JD's Longawaited Gencon Report

[Komatteru]

Gone.

[Komatteru]

Gone.

[PacmanXSA]

Well, after 8 years I have finally made it through

It was great seeing ya again and rest assured in the fact that Canada loves you baby

Get back to Michigan and let me thromp a Meandecker once again.

PS:  The story about that hot broad and the boxes of cereal was SOOO good... It made my weekend

Pac

[everythingitouchdies]

Ever notice how like the cutest girls work in hardware stores?

I work in a hardware store, and those girls hang out with me after hours. This is yet another reason why I suck at magic.

[Meddling Mike]

This year, I am determined to do well at Gencon, as it is on my home field.  It works for the Patriots and the Packers, so why can’t it work for me?

The patriots finished 14-2 last year, they're pretty much good everywhere. The Red Sox would be much better for the purposes of this analogy with a notably better win record at home than away.

Then I make Chad play me.  We’re using Chad’s rules of mental Magic, which are a bit strange.

I'm an avid mental magic player, I'd HIGHLY reccomend using Flores' rules (Vintage minus Restricted cards, trade routes(or anything that brings your land back to your hand), tutors, argothian enchantress) It's a pretty good universal standard and makes the games more exciting than "Who draws the broken cc's first"

Mike makes a wry comment about it being “the tech.â€?  This is irony folks.  He knows what he’s playing, but I have revealed that I have misidentified his deck.

Me=the sly, I fail to see how that qualifies as ironic though.

I'm not gonna lie, this report was pretty long and I haven't had a caffeinated beverage. I figure most/all of your game reports were something like "So then I went broken and won the game" or "Then he dropped some lock components/FoW's and I lost" and I don't have much to contribute with regards to combo matchups anyways. After a while I just typed in Ctrl+F "mike" and read the stuff written regarding me, because I'm an egotistical guy like that. But from what I did read, it was a solid report, perhaps after I've woken up I'll have a full read through.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

It wasn't total CO domination, as you did manage to take one off Zach. Anyways, good seeing you again, and congrats on the 2 tourneys! Maybe me and Jim will get to play you this time at Chicago. Bring your pimp trade stuff, as I totally forgot to trade with you.

-Bob

[Sagath]

That was the best report evAr. EVAR.

I missed out on a sweetass weekend

Hopefully next time (Waterbury, Rochester SCG or maybe Richmond SCG?) the canadians will have one more with them

[Luiggi]

Excellent report, JD. Glad to hear you're keeping the combo spirit alive, .

Luiggi

[Disburden]

 Great report! It's nice to see someone doing well with combo, like you never do  

Anyway, I had a question: Are you taking out those death wishes for Grim Tutor when it's time to do so?!

[PacmanXSA]

That was the best report evAr. EVAR.

I missed out on a sweetass weekend

Hopefully next time (Waterbury, Rochester SCG or maybe Richmond SCG?) the canadians will have one more with them

Where are ya located baby?

Just drop me a line and maybe we can get something together.

Pac

[Komatteru]

Me=the sly, I fail to see how that qualifies as ironic though.

Dramatic Irony: The audience knows something that one of the characters does not.  For example, Romeo kills himself because he thinks Juliet is dead, and does not know about the sleeping potion, while the audience does.  Thus, you knew what you were playing, but I didn't, as I had clearly misidentified your deck.

Anyway, I had a question: Are you taking out those death wishes for Grim Tutor when it's time to do so?!

If I can construct a better deck (not necessarily faster, but better) with Grim Tutor, then why wouldn't I?  If I can't come up with something that's objectively better, then why would I bother?

Glad everyone is enjoying it!  I'll keep writing if people enjoy it!

[Lunar]

it was great JD...I had to be careful though because I was reading it at work and I kept laughing really loud...too good man.

[JACO]

Man, let me tell you how heavy all my foil cards are!

I have not just one, but two girly-colored binders, both of which contain some of the most amazing cards ever.  The two pages which house 17 black bordered dual lands are a testament to that.

Dude, you most stop talking about how pimp your collection is, until it is ALL Asian foiled out. Only then will the true pimps recoznize your forays into the dark side. I have heard [unconfirmed] reports that you have some non-foil cards in your deck even. You must rise up and overcome these miniscule challenges first and foremost.

Pimp playmats, on the other hand, are definitely allowed to be discussed as they get more and more pimp.

Congratulations on your performance at GenCon. I have a question about your report, though. You go on to say "I play my pride and joy, Long, with the following list, which I believe is as close to perfection than I’ve ever gotten before." While I was studying the deck you played, I noticed this in the manabase:

4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Forbidden Orchard
1x Underground Sea
1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Chrome Mox
1x Lotus Petal
4x Dark Ritual
2x Elvish Spirit Guide

How can 1 Forbidden Orchard and 1 Underground Sea be correct? Shouldn't one be strictly better than the other? Forbidden Orchard produces 5 colors, and has almost no drawback in this deck, aside from being Wasteland-able. Underground Sea produces 2 colors, and is as equally Wasteland-able. I would think that the choice of 1 of each of those lands is questionable, at best. What do you think, in retrospect?

Oh, and I wasn't at GenCon at all, unfortunately. Hopefully next year I'll be there though, and show you all what's up. Congratulations again on the 3 top 8's.

[Lunar]

I have heard [unconfirmed] reports that you have some non-foil cards in your deck even. You must rise up and overcome these miniscule challenges first and foremost.

I think things like beta rather than foil can be overlooked though jaco...

[Komatteru]

Dude, you most stop talking about how pimp your collection is, until it is ALL Asian foiled out. Only then will the true pimps recoznize your forays into the dark side. I have heard [unconfirmed] reports that you have some non-foil cards in your deck even. You must rise up and overcome these miniscule challenges first and foremost.

Pimp playmats, on the other hand, are definitely allowed to be discussed as they get more and more pimp.

It is true that your collection beats mine.  However, you weren't at Gencon, so someone had to represent.  Nick Trudeau did a pretty good job of representing, but, I wrote a report, so I win.

Also, all the cards in Long that could be foil are foil, including the Balance.  Ok, there's one exception.  My Necro is German.  I have a foil one that sits in my binder.  Everyone and his brother has a foil Necro, but how many people have you seen with a German Necro?  Yeah, that's right.  Oh, yeah, the Gemstones.  Yeah, mine are Japanese, but that's only because the foil ones are ass ugly.  They hardly count.  My Belcher is missing foil Welders at the present moment (I don't actually own any Welders currently), but I've got that taken care of now too.

How can 1 Forbidden Orchard and 1 Underground Sea be correct? Shouldn't one be strictly better than the other? Forbidden Orchard produces 5 colors, and has almost no drawback in this deck, aside from being Wasteland-able. Underground Sea produces 2 colors, and is as equally Wasteland-able. I would think that the choice of 1 of each of those lands is questionable, at best. What do you think, in retrospect?

Well, the 1 Sea and 1 Orchard configuration comes from this: I used to play multiple REBs in the sideboard and even a few Oxidize (refer to this decklist from Chicago in April).  That, together with the maindeck Xantids, makes running 2 Seas a precarious situation--draw them as your only lands and you won't have the extra colored mana you want to cast something other than a blue or black spell.  However, running 2 Orchards have proven to be problematic as well--you lose to Spirit tokens a bit too often when you play even 2.  The drawback is a little more pronounced that it appears, and I have indeed lost to tokens a few times.  The big problem with Orchard is Arcane Lab.  It makes it so that an opponent can play an early Lab, because you've given them a win condition.  Anyone who's worth anything knows that you have to have a way to win the game on the table before you play the Lab, lest it read "Congrats on never playing another sorcery for the rest of the game."  Glimmervoid is nigh unplayable in the current meta, so that leaves me with Orchard as the only other playable 5-c land.  I believe 1 Sea and 1 Orchard to be the correct configuration.

So the answer is that one is not strictly better than the other.  If you have all blue and black cards in your hand, then in that situation, 2 Seas is better.  If you're looking at a hand with Crop Rotation and Wheel of Fortune in it, then Orchards are better.  Running 2 of one in particular has run me into problems, so I roll with 1 of each.  It makes the manabase look janky as hell (more than usual), but I believe that is the correct manabase.  I have been unable to do better in all my work with the deck.

[The Atog Lord]

Rich sits down and tells me that I’m going to beat him.

See? Told you!

And I think I mentioned that my logos wasn't flowing properly, not mojo

Anyways, I played badly all weekend. I was keeping bad hands, forcing the wrong cards, etc. I was in the middle of moving into Purdue and not nearly as relaxed as I need to be to play this game properly.

[everythingitouchdies]

My Necro is German.  I have a foil one that sits in my binder.  Everyone and his brother has a foil Necro, but how many people have you seen with a German Necro? 

I want that necro back. I want to erase the border on it and draw charlie manson on it.

So the answer is that one is not strictly better than the other.  If you have all blue and black cards in your hand, then in that situation, 2 Seas is better.  If you're looking at a hand with Crop Rotation and Wheel of Fortune in it, then Orchards are better.  Running 2 of one in particular has run me into problems, so I roll with 1 of each.  It makes the manabase look janky as hell (more than usual), but I believe that is the correct manabase.  I have been unable to do better in all my work with the deck.

Oh go ahead and say it. You take advice from bad players, it is completely ridiculous to be running one of each. I can take it. Really.

[zurn.lord]

Wonderful report always nice to see combo preform well.

By the way how did you like belcher without Brainstorms? 

[Meddling Mike]

Ok, I guess that's a valid case for dramatic irony, as a badge carrying member of the proper word/literary devices usage police I'm going to let you off this time with a verbal warning.

[Disburden]

By the way how did you like belcher without Brainstorms? 

Brainstorm in Belcher is god-awful.  Blue does not go in that deck.

it's 100% so true.

[Luiggi]

Is running Tinker in this Belcher build plausible, without access to something like a Tropical Island? You still have some Blue sources like Mox Sapphire, 4 Chromatic Sphere, Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, etc.

Luiggi

[Disburden]

Is running Tinker in this Belcher build plausible, without access to something like a Tropical Island? You still have some Blue sources like Mox Sapphire, 4 Chromatic Sphere, Black Lotus, Lotus Petal, etc.

Luiggi

Being the only blue spell, it really isn't an issue. My deck is pretty much the same thing as his list, but mine runs one living wish for Tolarian Academy incase I ever need the land mana with Null Rod on the table.

I guess I shouldn't be answering this question though, sorry!

[FMG]

Yes,

This is the best Report ever. I do however guess it is only that good because I am in it so much. Gencon was awesome, the Type 1 Community was awesome. It was  great to meet you guys, and the next time someone calls the phone and says it is PacMan I won't hang up. LOL.

-Chad

[forests failed you]

You write the longest reports EVAR!  Nice job though

[PacmanXSA]

Yes,

This is the best Report ever. I do however guess it is only that good because I am in it so much. Gencon was awesome, the Type 1 Community was awesome. It was  great to meet you guys, and the next time someone calls the phone and says it is PacMan I won't hang up. LOL.

-Chad

It wasn't even just that.  The accent that the chick had was friggin priceless.  We told her to use the name Pac-Man and she loved it and was pumped to say it.  Then she got hung up on and it made our night

Pac

[Green Knight]

I knew you'd come through JD! Great report, thanks for taking the time to write this monster.

[bomholmm]

I have been spending to much time in the legacy portion of TMD, I didn't see this report until today.  Very nice report your stuff is always a blast to read.  You're so right about me regretting playing landstill I now hate that deck and only keep it together to test against iggy-pop.  Way to represent combo in type one, it feels like everyone else has pretty much given up on it, but you still make a strong showing with it at gencon.

[sa-x]

as far as asian foils go, i was most certainly the winner @ gencon.  i heard mumblings of jaco, but i'm sure he's not in the double digits in japanese foils welders

[Luiggi]

Just out of curiosity, question for ye of the incredibly pimped-out decks: do you generally trade for things like Asian foils, or do you buy them? If the latter, any tips on where to get them cheap (or cheapER)?

Luiggi (pimp in training, )

[forests failed you]

The best way is just to sac up and buy them because most people don't have them to trade, and if they do have them to trade they usually don't want to get rid of them.  I refuse to pay mony on Magic cards so it takes me forever to trade for them over time.  Basically if you want them you have to pay for them.