Category Archives: Magic League

Testing 1,2,3 Testing

Game day, magic, Magic League, MtG

Yesterday was the start of the Ravnica Allegiance Magic League with my FLGS.

I discussed this format for MtG in previous posts, but for those new to the blog, MtG or just poor memories and don’t want the trauma of remembering my posts, I’ll try and summarise it briefly.

Magic League is a sealed event, where a player buys three booster packs, and with the contents builds a 30 card deck to play against other participants. The league takes place over four weeks, and each week you are able to buy an additional booster to strengthen your deck. Also after three losses you can also buy a booster pack to strengthen your deck. At the end of the league you get a cool promo card for participating.

The nice thing about the league is that it is accessible for new players. It provides a level playing field between new and old by removing the large card collection, and having to spend lots of money to get a “competitive deck” (although you can build a competitive deck on a budget).

After buying my three packs for the league, naturally I cracked them open and did the first thing every MtG player does. I went to the back of the pack and looked at the rares and uncommons I’d pulled.

With two Simic Guild Gates pulled I was getting the distinct hint I should be leaning towards a Simic deck.

After just throwing my Simic cards together I had no decision making to make to get the right number of cards. I had the right number to build the deck with. Instead of playing a league match we played some Commander!

I only had the one Commander deck with me. It was my big green stompy deck. I didn’t win any of the three games we played. But I had a blast. My deck did it’s thing. I got creatures out, made them big, and stomped over a player or two.

I also managed to get some testing of my Simic Standard deck against John and his Merfolk deck.

Our first game was a surprise to me and John. By turn four I had three Llanowar Elves out, three lands and I’d cast a Biogenic Ooze. Ramp wise this was a start I could only dream of. With my removal and counter spells, pumping out more oozes, and them getting bigger each turn. I easily took the first game.

In our second game of the best of three, it was more to plan. Ramp, Wilderness Reclamation , Biogenic Ooze, frustrating John with counter spells and bouncing creatures back to hand. A bit of mill with the walls. Threats from John to kick me under the table.

We started a second round of best of three. But this time I took out the walls and replaced them with two Incubation Druid’s (it’s all I have) and a Llanowar Scout.

Despite losing to John 2-1. I did like what these bought to the table. The Incubation Druid was pretty good, getting a +1/+1 on it was easy with the Essence Capture. So I wasn’t having to wait for the three mana it can tap for. My main problem during these three games was my mana sinks hadn’t come out. So I wasn’t getting the full value from them.

During these games John got to witness the double Wilderness Reclamation, Biogenic Ooze combo. There was a little questioning with the stores future MtG judge (he’s,in training) about the way that combo worked during the start of the end step. My interruption was correct.

Our third game was pretty close. If John hadn’t tapped down all my creatures when he did, my Hydroid Krasis would have swung in next turn for lethal. As it was I didn’t have enough tricks in hand to prevent the loss. I really like games that are like this, where they could go either way. Close games that turn on a moment. They are exciting. Even now the next day, I’m replaying the decisions I made at that point, and working out if I’d done things a little different would the result have been in my favour?

Afterwards there was general chit chat. But eventually I went home after having a great afternoon of MtG. The Hobbit Hole really does have a great MtG community.

Golgari vs Golgari

magic, Magic League, MtG

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.

Core Set 2019 Magic League Alert

magic, Magic League, MtG

This coming Saturday sees the start of Core Set 2019 Magic League at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. To be fair it’s Magic League at every LGS and FLGS.

For those wondering what Magic League is (apart from an excuse for WotC and the FLGS to get you to buy booster packs) it’s a fun league format aimed at allowing new and returning players to play with experienced players, without having to worry about the experienced players having a much larger card collection.

Basically you buy 3 booster packs from the current set (usually) and build a 30 card deck from the cards you open up from those boosters. You also get when you sign up for the league a collection box (that you need to make – ie fold together, to store your cards in) and a score card to record your game results on.

Then over a period of 4 weeks you play games of MtG using the deck you have just constructed against other players in the league.

But what if my deck is no good? Well during the league period, you have a sideboard of the cards that you got in your initial 3 booster packs, however each week you are allowed to buy another booster pack to help strengthen your deck. Or after every 3 losses you are also allowed to buy a booster pack (see why I said it’s an excuse to sell booster packs?) to once again strengthen your deck.

At the end of the 4 weeks if you have played 10 or more games in the league you get a promo card as your reward.

This time it’s the rather spiffy land Reliquary Tower with alt art.

I actually like this format, it’s my preferred in store way to play MtG. The Prerelease is similar in some respects because it’s building a deck from your Prerelease packs and then playing.

See you at the league.

Dominaria Magic League Week 2

magic, Magic League, MtG

Week 2 of the Dominaria Magic League means the chance to buy a Dominaria booster to strengthen the deck. Expecting enough losses to buy a loser booster, I bought 3 Dominaria boosters for the bargain price of £10. Potentially buying 2 packs during the day, this was going to save me money! Naturally playing by the rules I only opened one of them as my allowed booster for the week.

Thanks to what I consider to be an over priced event the Birmingham GP had robbed my FLGS of the majority of its Magic players this weekend. So the Standard Showdown that was also taking place was 6 players. I hadn’t realised it was on, but then again I didn’t really have the time to play in it anyway. I’d come along in the hope to get some league games in. Which was looking remote when I saw the scarcity of participating league players.

My pulls in this weeks pack that go into the sideboard.

Creatures:8

1 Skirk Prospector
1 Rat Colony
1 Serra Disciple
1 Academy Drake
1 Aesthir Glider
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight
1 Urgoros, the Empty One

Spells:6

1 Healing Grace
1 Navigator’s Compass
1 Rescue
1 Grow from the Ashes
1 Chainer’s Torment
1 In Bolas’s Clutches

I did make some adjustments to the deck, but I’ll do a deck list after the final week.

Just for the shits and giggles I threw all of my red cards, plus some artifact creatures and artifacts together added a black creature to give me a big hitter to make a second deck from my league card pool.

Creatures:12

3 Skirk Prospector
1 Bloodstone Goblin
1 Keldon Warcaller
2 Howling Golem
1 Amaranthine Wall
1 Keldon Raider
1 Rampaging Cyclops
1 Warcry Phoenix
1 Demonlord Belzenlok

Spells:6

1 Navigator’s Compass
1 Warlord’s Fury
1 Blackblade Reforged
1 Jousting Lance
1 Fight with Fire
1 Radiating Lightning

Lands:12

8 Mountain
4 Swamp

How did I do this week? Well despite the lack of participating players this week I managed to play against 2 players and get in 6 games before I had to return back to the mundane world and a Strider who has an upset tummy and all that entails coming out of one end.

After deck building and adjustments I managed to get a game in against Kar-Fai, who readers will remember as an adversary from my Netrunner days, before he took part in the Standard Showdown. I was pleasantly taken aback that there was no attempt to lure me back into the world of Android and Netrunner. I love the Android universe, and love the game of Netrunner. But it seemed to me that FFG just loved targeting the factions I loved to play for banning cards. So with the revised core set, rotation etc, the game may be in a “better” place now. But I’m still smarting from the hurt of them knee capping my decks. I then played the remaining 5 games against a new player in the league Philip.

I played the first 3 games with the new deck and it won more than it lost 2-1. I then played the remaining 3 games with my first deck and that went 3-0. So in the end I was 5-1 overall.

I’m not sure what it says or how the other players feel that my red deck is just something I threw together with very little/no thought, and still won with it. I felt a little guilty, and also very lucky that it seemed to work.

Once I got home naturally I opened up the other 2 boosters and added the cards straight into my collection ready for deck building.

Anyway a great couple of hours playing MtG. Looking forward to week 3.

Dominaria Magic League Week 1

magic, Magic League, MtG

Yesterday was the start of the Dominaria Magic League at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole.

The Magic League is a sealed event, £10, 3 boosters, 30 card deck, blah blah blah. I’ve talked about this before. If you want to know more just go read about it on the WotC website.

As I walked into the geek nirvana I saw 2 of my now ex-students playing MtG. It was good to see them. They weren’t taking part in the league. They were there to play a few games of MtG, buy some boosters, and maybe improve their decks with their pulls.

I got one or two nice pulls that once the league is over will be useful for deck building. But so far this set hasn’t been kind to me on pulls for sealed events. And yesterday was no different.

I thought I’d gone prepared but sadly after I had opened my boosters I realised I’d forgotten to bring any lands and sleeves with me. This was an excuse to throw more money at John the store owner.


I’d promised myself that I wouldn’t buy any of the Ultra-Pro Relic Tokens. Being of very little self control, as I was purchasing the sleeves I needed (Dragon Shield Matt sleeves which are my favourite) I crumbled and bought some.

Here is the deck I built and the sideboard of the remaining cards from the initial 3 boosters, and the booster I bought after 3 losses.

Deck Sideboard

Creatures:8

1 Cabal Evangel

1 Rat Colony

1 Academy Drake

1 Llanowar Envoy

1 Baloth Gorger

1 Grunn, the Lonely King

1 Muldrotha, the Gravetide

1 Primordial Wurm

 2 Skirk Prospector
2 Tragic Poet
1 Bloodstone Goblin
1 Keldon Warcaller
2 Serra Disciple
1 Aesthir Glider

2 Howling Golem

1 Tolarian Scholar

1 Amaranthine Wall

1 Keldon Raider

1 Rampaging Cyclops

1 Sanctum Spirit

1 Thallid Omnivore

1 Warcry Phoenix

1 Guardians of Koilos

1 Mammoth Spider

1 Sentinel of the Pearl Trident

1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid

1 Cold-Water Snapper

1 Demonlord Belzenlok

1 Evra, Halcyon Witness

1 Short Sword

2 Syncopate

1 Warlord’s Fury

1 Ancient Animus

1 Blackblade Reforged

1 Blink of an Eye

1 Jousting Lance

1 Vicious Offering

1 Fight with Fire

1 Wizard’s Retort

1 Radiating Lightning

1 Blessed Light

Spells:8

1 Demonic Vigor

1 Fungal Infection

1 Navigator’s Compass

1 Rescue

1 Saproling Migration

1 Shield of the Realm

1 Grow from the Ashes

1 Spore Swarm

Lands:14

5 Forest

3 Island

1 Memorial to Unity

4 Swamp

1 Woodland Cemetery

So how did this 3 colour deck do?

I thought I was on a hiding to nothing for the day when I lost my first game. But I then went on to win my next 3 games. After a break playing a game of Commander with my ex-students (which I lost, just wasn’t getting any lands) I then went on to lose my final 2 league matches. So my league record for the day was 3-3.

The deck did better than I’d thought it would. It doesn’t have enough low cost creatures to keep me alive in the early game. This is definitely a mid to late game deck. Which in this format isn’t great.

I now have until my next league game to look at the sideboard and either swap cards over, or completely rebuild the deck.

Magic League This Weekend At The Hobbit Hole.

magic, Magic League, MtG

This Saturday my FLGS The Hobbit Hole kicks off at 11am the Magic League for Dominaria.
“Players start with 3 boosters and may purchase another each week, plus another after any set of three losses.” From that initial 3 booster packs you build a 30 card deck with which to play against other players participating in the league.

When you buy that initial 3 packs you get a “collection box”, which is basically a cardboard box to store you deck and unused cards in. Plus after you have played 10 games you get a promo card. Which for the League games is Zhalfirin Void I believe.


Naturally it will be rather nifty to get a copy of this, so I’m going along to take part. I’m hoping that I will be a bit luckier in my pulls for this. I haven’t been overly lucky so far with this set.

Council of Nations

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night, magic, Magic League, MtG

Wow no posts for 3 days, you all must have been hoping I’d given up blogging. Sadly I haven’t. I was truth be told just being lazy.

Friday evening saw Jonathan and myself meeting up at The White Lion Hotel to play some games.

Our first game was a recent addition to Jonathan’s collection Council of Four . This was a foreign version of the game, which meant two things. Jonathan had gone online and printed out the translated English rules (in colour), and that he got it a lot cheaper than the English version over hear. I think Jonathan said around the 8 or 9 euros mark, compared to (I want to say) over £20. So a massive saving. And the game is language independent. Which means it really doesn’t matter if you get the non-English language version.

I think my main issues with this game are production issues. The assistant tokens for instance (see close up below) look awful. The art work could be much bigger, and less white space. I also had an issue with the black permit cards. They look more brown. Especially when they actually have a black border, that is black! Not only that the black meeples were also not very black. The graphic design could have done with a little bit of tweaking on the use of the arrow symbol. The same arrow icon was used in several spots for different things. Ideally there should have been a different symbol or type of arrow used to symbolise it’s different meaning.

The actual game itself isn’t bad. It was fun, I liked that you can combo emporiums, which can be very powerful. Build an emporium in a city next to one you already have an emporium in you get that connected cities bonus too, and repeat until you come to the end of your chain of connected cities. I had a very effective “engine” going that gave me money, points, and cards every time I built a connecting emporium.

I won our game. It was close. I had that combo engine going, while Jonathan was being more targeted in where he was building his emporiums and collecting bonuses for building in cities of the same colour. It did look like I was running away with the game. But after taking into account bonuses earned during the game, and the odd end game bonus, the game result was much closer than both of us were expecting.

And that is one other thing I like about this game, that we both had different plans in place for scoring, and I can see the possibility of one or more other ways to. And that’s a nice thing to have.

I’d play this again. Would I ask to play it again? Maybe not. It’s a good game, just not a great game.

Our second and final game of the evening was an old favourite, Nations the Dice Game. This game soon went out of print after it came out a couple years back. I had bought mine just after I think it was my first UKGE, after hearing the buzz about it at the expo. When I heard that Stronghold Games had picked up the rights to the game, and not only were they reprinting the game, they were also going to be publishing an expansion for it, I was excited. At the time of the news breaking I did ask Stronghold via social media if the expansion would be compatible with the original printing, and was assured that it was.

Which brings us to Friday night. I had the new expansion Unrest and the perfect excuse to get the base game back to the table.

This expansion adds a new die to the game, that makes rolling for resources a bit riskier, but has a bigger pay off. There is also a new reroll token, new nation boards, bonus tiles, pass bonuses, and more progress tiles.

The new nation boards actually fix an issue I had with the original game. In the original game it made no difference which nation you chose because they were all basically the same. Everyone got the same starting dice and tokens. Now with the new boards it matters which one you chose, and also which side. You get that feeling of uniqueness.

Ok the game is still over really quickly. But the added bonus tile that gives you a second thing to aim for other than just the famine and war bonus, is a nice addition. Plus passing now also gives you a little something, unless you are the last to pass.

I like this expansion, I don’t think I’d play the game without it. Even with new players. It adds stuff to the game, but not that much. Fixes a couple of problems. Yep glad I bought this expansion.

You know how this will end. A big thank you to The White Lion for allowing us to play there Friday evening.

Saturday was the final day of our Ixalan league. Unstable and life meant this last MtG meet up before Christmas was attended by five of us. I played 6 games, two best of three, and came away with a 1-5 record overall. These weren’t quick wins. They went to the long game. Which for 5 of the games saw my deck bettered. After I handed out the three prize packs for most wins, most plays, and most friendly player, and some packs were bought off me, I was left with 3 packs. I consoled myself with those 3 packs and was rewarded with the following card:
This is my third Huatli, Warrior Poet planeswalker. So nearly a play set. But is it good enough to break into my R/G Dino deck? I do like that ability to generate 3/3 dino tokens. Maybe in the sideboard?

Yep another thank you to Fenrock for hosting our MtG league.

Our next planned league will be at the end of January once Rivals for Ixalan has come out. But there will be one or two one off events before then. Keep an eye on the events page for Fenland Gamers to find out when they are announced.

Dinosaur Stomps

Fenland Gamers, Game day, magic, Magic League, MtG

Yesterday was day 3, session 3, or whatever you want to call the penultimate Ixalan League afternoon for Fenland Gamers.

Ok let’s jump in with my win-loss record for the afternoon. I went 7-2 yesterday. But I didn’t get to play 3 of the people yesterday. Two of those were very strong decks indeed.

My first two games were against Lukas and his vampires. I’m not sure what the issue is here. Is it the inexperience of the player, the deck, or poor card draw? This is an easy match up for me. Lukas isn’t posing much of a threat on the battlefield. I have answers for his plan. I think reflecting on things I think the problem is a combination of all of the above. Vampires shouldn’t be this easy to defeat.

Justin played against me for my next two games. Which saw us win one each.

My fifth game was an interesting game. I managed to stabilise at 3 life to grab the win. With a built up battlefield I was able to control the game and finally after defending some attacks in which they shouldn’t really have attacked, grab the win.

My next two games were against Michael, Winner of season. He easily powered his way to victory in our first game, thanks to not drawing enough mana early on. But our second game was a different story. With Michael not getting the right mana I stomped (although I don’t play that card) to victory. Season 2 isn’t being kind to Michael. His deck just isn’t as dominating this time round. He is suffering a lot more losses.

I faced Lukas again for two more games to see how his strengthened deck was doing. But the same issues were there. I think some deck and play advice are needed. Next time it’s help Lukas time.

Justin and I had played each other twice and had both won a game. So our last game of the afternoon was a decider between us.

We were both amassing creatures on our battlefield afraid to attack. I think I had the slight edge, both in numbers and amount of damage they could dish out. Justin had one or two big hitters I wanted off the board, and I could take them out only if they were head to head with certain creatures of mine. So ideally Justin had to attack me so I could control which creature fought which. That way we’d both take heavy losses but I’d come out on top. When Justin did blink first and attack, the exchange was brutal. But when the dust cleared I had the upper hand. Which got worse for Justin when Angrath’s Marauders came out.


Double damage. With a battlefield I was rebuilding faster than Justin. I definitely had the upper hand. But the clock was ticking, I had 2 less cards in my library than Justin. I’d mill out first. With basically 4 turns left, I pumped up my Jungle Delver to a 5/5 over a couple of turns, and bought out a Ixalli’s Keeper.

With 1 card left in my library I swung in with everything but my Ixalli’s Keeper. I also made sure I had enough mana saved to pull off its ability. Justin had 14 life left. Could not block everything I had, especially my big hitters. Whichever big hitter wasn’t blocked I had plans for. That unblocked big hitter was going to get a +5/+5 boost from a sacrificed Ixalli’s Keeper as an “in response to you declaring attackers”. Which with the double damage boost would be fatal. Luckily that final all or nothing attacked played out my way. The buffed up big hitter delivering that winning blow, and winning our tie breaker game.

That was a close game. Almost milled.

Once again our hosts Fenrock were amazing. They are making some great changes to the climbing experience there. Plus you can also try out virtual reality now! Yep Fenrock now have a pc setup with an oculus rift with various games (even minecraft) for people to play using it.

There will be a gap between the end of this current league and when the next one starts. Mainly because we will be using the next set Rivals of Ixalan for it (and that isn’t out until mid January). So the plans are to organise some fun events to pass the time. Such as an Unstable draft, more Commander, maybe even a highlander or two-headed giant session. It’s a shame Iconic Masters is so expensive, would love to do a draft of that. So keep an eye out on the Fenland Gamers Facebook page for when the events are announced.

Gruuling afternoon

Fenland Gamers, Game day, magic, Magic League, MtG

Yesterday life whittled down yesterdays league participants to 6 for our second session.

I’d arrived early to rebuild my deck from my card pool I had for the league (the packs opened the previous session) and the one I cracked for this session. The majority of the others had their packs at the end of the previous session. I went red/green (gruul I believe it is known as). My only turn 1 card was a couple of Commune with Dinosaurs that would allow me to hunt for a dinosaur in the top 5 cards of my library. But in reality I’d be looking at playing a creature turn 2 onwards. I had options then, turn 2 blockers, attackers, even the chance to make dinosaurs cheaper.

When I deck build I do like to have more low cost options, and have some more costly options but not as many. That way I stand a better chance of getting playable stuff in my opening hand or a mulligan. Plus if I don’t draw much land, which can happen, I can play something, and draw something I can play.

Out of 11 games I went 6-5. So my wins edged it this time. And a very big improvement over the opening session of just 1 win.

I was happier with this deck and the way it built up. There is hardly any removal, a single Crushing Canopy.

I pulled a Deathgorge Scavenger, and Charging Monstrosaur in my loser booster. Which made the deck even stronger. Both were really effective.

We gave Lukas a quick play lesson for his deck and told him what he should be looking for in his opening hand. Sadly we didn’t have his card pool to hand to see if we could help him strengthen his deck.

As usual we had a great afternoon of playing MtG, at our great hosts FenRock. Who are currently doing some exciting changes to the climbing facilities they have.

In response 

Fenland Gamers, Game day, Magic League, MtG

Yesterday was the start of our MtG League. This time we were using the latest set Ixalan. 

We had to start earlier than our regular time because our amazing host Fenrock needed us finished by 4pm so that they could prepare for a Halloween/Guy Fawkes party that evening.

My win-loss record for the afternoon was abysmal, I went 1-8. A single win. I got milled twice. A couple of games were close though.

I was playing a blue/white or Azorius as it’s called pirates deck. Although after my second losing booster I had a couple of cards that needed black mana. But I didn’t splash any swamps into my deck. I used treasure for that instead. I’m not a pirates person. I’m definitely a dinosaur and merfolk. But you have to run with what the boosters give you.

However the words I used for the title of this post struck terror into the hearts of my opponents, “in response”. I had a blast playing this deck despite the abysmal win ratio. So much fun counter spelling those big expensive dinos as them were coming onto the battlefield and getting lots treasure for doing so. Who knew blue could be so much fun!

Now using the boosters I have, which in this league format act as your sideboard, I have two weeks to ponder my deck for our next league day. 

A big thanks once more to our hosts Fenrock for providing great facilities and coffee.