Grand Prix Hiroshima Evaluations

So GP Hiroshima has come and gone and our good buddy Wolf Run Green was nowhere to be seen in the T8! Looks like the meta is shifting to a more aggressive format in order to combat “Big Green” before they just take over the game.

Here are the Top 8 from GP Hiroshima:

1)     Township Tokens – Martin Juza

2)     U/W Aggro – Takahiro Shiaki

3)     Solar Flare – Akira Asahara

4)     U/W Aggro – Rin Satou

5)     Red Deck Wins – Kouichi Tashiro

6)     U/W Aggro – Hiroshi Onizuka

7)     Tempered Steel – Naoki Obayashi

8)     Bant Birthing Pod – Kouichi Tanaka

You can see the full lists here: http://mtgpulse.com/event/3702

Let’s see if there are any new cards that are starting to show up in these lists! It would be especially juicy if there was a brand NEW card in these lists somewhere for us to hunt!

I’m going to categorize these lists by “Archetype” so that we can see the main cards a little better and also avoid duplications. I’m also only going to be looking at the RARES / MYTHICS used in the deck as that’s where I find the REAL profits come from.

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TOWNSHIP TOKENS

Martin Juza

4 Birds of Paradise 2 Blade Splicer 2 Geist-Honored Monk 4 Hero of Bladehold 2 Mikaeus, the Lunarch 4 Mirran Crusader 4 Gavony Township 4 Razorverge Thicket 4 Sunpetal Grove 3 Elspeth Tiriel 3 Garruk Relentless

What a great list! There are a few cards here that hadn’t really received the recognition that they deserved and it’s great to see them finally getting a little bit of attention!

The cards in this list that I feel are undervalued right now and could potentially spike include:

Geist Honored Monk -> Only $1 right now. Lots of room to grow!

Birds of Paradise -> Reprinted heavily, but trades @ $4 and costs $2 in real cash.

Mikaeus, the Lunarch -> $5 Mythic that is seeing play.

Gavony Township -> At $2 this crosses not only competitive standard, but Commander as well.

Garruk Relentless -> Although already expensive, he’s now showing his true potential!

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U/W AGGRO

Takahiro Shiaki	Rin Satou	Hiroshi Onizuka
4 Champion of the Parish 3 Geist of St Traft 4 Grand Abolisher 4 Hero of Bladehold 4 Mirran Crusader 3 Angelic Destiny 4 Honor the Pure 4 Glacial Fortress 3 Moorland Haunt 4 Seachrome Coast	4 Champion of the Parish 4 Geist of St Traft 4 Grand Abolisher 4 Mirran Crusader 3 Sword of Feast and Famine 4 Angelic Destiny 4 Honor the Pure 4 Glacial Fortress 3 Moorland Haunt 4 Seachrome Coast	4 Champion of the Parish 4 Grand Abolisher 4 Mirran Crusader 2 Sword of Feast and Famine 2 Sword of War and Peace 4 Honor the Pure 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Moorland Haunt 4 Seachrome Coast

We can see right away that the communal choices of creatures this type of deck are:Champion of the Parish / Grand Abolisher / Mirran Crusader. They were the only creatures played as a 4x in all three of the decks, so they must have SOMETHING good going for them... make sure you have your playsets! Interesting to note that the 2 decks that played with swords didn’t place as well as the one that went without.

The cards in this list that I feel are undervalued right now and could potentially spike include:

Grand Abolisher -> Shuts down opponent on your turn. Playable outside of standard. $4 ATM.

Honor the Pure -> Pumps all your guys. Reprinted a lot, but for $0.50… do it do it!

Moorland Haunt -> Makes you tokens to re-equip swords / Destiny! Only $2-3…

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SOLAR FLARE

Akira Asahara

3 Consecrated Sphinx 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Sun Titan 3 Day of Judgement 4 Darkslick Shores 1 Drowned Catacombs 3 Glacial Fortress 4 Isolated Chapel 4 Seachrome Coast 2 Liliana of the Vess

Nothing too special about this build, seems like the standard Solar Flare list that’s been going around. None of the true “fatties” we’ve seen (ie: no Elesh-Norn and crew), but uses 3x Sphinx as its win condition. Snapcaster Mage makes his first showing and is truly disgusting in combination with 4x Mana Leak / 4x Dissapate and 3x Doomblade.

The cards in this list that I feel are undervalued right now and could potentially spike include:

Sun Titan -> It’s down to $5 somehow and is a staple in many builds.

Day of Judgment -> With all the creatures in the format, and it being $2, looks good!

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RED DECK WINS

Kouichi Tashiro

3 Chandra’s Phoenix 3 Grim Lavamancer 4 Stromkirk Noble 2 Koth of the Hammer

Well that’s it. Not many rares in this deck and it still performs well! When all you’re doing is trying to burn out the opposition, I guess Incinerate / Brimstone Volley will get there just as good as the best mythic, eh?

The cards in this list that I feel are undervalued right now and could potentially spike include:

Chandra’s Phoenix ->At $3 it has a unique ability and fits the curve. Not super cheap, but still good!

Koth of the Hammer -> Dipped from the $30’s to $15. Now may be the time of his comeback…

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TEMPERED STEEL

Naoki Obayashi

3 Spellskite 4 Mox Opal 4 Tempered Steel 3 Contested Warzone 4 Inkmoth Nexus

Another stock list that added Spellskite to great effect! I play against this deck a LOT because my buddy Eric has it put together and it is SOLID. I lost probably 30 games in a row with my G/U monstrosity to him. When they get “the draw” there is just no stopping them!

The cards in this list that I feel are undervalued right now and could potentially spike include:

Hmmm… I don’t really see any pickups here except for maybe Contested Warzone, as everything else is discovered or too much money already. Contested warzone is $1 and is a great utility land when you’ve got a hoard out, but IDK if I’d invest in it heavily…

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BANT BIRTHING POD

Kouichi Tanaka

1 Archon of Justice 3 Birds of Paradise 2 Blade Slicer 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Frost Titan 3 Phantasmal Image 1 Phyrexian Metamorph 1 Skaab Ruinator 2 Solemn Simulacrum 2 Sun Titan 1 Wurmcoil Engine 4 Birthing Pod 2 Mimic Vat 4 Hinterland Harbor 4 Razorverge Thicket 3 Seachrome Coast 2 Sunpetal Grove

I really like this list as well! The “combo” of Blade Splicer making a 3/3, then Poding out the Blade Splicer for a Wing Splicer and swinging for 3 in the air is nice! Phantasmal Image is still MVP along with the classic Acidic Slime. Frost Titan shows up in this list (probably to fight Wolf Run Green by taping down their P-Titan) and Sun Titan starts everything over again. Mimic vat lets you vat out a creature, sac it to pod and profit... sweet!

The cards in this list that I feel are undervalued right now and could potentially spike include:

Frost Titan -> $3 right now and we KNOW how the titan cycle fluctuates based on popularity…

Skaab Ruinator -> Down to $4 from his high of $20+. Next set could break him!

Mimic Vat -> $1 right now and is a great utility card that could get REALLY good with Morbid.

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So these are my evaluations after GP Hiroshima. Some will be hits, and some misses. It’s very interesting to me to see how the format seems to have shifted to be much more aggressive, with midrange / control almost bumped out of the T8 entirely! We can predict to see a lot more Day of Judgement at the next tournament in the main I’d expect in order to combat these fast creature decks that are emerging. Now when you build your next deck, bear in mind what you’re most likely to FACE when you play. That’s the beauty of the Metagame!

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CONTEST UPDATE!!

Don’t forget that today is the last day to enter the contest and win a Maelstrom Pulse! All you need to do is either sign up to follow this blog, get someone ELSE to sign up, or simply leave a comment! I’ll be doing the draw today from Imperial Hobbies at FNM!

Cheers!

Carl Szalich

Cagebreakers.dec… Could It Be Real?

I was FINALLY allowed to go out to a few magic tournaments last week to test “the deck”. It actually performed pretty well, which was surprising!

Here is the current list:

4x Mindshrieker

4x Mayor of Avabruck

4x Skinshifter
4x Boneyard Wurm
4x Splinterfright
4x Kessig Cagebreakers
= 24 Creatures

4x Dream Twist
3x Think Twice
3x Forbidden Alchemy
2x Bonehoard
= 12 Spells

2x Inkmoth Nexus

22x Other Lands

= 24 Lands

So in this list we can see that all of the cute little tricks have been replaced with creatures. Now when I Dream Twist, I actually GET creatures in the graveyard, which is a BIG change from its previous alliteration. It’s also a lot faster, almost always playing out a T2 creature. Kessig Cagebreaker is AMAZING and whenever I got to swing with him, I won (once I even swung and made 22x 2/2 wolves!). Splinterfright is also ridiculous since he tramples over any little blockers and gets into the 40/40’s pretty easy when he’s wielding a Bonehoard.

The deck is REALLY missing removal. I’m thinking of just adding it to the board where it can come in against creature based decks, but still feel like having SOMETHING main would be beneficial. Silent Departure seems like it would fit the bill, as it’s removal even when I mill it!

I’m putting a pick-up call out on the following cards which are part of this deck, as with the right spells coming out in the next 2 sets it could be REALLY good!

·         Splinterfright

·         Kessig Cagebreakers

I like some of the other cards (Mindshrieker / Mayor) but don’t see them as critical to the deck like those above. A little more graveyard manipulation and we’ve hit the bigtime!

Here are the decks I played against:

1)     Mirror Match: Win 2-0

2)     B/U Control: Lose 0-2

3)     W/U Control: Win 2-1

4)     Tokens: Win 2-1

5)     Wolf Run Green: Lose 0-2

6)     Mono Red Aggro: Win 2-1

These are fairly promising results! A lot of decks that don’t play a ton of removal just can’t deal with a 10/10 Wurm. The U/B control match is almost impossible since after they board ½ their deck is removal. Wolf Run Green just gets out big guys faster and more reliably right now, and can win with pumped Inkmoth Nexus which I really don’t have an answer for right now (Ghost Quarter?). Red decks literally have no way to deal with the fatties either. Slagstorm is fairly ineffective against creatures > 10/10, and every time they burn out one of our guys they just make the rest of them bigger.

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Other exciting news! Looks like a website called: www.quietspeculation.com has taken notice of this humble blog and has asked if I’d like to write for them! Obviously I can’t say no to that, as it would be a REAL writing gig! Awesome!

What does this mean for Don’t Train My Orgg? Probably nothing except for a few less updates than regular. The really hard-core financial articles will be shipped to them but the fun-loving local stuff will stay here. I’ll try and link to any of the Quiet Speculation articles I write if I’m able to! On a side note Quiet Speculation is a great site filled with a LOT of financial / trade data. Since that’s what I specialize in, it’s a perfect fit for me J.

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How about that contest? Not many entries this time so if you DO post something, the odds are high that you may come out a winner! I’m going to do the draw from Imperial Hobbies this Friday to mix it up a little. Since I’m more of a trader than a player I think I really should try and go to multiple different locations to “do my thing”. Do YOU do this, or are you loyal to one store, and one store alone?

You can refresh yourself as to how to enter the contest HERE: Another Contest & The Worst Deck Ever!

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Tomorrow I hope that we can take a look at some of the newer decklists and see how the meta is evolving and if there are any new cards we should be looking to pick up. It appears as though Wolf Run Green has been dying down as of late, so who’s the new front runner?

Find out tomorrow on: Don’t Train My Orgg!

Cheers,

Carl Szalich

Another Contest & The Worst Deck Ever!

“If you build it, they will come.”
… Sorry Kevin Costner, this last build was no “deck of dreams”.

My deck is worse than this card!

Sometimes you have to run with an idea to see if it’s truly as bad as you’d imagined it capable of being. For the past few weeks I’d been putting off building a standard deck. Not because I had no cards or ideas, but more so because the idea I had was terrible. Yet I lay awake, restless and hoping that I could get it to work.

Despite there not being ANY deck placing in the top 1000 that is using the ideas I had.
Despite the fact that I had to trade away Legacy staples for bad 5cc Jace.
Despite Dobbs laughter and head shaking whenever I told him about my “Awesome new Deck”.

I built it, and the only thing that came were taunts and humiliation :S.

Here it is. The first build of a self-mill / giant fatties deck. Please someone tell me it still has potential because I want to cling onto the hope that it will be great!! Lol

NOTE: This first build was NOT optimal. I was trying out different card combinations just to see if they were any good for testing purposes. I learned a lot about the deck in these first 50 games or so and will present an updated list after.

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4x Mindshrieker
4x Boneyard Wurm
4x Splinterfright
3x Laboratory Maniac
1x Moltentail Masticore
2x Mirror-Mad Phantasm
2x Kessig Cagebreakers
= 20 Creatures

4x Dream Twist
4x Think Twice
4x Forbidden Alchemy
2x Bonehoard
2x Jace, Memory Adept
= 16 Spells

+ 24 Land

Hold back the bile! I know this looks really, really bad… and it is.

The first thing that you may notice is the inclusion of Boneyard Wurm and Splinterfright. Theoretically, in a self mill type of deck, they should be great fits, becoming huge on T3 and beyond. Too bad there were only 20 creatures in the deck, eh? I would dream twist and mill only 1 creature or something equally improbable, or if I was lucky, hit 2 of them with the flashback. With only 1/3 of the deck being creatures, I guess it makes sense. Bad deckbuilding = bad results.

The flashback cards were all pretty good! I was never unhappy milling them away, and had plenty of opportunity to use them from the graveyard. The only thing was that they would stifle my board development. I would have to choose between dropping a Splinterfright or flashbacking a Think Twice. Since most of the time I didn’t even have a creature in my grave I would end up flashbacking the Think Twice and end up really far behind on threats.

So what worked out in the deck?

·         When the deck worked, it worked. A T1 Dream Twist dropping a creature or 2 into the grave followed by a T2 Boneyard Wurm into T3 flashback of Twist was nice.

·         The flashback cards were almost always available to be used.

·         Mindshrieker was consistent and did a LOT of damage on its own! It was also one of the only ways I had to get more creatures into the graveyard.

·         Kessig Cagebreakers were always GG when they weren’t answered.

·         Laboratory Maniac is a valid alternate win condition!

What didn’t work out in the deck?

·         Not enough creatures. The “get creatures into the GY” plan was a failure.

·         Mirror-Mad Phantasm was awful. When I had 7 mana up I’d rather be flashing back a Forbidden Alchemy or something. The toughness of “1” is what really killed it for me… MMP was never good, not even when he did what he was supposed to and milled a ton of cards into my GY.

·         The Moltentail Masticore was a nice “nonbo” and should be removed.

·         24 lands is waaayyyy too many, as they are about all that I milled and got stuck with. If I can reduce the CC significantly, I should be able to go w / 22-23.

·         The Bonehoard were cute little additions to go along with Inkmoth nexus but I never pulled off the “combo”, and the Bonehoard would have been better if they were creatures when they went into my grave.

So what should I change?

·         -2 Mirror-Mad Phantasm

·         -1 Moltentail Masticore

·         -1 Land

·         -2 Bonehoard

·         -1 Think Twice

·         -1 Forbidden Alchemy

·         +2 Kessig Cagebreakers

·         +1 Laboratory Maniac

·         +4 Skinshifter

·         +1 Jace, Memory Adept

These modifications would solve a lot of my problems.

It would give me more creatures that can both come out early, as well as fill my graveyard. I added the last Maniac and the other 2x Cagebreakers. The Cagebreakers will probably now serve as my #1 finisher in the deck. Jace was always fantastic, but I’m hesitant to add that 7^th 5cc spell to the mix since I’m taking away a land.

I guess this time when I test, I’ll even use sleeves! :O

What do you think? Does it at least have a chance?? Haha

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And now, a CONTEST!

Wow guys! 1000 hits! Thank you so much for visiting my blog!!

What better a time than now to start a new contest and give out a prize to all of my loyal readers!!

This contest will involve participation just as the last one did. Every reply that you post will earn you a ballot, and if you sign up to follow this blog, you'll earn another. Here is the twist: For every other person YOU get to follow this blog YOU will earn 3 ballots, and they will get the ballot for joining the site! You will also automatically get a ballot for being a “member”, regardless of your posts as a “thank you” for following ;).

So again, please try and keep your comments relevant to the post, but feel free to offer your input involving anything from site layout, to potential topics, to just your opinions on the article! Anything goes, really!

Last time I gave out Hero of Bladehold (which I told you all would be going up in price) which is now a $15 card. This time I’ll give out something with a little MODERN potential that hasn’t yet hit the big time… a Maelstrom Pulse! We’ve seen these get up to $15 before, and if there is a deck that uses it in Modern it will certainly go back up to or near its old value. It’s also AMAZING in EDH / Commander, so no matter the format, it’s a winner!

We’ll start the contest today (Oct 25 / 2011) and it will end on November 04 / 2011… just in time for the first FNM of the month!


Cheers and looking forward to your comments / suggestions!

Carl Szalich

69 Player Innistrad Pre-Release!

What an incredible Magic weekend!

I hope you all enjoyed your FNM & Innistrad Pre-Releases this past week. I can’t remember another time when I have seen so many Magic players at a “casual” event. I know that L.A. Mood broke their attendance record with 69 participants. Worlds Away had a crazy 20 person midnight draft and 50 more players at their pre-release. I think we gave out more new DCI #’s this weekend than in all of history combined!

Check out this full house @ L.A. Mood on Sunday!



Eugh... Humans!



And they were upstairs as well! There was no escaping us magic geeks!

Claustrophobia City!

Great time guys! :)

I know, I know. You all want a story about your hero (me!?) and how I rolled my opposition like a fat man down a steep hill. How I dream crushed them so badly, that they are ashamed to show up again to do battle with their fellow Planeswalkers next FNM. How my Iron Fist of DOOM choked the life right out of them along with their dignity!

How about a different story?

A story about me going 2-4 drop and crying myself to sleep? Lol.

I can’t remember the last time I did so poorly, but such is life! That’s the beauty of sealed… anything can happen! Lucky those losses won’t affect my DCI rating. Planeswalker Points ARE good for something after all… preventing me from going on tilt, that is! It’s funny because I won my first 2 rounds, only to lose my next 4 in a row and drop before round 7. Humiliating! Haha

Not much really to say except that I stank up the joint REAL bad. My deck was a steaming pile of excrement, and I was not playing my best. My curve started at 4cc because it was all I had to work with, so I was normally half dead before my first monster came out.

In an ironic twist of fate, Paul Dobbs was dong AMAZING and was 3-0-1 after round 4. Unfortunately, he had to leave for his Granny’s bday so dropped! All my hopes and dreams were on him to win a few packs for us to minimaster, and he let us down… DAMN YOU DOBBS!! :P

Hopefully we’ll have this kind of consistent turnout from here on out! It’s pretty hurtin’ for us older guys though (aka: Me) when we have to do 7 rounds… I’d better be sure to drink my boost, take my calcium pills and bring a fresh pair of depends to the next one! Lol

Cheers,

Carl

NOTE:

CHRISTINA MARCHIONI & CTRLMJOLLNIR!!

Could you please send me an email to: cszalich@hotmail.com?

I’d like to get you your prizes but your Google profiles have no info ;).

Thanks!

Contest Winners Announced!! :)

Congratulations to:

CHRISTINA MARCHIONI the winner of the Foil Promo Hero of Bladeholme!

&

CTRLMJOLLNIR the winner of a trusty Birds of Paradise!

I'll be in contact with the two of you shortly! :)


Thank you to everyone who joined in and I hope to have more contests like this one for you in the future!

(I'm ALSO in shock that PrestoPopUp didn't win anything with 11/24 entries! lol)


Good luck at your pre-releases!

Carl

It’s CONTEST TIME!

G’day to yee gentle folks and violent brutes, welcome to the first official contest for DON’T TRAIN MY ORGG!

I’m hoping to have some kind of contest monthly, and this one is to get more people involved and participating on the blog since it’s still so new.

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Feedback and your opinions are important, and I want some!

From today until next Friday (Sept 16-23) I’m going to keep track of who left comments and is following my blog.

• For every comment that you leave (max 1 per article) you will get a ballot with your name on it. The comment must actually be about SOMETHING pertaining to the article or the site itself. Just posting “First!” will not count.
• When / if you decide to follow this blog, you will receive 2 EXTRA ballots since you can only do this once.
• Those people who have already made a comment / followed the blog will automatically receive ballots for having participated. It’s the first contest, and I don’t want to “punish” anyone for their feedback before this started.

At the end of the contest period I will draw a name and that lucky winner will receive a free FOIL PROMO HERO OF BLADEHOLM. This little guy is my pick as one of the top cards when Zendikar rotates, so I hope you’ve all been stocking up on them ;). I’m also going to draw a second name to receive a free BIRDS OF PARADISE, so you’ve got another chance to get something as a consolation prize.

Hot in Value AND looks!

No worries if you don’t live in London, I’ll even MAIL it to you if you win! Don’t let your geographic location dissuade you from participating!

Some of the things I’m really looking for include:

• Article Feedback
• Suggestions for future articles
• Constructive Criticism
• Likes / Dislikes & Props / Slops
• Formatting Suggestions
• General commentary / Opinions
• YOUR secret Deck Tech
• YOUR opinions on hot cards to pick up
• Answers to questions that I may ask
• Any comments that add value to the community
• Basically, ANYTHING that you might have to say! :)

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To make this blogs content as valid as possible, and keep it running with current information that YOU want to read about, I’d love to hear from you! So sign up, and let me know what YOU want to know more about!

Cheers, and hope to see you all at FNM tonight!

Carl Szalich

@Psilence6K on Twitter

*On another note: Good luck to everyone heading to GP Montreal this weekend! Wish I could be there with you guys, but other priorities call...*