The Magic Show with Evan Erwin

And here's your weekly taste of the old school Magic Show

Playing Out Of Your Mind

Soccer is a game that I’ve been playing since I was 5 years old. I became a competitive player for a traveling club in 6th grade, and played up through my first year of college. In that time, I learned a lot about controlling my body, my mind, and the ball both on and off the pitch. Pre-game warm-ups, quarter and semi-final games, and penalty kicks were easily managed by the beginning of high school as I’d spent a lot of time practicing and preparing for these difficult situations. I played “out of my mind” because I as able to take my doubts and fears and remove them from the way I play.

In all honesty, Magic is not something that I should get worked up about. It’s printed cardboard cards with pretty pictures used in imaginary duels with other players with delusions of grandeur. For some reason though, when I play against someone I know to be good or is running a deck I’m ill suited to be playing against (normally control), my hands shake and I become flushed. I make bad plays, I don’t see the damage on the board as well as I should, and I lose to players that I should easily beat.

My challenge has become, “How do I play Magic like I played soccer? How do I get out of my own head?”

Settling into a rhythm is something that I think a lot of players in Magic are unable to do well. This includes getting into a rhythm of play with your deck and your play over all. I frequently am building and dismantling decks to try and find something new and exciting. This prevents me from getting to know the decks I play and have a hard time getting into a rhythm of play.

The easy answer to this problem is to play more Magic. The more I play, the better I become at playing different strategies of the game. When I started, playing Control was never an option for me. I didn’t want to play the game like that. So, until recently, I’ve shut myself off from playing Control type decks, favoring Aggro or Combo. As I learn to play new ways, more cards are open to me and my familiarity with the game increases.

This summer, with my job scheduling me the hours that they have, I often times must race over from work to try and make the first round so that I don’t start the first round with a game loss. This puts me out of my element and I don’t really stabilize mentally until the 3rd or 4th round, and by then I’m out of contention for the Top 8.

What this means for me is that I have to find new ways to make the routine I have of getting focused a much shorter process on days where I can’t take my time to be sufficiently prepared. If you find yourself rushing over to your local game shop on Friday nights, here are a few tips to making sure that you aren’t rushed anymore than you have to:

• Get your deck up to FNM quality on Tuesday night

  This may feel like over preparation, but believe me: the nights where I go in with a deck I’ve prepared a few days in advance almost always does better than the deck I slap together the night before. Locking in your 75 cards early in the week allows you clear your mind and not have it overwhelmed with questions about your deck at the last minute.

• Play test your weak matchups and your strong matches equally.

  When you play decks you know you aren’t well suited for, it can be hard coming from a disadvantaged position. By playing the decks you are going to have trouble with, you learn the tricks and strategies that your opponents using that deck or deck type will be using against you. No longer will you be surprised by cards your opponents play because you will have seen the play multiple times before. Learning to play around the pit falls will carry you a win against decks you are expected to lose.

  Nothing gives you the confidence you need like beating decks like you know should. Testing against your best matchups is a good way to boost your confidence in-between or after testing against your weaknesses. Losing is never fun, so mix up your “shouldn’t win’s” with “gimmie games” to keep a level head.

My last suggestion is that you try and roll yourself into play gradually. When I arrive at my local game shop, there’s nothing I want to do more than to shuffle up and play some Magic as quickly as possible. Spend sometime away from other players if you can and get yourself there gradually. My Tuesday night schedule goes something like this:

1. Show up 40-45 minutes early

   Few players are there so early and this will give you plenty of time to get comfortable with your surroundings and prepare for the games you will be playing.

2. Once players arrive, play casual games with non-tournament decks

   You might be there for some solid Type 2 Magic competition, but playing outside the format or with something that is for fun only helps to put you in the mood for Magic. Try to play something different than what you are playing that evening. My favorite is to play EDH. It is immensely fun to play in single and multiplayer and it allows you to play in a completely for-fun environment.

3. Pre-game your deck

   3. This means that you shuffle, sleeve, double check the sideboard, and make any simple tweeks to the deck that you need to. This is not for major changes. If a couple people show up and are talking about their great new mill decks they are running that night, you are more than welcome to adjust the sideboard to meet the change in your meta-game. However, changing your main deck cards or the deck you are running will throw off your game plan and put you at a disadvantage over players with stable deck strategies.

Above all, remember that you should be playing Magic for the love of the game. When the game feels more like a job than something you do for fun, you might need to take a break from the game. Soccer became a job to me, so I quit playing competitively. On occasions when I lace up my boots to play again, I have so much fun at getting to play once more. No matter what the activity, sometimes you just have to know when to take a break.

Deck Tech: M10 Shenanigans

Hello everyone. Sorry for the lack of post in recent days, but work and a need for studying my German was needed.

Today, we take a look at a creatureless monoblack deck. From what I can tell this deck can cause some serious pain. This deck utilizes cards from the newly released M10, and WOW. Minor testing of the deck showed that it can rip your opponent a new one before they even feel it. Let's take a look.

Deck Tech: The Ripper

Lands

• 24x Swamp

Instants

• 4x Doomblade
• 4x Unmake

Sorcery

• 4x Sign in Blood
• 4x Infest
• 4x Tendrils of Corruption
• 4x Corrupt
• 2x Consume Spirit
• 2x Profane Command
• 2x Mind Shatter
• 2x Incremental Blight

Enchantments

• 4x Sanguine Bond

Sideboard

• 4x Duress
• 2x Incremental Blight
• 1x Mind Shatter
• 3x Haunting Echos
• 3x Deathmark
• 2x Trip Noose

I have not Personally taken this deck on a spin around the FNM, but a few others have. Lets look at a round by round summary of this deck's time at FNM.

FNM - Round 1

Matchup: Honor of the Pure Kithkin

Not a whole lot to say about this one, honestly. Duress into Sign In blood into Infest pretty much sealed the deal. A few spot removal spells, Sanguine Bond and a Corrupt later it was lights out, and the next game proceeded to play out exactly the same way.

FNM - Round 2

Matchup: RDW (Red Deck Wins)

Cakes and pies. Tendrils of Corruption is definately MVP in this match. Use spot removal on Ball Lightning and Tendrils of Corruption a couple of things and you're golden. Wish I could say a bit more about this matchup but that pretty much sums it up.

FNM - Round 3

Matchup: Honor of the Pure Kithkin

Game one he got an insanely agressive start with two Goldmeadow Stalwarts and Burrenton Forge-Tenders. Its just too bad that they die to infest, and over comitting is bad. After wiping his board, I Mind Shattered away what remained of his hand. It was good game after a couple of Sanguine Bond powered Corrupts.

Game two was horrible for me. White Knight came in from the sideboard and he saw two of them, which promptly started caving my head in. Finally, after him not drawing an Honor of the Pure and me Sign in Blooding myself nearly to death I managed to infest away his team and stabilise at 4 life. Lucky, indeed.

FNM - Round 4

Matchup: Five Color Bloodbraid

I wish this match were as easy as kithkin. It isn't. Far from it, in fact.

Game One: Stalled on two lands until my fifth turn. Scooped 'em up.

Game Two: A long and drawn out game which would see me Duress him three times and Mind Shatter him twice, yet he still bounced back with only 8 cards left in his library. I think Haunting Echoes would make this matchup a lot more winnable. Don't know what I was thinking not running it in the board, to be honest.

Notably the decklist was slightly different from what is currently posted. The changes feel like the deck should perform better and curve out much nicer. I recommend that you give this deck a test drive. I certainly feel like this deck is work its time.

Until next time, this is Deppe passing the turn

When Giving A Nate Jordan Lemons...

Author - Nathan Jordan

When the good Lord gives you lemons, you make lemonade. And when you open your 3rd pack of M10 and get two Goblin Chieftains in the same one, you start thinking about playing some Goblins. After scrounging around in the Black and Red cards I had, this is what I came up with to take to my local FNM.

Deck Tech: Goblin Renegade

Creatures
2x Wort, Boggart Auntie
3x Siege-Gang Commander
4x Boggart Ram-Gang
4x Goblin Chieftain
4x Mad Auntie
4x Murderous Redcap

Instants
2x Tarfire
2x Magma Spray
4x Flame Javelin
4x Lightning Bolt

Sorceries
1x Banefire
4x Dragon Fodder

Land
1x Auntie's Hovel
1x Dragonskill Summit
3x Veinfire Borderpost
4x Graven Cairns
14x Mountain

Sideboard
1x Magma Spary
2x Goblin Assault
4x Deathmark
4x Doom Blade
4x Goblin Outlander

*Idealy, I want Dragonskull Summit instead of Veinfire Borderpost but the shop I play at was out and I only had the 1 I opened from my box. Also, because of my work schedule, I had no time to run home, which means my sideboard has two Goblin Assaults that I never intended on playing.*

Tonight was a good night for my Goblins. I was 3-1 in Swiss and had a close match in the 1 Top 8 round I played. Here's the quick and dirty of it:

Round 1 - Loss to my job who requires that I work until 7 and the tourney starts @6:30.

Round 2 - Win against RDW.

First game was close. Flame Javelin carried me and the extra draw per turn from Spiteful Visions allowed me to drop more mana and empty my hand to burn him out.

Round 3 - Win against G/W Overrun.

This is when I realized I needed Volcanic Fallout, and bad. Spot removal for Spectral Procession tokens? Lame. I won game 1 narrowly, but sided in Deathmark, Doom Blade, and Goblin Outlanderto lock up game 2.

Round 4 - Win against Boat Brew.

This game was over pretty quick. Killing the mana ramp meant that it took too long for him to get his bigger creatures out and by then there were too many Goblins on the field to deal with. Deathmark and Doomblade to deal with the incoming Burrenton Forge-Tender made this an easy wrap.

Top 8: Round 1

Game 1 - Loss to Honor of the Pure. I ran out of steam in Game 1 and lost to this spirit tokens. This deck was hot and I had a hard time dealing with it. Reinforced Knight of Meadowgrain eats up my Goblins pretty quick.

Game 2 - I came in with the majority of my sideboard again and lulled him into swinging with everything and putting me at two. He made some spirits and passed back. I put down the Outlander, made two Goblins, and doom bladed a spirit and swung in with lots of hasty Goblins for over 20 damage.

Game 3 - I saw my worst enemy, Spectral Procession two times. He swung with one set of 3, tapped two of his Windbrisk Heights to produce another 3 tokens and an Honor of the Pure. Two turns of that kind of abuse and I scooped.

I am relatively happy with my performance but there are some (now) obvious deck tweaks that need to be made:

-3 Veinfire Borderposts
-2 Tarfire
-2 Wort, Boggart Auntie
-2 Mountain

+3 Dragonskull Summit
+2 Magma Spray
+2 Voracious Dragon
+2 Swamp

Lands that come into play tapped are ok for some decks, but with agro like this, a turn without one mana ready for use means you are done for. I found myself wishing I could cast just one more spell but was limited by a borderpost.

Tarfire was meant to be recurring with the help of Wort, Boggart Aunite. This was a good plan, until I realized that I didn’t play her the entire night. Not even once. Not even on my last turn with the game on the board. The reason is that there are too many more relevant things in my hand to play instead. Flame Javelin, Ram-Gang, and Siege-Gang Commander are all more valuable than a 3/3 Fear for 4. Most of what ended up in my graveyard was tokens that got blocked. Mad Auntie does pretty close to the same thing by regenerating the Goblin instead. This allowed me to attack with tokens and regenerate at least one for more mischief next turn. The point is, if I was alive long enough to need to bring things back with Wort, then I was probably already dead.

With a creature slot open, it makes it a no brainer to add in Voracious Dragon. Say I have a Goblin Commander, Mad Auntie, Siege-Gang Commander, and 5 Goblin tokens in play (this is a pretty regular look for my board). When Voracious gobbles them all up with Devour, your opponent takes 16 damage! If you haven’t dealt at least 4 damage, or if they have been gaining enough life to stay alive, a 12/12 Flying Dragon should do the trick.

Such a low number of Swamps in for Mountains seems trivial, until I ended up with no way to make the black mana that I desperately needed. 2 Swamps ensures that you will still be able to cast red heavy spells like Flame Javelin and Goblin Commander turn 3 while still allowing you to go and find Swamps off of a Path to Exile.

The change to the sideboard is:
-2 Goblin Assault
-1 Magma Spray to the Main Deck
+3 Volcanic Fallout

An extra Goblin every turn that has haste is great, but not so much if they cause all your other creatures to run into a superior enemy. Fallout will only wipe your board if you don’t have some sort of lord support. I would recommend only using it when absolutely necessary because the consequences of clearing your own board are just as bad as if you had devoured them all with Voracious Dragon.

M10 gave us some quality Goblins to work with, and I’m putting them to good use. I’ll have another match report for you next week where B/R Goblins 2.0 will face my local meta-game once again.

Until next time Magic players, this is Nate signing off.

Wow, What's Going On?

Hello again, its been quite a while since I last posted and a lot of new things have happened. The school year has ended and the summer months are here.

Playing casual magic has stopped for the most part. Getting to FNM is a bit harder these days because I don't have friends around that play magic that can give me rides.

Since I have been home I have gotten to 2 of 5 FNM's. Each time My record for the night was 3-1-0. So what have I been playing? I have been playing a dual color deck that for the most part is Alara Block Constructed. The deck right now is called Green/White Exalted until I find a better name for it.

Deck Tech: G/W Exalted

Lands
9 [10E] Plains
10 [10E] Forest
4 [ALA] Seaside Citadel

Creatures
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
2 [ARB] Knotvine Paladin
2 [ALA] Rafiq of the Many
4 [ARB] Dauntless Escort
4 [CFX] Valeron Outlander
4 [SHM] Kitchen Finks

Spells
4 [CFX] Path to Exile
2 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
3 [10E] Wrath of God
2 [10E] Story Circle

Sideboard
2 [ARB] Mycoid Shepherd
3 [CFX] Celestial Purge
4 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
2 [10E] Story Circle
4 [LRW] Burrenton Forge-Tender

The deck has been tweaked a bit since I last used it at FNM. I switched the two main board Mycoid Shepherds to main board two Story Circles. I kept finding that I would side in my story circles. I don't see to many people playing this awesome card. Why would you side in a card that is only really effective against mono and maybe dual color decks? Well, for a few different reasons. With Shards of Alara block, came a giant group of tri-color and dual color cards. With these being the highly played cards, you have a high chance of shutting down plenty of your opponents cards with a single Story Circle.

On June 27th, when I went to FNM, I played against a Jund Aggro deck. Game one was close, but I was able to pull out a win. Game two, I sided in the Tenders and Story Circles. I didn't see any Tenders that game but I was able to slam down a turn 2 Story Circle naming red. That there effectively shut down half of his cards. On turn 5, I threw down my second circle and named black. From there, I just had to keep enough mana open to deny my opponent access until I could throw down a Wrath.

Second round that night was against Boat Brew. Brutal is all I have to say. He wiped me out twice. I learned an important thing that round. And that was that I have no answer to numerous flying creatures. Considered putting firespout in the sideboard so that I can have a one sided wrath against flyers.

Third round was against a Naya deck. This was about the same as my first round, but Captured Sunlight can be annoying. Though I was able to pull a 2-0 win.

Round 4 was a waste of time though a learning experience for my opponent. My opponent started playing two weeks prior to the tournement. I had built a mono white Kithkin deck. Very fast and pretty powerful, but was nothing when I casted Story Circle. That game, he learned the importance of having a sideboard. Second game, after I played my Story Circle, my oppoent just stopped attacking because he saw no reason to anymore. He has no enchantment destruction in his deck at all, making it hard for him to continue on. He had high spirits though, he was hoping to overrun me with more creatures than I had white mana. That strategy would have worked, but a Wrath of God quickly shut down that option foloowed by an Elspeth. From there on it was 4/4 flyers coming his way. After this round I sat down with this player and discussed what he should put in his sideboard for the following week.

Well, that's all I have time for this post. Until next time, this is Deppe passing the turn.

Red Deck Wins

Red Deck Wins. You have all heard it. Figure on turn one, Hellspark on turn two, and Ram-Gang on turn three. Fast and deadly is what flashes to mind. And that there is the appeal of the deck on others. This deck type is truly powerful, but are all RDW's the same? Is there only one real build for this deck? No there isn't RDW gives you many options when you build. Some choose more burn over creatures, while others prefer the hordes of creatures.

Deck Tech: Red Deck Wins

Lands
17x Mountain
4x Firelit Thicket
1x Karplusan Forest

Creatures
4x Figures of Destiny
2x Mogg Fanatic
4x Hellspark Elemental
2x Stigma Lasher
4x Boggart Ram-Gang
4x Hell's Thunder
3x Balefire Liege

Instants
4x Lash Out
4x Incinerate
4x Flame Javelin

Sorcery
3x Firespout

Sideboard
3x Volcanic Fallout
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Stigma Lasher
4x Magma Spray
3x Naturalize

These decks have a generic build. Many that I have seen run Ashenmoor Gouger. The Gouger's 4 toughness use to be nice because the threat of Firespout. But in today's games, Firespout is no longer a big danger. Since the release of Conflux, many players have switched over to playing volcanic fallout over the Firespout. Why you ask? Simply put because it is instant speed. Oh yeah, and its uncounterable. So, why am I still playing Firespout then? I have been asked that many times. I feel that since the rotation to using Volcanic Fallout, people have started using more 3 thoughness creatures again thinking "they won't die anymore". So, I am taking advantage of this thinking. And thus far it has worked.

One of the key features in this deck is Balefire Liege. Do you see why? Not only does it pump me creatures, they also allow me to Lightning Bolt my opponent in the face for every spell I play!! Now this is something that I can be happy about.

Wait a minute! Your not running Guttural Responce in the sideboard, why? As far as I'm concerned Faeries is now a dead deck type. Volcanic Fallout hits them hard and they don't get back up.

Why not Spark Elemental? Spark Elemental is good, but why only get one use out of it. I don't mind paying the additional mana to play the Hellspark and have the ability to play him again later. The Hellspark kind of acts like two creatures in a sense.

Until next time Planeswalkers, this is Deppe, passing the turn.

FNM

It is Friday once again and that means its time for FNM (Friday Night Magic).

For the past few weeks, I have been playing the "Walking the Planes" deck. This deck demonstrated that it could control about any match. "Any" match which is about everything but RDW (Red Deck Wins). RDW showed me that even though I can control their creature based, I am still very weak again Flame Javelin and the other instant speed burn. I learned that I need more counter in my sideboard to deal with these threats. Since I have made the changes to the sideboard, I have not played against RDW. Great way to test these changes out right?

Last week, I played a white aggro deck that I just threw together when I was bored one night. This deck has major card advantage because most of the spells you play give you more creatures.

Deck Tech: White Aggro

Lands
20x Plains
3x Rustic Clachan

Creatures
4x Kitchen Finks
4x Cloadgoat Ranger
4x Goldmeadow Stalwart
4x Wizened Cenn
4x Knight of Meadowgrain
2x Reveilark

Spells
4x Path to Exile
4x Spectral Procession
3x Oblivion Ring
4x Lapse of Certainty

Planeswalkers
1x Ajani Goldmane

Sideboard
4x Story Circle
4x BurrentonForge-Tender
4x Celestial Purge
3x Cauldron Haze

As you can see the sideboard is heavily anti-red. It might be a be mcuh some would say, but most of the side board has other uses as well. Story Circle is very versitile card in the sideboard. I have used this to stop RDW in there tracks and to horde of a legion of elves. Celestial Purge takes care of the little pests called Bitterblossom and Demigod of Revenge. Cauldron Haze is my anti-Wrath of God fix.

Is this deck finished? Nope. I would however like to throw in a few Glorious Anthems to replace Ajani Goldmane. Yes, giving my creatures +1/+1 counters and vigilance until end of turn is nice, but Glorious Anthem is a turn sooner. Turn one Goldmeadow Stalwart, turn two Wizened Cenn, turn three Glorious Anthem, and swing for 7 damage is nice.

This week, I am again using this White Aggro build.

Until next post planeswalkers, this is Deppe, passing the turn.