MTG: Standard, 8th @ CBA Games 2.5k with GB Ooze

Since we've returned to Ravnica I've been in a stump when it comes to Standard, for some reason I hated most of the format and didn't find a deck that flowed for me. Then after Quebec City I realized it's a really interactive format that rewards good deck building and tight play, sadly I was doing neither since my shitty deck usually tilted me. Then out of the blue a buddy suggested I try out GB Ooze which he had built physically and online. I started grinding with Kibler's list, after I got enough experience with it I start making modifications. My practice consisted of 3 dailies where I went 3-1, 1-3, and 4-0 and probably about 15 to 20 Practice Room Matches. This is what I sleeved up for the CBA 2.5K.

Lands: 23

11 Forest
4 Golgari Guildgate
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Overgrown Tomb

Creatures: 27

3 Ulvenwald Tracker
2 Deathrite Shaman

4 Arbor Elf

4 Strangleroot Geist

4 Lotleth Troll
2 Gloom Surgeon

4 Wolfir Avenger
4 Predator Ooze

Spells: 10

4 Rancor
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Sideboard
1 Vraska the Unseen (Never got to Judo Chop Olivia)
2 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Ranger's Guile
1 Ultimate Price
2 Appetite for Brains
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Duress
2 Triumph of Ferocity

I'll go over some of the note worthy additions and subtractions

-4 Dreg Mangler: 3 drops are like trans/satured fat in the deck, they aren't healthy but you need them to make a delicious fast food joint. 11 was way to many, they routinely clogged my arteries/hand . Also Dreg Mangler is a very fair card in a deck that's trying to play semi unfair/hard to kill threats, Mangler is neither.

+2 Garruk, Primal Hunter: My thoughts on Garruk are the same as my GP Quebec City report, he's a better Thragtusk if you don't have slots to support it and is a hard to kill threat (notice a trend?).

+2 Gloom Surgeon: Much easier on the curve then Mangler, but also provides another amazing wall against the slew of aggro decks in the format. Few things make grown men cry as turn 2 Surgeon turn 3 Predator Ooze.

+2 Sever the Bloodline (maindeck): Olivia is this decks bane so I added 2 to the main. It's 4 mana cost is perfectly fine since you want to develop your board in the first turns and THEN start removing threats, also the flashback and pulse qualities give you some much needed hedge against mana flood.

Now for the report.

Round 1 vs Bant Wolf Run Control, 2-0

g1: I battle through triple Azorious Charm and Detention Sphere in the first 6 turns, he double Sphinx's Revelation, but since my threats are dying at a extraordinarily slow rate all he's doing is treading water while I eventually deal lethal.

g2: Rhox Faithmender buys him infinity time, letting him get up to 38 after his third Revelation. A key turn 3 Triumph of Ferocity lets me keep up card wise and I'm eventually able to beat him with about 15 cards left in his deck.

Round 2 vs Naya Midrange, 2-0

g1: I battle through double Thragtusk with my little army of regenerators.

g2: My opponent draws 16 draws off 3 Garruk, Primal Hunters over the course of the match, plays double Armada Wurm, and I'm STILL able to fight through that over time with Predator Ooze+Rancor+Ulvenwald Tracker.

Round 3 vs UWR Flash, 2-0

g1: My opponents stumbles with lands and his Azorious Charm's just buy time but don't translate into any pressur, eventually I'm able to grind him down despite drawing more lands then him.

g2: Opponent stumbles with, doesn't draw Azorious Charm and get's stomped quickly.

Round 4 vs Jund, 0-2

g1: I draw 4 Rancor's this game but only one threat, not a winning hand against a deck with varied removal like Tragic Slip.

g2: I'm a little light on lands for a bit, making it hard to apply pressure while keeping regeneration mana open. I misplayed by not tapping out for Vraska to kill a Vampire Nighthawk that sealed the game with the help of Kessig Wolf Run.

Round 5 vs GW Human Aggro, 2-1

g1: I almost stabilize against double Rancor on a 4/4 Champion of the Parish that's bonded with a Nearheath Pilgrim, but he lethals me while he sits at a lofty 40.

g2: Turn 2 Ooze with back up is very hard for his deck to deal with, the longer the games go the more they favor me since I'll be able to bury him in synergy or durable threats.

g3: On the draw, I close my eyes and play turn 2 Gloom Surgeon turn 3 Predator Ooze, I'm relieved that I'm still in the game when I open them on turn 4. Ulvenwald Tracker and company eventually grind him into dust.

Round 6 vs Humanimator, 2-1

g1: Sadly get comboed out before I can 0 him.

g2: He boards out the combo and morphs into a Resto/Thragtusk. I'm able to easily fight through that, surprise surprise.

g3: He wiffs on a turn 3 Mulch, misses his land drop, and I'm able to kill him on turn 4 with a Deathrite Shaman in play covering any combo shenanigans.

Round 7 vs Unknown, Intentional Draw

We shake hands and draw into top 8. I go from 4^th to 7^th place.

Round 8, Quarterfinals, vs Jund, 0-2

g1: As the second seed my opponenet plays first and slams a turn 4 Olivia that is sadly unanswered and buries me.

g2: I mullagin to 5, I had a small chance with Arbor Elf and Ooze but he has Tragic Slip, Liliana of the Veil, Garruk Primal Hunter, and Olivia to bury me.

With that I'm vanquished from the top 8 with 100$ in my hands. As lame as it was to lose in that fashion, I'm still happy about the finish cause I had fun playing my deck, put work and preparation, and finally won in RtR  T2. On the hour walk home I brainstormed Deadly Allure as a potential answer to Olivia. These are the changes I've made to my list after playing in a Premier Event (awful awful value please don't ever play these!)  and a Daily (amazing value play these!).

Maindeck: -2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Tragic Slip

Sideboard:-1 Ultimate Price, -1 Vraska, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Deadly Allure

Lands: 23

11 Forest
4 Golgari Guildgate
4 Woodland Cemetery
4 Overgrown Tomb

Creatures: 27

3 Ulvenwald Tracker
2 Deathrite Shaman

4 Arbor Elf

4 Strangleroot Geist

4 Lotleth Troll
2 Gloom Surgeon

4 Wolfir Avenger
4 Predator Ooze

Spells: 10

4 Rancor
2 Tragic Slip
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Sideboard
1 Deadly Allure
2 Wolfir Silverheart
1 Ulvenwald Tracker
1 Ranger's Guile
2 Appetite for Brains
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Duress
2 Triumph of Ferocity

Special thanks of Nathan Enkel and Jonny Teigesser for loaning me both online and physical copies of the deck. If you've got any questions or comments feel free to post em or send them my way.

MTG: Standard, Grand Prix Quebec City Report, 5-4

My preparation was lackluster since I wasn't a fan of standard before the GP and waited for the Pro Tour to inform my decisions, then I proceeded to get sick Saturday to Tuesday and wasn't able to think till Wednesday. After grinding some solitaire games on Cockatrice (so sad they're being sued by Wotc) I chose Eric Frolich's Naya “Aggro” deck cause it looked very well positioned against the aggressive decks I expected (WRONG) and had game against control decks with hasters and varied threats. After wolfing down some deliciously cheap Friday Subway while scrolling dailies of free wifi this is what I rampantly borrowed/sleeved up.

Lands: 24

4 Sacred Foundry

4 Temple Garden

4 Stomping Ground

2 Mountain

4 Rootbound Crag

3 Clifftop Retreat

3 Sunpetal Grove

Creatures: 26

4 Burning-Tree Emissary

4 Squire aka Gyre Sage

4 Loxodon Smiter

4 Boros Reckoner

4 Hellrider

4 Flinthoof Boar

2 Thundermaw Hellkite

Underpowered Cards: 10

2 Mizzium Mortars

4 Domri Rade

2 Boros Charm

2 Garruk, Primal Hunter

Sideboard: 15

1 Boros Charm

2 Nearheath Pilgrim

2 Pacifism

1 Aurelia, the Warleader

2 Rest in Peace

2 Triumph of Ferocity

2 Centaur Healer

1 Thundermaw Hellkite

2 Mizzium Mortars

My tournament wasn't overly memorable, so here's a quick write up of the rounds I remember.

R1: Bye vs Subway: I opted for a 6 inch instead of a 11 inch Ham sub since I didn’t want to be sluggish, picked up some ice for value.

R2: 2-1 vs Esper Control: Got very lucky to win this match, won g2 off Hellrider → Thundermaw → Aurelia, only 3 spells I cast. G3 he got mana screwed.

R3: 0-2 vs Uwr Flash: Everything came together for my opponent and I got revelated out both games.

R4: 0-2 GBWR Reanimator: Got smashed by Gisela 2 games in a row.

R5: 2-0 UWR Flash: All I remember was ultimating Garruk Primal Hunter and Domri Rade at the same time on the last turn and attacking for 108 damage.

R6: 2-x ?? Literally no idea what happened

R7: 2-x ?? Literally no idea what happened

R8: 0-2 vs Naya Midrange: Opposing deck was exactly one level bigger then mine, never had a chance.

R9: 1-2 vs Jund: The first 2 games where even, almost won g3 for planeswalker points but double Sever the Bloodline was just enough to keep him in the game.

After bombing out at 5-4 I proceeded to drown my sorrow in Poutine, a slice of smoked meat sandwich, washed down by a bottle of Red Wine (don't judge! :P). Team drafts provided little comfort as I went against the golden rule, CURVE CURVE CURVE and built 6 drop riddled abominations.

Coming into this tournament I wasn't a big fan of t2, but after jamming big monsters over 8 rounds and interacting with my opponents I've come around. I think the reason I wasn't having fun with t2 was that I hate playing Uwr and all the colors I typically like just aren't up to par. Now I'm digging turning green monsters like Loxodon Smitter or Wolfir Silverheart's sideways while playing varied and resilient threats to dodge sweepers.

My deck was a piece of crap and I hate Efro for making it, I hate Gyre Sage, and I hate myself for playing it. Here's a list of cards I have strong feelings toward.

Gyre Sage: I have no idea why I sleeved up Squire. This piece of crap deck can't effectively evolve it OR utilize the 1-2 mana you generate from it. It's playable in some G/R lists but not here.

Garruk, Primal Hunter: This was a better Thragtusk in the absence of Resto Angel and very resilient.

Boror Reckoner: IMO this is a pillar of the format, you have to have a good reason if you're getting colded by this.

Hellrider: Unless you're hyper aggro there is no bloody reason you should be playing this into Thrag/Resto/Reckoner.

Boros Charm: Very happy I swapped 2 for Mizzium Mortars, functioned virtually as removal while canceling sweeprs.

Mizzium Mortars: Was fine, not being able to dome people was annoying vs control

Aurelia: Sick sick sick card, should be playing moar.

I liked the jist of what this deck was trying to do, but it wasn't aggressive or big enough to do well. In the future I'd either lean more toward a Naya Midrange deck with Thrag+Resto and Aurelia, a hyper aggro red based aggro deck, or a RG Big Stuff deck (personal front runner). Either way I'm just gonna pick the list that I have the most fun playing.

I'd like to thank all the people that loaned me a literal metric ton of cards and put up with my constant moaning, bitching, and rants on #value. Jonny Teigesser, Nathan Rober Enkel Jr, Ryan Duffield, Bjarn, Bjarne Ling + co, Derek Lansche, Brian “Ryzaru” Liu, and Lisa Seelye. Well that's it for this week. I'd like to thank all the If you've got any questions, suggestions, or comments please feel free to post em.

Patient 9 Entry 5

I've got some bad news and good news.  Bad news is my internet is down aka the world is ending, that means I won't be able to easily get references or check the Stencyl forum.  Good news is I've been way more productive without it.  I've made a lot of progress after midnight, instead of mindlessly stalking Facebook or consuming Magic the Gathering content I've been getting work done.  Maybe after it goes up again I should start disconnecting it after a certain time?

I got the ..

Basic dialogue behavior working properly (fixed the collision problem)

Basic random enemy movement

Scene/level changer working (along with locked doors)

I was luckily able to get help from the Stencyl forum for the Enemy Movement for once and was able to use that advice to get the Basic Dialogue behavior working.  It's nice too start getting "code" done for the game, even if it's the basic versions, since I'm feeling way more confident and it's a lot easier to build up on a behavior than it is it get the foundation down (at least I hope so).  Right now here's my to do list, the sooner I get this done the sooner I can get a loose beta going, and then consider getting a website and starting driving traffic toward it.

TO DO LIST

Dialogue Behavior Upgrades

text that can wrap around the screen  (can be post poned, but has to get done inevitably)

track Story Game Attributes to get the appropriate message

fit multiple options and branches into the same actor instance

capability to make decisions in conversation (or at the end of conversations)

Simple Health System:  Take some amount of hits/damage and the player dies or respawns at the beginning of the level.

Enemy Attack:  When "hits" the player takes damage.

Darkness Spawner:  Spawns a black image over the player that simulates darkness

Save Game Behavior:  When you interact with a Typewritter it'll save your progress.

Sprites/Graphics:  Patient 9, 1^st Enemy, Therapist, Darkness Actor, Random Props

Title Screen: Gotta load or start a game from somewhere.

Start making the BETA!  Eeeeeeeee! :)

I'm super pumped about getting this beta up soon, may only take a week or two.  Lately I've been working on a game (mine or my buddies) everyday.  I've noticed it keeps me "in the flow" and keep it on my mind.  Another little benefit is it's a lot easier to do rough conceptualizing while commuting, which seems to take foevar! in Toronto.  I think for my next post/update I might add a little short story that'll take place before the game, something from a characters point of view.  Till next time!

MTG: Modern, UWR Midrange, 1st Decked Out Qualifier

I have some bad news and good news for you guys, I broke up with Twin :'(. I'll let that sink in for a bit. She's moved most of her stuff out of my apartment (account), but she left her 3 puppies (Kiki Jiki's) behind and they're starting to burn a hole in my pocket(thankfully got rid of them!). Things had taken a turn for the worse, every date(mtgo daily) we had started off really well (2-0), but things always seems to take a turn for the worse (0-2) for some insane reason. After four "dates" in a row, the emotional roller coaster, sense of wasted time and money, made me realize we hadn't had any fun since Grand Prix Toronto. May'be some day we'll get back together, but right now we're in different place.

After a few days I found a sweet profile (decklist) floating around, shortly after I met UWR Midrange online. Our small talk went well, and we made plans too meet up at the Decked Out Modern 2k Qualifier. Here's a few changes she made to her outfit(decklist) before we met.

-2 Aven Mindcensor, +2 Wall of Omen

Curve consideration, had too many 3 drops. Was told Mindcensor was only good vs Kiki Pod, and I expected either a lot of Jund or Burn (local shop metagame).

-1 Electrolyze, +1 Izzet Charm

Curve consideration again, most games I just really wanted a versatile 2 drop.

-2 Tempest of Light, +2 Spellskite

GW Aura (Boggle) has become virtually extinct. I went with Spellskite as a comparable hate card, but more versatile across the board, I brought it in vs Jund, Twin, and Tribal Zoo (r1).

UWR Midrange - Modern

Creatures: 14

1 Thundermaw Hellkite

4 Snapcaster Mage

4 Geist of Saint Traft

3 Vendilion Clique

2 Wall of Omens

Spells: 21

3 Izzet Charm

4 Lightning Helix

3 Remand

3 Path to Exile

2 Mana Leak

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Electrolyze

Lands: 25

2 Hallowed Fountain

2 Steam Vents

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Sulfur Falls

1 Glacial Fortress

4 Celestial Colonnade

2 Tectonic Edge

4 Arid Mesa

4 Scalding Tarn

1 Plains

1 Mountain

2 Island

Sideboard 15

2 Counterflux

1 Batterskull

1 Baneslayer Angel

2 Engineered Explosives

1 Rule of Law

1 Disenchant

2 Pyroclasm

2 Sowing Salt

1 Relic of Progenitus

2 Spellskite

Here's a quick summary of my games. 

Round1: Deathrite Tribal Flames Zoo, 2-0

g1: I out helix'ed/geisted him ftw (for the win).

g2: I took 2 to turn 1 bolt a Deathrite, afterwards he stalled on 3 mana. On his upkeep I Pathed his Goyf, he got a a basic that made his fourth color then I tectonic edged his only green source, Stomping Ground.

Tectonic Edge Wins: 1

Round2: Spirit Jund, 2-0

g1: Geistd him good and hard.

g2: I gained 12 life off double Helix double Snapcaster. Wall of omens bought a ton of time against his 3 power army. Eventually went on the offence about turn 8 with V Clique and Geist, I was surprised how many cards I had access too from Snapcaster, Remand, and Wall of Omens.

g3-4: We played a few more fun games after, I won both. G3 I was able to keep him off double Black by Bolting his Deathrite and Tect Edging his Blood Crypt

Tectonic Edge Wins: 2

Round3: UW Control, 2-0

g1: Beat him down with a Vendilion Clique

g2: He stalled on 3 lands for a while, his fourth land was a Seachrome Coast that let me Tect Edge him back down to 3 and seal the deal with V Clique beats.

Tectonic Edge Wins: 3

Round 4: RG Tron, Sansan Zhen, 0-2

I just got smashed, nothing too see here. He played tight and didn't walk into Izzet Charm or Remand. We played about 3 practice games after where I barely managed to take one win. I consciously never showed him a Sowing Salt.

Round 5: Intentionall draw vs Smallpox.dec

Pox probably takes me to value town everyday unless I get Wall of Omens or turn 2 a Snapcaster for "guard" duty for Geist.

Quarterfinals: URg Twin, 2-1

g1: I flood forevar, double Tect him to stall/take pressure off, eventually Colonadde beat him down, weird game.

g2: Good blown out by the incredible duo of Blood Moon + Spell Pierce, alas I drew NO FETCHES EVAR this game :(.

g3: Turn2 Spellskite, T3 Engineered Explosives for 3, T4 V Clique, + removal in hand, kinda hard to lose from that position

Semifinals: Concession (aka Subway run!)

Both me and Sansan got conceded into the finals, weird.

Final(countdown): RG Tron, Sansan, 2-1

g1: Karn smash (again!).

g2: Sowing Salt FTW! Since I didn't show Sansan Salt's during our 6 games, so he toke a conservative line when he assembled Tron by leading with Oblivion Stone (neuters my offence) instead of running into soft counters, which bought me time draw Sowing Salt.

g3: Sansan mulls to 5 on the play, I draw double Tectonic Edge to break the Tron with Remand/Izzet Charm to keep him in check. My clock lethargic with Snapcaster making an appearance around t7, and V Clique on t8. After Remanding his Sylvan Scrying for the third turn in a row he plays Pyroclasm, at this point I have 5 lands in play, one is a Celestial Collanade, 3 are untapped, my hand is V clique, Lightning Bolt, and 2x Path to Exile, and he is at five. I double Path both my creatures, fetching a Mountain and Plains, untap, animate Collonade, hit him to 1 and then Bolt him.

Tectonic Edge Wins: 4 (I've missed you sooooo much <3)

So I just had to get a weeee bit lucky to take down the finals and win the 2 byes for the Modern 2k on February 16^th. Thanks to Harry Tarantula for hosting the qualifier and thanks to Decked Out for hosting really awesome tournaments in Toronto. "Sadly" it seems I'm going to have to shell out a 100$ or so for a playset of Geist's so I can PTQ again Online and practice up for the 2K. Here are some card choices I've been Pondering over.

Sowing Salt/Molten Rain: I felt Sowing Salt either needs a 3^rd copy since we don't see if often as 2of and it's critical vs Tron, or alternately we could go with 4x Molten Rain and have a aggressive LD plan.

Kitchen Finks: Seems like an interesting addition. Offers a different type of removal resistance from the rest of our deck, we can't really overload their removal but we can demand different types of answers.

Cryptic Command: The synergy between Snapcaster, Geist, and V Clique with this card is bonkers. Since you're role in match ups is very dynamic you can fully use every mode on Cryptic. Nothing seems sweeter then tapping down their team for lethal, unless you're returning Snapcaster with Cryptic while countering a spell.

Wall of Omens: I was impressed with it's spot on the curve, and it's utility against Jund's array of 3 power/dmg cards.

Path to Exile: We have a hard time beating Tarmogoyf and Kitchen Finks, perhaps a 4^th for the board.

Remand: MOAR! With Bloodbraid Elf being evicted soon Remand is well positioned again across the board.

Grim Lavamancer: I absolutely love this card against a ton of the field,it dominates creature match ups, compliments your burn nicely, and can run away with games against Jund if left unchecked.

Sun Titan: Mostly as a value creature to go over the top of other grind/fair match ups. If Phantasmal Image becomes better then we can go deeper on a "combo" Titan.

Tectonic Edge: A surprising amount of wins came my way cause of Edge, I wonder if the mana base can support a 3^rd.

Fetchlands: Blood Moon seems very popular right now, in my experience fetching a basic or two goes a long way toward negating it's effect. I'd like too go up to 11, which would power up a potential Grim Lavamancer.

Well that's it for this week. If you've got any questions, suggestions, or comments please feel free to post em.

Patient 9 Entry 4

Huza! The story and rough GDD (Game Design Document = the bible of the game) are "done". I say "done" cause every time I start working on any game, I keep getting more ideas which leads to segments doubling or tripling their original length.

I'm really excited about the "choose your own past" character growth mechanic. In my opinion the key to ANY decision based system is you have to add weight to each one, or else you're just presenting the illusion of choice (which honestly is acceptable at times, but that should be the spice/variety of your design, not the main course). Hopefully I'm able to keep true to that belief the further I get in development.

Schizophrenia, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Sociopath are the 3 mental illness' that I'm going to use as archetypes that the player can choose for Patient 9. Each one, I hope, will have a unique play style and feel.

PTSD = fear

Schizophrenia = weird, trippy

Sociopath = power, villainous

One fact I sadly have to come to terms with is I can't cover all the possibilities and have to shelve a lot of neat ideas that I want to introduce. Some of them just lack depth, others are too similar with other branches, etc. I guess I can be happy knowing that I'm developing a bucket list of ideas that I can use in future games (of which there will be plenty).

The biggest problems for me has been

1) too many potential paths

Every possibility branch you add increases the total amount of combinations you have, which makes balancing/play testing a lot harder. More isn't more. Especially for a short indie game like Patient 9, it's better too have a few tight storylines that deliver a quality experience instead of 320984 potential storylines that all feel like the same 50 non sexy shades of grey.

2 fleshing out each archetype fully

As cool as it is to have a character idea, for the format I've chosen, I need 2 potential branches, and 2 more potential branches on top of those, resulting in a minimum of 4 variants of the original idea. This is kinda hard since some neat ideas have a bit of a lack of variety in that regard.  Also each one of those ideally should have a unique game ending option.

I designed/brainstormed the branching character growth options in spreadsheet along with the list of levels in the game.

spoilers "hidden"

In the very near future I'm going too put a design freeze on the story development, this game has got to get done as early as possible, no more durdling (doing very little). During the story crafting process I came to an opinion that I'm really liking . . .

Balance is bullshit

Seriously, if you want too create a cool experience, you cant have one be "fair" compared too the other. Take the sociopath vs the PTSD characters. One of them is a power monger potential knife wielding maniac, the other is a traumatized victim. There is no way in hell they should have the same game play feel, which leads to them being imbalanced, which I think is perfectly fine. If mechanically on a combat level they where equal, it would compromise the feel of each character.

You wouldn't feel afraid playing the PSTD character, you'd engage encounters the exact same as the sociopath. You wouldn't feel powerful or "monstrous" playing the Sociopath either, at best you'd feel like an aggressive variant.

One of my favourite space games back in the day was Colony Wars for the Playstation 1. When designing the 2 opposing factions the developers got 2 different designers and had each one make the other faction separate the other. The end result was really cool, one faction was cold steel based with saucer based designs like Star Trek, and the other faction was more based on Navy Battle Cruiser style designs with a green army tank color scheme. This approach gave each faction a very unique feel. I think for the next game I make, odds are I'll touch on branching storylines again, I might contact a creative friend after I've designed the rough story format and have em flesh out a character or two. I'm sure it'll provide some sweet contrast that'll add re playability.

Now I'm finally ready to start redesigning the behaviours and laying the rough groundwork for everything in the game. So soon and so close!

Lastly here's some doodles/sketches for potential enemies

some knife wielding lobotomy case

screamer or something

gotta love those muzzles

sketch i had too do to gain entry

MTG: Standard, URw MOAR MORTARS, Entry 2

Braving the harsh Canadian winter (it's comin’, ya know), I treked to my LGS to test UWr Mortars' mettle. Here are the desperate ravings of my battles that day...

Round 1vs Virtual bye

I played against extremely new player with an illegal deck. After our games me and Andrew Oyen helped fix his deck before the next round.

Round 2 vs GW Aggro, 2-1

g1: I bury him in 2-for-1's.

g2: I got greedy and used both of my O-Rings on Loxodon Smiters and lose 10 turns later to a Pike-neutering Rest in Peace, while I proceeded to flood.

g3: Basically a repeat of the first game; 2-for-1’s, buried, etc.

Round 3 vs GB Ooze a la Kibler, 1-2

g1: My opponent leads with turn 2 Ooze, turn 3 Rancor, you know the drill. I lost that game...go figure.

g2: Stabalized at one life with removal that actually works (O-ring, Unsummon)

g3: I got knocked silly by a trio of angry Dreg Manglers. I guess you could say I was, thoroughly mangled.

Round 4 vs Mono Red, 2-0

There's not a lot to say here, my blockers produced a lot of card advantage (how fair is that?!) and I promptly crushed him.

Round 5 vs Junk Reanimator, 0-2

g1: My opponent skillfully taps 2 lands and casts Mulch revealing...

...As the game drags on I battle through Thragtusks and Spirit tokens before I'm completely dominated by an uncounterable Griselbrand. Eight mana isn't very restrictive when all of your Mulch's get 2 lands. Ah, well.

g2: I Thought Scour myself twice – each one milling a Jace, Memory Adept. I guess it's true what they say "Everyman kills what he loves." The game ends with another Caverned Griselbrand enabled by a couple of sick Mulch hits.

After struggling against Griselbrand, Predator Ooze, and Lotleth Troll, I went back to the "drawing board" to readjust my removal suite.

The drawing board: 

+1 Mountain -1 Plains: MOAR MORTARS!

+1 Sphinx's Revelation: Okay, maybe I don’t hate a good revelation. Maybe I just disliked how poorly set up the UWr Flash version was at not dying, making it a poor use of the card (that or I just can't play it properly...or the meta’s weird). Now I feel much more capable of drawing the game out for the life of me during X turns.

+1 Runechanters Pike: This card is just amazing! It lets me completely dominate the board post-sweeper, lets me end the game extremely fast, pressures decks that go bigger than me, and even holds off obscenely large creatures like Wolfir Silverheart.

+2 Azorious Charm: The biggest problems my deck had came from regenerators and indestructible, slimy jerks. Azorious Charm shores up that weakness only because we can close a game out a lot easier now (with 50% moar Runechanter's Pike!).

+3 Terminus: Back in my day, Wraths actually swept the board, Supreme Verdict just drinks on the job and leaves a ton of problems for the next shift (what a dick). Terminus though punches in 9-5, Febreezes the board, all while winning employee of the year. Now I’m willing to nuke my own weenies since I get to do the same to my opponent.

+1 Oblivion Ring: I found myself boarding this in a lot. Sadly it's not Augur/Tiago food, but it's so good at answering an early Ooze, Smiter, Planeswalker, etc.

Erase: I didn't have many artifacts to target with Sundering Growth, and Rancor is a very annoying Magic card. Maybe someday I'll bring in three O-rings, an Erase and a Growth to stop a Rest in Peace or some other equally backbreaking enchantment – much like Bane’s knee into Batman’s spine.

Switcheroo: I have to see if this trumps Griselbrand. If it does, I sense some very angry Reanimator players in the near future.

Dramatic Rescue: Wanted to try it out. I'm liking it so far, but it might just be a unnecessary – and greedier – Unsummon.

After said changes we arrive at . . . 

T2 – URw MOAR MORTARS! v2

Lands: 24

4 Hallowed Fountain

4 Steam Vents

3 Glacial Fortress

4 Clifftop Retreat

4 Sulfur Falls

1 Island

2 Mountain

1 Plains

1 Evolving Wilds

Creatures/Win Conditions: 16

4 Augur of Bolas

4 Restoration Angel

4 Snapcaster Mage

2 Jace, Memory Adept

3 Runechanter's Pike

Snapcaster/Augur Food: 20

4 Thought Scour

2 Pillar of Flame

1 Dramatic Rescue

3 Azorius Charm

3 Mizzium Mortars

1 Searing Spear

1 Izzet Charm

2 Syncopate

2 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard:  15

1 Psychic Spiral

1 Mystic Retrieval

2 Dissipate

1 Sundering Growth

1 Erase

3 Oblivion Ring

1 Mizzium Mortars

3 Terminus

1 Switcheroo

1 Unsummon (doing gods work from the sideboard)

Well, that's it for MOAR MORTARS for a bit. I'm gonna be playing a few dailies on MTGO before rotation completely changes Standard. I did win a local qualifier for a 2k Modern event, earning me 2 byes, with UWR Midrange. The deck has been on fire, winning some recent MTGO PTQ’s and GP Bilbao. I'll be writting up a report and my thoughts on the list in a few days.

Edited and Revised by Andrew Boa

MTG: Standard, URw MOAR MORTARS

In this post I'll be discussing a saucy anti aggro/midrange brew based of Gerry Thompson's UWr Flash. I've developed Flash this direction due to the abundance of aggressive decks like G/W Aggro, Mono Red, and other midrange decks present in my local and Magic Online metagame. Without further ado. . .

T2 – U R w MOAR MORTARS!

Lands: 24

4 Hallowed Fountain

4 Steam Vents

3 Glacial Fortress

4 Clifftop Retreat

4 Sulfur Falls

1 Island

1 Mountain

2 Plains

1 Evolving Wilds

Creatures/Win Conditions: 16

4 Augur of Bolas

4 Restoration Angel

4 Snapcaster Mage

2 Jace, Memory Adept

2 Runechanter's Pike

Snapcaster/Augur Food: 20

4 Thought Scour

2 Pillar of Flame

1 Unsummon

1 Azorius Charm

3 Mizzium Mortars

1 Searing Spear

2 Izzet Charm

2 Syncopate

3 Desperate Ravings

1 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard: 15

1 Planar Cleansing

1 Psychic Spiral

1 Mystic Retrieval

2 Dissipate

2 Sundering Growth

2 Oblivion Ring

2 Pillar of Flame

1 Rolling Temblor

1 Mizzium Mortars

1 Azorius Charm

1 Runechanter's Pike

Here's a quick breakdown of the deck and it's unique decisions.

4 Augur of Bolas/4 Snapcaster Mage/4 Restoration Angel

We all know why these dorks are good, nothing too see here.

3 Mizzium Mortars, 0 Supreme Verdict

I always hated relying on 1 Verdict, it was far too inconsistent and frequently led to me getting overrun. I also disliked nuking my own board, since I found it hard to consistently finish my opponent off. Mizzium Mortars solves both these problems. It's a strong early game play, gives you an out to Loxodon Smitter, is a great turn 4 play with Snapcsater, and serves as a wrath variant that lets you keep targets for Runechanter's Pike.

2 Jace Memory Adept

I found myself boarding in 2 Jace's in practically every match I played, with Big Rakdos (4 Aristocrats, 4 Thundermaw Hellkites) being the exception. He's very strong against control decks, sidestepping all their creature removal and giving you a critical threat diversity. Against midrange and Aggro decks he threatens to bury them in card advantage while increasing his loyalty.

2 Runechanters Pike

I added the second cause I was so sick of removing it from Thought Scour, Augur of Bolas, and Desperate Ravings. This is a key win condition that potentially kills in 2 attacks.

2 Izzet Charm, 2 Syncopate

I've been very happy with these two. Charm provides a critical number of soft counters which helps keep control or combo(Omniscience) in check while being perfectly serviceable as a shock or careful study. Syncopate is excellent as a 2 drop or going long against big badass spells, about 3 out of 4 times you only have to pay 1-2.

3 Desperate Ravings, 4 Thought Scour, 1 Sphinx's Revelation

Many games I had Revelation rot in my hand while I got beat down by some number of Smitters or Chainwalkers. I found Revelating for low amounts was completely ineffective since my deck was answer light and I was too far behind on board. That's why I made the switch to Desperate Ravings, it fits on the curve easier, generates lots of card advantage, while letting you access more cards in the key early stages of the game. By adding more win conditions too the deck I've reduced the rage inducing sting of random discard. Thought Scour's are critical to hitting your land drops, fueling your Pike, and keeping the spell count high for your blue creatures. I still want access to Sphinx's Revelation, but I don't want it in my opener often nor do I want it to be my primary strategy, so 1, maybe later 2, is a good amount.

1 Searing Spear, 2 Pillar of Flames, 1 Azorius Charm, 1 Unsummon,

Since you see roughly half your deck every game, and games tend to go longer, it's very important to have unique and versatile effects available too you. Azorius Charm is extremely versatile, Pillars are for undying creatures, the Spear is for Hellrider and to make combat tricky, and 1 Unsummon has consistently done god's work for me providing me tempo and insane mana efficiency.

Match ups/Sideboarding

The sideboard is pretty obvious. Psychic Spiral + Mystic Retrieval are my package against practically every control deck, especially Esper Frownyard.dek. Planar Cleansing are for the Midrange decks everywhere that are abusing Garruk Primal Hunter, Sorin, etc. Oblivion Rings are played over Detention Sphere so we can target other Detention Sphere's, both are played so we can answer a Planeswalker, even if it's at a disadvantage. Lastly there's more varied removal and counters to help adapt to various match ups.

I'm very confident in this list and it's ability to deal with the wide gauntlet that is standard. It's currently geared to fight aggressive and midrange strategies, which litters my metagame, and judging from recent tournament reports it's present in yours as well. The control match ups aren't unwinnable, but I'd say MOAR MORTARS has about a 2/5 match win rate. My next post will include a mini tournament report, thoughts/feelings on match ups, and a starting point for sideboarding.