Pseudo-Newb Goes to GP Atlantic City - Competitive Journal for Main Event

For anyone who's following this blog for bloggy reasons this is going to be the competitive journal part for me - where I beat myself up and analyze the hell out of it - there will be another post shortly afterwards where I do the same thing for the swiss sealed GP Pittsburg Warmup that I participated in on Day 2 - I keep avoiding writing about the GP experiences and I'm going to try not to do that this time but there will be a more traditional blog style post about some unintended consequences of witnessing a Disqualification in process even if it's not something you're part of before I do that. 

So the posts will be - Me and Main Event - only this post
Me and my first real Side Event - next Post
Actual Blog-like yet still competitive journal post actual aimed at people who aren't just me - Post after that.

Feel free to read away anyway -but remember I don't edit to make sure I don't back off recording the truth as I remember it before I can talk myself out of writing it down. 

Why did I go to Gp Atlantic City? Unlike the other two GPs which were planned and prepped for months in advance I had very little intention of going to GP AC but a dear friend of mine was going and I've become involved with Planeswalkers for Diversity and Ladies of MtG groups ( discovering that Facebook is actually a social tool for organizing new groups of people instead of just communicating with existing ones) 

Preparation: 

So my dear friend whom I love was going, and a number of people I've only known virtually were going and there was talk of getting together to meet each other in person. The friend however was working out which deck she wanted to play and put in an impressive amount of time researching, and playtesting and changing up what she wanted to play about every hour. I pretty much figured if the metagame was taking up that much of her time there was very little point in me playing because I didn't have five spare minutes to squeeze together for anything other than perhaps updating a sideboard. And there's also what I learned from my only other standard GP which was don't play a deck you don't love because you will be soooo sick of seeing those cards by round 5.

That's not to say that you should play a bad deck at a GP because you love it. And it's not the same as being a high level competitor like anyone who is going to make it to the top 64 - those people are actually playing at a higher level and picking the right deck IS very important to their success - however they will also not make two mistakes that non-pro or new players might make:

Mistake One - concentrating so much on learning about the metagame you don't practice with the deck you pick ( if you're a top pro - you've probably already developed the skillsets you need to exploit the deck synergies that make it a tier one ( which means very good and likely to win) deck.  Even Red Deck Wins is a complex set of decisions, just having the cards and identifying them won't mean they can win on their own. 

Mistake Two - Changing your deck every twelve hours because of a new report back or playtest with the deck didn't go well in a few ( less than 5 3-game) matchups. 


I was completely guilty of a variant of Mistake Two Variant A: playtesting the friday night before the event and freaking out and audibling right before the event because of the way one playtest went. 


When Pro's look at the meta and do analysis and pick decks they are doing it from a point of experience with the basic functionality of complex card interaction that the rest of us don't have, because they're been doing it forever - like when mechanics know what part of your engine is running off because of the sound of it when it sounds exactly the same to you. So it's good and important to know the meta at a GP and it's good and important to pick a deck that has a chance against the meta - and then what a newb should do differently than a player is play that deck ALOT and if it's netdecked play attention to what other competitor's changes ACTUALLY CHANGE about the way the deck runs. 

The most important reason to know the meta is so you can recognize what the other guy might be playing.  My dear friend is newish to magic and like me a reasonable adult that doesn't want to spend stupid money on cards. This particular Standard Season it looks like all the card prices are more affected by fashion than Kim Kardashian and Anna Wintour combined. If they were stocks you could day trade off them. 


So I wasn't going but I do have a few legal standard decks I've been working on putting together so I had the cards she needed - but a lot of them were in decks.  I had finished the paper but I also have a show I'm working with and the holidays - there was no way I was going to GPAC because I had ZERO practice time now. But someone was coming and it was really too much to not meet her, and then if I was there it would be silly not to play. And dear friend offered crash space to me and my other friend - who is the friend/possibly coach guinea pig that I now go to GPs with. So I went - mostly for something fairly close to Girls Weekend Out. It was one week before the event. I knew from keeping track of my friend's deck changes that I needed to play something simpler. I have my beloved Re-animator Rats deck - But I wasn't playing it well or consistently.  I went to the FNM last week and played this list with one more Hannaweir Lancer and one less Hellrider. 

Deck: GPAC Red

Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard

Creatures:23
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Reckless Waif
4 Vexing Devil
3 Ash Zealot
4 Gore-House Chainwalker
1 Guttersnipe
1 Hanweir Lancer
2 Hellrider

Spells:17
4 Pillar of Flame
1 Street Spasm
1 Mizzium Mortars
4 Searing Spear
3 Brimstone Volley
1 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Thunderous Wrath

Lands:20
20 Mountain

Sideboard:15
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Stromkirk Noble
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Nightbird's Clutches
2 Annihilating Fire
1 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
3 Zealous Conscripts


I went 3-1 and tied for 3rd tiebreakering down to 4th again.

I only lost to a mirror running Stromkirks and Stonewrights. It was fast, it was clean and there were lots of decision points and that was very, very good because Sunday I went to the rehearsal for the show and found out how much work there was to do in the next three weeks. So every night the week up to the GP was spend on costuming Annie. Everynight after the GP will be too. 23 orphan's people!

Ok - so I was following my own advice - I know the deck has a weakness - thus I worked on what to side without actually changing too much of my deck strategy. It was going to win quick ( less than 10-15 minutes) or at least make the control decks work for it. Unfortunately for me - the build I lost round 4 against won the Star City or TCG or something big on Sunday when I was looking at vintage clothes for the Boelyn Sisters and realizing that we had very, very little on the rack for any of the adult cast members - Dress rehearsal in less than 26 days. 

Goals - 

My Goal for this GP was to play all 9 rounds no matter what. I keep getting tired and making sloppy play mistakes around round 4 or 5. Managing hydration, health, how much I'm carrying and keeping focus on my deck and adapting to play was the skillset I was working on.  That and the whole - "Girls Weekend Out" thing.

So that was the goal - how did it go?

Well, ummm . . .  I did bake very successful cookies to share this weekend. 

Also - I'm apparently running between two types of social interaction - something just short of actually being shy and continuously feeling awkward, and running off at the mouth while I speak passionately about coaching and teams in Magic.  And sort of floundering around in between. I successfully made it to the get together on Friday and then successfully managed to second guess and relive every real or imagined social faux pax I made after that until the next day. So the good news - no social anxiety before hand/ the bad news apparently you can get it afterwards. 

Who knew?

The dear friend who brought me there and the woman I was pretty much there to meet were all doing the Magic Social Networking thing brilliantly, but as Sancho Panza might say "I'd gone and lost the knack." 

However I did make one more really intelligent decision which was to recognize that I was tired and losing my mind due to stupidity and so I stayed in the room and went to sleep rather than playtest until 2am. I confided in a friend who wasn't at GP AC all the stupid things I was obsessing over and she helped put it into perspective so that I wasn't destroying myself over it. So good - I slept and this helped me actually meet the 9 round goal

But what I wasn't prepared for was the worst record I have every encountered in a standard event.


Which brings us to:

Results:

Abysmal - My total record was 3-6, and the way it played out was that I was 0-5 and then won 3. 

(So if I'd won three byes I would have been 6-3 which is interesting in it's own way and would look very different to me - I do think that the system of byes makes a huge difference to the events - having a bye has numerous benefits for managing health and resources, it also means pros and bye holders never really have to deal with the additional stressors that can happen from that time period of play)

The per- game record went like this: 

• Round 1 -  1-2 It was a Lifegain deck with RhoxFaithminder
• Round 2 -  0-2 Against the Mirror but it was a legitimate race each time
• Round 3 -  0-2 I died very quickly to Restoration Angels with Auger of Bolas and I have a note that I mulled down to 6 and should have mulled to 5 
• Round 4 -  I-2 Black Red Zombies but it was within two life points when he won and over 10 when I did
• Round 5 - 0-2 it was against something that ran Garruk, and Hunstmaster and Thragtusk and Resto and I managed to kill all of them before lifegain shennanagans.
• Round 6 - 2-1 and I finally broke the losing streak after somehow playing a Dark America style control deck into submission for 45 minutes on game 1 which he won by pinging away with an Auger of Bolas. I did indeed sideboard and won the next two games in 10 minutes,
• Round 7 - 2-0 both I and the deck were finally playing the way they should an won both rounds by round 4 and 5
• Round 8 - 2-1 He was playing an Olivia/zombies aggro buil I was winning the first on lifepoints but he had a damage accelerator that won him the first round - I won the second and third game in 4 rounds
• Round 9 - 1-2 Another lifegain strategy - this deck is SOOO getting Skullcrack when it comes out. 

So I played a total of 22 games won 9 of them. My round win rate is 30% but my per game win rate is 41%. This is interesting to me because I didn't really remember it that way - I actually remember it as losing more than that. It's certainly the way I felt after round 4. 

I was trying to keep a positive attitude - none of the games I played were horrifically bad - all of them were close in the mirror it was simply the race. In the first round I could only kill one of the two Rhox Faithminders before the Thragtusk came out. 

When the standings were placed I was 615 out of something like 630 who were still playing and according to the DCI when you average in all the people who probably dropped when they were dead but had won before then I was 1116 out of 1648. 

Takeaways - Here is the thing I learned - I am competitve. Really not kidding around competitive, but it is against myself and my own record. I was lucky that I had a whole bunch of people supporting me at this GP so I was most likely the losingist person with a support team to help me meet my goal there. I was still exahuasted and cranky at round four but the husband of the dear friend had dropped by 4 and asked me what I needed to get through - the large white chocolate Mocha from Starbucks literally got me through the next five rounds.

At Round 3 it was over fast enough for more than a bathroom break it was also a nice fully digested lunch. There was enough time to really talk to the opponents & I got to know them. I actually did way better with that social interaction that the purported social reasons I went in the first place. But at the very end it was the friends who went with me that let me relax enough to analyze and celebrate the making it through the whole 9 rounds. 

I also realized that it was much better for me to figure out how to play 9 rounds when I wasn't doing well than to be running 5-0 and figuring it out on the fly. 

By the time the standings were up however- it was 10:15 and getting out and figuring out where to eat -even in Atlantic City made it difficult to figure out where to get real food. 

We were out late, and I promised I would participate in a side event to get rid of my fear of side events. - so that was what the next competitive journal post will be about. 

Pseudo -Newb when your Central Nervous System Drafts without you

Last Return to Ravnica draft I was at was the day after I had finished writing a 45 page philosophy paper that had been turned in literally 20 minutes before it was due at midnight. 

It had a number of fairly stressful things that required heavy focus and although I had been working on it solidly for a week  it was 12 hour day style. I had about 4 hours to edit it before submission. So I was really toasty going into draft.

I have a tendency to want to draft into white, but honestly that hasn't been doing very well for me in RtR, also I knew that any type of complex play wasn't going to work well. I expected to pretty much just be holding down a place so that there were enough people to draft and I had some vague idea that I might want to look at Rakdos (Red/Black) based strategies since I avoid playing them. 

Here are things I know I would have realized if I had been functioning properly:

Obviously other people were all in my colors based on the picks that came around, but since my brain was on vacation somewhere and the rest of the central nervous system was picking the cards I found out that once it had decided that it like the Rix Maddi and the Daggerdrome Imp came back it was going into Red and Black no matter what. 

My central nervous system will also pick late Bellows Lizards over Traitorous Instinct, while I know my brain will always pick the thing that steals other things. But the CNS was right - there were no big killer strategic steals in any of the games I played it would have been an expensive useless card. My strategy was small creatures attacking and buffed with red used as removal to get rid of blockers - it was unexciting in terms of cards but it worked pretty well because even brain fried I not only came in 3rd I beat one of our very serious competitive gamers to do it.

Here's the list:

Main deck (40 cards)

2 Bellows Lizard

1 Nivmagus Elemental

2 Daggerdrome Imp

1 Rix Maadi Guildmage

2 Dead Reveler

1 Guttersnipe

1 Sewer Shambler

1 Viashino Racketeer

1 Dark Revenant

1 Cremate

2 Deviant Glee

3 Electrickery

1 Street Spasm

1 Pursuit of Flight

1 Annihilating Fire

2 Stab Wound

1 Goblin Rally

7 Mountain

7 Swamp

2 Transguild Promenade

Sideboard (16 cards)

1 Catacomb Slug

1 Ogre Jailbreaker

2 Destroy the Evidence

1 Cremate

2 Mind Rot

1 Cancel

1 Tower Drake

1 Street Sweeper

1 Stealer of Secrets

1 Giant Growth

1 Stonefare Crocodile

1 Dispel

1 Pursuit of Flight

1 Racecourse Fury

Created with Decked Builder

http://www.deckedbuilder.com/


Preparation - The way that things seem to be very very common these days - almost none - I wonder if I've become afraid of drafting after Avacyn Restored. Some of it might be my participation in so much sealed competitive at the beginning of the season lessened the need for draft cards and frankly it's been two weeks since this draft and I've been pretty not-well so it's a kind of effort to do more than the crushing travel and entertainment schedule for friends and family. The fact that finals literally end in the middle of the various holidays makes things feel less like celebrations and more like a marathon, adding draft when I hadn't been doing it all season wasn't a priority. 

Results 
2-0
1-2
2-0

So I won 5 games out of 7 much to my surprise.

Takeaways - I was expecting because I had been playing so much with the club or with casual that my play would not be clean or sharp, but I did actually win due to careful play and some variance. The second win with my first opponent was due to his incredibly bad luck - he got color screwed in a multicolor deck but the first game was careful use of timing. He's one of our top players in the state right now and is usually nice (in his own way) to me, so the first game was really more of an indicator that I hadn't had as much skill loss as I was afraid of, and he wasn't sour with me about the mana screw.

I lost the second match to a very tight control build. 

I think I need to follow my gut a bit more. But draft is also expensive 

I also got to usefully cast Goblin Rally which made me very, very happy. 

I did not go to draft last night however, because last night ended up being the first night since that last draft were no one was visiting my house nor was I required to be at anyone else's house.  I'm considering what to do or if I should go to GP Atlantic City. And I need to get on Cockatrice to be able to practice standard. I should probably draft more when Gatecrash comes out. 

Pseudo Newb and . . . . Legacy?

Ok, I'm not 100% sure that this is a good idea, because I'm still not 100% sure what it is that I get out of participating in GPs. ( reminder to self- finish the comparison of GP Balt and GP Philly experiences and get them here on the journal - you know you're just avoiding the self-reflection)  I am thinking of going to the GP in Washington DC in November 2013.  The hitch is that it's legacy.

The next closest GP is Atlantic City, It's in January and it's standard. One of the things that concerns me is that I haven't played enough standard to feel like I have any understanding of it. I have a Pack Rats Reanimator Deck, and I just put together a Dark America Deck but they may both be above my skill set. However I could concievably play my 12.00 Pack Rats deck with no sideboard and see how it goes?

Not sure. If I'm serious about participating in a legacy event I would seriously need some coaching. The advice I've gotten is to find an archetype I like and work with it in several different builds.

To that end a friend who plays on the money circuit for Legacy gave me this site:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/forum.php

Apparently Legacy does react to the new releases at the competitive level. I might be able to play one of the Legacy delver builds but I also think I may have to borrow the deck for an actual tournament.

There's something called Angel Stompy that sounds interesting.

Pseudo Newb and the First RtR Draft

They needed people to make sanctioning level today at draft - I'm on a call list and I know exactly why they're having trouble - because it's finals week for projects and starting tomorrow is the finals for tests for some of the classes.

I've been trying to get to a draft for sometime, but I've actually gotten to do very little drafting since Avacyn Restored. I've been playing a lot of sealed and my record was improving and I drafted some through Magic Core Set 2013 which was much better for me than the Avacyn Restored limited environment, but honestly I felt like I was barely understanding the synergies in sealled and standard and draft is a different beast.

So for the first time every I went knowing that I was going to have to drop, because I have a final tomorrow at 8am but I did the absolute worst thing I could possibly do before a draft- about 3 .5 hours of algebra.

There was a section that hit me really hard in the LD involving graphing, so by the time I got to draft I was really burned out. While I knew I was having the cognitive dissonance reactions and vertigo what I hadn't realzed is fighting through it kind of tabled it and it (the vertigo ) kind of washed over me like it had been building up all evening.

So I opened pack 1 got an Angel of Serenity in pack one and some other white put me in either green/white, mono white or white blue.

I went 0-2 for both rounds before  I dropped.

The first round Frank and I played each other and we both mulled down to 5. We were playing almost the exact mirror but he had a Martial Law I had passed on to tap down the AngelI felt better about the Sundering Growths I had picked for sideboarding.

The second round I was manna screwed at the beginning but I just tried to make the best of it but the reality was my mind was compelelty on the final tomorrow. I'll have to review the build when I'm done with all this.

I also got a call of the conclave, a fencing artist, and an epic experiment and my LGS members got their planeswalker points but I'm going to have to catch up with the drafting strategies.

Psuedo Newb and Two Articles about Sideboards I need to spend time with

I need to stop being ill during FNM nights.

I also need to read this article by Gavin Verhey very slowly and probably take notes

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/rc/222

And then I need to re-read this one by Dee

http://magicgameplan.com/blog/how-to-beat-falkenrath-aristocrat/

I think between the two of them I might be able to get some clarity on figuring out constructing my sideboards.

Pseudeo Newb and the Quick new thing I learned about Deathrite Shaman

Quick new thing I learned about Deathrite Shaman

Plus Pack Rat Tokens


Arrgh so much stuff - so far behind.

This last weekend was Thankgsiving. I've been playing a lot because I'm fully integrated into our college's gaming club. I've been playing a 20$ pack rats deck that is more fun than many, may things and then I realized I needed to make a Pack Rat's token that actually had the rules on it so that I didn't have to remember an extra thing on the board unnecessarily.

Here's my token - feel free to share internet. I'm playing Pack Rats because I love adorable rodents, I'm just happy that WotC made me a card so that I can play ALL the rats in standard at one time and have a usable deck.

*Newb Note - because Pack Rat Tokens are full copies of Pack Rat they also have all of the same card text abilities of the original card - I made these tokens to make sure that I didn't forget that.

Sometimes it's strategic to use a pack rat token instead of an actual Pack Rat card when you are choosing to attack or whatever maybe you have something that buffs up tokens or something else that needs a non-token creature and the original card isn't hanging around to read the text off it. My final copy is an .AI file that has the word token on it.

I need to do this more often for two reasons - 1 is that it means my tokens do exactly what I need them to during the game and 2 I get to make my own art and use it in game.

Ok so here's the thing I learned about Deathrite Shaman. 

I've put together a Green and Black deck that is different than a tournament deck that runs three colors. I wanted to experiment with a few ideas and I play decks to learn specific cards or strategies rather than some other competitive goals. This one is for using ramp, learning how to play Deathrite Shaman and seeing if I can get past overly focusing on my early game by playing a deck that really doesn't have an early aggro( aggressive attacking) strategy.

Rules text Mana Cost:

Converted Mana Cost:

1

Types:

Creature — Elf Shaman

Card Text:

: Exile target land card from a graveyard. Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

, : Exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard. Each opponent loses 2 life.

, : Exile target creature card from a graveyard. You gain 2 life.

So the mana symbol is hybrid mana - which means you can cast it using either of the colors in the little circle. 

The abilities in the ability text box are all mana activated tap abilities even though the first ability mana cost = 0

Because they require the card to tap and the card is a creature card the abilities are subject to summoning sickness = you can't use it unless you controlled it from the beginning of the turn OR you have a special effect on your board that gives it haste, which will let you use a creature card right away on the same turn it's cast or in your control. 

So here's what I know from journaling - my particular weak points with this card are going to be 

• losing track of one of the abilities as an option because there are three instead of two, I almost always miss/forget one of them

• remembering that because it's a mana activated ability I can use it at instant speed(any turn, any legal turn phase) instead of sorcery speed ( only your own main phase)

• making sure I remember that it's ANY graveyard not just mine that I can target to feed the card exile requirements

I was correct, playing this card in my new deck today I made all those mistakes even though I was aware I would make them in advance but here is the cool new thing I learned:

If my opponent is also playing a Deathrite Shaman ( which can happen more often than you think) and he uses his to target something like a swamp in my graveyard to make himself some blue mana, if I have an untapped Deathrite Shaman then I can tap it to target the same card and create the mana of my choice for myself

I can do this even if I don't use the mana.

This works because my response at instant speed resolves on the stack ( the timing element they use to sort card effects) before the opponents' Deathrite does so in effect  I use up and exile the targeted card in the graveyard before the first Deathrite gets to.

That Deathrite picked something that is no longer a legal target and can't pick a new one so it stays tapped but has no effect.

What does that sound like in play?

Opp - I target your swamp in your graveyard and tap Deathrite Shaman to make one blue mana
Me - In response I tap my Deathrite Shaman to target that same swamp and make a green mana that i can't use. If I can't have that swamp nobody can and you should picture my Deathrite Shaman threatening to pack up his toys and go home.

What really Happened:

Opp - I target your swamp in your graveyard and tap Deathrite Shaman to make one blue mana
Me- OK

Shenanigans with the one blue mana ensue

Opp- Pass turn
Me ( as I start to untap lands for my untap phase)
Opp - you know you can use your Deathrite Shaman to tap the same land right?
Me - Urgh?

The Opponent who is Nick-that-is-not-Mike then shows me how to do that now that his turn is over, but before the game is over. We are playing casually in the cafeteria and he has to remember that although I play much better than many of our current club members I am still really a newb. He's way better at intricacies of the stack than I am and I'm not good enough to necessarily just "see" things that way yet.

About two turns later he tries it again ( knowing that my distractability is high it's a fair tactic) and I do remember and take the proper course of action complete with reference to the pouting.

But even using it that way I will later lose the game because I forget that the first tap effect will let me generate mana that I need.

But that means that I was right to put this deck together. I learned a bunch of other things that made it clear I've had some skill loss on remembering triggers. So I played it with a few more opponents but now I need to put it away for a day or add some Rancors.

It's here in the journal so I don't forget that I learned it. 

One Woman’s Reaction to the Card Art for Magic 2013

GIANT NOTE: - This is unfinished and going live so that someone in particular can see the review of Captain of the Watch and Captain's Call. I had started it just for myself and figured I could finish it for myself for card learnin' purposes - I'm starting a different smaller project about Planeswalkers but if anyone really want's me to publish the rest of a 2013 review just drop a comment and I'll work to make that happen. We'll be playing the cards for a year after all : ) 



Magic Core Set 2013

One Woman’s Reaction to the Card Art for Magic 2013

ALL the things ( maybe )

Here’s what I learned doing the Avacyn Art Review: it helped me competitively. I was able to read board states better because looking at the art and all the cards made me take into account cards I had avoided or would not play.

It also became a great bonding experience with other players. I’m not that good at Magic but I’m really good at critique and interpretation, just discussing it and the circumstances around the art helped build a community where higher level players were able to find topics to talk about with me and it broke down some social barriers that were holding me back.  I’m the crazy magic player that does the snarky art reviews. I have a tribal identity now.

Also – art reviews are cool.

I have written an explanation of who I am and why I’m writing, so you can pre-judge my opinions before you read them here: On the first Avacyn Restored White review.

Feel free to read the introductory part and then pop back.

Now let’s talk about Core Sets.

Wizards of the Coast did a whole bunch of things at one time, they introduced Planeswalkers, and realized that they were playing too much inside baseball with the expansions, and created the “New World Order” and created a cludgey but still better than anything they had before Intro computer game Duels of the Plansewalkers, and created a Core Set that tried to get back to the things that made the original Alpha set work. Oh and the Duel Decks and the Deckmaster kit also happened too.

That’s why when any of the WotC folk talk about any one specific thing that improved sales or lowered Barriers to Entry, the actual Operations/Project Manager in me kind of blinks. I know that they can’t actually isolate it because they don’t do follow through numbers, because no one in the toy industry tracks anything past point of sale and while they are interested in retention there has to be a certain level of willingness or ability to find and engage with the community to be able to be identified. They introduced too many things to pin their current success on any one of them and all of them had positives, but the question is whether or not they have long term positivity as they mature.

The Planeswalkers’  stranglehold on the flavor has some positives but a lot of potential long term negatives if the wrong “lessons” are taken from it.

I love WotC but they seem to have some problems with managing the “soft” side of  Magic

This will be my first Core Set.

Here’s the thing that’s right about it – it’s not fancy tricks to make long term players happy, it separates things out from the rabid screaming expert fanbase so that there is a concept of the basic game with the actual idea that YOU are the one casting spells bringing in your resources from multiple planes and the “story” of the Core Set is your story with you as the Planeswalker. Wizards then proceeds to screw that up massively but at least it starts out with you getting to be the one who the story is about.

It’s less about pushing one look/feel so it allows players especially new ones to experience a sampling of all the things magic can be look and feelwise.

They didn’t take out ALL the hard stuff they reasonably keep the complexity at higher levels but the higher levels aren’t targeting the dark desires of experts so they don’t overwhelm things and usually work best in standard by pairing up with the more targeted expansions.

So really, the thing that core set does best is remember what Magic was supposed to be at the beginning, travelling planes, collecting spells and then using them to challenge your nearby Planeswalker friend to a duel.

I’m kinda old school. I don’t see the whole “20 life” thing as kill-you-dead, I see it more like a fencing duel, you’ll live to fight another day – you just ran out of Vancian Magic Energy for this fight before your dueling partner did.

Heck, I even see it as sports practice or study partner kind of stuff. I don’t need to hate you or be at war with you to want to see how my spells that I’m studying stack up against yours. That’s one of the things Pokemon got right and seems to get swept away with the “OH I’M SO SERIOUS AND MATURE” testosterone laden bull that seems to have taken over the game. It’s fun to challenge your friends and test how your training is going, it doesn’t always have to be all life or death. When you get beaten and your pets move on they go to the Pokemon spa and get all better and groomed and come back for the next fight.

Core set lets you play with all the toys but you don’t get nearly as much forced seriousness and someone else’s insecure masculinity or storyline agenda to deal with.  You only get some problematic Planeswalkers tropes and quick, tourist-like visits to historic spots. Like one of those three week All Europe tours you might take your first time overseas to decide the next time you have three weeks free you really liked Prague and you’ll spend a month there next time.

Core set Magic is like the Grand Tour of the planes. All artists and young ladies of breeding are expected to go on the Grand Tour:

Very little would make me happier than an Expansion Set based on Edwardian Political and Brutal Colonization of Indigenous cultures fighting back with magic as long as it used actual Edwardian Clothing. Emil Brack "Planning the Tour" sourced from the wonderful "time to eat the dogs" website http://timetoeatthedogs.com/2008/08/12/the-birth-of-exploration/

So I'm expecting some Art Diversity here, I'm also expecting to see less problematic art because it's an entry level product they are expecting 10-12 year olds to play. - lets see if Core Set Art lives up to my hopes.

Starting, like we did last time with White:

Ajani, Caller of the Pride

First Impression He looks like a pinwheel.  A really sharp pinwheel. 

You can barely tell that he's supposed to be a lion. And he looks a little top heavy, but the double headed double axed twirling baton looks cool.

I'm not sure why a giant lion gives your guy flying? Is it his magic whirlygig power? 

I don't really know what his story is - but I did figure that the pre-gen character trope he fills is cat people and he's the Aslan figure from Narnia. But mostly I suspect he's an excuse to justify drawing some Cat Girls for WotC.

Ajani Sunstriker

First Impression - Hey Cool! Actually cat like cat girl you drew there letting her arm cover up the antrhopomorphic single set of mammary glands preventing her from being over-sexualized, but yet still tropey enough for the "I want to believe" fanboys. 

I think she's a cheeta. I love the turquoise and silver vestments.

So if she's a cleric and she's Ajani's Sunstriker does that mean he's worshipped like a god? ( Aslan?) 

And if lifelink is his gig do I get to do an Aslan/LionKing circle of life mashup?

I think she's a cheetah. 

Angel's Mercy

First Impression: The colors are good but it looks kind of like the top of a trophy. Why are they using this when the one from Avacyn Restored is 

a: so incredibly good

& 

b: going to be legal in standard for as long as 2013 is?

Angelic Benediction

First Impression - OK now this is Awesome and full of awesomeness. 

The angels look like some kind of cross between desert warriors and nuns which is fantastic for an original take on an overwrought overly done subject and refers back to the fact that the monotheistic religions we're referencing were all basically different eras of desert/Mediterranean culture. 

And the composition and color with the diagnoal giving height and the light going down to the darker earth where the battle is happening are really elegant.

These angels are all beautiful perfect bodies and faces without being exploitive or oddly weak or young looking. 

Michael Komarck - I guess I'm going to have to look out for you.

Second Impression: They remind me a little of some of the Avacyn Restored clergy outfits, but no funny hats.

Attended Knight

First Impression - Cute but either she's got the world's most deformed tits, the armorer was wall eyed or she was really, really insecure about being flat chested and had the armorer add on those bolt ons because she saw it in some sort of Hotties in Armor woodcut that her boyfriend was looking at.

What's weird is that the artist absolutely knowns how to draw a feminine character without giant tits but still having short hair because the squire totally looks girly ( waist to hip ratio y'all).

This isn't up there with super creepy focus on tits. It's more like - dude not only did you add them where actual tits have no business being, let alone extending out that far to need their own individual protection, you made them a lighter color and have the light hit them high. They're so distracting I almost didn't notice the medieval porta-potty looking building you painted in the background. 

Second Impression - I love using this card - whoo hoo, yes I do. I wish the little squire girl were her own solider token. 

Really dude, it looks like she's compensatin' for somthin'

Aven Squire

First Impression - I'm an art nerd. This looks like an homage to a Maxfield Parrish sky.

You guys are going to have to trust me on this - none of the Parrish colors are as intense on the web as they are in real life. Seeing his art/painting technique up close is like being a blue player and topdecking Jace the Mindscultper just when you need it. 

But yeah - Aven squire, dynamic, good lines, excellent anatomy and draping, but the cloud work and color composition are what move this up a notch. 

 

Battleflight Eagle 

First Impression: OK it's an eagle. I guess. It looks like it's been hitting the hunting grounds pretty frequently but I guess if it's an eagle and its flying, that it must still be at the right weight. 

I guess I don't want to body shame it or anything.

Captain of the Watch

First Impression: Why yes I will indeed accept your shameless pandering . . .

It's a WOMAN BABY!

I FORGIVE THE TIT ARMOR CAUSE SHE'S ROCKIN' THE 80'S DRAGON COVER BAD ASSNESS with 2013 STYLE!!

Plus she's a useful card, and at least her ridiculous tit cups are where her tits might actually be. I'm beginning to think maybe they all store extra rations or something in them. 

But I don't care. She's joyous and dynamic and looking to lead her troops and kill the other guys and come back with her really awesome hair metal hand worthy helmet.

The Captain up there is awesome compared to the cover she reminded me of from waaay back in the day. She leads, she leads well and her troops follow.

Ladies and gentleman Dragon cover #147. Love the imp, infinitely prefer the modern warrior take and career choices that let you wear pants into battle. I do have to point out that when 80's artists painted large breasted women they at least seemed to have seen actual large breasted women and painted them correctly. This lady leads by subsitituting for a semi-naked masthead. All points go to the Captain!

Captain's Call

And when the Captain tells you to get your ass in gear this happens. 

First impression - this is perfectly good, perfectly serviceable art. It shows the card, there are actually three soldiers for the three tokens it creates, they're the same armor that the troops the captain is commanding in the previous card are wearing so we know they are her soldiers and now we know that the Captain of the Watch is named Rayel Vanger, Firstblade of Thune.

Do I know what Thune is? Hell no, do I want to be on their side? Hell yeah!

RayEL! RayEL! 

Note to Wizards - if I find out they are referencing anyone else besides the Captain in Captain of the Watch I will simply ignore you because you will be wrong. OK? We're good. 

Crusader of Odric

First Impression That hat. I cannot resist, the hat compels me.

No seriously - that looks like one of the official Funny Hats from Innistrad's Ministry of Funny Hats

Which would be really cool because as far as I'm concerned Avacyn Restored dropped the ball in Flavorland telling me way too much ( and then showing me WAY too much) of Garruck and Lilliana's story and we didn't get any cool stories about humans rising up to beat back the monsters, or the resistance pockets that had lost hope to be brought into the light because THEY held in the final hour as opposed to Angels coming in and cleaning up in a jif. 

Aaand could it be . . . YES! that's an Avacyn hat pin she's wearing there - Innstrad's story gets some face time in 2013.

Now later I would find out that there was a whole story

but I got to see it in the art first.

Oh and BTW the art is awesome. Grete here ( click on the link and you'll find out how I know her name now) actually looks like a real person in real space wearing practical clothes ( with the exception of the hat, but you cannot deny the Innistrad Ministry of Funny Hats) and now writing this review I see that it's Michael Komarck. Hmmn didn't I just tell myself to keep a lookout for him?

So far he's 2 for 2.

Divine Verdict

First Impression: Pretty, it looks a little like she's hatching from a sheild egg or some kind of armoured flower thought. 

Still nice. Perfectly scaled for being on a card too. 

Oh she's a squire according to the flavor text. It seems like core sets are very pro-squire.

Divine Verdict

First Impression: "So Boss, do you want me to go with a Sampson reference, or a Lot's Wife kinda thing for resonance?"

"I don't care, get them both if you want but make sure it's yet another dutch tilt angled disintegrating male"

"But you know we could . . ."

"Nope, dutch tilt, disintegration . . . not up for discussion - needs to look like it belongs in Magic, everything else is up to you. "

" . . . "

Erase

First Impression: Don't f*ck with the Disney Fairies. They have Goth days at Disneyworld and aren't going to tolerate your poser shenanigans.

Now just take your mess outa here:

Faiths' Reward

First Impression: Faith's Reward is stabby?

Second Impression: Faith's reward is stabbing the Cthulu like things rising out of the corpses and living to write the flavor text!

Er maybe that's wind, based on said flavor text, 

I got it - Faith's Reward is the glowy target parasite that's glommed on to your chest while you fight.

Maybe it's a symbiote or something, or you're a pod slave and don't know it. 

Ok now I've got it, Faith's reward is coming back without having to be a zombie.

Glorious Charge

First Impression: I can tell there is more going on here than I can see clearly at card art size. 

Maybe it's like desert raiders all got their weapons temporarily enchanted?

It's probably pretty good, but there's a lot of detail lost here.  At least it doesn't look like a generic hominid. I like that there's an actual calvalry or raider style charge happening.

Griffin Protector