It seems to me that even if you pull off an Erratic Explosion, the other four damage can be a bit tough.  Have you considered Mishra's Factory of Faerie Conclave?

I was not refering to myself as an expert, as I miss things like this all the time.  I was simply stating that I never see actions as described within the article even attempted outside of a smaller group of players.  Like I said, I thought it was a very well written piece, very well worth the reading time.  I think that articles like this have potential to make a good player better.

Jason

Just more praise, impressive writing.  I rarely see other players cast spells at end of phase rather than end of turn.   I think articles like this would greatly help the intermediate player.  We've seen enough articles to help the new blood, I would like to see more of these.  Good luck on your featured spot.

Jason

I too am glad that nothing was restricted.  I enjoy having many viable options, type 1 is currently rather fun.

It is a shame that portal wasn't legalized, however.  Maybe next time.

We're from North Eastern Michigan, Alpena.

Last I knew there was a decent group of type 1 players in Traverse City.  Kalamazoo also has an acceptable number of players.

Congrats on the finish.  I was going to look for you but Wayne said no one from Chicago made the trip.  I figured weather held you back.  Not making it on time sure did kill my trip.  Honestly I was wishing I would have been killed in the accident when I found out the tourney had started five minutes before arrival.  Oh well.  Toronto was a beautiful city, so it wasn't so bad.

Are you talking about pre or post-Darksteel?  Is your matchup against Stax really that bad?  I myself have not had a problem with it.  Chalice for one is a bit rough but other than that it has been smooth.  Have you considered upping to three Decrees?  The extra soldiers are nice for Tangle Wires and Smokestacks.

Congratulations on the finish Frankson.  TNT seems like its been good to you.

How was the Elf Replica?  I liked him myself but I have not tried one out yet.

Any chance of you guys driving to Toronto on the 21st?

Mt. Pleasant Five Proxy Type 1 Tournament Report

When I heard of a cash prize tournament in Mt. Pleasant I was very interested.  Winning money just days before the release of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles would be a dream come true.  I am poor so this was the only way it was going to happen.  Anyhow we got a group of five to drive down and I hoped for the best.  

I ended up hooking the playgroup up with immense amounts of cards.  In turn I asked for two Decree of Justice from anyone who won a decent cast prize (I had to borrow two for my deck).  After cards were loaned out, this is what the group played:

Me: Keeper
Charles Horton: Full English Breakfast
Gabe Gerzewski: Nether Void
Pat Kolson: TNT
Ryan Carstens: Rogue control deck, built for a heavy aggro metagame.

For Reference, here is the list I played:

1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
3 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Balance
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
3 Decree of Justice
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Fire/Ice
4 Force of Will
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Mana Drain
1 Mind Twist
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Skeletal Scrying
3 Stifle
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will

Sideboard

1 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Damping Matrix
1 Disenchant
1 Fire/Ice
1 Rack and Ruin
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Vampiric Tutor
 

The drive down was a very comfortable one, thanks to Kolson’s lack of poorness.  His car is equipped with a DVD player.  Between Michael Jackon’s greatest video hits and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles everyone arrived very happy (except Ryan).  We arrived early and scouted the Meijer.  Kolson bought Turtles III for the ride home and a large Game Cube memory card (16x!).  When we got out of Meijer it was finally late enough to get some Taco Bell.  God bless the Chicken Club Chalupa.

After lunch we found the convention.  I honestly thought it would be bigger, but oh well.  I registered for the tournament and checked out some games.  Chesstique looked like a very fun game.  I recommend looking into it, http://www.mesomorph.com.  There was also an amazing dealer here.  He had beautiful stuff, fair prices, and stock.  It is not often that you find a dealer with all of those attributes.    

The tournament started around noon, unfortunately it only drew in twelve people.  

Round 1 vs. Elves

This was an easy match-up.  I will not go into many details as both games were identical: He played a first turn Chrome Mox which was destroyed by my lone mox monkey.  He saw little to no land both games.

2-0

Round 2 vs. Smokestack (Carlos)

Game 1 was a very long game.  An early Chalice for 1 slowed me down greatly.  We went back and forth playing a game of Draw-Go.  He played threats and I would hardcast Force of Will.  It was a very terrible game that ended with a very large Decree of Justice.

Game 2 was another odd one.  I sideboarded in three Damping Matrix.  I ended up casting one early which left him with a semi-useless Welder.  Well needless to say I was not drawing into lands.  I ended up losing to a beatdown of a pair of Welders and a Metalworker.

Game 3 was quite the opposite of game 2.  Carl did not see very many lands this game.  The lands he did play felt the wrath of the land destruction element of Keeper.  Fact or Fiction flipping two Damping Matrix was enough to promise the win.  A few turns go by and a Decree wins it.

2-1

Round 3 vs. Full English Breakfast (Charles Horton)

This was a match-up I didn’t want to have.  Charles is part of my playgroup.  Unfortunately with 12 people this was bound to happen.  Game 1 was one of the better games of Magic I have had in some time.  Early on we fought a small counter-war over Survival of the Fittest.  His Force of Will removed a Shapeshifter, which turned out to be a very good sign.  I ended up winning the counter war but was greatly disappointed in his Vampiric Tutor following it.  I now had an active Survival to deal with.  As the turns progressed he ended up playing Shapeshifters and I ended up removing them from the game with Swords.  Once he hardcast a Morphling it was Balance time.  After the massive Balance I was left with a Cunning Wish in hand and he had no creatures.  I figured he had only had one more good kill condition so I felt good about the Wish.  Next turn he survivaled for the last Shapeshifter and it met a Red Elemental Blast.  A few turns later I had a Nantuko Vigilant to deal with.  After quite a few hits (4 life remaining) I played a Decree for Five and double blocked the Vigilant.  Soon after he played a Black Lotus and hardcast Phage the Untouchable.  Now this was ugly.  I did not have an answer or a way to find it.  I was relying on four topdecks.  Three soldiers protected me.  After the last one Perished I had one more topdeck.  And of course, it was there.  Good old Yawgmoth’s Will.  I played it and played Balance once more.  A few cards down found me a Decree of Justice.  His deck was out of creatures so he concedes the game.

Unfortunately this game took way too long.  We only had twelve minutes to complete game 2.  Well I played incredibly fast.  Luckily he didn’t do anything.  I think he played a Duress that game, and that was pretty much it.  Low land and no Survival meant no game.  A mid-sized Decree ended it with little to no time to spare.

2-0

Round 4 vs. TNT (Pat Kolson)

We were the only 9 point people on the day so we drew to guarantee first and second in standings.

Finals

The tournament only had a total of twelve people so the finals split into a top four.

The standings were:

1st.  Keeper (me)
2nd  TNT (Pat Kolson)
3rd  Grow-A-Tog (Matt Smith)
4th  Smokestack (Carl)

Finals Round 1 vs. Smokestack (Carl)

Game one was very similar to last time’s game one.  I met an early Chalice for one.  Fortunately for me he was not having a good time drawing into things on the day.  After some sleep deprived errors I finished the game with a Decree.

Game two was a good draw for me.  Again I ended up with a Damping Matrix on the board.  Leaving most of his deck useless a cycled Decree for five brought Carl’s concession.

2-0

Pat ended up winning his game vs. Grow-A-Tog so we ended up splitting for First and Second.  Go team.

Overall it was a fun tournament.  It was a very light turn out but there were enough competitive decks to make it worthwhile.  There was at least one of each of the following:

Dragon
Full English Breakfast
Grow
Keeper
Mask
Nether Void
Smokestack
Suicide Black
TNT

Thanks for the tournament Carl.  I hope you don’t let this turn-out discourage you (remember you had to compete with Columbus).  I hope you hold more in the future.

Jason

Undiscovered Paradise is used because it has synergy with Land Tax/Wayfarer and is a colored source.  As long as there is an effect like this I will be playing a couple.



It can grab me Isochron, Empyrial Plate, and Black Lotus.  Lotus has been a great pull a couple of times.  So far I have liked the tutor, but it has not had extensive testing.

The big problem with removing a Land Tax effect is a low mana source count.  Wayfarer is better with Skullclamp but the activation cost to grab yourself a land is terrible.  I'm still playing around with it.

I have not liked the Maze of Ith at all.  I may try a Strip Mine later.

After reading comments I will be further testing the deck with the following changes:

-2 Empyrial Plate
-1 Maze of Ith

+1 Isochron Scepter
+1 Swords to Plowshares
+1 Fire/Ice

Edit: I must also add that Null Rod/Damping Matrix is very terrible to play against.  I will probably work a sideboard up and post later.

I have been working on an equipment based white weenie for some time.  The Skullclamp has fit in very well.  I playtested a bit last night against a Full English Breakfast build.  Skullclamp has been a very powerful draw engine.  When looking for answers (swords or fire/ice) I could often net 10-20 cards in a single turn.

In the odd case that anyone cares, here is my list:

4 Bonesplitter
4 Skullclamp
2 Empyrial Plate

4 Auriok Steelshaper
4 Gorilla Shaman
2 Savannah Lions
4 Weathered Wayfarer/Land Tax (Testing)
2 Devout Witness

3 Isochron Scepter
4 Raise the Alarm
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Fire/Ice
1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Diamond
1 Black Lotus

1 Maze of Ith
4 Plateau
1 Mountain
8 Plains
2 Undiscovered Paradise

I do not agree with unrestricting Library.  While people say it is too slow and there is too many wastelands I am still winning games with 1 copy.  It would be interesting finding room for a couple more though.

I think Crop Rotation should stay restricted.

The other suggestions seem fair enough.

Note that I am not trying to argue the fact that efreet is too slow.

There is a slight possibility that I am playing Keeper wrong, but I usually tend to kill in 2-3 turns with the soldiers.  Usually during those swinging turns the opponent does very little though, possibly throwing the illusion of a 1 turn clock?

A friend of mine is currently tinkering with Full English Breakfast and he also refuses to play with just one Phage.

I think you should be playing one copy of Pyschatog in here.  He can easily fix mistakes with graveyard order, is a huge wall, and sometimes can even be the kill condition.  I dont like using this as an arguement, but he can also be pitched to Force of Will.

Hello there, odd to see you without the name K-Run.

I like how the deck looks.  My one question is why no Vampiric Tutor?  The two life should not matter much (in most cases) as you have access to two Zuran Orbs.  You are running Enlightened Tutor which, while far from limited, cannot get you some key cards.  Additional search usually doesn't hurt.

Good luck with this.