2026-02-07 & 08 F2F Toronto Spotlight Lorwyn Eclipsed (5-3 | 5-2-1)

Introduction & Prep

Going to skip match results here, not a lot to say. Don't keep too few or too many lands, play good cards, try not to flood.

Lorwyn Eclipsed has been a really fun set for me. Five tribes/typal bases, an overarching multicolor vivid theme, and five off-color combos with varying degrees of playability. Draft is a little bit on rails, though it's really interesting to navigate it when the lane isn't open + build priority order + understand what is/isn't a signal

Approximate ranking of archetypes (draft mostly):

• GW Kithkin, UR Elementals, GB Elves, UW Merfolk
• RGx or UGx Vivid, BW Counters
• RW Counters - trickier than BW
• BR Goblins
• UB Faeries - very hard to find this lane

One of our locals was qualified for PT Richmond ECL so we had a few limited meetings discussing archetypes and insights. Some scattered thoughts

• Merfolk in draft is easy to assemble, lot of commons. Lean a lot on Gravegill Scoundrel & Tributary Vaulter
• In draft you want to plant your flag around P1P4 or 5. If you haven't found a lane at that point you're in trouble.
• Many cards have significantly better WR in certain archetypes.
• Bark of Doran is a Merfolk card.
• A lot of the -1/-1 counter synergies work better in BW, RW, or even BG because they need big butts which BR is short on. This also increases the value of 2 mana 1/3 gobbos.
• Kithkin midgame leans on 4 mana Mistmeadow Council. This can allow you to get a free attack or tempo swing on T3
• Picking Changelings early is good for banking vivid & upping tribal/typal count. At the cost of playing weak statted creatures ex. Feisty Spikeling
• Prismatic Undercurrents is better than Tend the Sprigs though you need to invest a bit into off-color & mana sinks
• Your deck & its creatures need to be able to hold the board down by T3. This is why Gnarlback Elm & Reluctant Dounguard are so far down the priority pick list.
• Tricolor rares are even more bomby than other rares - Maralen, Doran
• Rooftop Percher is a perfectly fine card to jam into any deck, with the exception of Vivid since it doesn't contribute strongly to the color plan 

Spotlight Open - Pool 1

• Holy moly mythics. Two planeswalkers, Soul Immolation bomb, Doran bomb, roleplayer rares.
• Color balance - rough. Green is deepest by a mile, blue has some hard-hitters, then cards are scattered all over the place. Not much "real" fixing
• What I built - Abzan Doran. Puca's Eye was not worthwhile, basically I'm just hoping to play my rares and ride them to victory. Gnarlback Elm underperformed, Mutable Explorer also quite meh
• Pulled the deck up after day 1, group consensus was to play Temur. Basically Mono G with some side splashing, playing all the fixing I have, not bending over backwards to play W&B.

Limited Championship Qualifier aka Limited Tournament Qualifier - Pool 2

• This pool is insane. Fixing, both 7 mana mythic giant bombs, and packing some serious power in the colors.
• What I built: Abzan rares
• I got fairly lucky throughout the day, honestly I should have been on 16 lands imo. The deck has so many ways to find land I need just a little more juice.

Conclusion

Loving ECL. Maintained about a 66% WR across the weekend, which is pretty good in a vacuum. Lost an ODE draft to the person who won the whole Spotlight later in the weekend lol

Great times in the 9-count Airbnb, 3-0d the in-house draft 

On Arena I've done 21 Traditional Drafts, 3-0 trophying 7 times, 2-1ing 11 of the other times for a total of 48-15 overall match WR of 76.2%.

I've been trying to snapshot my tabletop draft pick orders which has been really good for review.

As a whole, I think our group built a pretty good idea of the format though variance didn't always line up for us. Got to play vs some stone-cold killers and lost to some Kinbindings. Hope to play more Limited in the near future!

2026-01-28 Best of One Gaming RCQ (3-1-1, 2-0)

Introduction

I've'nt played much Standard this season. We're back in the phase of mythic-dollar-creep it seems across Badgermole Cub, Quantum Riddler, Ouroboroid, and now the ECL mythic evoke elementals. Badgermole Cub is really definitional to the competitive format, though most players at the local level won't be able to engage through Badgermole Cub. So of course I asked a local in the community to borrow their Cubs after they secured two RC invites.

Decklist

• Picked the deck because it's pretty straightforward.
• There's a Gw verison, which is basically Mono G with a tiniest handful of white spells namely Seam Rip and Felidar Retreat. The Mono G list looks strong enough that I don't feel the need to pain myself off Temple Gardens.
• Used MTGGoldfish so I could print off a decklist, though I started on Moxfield for a collection comparison w/ cards-I-own.
• I thought I owned four Earthbender Ascension, turns out I only have three so I played a Lumbering Worldwagon in its place.
• Added one Sandman as a self-mill payoff engine

Swiss

• Round 1 Bye (1-0)
• Round 2 Dana S on Allies LWW 
  Aggro variant playing Invasion Reinforcements & Wartime Protestors, got aggro'd out then went bigger than Earth King's Lieutenant could grow. Luckily they hit lands off active Hakoda
• Round 3 James B on RW WW
  Not much to say here, creatures ate some removal, then got engines online & accrued advantage + board presence
• Round 4 Bob M on Sultai Reanimator ID
  Played it out to 1-1, he went OTP G1 and didn't hit lands so I stole that game, G2 I need to hit multiple GY interaction & pressure spells.
• Round 5 Athena P on UW Merfolk LWL
  1st seed, pair down vs 5th since I had already played vs players in positions 2, 3 & 4
  G1 She had 2x Deeproot Pilgrimage and I got blown out by back-to-back Disruptors of Current
  G2 & 3 Into the Floodmaw did work against me
  I was locked for T4, unfortunately for Athena one of the 3-1s got double pair-downed into a 1-3 and won so no 3-2s made it in. 3rd seed going into the T4.

Semifinals vs Bob Martin LWW

OTD, G2 & G3 saw a bunch of GY interaction. G3 was slow, we both had little to do, he Superior-Spider Man'd my Icetill Explorer and just kept hitting lands.

Finals vs James B WLW

OTP, James was 4th seed.
G2 he dropped a RIP which did a fair amount of work, got there in G3 with stuff.

Conclusions

• I think my thesis was correct - Mono G Landfall was an easy & strong deck that I had access to. 
• Earthbender Ascension is one of the best cards in the deck due to granting trample. flipside of Esper Origins similarly
• Vivien Reid I think is better as a one of, also doesn't answer Clarion Conqueror.
• Could do with one more Soul-Guide Lantern
• Sapling Nursery, not sure on. It's a solo-win-con that doesn't necessarily synergize with anything else in the deck.
• Not the most thoughtful blog post, just wanted to get it out there. Will see about hitting more Standard this season, then consider judging vs playing @ RCs

2025-11-09 F2F Toronto Modern Super RCQ (5-2-1)

Introduction

Drove up Saturday morning, played Saturday with Amulet Titan to a very meh 3-4 (one of which being a no-show). Amulet currently is in this spot where your primary goal is to do a turn 3 kill. As I was executing Amulet combos & loops, most of my opponents were intrigued because they hadn't seen this "new" version of Titan. imo Shifting Woodland should be banned - it allows Amulet to pull off the infinite without too much work. Lumra + Otawara could be a replacement strategy.

Ashiok is a pain in the ass for Amulet, so right now decks are playing SB Stock Ups, then extra Otawaras, Into the Floodmaw, or Null Elemental Blast.

Anywho, we stayed overnight at the venue. Woke up with a bit of a headache, initially attributed it to sleeping posture but drank about 2L of water and was okay. I had packed all the cards necessary to pivot to one of Jeskai Blink, Esper Goryo's, or Boros Energy and decided to try Jeskai.

Decklist

• The deck is a form of midrange. It has limited ability to go go aggressive with Ragavan, can close games with Arena of Glory + Phlages, but the core is ETBs & flicker effects & the 4-of Consign to Memory. The deck doesn't play a full set of Ephemerates, because it's trying to leverage the other aspects of Consign.
• ETBs in the deck: Solitude, Quantum Riddler, Phlage, *Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, SB Obsidian Charmaw
• Flickers/Blinks/interact with triggers: 4 Consign to Memory, 3 Phelia Exuberant Shepherd, 2 Ephemerate
• Consign targets: Solitude evoke sacrifice, Phlage sacrifice, Quantum Riddler EoT warp trigger, Phelia EoT return to battlefield trigger, any of the opponent's triggered abilities or colorless spells
• Phelia targets: Quantum Riddler is the big one, resetting Teferi (opens an instant speed window), Solitude eh, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, opponents stuff - then Consign their return
• Ephemerate targets: Solitude, Quantum Riddler, SB Charmaw, save own creature
• The 201 course trick with Consign is to when you can pull double duty, such as evoking Solitude in response to a trigger you don't want to resolve, then replicating it to keep Solitude & counter the other one - ex. Phlage sac, Urza's Saga Ch. 3
• Other things in the deck - Strix Serenade to fight through the other creature blink decks & stuff, can remove the token with Phelia/Teferi. 3 Fables of the Mirror-Breaker ... which can't be countered by Strix Serenade, deck glue. March of Otherworldly Light - for Urza's Saga and generally stuff incl. Elesh Norn Mother of Machines.

Swiss

• R1 Chris M on Boros Energy WLW (1-0)
  Game 1 he mulligans to a one land Ragavan hand, finds a second land, but apparently had a fist full of three drops.
  Generally the match was just kind of trading resources, he doesn't have many broken starts. Had a decision in G3 with a Wrath of the Skies vs a Goblin Bombardment + Ajani + cat token + Static Prison, wondering if there's a reasonable Wrath for 1 + Prismatic Ending line, but I only have 4 mana & removing the Bombardment is just too good when there's an Ajani hanging out.
• R2 Owen K on UB Midrange WLW (2-0)
  Not a common thing to see these days. Guy surveils a Murktide Regent into the bin turn 1 and I'm put off my game - don't have to play around the UB suite of interaction much these days. Game 2 is close, both on 2 but I lose that one. Eventually just grind him out in 3.
• R3 Swiss Jeskai LWD (2-0-1)
  Game 1, my opponent exerts Arena of Glory to escape a Phlage from their bin, killing my only creature (a 2/2 Strix Serenade token or something). I go to mark their +3 life and ask "then I'm assuming I'll go from 27 to 18?" My hand at this time is Ragavan + Solitude with like two open mana. Go to my turn, draw another Ragavan, dash Ragavan and bash. End up grinding out that game.
  Between sideboarding they get salty about me trying to lead them into a play - which is ridiculous - you've exerted an Arena of Glory onto a Phlage with an empty board. Maybe I'm engaging in gamesmanship, "tricking" my opponent into twelve point life swing so I can get in with Ragavan... but that's dumb. 12 life vs a Ragavan hit? Not attacking with your hasted Phlage on an empty board to play around a dash Ragavan? Come on.
  I did hit an Ephemerate off Ragavan and got the ruling wrong - thought it would rebound in my favor. Fortunately we called a judge who actually read the card - good reminder to always read the card and always call the judge.
  I lose G2 in relatively quick fashion for the mirror. G3 my opponent ends on T5, I'm at 23 life to 4 w/ a Phlage in play & 2 spells in hand, opponent declines to concede. As they clean up, I see a peek of 2 lands in hand.
• R4 Jacob T on UR Prowess LWW (3-0-1)
  G1 win the die roll, then die to a super wide attack, Cori-Steel Cutter in play into double Swiftspear + Lava Dart on my Solitude.
  G2 is a bit funny. Chunks in with a Swiftspear, remove it. Puts nothing out on turn 2. I cast a Phlage onto an empty board to gain some life. He Surgicals it. Some swings, some life changes, a Consign on my Solitude trigger. I'm looking down at his board with a couple of creatures, me with nothing but a bunch of lands and two Quantum Riddlers in hand. Then I check life totals, we're both at 8 and I have an Arena of Glory. Double haste warp Riddler and he gets clocked. Mostly, it only worked this because he played so fast and loose with the life totals.
  G3 I do the Phelia + blink warped Riddler trick. Then the next turn cycle I consider blinking it again for value, but soul read a Consign to Memory in hand / open mana, and manage to avoid that trap.
• R5 Boston S on UR Affinity LL (3-1-1)
  G1 we both mulligan to 6. I'm OTP and drop a Ragavan. He goes Pinnacle Emissary + 0s into a T1 Kappa Cannoneer.
  G2 my initial hand is a bit weird. A couple of Consigns, Wrath of the Skies, but my lands are Hallowed Fountain, Scalding Tarn, Arena of Glory. He goes T1 Emry, on my turn I Solitude it + Consign my evoke, hold up Tarn - but I can't Consign anything AND cast a T3 Wrath of the Skies. Fetch WR EoT, clear his board with Wrath of the Skies for 1. His cards replace themselves (Mishra's Bauble, Vexing Bauble) so I mostly just clear the Urza's Saga putting him to just Spirebluff Canal. Next turn he plays another Saga, pass. I hold off on my next Wrath thinking I can get more value, hold up Consign. He goes to his turn, uptick Saga, land, Blood Moon me. This is weird- if I had gone for Wrath 1-for-1 with Saga I wouldn't be in this problem, or if I had Consigned the Urza's Saga Ch 2. But those are weird somewhat unintuitive patterns. I do misplay additionally - I draw Fable, trade off Solitude for no reason forgetting that Fable can make me a bunch of Solitudes. He drops an EE for 0 and my Fable is now basically irrelevant. Then I die
• R6 Chris C on Affinity LWW (4-1-1)
  G1 I'm OTP and play a Ragavan. T1 he goes Pinnacle Emissary and I start having flashbacks, but he only puts in about 8 power & Thoughtcast... I don't win this game.
  Change ups from my previous matchup, I boarded in Charmaws over Teferis as a response to the Blood Moon plan
  G2 no crazy start from him, grind it out.
  G3 he mulligans to 5 with a 1 lander, bottoming two Kappa Cannoneers and just kind of dies after a bunch of turns. I also Consign his first Urza's Saga mana ability trigger but he really was never in this game with that hand.
• R7 Julian DP on Esper Goryo's WW (5-1-1)
  Scouted him after we both ended up in the draw bracket, so knew what he was on.
  G1 win the die roll and see a 7 with Ragavan + Teferi + other acceptable cards. Foreknowledge doesn't matter, but his hand seems fairly anemic - he casts Frog twice (after bounce) and Tainted Indulgence but never threatens to do the Goryo's thing.
  G2 he establishes some Quantum Riddlers w/ Ephemerate. I'm on the beatdown path with Ragavan & Phelia, even blinking his Riddler with Phelia to get in for extra damage, knocking him down from 12 to 8.
  I'm fairly dead here. He passes back to me after Ephemerating Riddler on upkeep, getting to 5/6 cards or so. Has something else, I forget. Go to my turn, have 4 lands in play, land in hand, 1 treasure, Phelia, Ragavan. Swing both, exile his creature. Opp blocks Phelia. Ragavan makes a treasure and hits the third Atraxa seen this game (one exiled with Ragavan T2, one pitched to Solitude). Play land, cast Atraxa, add 5 cards to hand whewee.
• QF vs Eric M LL (5-2-1)
  He has seed 2 vs my 7, the match was basically just him sticking Riddlers and me not. G1 kind of funny, both of us had Teferis in the midgame. I get him down to 16-3 in life but then he exert Phlages me + Riddler attack.
  G2 I'm not really in it until Riddler pulls me out of a whole. Almosty back in it, he Phlages me from 11, then draws Teferi for bounce Phlage kill me. ggs

Conclusions

• Jeskai Blink is easier than Amulet Titan, and probably feels less tilting for opponents since I don't have to Amulet-splain an infinite combo with multiple outcomes.
• Strix Serenade is gas in the Jeskai mirror.
• Quantum Riddler is fairly absurd at getting out of holes.
• Sportsmanship is important.
• The format may be diverse with interaction, but I don't think that it feels healthy when people are infinite-Titaning on turn 2, Kappa Cannoneering on turn 1, Neoforming, or just playing piles that draw ten bajillion cards & then Phlage you down.

2025-08-30 & 31 SCGCon Orlando Judging - cEDH & Standard

Introduction

cEDH, Standard and some commentary on how terrible the format is

Saturday Assignment: cEDH 5k

cEDH was a new one for me. After receiving my schedule, I asked around for tips on judging cEDH - the most common advice was to police table talk to maintain pace of play.

The event was run at regular REL without any particular multiplayer addenda using Spicerack. We had just over 80 players in the event. Rounds were 80 minutes, stop on that turn or after 20 minutes ending in a draw. Wins being 5 match points, draws 1. We had some Spicerack technical glitches in R1, but besides that I think everything went quite smoothly in the Swiss.

Generally it seemed that players were quite cordial in their attitudes, and were able to handle most things on their own. They were also very on top of the triggers, moreso than Standard players it seemed who are often used to Arena handling triggers for them.

It was interesting seeing the range of cards being played. Wandering Archaic from Strixhaven being really good at messing with stacks. A Magda deck playing Mishra's Workshop out next to Dwarven Trader and Dwarven Armorer (1/1s for R) was a bit wacky.

The game flow of cEDH seemed to be a bit of resource accrual eventually into combo turns where someone would "go for it" with or without backup, then seeing if the rest of the table could stop them. The round time policy makes a lot of sense for this, since the stack/turn here can quickly eat up 10, 20+ mins. There's some posturing from non-active players about whether they have interaction, if they can get someone else to use their interaction, if they can negotiate a draw here by negating the active player, etc. This is the main bit of "table talk" I witnessed. It takes a a little bit, but these stacks/turns usually determine the outcome of the match.

• Player 1 turn 1 plays a Chrome Mox, imprinting a Phyrexian Metamorph under it. On player 2's turn 2, this is noticed by a judge. Chrome Mox reads "Imprint - When this artifact enters, you may exile a nonartifact, nonland card from your hand."
  Ruling: handle as a GRV, backing up five turns is out of the question, leave it as is.
  Commentary: I kept an eye out for repeats of this error the rest of the day, saw none. Chalk it up to being an interaction that only happens with colored artifacts (not many in cEDH) and player being a bit distracted by round 1 software snafus.
• Player 3 casts The One Ring on their turn. Go around to player 1's turn, who controls a Malcolm Keen-Eyed Navigator (partner pirate commander with a pirate-damage-trigger) and a Kediss Emberclaw Familiar (partner commander with a trigger that duplicates commander combat damage).
  P1 attacks P3, announces triggers. P2 points out that P3 has protection from everything, P1 argues that P3 never announced their Ring trigger.
  The One Ring's trigger affects the game in non-visible ways. As long as its controller acknowledges it before it becomes relevant (ex. taking damage or allowing themselves to be targeted) they receive the trigger's benefits. For handling multiplayer, we generally treat other players as teammates - i.e. in this case they're allowed to point out the trigger.
  So P3 gets their TOR protection, P1's attack goes through and does nothing.
• P4 controls an Aetherflux Reservoir. On P1's turn, they attempt to cast something. P4 responds, gaining 1 life to 51 and activates Aetherflux Reservoir targeting P1.
  Couple tricky things taking this call.
  - What is happening in the game at the moment of the call?
  - What is the players' problem or issue?
  - Is this call being made to gain or create an opening/advantage somehow?
  End result seemed to be that one player didn't think P4 gave an appropriate window for the life gain trigger, but no one had a response to it so :/ nothing changes
• P2 controls Kefka Court Mage (Wizard w/ ETB everyone discards, controller draws cards for each type discarded), Harmonic Prodigy (doubles Shaman/Wizard triggers), and Displacer Kitten (on noncreature spell cast blink a nonland you control).
  On P4's turn, P4 attempts to cast a spell and P2 responds. P2 blinks Kefka and correctly triggers+resolves Kefka twice. A few spells later, everyone but P2 is hellbent. P2 casts a couple more spells before their own turn, blinking Kefka again but only resolving the trigger once each time (rummaging, effectively).
  Noticed this, it's difficult to argue that it's gaining any advantage to ignore the effect, P2 has around 9/10 cards in hand vs 0 in everyone else's hands, rummaging a few more times is going to be generally beneficial to the player. This would be GRV at comp REL since Harmonic Prodigy is a replacement effect but in the spirit of the event & regular REL I allow it to pass without warning and the game ends about a minute later.

Sunday Assignment: Standard 5k / Deck Checks

The event was staffed for significantly greater attendance. Blame Vivi Cauldron. 30% of SCG Orlando day 1 into 54% of day 2 into 75% of the Top 8? That's busted. Asking people if Vivi should be banned is a bit of a litmus test. Vivi is a perfectly balanced Standard card as is, it's the interaction with Agatha's Soul Cauldron that breaks the normal curve of mana production. Cauldron is the correct ban, those who say Vivi clearly haven't actually played the format.

If anyone asks me how to fix Standard? 1) Go back to two year rotation 2) Print pre-constructed decks that can actually onboard new players

Calls

• Cards involved: Cecil Dark Knight, Deep-Cavern Bat
• Situation: Cecil & Bat are attacking while AP is at 12. How does damage resolve - does Cecil flip?
• Ruling: Lifelink happens when damage happens, Cecil is a trigger. So AP goes to 13 then when Cecil trigger resolves they go to 11. AP does not get to flip Cecil.

2025-07-31 GenCon Secret Lair Spectacular with Esper Goryo's (2-2)

Introduction

Nominally this event is Modern, but it's run as pseudo-regular Rules Enforcement Level due to the Secret Lair mechanic. This is problematic, since there aren't the same safeguards in place that one expects for events that award three-five figures worth of prizing.

Decklist

• Been watching some locals pilot this deck. Looks simple enough, you have a couple of axes to play on - Frog and reanimation mainly, with Solitude+Ephemerate as a side synergy. Variety of interaction between Thoughtseize, counterspells, Solitude, even some Prismatic Ending.
• I based my list off this Alakai list. Mix of removal and threats, not too cute with reanimation targets. Has Fallaji Archaelogist.
• Deck can grind a bit but not naturally, since it relies on refilling your hand with a Goryo's
• Goryo's is ideally a T3+ play since you want to be able to Ephemerate your fatty. 

Swiss

• R1 Grayson Nemets on GR Broodscale LL (0-1)
  Kind of got owned - he put out a continuous stream+variety of threats that I'm unprepared to answer.
• R2 Kinan Abouzelam on Neoform LWW (1-1)
  G1 I'm confused by a turn 1 Disciple of Freyalise as land drop (aka Garden of Freyalise)
  He mentions that he considers my archetype to be one of his worst matchups, presumably due to the countermagic options.
  G3 is the crazy one. I have to mulligan to 5, manage to counter a Neoform, chipping away at him with a Psychic Frog and having a Teferi out. Then he Neoforms into Ureni the Song Unending, which has protection from white and black. I eat an attack for 11 (10 + 1 from Neoform). He casts an extra Hooting Mandrills as insurance. I jump my Psychic Frog and attack to draw a card - Mandrills doesn't have reach. Pass turn at 5 life.
  With me at 5, he swings Mandrills into my Teferi and Ureni (11, remember) at my face.
  In hand I have exactly 3 cards. Griselbrand, Goryo's Vengeance, Ephemerate. With exactly those cards, I pitch Griselbrand, reanimate it, living at 1 life, then Ephemerate it to have lethal next turn.
• R3 Oliver Voegeli on Amulet Titan WLW (2-1)
  G1 and G3 I have the nuts. T2 Frog T3 reanimate Atraxa in both games as I recall. In one of them, Atraxa misses Ephemerate then Frog hit flips it.
  G2, I play loose allowing a Dismember to fully resolve on Psychic Frog without discarding my reanimation target. Immediately topdeck Goryo's Vengeance.
• R4 Robert Pompa on BW Blink LL (2-2)
  Nothing much to write here. G1 he gets a Phelia down and makes a bit of value while I do nothing.
  G2 I keep a 5 lander with a Thoughtseize, figuring I don't want to mulligan much vs a Thoughtseize deck.
  T1 Thoughtseize him and see a triple Thoughtseize hand okay. Doesn't matter die anyways.

Concluding Thoughts

• Made top 16, which is good for a non-foil Lightning Bolt promo. Plus Grayson goes undefeated so I pocket a second non-foil Lightning Bolt. Sell those off to a vendor and my trip is paid for.
• Over the course of the weekend, lost a good bit to BW or Esper Midrange/Blink varieties.
  Not sure whether to keep/board out Thoughtseizes, and play the matchups in general.
• Got stalled out in one of the weekend's Secret Lair Spectaculars by a well-known pro/ex-pro player. That was ugly. tl;dr they thought I won G1, so they stalled out G2 to try and win in sudden death. Except I lost G1, then won G2 and we went to sudden death. I board incorrectly for sudden death (should be fetches out, all white cards to go for double Solitude) and die to T3 triple Amulet nonsense.

2025-05-18 Vibes Championship of the Americas (0-4)

Introduction

After scrubbing out of RC Hartford [link], I signed up to play in Vibes Championship of the Americas at Hartford. For $20 entry, plus buying starter kit ($30 for two starter decks), it's pretty good value since playmat + promo are included as entry

 

What is Vibes? 

Vibes is a Lorcana-esque Trading Card Game (TCG). The art is based on an NFT art series called Pudgy Penguins. Also the game is "Web3" which means it has crypto connotations & stuff.

Gameplay characteristics

Parentheses will be used to describe the approximate Magic equivalent. 

• Cards can be played face-down as rods (lands), which can be flopped (tapped) to produce fish (generic mana).
• Penguins have colors. Fish can be used to summon any color of penguin, but color determines what actions (spells) the penguins can flop pudge for (convoke)
• Cycles (turns) involve players drawing, playing penguins (main phase), opponent does the same, then an action phase (priority round) which can be repeated if additional actions happen.
• The end of turn involves a vibe check, where players determine which penguin has the most vibe (power)
• Winning the vibe check awards you with Baron Fishpockets (idk, initiative?). The winner then puts the top card of their library in as a flopped rod, and the loser draws a card. Then the next cycle starts and if the player with Baron Fishpockets has 15+ cards out, they win.
• Also Baron Fishpockets determines who gets to take the first moves per cycle. 

Gameplay

• Establishing early board presence is important to take actions (convoke spells), as well as accelerating on rods.
• Both players draw on each turn, and both players "receive" a card when the vibe check happens. This means that there's a lot of resource parity, which gives repeated removal an edge.
• Starter decks feature pretty basic mechanics, of course. But even with just one set released there's already a massive gap in card power level. Imaging the difference between a 2/2 1G with vigilance vs Bunkus (Hogaak) or Bizmo (Thassa's Oracle).
• There are also rareish trap lands that can be revealed as actions.
• Since the game is won after a player wins the vibe check and has fifteen permanents at the start of their turn, players close in on 15 permanents at approximately the same time.
• This leads to a couple of showdown turns where many things happen.
• Unlike Magic, if the source of an action (ability) is removed in response, the act is countered
• The game is run as best-of-1 since parity is pretty core to the game. There aren't enormous benefits to going first, while cards that can flop opposing penguins are better on the reactive side.

Round Summary

I lost four rounds. I'll chalk it up to a combination of not understanding tempo priority of Baron Fishpockets, valuation of cards-as-rods vs their front faces, not buying upgrades, and plain old-fashioned bad luck.

2025-05-17 RC Hartford with Jeskai Control (2-4)

Introduction

Skipped RC Minneapolis despite dual-queueing, wasn't feeling it. Hartford is driveable so hopped in a car and away we went.

Decklist

• Casey Miller took down RC Minneapolis with the deck, so surely it's good right?
• The theory was that Jeskai Control had a good matchup spread, especially against public enemy #1 UR Prowess. I tweaked the SB a bit - Obstinate Baloths out since Pixie is virtually absent from the meta, add some Ghost Vacuums for various matchups - Omniscience, Jeskai Oculus, Stormchaser's buyback, delirium, etc.
• I practiced the deck for a few dozen matches on Arena, felt okay. Took it out to a paper event just to test casting the spells and physical manipulation of cards. Printed out tokens for Three Steps Ahead & Shiko copies.

Swiss

• R1 Adam Bruce on UW Omniscience (1-0)
  G1 I hold two removal spells. He reanimates Omniscience, casts a second one. I try to remove the first, he bounces it and gets to stick two Omnis. I concede early for time since I have nothing left & he's still at 20.
  G2 we durdle around. I crunch his life total down, removing creatures. I have a Ghost Vacuum on board. He hits 10 mana and double Omnis, but has no gas left and dies.
  G3 he misses land 4 and I have answers gg
• R2 Ryan Condon on UR Prowess LL (1-1)
  Both games I'm able to stabilize, getting to 21 life in G1 and 17 life from 1 in G2. But then by recurring Stock Ups opp is able to sculpt his hand enough to one-shot me, since this build of Jeskai isn't really able to deal with that.
• R3 Daniel Deckman on Jeskai Control LD (1-2)
  He looks familiar. We actually played at MagicCon Vegas 2023!
  G1 goes long, my understanding was I could play for a mill victory since we both have more removal than threats but then I find a clump of a bajillion lands while he churns through his deck enthusiastically and is able to bash me with a Shiko before I can find another Get Lost.
  G2 draw
• R4 Adam Broeking on Jeskai Oculus WLW (2-2)
  Game 1 I stabilize at 5 then turn the corner by bashing with Marang River Regent, then next turn copy it with Three Steps Ahead and bash again. He puts up a bunch of blockers iirc Siren + two Oculus, top deck my second Three Steps Ahead ggg
  Game 2 draw poorly, first hand is 4 lands + high curve cards, second hand has a couple cheaper interactions but then draws into the same as the first
  Game 3 idk, took it down.
• R5 Adam Snook on UR Prowess LL (2-3)
  G1 I get slow rolled into a turn 5 one shot from 19
  G2 my notes don't show much but I die who cares about the details
• R6 Michael Belfatto on UR Prowess WLL (2-4)
  idk, he knows the matchup better than I
  Temporary Lockdown is absolutely needed to stabilize, but given about ten turns UR will find their Into the Floodmaws to sweep them away. G2 he briefly miscalculates lethal with bouncing Temporary Lockdown on an Authority of the Consuls + Stormchaser's Talent but I still die a few turns later.
• R7 Quinn Tonole on Mono R LL
  My drop didn't register I guess. Didn't actually play this one.

Is UR the best deck? and public discourse

There were some RC commentators who expressed the opinions that UR is powerful but not ban-worthy, people are too ban-thirsty, but most importantly grinders are too lazy to solve for the problem that is UR in the metagame. This is pretty nonsensical. There are several thousands of very experienced players trying to solve the format, but it keeps rotating because new busted cards come out and obsolete the old ones. Standard is now in this weird ebb and flow of power creep, where a card like Nowhere to Run will define a meta, obsoleting X/3s, putting people back on X/4s, only to be pushed out by repeated creature value. Sure, we shouldn't kneejerk ban everything. But the problem isn't that grinders are lazy, it's that Standard is a tough freaking format now where everything is powerful but simultaneously not good enough. Might write up a post on how to fix Standard later, idk

I chose my deck based on flawed premises

1. The top decks are approximately the same power level.
2. Jeskai has a solid matchup into UR, and resolving Temporary Lockdown mostly wins the game.
3. I acquired enough practice with Jeskai from playing it on Arena and briefly in paper.

Conclusions & Takeaways

• I didn't do quality prep for the tournament, therefore I wasn't so practiced & in tune with my deck that I was able to zone in on the key decisions for my matchups.
• Coping that I didn't get the sweaty UR practice that I needed.