Just a quick shout-out for anyone looking for even more Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour Berlin coverage.
Brian David-Marshall is doing a crazy amount of remote blogging on the new Top8Magic.com right now!
A quick for instance… Brian just did a short feature on our friend Andre Coimbra who made Day Two with a Mono-Blue deck that I helped him with. You can check this story at Top8Magic.com as well as several others featuring Steve Sadin, Gabe Carleton-Barnes, Gavin Verhey, wine, tomato soup, and of course Magic: The Gathering.
This is the third video we are doing leading up to PT Berlin 2008 (Extended). The featured deck in question is All-in Red. “Five With Flores: PT Berlin Preview – All-in Red” goes from a brief overview of the deck, to a build from last year’s Extended PTQ format, to an update using Shadowmoor threats Demigod of Revenge and Deus of Calamity, to a pair of quick and brutal matches showcasing the power of Seething Song. Super exciting matches and more fun from FiveWithFlores!
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The above is the third deck overview we are planning for this week’s Top Decks on magicthegathering.com.
There have been requests for deck lists from the comments on the FiveWithFlores YouTube channel… So here are the deck lists I used in this video.
Original All-in Red
4 Chrome Mox
4 Arc-Slogger
4 Blood Moon
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Rakdos Pit-Dragon
4 Rite of Flame
2 Rorix Bladewing
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide
18 Mountain
Post-Shadowmoor All-in Red with my changes
4 Chrome Mox
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Deus of Calamity
4 Manamorphose
4 Blood Moon
4 Desperate Ritual
2 Empty the Warrens
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide
18 Snow-Covered Mountain
Sideboard isn’t set yet but I want to mention something I’ve been thinking about (which isn’t in the video)… I don’t know if Skred would be a reasonable sideboard card in this deck. I think a three mana spell like Firespout is probably more reliable than a one mana Skred because you can always get to three, but you don’t necessarily have more than one Snow-Covered Mountain in play. Just throwing that one out there.
I really like playing this deck (as I said in the video it’s super fun to play) and have game play footage for at least another video if not two. So hopefully they will be coming soon (this week, ideally).
This is the second video in anticipation of PT Berlin 2008. The deck in question is Extended Domain Zoo. “Five With Flores: PT Berlin Preview – Domain Zoo” takes us from a brief history of the archetype, to a Magic Online deck editor updating the deck for Shards of Alara, then finally a battle against the other main offensive deck of the format, Ravager Affinity.
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The above is another overview video that I am setting up for the Top Decks column on magicthegathering.com later this week.
This is the first of a couple of videos we are posting in anticipation of PT Berlin 2008. The subject is Extended Affinity (that is, the best offensive deck of all time according to Osyp Lebedowicz). “Five With Flores: PT Berlin Preview – Extended Affinity” takes us from an archetype overview, to morphing last year’s Top 8 deck to incorporate Atog and Fatal Frenzy, and finally to a quick fight with aggro Rock.
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The above is a basic overview video that I intend to post on my Top Decks column on magicthegathering.com this week (crossing my fingers to get 1-3 more finished for the same column). The idea is to do the usual Top Decks analysis for a pre-Pro Tour Berlin format overview article, but enrich the article with some of the stuff we are doing on Magic video side.
Some people are just visual and I think that showing them how decks actually play, how you can swap out certain Magic cards for other cards to tune and template a deck, and then some actual game play, will be helpful in a different way than just the articles.
As with the Red Deck set we did last week, I opened this one up with a Magic Online deck editor screen, and ran though the changes there… Thanks as usual to Brian David-Marshall for the idea.
So in the unlikely event that you’re reading my blog on 26 October 2008… You get a sneak peek of what I am intending for this week’s column.
So I had a really interesting roundabout way of getting to this video.
Originally BDM wanted me to do a “build” from the MTGO deck editor, which ended up being Building the Red Deck (probably not surprising)… But I have always thought it would be useful to actually show readers how decks work instead of just using written words.
That ended up being this one.
The thing was… I mean you can run into anything in the Tournament Practice room, but the first pairing out was almost comical: Mono-Blue deck exhaustion against Vexing Shusher and Demigod of Revenge. But you know what? A match against Kithkin wouldn’t have been a good illustration of how the Red Deck works. A really fortunate pairing actually allowed me to show the various capabilities of the Red Deck, even if it was not thanks to a Tier One opponent.Â
I think this one turned out pretty well (although I hate dead air and there is a fair amount in this one).
Thanks to everybody who has been following Five With Flores here and on YouTube so far.
One of your own had a question:
Hey Mike,
I am a little new to the game, so can you explain to me why someone would want to play the Red Deck that you showed in the first two videos? Isn’t a deck like that under-powered compared to a deck with Wrath of God, Empyrial Archangel, and those kinds of cards?
Thanks in advance,
Joe
Well Joe, there is a long tradition of players underestimating the Red Deck dating all the way back to its first PTQ win in the hands of one Paul Sligh. I am going to try to show you the Red Deck built from the ground up (this format was suggested by my friend Brian David-Marshall of The Week That Was and the Magic Podcasts). I hope it is helpful to you.
If you’ve ever wondered what the world’s biggest Magic strategy writer has to say about the world’s tiniest online role-playing game…
Hey everybody, here is a short video about Dungeons & Dragons Tiny Adventures, a cool Facebook application we have been chatting up at Top8Magic.com on the Magic Podcast. We all love it, we tricked all of our friends into playing it. I am now trying to trick you into playing it so that I have more friends to buff and heal me.
In this follow up to yesterday’s blog post and video, we take a closer look at the Four-color Control deck and watch as Blue brawls another round with the Demigod Deck Wins.
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P.S. The combatants…
My Four-color Control
2 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Shriekmaw
4 Cryptic Command
4 Mulldrifter
4 Remove Soul
4 Bant Charm
4 Esper Charm
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Archon of Justice
4 Wrath of God
4 Flooded Grove
4 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Meadow
Here is a short video following up on the previous post’s topic. It’s the first video I’ve ever attempted; I hope you enjoy it.
Interestingly, now that I think about it, part of the reason that Demigod of Revenge has been so significant against control in Standard and Block is that it is a Phase III card… inexorable given enough time… Whereas many control decks lack a true Phase III.
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Just a thought. Hope you loved the video.
P.S. All the decks that were discussed…
My Four-color Control
2 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Shriekmaw
4 Cryptic Command
4 Mulldrifter
4 Remove Soul
4 Bant Charm
4 Esper Charm
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Archon of Justice
4 Wrath of God
4 Flooded Grove
4 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Meadow
Evan’s Five-color Control
2 Pyroclasm
2 Wrath of God
1 Condemn
1 Nucklavee
4 Mulldrifter
4 Cryptic Command
2 Shriekmaw
2 Negate
2 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Esper Charm
3 Bant Charm
1 Firespout
3 Fulminator Mage
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Cascade Bluffs
2 Flooded Grove
3 Island
2 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Grove
3 Vivid Marsh
Something you might want to read before reading this blog post is my article The Breakdown of Theory from Star City Games. This article outlined my theory for Phases in Magic, how duels progress through three distinct Phases that have particular attributes (quite different from the vague and generally inaccurate early game / mid game / late game typical nomenclature).
The interesting thing that I was thinking about this week is how certain matchups can change in Phase III. The initial example I thought of was my Jushi Blue from New York States 2005 when we went three for three into the Top 8, losing only to one another.
My Top 4 matchup was with a player called Eric Marro with Splice Gifts (whom I had previously beaten in the Swiss). The Gifts matchup was generally considered to be in favor of Jushi Blue (in fact, my friend Julian Levin originally intended to play Gifts but I soundly beat him something like 6-0 the week prior to States and he decided to switch to the good guy team… with fine result). However the interesting thing was that my games with Eric in the Top 4 went verylong — easily to the Phase III stage of the game — and something unexpected happened.
I actually started to run out of “stuff”!
Check out our deck lists:
Flores
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
2 Dimir Aqueduct
10 Island
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
4 Quicksand
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
4 Watery Grave
1 Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
3 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
4 Jushi Apprentice
3 Keiga, the Tide Star
4 Boomerang
3 Disrupting Shoal
4 Hinder
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
2 Rewind
4 Threads of Disloyalty
Sideboard
3 Cranial Extraction
4 Execute
4 Drift of Phantasms
2 Rewind
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
Marro:
1 Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
7 Forest
1 Island
3 Llanowar Wastes
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
5 Swamp
2 Tendo Ice Bridge
1 Watery Grave
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Hana Kami
3 Kagemaro, First to Suffer
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Carven Caryatid
1 Myojin of Night’s Reach
1 Death Denied
1 Farseek
4 Gifts Ungiven
1 Goryo’s Vengeance
4 Kodama’s Reach
2 Putrefy
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Sickening Shoal
1 Soulless Revival
1 Wear Away
Sideboard
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Execute
1 Exile into Darkness
1 Ghost-Lit Stalker
1 Goryo’s Vengeance
1 Grave-Shell Scarab
2 Hideous Laughter
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
2 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rending Vines
1 Shadow of Doubt
My deck — per usual for me designing a Blue deck — was built for speed. It was built for Defensive Deck Speed, answering opponents very quickly, and then tried to accrue sufficient card advantage to overwhelm a Gifts-type opponent by switching to beatdown and protecting Keiga or Meloku for the few turns necessary to force the terminus. The problem was that while I had fast reaction to everything Eric could present in Phases I-II, it seemed like the games could go long enough that he could “come back” just because he had more “stuff” than I did.
In fact, this is a mis-analysis. Gifts should win in Phase III, should it get to a true Phase III position. Jushi is the beatdown; consider:
Remand is a great card, one-for-one. However the opponent still has the card (if not the mana he put into the card) whereas you cycle into something else (which can be an awesome card, or it might be a Dimir Aqueduct).
Mana Leak is a great card on turn two, useless in Phase III if the opponent is careful.
Hinder is like Remand, but stranger… It is one-for-one, but in a really long game, Eric would still have that “countered stuff” in his deck whereas I could at some point be in a position of deck exhaustion.
Unexpectedly — and from a Phases perspective — the Jushi deck wants to keep the match in a deep Phase II. Jushi’s Phase II is better than Splice’s Phase II. Jushi does not have a legitimate Phase III (simply the best Phase II in the format at the time), however it can be trumped by Splice’s legitimate Phase III, should the game come to that point.
I lost both Game Ones to Eric (both in Swiss and in the Top 8)… At the time I blamed it on drawing too many Threads of Disloyalty (which was probably partly true), but I think I may have erred on Misassignment of Game Role! Imagine! Jushi is the beatdown in the Gifts matchup because it can’t withstand a Phase III (Eric overwhelmed me in both the Game Ones he took, going long), complete with a Sculpting of the Perfect Hand on his part.
Well, part of it is that I am working on States decks for 2008… and part of it is that I am kind of worried about losing in Phase III even if I love my deck.
Here is a four-color control deck that is my current favorite deck:
2 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Shriekmaw
4 Cryptic Command
4 Mulldrifter
4 Remove Soul
4 Bant Charm
4 Esper Charm
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Archon of Justice
4 Wrath of God
4 Flooded Grove
4 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Creek
4 Vivid Meadow
Evan’s deck has Cruel Ultimatum… Per my usual designs, I have built my control deck to tap out quickly and for Defensive Deck Speed. Will it lose, lacking a Phase III, in this mirror?
By the by, Memory Plunder in Evan’s sideboard looks pretty saucy for the mirror. I built my deck so that I could theoretically sideboard Knight of the White Orchid for the mirror; you can see what a difference in philosophy that is… I want to start winning in Phase I or Phase II whereas the Erwin / Chapin set wants even more Cruel Ultimatums. Realistically, I think I will have to sideboard Hindering Light to win, nay crush, in the mirror’s long game.