Category Archives: Game day

The Fenland Gamers EDH/Commander Social Contract

Fenland Gamers, Game day, magic, MtG

Yesterday afternoon I spent a pleasant afternoon playing EDH/Commander with a couple of newish club members at our wonderful hosts The Luxe.

This is the second such session that we’ve held now. The plan is to have these monthly, with the next one for October already organised.

These sessions are promoted as casual games, and not competitive.

By casual I mean decks that are a power level no more than a 6 or 7. And to be honest a 7 might be pushing it. To help those planning to come along and play I share the following Commandzone YouTube video.

Which can be summed up with the following image for those that don’t want to spend time watching the video.

The WotC pre-cons each year usually fall in the 4/5 power level range.

I also add the following advice to prospective players wanting to come along and play.

“no mass land destruction and going infinite in a deck is also a no no for casual. It’s not fun.”

I think at the next meet up we need to discuss a cap on the number of extra turns or combat phases a player can do in a row. Trying to tread that narrow path of allowing them, and keeping the game fun for everyone. I think a group consensus needs to be arrived at. My current thinking is 2. But others may have differing opinions.

Naturally there is the unwritten rules such as “don’t be a dick”, and buying refreshments from our hosts and not bringing your own stuff. In fact they are written down now I think about it on the top of the Fenland Gamers Facebook page.

This is basically our social contract for our sessions. Which hopefully means that those attending will have a fun experience.

For me EDH/Commander is my favourite MtG format. I like the social side. Which combines with the political element. The cutting deals, fluid alliances, back stabbing/turning heal! Yes sometimes there is the element of betrayal. Sometimes being good at this part of the game gets you the win, despite having the weakest deck at the table.

There is also an ebb and flow to an EDH/Commander game that I like. One moment a player will be in the ascendancy, becoming the major threat. Deals and alliances are made between the others to control that threat. Once dealt with some-one else usually fills that power vacuum left behind.

I also love that in this format you get to play with cards that formats like Standard or Modern are unplayable. I like tribal decks, or themed ones. My big green stompy, horrors from the deep, and Scarab God zombie decks show this. There are creatures and spells in those decks that just never would see the light of day in other formats.

I’m happy if I get to do something cool during a game. If I win that’s an extra bonus. I didn’t win once yesterday. But I was doing cool stuff. Or I thought it was cool. So I was having a good time. And it can be pretty cool watching others do cool stuff.

For me when competitive EDH/Commander decks are used then we start to lose the elements of the game I get enjoyment from. I appreciate that others may like that side. But the cost of decks goes through the roof, and the game becomes less about having fun, and more about the win at any cost.

There is a reason the format became popular. I believe it is because of the casual nature of the format. Which is captured so well in the official philosophy document.

“Each game is a journey the players share, relying on a social contract in which each player is considerate of the experiences of everyone involved–this promotes player interaction, inter-game variance, a variety of play styles, and a positive communal atmosphere. At the end of an ideal Commander game, someone will have won, but all participants will have had the opportunity to express themselves through their deck building and game play.”

I’m hoping that our groups social contract reflects the formats philosophy, and enables everyone to have fun.

Grifting in the foothills!

Game day, game night

So last week I did get to play some games.

Last Tuesday I finally got Grifters:Nexus to the table. With my friend Nathan being the unfortunate individual coerced into playing.

Grifters: Nexus is the stand alone follow up to the original Grifters. Although they can be combined, and they rule book explains how to do this.

So what does Grifters:Nexus bring to the table? For starters “15 new specialist cards, new mechanisms and a new job card system.”

Naturally the theme remains the same, you are still running a criminal gang in the Dystopian Universe (also shared with Coup and The Resistance) pulling off jobs. The cool down mechanic is still there (which I really like) as is the handbuilding and set collection.

The art is fantastic. I love the art, the characters feel gritty and dystopian.

The job cards are now organised as an inverted pyramid. Which takes up a bit more table space. You can only complete jobs that are completely uncovered. I prefer this to the original piles of jobs. Not all the jobs get put out each game. So this impacts the number of cards that can be collected in a set, and the sets available. It gives a bit of variety.

If I had one complaint it’s that the rule book needs a keyword/mechanic section that explains how that keyword/mechanic works. It wasn’t exactly clear how the abduct mechanic worked from the card itself. But I did manage to work out what was meant (take a random card from an opponent’s hand).

You now have the option when stealing to take the money from either the opponents stash or if they have a specialist with money on them in the hideout from that specialist.

Grifters: Nexus is an enjoyable game. If you liked the original you’ll like this.

I narrowly got the win. Nathan liked the game also. So much I believe he might of added the game to his wish list.

Friday saw Jonathan and me at The Luxe for some gaming. After getting a sneak peek at a game prototype he’s working on, we played Foothills.

Foothills is all about building railways in Wales. Oh and getting the most victory points!

Each player has 5 double sided action cards. On your turn you select a face up action and do that action. You then flip the card, which makes a different action available to you. The nice thing about this is that the mix of actions are not the same for each player. The actions you can take allow you to gain resources, clear subtle, build tracks or stations, use unlocked action spaces or put an action card in front of you in a scoring pile.

Apart from scoring points for clearing a space with rubble on it, or building tracks and stations the end of game bonuses you score are taken from your personal scoring pile. No cards in the pile, no bonuses. So you have to time when to add an action card to the pile. It does get replaced by an action card from a generic supply. But the two sides may not be as sweet as the card you just replaced. Or the scoring bonus might not be as much use.

As a two player game I liked this a lot. It does need space to play. Which we nearly didn’t have enough for on the table we were using.

Ours was a close game, with John winning by a single point, after he got his maths right that is. Otherwise the gap would have been bigger!

Games Played: Grifters:Nexus, Foothills

Another Awesome Jeff’s Birthday Boardgaming Day

Game day

Each year my friend Jeff holds a boardgaming day to celebrate his birthday. I’ve been to the last two (not including this one). And as you will have guessed I was invited to this years celebration.

These game days are used as an excuse to get one of the “big” games to the table. By that I mean games that take possibly lots of table space, but require a few hours to play, such as Twilight Imperium (we played the third edition last year) or Memoir 44 (not usually a long game) as a multiplayer overlord game (the first time I was invited).

This year there were two or three candidates to play depending on the number of players able to attend. The final decision was made Friday evening by Jeff. We were playing five player Civilisation.

I was real happy with that decision. I hadn’t played Civilisation before, and was a game I had wanted to try. Especially with Tapestry going on pre-order in just under 2 weeks time (4/9/19). So when I bore you all with my thoughts on Tapestry I’ll be able to compare the two games.

As you can tell from the photos below Jeff’s copy of Civilisation is a few years (decades even) old. It’s aesthetics have that retro feel to them. And frankly it added to the games charm.

Early on I struck a deal with Jerry agreeing not to attack each other. We were right next to each other and I didn’t want to waste time and resources fighting on that front, when we both had to contend with the others.

I think the politics is an important part of a game like Civilisation. And despite Jeff’s best efforts to disrupt my agreement with Jerry, it held for the duration of the game. I even had a temporary truce with Gavin for three rounds.

The politics and banter are useful tools to get another player to not target yourself, or just as importantly to target a rival.

Around 1pm we stopped for lunch. We were in for a much anticipated treat.

For months like clock work on a Monday evening (after he has consumed it) we get teased with Jeff posting photos of his curry journey. Jeff gets home from work, and cooks a home made curry. And I can tell you now those photos of his food are mouth watering. Trying not to sound crude or imply an innuendo or double entendre, I’ve been wanting to taste Jeff’s curry for a while now. And yes I failed miserably there.

Friday evening we had been teased with “the curry is going to be achari murgh which is a traditional Indian curry rather than a BIR style.” This was Jeff’s own recipe, and for a first effort flippin’ awesome. It was really really tasty, and the spice/heat level was perfect for the hot day of gaming. By that I mean you were left with a nice warm tingle in the mouth after the delicious taste of the curry had left. You don’t want something that is going to leave you sweating and feeling the burn for the rest of the day.

The last few turns conflict was thrown out of the window, and people concentrated on getting cities built for the trade card draw, even if they knew they couldn’t support them, and would lose them.

I really enjoyed playing Civilisation. There is a reason it’s a classic. For me it has one of the important traits of a good big game. That is time just flies by. We may have been playing over 7 hours but it didn’t seem like it. You are engaged through out.

History will show that Jeff once again won on his birthday gaming day. It’s the law that this is the case, and we put up a good showing to make him earn that victory.

I had a most excellent time as Bill and Ted would say.

A big thank you to Jeff for inviting me. Also a big thanks to Gavin for the lift, and I didn’t even have to put out.

A pleasant Thursday afternoon gaming

Game day, magic, MtG

Yesterday afternoon was the complete opposite of Tuesday.

My FLGS for starters was much much busier. MtG and games were going on as the owner was rushed off his feet unpacking and checking a delivery. A lot of new Pokemon stuff had arrived, plus that massive Armada Super Star Destroyer model (see yesterday’s post for a photo of it).

I started off playing some 1v1 Commander. My opponent was testing their new deck which was doing some graveyard shenanigans. My mono red deck was still deciding to play hide and seek with it’s lands. Which proved problematic and gave two relatively easy and predictable wins for my opponent. For the third game I pulled out my tweaked Elf deck. That proved too powerful for my opponent, especially when his elves helped power up my deck.

Afterwards I taught Penny Lane to a friend. Who despite losing loved the game. So much so they want to buy the game when it comes out.

I then had a three player game of Penny Lane, with my friend (shows how much he liked it) and the store owners assistant. I’d not played Penny Lane with more than 2 players since getting it. Despite a slow start, I ended up triggering the end of the game. But my friend managed to grab the win. However the assistant loved the game also, and told the store owner that they will be ordering some copies for the store.

I did point out to them the difference between my copy and the one they would get on release. Which apart from a single Kickstarter exclusive building card, the foiled coins were just cosmetic.

But I was chuffed and taken aback by the reaction from both. I like the game. And wasn’t expecting the reaction I got.

As for my thoughts on playing with 3 players. It’s a slightly different experience than a 2 player game. Your tactics have to change, especially if you are third in the turn order. It means you are most likely not going to get one of the actions to get money. So you either take the first player token, or buy a building (assuming there is one you can afford) and try and get a money engine going with completed coin icons and hopefully the building bought. And it was the later approach I took. But either way you are more or less writing off that turn or turns until you get that engine going and become less reliant on the money action. It’s a different problem to solve. But still really enjoyable.

I had a fun afternoon. A nice combo of MtG and playing a game. No stress. No drama. Playing with great people. Some banter with the owner. Some gossip about the games industry. What else could you want?

Well after seeing the Asmodee UK price sheet for the FFG stuff announced Wednesday, a stiff drink.

Here is a taster. The Marvel Champions Core set is £60. The Marvel Miniatures game £90. The expansions for the miniatures game £35 iirc.

Yeah not cheap. I may rant about this in a future post. Depends how I feel and if I want to waste my breathe shouting about something that won’t change. All I and others that don’t like it can do is vote with our wallets.

Games Played: Penny Lane

Tuesday Commander – Ruined

Commander, Game day, magic, MtG


All I wanted was to play some Commander. Try out the changes I’d done to the mono red aggro deck. Which I really must give a cool deck name. Something like Etali Red Menace or Etali Ground Hog Day.

And that’s how my visit to my FLGS started yesterday. Myself, a friend, and some-one I know/played against had a 3 player game of Commander. My friend was using the Lord Windgrace Commander pre-con from last year. I was mana screwed, watching Windgrace get an abundance of mana. The other player was doing better on the mana front but not able to compete with Windgrace. Despite some pity, the inevitable was only being delayed. The Windgrace deck stomped all over us.

Things went tits up when a fourth player joined us. The omens were not good when they sat down and basically slagged off casual Commander! I paraphrase the words here but the basic gist was “people say that Commander is a casual game, but they are wrong it’s competitive. Everything can be competitive. Do I use my regular deck or my broken deck?” Fortunately they went with a “regular” deck.

And this new person just wouldn’t shut the feck up. Talk about verbal diarrhoea. I was taking a dislike to this person. But I thought I can be strong, it’s just for a game.

But things were only going from annoying to worse.

The only person this annoyance attacked during the game was me. I was being targeted, despite at that point the other two being the bigger threats. I’ve been on the receiving end of this sort of targeting before. It’s not fun.

This guy was ruining the game for me.

So I decided to scoop. I’d had enough. I also let them know what a dick they were.

They did try to apologise, unsure what they had done, and explain it as the way they act is part of their personality. I called them a twat at that point. Trying to use such a weak excuse to justify being a dick. Implying that it’s something they have no control over. Which from personal experience I know is bollocks.

So that was Tuesday afternoon spoiled, even ruined by a dick.

I was going to share the changes in this post. But that can wait for another day. One where I have played them some more.

Epic Ninja Skills

Commander, Deck tech, Game day, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

After taking Mum for her weekly Monday shopping trip to Morrison’s, I needed to play some MtG to unwind.

Luckily my FLGS as regular readers will know, runs a Commander Monday thing for those that find themselves at a lose end on a Monday afternoon.

When I got there all that was going on in store was a game of 40k. So while I was waiting for other Commander players to show up I made some changes to the ninja assassin deck.

Andy and Sam turned up with their Commander decks, and thus combat was started.

I was stuck on 3 mana for a few turns. It didn’t help that Sam countered or removed a couple of pieces that would have aided in me being able to play stuff. Whilst I was basically defenceless Sam then got a few cheap shots in with a 1/1 flyer. I was feeling a bit targeted by Sam.

For a ninja deck, my ninjas were staying rather well hidden. The only one I was able to ninjitsu out was my Commander!

Once my deck started delivering lands and cards so I could start stabilising and doing stuff, I was way behind on the mana front. Luckily Andy saw Sam as more of a threat than me, so he targeted Sam and not me. That really did give me the breathing space to get ready for the moment Sam was killed.

Fortunately for me, in a fitting moment of revenge it was me that delivered the killing blow to Sam.

The showdown between Andy and me was epic. He was casting cards from hand for free. Luckily Rhystic Study and God-Pharaoh’s Statue provided some cost to him. It also helped that he was top decking as well. Andy also had a massive life total. My only chance of victory was Commander damage.

But I was getting to a board state that if Andy didn’t do anything was going to give me the win. My Commander was buffed and unblockable by Andy. Archetype of Imagination really helped with that. Plus all my creatures were ninjas thanks to Conspiracy.

So I was swinging in for 4 Commander damage each turn. And that’s how I won. Sadly for Andy his Cyclonic Rift remained locked deep in his deck.

I like this deck a lot. It’s fun to play. At best I’d say that power wise it’s a 6.

On the way home I started thinking about updating the mono red aggro deck. I’ll play that next.

Ok you are probably at least curious about the changes I made to the deck. So for your entertainment and great comedic effect here is the section of the post that lists version 2 of the deck.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for my decks.

“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. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

16 new cards (bold italics below), which sees lands decrease to 34 from 37. The lands also see a rejig with the number of basic lands dropping also to make room for some more non-basic lands, including the new staple (for me anyway) Lotus Field.

I’ve added a bit more removal that allows me to handle Planeswalkers. But still nothing that allows me to get rid of enchantments specifically. I’m still relying on the rather blunt instrument of bouncing all permanents back to hand. Not ideal. But for now it’ll have to do.

Creatures:36

1 Changeling Outcast
1 Hired Poisoner
1 Mist-Cloaked Herald
1 Pilfering Imp
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Cerulean Drake
1 Daring Saboteur
1 Duskmantle Operative
1 Metropolis Sprite
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Warkite Marauder
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Eyeblight Assassin
1 Mist-Syndicate Naga
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Slippery Scoundrel
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Throatseeker
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow (Commander)
1 Azra Smokeshaper
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Ingenious Infiltrator
1 Moonblade Shinobi
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Storm Sculptor
1 Fallen Shinobi
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ninja of the New Moon
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Throat Slitter
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Silent-Blade Oni

Spells:30

1 Bag of Holding
1 Brainstorm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Price of Betrayal
1 Scheming Symmetry
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Pillar of Origins
1 The Elderspell
1 As Foretold
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Golden Demise
1 Icon of Ancestry
1 Rhystic Study
1 Urza’s Incubator
1 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Mass Manipulation
1 Mastermind’s Acquisition
1 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Conspiracy
1 Devastation Tide
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Vanquisher’s Banner
1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue
1 The Immortal Sun

Lands:34

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Barren Moor
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Command Tower
1 Cryptic Caves
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate (a)
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Gateway Plaza
1 Guildmages’ Forum
1 Halimar Depths
5 Island
1 Isolated Watchtower
1 Jwar Isle Refuge
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Lotus Field
1 Morphic Pool
1 Mortuary Mire
4 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Unknown Shores
1 Watery Grave

So now you know the cards in the deck, it’s time for those pointless graphs.

What do you think of the changes?

I’m thinking I might try and squeeze in the leylines. Not sure what they would replace.

Silent but deadly

Commander, Deck tech, Game day, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

For the holidays my FLGS is running daily events on the days it’s open. Luckily for me there were a handful of us with spare time and a Commander deck at the store to play some Commander yesterday afternoon.

My initial activities at the store involved me putting the finishing touches to my Ninja Assassin deck. I’d got the majority of the cards I needed. I just hadn’t put the finishing touches to it. So I added some new Core Set 2020 “staples”, plus I took one or two cards out of my Scarab God Zombie deck.

It certainly could do with some optimisation. But as a “first draft” check I’m I’m along the right lines and that the general game plan works, it’d do.

I also got a rather nice fancy deck box for it. That fancy box being the Dragon Shield N100+ (or something like that).

It’s like a slim version of an Ultrapro deck box I have. The Ultrapro box is rather fancy, and was extremely difficult to get hold of at the time. These cool Dragon Shield N100+ boxes are easy to get for starters. Which is a big big plus.

We managed a couple of Commander games. The first one was a 3 player (Glen, Alex and myself) game, and I had Grafdigger’s Cage out, and it was keeping Glen’s deck under control. It stopped him using some graveyard shenanigans. So Alex kept attacking me! Naturally once I was out of the picture Glen was able to step up his game, use those shenanigans I’d kept under control and win.

Our second game was a five player game. Most of us had our moments, and were able to do something pretty cool. I particularly liked that I was getting to play some of those new “staples”. Scheming Symmetry was used really effectively in this game. I went and got a 7 CMC ninja and put on the top of my deck. Whilst the player I selected to join me in finding a card and putting it on top of their deck, went and chose a card that was going to be painless if used against them. That’s the nice thing having a ninja threat that let’s you exile the top 2 cards of their deck and cast the cards for free! Remember that 7 CMC ninja? Well with my Commander connecting that meant I hit everyone for 7 damage.

In the end Glenn and myself were head to head. But he was able to lock me down with enchantments long enough to grab the win.

I actually really enjoyed playing this deck. I love the ninjitsu mechanic. The deck needs some form of enchantment/artifact removal. Also I may have to dig out a Settle the score for those indestructible creatures. But I’m happy with the power level. It’s a 5 at best. Which is about right.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for my decks.

“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. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

Creatures:36

1 Changeling Outcast
1 Hired Poisoner
1 Mist-Cloaked Herald
1 Pilfering Imp
1 Siren Stormtamer
1 Cerulean Drake
1 Daring Saboteur
1 Duskmantle Operative
1 Metropolis Sprite
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Thrill-Kill Assassin
1 Warkite Marauder
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Darkblade Agent
1 Eyeblight Assassin
1 Mist-Syndicate Naga
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Slippery Scoundrel
1 Stronghold Assassin
1 Throatseeker
1 Walker of Secret Ways
1 Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow (Commander)
1 Azra Smokeshaper
1 Etrata, the Silencer
1 Ingenious Infiltrator
1 Moonblade Shinobi
1 Nightshade Assassin
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Storm Sculptor
1 Fallen Shinobi
1 Higure, the Still Wind
1 Ninja of the New Moon
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Throat Slitter
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1 Silent-Blade Oni

Spells:27

1 Bag of Holding
1 Brainstorm
1 Grafdigger’s Cage
1 Scheming Symmetry
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Silent Gravestone
1 Sol Ring
1 Crook of Condemnation
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dowsing Dagger
1 Pillar of Origins
1 Assassinate
1 Commander’s Sphere
1 Dimir Locket
1 Icon of Ancestry
1 Murder
1 Rhystic Study
1 Urza’s Incubator
1 Creeping Chill
1 Cryptic Command
1 Damnation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Drawn from Dreams
1 Mastermind’s Acquisition
1 Conspiracy
1 God-Pharaoh’s Statue
1 The Immortal Sun

Lands:37

1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Barren Moor
1 Blasted Landscape
1 Command Tower
1 Cryptic Caves
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dimir Aqueduct
1 Dimir Guildgate (a)
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Dreadship Reef
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Field of Ruin
1 Gateway Plaza
1 Guildmages’ Forum
8 Island
1 Isolated Watchtower
1 Karn’s Bastion
1 Morphic Pool
8 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Unknown Shores
1 Watery Grave

Oh and here is the obligatory mana curve.

WotC Ruin Saturdays

Deck tech, Game day, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building


The first Not Saturday Showdown since Core Set 2020 hit, and WotC changed how they did prize support for organised play, and killed off Standard Showdown.

A simple explanation of the new prize support is now each store gets an allocation of prize packs (the equivalent of the old Showdown packs) based on the tickets and engaged players that they have.

Each pack is made up of 4 cards. You can get the full break down HERE.These new packs replace FNM promos, Open House promos, and Standard Showdown packs, etc.

I think my FLGS gets 8 or 10 packs a week to use as prizes for all events in a week. It used to get 6 Standard Showdown packs a week, plus promos for FNM, and any event specific ones.

Just how would this new system work?

Not very well.

Basically there were 2 packs up for grabs 1 each for the top 2 spots. No door prize for last place. And no random draw for the remaining packs for the week. So there was less prizes, and less chance of getting a prize. Pretty shitty.

For me WotC have ruined our Not Standard Showdown. They spent all this time trying to build up the standard player base. Which is what they want really. It sells packs/booster boxes. Now with abandoning the Standard Showdown event, cutting down the prize support they are putting this at risk, and undermining the store and that format.

Standard Showdown was fun (still is). It was/is cheap to enter. However just getting a booster pack for participating and a greatly reduced chance of a prize is not enough to attract me. Now I ask the question do I travel the half hour to my FLGS to get just a booster pack or do I stay local and play with friends? The later option sounds a lot more attractive now. Back to kitchen table magic.

In the above equation I also need to factor in the meta. In my FLGS meta it’s getting a bit stagnant. Only two or three of us play different decks on a regular basis. The majority play the same deck week in week out, with the odd tweak when new cards come out. Some of those decks are pretty strong, and means they finish in the higher places regularly. Which reduces the chances even more of a prize in the new prize support structure. And it’s not much fun. Oh it’s your aggro dino deck again, oh cool burn. This new less generous prize support is only going to encourage more of this sort of meta. In fact it’s going to encourage more net decking for the better decks.

So reflecting on the above what WotC have decided for me is no more Not Standard Showdown. I’ll probably only attend pre-releases now. Won’t bother with booster boxes. I’d already dropped the bundle because of the change to it for Core Set 2020. I’ll target buy the cards that I need for Commander when new sets come out. Which actually hurts WotC because they don’t see any of that money. And just concentrate on playing my favourite format of Commander with friends.

It’s going to be interesting to see if my decision is reflected amongst other MtG players, and if is if the number doing so will make a difference.

So yesterday in my actual event games I did crap. No hiding from it. Being mana screwed in a few of them just didn’t help.

Now the casual games was a different story. Especially against Bob. But when it counted he won. Our casual game where I played Orzhov against his burn was funny. The games were over in seconds! First game opening hand Leyline of Sanctity. So a turn zero play. He saw that, slammed his hand on the table, put it on top,of his deck, and conceded. Game 2, I mulliganed into the Leyline again. Same result. It was funny his reaction. But we are used to that from him. Plus mono red burn typically doesn’t have any enchantment removal. Leyline of Combustion also proved affective against burn.

Let’s look at the cold hard numbers that don’t lie, but don’t tell the whole story either!

Casual Games

Bob (before): Win 2-1

Kid (before): Win 2-0

Bob (between using Orzhov deck): Win 2-0

Bob (at end): Win 1-0

Not Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 11

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Sam Loss 0-2

Round 2: Buy Win

Round 3: Dean Loss 0-2

Round 4: Bob Loss 0-2

Record: 1-3

Final Position: 9th

Prizes: 1 participation pack

So for the history books this is version 2 of the Gruul Dino deck that I used at the weekend. You can, if you are even remotely interested to see my initial version of the deck, look at the post with the deck list here.

But before I go any further it’s probably best I give my boiler plate get out of jail disclaimer for my decks.

“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. I try and use as many cards in my collection as possible to keep my costs down. I’m certainly not a master deck builder claiming this deck will win tournaments, if it is fun to play and does it thing then I’ll be happy.“

Creatures:27

4 Marauding Raptor
3 Otepec Huntmaster
4 Raptor Hatchling
3 Ranging Raptors
2 Ripjaw Raptor
4 Shifting Ceratops
3 Charging Monstrosaur
2 Regisaur Alpha
2 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:12

3 Commune with Dinosaurs
2 Act of Treason
3 Rhythm of the Wild
2 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
1 Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:21

3 Evolving Wilds
8 Forest
7 Mountain
3 Rugged Highlands

Sideboard:15

3 Thrashing Brontodon
2 Grazing Whiptail
1 Burning Sun’s Avatar
1 Carnage Tyrant
2 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Savage Stomp
2 Tibalt, Rakish Instigator
2 Leyline of Combustion

And as is tradition for when I give a deck list here is the mana curve and cost of the deck.

Goatnapped!

Game day, magic, MtG

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far.

There was only one way to spend the day. Indoors playing MtG at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole’s Open House event.

The last couple of days I’ve been on a lucky streak. In the two new Planeswalker decks I bought I got a Leyline of Sanctity, in my Modern Horizons packs, a foil squirrel token, pain land and an Unbound Flourishing (recouped the cost of the packs back in that card alone), a new Karn in the War of the Spark boosters.

The Leyline is needed for my Standard deck, whilst the Unbound Flourishing is going straight into my big green stompy Commander deck.

Naturally I was wearing the coolest tee of the day at my FLGS. Yep I had the card Ferocious Pup made into a tee. I had hoped the white would have come out better. It looked distressed at best. But otherwise I was happy with the rest of it.

I went with the new Green Welcome deck. Which was fortunate because after loosing a game with it against Kar-Fai. I was able to trade the Aggressive Mammoth that is in the deck with Kar-Fai for the Reckless Air Strike he pulled from the booster in his Planeswalker deck. I wanted the card to go in my mono red goblins Commander deck that I was about to use.

Other new cards in the deck were the new Krenko, and Goatnap. The new Krenko was also being tested as the Commander.

Our four player Commander game was great fun. Naturally being goblins I was quick off the mark, and was basically the major threat. But after Elesh Norn hit the battlefield that was me scuppered. As was the Markov vampire deck. Until that card was removed it basically stopped me playing any goblins, or creating tokens. During that period of being locked down, Dean and his Atraxa super friends deck started to get really powerful with a few Planeswalkers out and firing off their abilities.

Luckily I got an Immortal Sun out, not early enough. But at the right moment to stop him ultimating them and winning the game. It then became in the interest of the other players to keep me alive and locking out those Planeswalkers.

Once Dean had been removed, ok killed. I didn’t last much longer despite firing off a board wipe.

But earlier in the game I did get to use Goatnap to steal Elesh Norn. That was pretty cool.

It was a fun Commander game. With the usual ebb and flow. We introduced a new player to the format. Got to play cool cards.

Afterwards I got to play test my not Standard deck (well not for another 2 weeks) with 2 copies of leylines in it, and a third Nissa. The decks I played against were not competitive enough for a Showdown. They were nowhere fast enough compared to say Dean’s Dino deck, or the red burn decks. So not really a test for the deck.

Naturally the FLGS sold out of all their Planeswalker decks. Mainly to existing players though. It’s that booster pack from Core Set 2020 in each Planeswalker deck. Early early access to the cards.

I had a really great day playing MtG. This was a fun Open House.

When I got home the model clippers had arrived. Which allowed me to do my least favourite part of the miniatures hobby. Cutting and gluing models together.

So I put the Viking warriors together, and not shown the Viking berserkers.

Everything was then primed ready for painting. Which I started today. But more about that in another post.

Not Standard Showdown!

Game day, magic, MtG

Yeah I know I’ve not posted for a couple of days. I hope you enjoyed the rest from my poorly written ramblings.

Having missed playing last weekend for whatever life reasons, I was back with a vengeance this week.

My plan was to play in Standard Showdown and try out my modifications to the super friends deck. Modifications I had made earlier in the morning, literally straight after I woke up. I was keen to see if they worked.

Ok what I was going to be playing in wasn’t exactly Standard Showdown. It was Not Standard Showdown, but like it. There were no Standard Showdown packs up for grabs they had all gone. Standard Showdown doesn’t exist anymore. A mistake by WotC in my opinion. But we will see.

But this wasn’t the only MtG event going on today at my FLGS. Starting off before Not Standard Showdown was a MtG European Modern Series Qualifier (Constructed).

So while waiting for my event to start I got to watch a game or two of the Modern tournament. Wow talk about fast. I was just watching and I was shell shocked when I witnessed Rob Win on turn 5 (his third turn). That’s blindingly fast. His second turn with a couple of mana was insane. How it felt to be on the receiving end I have no idea.

We had 12 players turn up for Not Standard Showdown. It was going to be cozy in the store today.

Sadly for this tournament I went mono red burn/aggro after being goaded into it by Kar-Fai after he said I never played mono red. So I went with it to surprise him!

Round 1 against Kerry both the games played saw my deck just run out of steam, and not able to get over the finish line, or deal with her drakes that just got bigger and bigger.

Round 2 was against Simon, Kerry’s partner. I did better in this match up. Game 1 saw me get kicked by Nico Bolas. My Rekindling Phoenix proved too hot to handle and got me back on level pegging. With the decider going against me.

Round 3 saw Kar-Fai and I fighting it out for the start of the battle for last place. His life gain token deck was a good match up with me. Apart from the hiccup of game 2, where I needed one more land to be able to do lethal with a banefire, and this allowed Kar-Fai a window to grab the win. I was more than able to control the game, and with the likes of Chainwhirler keep Kar-Fai from massing lots of tokens.

The final round saw me up against John. Who was back with Golgari, and an insect token spam. The game he won saw him getting 9 insect tokens out. The one time in our match up when I didn’t hit one of my cards that would have wiped them out. But otherwise the other two games went to plan.

Afterwards Kar-Fai and I played some casual games allowing me to test the superfriends deck out.

Had a great afternoon playing MtG. I think it’s Open House next weekend.

Ok here are just the raw stats for the afternoon.

Casual Game

Kar-fai : Loss 1-2

Not Standard Showdown Stats

Participants: 12

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Kerry Loss 0-2

Round 2: Simon Loss 1-2

Round 3: Kar-Fai Win 2-1

Round 4: John Win 2-1

Record: 2-2

Final Position: 7th

Prizes: 1 participation pack. Plus an old promo card.