Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Pseudo Newb Qualifies for the World Magic Cup Qualifiers

Pseudo Newb Qualifies for the World Magic Cup Qualifiers

 . . .  and promptly says "Oh!"


The World Magic Cup is a great competition that I really enjoyed being a part of as an observer - it's team based but you earn your spot on your national team by independent play.  Which means there are regional qualifiers - The way you qualify is this:


INVITATION CRITERIA
The invitation list for each country's 2013 World Magic Cup Qualifier will consist of the following players: 
Each 2013 World Magic Cup Qualifier will be held according to the follow rules:
FORMAT


Needless to say if you keep up with the Pseudo Newb journal you know how I made the list.

My dedication to learning how to be at a tournament while still trying to improve my game has paid off in terms of collection of PWP points.

I legitimately have not played competitive magic at competitive REL since GP Atlantic City. I haven't even touched an FNM - Between the destabilizing effects of watching someone else get DQ'd through accidental misunderstanding of etiquette and the massive quantity of tilt I was operating under I played two of the pre-releases, crashed and burned one and 4-0ed the second one. Then the show I was costuming really, really needed me and I ended up carrying my pre-paid pre-release credit all the way through buying a box on release day instead of using it to play. It took me until the beginning of this month to be able just be able to Booster Smash through the box.


@OriginalOestrus on Twitter (She does The Deck Tease podcast)  is the one who hepped me to the fact that there was a list to check. I've been so out of it I was still playing catch up with a month and a half's worth of articles on on my three main go-to sites Daily MtG,  LegitMtg and saving GatheringMagic for the last happiest one.

Starcitygames new pay structure meant that my experiment with premium came to an end, which means I'm horrifically out of date on "cutting edge" tech but TCG Player is now filling some of that gap - Jackie Lee and Melissa De Tora write for them as does Craig Wescoe - who works with White Weenie which is my Go To Strategy when I'm too far outside my current knowlege base. And he's testing something - a Reckoner deck and streaming it while he's testing.

So I was working on putting together this list anyway

Boros Champions
Craig Wescoe
Type II

Main Deck:
3 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Dryad Militant
2 Gideon, Champion of Justice
4 Knight of Glory
2 Precinct Captain
4 Restoration Angel
4 Silverblade Paladin

2 Faith's Shield
4 Searing Spear

4 Clifftop Retreat
2 Mountain
11 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Slayers' Stronghold

Sideboard:
2 Blind Obedience
3 Boros Charm
2 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Mountain
3 Nearheath Pilgrim
3 Rest in Peace
1 Slayers' Stronghold

I had almost everything but the shocklands and 2 Reckoners and a Blind Obedience.

When I posted to facebook that I had made it onto the invite list the support was very sweet from both my MtG and non-MtG friends but two young men took it a step further and have loaned me all of the cards I didn't have so I could start working with it at FNM right away. They are amazing and I really, really appreciate it.  It also ends up that I am only two cards short of the current Jund List that in the meta - I'm building it for people who come visit to play with and proxying those two cards but if the Jund List ends up performing more consistently than my preferred Reckoner build I'll be able to bring that next month as well.



This should be interesting - I put the deck together with their help on Sunday, but it's Passover and school needed me to write massvive amounts of papers so I still haven't been able to play. I had literally just decided to only dabble in standard and work on my vintage deck - I haven't given up on that.

Luckily the best player in our college gaming group is also a Top 8 vintage player - I'm going to see if I can manage to do both - I finished the Taylor Power Nine. - I'm hoping to have some actual competitve journal stuff to post here soon.  It's going to be a bumpy ride  . . .




This is the Jund by Susan Zell in case anyone was curious and so I have a copy here.


Monday, March 18, 2013

PseudoNewb gets Ready for Playing with Revised Angel

Ok - so here's the deal - Vintage is so far out of my bailiwick that it doesn't even have telegraph machines to communicate with it.

BUT - as always the lovely people who are bonding on the internet and supporting us even when we are tilting or stumbling or navigating having the game fit into real life (for the non-pros) have pushed me into strange new places.

So here's the deal - I'm going to learn to play vintage using proxies - It might help me in my competitive space or it might just be the place where I can indulge in my love of seriously chaotic random effects,

I don't know anything about Vintagae - but I do know Heather from LegitMTG and I know what it's like to never get to play.

So if anyone who reads this knows anything about Vintage HELP!

I'm looking at two different deck lists as long as I can proxy - and Heather promised I could proxy - so I'm making all of my Proxy Power be worn by Elizabeth Taylor, because that's what should happen.  Elizabeth needs to wear ALL the Jewels.






See - I told you.

Here are the two lists I'm thinking of:

One is this List by Jan Zuskack

11 LANDS
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

2 CREATURES
2 Griselbrand

25 INSTANTS and SORCERIES
4 Duress
4 Burning Wish
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Timetwister
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Windfall
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mind's Desire
1 Brainstorm
1 Empty the Warrens

22 OTHER SPELLS
4 Oath of Druids
2 Mox Opal
2 Chrome Mox
1 Memory Jar
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

SIDEBOARD
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Shattering Spree
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Nature's Claim
2 Ancient Tomb
1 Thoughtseize
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Show and Tell
1 Balance


And the other is this one from a Star City Games article - I might just love it because it has Maze of It, Mishra's factories and it's called esspresso



Espresso Stax
Mickey Mahr
2nd Place at Miscellaneous on 3/25/2012
Vintage







So this is what I'm thinking of this week - it might help me when I can't get to play standard - if nothing else I'll have fun making the proxies!