Entries Tagged 'Videos' ↓

Well, here it is… The first Five With Flores video in close to a year!

The audio could be better, but hey — a little out of practice.

Enjoy

LOVE
MIKE

I am going to be getting on a plane in about two days and going down to relatively sunny Orlando, Florida for almost two weeks. I am taking the kiddies to Disney World and also visiting with family over the Christmas holiday.

Chances of playing much Magic while I am gone are next to nada, but there is something I have been wanting to post for a couple of weeks.

Sharp readers probably recall I posted a few weeks back that I was re-reading The Hobbit. Boy is that book superb!

I had read The Hobbit previously, of course, but I remember not liking it that much (I liked The Lord of the Rings on first read, but The Silmarillion I actively disliked on first reading but loved on subsequent reading). Anyway, for some reason if you re-read The Hobbit at 33 it goes very quickly… I read it in a matter of hours and loved every second.

Now the reason I got back into all the JRR stuff is that I was actually telling Bella the story of The Lord of the Rings on a train ride home one day and she was completely captivated. This got Katherine and me to pull out the Peter Jackson DVDs and start the reels turning, but of course Bella (at five) is too young for the good stuff.

But what about the also-good stuff?

While I didn’t have a really solid memory of The Hobbit the book before re-reading this time around, I have had for as long as I can remember (before kindergarten, certainly) a very specific memory of The Hobbit the story. And that picture comes from the Rankin/Bass version from my childhood.

If you haven’t seen the Rankin/Bass version, you’re in for a treat! My mom still sings me songs from it, and it has been about 30 years since we first saw it together, when I was younger than Bella.

Because this is 2009 — almost 2010 — you can find basically anything on YouTube… Including the entire Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit… I’m embedding all of it below. If you have about 90 minutes and a hankering for a pocket full of joy, I suggest you bust out some microwave popcorn and enjoy the show.

I was medium terrified of the villainst in this version when I was in the single digits, and thirty-ish years later, I still find even Elrond creepy. The animation doesn’t look “modern” but it is still quite nice to look at… I still enjoy it, and I think they did a great job with the characters; in particular Gandalf, who is played distinctively by John Huston.

For what it’s worth, Bella absolutely loved it.

LOVE
MIKE

I made a video about B/G Elves in Standard.

It seemed like it was time! All four qualifying players from last week’s LCQ * were playing B/G Elves variants, so it seems like the deck is the real deal [again].

At first I didn’t believe that Gabe Carlton-Barnes played Elves (if you know Gabe he is much more likely to play Faeries, Fog, or even Wizards)… I haven’t talked to Gabe yet but his blood runs Blue. So if he qualified with Elves, it is probably worth the look-see.

This is the deck Gabe used to qualify (and the deck we featured in this video):

1 Nameless Inversion
3 Profane Command
4 Thoughtseize

4 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Putrid Leech

3 Chameleon Colossus
4 Civic Wayfinder
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Wren’s Run Vanquisher

3 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Mutavault
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
2 Twilight Mire

sb:
3 Loxodon Warhammer
4 Deathmark
3 Guttural Response
1 Chameleon Colossus
3 Cloudthresher
1 Hurricane

I played five or six matches with Gabe’s Elves deck and was relatively impressed.

I taped a great matchup against B/R where I got Fulminated down to two lands, then exposed my Mutavault with him having only one card in hand. Obviously it was a Shock and I was in the Stone Age.

I topdecked out of it and pulled it out!

The deck is relatively fast and was superb at beating random garbage decks.

However it seems atrocious against any kind of Reflecing Pool Control-type deck. I got devastated by a variety of Cruel Ultimatum and Broodmate Dragon combinations.

Anyway, the vid:

LOVE
MIKE

* I will talk about these Blue Envelope-grabbers in greater detail in this week’s Top Decks but I just wanted to congratulate Brett Blackman as well. Brett is a friend, reigning Pennsylvania State Champion, and a Top 8 Magic intern! Good job Brett

Currently Reading: Codeflesh

For you, a YouTube video about new It Deck Cascade Swans. Not just a Regional Top 4 deck anymore, Cascade Swans has just taken a Grand Prix title!

I used Parth Modi’s version of Cascade Swans, as (as I mentioned in the previous blog post) I used to make this video before the deck went and won a Grand Prix. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, here is ye olde deck list:

2 Ad Nauseam

4 Bituminous Blast
4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Swans of Bryn Argoll

4 Seismic Assault

4 Reflecting Pool
4 Graven Cairns
4 Cascade Bluffs
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Treetop Village
4 Spinerock Knoll
4 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Marsh
1 Mutavault
4 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Mountain

sideboard:
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Vexing Shusher
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Aura of Silence
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Ad Nauseam

So a lot of people have been asking why I haven’t made a video in forever.

It is actually a different answer than why I didn’t update this blog for like half a month.

Basically remember when MTGO was super slow and it was un-possible to get a game? That short spell kind of got me in the habit of not playing MTGO for a while, and then every format got super boring due to not being in step with the actual Constructed formats due to set differences. I’d say that all of that is behind us… but instead I just hope that you like this video.

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Birds of Prey Vol. 5: Perfect Pitch

Offense? Out of a U/W Control deck?

The U/W ‘Tron deck has such powerful mana production that it can produce some awfully awful threats. This video shows off the ‘Tron offense including Sundering Titan and the Mindslaver lock.

What is the Mindslaver lock? Check out the video already!

This video observes the U/W ‘Tron deck disrupting the opponents’ strategies with key sideboard cards like Chalice of the Void, Tormod’s Crypt, and Vendilion Clique. While not one of these cards will win against a top deck all by its lonesome, as part of a cohesive strategy and backed by the power of the UrzaTron, these cards can reduce some of the most dangerous decks in the metagame into jelly.

U/W ‘Tron – Nicholas Gulledge

4 Azorius Signet
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Chrome Mox
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Mindslaver
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion

4 Condescend
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Spell Burst
4 Thirst for Knowledge

2 Decree of Justice
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Wrath of God

1 Academy Ruins
2 Flooded Strand
4 Hallowed Fountain
1 Mystic Gate
1 Plains
2 Tolaria West
4 Urza’s Mine
4 Urza’s Power Plant
4 Urza’s Tower

sideboard:
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Sower of Temptation
1 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Vendilion Clique

I liked testing this deck.

I would consider playing a deck like this — especially for post-Conflux with Path to Exile and Martial Coup — but with Remand. Remand and Condescend help set up the ‘Tron and protect any lead the deck can generate. But hey! I’m the kind of person willing to play a Solemn Simulacrum in Extended.

LOVE
MIKE

Since Luis Scott-Vargas won Grand Prix Los Angeles (and Asher did pretty well on top), Storm has become one of if not the most popular deck in Extended. Following is a two-game match exploring the Storm mirror.

For this video I used Luis Scott-Vargas’s version of Storm, which is:

4 Lotus Bloom

2 Tendrils of Agony

4 Mind’s Desire
4 Peer Through Depths
4 Ponder
4 Remand
2 Sleight of Hand

2 Electrolyze
4 Manamorphose

4 Desperate Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song

3 Cascade Bluffs
4 Dreadship Reef
3 Flooded Strand
2 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Steam Vents

Sideboard
2 Ad Nauseam
3 Brain Freeze
3 Echoing Truth
2 Gigadrowse
3 Pact of Negation
2 Shattering Spree

Here are some things you will notice about this deck…

1. Luis played main deck Electrolyze. This could theoretically have been Magma Jet (which is cheaper but less versatile against the one toughness creatures in Faeries), or nothing at all (as in Asher’s deck); the Grapeshot version can just Grapeshot Gaddock Teeg to death (though not Ethersworn Canonist).
2. Luis killed with Tendrils of Agony. It’s tricky, but you can Remand your own Tendrils and re-play it to create a lethal out of smoke, provided you have enough Lotuses and Manamorphoses to produce sufficient Black to play and re-play the Storm sorcery.
3. The big one is Shattering Spree in the sideboard. One of the cards I was using to beat Storm “back in the day” (at least before the Grand Prix) with the MWC deck was Chalice of the Void. That probably isn’t going to be a solution moving forward. The White deck is probably not fast enough to kill the Storm deck before a solution to Chalice of the Void can be found, especially when the best ineractive card has Replicate.

Storm is a deck that you will want to know; it is very popular (meaning you probably have to know how to beat it at least once or twice to win a PTQ) and an elite deck against Faerie Wizards (another pretty popular deck).

Storm is a powerhouse, and as you can see in the video (if you don’t have a lot of first hand experience with the deck) it is like a bulldozer stapled to a mongoose… nigh-inexorable kryptonite-locked to fast.

The video is pretty funny, especially the Game Three situation where I have double Tendrils, Brain Freeze-Remand-Brain Freeze with the second-to-lethal Tendrils on the stack. It can play tight margin mana with Tendrils and just enough Storm copies, or with sufficient momentum will do a thousand or so damage while decking the other guy the same turn.

Ka-blooey.

LOVE
MIKE

… And we’re back!

After a multiple week hiatus, here comes the first of the new wave of video updates, this time focusing on Michael Jacob’s B/G Aggro Rock.

In case you haven’t seen Michael’s superb Swiss-crushing deck from the most recent Grand Prix Los Angeles, here it is:

Michael Jacob – Aggro Rock

3 Umezawa’s Jitte

3 Bitterblossom
4 Darkblast
3 Raven’s Crime
2 Slaughter Pact
3 Thoughtseize

4 Kitchen Finks
3 Putrefy
1 Worm Harvest

4 Life from the Loam
4 Tarmogoyf

4 Barren Moor
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forest
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Mutavault
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
2 Tranquil Thicket
2 Twilight Mire
3 Windswept Heath

Sideboard
1 Pithing Needle
3 Damnation
3 Extirpate
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Choke
2 Ravenous Baloth
2 Seal of Primordium

This deck more or less exchanges the usually defining Death Cloud set from the Life from the Loam versions of The Rock for Tarmogoyf, Bitterblossom, and Umezawa’s Jitte, repositioning the deck from board control to beatdown… while maintaining the card advantage capabilities of the [previously] more common deck.

The biggest take away I have from trying Jacob’s deck is how much better it is against Burn than the Death Cloud version I was on early in this season’s testing. Beating Burn was simply not difficult nor in any way stressful wheresas with Death Cloud, even when you won, you were on the edge of your seat the whole time.

An inability to win by Death Cloud is counterbalanced a little bit by the fact that this deck can still potentially lock the opponent down with Raven’s Crime. Even against Burn this can be useful because even if they are still clocking you for two or more damage you can end up shaving off their options and preventing them from planning — and playing — optimally.

All in all a very solid deck, well worth the try if you are considering B/G.

Here is ye olde video:

LOVE
MIKE

This is the “unacceptable” discussion and “solution” (if you can call it that) to You Make the Play – enCRYPTed.

… And the first You Make the Play Video response!

To refresh everybody’s memory, it was Game Three against ‘Tron. We had two up, Spellstutter Sprite in hand, fully loaded Archmage on the table and UU up.

The opponent presented Tormod’s Crypt.

The board looked more-or-less exactly like this:

So what is the what?

The first question is, do we care about a Tormod’s Crypt?

We don’t care about graveyard recursion overmuch; what we care about is that the Tormod’s Crypt can keep up from doubling up with Archmage Persist-ence.

So the first question is whether we should be doing anything about it.

I think — and it will be obvious from my “solution” to the board position — that I thought it would be worth dealing with (I care[d] about my half of an Archmage).

So the next question is, assuming we care, what we are going to do.

I have to admit that at the time (I am sure I was watching Gossip Girl out of the corner of my eye) that I didn’t even consider using the Archmage to defend the Archmage. To me, it was Spellstutter Sprite 2-for-1 or nil.

So I went for the Sprite.

Results were disastrous.

Obviously he was the super uber miser, and had not just natural ‘Tron, Ghost Quarter, and a significant threat, but Mindslaver as well.

Ka-pow!

Mindslaver connected.

Archmage died without ever doing anything profitable for michaelj (AKA Number One).

Interestingly if I had used the Archmage, I would have been in a pretty similar position (albeit with one more Mana Leak). I would have been obligated to eat the Mindslaver anyway. That said, I think using the Archmage to stop the Tormod’s Crypt was the best play.

Pat Chapin — who called my Spellstutter Sprite / terrible read “unacceptable” when I talked to him about it — said he would have done nothing. “You realize you are talking about pulling down your pants to a potential Mindslaver in order to save half a card, right?” (He said something like that).

But what is really interesting is all the things that happened next. Check that action out here:

I’m sure you loved every minute!

Oh, and before I forget – Congratulations to Joshua Scott Honigmann who won a Kentucky PTQ with a Mono-White Control deck similar to what we have been discussing the past couple of days. You go Temple of the False God!

This is actually Game Two of the previous post’s brawl between Zoo and the Lightning Bolt Deck.

Check out the SWOT on the Lightning Bolt Deck to find out!

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. Here is Jon Finkel’s Lightning Bolt Deck from the 2008 World Championships:

3 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Incinerate
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Rift Bolt
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Spark Elemental
4 Sulfuric Vortex

4 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
12 Mountain

Sideboard
4 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Firespout
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
4 Smash to Smithereens

I have been calling this deck the Lightning Bolt Deck largely for want of a better name.

Basically the deck has every “bad” Lightning Bolt reprint from Spark Elemental and Lava Spike on one (Lightning Bolts that can’t kill Hypnotic Specters) to Incinerate on two (Lightning Bolt for twice the cost).

In all seriousness, the critical mass of burn in the Lightning Bolt Deck can help win the game very quickly (as in the video itself). This deck is definitely on my short list.