Of Limited Interest #18 - Stag Party

Hello everyone out there in Internetland; welcome back to another edition of The Cardboard Witch.  Before we get started I'd like to take a moment to thank the guys at ManaNation and in particular "This Week in Magic" writer Eric Linden.  For the past two weeks Eric has included articles from this blog in his weekly must read Magic links.  For a smaller independent blog like this one making "This Week in Magic" is pretty exciting news; making the list 2 weeks in a row almost made me pee myself.  For those of you who've never checked out either ManaNation or the This Week in Magic feature please feel free to stop by the link posted above and take a poke around.  ManaNation is not only one of the most entertaining and informative MtG Websites on the net; it's also completely free.

Okay with that taken care of let's dive right in and look at a recent 8 man Swiss event I participated in while playing Magic Online for only the 2nd time since Shadowmoor.  As regular readers of this blog may be aware I've decided to begin my reacquaintance with MtGO by playing in casual Swiss events; while I may be a decent Magic player I am by no means I very good video game player and could probably use all the practice I can get out of my 3 Packs/2 Ticket entry fee.  I figure that once I can get through an entire 3 round tournament without misclicking/skipping an attack phase or randomly skipping past my own turn it will be safe to move on to the more competitive 8-4 queues.  First lets talk a little about the drafting portion of the tournament and then we can look at how the deck played out round by round:

The drafting portion of this event actually started out a little weird; my first pack was borderline awful with the only consolation prize being a Tumble Magnet.  While I personally think Tumble Magnet is a very strong card and highly under-rated in the format it's not exactly what I'd call an ideal 1st overall selection.  Making matters worse I was promptly shipped a pack that was both missing it's rare and contained absolutely no removal whatsoever; not even an Instill Infection.  While the pack had a number of decent creatures in it the only card that stood out to me as potentially capable of winning the game on it's own was a Bellowing Tangleworm which I reluctantly added to my pile.  My mood improved considerably when my 3rd pick turned out to be a Contagion Clasp; not only was the Clasp itself excellent removal but it also threatened to combine with the Tumble Magnet for infinite tap out effects.  More importantly while none of my first 3 picks would force me to go into Infect they still left me *wide* open to do so if I saw a strong Poison signal in the next couple of picks.  Unfortunately there were no good creatures with Infect in the next pack and after careful deliberation I decided to take a Glint Hawk Idol  over a Glint Hawk and some random R/U cards.  While obviously the actual Glint Hawk itself would combo pretty well with my Tumble Magnet or Contagion Clasp I felt that the Idol was simply the better card for the deck I was likely building at this point; G/W Metalcraft Aggro.   Of course as if to spite me the next pack had no relevant W or G cards but did contain a Corpse Cur and a Plague Stinger.  I decided to take the Corpse Cur and leave my options open; if the rest of the pack was rich in Posion I'd simply discard the Idol and move on.  Naturally the next pack had no Infect cards whatsoever, forcing me to take a Molder Beast and shift back into the G/W Aggro plan.  The rest of pack 1 however simply refused to agree; suddenly I couldn't buy a relevant beatdown card in W or G and simultaneously the packs were stripped completely clean of Infect monsters as well.  I managed to grab a Fumespitter, an Accorder's Shield and a 9th pick Flesh Allergy before the pack dried up completely.

Going into pack 2 I was obviously a little nervous; at this point I was looking at a fairly mediocre B/G aggro deck built around some -1-1 counters and a couple of 5CC beaters.  Thankfully I ripped open a draft saving Skinrender and after breathing a deep sigh of relief quickly added it to my pile.  Pick 2 in this pack would end up defining the rest of my draft; my opponent to the left passed me a Razor Hippogriff, a Molder Beast and a Wall of Tanglecord.  Making matters worse he'd also left all 3 uncommons and his terrible rare (Shape Anew) in the pack.  At this point it became a simple question; were 2 Molder Beasts and a Bellowing Tanglewurm better than a Razor Hippogriff and a Glint Hawk Idol in the context of the cards I'd already drafted.  While I might have said yes if my pile had a Slice in Twain or a Sylvok Replica to help fuel the Molder Beasts, I simply couldn't pass up a card as powerful as Razor Hippogriff  on the off chance I would be passed artifact destruction effects later in the draft.  I'd also developed the suspicion that while W had simply been scarce my inability to draft G cards was the result of fierce competition from multiple players in the draft.  In particular I had noticed that not 1 of the 3 early Carapace Forgers I'd seen had tabled the entire pack .  My suspicions were confirmed when my screen revealed a Glimmerpoint Stag and suddenly my deck started to come together.  My next 3 picks were Origin Spellbomb, Leaden Myr and Origin Spellbomb; firmly cementing me in W/B and relegating my Wurms to the sidelines.  The rest of the pack wasn't bad either, netting me a Snapsail Glider, a 2nd Glint Hawk Idol (8th pick!) and a very late Ghalma's Warden.  When you count the 13th pick Vector Asp pack 2 ultimately produced 10 of the 23 non-land cards I ended up playing in my main deck.

Compared to the first 2 packs, pack 3 was relatively straightforward.  I opened a Kemba, Kha Regent in a pack with no W/B or artifact removal effects.   While my only equipment card at the time was an Accorder's Shield I really couldn't pass up the 2/4 body for 3 and I felt confident I could find more equipment later in pack 3 if I put a high enough priority on it.  This turned out to be partially true as my very next pick was a Sylvok Lifestaff; again from a pack with no removal effects I could play.  Unfortunately this would be the absolute last piece of equipment I would see all draft; one of my opponent's was forcing a U/W Equipment deck someplace else at the table and was clearly prioritizing these cards VERY highly.  Pack 3 would reveal a bunch of great R cards and not much else; I decided to reach for the Kemba's Skyguard to fill out the deck with an extra flyer and some more life-gain but I certainly wasn't happy about doing so.  Of course pick 4 more than made up for it when someone passed me my 2nd copy of Glimmerpoint Stag and helped tip my deck over from "decent" to "very strong" in the blink of an eye.  The rest of the pack was predictably less exciting; I ended up being cut out of W pretty quickly and there just wasn't a whole lot of B in pack 3 whatsoever.  I ended up drafting back to back Auriok Replicas and a very late Fumespitter but otherwise nothing else I chose in this pack would make the final deck.    

Actually building the deck was relatively easy; I had 19 cards I definitely wanted to play and only one was a mana Myr.  Even with a deck that curved out at 5 that pretty much forced me to run 17 land, leaving only 4 unfilled slots.  While not my favorite card the Ghalma's Warden was clearly the "best remaining creature" in the pile which in turn made both of the Auriok Replicas more attractive than they would have otherwise been.  It certainly didn't hurt that they worked well with other artifact dependent cards in the deck like Glint Hawk Idol, Snapsail Glider and Razor Hippogriff.  I ultimately settled on Vector Asp for the 23rd slot because of its overall utility; it's a cheap artifact creature, in a pinch it can turn into a -1-1 token to proliferate with Clasp, and it's the easiest creature in the entire deck to sacrifice to the Flesh Allergy.  This is the deck I eventually settled on:

"Swiss Army Stags" - W/B Aggro:

Creatures - 14 (18)

2x Fume Spitter
2x Origin Spellbomb *(turns into a creature)
1x Vector Asp
2x Glint Hawk Idol *(turns into a creature)
1x Leaden Myr
1x Snapsail Glider
2x Auriok Replica
1x Kemba, Kha Regent
1x Kemba's Skyguard
1x Ghalma's Warden
2x Glimmerpoint Stag
1x Skinrender
1x Razor Hippogriff

Spells - 9 (5):

1x Accorder's Shield
1x Sylvok Lifestaff
1x Contagion Clasp
1x Tumble Magnet
1x Flesh Allergy





Lands - 17:

9x Plains
8x Swamp

Functional Sideboard - 7:

1x Golden Urn
1x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Soul Parry
2x Fulgent Distraction
1x Loxodon Wayfarer
1x Corpse Cur



Like a great buffet, this deck is all about having a little bit of everything and combining them into a greater whole.  The 2 copies of Glimmerpoint Stag provide an obvious focal point; combining extremely well with Skinrender, Razor Hippogriff, Tumble Magnet, Contagion Clasp and even Kemba's Skyguard.  It's actually *very* hard to lose a game in which you've cast a Skinrender and then used his ability an extra 1-2 times because of the Stag.  Additionally, however, the deck also has a solid "wither" theme going on; between Skinrender, 2x Fume Spitters and even a Vector Asp it's pretty easy to create things for the Contagion Clasp to proliferate.  Alternately the Tumble Magnet works well here too by turning 4 mana into a "free" tap effect while still letting you proliferate the -1/-1 tokens on your opponent's side.  The deck also manages to shove in a small "flying" package; with 5 flyers, a Sylvok Lifestaff and a Tumble Magnet to clear out their flying blockers you can actually end games pretty quickly on a good draw.  2 Copies of Origin Spellbomb give the deck some card draw while "big-butted" blockers like Ghalma's Warden and Kemba combine with 2 Auriok Replicas to make this deck pretty difficult to race; don't forget it also has 3 cards that gain life!  Finally of course you can always just draw the "Kemba + one of our 2 Equipment cards" combo and start spitting out cat tokens on your upkeep.  While ultimately still an aggro deck at it's heart, Swiss Army Stags has a tremendous number of options, lines of play, and 2 card combos going on at the same time, making it both very powerful and at the same time still fun to play.

Round 1 - Mono U Control: 

My first round opponent was playing a fairly interesting mono U + Metalcraft Control-ish deck built around multiple copies of Riddlesmith, Myr Galvanizer, Chrome Steed and off-color mana Myr.  He also had a Grand Architect, a Heavy Arbalest and much to my consternation, a Volition Reins.  While typically I feel going mono color in SoM limited is a mistake in this case I understood the choice; my opponent simply had enough good artifacts that he didn't need to run anything else besides U cards.

Game 1 actually started off very well for me; I opened the game with an Origin Spellbomb and by turn 4 I was attacking with Kemba who was wearing an Accorder's Shield and was about to start spitting out 2/2 Cat tokens on my next upkeep.  I'd even killed off my opponent's Iron Myr; although he ended his 4th turn with 2 copies of Myr Galvanizer in play.  After dropping a Snapsail Glider and then a turn 6 Sylvok Lifestaff into play I was pretty sure I could close out game 1 just by making 2 Cat Tokens a turn.  Of course my opponent proceeds to drop a Flight Spellbomb and an Arbalest, churning like mad for "an answer" which out of mono U can really only mean one thing; a Volition Reins.  Compounding matters I actually forgot my opponent had a Flight Spellbomb in play and let him trade his now worthless Trinket Mage for my Snapsail Glider without even having the Lifestaff on the Glider; I'd like to think this is the kind of mistake I wouldn't make in a real life draft but for whatever reason I made it here.  On his 7th turn my opponent finally did drop the Volition Reins on my Kemba and the game started to slide out of my control.  6 turns later I still hadn't draw either of my Glimmerpoint Stags to negate the Reins and I was starting down 10 Islands, 2 Myr Galvanizers, a Heavy Arbalest and my own Kemba.  With my clock already at 18:00 I decided it would be a bad idea to wait and see if my opponent could successfully execute the Arbalest/Galvanizer combo and conceded immediately.

Game 2 lasted about 2 minutes in total.  I played an Origin Spellbomb and my opponent replied with a Vedalkan Certarch.  I cast a Leaden Myr; he cast a Gold Myr.  On my 3rd turn I cycled my Spellbomb and decided to play Contagion Clasp to kill off his Myr.  Naturally he then proceeded to miss a land drop and pushed out a 2nd off color Myr.  Based on his style of play in the previous game I felt it was unlikely that my opponent was pretending to be mana-screwed to lure out my kill; his deck required a LOT of Islands to function properly.  I untapped and proceeded to drop a Skinrender into play; killing his Iron Myr and causing my opponent to concede immediately.  Amusingly enough the match was now 1-1 with both players having conceded a game at 20 life.

In game 3 my opponent chose to put me on the play and for the 3rd consecutive time I opened up with an Origin Spellbomb.  We both get off to a pretty fast start and at one point on turn 5 I drop a Contagion Clasp to kill his Riddlesmith and attack with a naked Kemba and a Kemba's Skyguard.  My opponent is forced to double block the Kemba to kill her which lets me trade for his Chrome Steed; this seemed like a good enough trade since I know he has way more artifacts left in his deck than I have equipment cards left in mine (2).  The next turn I trade off my Vector Asp for a -1/-1 counter on his Trinket Mage and cast a Snapsail Glider while my opponent responds by cycling his Spellbomb and dropping a Rust Tick on his turn.  I attack for 4 in the air with the Snapsail and the Kemba's Skyguard only to have my opponent Disperse my Myr token and block my now "not-flying" Snapsail with both the Tick and the Mage.  I responded by proliferating the Mage to death with Contagion Clasp and ended my turn with a live Snapsail Glider and my opponent at 13 life.  My opponent decides to bring out the big guns and casts his Grand Architect and another Flight Spellbomb but I'm finally running hot this tournament.  I promptly topdeck the 2nd Swamp I've been waiting for since turn 4 and throw down my Skinrender; killing the Architect and putting my opponent in a pretty bad situation.  I attack and let my opponent trade his Galvanizer for my Skyguard after he cycles the Flight Spellbomb.  He plays another Riddlesmith and ships the turn back to me.  After declaring an attack and forcing my opponent to tap down my Snapsail Glider with his Rust Tick I proceeded to cast a Glimmerpoint Stag, targeting my own Skinrender.

At this point my opponent messaged me and said that he was attempting to build his online rating and that if I were willing to concede he'd be prepared to give me the pack for winning anyways and even 2 tickets.  While this was a very fair offer I felt I had to refuse for three reasons; first I had entered the tournament to battle and improve my skill, taking a loss now wouldn't let me play another winning deck next round.   Additionally I had already decided to write about the tournament for the blog.  I felt that if I was going to ask people to read my article it was important to try my hardest to win the entire tournament; people come to read about "competitive Magic with a casual attitude" not how many tickets I made by conceding a match.  Finally, if I wanted to make 2 dollars I'm not entirely sure that spending 3 hours drafting Magic is the most efficient way to do so.  Again with that having been said I believe my opponent made a very fair offer and I told him so; I just couldn't agree to concede and he did so instead.

1-0 (2-1) MVP: Skinrender.  Both of the games I won were pretty much decided the moment I played this ridiculous monster, though obviously the Glimmerpoint Stag helped in game 3 as well.

Round 2 -: W/U Equipment Aggro:

My opponent in round two was playing a fast/aggressive W/U deck built around multiple Equipment cards, a couple (at least) Sunspear Shikari's and a foil Kemba, Kha Regent.  I learned this primarily by watching his replays in between rounds because he really never drew any of his good stuff against me this entire match.

I won the roll to start Game 1 and opened up with a turn 1 Fumespitter and quickly followed it up with a 2nd copy on turn 2.  My opponent cast an Auriok Edgewright and I responded with an Auriok Replica.  My opponent played a land and passed so I threw down the Skinrender to kill his Edgewright and bashed for 4 damage.  He dropped a Chrome Steed which I proceeded to tap out with a fresh Tumble Magnet on my turn; swinging for 7 and bringing my opponent down to 8 life.  On his 5th turn my opponent finally saw a Shikari but still had no equipment in play to go with her.  I tapped out the Steed on my next turn again and attacked with bot the Replica and the Skinrender.  My opponent blocked the Replica which let me sacrifice a Fumespitter in response to ensure that my creature would live and his wouldn't.  When I cast a Glimmerpoint Stag on my 2nd main phase to flash my Skinrender back into play at the end of the turn my opponent conceded immediately.

Unfortunately game 2 was only slightly better for my opponent; while this time he saw an early Shikari and a Darksteel Axe I also played a turn 4 Skinrender to effectively end the threat before it began.  I also managed to force out my copy of Kemba early in this game and get a Sylvok Lifestaff on her fairly quickly; this was important because it would keep him from playing his Kemba productively and I knew for a fact he had WAY more Equipment cards than I did.  Regrettably I don't remember much about this game otherwise except that my opponent seemed to draw more land than he really wanted to and that he never saw enough creatures to handle my removal; I'm pretty sure I saw the Clasp, Magnet and a Stag again in this game before it was over.

2-0 (4-1) MVP: Skinrender.  I guess Hill Giants that murder things are pretty good in booster draft; who knew?!

Round 3 - W/G/B "Good Stuff":

My round 3 opponent was playing a 3 color "control-ish" deck that happened to be filled with ridiculous bombs/high powered cards. Let me tell you, it's pretty disconcerting to see Sunblast Angel, Argentum Armor, Ezuri's Brigade, Acid Web Spider and Alpha Tyrannax all on the table at the same time during one of your opponent's replays.  In terms of early plays he also had at least 1 and more likely 2 copies of Perilous Myr and then some marginal Gray Ogre types; Moriok Replica, Snapsail Glider.  I also noted a couple of mana Myr and a Wall of Tanglecord.

Game 1 - Every once in a while you'll play a "super long, epic game of cosmic proportions"; a true titanic back and forth struggle for supremacy that ultimately comes down to who draws the last best card.  Even when you lose these kind of games you can't help but say "well, I lost to the right card at the right time and my opponent just got there".  Of course once in a while that "right" card will turn out to be Trigon of Mending and you'll want to go on rage-tilt immediately.  Unfortunately this game went extremely long and my computer failed to record it so I couldn't watch it on replay later.  Normally my memory is pretty good for these sorts of things but as I've mentioned previously somehow the disconnect between computer and user makes remembering the play by play a little harder.  What I do remember about this game is that it was pretty back and forth until the very end; I was crashing in for 2-4 flying damage a turn and had clawed my opponent way down in life but he was gaining 3 a turn from a mid-game Trigon of Mending.  I had Kemba out and was dumping a 2/2 Cat Token into play every turn but my opponent was slowly building up an army of Ezuri's Brigade, Alpha Tyrannax  and eventually an Acid Web Spider to shut off my Kemba.  I managed to topdeck a timely Tumble Magnet and even a Glimmerpoint Stag to reload it after I'd spent all the counters; when my opponent was finally about to kill me I had him down at something silly like 2-3 life.  This meant that I had quite literally lost to the 9 Life he'd gained from a Trigon of Mending.

Game 2 was also lost to the void of space when MtGO or my hard drive somehow failed to record the match.  Fortunately I remember this game much better simply because it was much shorter.  My opponent did not have a particularly good start and was forced to drop an Arrest on my Skinrender the turn after I'd played it to safely kill his Perilous Myr.  He managed to get out a Wall of Tanglecord and another beater of some kind but the wheels came off for him when I used the Glimmerpoint Stag to re-flash the Skinrender back into play; removing the Arrest in the process.  When I played the 2nd Stag a couple turns later the game was essentially over.  For the record I also made a terrible misclick in the middle of this game; I was trying to hook an Accorer's Shield up to my Auriok Replica when I became confused as to what exactly I was "okaying".  It turns out I told the computer to sacrifice the Replica and since I had W mana in my pool it figured "why not?" and asked me which target I wanted to prevent damage from, on my turn.  While I was happy to win the game this critical error bothered me for most of the evening after the tournament; clearly I'm not ready to move up to 8-4 events just yet.

Going into game 3 I had to admit that I was mildly nervous; up until this point I had mostly dodged my opponent's bombs.  Sure he'd played the Brigade and the dinosaur in game 1, but Tumble Magnet had done yeoman's work against those guys; I'd lost primarily because my opponent gained 9 extra life and I never drew a way to deal enough extra damage.  I was back on the play and dropped a Glint Hawk Idol on my second turn and a Leaden Myr on my 3rd; activating the Bird and crashing in for 2.  My opponent also played a Leaden Myr and then on his 3rd turn he cast a Revoke Existence on my mana critter and played a Perilous Myr.  Unfortunately for my opponent this wasn't exactly a great loss for me; I'd drawn land on back to back turns to open the game.  While admittedly he'd taken out my only Black source of mana the truth was my hand was entirely full of White/artifact cards; I simply played a Plains and cast Kemba before shipping the turn back to him.  Turn 5 I played a Sylvok Lifestaff, activated the Glint Hawk Idol, equipped the Lifestaff to the Idol and swung.  My opponent chose to trade his freshly cast Snapsail Glider for my Idol but I was okay with that; not only would the Lifestaff gain me 3 life but I was also holding a Razor Hippogriff so I wasn't going to lose the Idol long term anyways.  On my 2nd main phase I cast an Origin Spellbomb and moved the Lifestaff over to Kemba so I could start making Cat tokens.  My opponent cast a Moriok Replica which kept me from swinging on the next turn but I managed to drop a 2/4 Ghalma's Warden and of course make a Cat Token.  My opponent's next turn saw the return of Trigon of Mending but I highly doubt he was as happy to see it this time as he had been last time; any creature would clearly have been better for him here.  When I finally did attack he was forced to block my 2/4 Ghalma's Warden with his Perilous Myr and then after taking 2 damage from it use the Myr's leaving play trigger to kill my Cat token.  Post combat I then proceeded to cast the Razor Hippogriff and return the Glint Hawk Idol to my hand; gaining 2 more life.  When my opponent tapped out completely on the next turn to cast an Argentum Armor I felt pretty confident that I was going to win the game.  I untapped, drew a Swamp (my 2nd!) and promptly traded a "summoning sick" Cat Token for his Moriok Replica with a Flesh Allergy,  Swinging with everyone I get my opponent down to 7 life; just as I'm about to ship the turn I realize that I *do* have enough mana to cast the Glint Hawk Idol and that if I had done so my Ghalma's Warden would have bashed for 4 instead of 2 b/c I'd have had Metalcraft active.  Apparently not all of my play mistakes are confined to using MtGO's computer interface.  Naturally my opponent proceeds to untap and then as cool as a cucumber tap his Leaden Myr and all his mana to drop a Sunblast Angel onto the table and 4-1 my side in the process (my team vs his Myr).  Pretty sure that despite being at 28 life my day is about to end I untap, play an Origin Spellbomb and promptly cycle it into a Tumble Magnet.  My opponent casts a Myr on his turn but leaves the Angel back to potentially block my Glint Hawk Idol so I tap out the Angel on his end step.  I draw a Fumespitter, and after equipping the Lifestaff execute the enemy Silver Myr and go up to 31 life in the process.  I attack for 4 but my opponent still has 2 Trigon counters left so he claws his way back up to 6 life.  Out of tricks my opponent simply passes his 10th turn, I tap down the Angel again and I finally draw my Skinrender to nullify the Angel on a more permanent basis.  I attack for 4 and my opponent activates the Trigon for the final time moving to a precarious 5 life.  Finally on his 11th turn my opponent finally draws his 2nd Forest and plays a well overdue Acid Web Spider to destroy my Sylvok Lifestaff.  I tap the Spider out with my last Tumble Magnet token and swing with everything to bring my opponent down to 2.  When he draws nothing relevant on his next turn he congratulates me on the win and concedes the game.

3-0 (6-2) MVP: While I'm tempted to say Skinrender again the most important card for me in this match-up was probably Tumble Magnet.  Not only did it win me game 3 outright, it was the only reason I had a chance against my opponent's fatties in game 1 whatsoever.  It's safe to say that if I hadn't had the "bad luck" of 1st picking a Tumble Magnet this draft I probably would have lost round 3.

As far as breaking this draft down goes I feel that overall it was a pretty huge success.  First and foremost I enjoyed myself playing MtGO again despite a few "terribad" misclicks and even an outright play error on my part.  Secondly while I certainly didn't open the same kind of "bombs" it seems my opponents had I honestly felt that I probably had the strongest deck overall in the draft.  My 4 drops were amazing and my early aggro options weren't exactly bad either.  Yes you'd like to have some Arrests and Grasps but ultimately good cards win you drafts and I certainly had a pile of good cards.

Unfortunately that's about all my fingers can take this time; writing about Magic is fun but once in a while the lactic acid buildup in your fingers says it's time to take a short break.  As always thanks for reading and hopefully you'll join me next time here on The Cardboard Witch.  Until then folks always remember to keep your options open at the draft table and go with the flow; the results can quite literally be "Stag"gering.  Keep it weird.