3rd at Richomond with Burning Slaver, or, 'my sexy date with Jdizzle.'

[forests failed you]

This is off the cuff, and away I go.

Richomond was hyped.  There was a huge amount of plotting and betting, as you all know between me and Steve about who was going to take this event down.  Steve had made a post in the tournament thread linking to my list ( along with Kowal and Brassy's) and advising newbs to metagame against us, and offering to give out rares to player's who beat us in the swiss.  I responded, by offering dual lands out to any player who beat Steve.  It was awesome, you were all there. 

Anyways, I was going to play Tendrils for this event;  I had my list all set and had tested it and everything.  But when Steve put up the open invitation to beat Burning Slaver;  I just couldn't resist.  The challenge was too sweet.  I had to rock the Mindslavers and TFKs.  I mean, c'mon fellas STEVE TOLD YOU TO BE ABLE TO BEAT MY DECK, he was even so kind as to send you a link to it!!!  Anyways, that is how I decided to play the good ol' BS.

You all know the list by now.  Its the same list from the OHio Ruby report with the following changes.

MD -1 Library of Alexandria, + 1 Basic Island
SB  -1 Stifle, +1 Solem Similacrum

The night before the event I talk to Jeff Anand online and tell him I have decided to play Burning Slaver over the Tendrils deck we had discussed.  He is all about it, and I send him the list.

I am supposed to leave with Franklin, Nicolo, and Mitch Cowels at five PM Fiday but Franklin is delayed.  Finally at eight thirty PM he calls me, informs me he is drunk at work and can't go because he no longer has the weekend off.  Mad slops.  We three embark.

I sleep in the car and somehow manage to smoke a pack of Cigarettes while sleeping. 

We get there at six in the morning and sleep in the car for a while.  Josh M will be happy to hear I was a SCB for a day.  haha.  Anyways, we go in a half hour or so before the event and reg decks.  I meet up with Jeff and we decide to add Solem to the list at the last possible second cutting stifle over Fire / Ice.  Then I decide to put the FIre Ice back in for Stifle.  The list is ready to go.

I converse with Steve for a while, and we trash talk about how many cards we are going to have to give away due to each others sucking.  Unfortunately, we both play well and don't have to give away much stuff at all!  I end up sitting next to Droba for the player meeting, and get a chance to talk with him for a while.  Apparently he's going to be playing combo, I did not see that one comming... 

ROUND ONE - GIFTS

I win this round 2-0 in spite of my opponents competent play.  Game one I end up casting out a slaver which he bounces two turns in a row with E truth and Rebuild.  Finally I vamp for TFK and slaver him.  He rips gifts and we go on to game two.  Game two I duress the ever living hell out of him and then go broken with Sundering Titan.

1-0

Round two I play against Confidant Tendrils.  Game one my opponent kills me out of hand in turn two with Duress, Ritual, Ritual, Lotus, Cabal Ritual, Mox, Will, Ritual, Ritual, Ritual, Lotus, Tendrils.   I am not even slightly amused.  Game two I duress the ever living hell out of him and Slaver him making him lose.  Game three almost goes to time.  I flip out because we are comming close to time and my opponent is stalling.  I've seen his hand and he has no relevent plays, yet he sits there and ponders.  I beat his ass down with a Titan anyways and it doesn't matter.  Kowal mocks me outside later while I am smoking yelling "YOU HAVE NO RELEVENT PLAYS, STOP STALLING" at me.  Okay, fine I flipped out a little.  BUT HE HAD NO PLAYS!!!!  Dredging Darkblast for the lost is not a relevent play, I"m sorry... It does not deserve fifty second of though when you are getting your ass beat by a titan.  But I digress.

2-0

Round three -  Some sort of Tog / Tendrils deck.

Game one I don't even know what he is playing I stomp him so fast with tendrils.  Game two I mull to six and cast turn one Recall which gets misdirected.  I look at my hand of five lands and scoop.  Game three I pull out some amazing heroics.  He's got a spicy hand which gets duressed and rebed into oblivion.  We are both in a top deck war.  I have a welder and nothing to do, a land in hand.  I peel TFK and hit slaver and another TFK.  I WINS!!!  Steve is sitting next to me and loses.  I have to give away a dual.  Steve watches me peel the TFK into Slaver /  sauce, shakes his hand and angrily proclaims "You are the shadiest player in Vintage, you know that?  You know that?"  I respond by asking him what the name of the fellow I owe a dual land to is.  He sneers.

3-0

Round four -  Gifts

Game one is a disaster.  He casts out turn one, on the play Pithing Needle for Welder.  Apparently he has heard of me or something or psychic.  I respond by playing turn one hardcast Slaver.  and saying "Though you were techy did ya?"  However I can't get to four mana to activate.  He casts a mainphase gifts and I drain it.  He drains back and I force.  I will be able to activate slaver.  He EOT Mysticals for Gifts and I just about fall out of my chair at the stupidity of that play.  I activate slaver, gifts for recall, Will, Lotus, and Rack and ruin.  Recall myself twice and rack and ruin the pithing needle.

Game two I have a fast tinker for Titan I hit both his lands none of mine and beat his face in

4-0

Round Five Matt Endress playing Tendrils.

Game one he has a fast Necro that I can't counter and he beats me easily..  Game two is stupid.  He Tendrils me down to four and I beat him down from thrity five with Shamans and peel counterspells for every threat he tries to play right on time. Eventually a Titan is added to the mix.  Game three I peel recall on my mull to six and narrowly escape certain doom.  Matt rips nothing but mana and I easily win due to his unlucky draws.  I like Matt he is quality people. 

5-0

UW FISH

After the last round Jeff and I hit up the Marriot bar to celebrate us both being X-0.  I"m kind of tipsy and don't remember much about this match except that it was pretty fun.  I turn two fire iced two savanah lions.  That was awesome.

6-0

Jeff and I draw in, and then I draw in with outlaw. 

JEff and I go get food and beers.  We are well on our way to being tipsy at this point. 

TOP EIGHT

EVENPENCE (UBA STAX) V ME

Game one is a blow out.  I have Welders and Shamans going.  I end up locking him out of the game with Crucible Strip mine, and he can't play spells because of his own spehere of resistence.

Game two is closer.  He ends up Playing out a JEsters cap and Luckily I rip DT and search out my yawg will.  He makes a mistake and Caps, Welder Welder SLAVER.  leaving Dupis in my deck.  I end up willing for Welder and Shaman Recall and walk.  I weld in the Solem and start attacking.  He Rings away all of my guys and is at nine.  I have to find the solem.  I draw lots of cards but can't find dups.  Finally with like seven cards in library I peel Dups cast it and beat down for the win.  And finish him off with Fire Ice.

In a side note Jeff plays savagely and stomps Steve.  I give jeff a tropical Island for his effort which he gets steve to sign "I HEART SLAVER< SMENENNEN"

RICH SHAY V ME SEMIS

I have a good hand with draw.  He plays Library.  I TFK Three times by turn two on the play and hit no threats.  and no more draw.  I am very annoyed as he takes control of the game with the Library because had I drawn anything that did somethign within the twelve cards I saw I probably could have won.  I know I'm dead and scoop.

Game two is stupid.  Rich plays Recall.  I Recall and play reb on his.  He TFKs, I Drain, he rebs I force.  I TFK.  He walks.  He TFKs I Drain He Drains.  He untaps with two cards.  DT, for Lotus and Will.  It must be nice to see all the broken cards by turn three without any of your draw spells actually resolving.  Anyways, I get out brokened; but he played it perfectly.  Nothing I could do about it.

I don't get to watch Rich's match because I go smoke with endress and the ICBM guys.  Thanks buds.  good times.

I return back and Jeff and I go to O'charley's pub and drink beers and get hammered in celebration.  Way to go Jeff for making the finals and finishing first in swiss.  We end up at Denny's hanging out with REB and Rich.  We get there a full forty minutes before them and wind up getting our food and beign done eating before they even get there food.  Rich is mildly annoyed and complains, exclaiming "This is ridiculous, we were here forty minutes before you guys!" I reply "Can't win them all Rich" and REB nearly shoots Coca cola out of his nose.  You had to be there I guess.

I pass out at my hotel room and don't wake up until well after the event has started. Tough break.  I show up and play infi games against Kevin Cron who isn't in contention.  And some Type four against Ashok Brassy and Crew.  Andy Reanimates Memnarch with Debtors Knell all hell breaks loose and the board dies except for the Black Enchantment that gives -1-1 counters to creatures.  I grinning Totem for Chord of calling and get Morphling and win the game.  Man that guy is good!

Thanks for the type four games buds.

Then we sadly make the drive home.

Around 11 PM I call Jdizzle to find out who won the tourney.  But my phone is dead so I call from Fishalo's phone which is a number Justin doesn't know.  I decide to play a trick on him.

He answers and I say in a high pitched voice (Trying hard to sound like a female).

Hello?
JD yo
How are you?
JD who is this
Sarah.
JD I think you have the wrong number, this is Justin Dro...
I Know, Droba.  We met at the bar last week
JD oh, yeah I remember...
Are you free tomorrow night?
JD I'm in Richmond
How Exciting!!!  (Infi laughing on my side of the line)
JD ah, yeah, I'll be free tomorrow night.  What do you want to do?
In my voice:  Would you seriously go out with a girl with a voice that obnoxious?
JD, Brian, you're an ass.
I know.  Who won?
JD Brian playing Slaver?
Slaver, eh? 
JD yup
We still on for that date tomorrow night?
JD absolutely
fantastic

JDIZZLE, you rock man!  As promised in the report, BAM!

And that's about it.  Or, at least that is the relvent content (and some irrelevent) that I can tell you guys about.




PROPS

SCG
JEFF ANAND for tearng it up with my list!!!!!  AND BEATING STEVE'S ASS IN TOP EIGHT!!!!! GO TEAM VAG
SMENENNEN - You fucking tore it up man.  Mad props to you.   You played extremely strong all weekend. nice job.
MATT ENDRESS - you are one deck mutha I enjoyed hanging out with you much.
KEVIN CRON -good to see you man.  enjoy the asian mystical tutor
ICBM and GWS GUYS.  you all fucking rock, thanks for smoking me out. 
JDIZZLE -  Always a good time when this guy is around.  MOVE BACKK TO MICHIGAN!!!  My favorite magic player EVAR.  Yup, he's pretty good.
RICH SHAY - nicely done.
HATCHMAN and TRAVIS - nuff said.
JR.  why you no make good on my top eight predicton?
MY CREW for the weekend Fishalo and Mitch.  Good times.

SLOPS

My deck for shitting all over my face in the semis
That guy who tried to stall against me.
That guy who Mystical Tutored for gifts before I slaved him?
Necropotence for beating my ass.
Alcohol for not allowing me to wake up for the second event
Nine hour car rides.
Josh Franklin, my teamate and cohort, for being a gigantic vagina and not attending the event with us.  You suck!!!!
CHEERS
FFY

[PucktheCat]

Game one is a disaster.  He casts out turn one, on the play Pithing Needle for Welder.  Apparently he has heard of me or something or psychic.  I respond by playing turn one hardcast Slaver.  and saying "Though you were techy did ya?"  However I can't get to four mana to activate.  He casts a mainphase gifts and I drain it.  He drains back and I force.  I will be able to activate slaver.  He EOT Mysticals for Gifts and I just about fall out of my chair at the stupidity of that play.  I activate slaver, gifts for recall, Will, Lotus, and Rack and ruin.  Recall myself twice and rack and ruin the pithing needle.

Those are some poor plays from the Gifts player.  Blind Needle?  I bet he would have liked that back after the first turn Slaver.  Mystical for Gifts is awesome, the best way to concede I have ever seen.

Thanks for the quick report and congradulations on your finish.

[Gabethebabe]

Congrats on the Finish. Awesome.

So after cutting Darksteel Citadel and not being happy, you cut the Library. Would you go back to play all three colourless lands or were you happy?

[forests failed you]

No Library is shit.  The only match up in which it ever seems relevent is the Slaver Mirror.  You get out tempoed by Gifts with a LoA.  And you can't afford to sit on it against almost anything else.  The extra basic was hot, plus it makes Solem even better.

[Whatever Works]

No Library is shit.  The only match up in which it ever seems relevent is the Slaver Mirror.  You get out tempoed by Gifts with a LoA.  And you can't afford to sit on it against almost anything else.  The extra basic was hot, plus it makes Solem even better.

First off great report, and congrats on your 3rd place finish.  You sometimes come off as just a little arrogant at times but with consistently high results like this you have every right too! It was good to see you at the tournement and hopfully you will be at waterbury.

I disagree about library 100%... and me and rich shay could probably argue it to the grave. However, Solemn Simulacrum was extremely techy, and clearly played a vital role in the match.

[forests failed you]

Yes, LoA can steal games.  I agree.  However in the metagame right now I'm not sure it is the right call to be playing with it.  Against Gifts even on the draw turn one LoA isn't great.  Their plan is to attack you, and make plays right away.  Waiting until turn three to put up Drain mana, aside from Lotus and Sapphire, isn't the greatest.  For every game LoA steals by being situationally awesome, it screws you over because it isn't a basic Island in another. 

I play COW, so Citadel and Strip are in;  I just can't justify playing LoA in this metagame.  And yes, Rich's LoA was very good to him against me.  Also, keep in mind that he drew Sapphire off it so he was able to put up dubs blue on turn two which statistiaclly doesn't happen so often, which made it much better.

Especially for Richmond... Which was heavy Gifts, Heavy combo.  The advantage of LoA didn't seem to outweigh the drawback of giving up speed.  That was my call for the event. 

If any deck can support LoA right now it is probably Slaver.  I'm just loving having four Islands in my maindeck at the  moment.  It really stabilizes the quality of the mana base considerably.

Solem was really strong for me all day.  He was good against Evenpence in top eight and was savage against UW Fish.

[Polynomial P]

Nicely done Brian. Congratulations on your awesome finish. Did you say what mox/blue power you picked up?

Also, I am glad you held up on your promise to give out a dual to those who beat Smmenen.

The extra island looks great, but do you really think Strip mine belongs in a slaver deck (even if you run crucible)?

[forests failed you]

Oh, yeah I picked Sapphire.

Yeah, Strip Mine was strong all day.  Just cutting people off blue, or black mana.  Also, Cruci Strip straight up stole me the top eight game against Evenpence.

[Whatever Works]

I agree that for Richmonds metagame you made the correct call for not running Library. I didnt run Library day 2 when I played gifts. However, I was speaking more of my own NE metagame which is obviously more control mirrors, and larger hands that you wouldnt have vs. combo/stax (the richmond metagame).

[forests failed you]

agreed, I would play LoA in NE.

[Gabethebabe]

You´re still playing Echoing Ruin SB? Don´t you prefer Shattering Spree over it?

[MoxMonkey]

Awesome Job.  I wish I could have gone down too and I could have top 8ed with you and Samite too.  Oh man, people so took the time to test that matchup seeing as how you top 8ed again.  Nice job man and hope you make it to Waterbury or that 4 Workshop tournament.  

[Whatever Works]

You´re still playing Echoing Ruin SB? Don´t you prefer Shattering Spree over it?

I am guessing because chalice is generally set at 1 against control slaver, and if its set at 2 then burning wish is irrelevent to begin with.

[Revvik]

That guy who Mystical Tutored for gifts before I slaved him?

He was probably afraid you were going to Mystical for Ancestral Recall and draw yourself three cards.  Joke's on him, eh?

[PucktheCat]

That guy who Mystical Tutored for gifts before I slaved him?

He was probably afraid you were going to Mystical for Ancestral Recall and draw yourself three cards.  Joke's on him, eh?

He could have Mysticaled for Mana Drain.  That might have been a good play.  He probably would have lost anyway, but maybe not, depending on what else was in his hand.

Brian, it sounds like Duress was absolutely awesome for you.  Have you considered Mind Twist?  It is sub-par against other Drain decks, but super-powerful against combo and makes for an insane Wish target from time to time.  I love this card in my Gifts sb - it just steals stupid wins when you get mana flood+Wish.  Twist is just really good against any deck that can't counter it and isn't 90% permanents.

You´re still playing Echoing Ruin SB? Don´t you prefer Shattering Spree over it?

Since both Spree and Ruin are mainly (only?) Wish targets, it makes sense to go with a 2cc option.  In Gifts, at least, Spree never kills multiple artifacts unless you have Lotus anyway.

[Sgt. Pepper]

Game one is a disaster.  He casts out turn one, on the play Pithing Needle for Welder.  Apparently he has heard of me or something or psychic.  I respond by playing turn one hardcast Slaver.  and saying "Though you were techy did ya?"  However I can't get to four mana to activate.  He casts a mainphase gifts and I drain it.  He drains back and I force.  I will be able to activate slaver.  He EOT Mysticals for Gifts and I just about fall out of my chair at the stupidity of that play.  I activate slaver, gifts for recall, Will, Lotus, and Rack and ruin.  Recall myself twice and rack and ruin the pithing needle.

Those are some poor plays from the Gifts player.  Blind Needle?  I bet he would have liked that back after the first turn Slaver.  Mystical for Gifts is awesome, the best way to concede I have ever seen.

Thanks for the quick report and congradulations on your finish.

Well it wasn't excactly a completly blind Needle was it? I mean, he obviously knew what FFY was playing and probably made the correct play in naming Welder with it. I mean, what are the chances of a t1 Slaver anyway? I agree on the Mystical play tho, thats one terrible way of giving the game away.

Anyway, thx for putting up a report so fast. There's just 1 thing I don't get:

I return back and Jeff and I go to O'charley's pub and drink beers and get hammered in celebration.  Way to go Jeff for making the finals and finishing first in swiss.  We end up at Denny's hanging out with REB and Rich.  We get there a full forty minutes before them and wind up getting our food and beign done eating before they even get there food.  Rich is mildly annoyed and complains, exclaiming "This is ridiculous, we were here forty minutes before you guys!" I reply "Can't win them all Rich" and REB nearly shoots Coca cola out of his nose.  You had to be there I guess.

So who was there first? You and Jeff, or Rich and REB? I asume Rich and REB but it isn't exactly clear from the above text.

[PucktheCat]

Well it wasn't excactly a completly blind Needle was it? I mean, he obviously knew what FFY was playing and probably made the correct play in naming Welder with it. I mean, what are the chances of a t1 Slaver anyway? I agree on the Mystical play tho, thats one terrible way of giving the game away.

Playing Needle that way is completely terrible.  Welder takes a turn to get active anyway, so you have a chance to Needle him after they have committed him to the board.  Not to mention the fact that Brian has both Shamans and Mindslaver to consider Needling.

Playing preemptive Needle on things that can wreck you the turn they come into play is at least defensible, but Needling Welder without seeing one will rarely be right, especially against something like CS, that isn't going to lock your board.

[Kowal]

No Library is shit.  The only match up in which it ever seems relevent is the Slaver Mirror.  You get out tempoed by Gifts with a LoA.  And you can't afford to sit on it against almost anything else.  The extra basic was hot, plus it makes Solem even better.

Actually I agree with FFY here.  Library is not the hawt sweetness against Gifts because Gifts will just wreck you with immediate bombs.  In the CS mirror, or the Gifts mirror, it'll tilt the game pretty heavily.  In the Gifts' player's hand, LoA is a match-breaker against CS.  CS can't really afford to sit back too long though.  I see Library as only being particularly good for CS after an early Ancestral resolving, due to the following:

Ancestral resolving means your opponent has no backup for their next trick, thus not necessitating immediate development
Drawing three means you can afford to begin committing to the board with junk like Welder and artifact mana if it's readily available

[forests failed you]

Yeah the Gifts guy had no cards in hand, so not only would tutoring for Drain have been a good play, it would have been the 'correct' play.  If he would have Mystical Tutored for Drain, I wouldn't even have bothered to slave him that turn because he would draw a drain and pass.  He was actually just awful.

There are a number of reasons why the turn one needle on welder is a poor play as well.  Mostly, I didn't have a Welder, I had no artifacts in the yard to make a welder a threat, and most of all it was turn one.  Secondly, He might have wanted to TFK it way at some point.

Mind Twist is okay, but Duress is just such a house.  I don't particularly like clunky mainphase sorceries that I have to commit a lot of mana to.  Which is why I am not running Twist anymore.  It was in my list at Rochester when I top eighted.  But I quickly discovered that I'd much rather have the Deep instead of the Mindtwist... Because drawing cards is almost never bad when you have a lot of Mana.
And Yeah, the Duresses have been hot for me ever sinec i put them in.  They really sway the Combo matchups in Slaver's Favor.  Also, in my humble opinion Duress is much more crippling to Gifts gameplan than Reb is.  I played Gifts a lot in Richmond and I pwn'd it everytime because I just Duressed the ever living hell out of them.  Combo rolls over the same way.  It makes you a bit speedier in the spell based match ups where you have to quicken up or die.


Rich and Reb were at Denny's way before Jeff and I.  To clarify.

[Rapalaman1]

Great report ! It sounds like the event was a blast, I wanted to go sooooooo bad.

Also, way to continue to boast Michigan magic as the best around 

[Gabethebabe]

You´re still playing Echoing Ruin SB? Don´t you prefer Shattering Spree over it?

I am guessing because chalice is generally set at 1 against control slaver, and if its set at 2 then burning wish is irrelevent to begin with.

Shattering Spree still functions with a Chalice=1 at the board, it will only counter the original spell, so for RR you blow up the Chalice and that is the same amount of mana as the Echoing Ruin (albeit more colored)

[PucktheCat]

Mind Twist is okay, but Duress is just such a house.  I don't particularly like clunky mainphase sorceries that I have to commit a lot of mana to.  Which is why I am not running Twist anymore.  It was in my list at Rochester when I top eighted.  But I quickly discovered that I'd much rather have the Deep instead of the Mindtwist... Because drawing cards is almost never bad when you have a lot of Mana.
And Yeah, the Duresses have been hot for me ever sinec i put them in.  They really sway the Combo matchups in Slaver's Favor.  Also, in my humble opinion Duress is much more crippling to Gifts gameplan than Reb is.  I played Gifts a lot in Richmond and I pwn'd it everytime because I just Duressed the ever living hell out of them.  Combo rolls over the same way.  It makes you a bit speedier in the spell based match ups where you have to quicken up or die.

I agree with everything you said except for the bit about Deep Analysis.  I've found that card to be awfully slow and weak.  Generally when I Twist people out it is as a result of a one turn mana burst early in the game.  In the same situation Deep leaves me feeling a lot more vulnerable.  Deep is definately better against Drains though.

Basically, I think Mind Twist has been misunderstood completely.  Traditionally, it was seen as an anti-control card, but it is actually terrible against control because you hate to tap out with a fat sorcery.  Duress is much better against control, as is Deep Analysis and pretty much any card draw.  Mind Twist is a win card against the slower midgame decks that have a bunch of conditional hate (things with 8x REB, Orim's Chant, StP, and other win condition hate).  More importantly, though, I think it is the flat out best sideboard card against Storm combo - it just wins that matchup.

[benthetenor]

You´re still playing Echoing Ruin SB? Don´t you prefer Shattering Spree over it?

I am guessing because chalice is generally set at 1 against control slaver, and if its set at 2 then burning wish is irrelevent to begin with.

Shattering Spree still functions with a Chalice=1 at the board, it will only counter the original spell, so for RR you blow up the Chalice and that is the same amount of mana as the Echoing Ruin (albeit more colored)

Since this is about the hundreth post I've read about the interaction of Chalice of the Void at 1 and Shattering Spree, I'd like to assume that we all know that replicate isn't stopped by something like Chalice. The fact that Shattering Spree works doesn't make it the best answer. If you want to go B. Wish -> Shattering Spree to kill a Chalice at 1 in the same turn, it requires an obscene three red mana. The same play with Echoing Ruin only cost two red mana. In addition, for that 4 mana investment, you will only get one card, resulting in a 2-for-1 trade in the wrong direction. With Echoing Ruin, you could potentially get enough CA to make it an even trade.

The deck will never have enough red mana to get a favorable trade out of Shattering Spree, much less an even one, barring something ridiculous like Black Lotus + 2 Volcanic Island, at which point you'd be losing to Stax due to the high number of non-basics in play. Even with Crucible of the Worlds, you don't want to put yourself into that position.

[Jacob Orlove]

Actually, since Burning Wish replaces itself, you're card neutral on casting it, which means that as long as Spree trades for one artifact, you're even on cards. However, spending 1RRR to their 2 is not an even trade at all. Echoing Ruin is just much more solid here, although Spree definitely has a place in some other decks (eg Belcher).

[zeus-online]

Great job!

I've played duress in my 3cC deck for sooo long now, i tried cutting it for leaks, misdirections...all sorts of things, but in the eed, duress always seems like the best option....I'd say that against almost all non-shop decks, turn 1 duress is one of the greatest plays. If i have ancestral and duress in my opening hand, i always play out the duress.

Mind twist, however, is mostly just a waste of mana.....Its never been good to me...against combo you're struggling to survive the early games, and while twisting them early is great, getting 4-7 mana before they can combo out isnt very reliable.
Against control, its running into drains or forces all the time.....

/Zeus

[StarOrc]

Actually, since Burning Wish replaces itself, you're card neutral on casting it, which means that as long as Spree trades for one artifact, you're even on cards. However, spending 1RRR to their 2 is not an even trade at all. Echoing Ruin is just much more solid here, although Spree definitely has a place in some other decks (eg Belcher).

Don't clutter up report threads with rules questions please.  I'll cut/paste your question into a post in the rules forum - Dante

I aggree with FFY that the extra red requirement for Spree is a little too much esp if you are burning wishing for it, however if you plan on boarding it in, RR isn't that bad but Rack and Ruin is probably better for that anyway.

Star

[Smmenen]

In a side note Jeff plays savagely and stomps Steve.

I appreciate the props, but that's not actually what happened.  I should have won game one if I was actually a good aggro player (jeff ended the game at 2 life) and I lost game three with Jeff at 1 life that maybe I could have won the game if I discarded the bazaar to bazaar the turn before he slaved me.

[NicolaeAlmighty]

Congratulations Demars! Entertaining report as always... Savage plays man!


... Go Michiganders! 

[The Atog Lord]

Rich is mildly annoyed and complains, exclaiming "This is ridiculous, we were here forty minutes before you guys!" I reply "Can't win them all Rich" and REB nearly shoots Coca cola out of his nose.  You had to be there I guess.

After waiting for fourty-five minutes, we begin to get our food. However, the delivery is staggered, so that each dish is brought out in intervals of ten minutes. By the time it all arrives, it is all cold. I speak with the waitress, who scoffs when I attempt to explain that cold and late food wasn't what we had in mind. I speak with another person, and eventually the manager. After speaking with her a few minutes, she agrees not to charge us for our food. So, three of us ended up eating for free.
Sometimes, you can win.

Putting two copies of your deck into top eight shows skill. Well done.

[forests failed you]

I thought it might embarrass you if I put it down verbetium;  the whole you saying "My, my what a sexy voice you have dahlin'...  Wanna do the phone sex ...."  Might make you look lecherous!

Man, I can't wait until you move back to mighigan and we can officially reconstruction monday night type one to the glory that it once was.  There is a rumor that Biller might be comming back to the game at the end of the term as well...