether to run Rest in Peace or Tormods Crypt. RiP hurts our deck as well because it blanks Snapcaster, but it’s a more permanent solution than Crypt that prevents them from rebuilding their graveyard.

Jace, Garruk, and the final Sphinx’s Revelation come in against control so that we can also experience the joys of card draw and recover after they wrath the board. Notably absent is counter magic… I don’t feel it’s needed as we’re normally better off playing a threat or just answering theirs with our lucky charms.

The aggro match is only OK, but substituting elephants for Centaur Healers really helps. The addition of 3x Supreme Verdict also lets us play more like a control deck and bumps our removal spells up to 12.

 

DID YOU MOVE TO WINSVILLE??

Nope! Instead I converted a cardboard box into a mobile home and decided to hang out under a bridge. :S

I got the chance to try this list last Friday to a disappointing result: 2-2. I don’t think it was so much the deck that failed me, but more the draws. Even with 25 lands main I mulliganed almost every game and STILL didn’t get up to 4 mana consistently.

When it was working, it still felt very underpowered. Sure sometimes you’d get the surprise Wurm blocker and others you’d get to flash it back with a Snapper, but when you weren’t doing that, well, you really weren’t doing much. Could be that I didn’t really make it to 5 mana often enough to experience the joy of dropping Tusks and playing more than one spell a turn.

Even sphinx’s revelation felt dead in my hands with or without the mana to cast it. It just feels too slow right now in such a fast meta. Against blitz decks your T5 sphinx for 2 isn’t very impressive, and midrange decks have their own CA in the form of Garruk and Prime Speaker Zegana. I almost feel that Garruk, Primal Hunter would be a better choice than sphinx because it still draws cards BUT can also generate blockers when you need them. Even Jace, Architect of thought seems better here. For 4cc you can hurt agro (-1 attack) OR draw cards like Sphinx. You don’t directly gain life with this plan, but in a way you do by reducing attackers power.

When I managed to hit the mythical 4 mana mark Advent of the Wurm performed just as I’d hoped, so at least I can’t blame him/her/it for my failure.

 

THAT’S JUST PILLOW TALK, BABY!

It is also unfortunate that I had to end the illicit love affair I’d been having with wurm. She was cute, sure, but kinda bitchy and snobbish. If it didn’t say “Prada”, she wouldn’t wear it. If it couldn’t somehow be related to celebrity gossip, she didn’t want to hear about it. It was always “her way or the highway”, so the highway I chose!

That’s right brothers! High five! :)

… Fine, I admit it! She broke up with me, OK?! There. Are you happy now? When I couldn’t even muster the 4 mana to cast her and placate her unquenchable lust for 4/4 she just up and left without a goodbye or a note.

Typical woman.

(Just don’t tell her I said that!)

 

Cheers,

Carl Szalich

@psilence6k on Twitter

STD DEKTEK – Naya Rade

MASTERING THE HUNT

2 weeks ago I played a Selesnya deck to a 4-0-1 victory.

Last week Huntsmaster of the Fells sat me down for a one-on-one.

“So… do we have a problem here, Carl?”

“Ummm what do you mean Mr. Huntsmaster, sir?”
“You haven’t summoned me in months. I’ve just been sitting here in your binder squashed between Prime Speaker Zegana and Auriela the Warleader. Do you know what it’s like having to listen to them debate between who’s cuter between Gatekeeper of Malakir and Master of the Pearl Trident?
“Doesn’t seem that bad. I mean, obviously it’s Gatekeeper since I’m not into seafood…”
*SIGH* “You’re missing the point. When you need life, who gets it for you?”
“… Thragtusk?”
“NO! ME YOU DUMMY! I get you life! And when you need to burn out an annoying Silverblade Paladin, who do you call?”
“… Mizzium Mortars?”
“My but you’re thick. ME! YOU CALL ME! I DO EVERYTHING!!”
“Everything except show up in my deck, that is?”
“… Sick burn, bro. You’re a stone cold basilisk.”

On that note (and to stop Huntsmasters constant nagging and whining. I mean damn, I’ve got a fiancée to blah blah blah  in my ear if that’s what I wanted!) it was time to 4-0-1 with a Naya deck again!

CARL SZALICH’S NAYA RADE DECK

Creatures (33)

4 Avacyn’s Pilgrim

3 Arbor Elf
3 Voice of Resurgence (only had 3)
3 Loxodon Smiter
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Restoration Angel
4 Huntsmaster of the Fells
2 Hellrider
4 Thragtusk
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Seems pretty self-explanatory. Mash all the best creatures together and call it a deck. No need to use any brain power or creativity. Just human centipede together a few Tusks, Huntsmasters, and Angels and tell them to feed!

I find that having 6-7 1-drop accelerators are pretty key for a deck like this one. You need to keep applying threats as quickly as possible to both combat faster aggro and try and do a little damage before control closes the doors on you. It also lets me run a low number of 2-drops because I can skip right to the 3-drops on T2.

The thing I really like about this deck is that it’s good against the field and doesn’t have many bad matchups. Against aggro you’ve got built in life gain all over the place (Thrag / Huntsmaster + Resto) and lots of “value blockers” (Smiter / Reckoner). Against control you’ve got a ton of “must answers” and hasty creatures that let you roll out one or two baddies that threaten to end the game on their own if not answered AND you’ve got main deck Voice. In all honesty, the only cards I DON’T want to see off the top are my mana dorks, as every other card is a bomb.

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Domri Rade

I finally got to try him out, and he wasn’t half as bad as I’d expected! Most of the time it was a T2 or T3 fatty followed by Domri -2 to fight. Elephants love the arena… but not as much as Minotaurs! That was a nice little combo I hadn’t even thought of until it happened.

When Domri wasn’t telling his peeps to brawl he was quietly gaining me card advantage or (more often than not) diddling himself in his uselessness. I’d like to say that with my > 50% worth of creatures that I was hitting a draw at least half the time, but alas, math isn’t concrete and the fates were cruel. Most of the time I just got to see the land I was going to be drawing next turn.

It’s all about the fight club for our friend Domri.

This build did cause me to think that I was trying to be too “cute”, and sacrificed some power just to try out Domri since I ran no spells. In the future I’d probably cut Domri so that I can play Advent of the Wurm and some main deck removal (probably Mizzium Mortars). Sorry Dom. :(

Lands (24)

1 Kessig Wolf Run

1 Gavony Township
4 Stomping Grounds
4 Rootbound Craig
4 Temple Garden
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Clifftop Retreat
 
These are lands, I tap them for mana.
Sometimes I don’t draw them, then I lose.
Sometimes I draw too many, then I lose.
 

HUNTSMASTER SAYS…

“Well there you go. Another victory. And you know who you’ve got to thank for it?”

“Domri Rade?!”
“Ummm you know I read the part about how you’d cut him for Advent of the Wurm, right?”
“Oh yea! I must have meant Aurelia, the Warleader!!”
*FACE PALM*

 

Cheers all,

Carl Szalich

@Psilence6K on Twitter

Dear UltraPro

Dear UltraPro,

I feel our little love affair has been on the rocks. I as always came to you first when I had the need to sleeve, but when I finished doing the dirty I looked upon the unholy thing I’d bedded and was disgusted.

What manner of abomination is this? The sleeves aren’t even close!
Huge difference in size, what happened?	Are these even the same brand?
Obvious when on top of each other.	And is this a magic deck or a piano?

And this wasn’t the first time; it’s just the first time I’m bringing it up. If we’re going to stay in this relationship, we need to be able to be honest with each other, hence this note.

I feel there’s been a slow but steady decline in your product, baby. I used to split a sleeve a month, but now it’s a couple a week. I don’t think I’m being too rough with you… I’m a lover not a fighter, you know that. But really, what is happing down in that quality control room of yours to even think I’d be ok with the size differences between every pack of 100? You know I’ll end up disqualified for having marked cards were I to play them that way? I mean damn baby, I know they’re big, but you barely cover them entirely anymore! I’ll bet little flakes of skin and table excrement are getting all up into my cards with their tops exposed like that!

Seriously though honey, something’s got to change or I don’t know if we’re going to make it.

First, you may want to talk with your boss and let him know that I’m not the only one who’s noticed you’ve lost that swagger in your step, that twinkle in your eye. Others are telling me that “Dragon Shields are more durable and stylish”. I think people who like Dragon Shields are all anarchists, hipsters, or Macintosh users so you can’t trust ‘em anyways.

Secondly, I’d appreciate the actual serviceable product that I’m used to receiving from you like when we first started dating. Remember back when you used to wear makeup and do your hair to impress me? You’re obviously the one I want to be with, but there’s no ring on my finger,  I’m still a free man to choose the sleeves I feel will fit best... but I hope that’s with you.

I think back to all the good times we’ve had, and I don’t want them to end…

* Navigating through mountains of Ultra Pro 9 Page Pocket Protectors!

* Protecting the endangered Warlord Saga of the Storms Decks!

* Sleeving decks so expensive you don't even want to play with them!

 

* And THE CUBE! Containing the full Power 9 + others of repute!

Requested: Black Deck Protector Sleeves in Standard Size OR something incredibly awesome a geek would like from the dark catacombs of your UltraPro Vaults. This would hopefully allow me enough card sleeves of the same size to re-sleeve my magic decks, as they’re the ones most impacted by the recent size inconsistencies. If I wanted to un-sleeve cards to shift them between decks, I wouldn’t have been buying all of the same color (black) and size (standard) for years.

We’ve built some great memories, let’s keep building more (and more decks!) together.

Please send any product to:

Carl Szalich

XXX

London, Ontario

XXX

Canada

cszalich at hotmail dot com

Tel: XXX

(PS: I took out the ingredients for meatloaf tonight and I’m hoping you could make it the way your mom does? It was really good last time we had it. I don’t know what spices she used but I’ve been thinking about it for weeks now…)

WMCQ (World Magic Cup Qualifier) Info!

Yea yea, we’ll get down to business and discuss the WMCQs (World Magic Cup Qualifiers) in a bit, but first you have to deal with some babbling!

************

As I write this I'm at home, sick, missing my second straight FNM in a row. I can't even remember the last time that's happened. I don’t play often throughout the week, so it's really the only chance I get to try out my new decks. Not that I’ve been brewing anything insanely innovative lately, but I definitely miss hanging with my homies and slingin’ some cardboard.

I’m on my third “Hot Toddy” of the day and think I may be becoming slightly inebriated, but they are the only things that seem to really help me fight the seemingly never-ending battle vs. this cold. If you’ve never tried the cure all remedy that is a “Hot Toddy”, you should brew one up the next time you’re feeling sick!


HOT TODDY RECIPE

Lemon Juice
Honey
Whiskey
Boiling Water

… That’s it! Even if you’re the worst cook in the world you can easily cast (for W, obv!) one of these healing potions on yourself. If you’re under-age, then just exclude the whiskey and it will still work just fine.


RUMOR MILL: YES, I’M ENGAGED!

(Warning: There is some profanity in this link!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsx2vdn7gpY

“Game over man, GAME OVER!!”

Well I finally asked my girlfriend of over 2 years, Amanda Provily, to marry me. I dressed in an awesome Green Lantern cosplay outfit and used lines like:

“You’re the Lois Lane to my Superman. The Mary-Jane Watson to my Spider-man.”

And this little golden nugget I’m especially proud of:

“Will you help me defend Space Sector 2814? Will you marry me?”

Despite the icing that was originally proposing with a Pink Lantern Ring… she said yes!!

BOOM!!! I got to propose the way every fanboy ever dreamed and instead of her slapping a tooth out of my face she said yes! I’m a lucky man… it remains to be seen if she’ll consider herself “lucky” with my strange tendencies and penchant for the dramatic in a few years :P.

Fine, I’ll post a pic of her REAL ring because I know you’re all dying to see what I had to pawn my future for. (#humblebrags)

… In related news I’ll be selling another chunk of my magic card collection to help pay this bad-boy down, so stay tuned for a list! Lol


FINALLY. LET’S DISCUSS WMCQs… DID I QUALIFY?

To be honest, I had no idea what they were before I found out I’d qualified. The name sounds so fancy that I just figured I didn’t. BUT those useless PlanesWalker Points finally had some relevance, and my sordid history of magic playing extravagance finally paid dividends!

Did you qualify? Maybe, like me, you did and had no idea! Here’s a link to WotCs qualification list: http://www.wizards.com/wpn/News/Article.aspx?x=2013_03_01_WMCQ

Basically, if you’re Canadian, you needed to accrue 500 PlanesWalker points this season to qualify. It may be easier to just punch in your DCI number here to see how many you’ve got because following those links literally leads to a huge wall of text and it hurt my fragile and delicate fingers to scroll down all the way: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/PlaneswalkerPoints.

I had 633 points and my buddy Paul Dobbs just squeeked in there with 501 points! That’s right… had he lost 1 more game instead of winning, he’d only have had 498 points! Just goes to show you that every tournament counts if you’re actually aiming to qualify for these things… so missing 2x in a row like I just did would be very bad if you had big dreams of crushing opponents on a world stage.


WHAT IS IT? WHAT ARE THESE FABLED WMCQs?

Here’s a nice little clip direct from the WotC website:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Events.aspx?x=mtg/event/worldmagiccup/qualifiers

“If you dream of playing in the international World Magic Cup, you'll want to start here. Each selected country will run three World Magic Cup Qualifiers, with the winner of each earning an invitation to the World Magic Cup.”

So there are three tournaments, and the winner of each moves on to represent their country at the “World Magic Cup”. These qualifiers are all “Standard Constructed Format” with a cut to top 8.


WHAT’S THE WHERE / WHEN?

Here’s a link to where all the WMCQs will be held:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Events.aspx?x=mtg/event/worldmagiccup/qualifierlist

For us Canadians, the relevant info is:

April 06, 2013
Magic Stronghold Games
5558 Lane St
Burnaby, BC
sales@magicstronghold.com

That’s tomorrow! I hope you BC peeps are ready!

April 20, 2013
Western Primrose Hotel
111 Carleton St.
Toronto, ON
401games@bellnet.ca

This is the one that I may be able to attend :).

June 01, 2013
Hotel Espresso
1005 Rue Guy
Montreal, QC
gamekeeperverdun@gmail.com

And the final date goes to Quebec.


LET’S SAY I GO… WHAT CAN I WIN?

And what do we have for them Vanna? A BRAND NEW CAR!!
… Kidding! But even if I wasn’t, you know you’d get stuck with a Prius :P

All participants get a pretty savage looking Foil Vengevine:

If you TOP 8 you get a placemat:

And if you win the whole thing you get (drumroll please):

An invitation and AIRFARE to compete on your national team at the 2013 World Cup!

There are also prizes determined by the organizer of each event. So you’ll probably also end up with a couple packs or booster boxes if you do well.

(Geez, it’s almost impossible to rephrase their wording off the website. Lucky my old geography teacher Mr. Roy isn’t going to fail me for plagiarism!)


GOOD LUCK – HIGH 5!

And that’s really all there is to it!

The key points being:

1)      Did I qualify?

2)      Where / when am I going to play?

And I guess we can’t forget #3

3)      … What deck will I bring?

Hopefully the results of this weekend’s set of tournaments and this blog will help you decide!


Cheers,

Carl Szalich
@psilence6k on Twitter