Top 8 things I'd like to see at Pro Tour Avacyn Restored

#8 - U/G Soulbond (draft)

Have you played with or against Wolfir Silverheart in AVR limited yet? The guy is nigh-on unbeatable when paired, unless you have a Terminus/miracle-cast a HUGE Bonfire of the Damned, or your opponent falls asleep/has to leave the tournament due to a medical emergency. From what I've seen so far, he's best paired with blue creatures that also have soulbond such as Wingcrafter to give him flying or the super-annoying Elgaud Shieldmate to give hexproof.

However, even if you don't end up windmill slamming the Silverheart p1p1 in your draft at the PT (seriously, what would you pick over him?), U/G soulbond seems like a strong archetype anyway: Blue gives you flying, hexproof, and 2U: untap soulbond guys, card drawing, and other fliers and 2-for-1's, while green has lots of soulbond creatures that pump themselves and their friend, the soulbond pump spell, and Borderland Ranger can fix you a third colour for some splashed removal.


#7 - Owen Turtenwald continuing to be nice

If you're active on Twitter, you may have noticed @OwenTweetenwald acting very strangely over the last few days. Depending on who you ask, this uncharacteristic friendliness and joie de vivre may be caused by:

a) Him finally losing his virginity (unduly mean, but I saw several people saying this).
b) A genuine fear that his alliance with Dr. 8 Sides and constant snarky Twitter comments will lead to an 18 month ban unless he changes his ways (the "Christmas Carol" scenario).
c) A bigger boy (Conley Woods) beat him up and stole his phone.
d) He lost his Twitter account for some amount of time in a prop. bet.
e) It's all an elaborate troll.

Sadly options d) and e) seem by far most likely, but it would be a breath of fresh air to see Owen be a bit more cheerful and genuinely nice on camera over this weekend, as in my opinion he's been a fairly poor ambassador for the game/role model for others up until now. I'm not convinced that's going to happen though...


#6 - Jackie lee in the top 8

At the other end of the scale, I'm not sure I could find a bad word to say about Jackie Lee if you paid me. Her articles are well-written and interesting, her finishes at the GP level high and consistent, and was perfectly friendly when I met her at GP Manchester - but more importantly, made time for anyone who wanted to speak to her, not just those who randomly happen to also write for StarCityGames. An excellent face for the game, and someone who thoroughly deserves the highest level of success for both this AND her play.


#5 - Non-ChannelFireball Magic website teams to have a bigger impact

Speaking of StarCityGames, you may have seen their recent announcement of the two teams they've fielded for this Pro Tour, #SCGBlack and #SCGBlue. While some people have been critical of the size or perceived quality of the Blue team (haters!), in general I think this is a step in the right direction - promoting site teams and having a genuine (but friendly) rivalry between them, rather than just ChannelFireball assembling the best dozen-odd players currently active and trouncing everyone else. It's not that I don't like the team CFB players - I really do - but when their team is SO much better than everyone else, it's like assembling the Ocean's Eleven squad to knock off the till at Subway - there's just no tension whatsoever for the viewing public. Also as Ted Knutson has noted in the past, more competition between Magic sites is a good thing: "a rising tide floats all ships".


#4 - NOT R/W Humans aggro as the best deck

Pro Tours where the best deck before the event continues to be the best deck at the event are boring. We at home want to see something new and exciting featuring the cards that have just been released, not just a 6 card update to the previously tier-1, and still tier-1 Delver deck. Yawn. Similarly, I would assume the PT players enjoy creating and playing with something new rather than rehashing previous work. So it would totally suck if this format was dominated by R/W aggro humans, though I am confident the great minds attending this event can metagame to beat a few rowdy gathered townsfolk

However, I would LOVE to see a more combo-oriented Humans deck, utilising token generating cards such as Gather the Townsfolk and Thatcher Revolt, "rituals" Infernal Plunge and Battle Hymn, with maybe Past in Flames to keep it going before a lethal Burn at the Stake. It's nice to dream - but Frank Karsten tweeted about testing it, so maybe it's a real thing?

Finally, in draft, anyone who pulls off Goldnight Commander into Thatcher Revolt can have a high-five from me!



#3 - Somberwald Sage and Unburial Rites with Griselbrand (block)

Unburial Rites targeting Griselbrand has to be one of the most busted things you can do in this block format, and can even be achieved on turn 3 with a draw such as t1 Avacyn's Pilgrim, t2 Tracker's Instinct, t3 Unburial Rites. But what about the times when you have big Grisely in your hand and not your graveyard, or you can't reanimate your huge guys due to your opponents Grafdigger's Cage? Enter Somberwald Sage. Tapping for 3 mana of any colour makes mana costs including BBBB a lot more realistic to cast in your multi-coloured deck, and can lead to hardcast fatties just as fast as reanimated ones. Seems an excellent plan B, no?


#2 - Stern Mentor Mill (draft)

Pros such as Jeremy Neeman have already started to note how this guy can be a genuinely viable win condition in AVR draft, and now we just need to see it happen. He combos excellently with another blue soulbond creature, Galvanic Alchemist, and providing you can lock the board down with your horned turtles and 2/4 lifelinking angels, will quickly win you the game. There's also the common mill card Dreadwaters to consider in the dedicated mill deck - it's no Boundless Shadows, sure, but in a drawn-out game, one or two of these may be all you need, and icould be far from the worst cards 22 and 23.


#1 - Burning Vengeance (block)


Over the couple of years as I've realised being a "spike" is not for me (I am neither dedicated, driven, or talented enough for this to make me anything other than bitter, frustrated, and a bit of a dick to my fellow players), I've come to really appreciate these "build around me" cards. There's a good chance that if Battle of Wits is ever reprinted in a  future set, I'll bring it to some standard tournaments, unironically. So, having previously played various Burning Vengeance decks in standard, Id love to see someone make it work in block - until now undying creatures have been a huge problem for the deck (you had to use all your BV triggers to kill their dudes rather than kill them), but maybe Pillar of Flame is the answer? I'll be watching with crossed fingers...

What to expect at PT Dark Ascension?

Later today (UK time at least) sees the first day of play at Magic Pro Tour Dark Ascension, and after a few weeks (or more likely, days!) of testing, we will see what the pros make of post-DKA standard. While the dominant team CFB/SCG remains tight-lipped as usual, not everyone has been so secretive about what the 75 they intend to battle with. So, based on the publicly available information via Twitter, what might we expect to see shortly? The following suggestions are based on tweets I've read in the last 48 hours from players on the ground in Honolulu - though for the sake of preserving some secrecy, I am not going to tell you (with one exception) who is playing what (though if you care to research it, you can find out yourself).

• A lot of Sword of War and Peace: Reports from the event site are that the dealers are completely sold out of this card at $50, and players are offering $65 for the ones they still need, if anyone can get more. Without Stoneforge Mystic around any more you have to draw them naturally, meaning many decks (such as Mono-Green Aggro) opt to play the full boat maindeck! If players are this keen to get a hold of these swords, it's likely they are anticipating a lot of white-based tokens and humans deck (seems more likely than mono-red, IMO). Also of note here is that card availability at this event seems particularly poor, as the private nature of the PT means fewer dealers present, and no masses of non-pros from whom to buy in more stock/beg/borrow/steal from for the main event.
• Base-G, base-W Humans, Tempered Steel among the aggro decks: Players seem to like the Todd Anderson-style green decks (see link above), though it's not clear to me at this point whether they intend to stay mono-G or go into perhaps red as well for Huntmaster of the Fells, Ancient Grudge, burn, etc. UW Humans was the obviously good aggro deck coming into this event so I expect it to see some play even if it turns out not to be the best aggressive deck, and I know of at least one player running Tempered Steel. It might not be the most exciting or innovative choice, but he clearly has some reason for running it - perhaps it is a good meta call if people will be running Whipflare as their sweeper of choice? I don't know.
• B/W/(g) tokens to make an appearance: The expected "deckbuilding by numbers" B/W tokens decks failed to show up at the recent SCG Open in Richmond, perhaps due to it being on the weekend of the set's release, and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad commanding some $240/playset. PT players should have been able to scrounge together their copies for this event though, and I'm hearing of a build playing a whole bunch of planeswalkers (Sorin, Liliana, Gideon, Elspeth), alongside Lingering Souls/Intangible Virtue/Honor of the Pure (but of course!), the perhaps counter-intuitive Ratchet Bomb, plus Sun Titan, and a green splash for Gavony Township. A little green also gets you Ray of Revelation out of the sideboard, which is absolutely ridiculous in the mirror.
• Gerry T to draft UG self-mill: My one exception to not naming who is playing what, Gerry T is running a Zvi Mowshowitz-esque gambit and telling the world he intends to draft self-mill decks this weekend, as he "doesn't know how to draft anything (else)". Switching to DKA/INN/INN over INNx3almost certainly weakens the archetype (less opportunities to draft the all-important Spider Spawning), which oddly may make this a better plan than you might think - with the deck being less strong there is a greater chance of Gerry being the only player in his pod going for it, consequently rewarding him with a stronger deck.
• A lot of this T-shirt: I'm cheating a bit here as I know this is the PT shirt for this event, but just wanted to say how much better it is than previous giveaway shirts, be they PT or pre-re ones. MTG apparel still has a long way to go, but it's a hell of a lot less embarrassing than it used to be.

That's it for fact-based predictions, so now to finish, just a few wildcard ideas of things I would *like* to see:

• Pat Chapin's new control deck (and hair cut, he always seems to début a new style at the PT) - this format seems a little hostile to control, can he make it work?
• Someone making Burning Vengeance work - possibly as a 2-of in a 4/5-c control deck rather than all-in on the card?
• The right build of Zombies - is it mono-B, BU, BR?
• Someone from the UK put up a good finish - though given the fragmentation of testing groups, I'm not going to hold my breath... Ideally this would be Carrie Oliver to shut up the sexist trolls in her article comments! It can't be Dan Royde, as he can only win events I am doing coverage at, and sadly I'm not in Honolulu!

Modern Love

Is it just me, or is Modern the most exciting format in Magic right now?

It seems to me you can play just about anything you like, and so long as you've thought carefully about constructing your deck, and have a decent plan and sideboard for the more common matchups (Affinity, UR combos, Zoo), you can do well.

As such, we're seeing completely original decks coming out of nowhere, as well as completely new takes on archetypes we've seen in Standard before in the results from the PTQ season. Take for example these examples from the most recent (23/01/12) Magic Online PTQ:


Winning the blue envelope, Dracc0n with UWR scepter aggro, boarding into Gifts/Rites!


1  Arid Mesa
2  Celestial Colonnade
1  Hallowed Fountain
4  Island
2  Misty Rainforest
1  Mountain
1  Sacred Foundry
4  Scalding Tarn
2  Steam Vents
3  Sulfur Falls
2  Tectonic Edge
23 lands

4  Delver of Secrets
3  Snapcaster Mage
2  Vendilion Clique
9 creatures
4  Isochron Scepter
4  Lightning Bolt
4  Lightning Helix
3  Magma Jet
4  Path to Exile
1  Research/Development
4  Serum Visions
2  Spell Pierce
2  Spell Snare
28 other spells

Sideboard
1  Combust
2  Dispel
1  Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
3  Gifts Ungiven
2  Grim Lavamancer
2  Pyroclasm
1  Relic of Progenitus
1  Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1  Unburial Rites
1  Vendilion Clique

The scepter element of this deck reminds me of Adrian Sullivan's WRB deck from Extended last year, while the rest of it is much along the lines of the UR(g) Delver decks being pushed hard by Todd Anderson and Brad Nelson at the moment. The alternate sideboard plan of Gifts Ungiven into Unburial Rites up a huge guy that (ideally) kolds your opponent must have caught virtually everyone with their pants down, though loses some surprise value now people know the deck is out there.


In 7th place, Wirecat (who I am reliably informed is "The" Ben Seck) has a new hybrid of Death Cloud and BuningLoam:


4  Blackcleave Cliffs
2  Blood Crypt
2  Graven Cairns
1  Lavaclaw Reaches
2  Overgrown Tomb
3  Swamp
1  Tectonic Edge
4  Twilight Mire
1  Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4  Verdant Catacombs
24 lands

3  Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
4  Tarmogoyf
7 creatures
3  Burning Vengeance
3  Death Cloud
1  Garruk Wildspeaker
4  Inquisition of Kozilek
4  Life from the Loam
4  Liliana of the Veil
3  Nameless Inversion
3  Raven's Crime
4  Smallpox
29 other spells

Sideboard
2  Ancient Grudge
3  Damnation
1  Engineered Explosives
1  Forest
3  Nature's Claim
3  Nihil Spellbomb
2  Victim of Night

The beautiful innovation here is the revival of the Haakon + Nameless Inversion combo. This not only gives repeatable removal for creatures, but is a spell cast from the graveyard for Burning Vengeance, and doesn't require a land each time like Raven's Crime. Victim of Night in the sideboard may as well read "destroy target creature in Modern" right now, so I'm surprised it's not seeing more play.




In 13th place, CoreySMann with.. KITHKIN?!


4  Arid Mesa
4  Marsh Flats
9  Plains
2  Rustic Clachan
2  Sacred Foundry
4  Windbrisk Heights
25 lands

3  Burrenton Forge-Tender
4  Cloudgoat Ranger
4  Figure of Destiny
1  Goldmeadow Stalwart
4  Knight of Meadowgrain
3  Ranger of Eos
4  Wizened Cenn
23 creatures
4  Honor of the Pure
4  Path to Exile
4  Spectral Procession
12 other spells

Sideboard
4  Blood Moon
4  Combust
4  Ethersworn Canonist
3  Kataki, War's Wage


This favourite of mine is virtually the old standard deck, only with fetchlands, and a very light red splash for sideboarded Blood Moon and Combust. I'm surprised he got away with just Kataki vs fast Affinity draws though, as now artifact lands are banned, paying the upkeep is  much more realistic prospect.


Finally, a shoutout to all the blue decks running Hurkyl's Recall as their Affinity sideboard card of choice. I first saw this in Bruno Panara's winning UB Delver list from PTQ Manchester last weekend, and he informs me it is an utter beating, often acting as a double Time Walk. SICK.


Modern continues to look super fun, and I can't wait to play some very soon! (No PTQs yet this season for me, frown).

My return to Games Workshop

After not touching a Citadel miniature or venturing into a Games Workshop store since the age of about 13, I have in the last few weeks begun to dip my foot back into that particular hobby pond. Not for want of a new (old) game to play, I'm really quite happy with the various board and card games I enjoy at the moment. However, I've been growing increasingly jealous of Hana's various craft projects (cross-stitching an intricate pillow front, painting by numbers), and while my games are fun when there are friends about, they're not so great when it's just the two of us at home on a Sunday afternoon, and require a minimum investment of time in an uninterrupted block to play.

So, I bought myself a Citadel hobby starter set of paints, glue, cutters and basing materials, a model kit I liked the look of, and set out to just do my best to put together and paint some things. Expect some irregular little blogs such as this one showing the results of these attempts, and thoughts on them, from here onward until I get bored or frustrated of it. I thought these might make for an interesting record in case I keep this up for a decent amount of time and accidentally get half-decent at it, or something.

#1 - Tau XV25 Stealth Suits:

How they're "supposed to look":

My effort:

I should probably start by saying that these comparison pictures are being a little hard on myself at this point in time - I've not painted anything in over 10 years, would generally consider myself not particularly artistic or steady-handed, and Hana insisted I wouldn't have the patience to do these properly. The frst picture, on the other hand, comes from Games Workshop's 'Eavy Metal team, who are professional full-time miniature painters. Still, not a bad first attempt I think?

Paint technique:

- Basecoated with Undercoat Black.
- Mechrite Red, 2 coats.
- Highlights on red with Mechrite Red/Skull White mix.
- Highlights on black with Undercoat Black/Mordian Blue mix.
- Details with Shining Gold.
- Base: Calthan Brown, 2 coats, then sand and grass PVA'd on.
- 2 coats Devlan Mud ("skill in a pot") wash all over.

Mistakes and lessons:

- For undercoat, you have to use a spray. Using a brush and the pot of undercoat black was needless cheapskatery, that resulted in a thick and somewhat glossy basecoat.
- For highlights, use the side rather than tip of the brush where possible. I also mixed the red highlights a little lighter than necessary.
- For highlights, use a detail/fine detail brush to achieve a thinner line. I did this one using the same starter brush throughout, which led to a thicker line than I would have liked.
- For the base, cover the whole thing with sand, then later add grass on top of this. I tried to to patches of each and it got a bit messy in some places, and left awkward gaps of just paint showing in others.
- I didn't bother trying to do the optics effects, something I should try in future on models with such details.
- I've since bought a can of Chaos Black spray to basecoat, and a detail brush for fiddly bits and highlights.

Overall I'm pleased with my first effort, and enjoyed doing these ones a fair bit. These models sure are smaller than I'd remembered though!


#2 - Eldar Jetbike:

How they're "supposed to look":

My effort:

Paint technique:

- Model left in 3 sections during painting: rider, main bike (not attaced to base), front plate of bike.

- Chaos Black spray undercoat.

- Mordian Blue, 2 coats over majority of model.

- Metal details in Chainmail, guns then drybrushed with Shining Gold over the top.

- Rider head drybrushed with Chainmail and then Shining Gold

- Highlighted with Mordian Blue/Skull White mix.

- 1 coat Devlan Mud wash all over.

- 3 transfers applied once fully dried and assembled on base.

Mistakes and lessons:

- First up, the transfers ruined the model a bit, because they very obviously show up as transfers where they've been applied. This is pretty frustrating as I'd been told they apply easily (which they did) and look great once dry (which they do not).

- Highlights on the smaller sections of the bike are okay, but those on the main front plate are still too thick and a bit sketchy.

- I finished this one a bit too soon perhaps, I could've done a lot more with the rider, at the very least.

I should have been a little more ambitious with this one in the painting, trying a little battle damage, and some simple freehand lines on the larger sections of the bike instead of opting for transfers, which I will unlikely use again. This seems like a great beginners kit (and pretty decent value at ~£7), though the rider doesn't exactly sit on the seat as I'd like, and there are no "options" out of the box.

Next time: Necron Warriors and Scarabs!

Cube Masters Series videos

My good friend Warren Vonk, Magic "cube" enthusiast and all-round good guy, recently organised an 8-player "Cube Masters Series" draft at Dark Sphere in London.

The format was an 8-player draft followed by 3 rounds of Swiss, then a cut to top 4, with 90 card Winston draft finals and semifinals. All of this was using Warren's (ISD updated) 360 card fully powered cube.

Unfortunately I couldn't attend the event to play and report on it myself, but it seems to have been a resounding success, with plans to repeat it regularly on a larger scale starting early 2012. Warren and others made sure to capture a great deal of content on video, which is beginning to get edited and produced (to a very high quality) now.


Here's the first batch of videos, showing Phil Dickinson (of "ARTIFACT. CREATURE. CAT." Fame), making his picks in the initial draft:









More to follow as and when they are uploaded, enjoy!