Checking in with the Cardboard Witch

Hey gang; it's Nina. I know it's been a little while since I checked in here on the blog so hopefully ya'll haven't assumed I've run back off to grind PTQs. My foot is still a little wonky, work has been kinda busy and as I mentioned last time I've been toiling away on a big project for another website. Thankfully as of 11 PM yesterday evening that project was completed with at best an hour to spare before the deadline. I'm a sucker for drama I guess and it wouldn't be a Cardboard Witch article if it wasn't handed in seconds before it was due in my opinion! :)

In fact completing that article is one of the major reasons I'm writing to you guys today; thanks to the heroic efforts of editor Dave Mantel (@writer1007 on Twitter) my complete guide to drafting M13 was published around 12 AM this morning by Legitmtg.com. For those of you who aren't regular readers of Legitmtg you can check out my article here ; feel free to stay a while and check out the website. Frankly this is one of my favorite MtG sites on the internet because the Legit crew works so far to provide fun, informative and most importantly free Magic content on an almost daily basis. In particular I'm fond of Jon Medina's FNM Hero articles and Heather Dawn's hilarious, thought provoking, regular feature 20 Tweets . I'd also be much obliged if you guys would leave some comments on my article using Facebook; simply put it's be nice to have some tangible evidence people are reading my stuff to convince the editors over there to publish more of my work. Help a girl out fellas (and ladies)? :)

Of course, while I'm here I might as well share some sick brags. Last week I managed to finally hobble out for FNM after roughly 6 weeks without tournaments. I was a little worried that I'd be rusty/out of touch with the current environment but as it turned out I was fine.  I went 7-0 (14-3) over the course of two tournaments with a slightly modified version of Scott MacCallum's (@mrscottymac on Twitter) "Esper Angels" deck and managed to pick up a couple foil copies of Forbidden Alchemy to give away as gifts to friends. Overally I was mostly just happy to get back to playing "real" Magic after sitting out so many tournaments with a mangled foot. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend FNM tonight because of work issues but I did get a pretty nice "pick me up" today, read 'em and weep boys:

Regrettably, due to work, health and "still not having a passport" reasons I won't be able to actually attend the FNM Championships even with WotC volunteering to pick up my tab. I'm a little bummed out about that of course but to be honest with you getting the invite is still pretty gratifying anyways. I'm also a little ashamed to admit it but this is the coolest thing I've "won" in Magic after my invite to last year's Canadian Nationals. It's not the worlds greatest accomplishment but I guess it's nice to have something to prove that I'm at least getting better at magic after all of this time.

Finally I'd like to remind all of you out there that we still have a contest going on here on The Cardboard Witch.  As mentioned previously on this blog I'm still looking for a mono blue casual deck to complete my set of 5 Demo decks.  The rules are posted in the the link above and entries are accepted in the comments section of that article.  The contest closes August 1st and the best choice as judged by the love of my life (Leon) will earn it's author an absolute free, shipped copy of Entreat the Angels and Tamiyo the Moon Sage.  Right now there's only about 7-8 entries so you still have a VERY good chance of winning prize if you show off your "casual" deckbuilding skills before August 1st.

Well folks that's about all my fingers can take for the moment. I'm sorry this wasn't a real blog post so much as a quick update but I promise to make my way back here soon; I've got a couple of new Standard decks I want to talk about and there's at least 15 cards in M13 that have caught my eye for constructed play. Unfortunately there's only so many hours in the day so these things are going to have to wait until next time. For those of you following me on social media I'm finally on Facebook at: nina.illingworth.7 .  To be honest I'm not using the account much so far except to comment on my own articles at Legitmtg.com but you're more than welcome to send me a "Magical" friend request if it strikes you fancy. Until next time folks always remember to keep it weird and to never take candy from strangers. Unless it's really good candy and the stranger it question seems like a nice man who just happens to own a walk in freezer.

-nina

Bonus Content:

So, as it turns out I have some of the coolest friends on the planet. I was pretty bummed out last night about missing FNM and I resigned myself to an evening without Magic sometime just after 6PM. Just as I was about to settle into a massive funk and start binging on junk food 3 of my friends/teammates stopped by the shop randomly to chat about Magic. One thing lead to another and pretty soon we had an impromptu 4-man M13 sealed tournament going and it was quickly agreed that once again this tournament was for the title of Champion of the Universe. Team Dickwolf doesn't screw around folks and after 3 epic rounds that may or may not have featured my opponent's constantly mana flooding I was able to win said title. While unfortunately I've already sorted the sideboard/pool back into my collection as it turns out I still have the actual deck in front of me so I thought I'd share it with you guys:

"My Kingdom for a Jungle Shrine"- Champion of the Universe Winner

Creatures - 12:


1x Flinthoof Boar
2x Arms Dealer
1x Reckless Brute
1x Yeva's Forcemage
1x Bladetusk Boar
2x Primal Huntbeast
1x Sublime Archangel
1x Fire Elemental
1x Garruk's Packleader
1x Captain of the Watch

Spells - 11:

2x Prey Upon

1x Rancor

1x Farseek

3x Krenko's Command

1x Flames of the Firebrand

1x Oblivion Ring

1x Captain's Call

1x Turn to Slag

Lands - 17:

6x Forest

6x Mountain

3x Plains

1x Evolving Wilds

1x Sunpetal Grove

Analysis: As far as pools go this one was a classic case of opening strong cards in all 5 colors but lacking the depth to easily commit to any 2 of them. Believe it or not this pool also had a Vampire Knighthawk, a Talrand's Invocation and 2 Welken Terns. Unfortunately my remaining black/blue playables were pretty awful overall and I eventually realized I had 2 choices.  I could play a G/W deck with about a billion 2/x white "Bears" (2x Silvercoat Lion, 2x Ajani's Sunstriker) and splash the Flames of the Firebrand or I could just refuse to play all of my marginal white cards and go G/R splashing 2x WWX bombs instead. As you can see I chose the raw power of the Naya build and I'm pretty happy with the results. This deck looks really clunky but it actually has a tremendous amount of synergy and multiple ways to actively win the game. Whether it's a tokens + Exalted victory, a Packmaster + Hill Giants draw engine or just combining Arms Dealer and random Krenko's Command tokens this deck has a LOT of amazing things going on during game play. More importantly it was riotously fun to play; even if I was hanging around with a bunch of Dickwolves. :)

Goodnight folks

-nina (actually going to bed this time)