2024-12-08 Mecha Games RCQ (4-0-2, 1-0-2)

Introduction

On Saturday I played Standard GB to a mediocre 2-3 finish at a local RCQ. So I decided to return to jamming the deck I have reps with, instead of trying to slog through the meta like everyone else (see also: my approach to MagicCon Chicago).

For Standard UB is currently top dog, but there are several other tier 1 decks and a lot of fringe stuff kicking around in tier 2-2.5-3. Generally I think Temur Otters is decent vs midrange, but horrid vs red aggro.

Decklist

 

I took the maindeck from an MTGO list, then tweaked the SB for card availability and personal preference. I like the maindeck a lot, the tweaks from the Worlds version feel more streamlined.

Ryan Condon's primer is now free btw

Maindeck choices / brief commentary

• 2 Questing Druid - Grinds harder than 1, also a threat
  
• 3 Valley Floodcaller - Floodcaller is a fragile win-condition. If it sticks you win the game, but hard to run out for value
• 4 Analyze the Pollen / 3 Bushwhack / 2 Fabled Passage - Fabled Passage worst land in the deck, spells synergize more. Checks out. Just wish I had 4 matching Analyze instead of 3 + 1
• 1 Pawpatch Formation - Card is handy sometimes, cycler when it's not
• 1 Bitter Reunion - Makes sense. Occasionally enables a kill line, Tarnation Vista mana, or cycles through the deck. But not a role player. Plus can be bounced with TTABE
• 3 Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna - Makes sense into midrange, grinds good

Sideboard

• Ghost Vacuum - Necessary vs Oculus, fringe reanimation decks. Not worth bringing in for Mosswood Dreadknight / Enduring creatures
  
• Screaming Nemesis - Great threat vs midrange that taxes their catch-all removal
• Lithomantic Barrage - UB and UW are metagame threats enough said
  
• Aegis Turtle - Interesting anti-aggro tech idea
• Floodpit Drowner - More anti-aggro tech
• Pawpatch Formation - Enchantment shenanigans. Also fine vs UW, Unholy Annex decks, RIP
• Negate - Had two, but deck doesn't love to hold up mana
• Into the Floodmaw - Efficient bounce, looking to hit fliers/tokens with this one
• Scorching Dragonfire - Really good, could go up on this card

SB plan for UB

+2 Screaming Nemesis +2 Lithomantic Barrage +1 Scorching Dragonfire
-2 Analyze the Pollen -1 Bitter Reunion -2 Thundertrap Trainer

Develop board and keep their side clear from Ninjutsu. If you lose tempo & they go +2 cards with Kaito/Curiosity you're dead. TTABE can swing tempo.

Swiss

• R1 Joey Li on UB LWW (1-0)
  G1 Enduring Curiosity draws a stupid amount of cards
  Azure Beastbinders + Mockingbird Beastbinders are annoying, but I grind through it. Opp casts a Mockingbird attempting to copy enchantment Enduring Curiosity, oops not legal. Instead gets a flying Floodcaller. Consult with judge on what happens when Mockingbird *does* copy Enduring Curiosity then dies.
  
• R2 Scott Shannon on UW Oculus WW (2-0)
  Game 1 mulls 1 landers, keeps a 5 card 1 lander and dies.
  Game 2 stuck on 3 lands, keep bouncing his Monastery Mentor and keep a tidy yard with Ghost Vacuum. Abhorrent Oculus lands a couple times but never for long.
  
• R3 Mark Patton on UB WLW (3-0)
  Iirc in this matchup I cast Song of Totentanz a couple of times for bodies and that did him in good. He sides out his Azure Beastbinders, unfamiliar with how to SB the matchup.
  Kaito was annoying, but was able to clear it at least once
  
• R4 Nemanja Karadzic on UB WW (4-0)
  Game 1 TTABE his Enduring Curiosity + my Up the Beanstalk 3x. Hilarious.
  
• R5 ID with Daniel Lee (4-0-1)
  We were the two 4-0s, with 10 3-1s. No draws, fortunately. Explain that next round will have us two, 5 4-1s, so 6 people incl. us get to ID while tables 4/5 will have to play. We will either end up 1+2 or 2+3 depending on what happens in the R6 pairdown, but double ID is a lock.
  
• R6 ID with Paul Jansen (4-0-2)
  Pair down at table 4 wins, tiebreakers shift and I drop to 3rd.
  Friend Jerry (of UW Jerrys) wins at table 5 and lucks into T8 since all higher 4-1s lose.
  

Quarterfinals

Match up vs Phill Hurst in 6th. Met him previously at Mecha, had a bit of miscommunication regarding prize splits but I got a sweet F2F Goblin Guide playmat from the time. He qualified for the Aetherdrift PT at RC DC, so no slouch.

Game 1 I drop a ton of enchantments and lands. Get to turn 7 or so, realize I'm at 9 life from painlands vs 20 but I've developed the board so hard all that's left to do is win.

Misplayed game 2, but didn't matter. My GY had been cleaned, and he had a Tear Asunder when I ticked Talent to level 3.

Game 3 he mulls to 5 and I have a solid hand. Fin.

Negotiate top 4 split. 700 CAD + playmat in pool, redistribute 200 to 2-4, 1st gets mat + 100.

Conclusions

• I suspect Otters is underrepresented in paper. People don't want to learn the deck, Arena handles triggers for you, and the complexity is intimidating to many who would rather slog it out with a simpler aggro/midrange deck.
• Most of my opponents were unfamiliar with the deck, removal prioritization, and sideboarding. That's a strong advantage in an open field. Especially some of the rules ins and outters that came up.
  
• Tips for people playing vs Otters. Cheap removal on Otter tokens and Thundertrap Trainer keeps me off mana later. Exile the Enduring Vitality. Exile TTABE from the yard. Exile enchantment removal is killer.
• Slow-rolling Enduring Vitality is good when your opponents hold up 2 mana forever
  
• Tarnation Vista, I think default color is red since you can often filter it for UG. Drew it more than usual, used it to filter & sneakily keep up some extra colored mana. iirc I had something like Island, Forest, Mountain, Vista on green with UG permanents that allowed me to hold up double U or something
  
• Generally made good decisions with T1 Lay of the Land choices, keeping myself open. Mountain gets more priority with 2 Questing Druids Seek the Beasts in the deck. Also with increased Torch + Roaring Furnace + needing to keep boards clear. Obviously GG on T3+ is important as is having multiple U later on
• Lot of gas hands today. Keep 1 land + Lay of the Land effects, tutor a land and draw fast land ggez. Several T1 Stormchaser's into T2 TTABE is huge tempo.
• Talent and TTABE are the biggest cards in the deck. Judged at Columbus a couple weeks ago doing deck checks. Lead had some concerns about an Otters deck with potentially marked cards, one of which was Up the Beanstalk. Explain to lead that Beanstalk is extremely mid in the deck, whereas marked copies of Talent & TTABE would be massive problems.

 

2024-10-05 SCGCON DC JUDGING

Introduction

This is my first post on the blog about judging, so it's going to be a lengthy one. If you're not super into discussion of rules, policy, or my unrestrained navel-gazing feel free to scroll down to the Takeaways section.

Judging in General

There's a whole philosophy to judging. But at its core it's about providing a positive gaming experience to everyone involved.

There's a bunch of aspects that are all important, but if I had to organize judging in a sort of hierarchy of needs:

• (top level) Hiccups are handled, numerous events going on concurrently, well-organized with clear hierarchy and escalation paths -- big tournaments/convention tier.
  
• Errors are handled, cheaters are caught, competitive integrity is maintained.
• People have fun.
• The rules are being followed.
• (bottom level) An event happens at all.

Now, all of these are important. You can't achieve the higher levels without the foundations.

My History with Judging

I got into judging MTG around 2018, certifying as an L1 and part-timing a large local FNM (~40). Since then I've been on-and-off through moves, the pandemic, different judge organizing bodies, returning to solo judge the large local FNM for a year, etc. It's funny when other judges say I'm really good for an L1 - I've played hundreds of Magic events including dozens of RCQs, some GP level events, and judged several thousand event-people by this point. But without a requirement for stores to staff RCQ judges, I've yet to make the move for L2.

Saturday Assignment: Pioneer Regional Championship Floor Judge

Took quite a few calls. Got all the card rulings correct, took a few error calls that I could have done better with. I awarded several warnings when they were appropriate, but not always using the textbook reason which I could do better with.

Sunday Assignment: Modern 5k Deck Checks

Doing deck checks, I found that my player experience was not unique - many players are also playing mismatched playsets of cards. 2 foil, 2 non-foil, in different arts. Presumably this is due to difficulties in sourcing 4 matching non-foil copies, or they prefer the heterogeneity.

Did have to award a game loss due to a mismatch of basic land count. It was 2/2 basic Swamp/Island vs a listed 3/1 split. Why it had occurred: player was using the desaturated Double Feature lands which are not obviously colored to the land type. Would not recommend.

Calls

• Cards involved: Elesh Norn Mother of Machines, Overlord of the Hauntwoods
• Situation: Player controlled ENMoM, resolved OotH ETB to make one Everywhere token. They should have created two with two triggers.
• Ruling: This is not a missed trigger, since the player demonstrated awareness of the trigger. However, they did not handle the replacement effect correctly which should have created a trigger. Game Rule Violation (GRV) to the player, Failure to Maintain Game State to opponent (FtMGS).

2024-09-07 D&A RCQ (4-1, 1-0) + 2024-09-08 Mana Bar RCQ (3-1-1, 1-0)

Introduction

I was jamming Nadu for a while. Did well with it at GenCon but played relatively loose locally. Probably should have been mulliganing for more nut draws than keeping lands & spells.

After the ban (deserved) I opted to pivot to Ring control, an archetype I have some familiarity with. Phlage recoups life and is a VERY quick win condition. It might not be the absolute best archetype, but it can tussle with just about everything.

Quick thoughts on August 26 B&R:

• Modern: good riddance to Nadu. Deck was kind of neat, but had numerous issues - insane card advantage engine, punished interaction, non-deterministic kill, complexity of kill, enormous feelsbad to topdeck, etc.
  The Grief ban was a quite admittance that they should have banned Grief last December. Whether Fury should come back ... idk, RWx energy decks might vanish overnight?
  TOR will probably be banned next year, I think Up the Beanstalk could return, personally.
• Pioneer: top two decks got killed. They should have banned them earlier. 2023 B&R timing was nonsense - last B&R they said they didn't want to touch Pioneer in the middle of RCQ season, then they smacked Nadu down in the middle of modern RCQ season.
• Legacy: UB Scam-Reanimator was clearly a problem as witnessed at the GenCon SLS. Grief was generally too pushed for constructed play in retrospect.
  

Decklist

• Core is the energy removal suite: Galvanic Discharge, Wrath of the Skies, Tune the Narrative
  
• Counterspell suite: Counterspell, Spell Snare, Stern Scolding, Force of Negation
  
• Supporting cast: Prismatic Ending, Teferi Time Raveler, The One Ring, Lorien Revealed, Supreme Verdict
  
• Creatures: 3x Phlage core, Subtlety, Snapcaster Mage
• There's a few flex slots but honestly I think the list is quite tight. The deck is playing insanely high quality removal and there's not enough room to play pet cards like Fact or Fiction much as I would like to.
• Land base: fetches, surveil lands, shock lands, one Xander's Lounge for Prismatic Ending on 4 & the SB Surgicals, *two* utility lands and two Mystic Gates.
  
• Sequencing of lands: I think UR is the priority and consider the deck to be a UR deck splashing WW spells.
• I started sideboarding Surgical Extractions again during my Nadu phase - it could basically solo the game vs Jeskai on Phlage.
• Four Obsidian Charmaws: this deck has to be the beatdown vs Tron & nonsense mana decks, and Charmaw fits the bill to a tee.
   

Saturday Swiss

• R1 Kam Wood on Domain Zoo WW (1-0)
  I have to play around Stubborn Denial, and Leyline-Draco is annoying for my targeted removal. Wrath of the Skies for 4 or 6 can be big game here, as well as Teferi.
  
• R2 Thomas Brisbane on U Affinity WW (2-0)
  Blast from the past. I played against Tom almost a decade ago at my college shop.
  
• R3 Austin Belter on Crabvine LL (2-1)
  Lost to him taking mulligans to 5. Recursion > Removal
• R4 Justin Moses on RW Energy WW (3-1)
  He's pretty fresh to the deck. Major thing was sequencing removal vs Ajani to avoid flipping.
• R5 Michael Nusinov on B Zombie Combo WW (4-1)
  Breakers were weird, it was possible I could have scooped him into top 4 but I didn't trust it. Game 2 he had 3 Spymaster's Vault as his first three land drops which made it straightforward.
  

Saturday Playoff

• Second seed going in
  
• SF vs Tom Brisbane (3) on U affinity LWW
  G1 I draw pretty cold for like 6 turns and Kappa Cannoneer kills me. Game 3 also quite close.
• F concession from Austin Belter
  

Sunday Swiss

• R1 Jerry Gao on UB Murkfrog WLW (1-0)
• R2 Johnathan Garman on 4C Omnath WW (2-0)
  Grindy games but I know his archetype better than he does (borrowing it, first time)
  I just can't let continuous value spells stick.
• R3 Matt Gausebeck on R Storm WLD (2-0-1)
  G1 an impulse spell hits bot his Wishes. I stabilize at 10, and then a counter war into Grapeshot puts me to 2 but I kill him with a Subtlety.
  G2 die to Wish Empty the Warrens
  G3 I think I have him to rights, but still need several turns to kill. G1 was a slog.
  Idk if I could have forced G1 to be faster without insisting upon managing my opponents' storm count & mana for him.
• R4 Leland Bliss on Gx Eldrazi LL (2-1-1)
  Sol lands are good, G2 was maybe winnable if I fetched a third red source to cast more Obsidian Charmaw.
• R5 Matt McComb on UB Murkfrog WW (3-1-1)
  G1 he mulligans to 5 but I think we both miss a ton of land drops? Key to this matchup is not letting Frog stick.
  

Sunday Playoff

• In at 4th seed.
• SF vs Leland Bliss on Gx Eldrazi WW
  Both games he keeps pretty slow hands, very Sol-light. Early turns I remove Utopia Sprawl and also Wrath of the Skies for 0 a Malevolent Rumble spawn token, which are correct plays. G2 I make an oopsie, going turn 2 Damping Sphere into a turn 3 hasted Obsidian Charmaw off Arena of Glory. Realize mistake ~5 turn cycles later, call judge. Opponent got quite unlucky this game, drawing ~1 land in ~7 extra draws from TOR.
• F concession from Matt Gausebeck aka ScoopPhase

Conclusions

• Happy with deck choice. I think I could tune a little more. Drop a Surgical for something else, maybe play around with flex slots (Snapcaster Mage, Subtlety, Supreme Verdict) but these choices are decent enough for local meta.
  
• Gameplay: I could/should pressure opponents to play faster, very unhappy with the unintentional draw. But this is also a format issue with Nadu & Ruby Storm in general - you shouldn't just scoop to non-deterministic combo decks if they aren't presenting a kill. So they might go through the motions for a ten, fifteen, twenty minute turn and then pass turn.
• Matchups: I think the format is relatively weak to graveyard shenanigans right now. White decks can't run Rest in Peace because of their own Phlages, Endurance & Force of Vigor are MIA with no good green decks, Leyline of the Void is so ehhh since you still need to execute your gameplan.
• Card power: the format keeps powering up. It's harder and harder for cards to compete, even the staples of just last year. I don't know how sustainable it is. Yes there is a variety of strategies. Yes, your fringe archetype can compete if you jam Modern Horizons cards and/or TOR. But sometimes you just die to an unloseable turn 2 Psychic Frog or get bodied by 4 bodies on turn 2. The sheer number of cards in hand is often the deciding factor of games.
  

2024-08-04 GenCon Championships MH3x6 (3-3)

GenCon Tournament Reports

• August 1 BLB Sealed RCQ/GenQ
  
• August 2 Modern for Original Art
• August 3 Legacy Secret Lair Showdown Qualifiers
• August 4 MH3 Sealed GenCon Championship

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/122457 

Introduction

I didn't set out to play four different formats across four days, but it started to work out that way and I leaned in by registering for Legacy on Saturday.

Modern Horizons 3 is a pretty high power format. Every card has a few things going on, fitting across archetypes or just being a decent card on its own. There are a few standouts. Writhing Chrysalis is insane at common, since it doesn't require additional pieces to make it insane.

I would describe MH3 as a synergy format - you are trying to put pieces together that become more than the sum of their parts.

Pool

Built BW splashing G. Lots of fixing, possibly should have been going W main then splashing BGU for the four or so U rares. Breathe Your Last underperformed, I forgot that Hydra is XGG to bestow, and Wing It was only so-so.

Deck did have low-key aristocrat synergy across Ophiomancer, Marionette Apprentice, Warren Soultrader, Nadier's Nightblade (not in the initial build) but not a lot of consistency or other support components (ex. Eviscerator's Insight).

Rounds

• R1 Gabriel Roberts UG WLW (1-0)
  
• R2 Richard Richey UBW LWL (1-1)
  
• R3 Justin Stigger RG WW (2-1)
  
• R4 Austin Graham RGU LL (2-2)
  
• R5 Jack Komer 4C no U LWW (3-2)
  
• R5 Ian Starkenbaun RUG splashing B for Toxic Deluge LWL (3-3)
  

Not much to say about matches. Sometimes I had aggro starts, sometimes I had to play more midrangey. Eldrazi matchups felt unwinnable once they started casting 5+ drops.

Overall GenCon thoughts

Did well a couple of days, picked up some wins on every day in each different format. Picked up a bunch of promos from entry, won several boxes, had fun playing (competitive) Magic. Good chats with opponents and judges. Look forward to attending GenCon again.

2024-08-03 GenCon Legacy Secret Lair Showdown Qualifiers (1-1, 0-1)

GenCon Tournament Reports

• August 1 BLB Sealed RCQ/GenQ
  
• August 2 Modern for Original Art
• August 3 Legacy Secret Lair Showdown Qualifiers
• August 4 MH3 Sealed GenCon Championship

Introduction

I've played Legacy a total of once, but I've watched streamers and am familiar with the specific cards. The Secret Lair Showdown being hosted at GenCon was just too good EV to pass up, especially when it looked like < 32 players were registered.

Entry fee was $124, with the minimum payout for top 64 including

• GenCon Lightning Bolt ($40ish)
• Secret Lair Promo Spell Pierce ($55)
• 15 BLB Play Boosters ($45-60)

Going in, it was known that UB Scam/Reanimator was the top dog in the format. Our group managed to assemble 3 Scam decks across about 7 different people (thanks everyone!) but we were not tuned for the excessive archetype presence - 50-70%. You still ran into other stuff, but when over half the field is on Scam you should be playing more Faerie Macabres and Dark Betrayals.

Anyway, here's what I played: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/oGjjScCSl0-fDkfKr8lzCA

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/122443

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/122444

12 PM

R1 (Ro128) bye (1-0)

R2 (Ro64) Daniel Miguin on Lands LWW (2-0)

Tabernacle playmat, game 1 I fumble Wasteland on Stage instead of cutting him off G on Yavimaya but was probably losing that game anyways - Exploration, Mox Diamond, Wasteland, DD + Stage, Yavimaya, Life from the Loam etc.

Game 2 I lead a Dauthi Voidwalker and deploy a Harbinger of the Seas after it gets plowed (swordsed?)

Game 3 he knows what's up. We exchange some resources, I Wasteland a Stage oops it's now a Swamp whatever
I play out a Harbinger, he drops Drop of Honey off basic Forest. I Petty Theft it three times, digging and digging, the third one comes off the back of an Entomb-Animate Dead Atraxa.
Afterwards he makes the point that he thought bouncing Drop was a bad play at first but then I kept doing it. I agreed.

Paradigm shifts - Ponder, Brainstorm, fetching, resources

R3 Sam Black repaired into Caleb Durward (WLL)

He's on some deep tech. Fatal Push main, Coffin Purge and Faerie Macabre in the side. He also keeps 2 Entomb + 1 Archon of Cruelty in in the mirror.

Idk, there's not much to say. We exchanged resources, then one of us hit the other in the face a few times and the game was over. He definitely punted a few times in G1 but Caleb played way tighter in the next two.

Funny moment when he mainphased a Brazen Borrower to play around Daze. I Animated Dead his Bowmasters, shoot the Faerie. After I lose game and match, tell him that I topdecked Daze so he played big brain there.

5PM

R1 (Ro64) Jacob Gonzalez on R Painter LL (0-1)

Idk, lose die roll T1 Cauldron off Ancient Tomb, die to two Fables flipping

G2 he just kinda gets a Bridge and combo pieces out and I have nothing.

Good meta call? I had the wrong board notes, but feels like an unfavorable matchup for me.

Thoughts

Legacy is a really intense format. Ponder and Brainstorm are extremely powerful cards where sequencing them and the cards involved can change the course of the game. The interaction of these include:

• Shuffle effects (fetchlands, Ponder, Troll of Khazad-Dum, Entomb)
• Assessing if your opponent has Orcish Bowmasters
• Daze check
• Holding a blue card for FoW
• Hiding cards from Grief
  

Cantrips are more valuable the longer you can hold them since they allow you to sculpt your hand so powerfully.

Legacy also requires some paradigm shifts esp. compared to modern -- adjusting habits for the different interaction. In Modern, fetching EoT is almost always the play but in Legacy you have to worry about Stifle, Daze, Wasteland, and holding a shuffle is powerful with Brainstorm. Some things that I would advise a Modern player trying out a blue deck in Legacy to keep in mind:

• Fetching EoT is not high value. Only real reason is for a surveil land.You can fetch painlessly on main phase no problem.
• Leading with lands to play around Daze.
• I guess the next level is not leading with lands to get a Daze because maybe you win the game if they don't develop mana.
• Keeping one lander cantrip hands can be real.
• Basics are good because Wasteland format.
  

2024-08-02 GenCon Modern Win A Art (3-0-1, 2-1)

GenCon Tournament Reports

• August 1 BLB Sealed RCQ/GenQ
  
• August 2 Modern for Original Art
• August 3 Legacy Secret Lair Showdown Qualifiers
• August 4 MH3 Sealed GenCon Championship

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/122467 

Introduction

Going in, I've played Nadu a total of three times locally - one FNM, two Monday Moderns. At first I tried a Malevolent Rumble build but having the utility of playing Shifting Woodland wasn't worth playing a non-modern-power-level card. Looking at some other lists, I decided that maximizing mana dorks (Delighted Halfling, Wall of Roots) was cleaner, easier to play, and probably just better overall without relying on a delirium sidequest.

Decklist (Moxfield)

I like this. The Hallowed Fountain is a little weird since it doesn't tap G, and there are a few slots to play with - second Endurance, Volatile Stormdrake, Teferi Time Ravelers. Haywire Mite and Suncleanser are silver bullety, but worth including for general value.

A cool Twitter guy posted a guide which gave me a baseline for working off the build, esp. explaining the SB Urza's Saga.

Various thoughts

• Keep mana acceleration + Shuko access. There are 10 "Nadus" in the deck across Nadu, Chord, and Pact. There are only 6 Shukos, with 2 Urza's Saga.
• 4 Chords adds Outrider en-Kor but that is mana-intensive, while playing Shuko + Nadu on turn 3/4 is very possible
• Springheart Nantuko hands are great. Either they eat removal or you start churning out convoke fuel that turn into Nadu fuel.
• I started bestowing turn 2 Springheart Nantuko a lot. For one, off a dork it's guaranteed triggers. Two, it forces opponents to use two removal spells if they have it but they're scared of the eventual Nadu.
• As an opponent, you can never just tap out. I might slow-roll if counterspells or Galvanic Discharge for 4 are being represented. But tapping out? omae wa mou shindeiru
• Fetching for Dryad Arbor to convoke is real
• Chording for new Nadu is filthy

Swiss rounds

• R1 Dustin Ochoa Nadu mirror WLW (1-0)
  Some dust-ups in G2. While making an insect token, I found a Dryad Arbor in my token stack and immediately called the judge. Picked up a warning, opponent got a pick a card out of my SB and shuffled it in - Burrenton Forge-Tender.
  He assembled the combo before me in G2, but I wasn't willing to concede on the turn since he found Thassa's Oracle no double U source. I ended up explaining to him how to use Sylvan Safekeeper, Endurance to create a second U source for time reasons and play game 3.
  I won game 3.
  
• R2 Nicole Tipple Nadu mirror WW (2-0)
  Like my previous opponent they were on Springleaf Drum as well as SB Swan Song. I don't like Drum - just play more real dorks. Swan Song feels cute, but too niche for where I want to be.
  SB game Slow roll, hold up Boseiju and Dismember. I bestow a Nantuko a little early, when I could have waited a couple turns to start trying to copy Endurance but not huge since I'm stuck on 4/5 lands. Dismember an Endurance with bestow target, Boseiju Shuko in response to Nadu. Almost die to bugs but hit Pact & combo the turn before I die.
  
• R3 Alex Meyer Mardu WW (3-0)
  In a 16 player event, I have the ability to double draw but decide to play for top 8 seeding.
  He applies some pressure but is operating at sorcery speed. Iirc G1 he taps out for Fable and dies, G2 it was Chthonian Nightmare or something into dies.
  It was during this game, I think I shuffled a hand Boseiju in while resolving a Chord for Nadu (3). I tell my opponent it was a Boseiju, mention it's probably one of the worst cards to have in hand. He gets to give me a card from my deck, selects a Nadu. I say nothing then, ask judge to award me a warning since he didn't mention one.
  As I'm going off, I find third Nadu and Chord for final Nadu even with ~9 Nadu triggers on board, since I don't think I have the ability to cast it or if I do it'll be most of my life total gone.
  After new Nadu, opponent realizes how dangerous it was to give me the Nadu.
  
• R4 ID
  

Quarterfinals

Will Weber on Naya Landfall WLW*

So he's playing some sort of landfall deck. I figure it involves Reckless Pyrosurfer since I encountered the card in MH3 and that's probably the main reason to play landfall in 2024. Besides that card, it could be a Kaheera companion deck I believe.

Game 1 he's stuck on 2 lands, combo him out while I'm at a healthy 13.

Game 2 he applies pressure and has a Harsh Mentor. Fair enough. Play out a combo more turns, I think I have a bestowed Wall of Roots, but second Harsh Mentor pre-tty dead.

Game 3 we play out to turn 3 and get into a combat situation involving Outrider en-Kor. It's a lot of permanents for a turn 3, so I've reassembled the board state.

 

My goal is trade off as many creatures as possible, specifically the red creatures so that Ajani can't start going off. I'm playing for a topdeck Nadu since my Outrider will survive. We call a judge to confirm how Outrider works, then because of the wording and a partially recited Gatherer ruling talk ourselves into believing that Outrider en-Kor can spread 1 damage across creatures but only 1 max per creature. This is incorrect. Outrider en-Kor is effectively immortal in combat, if it has a fall guy. All the (first strike) combat damage happens simultaneously, and the replacement effect redirects as much of it as Outrider has been activated.

We played out this game from the ruling. Outrider and all insect tokens die, Ajani flips, Ajani blasts my Halfling this turn and the Nantuko next turn. I draw Teferi into Nadu - remembered very clearly because opponent tries to cast Atarka's in combat and is unable to do so. I die.

Friend comes over. We discuss. We realize the ruling was probably incorrect. With hindsight, if Outrider had played out correctly I probably would have won the game two turns later after drawing and casting Nadu. Instead I got mega-boardwiped and died to cats.

As we clean up, the judges come over. They ask us to re-explain the situation, we re-construct the attacker/blocker state. Some discussion. They bring in a higher judge. We rebuild more of the game state - non-blockers, lands, graveyard. I describe how & why I blocked. The judges confer. We rebuild hand states since we saw what each other played in the following turns. My hand is not good.

It is determined that the incorrect ruling determined the outcome of the game & match. We are offered a choice of continuing from the rebuilt board state or restart from a brand new game. I am playing for a topdeck Nadu, since my hand is entirely air. My opponent has acknowledged the situation, which is ugly. I trust him, and we've been talking through this board state for about twenty minutes at this point.

Please note. This is a deviation from policy, and this kind of back-up is a crazy situation to find ourselves in. No matters what happens, there will be a sour taste in someone's mouth. The hope is that the eventual outcome will be considered the most fair resolution of what occurred.

We shuffle up. He puts his Atarka's Command on top. I make sure to present and he cuts. We resolve combat. First strike, damage goes to the uninvolved insect. Damage. Many creatures die. Ajani flips. He makes a token. Pass the turn. Draw. It's a Nadu.

Semifinals

Friend scoops to me

Finals

Bridger Hahn Jeskai control WLL

Guy plays well, eventually destroys me with momentum of One Ring draws and Phlage.

I board incorrectly. In game 3 I had a Scheming Fence on his The One Ring, have Chord available for 1 but I didn't bring in Burrenton Forge-Tender. I was also aiming to be cute and steal Phlage with Volatile Stormdrake at some point. The tricky part is that it's half an energy deck and half a control deck, Suncleanser isn't a killer but it's still good. Game 1 I get him with a Chord-Suncleanser in response to Wrath of the Skies.

How I think I should have boarded

+2 The One Ring
+2 Veil of Summer
+1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+1 Scheming Fence

-1 Volatile Stormdrake
-1 Haywire Mite
-1 Noble Hierarch
-1 Boseiju
-1 Otawara
-1 idk

Afterthoughts

The prize pool for this event was juiced, only sixteen players but the field was stacked.

The quarterfinals situation was insane. My opponent was a good sport, we couldn't have rebuilt the board without him and he's also playing against Nadu. Judges helped us through it, props to them (you know who you are). Biggest complaint? Wizards of the Coast for printing a card that is so obscene in the format, probably templated wrong and went unnoticed like Skullclamp in Mirrodin, and then they refused to ban Nadu at the appropriate junctures thereby subjecting us to this game action hellscape. I will be glad to see the bird gone.

2024-08-01 BLBx6 RCQ/GenQ (5-1, 0-1)

GenCon Tournament Reports

• August 1 BLB Sealed RCQ/GenQ
  
• August 2 Modern for Original Art
• August 3 Legacy Secret Lair Showdown Qualifiers
• August 4 MH3 Sealed GenCon Championship

https://melee.gg/Tournament/View/122449 

Introduction

First time going to GenCon. I initially signed up for three BLB sealed events, but the later ones started much later in the day (and also I qualified for the Sunday championship via the first).

I played one Friday prerelease, two MTGA sealed pools, and did a few rounds of Draftsim. See also: Las Vegas prep. Glanced at 17Lands data, which is still early, just for the color winrates.

Bloomburrow sealed feels like you usually won't have a high synergy deck, but all the creature statlines are pushed so the format leans towards playing to the board heavily. Tricks are decent but not as insane or efficient as OTJ or ONE.

Sealed pool and deck

Playing 5 rares. Lifecreed Duo should have been cut for Whiskerquill Scribe, Mabel (Cragflame) is insane, blue splash was free af, Hearthborn Battler was an underperformer. Green was very shallow while black had a crazy amount of removal and no creatures.

Swiss rounds

• R1 Andrew Zinny GW WW (1-0)
• R2 Braden Yates RW WLW (2-0)
• R3 Justin Warden WB LWL (2-1)
• R4 Spencer Nelson GBx 4C ?? WW (3-1)
• R5 Jon Boyd RBu for Wick WW (4-1)
• R6 Nick Schreider GB WW (5-1)

Not a lot to say. Splash was great. Fliers were great, Cragflame was insane, Fountainport Bell feels great.

Draft deck

Passed a Vren P1P1 trying to signal my neighbor into UB, then waffled between RW and GW for basically the whole draft. Based on 17Lands IWD that's a total punt, but alas. I also went heavy on rabbits despite RW being mice, so my left neighbor ended up being in RW and I had low synergy.

• QF Phillip Li UW Skies LL
  Flooded out quite hard. Saw about 12 lands in G1, 10 lands in G2
  

Player Behavior & Healthy Habits

During one of my rounds, I had an opponent who was mm, aggressively unfriendly. Won't go into details, so instead I'll talk about something more positive.

When I play a match of Magic, there are many rituals and routines that I do to ensure clean and clear gameplay. By building these habits, I aim to cultivate a competitive but friendly match of Magic:

• Greet opponent by their name when we sit down. Record name in notebook.
  Ensures that I have the correct opponent, establishes baseline communications, good for my recordkeeping.
• Don't take out my deck until I have my opponent.
  Avoids possibility of someone sneaking a peek at my deck if I sit down first.
  
• Shuffle after we're both seated. Present deck, offer even/odd 2d6 roll.
  Even/odd requires rolling once, while high roll requires minimum of 2 rolls and the possibility of more. Refusing even/odd can suggest a fundamental weakness in statistics.
  Verbally confirm their choice, as well as the roll result.
  Verbally confirm the winner's choice of play/draw, write down in notebook as OTP (On The Play) or OTD (On the Draw).
  
• During mulligans, track mulligans as soon as they happen.
  Possibly make a note for self ex. 0L or 1L. If no mulligans were taken, fill this in as 7 vs 7 later.
  
• Track life totals on pen & paper as opposed to dice.
  Additionally track other public information ex. floating mana, poison counters, energy counters, etc. on paper as is proper practice at competitive REL.
• Note revealed cards, combat tricks in limited, SB cards, etc.
• Make conversation while I have no cards in hand, no available mana, etc.
  Reduces mental load, builds rapport, makes small human connections in this great big world.
  
• Announce untap upkeep draw (then do sagas)
  
• Announce triggered abilities. If my opponent misses a trigger, I usually choose not to point it out explicitly, but rather ask them to repeat their next announced action several times, sometimes quite pointedly.
• Double-check turn step changes and zone changes esp. in complex board states
  ex. beginning of combat triggers in limited, Dauthi Voidwalker in constructed.
• In Modern and other fetchland formats, shortcut fetch targets by announcing what I intend to grab and revealing what I intend to cast.
  This is a habit built to avoid going to time as Omnath.
  
• When the game ends, mark a W in the column of the triumphant player.
• While presenting decks for sideboarded games, verbally confirm that the [losing] player will be taking the play.
  
• Bring requisite tokens for limited where possible, dice for Wall of Roots, etc.
  
• Build the gut-instinct-action of calling for a judge immediately when realizing something is amiss
  See: Friday
  
• Pioneer Amalia: ability tokens to create stack clarity when they occur and explain the combo to Pioneer newbies
  Example scenario it's design for: I resolved Collected Company vs UR Phoenix who may be holding Spell Pierce, bounce removal, or damage removal for the right moment.
  
• Modern Nadu: green sleeves for insect tokens.
  The deck uses a couple other tokens, but insects are 95% of the tokens seen, so identifying them at a glance is helpful.
  

2024-02-23 MC Chicago 75k Standard Open with WU Jerrys (9-5, 32nd)

Introduction

Standard RCQ season has been going for a while, plus Wizards revived Standard Showdown events. Then since I didn't pre-register for the big ticket limited events at MC Chicago, I had to fall back on the Standard Open.

Previous to this, I was playing Domain in local Standard events. The archetype was fine previously, but I think Domain has fallen behind the curve at this point in the rotation timeline. While other decks are abusing Novice Inspector, Domain has plateaued its card choices, trying to do the same thing as a year ago.
The only real variations are in the sweeper suite - Temporary Lockdown main, or trying out No Witnesses from MKM, and various SB choices. Additionally, it doesn't really do anything through turn 3 at which point Boros Convoke has probably killed you.

Two weeks ago I attended RC Denver and a friend (Jerry) went 5-2 in the Sunday 5k with this list. His performance was more robust than that of our other mates (3-3, 2-3), both solid players who are already qualified for RC Dallas in Standard this season.
The deck plays powerful cards & synergies, and comes in at just enough of a meta angle to catch people off guard. As of today, the "Azorius tokens" archetypes is the sixth most popular Azorius archetype in the format, behind Control, Tempo, Midrange, Soldiers, Artifact Aggro, Aggro.

Benefits of playing an off-meta deck: everyone in the event has a plan vs Esper Midrange, but they'll have to expend a moderate amount of mental energy to adjust to this deck, not knowing the exact card choices of the archetype unless they have also studied Jerry's exact decklist.
So in honor of Jerry lending me the deck, I rechristened the deck "WU Jerrys", since it produces so many tokens that I just call them Jerrys.

Decklist

• I think modern deckbuilding utilizes three core tenets: play good cards, build synergies (plural), and have an X-factor that can run over the game.
  
• Play good cards: all of these cards are tried-and-tested staples of UWx strategies in Standard. No More Lies, Wedding Announcement, Virtue of Loyalty, Wandering Emperor - these cards are a pretty high floor of power level.
• Build synergies: The one-drop suite of Spyglass Siren, Novice Inspector, and Warden of the Inner Sky establishes the board and smoothly transitions into the midgame. Not only do they enable Warden, but they can crew Subterranean Schooner which does a decent Smuggler's Copter impression, then grow via Virtue of Loyalty and Wedding Announcement.
• X-factor: The Christmas-land scenarios where a deck does something that's basically unbeatable. In other decks, this could be a turn 2/3 Amulet Titan kill, turn 1 Grief-scam, Pioneer Rakdos Vampires cheating a big vampire in on T3 at the PT, Esper Midrange's sequence of Deep-Cavern Bats into Raffine.
  For this deck, it's Invasion of Segovia + Virtue of Loyalty. The absolute nuts would be 1 drop into Schooner on 2 into flipping Invasion on 3, but realistically that's more of a T4+ play. But getting it off makes the board virtually unbeatable, and can hold up Wandering Emperor, countermagic, or Destroy Evil/Elspeth's Smite.
  
• I think the deck is generally favored vs Esper, which plays a lot of 1-for-1 removal which are inherently bad vs cards that make 2+ permanents.
• While drafting my sideboard guide, I noticed I was cutting Regal Bunnicorn and bringing Destroy Evil in virtually every matchup. So I made those changes to the base deck.
  Trimmed a Schooner and Spyglass Siren to incorporate 2 Novice Inspectors.
  Added a Cryptic Coat for power reasons replacing the second Bunnicorn.
• Speaking of which, Destroy Evil is kind of insane these days, to the point where 3 toughness instead of 4 is often an upside.
  
• SB: Elspeth's Smite is anti-aggro, including Glissa Sunslayer which is unbeatable in combat.
• SB: Disdainful Stroke is anti-domain & control. Should switch to a mix of Stroke/Negate
• SB: Doorkeeper Thrull comes in vs Boros Convoke which I encountered a fair bit in Arena Bo3 testing, as well as Domain and potentially Bx decks that lean heavily on ETBs besides the Deep-Cavern Bat.
• SB: Tocasia's Welcome is for every UBx matchup (Esper and UB).
• SB: Sunfall is for UBx, Convoke, GB, and any other flavor of midrange that tries to play 3+ creatures.

 SB guide picture

Rounds

• R1 Francisco Gonzalez Iturriga on UB Midrange LWW (1-0)
  
• R2 Chris Castro-Rappl on UB Midrange WW (2-0)
  
• R3 Brendan Brown on Slogurk Legends WLW (3-0)
  In SB game, opponent attacked with a Slogurk and attempted to Takenuma for extra damage. Got them with my one sideboarded Elspeth's Smite, sorry opponent thanks for being cool about it.
  
• R4 Ben Holt on Boros Convoke WLL (3-1)
  
• R5 Andrew Elenbogen on Esper Mid LWW (4-1)
  
• R6 Matthew Holderness on Boros Convoke LWW (5-1)
  Doorkeeper Thrull was huge. Held a Sunfall in hand SB game, observed that opponent was representing Resolute Reinforcements, then cast Sunfall off-curve on turn 6 making it irrecoverable for him.
  
• R7 Matt Sikkink Johnson on Esper Midrange WLL (5-2)
  Game win was from tardiness, then I got smoked. His list was running Temporary Lockdowns
  
• R8 Michael Martin on RB Midrange WW (6-2)
  Made it to day 2. R4 and R7 losses mean that my breakers put me in the upper crust of 6-2s making it to day 2 (23rd of 68).
• R9 John Aki on Esper Midrange WLW (7-2)
• R10 Brian Zeng on Sultai Squirming Emergence LWL (7-3)
  Lose game 3 on a mulligan decision. Mulled to 6 with hand shown.
  Didn't have a white source so I bottomed Destroy Evil instead of Invasion of Segovia. Topdecked Seachrome Coast, then got wrecked by an unanswered Founding of the Third Path that filled up their graveyard and rebought a Duress.
  
• R11 Michelle Y on Mono R WLW (8-3)
  Some concerns about slow play. G3 countered first Urabrask's Forge, then pressured & survived the second. Perhaps shouldn't have blocked tokens early, but was trying to bait out spells.
  
• R12 Federico Giardini on Esper Mid LWL (8-4)
  G3 he plays Lord Skitter on 3. I make a Knight token. T4 he plays Raffine, attacks with rat token + Lord Skitter. I didn't expect the double attack. Should have made a second Knight token and double blocked, instead auto-pilot blocked the token, then Raffine got to connive a bajillion times from the rat tokens.
• R13 Daniel Garcia Ross on BG LWW (9-4)
  Doorkeeper Thrull and Sunfall huge. Also playing around Tranquill Frillback, which can answer multiple of my powerful enchantments for relatively low cost.
  
• R14 Aaron Miotke on Domain LWL (9-5)
  Maindeck Temporary Lockdown, then beaten by uncountered Herd Migrations in G1/3.
  G3 kept a medium hand with no countermagic, possibly wrong in the matchup but I didn't run into any Domain during testing so unsure.
  Opponent made top 16 on breakers, while I cashed out at 32nd for $500.
  

Thoughts

• Deck was solid. Needed to tighten play up on day 2 - avoid auto-piloting priority passes and combat passes. Take a second to review board states and new information. Also applies for drawing cards & spellcasts.
  
• Barely missed a few EoT triggers, similarly need to not miss those.
  
• Ought to play more competitive online Magic. Standard Showdowns and RCQs aren't building good habits, and most local players aren't on meta decks.
• Thoughts on Standard - there's a lot of play for strategic decision-making as well as space for brewing (Sultai Emergence, whatever cftsoc is playing this week, etc.)
• If you're trying to spike an RCQ, picking up Esper, UB, Mono R, really any of the top 10 meta decks is fine.
• Other side of the coin: the same approach is flawed for larger events (opens, RCs).
  Suppose you play Esper/Dimir Midrange like 25% of the field. Everyone knows about Esper. Everyone has a plan for Esper. Given those factors, simply being a better player isn't going to elevate your Esper winrate to 80%.
  Exhibit B: showing up with Temur Rhinos to RC Denver.
  
• Cashed two MagicCon opens in a row. Dissatisfied with this performance, since there were a few decision points I should have clearly played better.

Chicago asides

• Deep dish is a tourist trap, but you can enjoy it as long as you treat it for what it is. Which applies to a lot of things actually. (what it is is a hefty casserole dish)
• Chicago dogs are an absolutely fascinating construct. even after all these years. It's rolled around in the garden (onions, mustard, pickle spear, sport peppers), features neon green relish, and a dash of celery salt. The cardinal sin is to ask for ketchup on your Chicago dog (there's a hot dog in there too in case you missed it).
• Italian beef sandwiches are enjoyable as well. We actually hoteled in River North, which is an upscale downtown neighborhood and not at all how The Bear depicts the area lol. What really makes an Italian beef is the Chicago-style giardiniera.
  
• Malort
  
• Chinatown and Little Vietnam on Argyle are still mandatory stops on my Chicago visits. I should try to explore some of the smaller shops/restaurants next time.

2024-02-18 Dragon Snack Games RCQ MKM Limited Win* (6-1-1)

Introduction

First time the store was running a limited RCQ. Fortunately we had several experienced players and an L5 judge on hand to keep things on track. I had played one prerelease and several Arena Bo1 drafts before this.

Morph formats are inherently mid-size, if that makes sense? Lots of cards will trade into a 2/2 with no (combat) abilities. The combat tricks are very high quality, reminding me a bit of ONE. A successful trick will almost always blow a game open, and vice versa a counterplayed trick can lose the game.

Fixing is above average in terms of quality and availability. More on that during discussion of my draft deck.

Sealed Pool

• Blue was the deepest color but low on creatures. Black had some okay individual cards but not deep enough.
• Red green and white covered all the bases: bodies, fixing, removal, tricks. Even Treacherous Terrain as a win-con since nobody else researched the MKM List cards ahead of time. Also very powerful to have your opponent on a one-turn clock that they don't know about.
• Might even have had too much fixing - Gravestone Strider played defense duty very well and I don't think I filtered with it at all in any games.
• Changes, probably cut the Absolving Lammasu for a Push // Pull. Consider adding a second Mountain for late game.
  

Sealed Rounds

• R1 Nick R on RW WW (1-0)
  
• R2 Michael N on GRu LWW (2-0)
  
• R3 Aaron M on RGW WLL (2-1)
  
• R4 James B on RWG WLW (3-1)
  
• R5 ID (3-1-1, 3rd in Swiss)
  

Draft deck

• P1P1 Vein Ripper, hadn't seen the card before but clearly S-tier bomb
• P1P2 get passed Hide in Plain Sight and another rare. Either a 3-rare pack or neighbor is setting me up in green I'll take it.
• For the rest of the draft I tried to keep myself open, picking up numerous pieces of fixing and morph disguise creatures to keep creature counter reasonable.
• White was clearly not open, and pack 3 passed an early pack with two Rubblebelt Mavericks neither of which wheeled.
• Blue was a back-up plan but very splashable.
• Because Vein Ripper was a first pick it allowed be to draft the color balance. Green was a ramp color but never had to be a primary (it wasn't open enough to be a primary color). The color-fixing between Escape Tunnel and They Went This Way (my unofficial invitational card) also doubled as deck-thinning for finding my Vein Ripper.
• I should have played Make Your Mark and a Plains over Cryptex and an Island. Cryptex would have been better if I had two-three more graveyard payoffs/enablers.
  

Draft rounds

• QF Michael N on GBr splashing Incinerator of the Guilty. Won via insane topdecks
  
• SF Aaron M on RGu. Won via mana screw
  
• F Patrick P on WB. Not terribly aggressive, but high quality removal suite. He had to boardwipe 7 creatures in G3 with Vein Ripper out, then I rebought it with Macabre Reconstruction.

* I split the finals and gave Patrick the invite.

Thoughts

• I enjoy formats with quality fixing that enables moderate amounts of nonsense.
• Cheap 1/3s and 1/4s are key to stalling out board states. Much worse if people are appropriately valuing combat tricks.
• Bo1 league draft continues to be vastly different from paper pod & Bo3. Generally I think pod draft power level is down because you're actually fighting over lanes and cards, and you have a general idea of threats you'll run into.
• Enjoyed playing against all of my opponents and battling it out (and the triumph)
• Got to do the top 2 split draft I had been thinking about. Instead of proposing a fixed split: put all prize items into a pool, then draft them with finals winner getting first pick. That said I misplayed my pick 1 because shiny treasure go ooh
  

2024-02-10 RC Denver with 4C Omnath (4-3-1)

Introduction

I qualified for the RC Denver previously with a Beanstalk Omnath list. Amulet Titan was identified as one of the top decks during winter, so I practiced with it at weeklies. But as the event approached, Rhinos was identified as the top deck and it generally held a 60% or so winrate vs Titan, so I decided that playing a deck weak to the top dog & targeted by everyone else was not the way to go.

The matchup matrices ahead of Denver weekend suggested that 4C "control" was favored into the major decks, and I figured that Teferi + Chalice + removal is a much better deck in open decklist events.

Decklist

• Nothing spicy imo.
• Test of Talents is a choice for specialized Cascade hate & applicable in other matchups. Not great especially against their plan Bs.
  

Rounds

• R1 Ethan King on "5C" (Naya) Creativity LL (0-1)
  
• R2 Logan Christiansen on Temur Rhinos WLD (0-1-1)
  Opponent lined up all their interaction perfectly in G2.
  They misplayed G3 and declined to concede vs a board state of Teferi + Elesh Norn + W6 on turn 5.
  
• R3 on WB Taxes LWL (0-2-1)
  Misplayed horrifically against Archon of Emeria. Fortunately didn't see their Leonin Arbiters.
  
• R4 Joshua Lynn on Rhinos. WW (1-2-1)
  Answered their rhinos in G1 and G2 landed a T2 Teferi.
  
• R5 Jaime Gonzalez on UR Murktide WLW (2-2-1)
  Cut Halflings in this matchup, but generally favored as long as I have fetches on turns 1-2. Especially important on the draw in SB matches. The tricky part is remembering that you can't cast a turn 2 W6 AND get a basic Plains. It just doesn't work like that.
  Also helps when your opponent mulls to 5 in two different games.
  I did Subtlety his T1 Ragavan (me OTP) in G3 with him on a mull to 5. Heads-up play from him, he bottomed it and I cast a Chalice for 1 on turn 2
  
• R6 vs no show (3-2-1)
• R7 Caleb Mears on Living End WW
• R8 Leonard Routh on Amulet Titan LWL
  G1 and G3 he kind of just had unanswered One Ring that took over the game. G1 it was a Ring into Grazer ramp into Cultivator Colossus for roughly ten lands. G3 it was double Amulet into T2 Ring. FoV on the Amulets but no Binding ... doubt that I'm supposed to FoV singleton Amulet.
  Dropped afterwards.
  

Thoughts

• Very happy with my deck choice and card selection.
• Very disappointed with my play in games 2 and 3.
• Woke up from Friday nap with a severe headache, combination dehydration and altitude adjustment. Would recommend overhydrating if traveling to the city in the clouds.
  
• Went to a fantastic steakhouse called Guard + Grace in downtown Denver on Friday night. Every course was excellent, service was fantastic even though they were clearly experiencing an super busy night. My biggest regret was not taking a seat that faced their open kitchen.
• Venue was rough. Low ceiling (20 ft) or so. Decor and amenities not really updated since the aughts. Oh, and the local city government is purchasing the property to turn into a homeless shelter "homeless navigation campus".
  
• Which I find to be crazy. Hypothetically, that convention center can bring in two thousand people per weekend which should be around a million dollars of economic spend. But it must not be that busy, or the homeless problem is so bad, that the city would rather spend 26MM (up-front) and way more in the future rather than have it as an economic driver for the area.
• Vendors lacked new & staple cards, as expected for Dreamhack RCs.
  
• More snow in Denver than Buffalo, wowee.
• Ton of sprawl, from the limited bits of the region I saw. Downtown was dense enough, but the greater metro definitely took the opportunity to spread out a bit.
• Low score, oft-tied Superbowl was intriguing.
• Superbowl ads are fascinating. Some observations:
  Huh I wonder how many locations they shot in for this
  Temu did a mobile gaming ad but for Chinese Amazon. I checked their website. The prices are all worse than Aliexpress, but UX is all about the 90% OFF SALE GET IT NOW OMGGGG!111
  American sportsball imperialism ad. You can tell it was the NFL's because it lacks the urgency of everyone else's thirty second slots.
  and then there's reverse sportsball imperialism
• Since I booked my flight for Monday @ midnight and everyone else flew out in the morning, I hung out in the lobby and basically LFGd for an airport Uber. Of my erstwhile companions, one was a limited lover who had earned a grand TWENTY Festivals in a Box off the MTG Arena event, and the other dropped out of the main to play in Legacy side events, doing fairly well in those.
• So you know how online recipes start off with enormous blobs of nonsense and only provide the recipe at the end? This is that but in reverse.
• I did a learning topic on the subject at work - the problem is that SEO and the online content business model do not incentivize providing you with good recipes. Instead SEO rewards high keyword count, high engagement duration (i.e. scrolling through the whole page), and high uniqueness (a life story followed by a distinct recipe). Also, the website doesn't directly make money from you using the recipe, so they're making money from affiliate links, ad banners, and selling your data in all likelihood.
• Getting back to the RC, after spending more words discussing ancillary subjects than the event itself. This was my most successful run yet (0-3, 2-4) and the most successful of our local contingent (0-4, 1-4, 2-4).
• Thoughts on Modern. Domain Rhinos was definitely the secret sauce for the weekend.
  Rhinos is probably the best deck by a little too much right now, since it has a two-turn clock and the best free interaction.
  Orcish Bowmasters should exit the format, and take The One Ring with it. Bowmasters oppresses X/1s and draw spells. But as long as The One Ring is out there Bowmasters is needed to keep it in check. The other problematic part is that it's too hyper-efficient. You can remove it, yes. But you're going to be trading down on tempo and/or resources every time. The counterplay is to... not play X/1s and draw spells?
• MH3 is almost guaranteed to rotate the format, as well as the Universes Beyond that will inject modern-legal cards. I hold no positive expectations for this. Who knows, maybe we'll see Gut Shot + put the top one card of your library into your hand {R/P}{1} as an answer to Bowmasters.