How long have I been playing this game? The stats in the app say it all really. Not an amazing win percentage.
But still I love the game, whether it’s the digital version or the physical version (not played nearly often enough).
I try and post gameplay that stands out in some way from my regular games. This one gets a bit crazy in the later stages.
Wow was Saturday afternoon really my first Standard Showdown?
But what is Standard Showdown? It’s a weekly event where players turn up with their constructed standard decks and compete over a series of rounds for a special showdown booster pack. It costs a fiver at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole to enter, and at a minimum you get a regular booster pack for participating.
The previous weekend I had given my Golgari Stompy deck a test run against, as it would happen another Golgari deck. And it did ok in that match up. But how would it do against the meta at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole?
I’d spent the morning waiting for the post person to deliver our letters. I was hoping some cards for the new Commander deck might turn up. If there was time later I was hoping to give the new deck a play. I had alternatives I could play in the deck if they didn’t turn up. I left it to the absolute last minute possible before leaving. But no sign of the post person.
Round 1
I was up against Michael nephew of Kar-Fai. And both taking part in this Standard Showdown. Michael has infect in one of his Commander decks. That should tell you all you need to know about him! Michael was playing mono green.
Game 1 – “mana screwed: not having enough mana” I had none. That’s despite mulliganing down to 5 cards. I went with 5 cards and no lands, risking I would draw into one quickly. It was the wrong call. I got no lands at all until it was too late and I was going to die. This happens from time to time in the game, no point getting upset over it. Kar-Fai was suffering from being mana screwed too. However he had a couple of lands, just not enough. I could have done a lot with a couple of lands, I was jealous.
Game 2 – I took a lot of early damage. But managed to stabilise at 1 life! Even went back up to 3 after a Vraska’s Contempt! If Michael had been playing red I might have been worried about being lightning bolted to defeat. But he was mono green. Which allowed me to turn the tables and take the win.
Game 3 – The deciding game. A bit more balanced but Michael took the win.
Final score: Loss 1-2
Afterwards while waiting for the next round Michael and I had a Friendly game with our decks. This time it played exactly as designed and swept me to the victory!
Round 2
In this round I was up against Dean and his white (can’t remember if he was playing another colour) token spam deck.
I lost both games, I just had no answer for the token spamming and the pumping up of them. I was able to remove an enchantment in a game to delay the inevitable but it was in reality a token (yes I went there) gesture.
Final score: Loss 2-0
Round 3
Saw me claim my first win of the tournament by default with a bye! So I used that time wisely taking lots of photos. It was an interesting round because it saw 2 uncle against nephew games. Dean crushed his young nephew. Which wasn’t a surprise, we tease Dean about exploiting his nephews for promos etc. Kar-Fai got beat by his nephew Michael. What added to the defeat was the fact Michael’s deck was built for him by Kar-Fai.
Round 4
The final round of the Standard Showdown was the rematch of last weekends game against John the store owner. Would John get his revenge? I felt that things were lining up for that to be the case.
Game 1 – I ended up winning with 4 weenies ( 1/1 creatures). I just didn’t draw into any big creatures.
Game 2 – My deck just worked, John never really drew into any answers. So once again I had defeated John in the battle of our decks.
Final score: Win 2-0
One person I enjoy playing Magic against is Grant. It’s always fun, we seem evenly matched in the games we have played in the past. Sadly in this tournament my poor record meant we never got to play. So Grant kindly accept to play a friendly game with me afterwards. Grant for the record was playing a golgari token spam deck. Which had got him into the top 4!
Game 1 – This token strategy of Grant’s didn’t seem as aggressive as Dean’s. There just didn’t seem as many hitting the battlefield. Enough for me to manage and get through to get the win.
Game 2 – I decided to use the Never Happened in the 60, at the expense of a Chupacabra and a Poisoner. Mainly in the attempt to remove some of the token buffs or creation. It was the best option I had in slowing down the token strategy. I thought I’d give Vraska a chance, so with Mastermind’s Acquisition I went and got her. I got to use her ability a couple of times before falling to the token horde. She bought me a little time if nothing else.
Game 3 – The deciding game. This was a really tense game. It could have gone either way. This time I gave Vivien Reid an outing. Her card draw was really useful, she distracted Grant and bought me time. It’s a shame she is a £20 plus card on eBay. I’d consider a second copy for this deck. But not at that price. However Vivien was the difference that gave me the win.
Really enjoyed the 3 games with Grant. Plus this was a top 4 deck it’d just beat!
Final friendly score: Win 2-1
In the final standings I managed to miraculously end up in 8th out of 12/13. In the participation pack I pulled a 6th Assassin’s Trophy (got my 5th last weekend from the bundle packs I opened). So real happy with that.
Meta round up: some mono green stompy, golgari, token decks (White and Green), and red plus red/blue(?). Will this still be the meta next week? Will there be tweaks being made to cater for decks faced this week?
Potential tweaks for next Standard Showdown
Currently I have no answer to the token spam. John showed me Find//Finality, which is a board wipe (kinda), and should get rid of those pesky tokens. It really is a major weakness of my deck.
I already have a play set of Pilfering Imp already. I like the look of it. Plus it allows me to interrupt the opponents plans. Just need to think is it good enough to replace Skittering Heartstopper? Ritual of Soot is another potential board wipe to consider.
I really enjoyed my first Standard Showdown. It was interesting to see the decks that were making up the meta. Will the meta be similar next week? How much will it have shifted in response to this weeks decks?
This is the final version of the Golgari deck that I played with at The Standard Showdown and the previous weekend against John (the FLGS owner).
For those remotely interested the only real difference between this deck list and the original is that there are now 4 copies of Assassin’s Trophy and Vraska’s Contempt instead of 3 in the main deck, and Duress went to make space for those extra copies. Plus I finalised the sideboard, Tetzimoc, Primal Death was replaced by another Never Happened.
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Skittering Heartstopper
4 Vicious Conquistador
4 Dire Fleet Poisoner
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Nullhide Ferox
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Carnage Tyrant
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
4 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Mastermind’s Acquisition
4 Vraska’s Contempt
6 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
4 Golgari Guildgate (a)
1 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Vivien Reid
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
1 Silent Gravestone
2 Walk the Plank
2 Never Happened
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 The Immortal Sun
Last night was a rare chance to play the 2 player game Targi and a learning game of Spirits of the Forest with Jonathan.
We started off with Targi.
I’d love to see a playmat for Targi, it’s crying out for one.
Still like it a lot. Jonathan didn’t like the fact gold coins were very scarce. But still enjoyed the game. The coins thing didn’t bother me.
Naturally I did better this time. The game ended due to the thief doing a complete circuit of the board. But I did get 11 tribe cards in my tableau. Which was enough for me to get the win.
At last I got my Kickstarter deluxe edition of Spirits of the Forest to the table.
The production value of the deluxe version is stellar. Instead of gem stones in the retail version you get these lovely large patterned plastic stones. The tokens and tiles are lovely thick wood. It’s just a really lovely produced game.
This is one of those abstract games you can teach in minutes, but takes a while to master. And once we feel we’ve reached that point, there are expansions in the box!
You are basically trying to get a majority in each of the 9 spirits, plus the 3 power source symbols. Fail to collect a tile of one of the spirits and you lose 3 points.
I like being able to reserve tiles with your stones. But it doesn’t guarantee you get it. An opposing player can remove one of their stones from the game and return your stone to you and claim the tile you wanted. That’s a nice touch,
Jonathan won both the games we played. But it was great fun playing. Yeah we’ll be playing this again. Be interesting to see how it plays with more players.
Once again as ever our thanks and appreciation to The Luxe Cinema for allowing us to game there.
P.S. Jonathan took some photos of me in gaming action, so naturally I’m sharing them with you.
I’ve mentioned this deck in a couple of previous posts that looked at cards I was going to be using. Sadly for you I built the deck and played it.
I’ll put my usual disclaimer here about my decks, although I missed it with the recent Standard deck I shared on here. But still I’m not claiming these are the best decks in the world, they certainly are not top competitive decks. They are hopefully fun affordable (subjective I know) decks. I don’t try and keep to a target price point, whether budget or money is no limit. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I proxy in expensive cards and produce them when I play. It helps keep costs down. I can’t afford multiple copies of expensive cards to put in decks. Commander is a casual format about having fun. And that is the ethos I hope I have when brewing the decks.
Disclaimer/rant over. Let’s look at the deck.
My Commander for this deck is from the 2018 Commander precons and is Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle. Not only does it turn into a 12/12, it taps for 2 mana, and only costs 4CMC to cast. Which means it can come out pretty early and help with the ramp.
This deck is all about big blue monsters from the depths of the ocean. It really is a deck built around that theme. It’s main tactic is about getting those big monsters out and stomping all over the place. However it has a plan B. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s taking extra turns. The blue version of my mono red plan B of taking extra combat phases. Unlike the green stompy deck there is no massive creatures here that go crazy with +1/+1 counters. However I do like some of the etb effects, to or abilities that mess with the opponents. You want to feel the hate of all the others play Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur. It’s funny because all of a sudden the hand size is zero (unless they have an unlimited hand size).
I know it’s not 100% horrors from the deep, and that I have a handful of creatures that are there for their abilities. But this isn’t a tribal deck so I’m happier about having them in the deck despite them not being entirely on them.
Because my Commander gives me access to Green I’m using that side mainly for the ramp. Mana and lots of it. The main colour of this deck is blue. That gives me access to some classics for removal and countering spells. This isn’t a control deck. But it helps having the tools available to protect a key card, or stop that Planeswalker doing their ultimate.
There should also be a good chance I get to key cards fast. There are cards that allow me to filter my card draw and the classic Rhystic Study for lots of card draw.
I think my favourite card of the deck is Reef Worm. It’s like a Pokemon and keeps evolving! It starts life off so innocently as a 0/1 worm. Then when it dies, it transforms into a 3/3 blue fish. When the fish dies, it sheds it’s scales to become it’s inner 6/6 blue whale. Finally once the whale meets it’s doom it then releases it’s inner 9/9 kraken that has been hiding inside it along. It’s funny how your opponents are so reluctant to attack you with such a small unoffensive 0/1 creature in front of you.
Let’s look at the break down graphic.
I’m not surprised about the AMC being just over 4. Big creatures are not cheap to cast.
I always look at the price of the deck and think “when did that card get so expensive?” You can see why I proxy in the likes Rhystic Study. Who can afford that in every blue deck? It’s a shame that WotC don’t reprint cards like this more and get the price down for the majority of players.
Finally what you have been waiting for the actual deck list…
1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Shore Keeper
1 Coralhelm Guide
1 Thing in the Ice
1 Timestream Navigator
1 Wall of Mist
1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
1 Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle
1 Reef Worm
1 Vizier of the Menagerie
1 Segovian Leviathan
1 Stormsurge Kraken
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Shipbreaker Kraken
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Fleet Swallower
1 Nezahal, Primal Tide
1 Scourge of Fleets
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Elder Deep-Fiend
1 Lorthos, the Tidemaker
1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Deep-Sea Kraken
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Opt
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Stifle
1 Unbridled Growth
1 Anticipate
1 Call to Heel
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Fertile Ground
1 Ground Seal
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Negate
1 Plummet
1 Search for Azcanta
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Cultivate
1 Disallow
1 Drag Under
1 Ever-Watching Threshold
1 Myth Unbound
1 Overgrowth
1 Regress
1 Rhystic Study
1 Vessel of Endless Rest
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Cryptic Command
1 Kiora, Master of the Depths
1 Kiora, the Crashing Wave
1 Time of Ice
1 Whelming Wave
1 Octopus Umbra
1 Time Warp
1 Crush of Tentacles
1 The Immortal Sun
1 Nexus of Fate
1 Scour from Existence
1 Command Tower
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Desert of the Mindful
1 Evolving Wilds
11 Forest
1 Grixis Panorama
13 Island
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Rupture Spire
1 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thornwood Falls
1 Woodland Stream
It was bound to happen. Until now we’d probably been fairly lucky not to require one. But it was time for Fenland Gamers to produce and issue a code of conduct for members attending club meet ups.
I kind of feel sad that we have had to do this. But on the other hand it had to be done.
Sufferers of this blog will remember a couple of incidents I’ve talked about on a couple of posts recently. But there have been other things (involving other people) that created the need for the code of conduct.
There has been a discussion internally, and also a post getting feedback on the sort of stuff to include on a Facebook group that we trust the opinion of the members (not many online forums you can say that about).
A rough draft was then produced and reviewed, and a final version put up on the clubs Facebook page as a post and a pdf. I’ve included a copy of it at the end of the post for those interested or want to use it as the starting point for such a thing for their gaming group/club.
But I think our code of conduct and many others (including the book The Civilized Guide to Tabletop Gaming: Rules Every Gamer Must Live By Teri Litorco) boil down to one basic all encompassing statement (and semi made popular in board gaming circles by the geek/nerd version of marmite Wil Wheaton) , and also the post title “don’t be a dick”.
For me when you read the code of conduct it all seems common sense. Don’t get me wrong I’m not claiming to be an angel and without blame. My mouth often gets me into trouble. I suppose I never really did learn that lesson Dad used to say to me “engage brain before opening your mouth”. However I do try to not swear or other inappropriate language, out of respect for my fellow gamers, and the public place that we use for our meet ups and the people that are outside of the group using the location we are at. I may not be 100% at that, but I hope I’m close to it. We did stop using a location because of the inappropriate language/views of the some of its staff.
I’m hoping that this is the last time as a club we have to address this issue, that these help us remain a friendly, inclusive gaming group.
At the time of writing, the post about the code of conduct, out of about a 100 members of the Facebook group, only 37 have viewed it. So slightly more than a third of the group. A little disappointing, but then again this is Facebook and it works in mysterious ways when deciding what to show in people’s timelines.
So here it is for your reading pleasure, the…
FENLAND GAMERS CODE OF CONDUCT
Gaming is supposed to be an enjoyable experience for all, so please don’t ruin it for others with your behaviour when gaming with us. There is a lot of overlap on this list, but please read through and if you see yourself in any of the sections, please take them on board. Each section is summed up by five rules:
1. Treat other people’s property with respect.
2. Play to your best ability.
3. Concentrate on the game.
4. Remember your environment and know your fellow gamers.
5. Respect our group rules.
1. TREAT OTHER PEOPLE’S PROPERTY WITH RESPECT
Our hobby is an expensive one. Games cost money; sometimes a lot of money (the average game being about £40 – £50. Please treat other people’s games as if they were your own. However, if you treat your games badly, then don’t treat other people’s games as if they were your own! If you’re spotted mistreating other people’s games, expect to be called out on it. If you damage a game then you should be prepared to pay for a replacement.
A game’s owner sets the rules on how the game is to be handled (i.e. food around the game) and must be respected.
Stop being heavy-handed and bending the cards. This is really frustrating and you can be expected to be called out on it.
If you have a drink on the table (and we encourage you to buy at least a drink from our generous hosts) please be extra careful with it. Where possible, use a side table to stand your drink on.
If you damage another person’s game, you should expect to replace it or pay for a new copy.
Don’t riffle-shuffle game cards; it doesn’t matter how good you think you are at it!
Stop eating those greasy foods while handling any games and be aware that barrier creams and hand lotions are also sometimes grease-based.
2. PLAY TO YOUR BEST ABILITY
Don’t cheat. There are times when we get a rule wrong, or unintentionally ‘cheat’; if this happens during a game and is noticed, either by yourself or other players, it should be called out as soon as it is noticed. The group playing will agree upon an acceptable solution. However, if you’re caught deliberately cheating then you can expect to be removed from Fenland Gamers without warning, and asked not to attend again. We don’t play games with cheats.
Losing is all part of gaming. Be gracious when you lose. Remember we’re supposed to have fun and it’s only a game.
When you begin a game, you are expected to play for the duration of it (unless all players decide to end the game early). Play to your best ability and play to win. Make the best move possible to improve your position in the game, even if you have no chance of winning.
3. CONCENTRATE ON THE GAME
Please listen while the rules are being explained. I know there’s a lot to take in and, if you are unsure of something, clarifications will be given while playing, but it gets tiresome when the rules are being explained and those participating are not giving their undivided attention (especially if they start asking lots of questions once the game begins).
It’s OK to have a phone at the table and the odd text is acceptable, as is taking photos and using a score tracker to record end-game scores, but to be constantly checking your phone while gaming is rude. Even more so when it’s your turn.
4. REMEMBER YOUR ENVIRONMENT AND KNOW YOUR FELLOW GAMERS
Banter around the table can be fun and its kind-of expected when gaming, but once again, know your fellow gamers. If someone asks you to stop, please make sure you do so. What’s acceptable to one person, might not be acceptable to another.
Harassment will not be tolerated. Any misconduct will result in you being removed from Fenland Gamers without warning, and asked not to attend again.
Please make sure you have permission to take photos, especially if they are to be used on social media.
Please bear in mind that we play at a public place, so think before you use those expletive words (you know what they are). I know you can’t help it, but some people find bad language unacceptable when used in a public place.
As we welcome members from the age of 12 (when accompanied by an adult with parental responsibilities), please be extra careful with your expert language skills when under 18s are present.
Know your fellow gamers when planning on attending gaming night. The likelihood of getting that ‘down-the-pub’ game played at gaming night is slim.
If you participate in a game, please offer to help pack the game away when finished.
Please have good personal hygiene.
5. RESPECT OUR GROUP RULES
When gaming with us, we expect you to abide by any rules set down by those hosting the game (i.e. when playing at The Luxe Cinema, the cinema has the right to set rules for its own establishment while we’re gaming there).
Fenland Gamers operate on the ethos of being ‘free at point of use’, therefore we do not charge any subs or fees for our meet-ups. However, we do ask that any food or beverages are purchased from the venue (usually The Luxe Cinema). Do not abuse this by bringing your own food/drink to consume.
In the ‘Events’ section of the Facebook group, you’ll find our planned sessions. Please use this to register for the event itself. It’s not always necessary or possible to do so, but if you can, it helps plan what games to bring along. If we only think that 4 players will be in attendance, it’s often difficult when 5 players turn up, as games are often selected for their player count.
Generally, an open gaming session is for any number of players to attend, but a closed session is by invite only.
Please try and be punctual. However, if you are running late, drop us a message and let us know as soon as possible. If you arrive late and a game has begun, you may not get a game until the current game is finished. We usually will spend about 10 minutes chatting after the advertised start time and before a game begins, to allow for late arrivals, but there is no guarantee of this. We’ll try to be accommodating where possible but if you’re late, you take the risk of not getting a game.
We welcome members between 12 and 112, but please note that to comply with the law and for safeguarding purposes, members under 18 must be accompanied by an adult with parental responsibilities (that is a parent or legal guardian). We do not accept ‘in loco parentis’.
WARNINGS
This Code of Conduct should be pretty easy to follow. If your behaviour is really far from it, though, we might decide to try not to game with you again.
If you break our own personal expectations, we might choose not to play with you.
But if you repeatedly break the Code of Conduct, here’s what we’ll do:
First occasion will be a warning.
Second time you’ll get a warning and a three month ban.
Third time and you’re out! We want to keep Fenland Gamers safe, fun and welcoming.
If your behaviour is deemed as serious (i.e. harassment or deliberate cheating) you’ll be removed from the group without warning.
Every now and again I like to do a post that updates my list of ideas for Commander decks.
Since the last post which was back in July I’ve built the Muldrotha and Horrors from the Deep (deck listing coming soon) decks. I also have an unplanned and untested mono red Goblins deck built.
So what has sparked this update? Driving in to work Monday I had an idea for a new Commander deck based on one of the new cards from Guilds of Ravnica, as you do.
I have to admit when I first saw the legendary creatures for Guilds of Ravnica I wasn’t inspired to build any decks round them. The card that I was thinking of was not a legendary creature. The card inspiring me was Divine Visitation. This card is crying out for a token spam strategy. Apart from my Elf deck, I don’t really do token decks. I go big normally not wide. Having said that my dragon deck has been known to go wide (unintentionally).
But who would my commander be? Then I remembered Trostani Discordant (pulled as a foil at the weekend) but not the colours. I knew it had white, but did it have green?
As luck would have it, it did. I was starting to like this card. It’s 3 abilities were also pretty cool. There is the anthem effect of +1/+1 to other creatures, then an etb generating 2 1/1 tokens (that instantly become 2/2), and the final ability I love, if a nasty opponent steals her away I get her back. And I looove the art on this card.
I already have copies of 2 key components to the main strategy of spamming out tokens and turning them into 4/4 angels. I don’t think I’ve used Anointed Procession at all in a deck, so I’m chuffed that there is a deck that I’m going to be using it in. Doubling Season a classic that doesn’t need explaining.
If by some chance I’m allowed to have all 4 cards out at the same time, that’s 8 4/4 angels that get +1/+1 so 5/5 angels.
So naturally for this new deck I want to be utilising blink/flicker effects on my Commander. I also want cards that create tokens, and I definitely will have to research what tutor cards are available in white and green. Idyllic Tutor was top entry in a quick Google search for white.
So that’s my initial thinking for this new deck. I can see it pushing the others that have been on the list to the back once more.
Here is the new list of deck ideas.
Right I’m off to trawl edhrec for ideas.
If there was one character I’ve read longer than Judge Dredd it would be Johnny Alpha aka Strontium Dog. Alpha joined 2000 A.D. from the comic Starlord, along with one or two other characters. Teenage me would love having the opportunity to play a Strontium Dog miniatures skirmish game. He loved playing the 8-bit video games on his Spectrum and C64. This definitely would have pushed his little geek buttons.
So it would appear I was wrong about the Strontium Dog skirmish game. I double checked my assumption about the game by looking at some unboxing videos for it on YouTube. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had complete figures inside, and not bits of plastic I would have to cut off sprues, and then having to glue together. It’s the bit I hate the most about miniatures gaming. I’m just about warming to the idea of painting the figures. I just don’t get the whole cutting, gluing, and painting for days and weeks before you can even start playing the game.
For some reason after the disappointment that was Tabletop Gaming Live I seem to have come away from the show thinking that the Strontium Dog skirmish game did involve that awful activity. Maybe my fading memory was blurring memories together. I definitely remember looking at the base set box on the stand at the show and seeing sprues. Maybe I was confusing the sprues that the games plastic counters are on with being for the figures?
So despite the very tempting bundles that Warlords offer for the Strontium Dog skirmish game I went with the starter box. I’d like to try the game before going all in. By purchasing through the official web store for Warlords I got the bonus Strontium Dog with electro-nux figure. I also added to the cart the rocky terrain pack they sell. It gives a bit more scenery to use with the base set, and also can be used with Last Days.
The nice touch with this starter set as far as I’m concerned is that it comes with some mdf terrain bits to start playing with. Luckily there should not be any major problems getting more stuff for terrain etc. Anything released for the Fallout skirmish game should be usable with Strontium Dog. I’d also look at Wild West buildings. One or two of the comic strips had them outback looking for their bounties. And it would seem that a heavy influence for those outback communities and their buildings were the old west.
I like that personal touch of naming the people who put your order together. Doesn’t add anything to the game. But it creates a connection to the company.
So once I’ve finished painting up these zombie ladies (not found how to paint the tights/stockings on these yet. Not sure best approach to use.) and a couple of squads, I’ll start on Strontium Dog.
Saturday I went over to my friendly local purveyor of fine luxury cardboard rectangles (nicked that from the MTG Historian YouTube channel) or FLGS The Hobbit Hole as it is also known.
Old age had been playing its cruel tricks on me in the days leading up to the weekend. For some reason I’d thought there was another store champs happening, and had been building/updating my Standard deck (see my Golgari deck list – although it’s slightly out of date now and I’ll have to update it).
It was in fact Magic League time. I was there already, I had to be to pick up some product. So thought why not? Opening packs and building decks is always fun. Although history should have taught me by now I never do great with my pulls in these sealed events.
I ended up throwing my red and white pulls together to make a Boros deck. It was a deck, not a great deck, used the throw spaghetti against wall and see what sticks method. Others there seemed to be taking the whole thing a lot more seriously, and spending a lot of time analysing cards and building their most optimal deck.
So while that was going on John (the pusher of fine luxury cardboard rectangles) and myself had a game of standard using our standard decks that we are planning to use in the standard showdowns (which start next weekend).
It was Golgari vs Golgari. A mirror match up? Not quite. Johns plan and cards were based around the graveyard and the undergrowth mechanic. Mine as you saw in the deck list (even with the tweaks) is an aggro deck. It’s creatures and removal. If you include the Ravenous Chupacabra and Thrashing Brontodon there is 13 pieces of removal of one form or another in the 60. Something that it would turn out plays into John’s plan. Apparently the more competitive regular players at the shop play a lot of removal or denial in their decks. So now I have a little bit of info on the meta I might be facing next weekend.
Anyway in our first game it came down to one moment. It was fairly evenly balanced. I’d been removing John’s creatures with my removal suite, that had pumped John’s creatures. He had a 12/12 flyer on the board because of this. I was empty handed, and needed an answer. I needed to top deck a solution. Ideally as John said at the start of my turn, some removal. I didn’t draw any of my removal. But I did draw the next best thing. Masterminds Acquisition. Plus I had the mana to cast it and cast the solution I fetched. I went to my sideboard and fetched my walk the plank. Obviously I remove the threat and swung in for the win.
Our second game was more one sided. John did get his Vraska, Golgari Queen out and use her +2 ability once. He was lucky I didn’t have any open mana at the time. But my turn was easy, I cast my Vraska’s Contempt and got rid of her. There seems to be a bit of poetry of removing Vraska with her own contempt! I was also building up a few creatures on the battlefield, dealing damage, and finally swinging in with lots of lethal.
It was interesting to see the two different approaches to the same guild. Obviously John was building for the meta he plays in. While I built for a play style I like, and not knowing what meta I’ll be up against. It was also reassuring to see my deck work as planned and great to test it.
I did get my butt handed to me in my single Magic League game. The only notable thing was they were playing a 3 colour deck, oh and unlike me put thought into their deck.
To go with my haul, I bought 3 copies of the 3 cost Pitiless Gorgan, and 2 copies of Demotion. Those 5 cards were 90p. I do like Pitiless Gorgan, not just the art, but as a 3 drop to play.
I’ll go over my pulls from the haul in another post.
Have 2 weeks passed already? A Friday evening gaming and a monthly meetup in the same week, that’s always a good week. Jonathan had repaired the table. Which I’m very grateful for. He saved the day.
According to the Facebook event we were expecting to be a total of 3 turning up. But ended up as 7 in total. It’s a bit annoying when this happens because we generally use the information from the event page to help guide what games to take along.
We split into 2 groups. James and I played a learning game of Targi. Whilst the other 5 played Forbidden Sky. I bought Targi as a purchase of opportunity at Tabletop Gaming Live the other weekend. It had been on my radar since Zee looked at it on the Dice Tower YouTube channel earlier in the year.
Targi is a 2 player worker placement game, with some set collection thrown in. Because of the number of players playing the other game James and myself were playing on a table that was just big enough for the main board. We had to use chairs for the player tableaus.
I liked the robber mechanic used in the game. It acts as a timer for the game for starters. Once the robber has completed a circuit of the board the game ends, unless the other game end trigger happens first. The robber is also used to block actions. As the robber moves on to a space, that space is not available for selection that round by players. And finally there are 4 spaces (the corners) on the board that when the robber lands on them trigger the players having to give up resources,gold or victory points.
The whole taking turns to select actions on the outside of the board, and not being able to select a row column occupied by the other player is nice. Because you are also getting to take the tribe or goods card in the middle where your Targi intersect, you are having to try and balance between choosing actions you really want and getting the goods/tribe card in the middle you really want. Sometimes these are mutually exclusive. I love the fact you only take the actions selected at the end of the round when you remove the counter. You get to select the order things resolve. That way you get to make sure you have the resources needed to buy that tribe card.
It’s cool the middle area of the board is constantly changing as you use the goods or buy the tribe card there. Especially when the used card gets replaced by its opposite. So a tribe card gets replaced by a goods card, and vice versa.
There is no resource hogging in this game, you are not allowed more than 10 goods and 3 gold to carry over between rounds. Any excess gets returned to the general supply.
The set collection element of the tribe cards for your tableau is nice. The fact they only score on complete rows of 4 is a great touch. Either player getting 12 tribe cards in their tableau also triggers the end of the game.
You can probably tell there is a lot to this game. I haven’t covered everything, about 80% or 90% of it. It actually took longer to play than I thought it would for a 2 player game. Maybe that’s because it was our learning game. But still it was a very enjoyable game, and definitely one I’m glad to add to my collection of 2 player games. The only issue with this whole game category is they don’t get played often enough.
Oh the history books will record that James beat me by a narrower margin than I thought it would be. I think there were 4 points between us, and that’s despite him having a complete 12 card tableau to mine incomplete one of half the cards.
As luck would have it both games finished at roughly the same time.
Our second game of the evening was a members favourite, the dice bluffing game Perudo. This time I was able to bluff my way to victory.
We finished the evening off with Small Detectives. A great little find by Jonathan, and still enjoyable. I think this was the first time I’d played it at the full player count of 5. Not sure if the optimal player count is 3 and 4 for this game. 5 players meant I was being blocked a lot of the time, I saw only one tile before Jonathan correctly guessed the solution. So it worked out in his favour, he got to see enough to make a correct guess. I did suspect and was proved correct afterwards that one player (the tablebreaker) had been cheating and making a note of the suspects and weapons they’d seen on their phone. It’s a memory game, you have 6 things in total to remember. I’m not impressed by this person as you may be able to tell. Still no apology for breaking the table. Although Jonathan did make a brave attempt at defusing any tension, and the elephant in the room by making light of the table incident. Jonathan compliments me quite well, he’s a better human being than me. I still had as little to do with the tablebreaker as possible.
It was a great evening of gaming. The staff at The Luxe were super amazing as usual. Fantastic hosts.
I needed a Standard deck to play at Standard Showdown. A few of the cards that I used in my mono black aggro deck had just rotated out. So I used this as an opportunity to update it to a green/black or golgari deck. The Assassin’s Trophy when I saw it kind of put that idea into my head.
So the “classic” combo of Llanowar Elves with Steel Leaf Champion were obvious additions. But what else? Well because this is stompy, Ghalta and Carnage Tyrant were also must adds.
I still kept the Mastermind’s Acquisition, it allows me to run some single copies of cards,and to go into my side board for an answer or even my library. That card has saved me a couple of times in the past.
As you can see I finally decided after a week of flip flopping to settle on Skittering Heartstopper. The deciding factor was it’s ability to still be around after a Chainwhirler.
This should be hopefully a fastish deck. The ideal opening hand has a swamp, forest, one of the dual lands, Llanowar Elves, Steel Leaf Champion, Assassin’s Trophy and any of the 3 or 4 drops. This deck wants to be hitting hard and fast. But I also want it to have the ability to go to a mid to late game if need be. That’s where my 4 drops and above come in. 3 mana allows me to play the majority of my deck.
Here’s the deck break down.
I’m really chuffed with the AMC. I’m fairly happy with the mana curve. If all goes to plan in a game those 3 and 4 CMC cards are coming out a turn early.
I was flipping shocked when I saw how much the deck would cost me to buy if I didn’t have the cards. I’m lucky I had 99% of the cards already. One or two of them have had to come out of a Commander deck or two (I’ve left a card in the decks to remind me what came from where). I could have pushed the cost up of the deck by running a playset of Overgrown Tomb and a full playset of Woodland Cemetry, and I could have justified the cost by saying that they could be used in other decks afterwards. But deep down I know I couldn’t justify the purchase knowing I had the plenty of the slower and cheaper Gates.
Here is the list of cards that make up my Golgari Stompy deck.
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Skittering Heartstopper
4 Vicious Conquistador
4 Dire Fleet Poisoner
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Nullhide Ferox
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Carnage Tyrant
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
2 Duress
3 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Mastermind’s Acquisition
3 Vraska’s Contempt
6 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
4 Golgari Guildgate (a)
1 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Ravenous Chupacabra
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Tetzimoc, Primal Death
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
1 Silent Gravestone
2 Walk the Plank
1 Never Happened
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 The Immortal Sun