This week Kelly Reid jumps back in and tells us about different Jund sideboarding strategies. This is a guy who’s words I hang on, having recently made day 2 in GP DC, writes for all the top MTG blogs, has his own store, and networks with many of your favorite Pro’s.

The Benchwarmers – A Discourse on Sideboarding with Jund

Oh Jund.  What a polarizing figure in our Standard metagame.  What was once the boogeyman of the format is now just another deck, but rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated.  The archetype placed three spots in the Top 8 of Grand Prix: DC, and took me into the second day of a Grand Prix for the first time.  Needless to say, the deck is not dead.  It’s just sleeping.

The thing about Jund is that people have pre-conceived notions about what a Jund deck needs to look like.  Magic players on the whole are very guilty of this; we like to have strong opinions, and we love to be right.  Unfortunately, having an inflexible opinion usually precludes being correct.

This is clearly evidenced by the three Jund lists from the top 8; all three have different maindeck selections.  Brad Carpenter’s build uses Vengevines, Lotus Cobras and Hells Thunders in an effort to maintain tempo with other Lotus Cobra decks and hopes to assassinate Planeswalkers with its hasty threats.  His Blightning is in the sideboard.  Josh Wagener’s list plays the Blightnings main, and opts for a more traditional maindeck configuration, looking more like the Jund decks of Pre-Rise.

Finally, Owen Turtenwald’s deck chooses to run removal-heavy, anticipating correctly the Mythic-heavy metagame that was GP DC.  Clearly, there was no “right” answer, as all three decks cracked the top 8 of North America’s largest Magic tournament ever.

Since there are so many reasons and ways to modify the main deck, I want to focus on sideboarding.  I prefer to think that a good sideboard is more important than a good main deck, since a good ‘board can often turn unwinnable matches on their heads.  You’ll play more games post-board too, so your sideboard’s 15 are more important than the last 15 of your main deck!  Let’s take a look at the three  sideboards that “got there”.

Owen Turtenwald

2  Doom Blade
4  Duress
4  Goblin Ruinblaster
1  Malakir Bloodwitch
2  Prophetic Prism
2  Pyroclasm

Owen’s sideboard lacks a lot of removal since his main deck includes 14 pure removal spells.  Doom Blade is a great answer to a myriad of threats that cause Jund decks issues, and its usually an efficiency upgrade to Terminate against decks where the cards are one and the same. 

Almost any match-up that calls for more spot removal will prefer Doom Blade to Terminate; the occasional Pro-Red creature is still dead to Blade, and there have been a few times where the 1B cost saved my skin  whereas the RB cost would have sunk me.  Duress is a killer against UW control type decks and Superfriends. 

The 1x Malakir Bloodwitch is a bit confusing, since I can’t imagine bringing in only one against decks that are cold to her.  I maindecked two and boarded a third, and loved every minute of it.  Goblin Ruinblasters are phenomenal in a bunch of matchups, including the now-rare Mirror. 

Pyroclasm was a card I considered for my board, but I ended up going with Cunning Sparkmage instead.  You need cards that punish Lotus Cobra decks for playing a bunch of x/1 mana dorks, and either of those options, along with Forked Bolt, will work fine.   Prophetic Prism is hilariously good technology against Spreading Seas decks, effectively countering every aspect of the Aura.

Josh Wagener

2  Deathmark
3  Goblin Ruinblaster
3  Malakir Bloodwitch
4  Pithing Needle
3  Royal Assassin

I’m going to say that despite the fact that he made Top 8, I cannot agree with Deathmark in this board at all.  Doom Blade is almost entirely better, since it deals with such hits as Celestial Colonnade and Gideon Jura (if they get supergreedy with Superfriends). 

While Deathmark can send an early Birds or Hierarch to Boot Hill before it gets out of hand, I prefer to let their mana guys live unless I am very light on early action.  If they run out of “real” threats, I’ll just win.  If I waste removal on mana dorks, they might still topdeck land and cast their real killers.

I love the trip. Bloodwitches in this board, since some decks just can’t beat that card.  Pithing Needle seems like a fantastic card against Superfriends, and I honestly want to try to find room for them in my Jund board.  4 seems like a lot, but it may be necessary.  We’ve already discussed Ruinblasters, and I’d like to say that Royal Assassin is pretty hot new tech. 

They exist for the Mythic matchup (Naya decks just Bolt the little bastard), and they do a great job.  You really must stick one on turn 3, or else it will probably be too late.  I prefer the Sparkmage/Collar package, which is an ace at picking off mana dorks and bigguns alike.  Basilisk Collar can also put you back in some races that you’d have otherwise lost.  Regardless, the Pinger Package takes up 7 ‘board slots and Royal Assassin only takes 4 at most.

Brad Carpenter

4  Blightning
4  Consuming Vapors
3  Cunning Sparkmage
2  Forked Bolt
2  Terminate

A man after my own heart!  His main deck was very similar to mine, and his sideboard is packed full of hate for Mythic.  I’d be running Doom Blades over Terminates as previously discussed, but I love the Consuming Vapors here.  You can’t run Vapors if you’re playing Bituminous Blast (which Bradley is not), but it can be a total all-star. 

The main issue with Vapors is against Naya/Mythic decks, in which mana dorks can really ruin your plan.  That’s why Brad is boarding Forked Bolts and Cunning Sparkmages!  His maindeck only plays 4 Maelstrom Pulses as removal, so boarding in the x/1 killers and Vapors makes a lot of sense.  Lotus Cobra/Hierarch decks really like to have their mana develop unmolested, and this sideboard ensures that never happens.  

Blightning being moved to the sideboard is interesting; Brad clearly wanted the threat density to support abuse of Lotus Cobra and Vengevine, two cards I strongly suggest be included in every Jund deck from here on out.

The main consideration for a sideboard-builder is the metagame.  Knowing the metagame for the event you’re attending is more important than anything else.  For DC, I was most afraid of the Mythic matchup.  Perhaps I was not respecting the slower Blue decks enough, but I built my sideboard as follows:

My Sideboard

1 Malakir Bloodwitch (2 in the main)
1 Maelstrom Pulse (3 in the main)
3 Doom Blade  (2 Terminate in main)
4 Cunning Sparkmage
3 Basilisk Collar
3 Hells Thunder

Except for the Hell’s Thunder, my board is dedicated to beating the Mythic deck.  The cards against Mythic are also good against many other decks since they are broad, versatile answers.  That allowed me to audible into new SB plans if there was technology about which I was unaware. 

Hell’s Thunder is a fine complement to Bloodbraid Elf and Vengevine, causing opponents to play around it or risk blowout.  The only real Control match I played on Day 1 was decided by Hell’s Thunder, where it proved invaluable.   The Mythic decks are beginning to anticipate the Sparkmage combo out of Jund’s board now, and they should be bringing in Vapor Snare anyway to deal with Bloodwitch. 

Be careful – I lost a match to Vapor Snare on my Sparkmage when I foolishly tapped it in my own main phase.  Don’t do that unless you absolutely must.

There is no “correct” sideboard for Jund.  There is only proper metagame analysis.  If you anticipate a lot of Control decks or Planeswalker decks,  cards like Duress and Blightning, as well as Hell’s Thunder, should find a home on your bench.  If you anticipate a lot of Lotus Cobra & Noble Hierarch-centric decks, cheap sweepers and pingers should be a priority. 

Decks that try to Go Big Fast will get rocked by things like Spark/Collar and Royal Assassin, as well as by instant spot removal like Doom Blade.  When deciding between two cards, you need to not only evaluate how they play in the matchups you expect, but how they might play in matchups you don’t. 

For example, if you are boarding Doom Blade for Mythic, but you anticipate a lot of Red-Black RDW style Sligh decks, you may choose to board Terminate instead.  The efficiency loss due to the mana cost will likely be negated by the fact that it is a robust solution in your perceived metagame.

Sideboarding is a game of min-maxing, and the more value you can squeeze out of every board slot, the more likely it is that your board will be optimal.  The easiest way to do this is to understand the metagame intimately and to prepare for it. 

I went into DC totally blind to the metagame, but thanks to some last minute help from Thomas Dodd, Will Price, and the Pride of Canada Mr. Scotty Mac, I got the info and tech I needed to get me to Day 2.  I pegged the metagame as being Mythic-heavy, and got paid off because I faced at least 4 Mythic decks on Day 1 alone. 

I don’t recommend last-minute preparation, but when you must do so, be sure to do it right.  See you kids next time, when I will hopefully have some more of Justin’s trades to tear apart.

Play your hardest,
KBR
QuietSpeculation.com

Kelly Reid, editor of financial news site http://www.quietspeculation.com, has been playing Magic the Gathering since 1994. With 15 years experience in the game, his goal is to teach others to fund their gaming through proactive speculation and intelligent trading.

Magic players, I think it’s finally been decided on which two decks are vying for ruler of current Standard, at least until October: U/W Control and Jund.

Grand Prix: Washington has brought us a slew of different decks, some R/B/W variants of Super Friends, Vengevine Naya (courtesy of Gerry Thompson breaking the format with Vengevine), and other staples such as Mythic Conscription and Super Friends itself. However, Brad “FFfreak” Nelson piloted U/W Tapout to a win over Jund, which I still feel is a huge powerhouse in the current format.

Jund may have mutated a bit into a more aggressive stance before, but the second-place list actually stuck with the usual midrange build, but with another strange twist: Siege-Gang Commander and Broodmate Dragon wound up only being run as singletons in favor of more removal, mainly Bituminous Blast. It’s easy to see why, however: Wall of Omens begs for it to be run to even out the two-for-one game that U/W Tapout brings to the table.

Speaking of which, FFfreak took his U/W Tapout to another level. Besides having a very scattered sideboard included, Nelson took his build and made it a more aggressive control, sporting four Baneslayer Angels yet again along with a slew of planeswalkers, the ringleader of which is still Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Spreading Seas still screws with manlands, Walls provide nice card advantage (of course), and the whole run of U/W is still pretty much the same old shtick.

So this coming week, again, if you’re running in FNMs that follow the metagame and can afford to shell out for high-dollar stuff, U/W Control and Jund are still the two decks to beat. Other decks I’d suggest to keep in your testing gauntlet would be Mythic Conscription, as it’s still showing decent placings (it took a Top 4 in D.C.), and Vengevine Naya, if it continues to impress. If you’re worried about any kind of aggro, I’d say to keep an eye out for Red Deck wins.

EDIT: Hey this is Justin, I’ve got to jump in here and say that I’ve been play testing 3 different RDW builds. You definitely need to be prepared for them. If not, they can rip through you like a fat kid discovering chocolate cake for his first time.

If you’re not prepared for it Kiln Fiend can just steal the game from you in a blink of an eye.

T1: Mountain + Goblin Guide Atk (2)
T2: Dragonskull Summit + Kiln Fiend + Atk (2)
T3: Tectonic Edge + Staggershock (2) Atk (4) (Goblin Guide + Staggershock kills Wall of Omens)
T4: Rebound Staggershock (2) + Mountain + Hells Thunder + Lightning Bolt (3) Atk (13)

Even if they had Path to Exile for my Kiln Fiend or Hell’s Thunder it’s still GG, because Staggershock hits them for 2, Goblin Guide for another 2, then Lightning Bolt for 3. I only need to resolve 4 more damage (Kiln or Hells takes care of that) and I still have at least 2 more cards in hand, most likely burn spells.

I’m not saying it’s bah-roe-ken, I’m just saying don’t write it off just because everyones only talking about Mythic, U/W, and Jund. If you’re not careful a good RDW player will rape your lifepoints and be back outside for another cigarette before you’re ass has even warmed that seat.

I’ve decided to create a Vampire deck based off of one of the winning PTQ decks, and I definitely like the feel of what tweaks I’ve made. However, I can see that Jund totally devours my Vamps, so I’ll be working on some sideboard tweaks to see what I can come up with.

There are some Vampire Control decks whispering in the forums and even making top 8 in Regionals Nationals Qualifiers. Basically they move more towards a Mono-Black Control deck but still rely on some key vampires, Abyssal Persecutor, and Liliana Vess for the win. Definitely, be interested to see how this kind of deck does post-Shards.

The only other thing I can speculate on is what could possibly be coming to us with the 2011 Core Set. I’ve seen Ebay vendors already allowing for pre-orders, but I’m not sure if you should really jump on the bandwagon for them just yet, as I’ve seen no spoilers for the set yet. I’ve just been informed that it’s not going to be released until July, so we’ll be waiting for a bit yet.

Not only that, but if I remember correctly, this year might be the year that WotC decides to allow two Core Sets in Standard on top of the recently-finished block and the block being released. If someone could inform me of this via email, I’d gladly appreciate it so that I can keep prepared for the Standard shift in October.

(By the way, yes, I’m fully aware that October’s still a long time from now and that it might be a bit too early to prepare, but… hey, what’s wrong with that?)

So yeah, hopefully, I can finish up the Vampire deck so I can tweak it as need be and have it ready to go for the summer and fall. Leave your thoughts and all in the comments below; you know the drill. Thanks for reading, and as always…

Keep on spikin’!

Adam Stuck
PhoenixAdamu[at]gmail[dot]com
PhoenixAdamu on MTGO

I was very ambivalent towards the metagame pre-ROE, as Jund and UW control seemed to be the best decks to play, but I did not enjoy playing either of them… UW control mirrors were enough to make me want to punch myself in the face, and playing Jund made me die a little on the inside.

Ever since Awakening Zone had been spoiled for ROE, I wrote up a bunch of proxies and went to work trying to make Polymorph viable. It has been slowly evolving over the last few weeks, and I finally settled on something to take to the Regional Qualifiers.

Here is what I sleeved up:

It was a great success, and had I not made the mistakes I made, I’m confident that I would have landed in the top 8. Instead, I threw 2 games away and ended up 23^rd out of 150 players. I went 5-3-0, with 2 of my losses being piloting errors against Time Sieve/Open the Vaults, and Mythic Conscription. My third loss, in the 8^th and final round, was against RDW and there wasn’t a whole lot I could have done against such an aggressive deck, even rocking a playset of Flashfreeze post board.

A few notes on some of my choices: Mind Control is a very strong card in this deck since it can swing tempo in your favor, buying you time to churn out more tokens to chump with while possible going on the offensive with a kidnapped Baneslayer Angel or Conscripted Birds of Paradise.

In a pinch, Mind Control can grab you a target to polymorph. With Explore, you will often have the mana to cast Mind Control by the 4^th turn, which is fast enough to turn games around if you are being overwhelmed early in the game. With Spreading Seas to slow Jund down, you can nab a creature that they finally drop once they get around being mana screwed.

I don’t use See Beyond. This frees up valuable space for cards that actually impact the game. Between Jace, Ponder, and fetchlands you have all the answers you need to get your win condition out of your hand, or keep it from getting there in the first place. Many of you will disagree, but since I cut the card altogether, the deck operates MUCH more efficiently.

Quicksand may seem like a really odd choice, but it has done some amazing things and helps you defend against fast decks that you would have a rough time against, like RDW. More than once an opponent swung with Goblin Guide or Bloodbraid Elf, assuming the colorless land I had on the board was a Tectonic Edge… only to have Quicksand eat a creature and give me crucial time to set up a game winning Polymorph.

Garruk is an essential secondary win condition if you can’t find a Polymorph, or if a tricksy Jund player Thought Hemorrhages the Polymorphs out of your deck. This happened to me in my first match against Jund in the second round. He won the first game, and in the 2^nd and 3^rd games he hemorrhaged Polymorph out of my deck, only to have me overwhelm him with Garruk and spawn tokens in both games.

It has been said before, but it bears repeating: Polymorph is less of a combo deck and more of a control deck. It actually takes a high degree of skill to pilot effectively, since you need to utilize Jace at peak efficiency, know when your opponent is bluffing a removal or counter, and having the patience to win against control decks.

Matchups and Sideboarding Thoughts:

Mythic Conscription is a really difficult deck to play against. They are capable of some very explosive draws, which is pretty hard to beat unless you have an answer to their conscripted mana dork. Since most of their threats are creatures, Negate is less effective but still necessary to keep them from resolving a Jace or Elspeth. Post board this match improves slightly, since you have access to pseudo spot removal (Into the Roil) and can change your counterspell configuration to 4 Deprive and 2 or 3 Negates. If possible, keep mana open to counter Sovereigns of Lost Alara. If it resolves and you don’t have an Into the Roil or a Fog in hand, that’s going to be game over for you.

RDW is a nightmare. You have very little you can bring in to make this match easier. The 2 mainboard Quicksands will buy you a little bit of time, but it’s not enough by a long shot. I’ve spent hours poring over lists of non-creature, standard legal blue, green and colorless spells that might be viable sideboard cards, but the pickings are remarkably slim. Flashfreeze is probably the strongest blue spell you can bring in, and that’s not all that great if they resolve a turn 1 Goblin Guide. Dragon’s Claw is a cute card, but offers zero board presence and only really slows them down a little bit.

They are happy to eat away at your life total with their creatures while saving copious amounts of insta-burn for any creature you might want to Polymorph. I am testing the efficacy of Sphinx of the Steel Wind as a 1 of in the sideboard. With Iona, they can’t play any more spells, but they sometimes have the board presence to just push that last bit of damage through. With Sphinx, they have no chance- you can now recover from almost any board position because of the lifelink and vigilance.

Reality Spasm might have some powerful application versus RDW: If they keep leaving mana open for burn, at the end of their turn you can tap them down. It also “kills” ball lightning, Zektar Shrike tokens, and half of a Hellspark Elemental.

UW Control depends upon how skilled they are, how much permission they run, and what specific build they are running. Generally speaking, this is a very good matchup for Polymorph because you have the time to keep dropping land, resolve an Awakening Zone or two, and eventually win through a hardcast Emrakul. Postboard gets easier, since you can bring in more counterspells. Mind Control is amazing against the versions that run Baneslayer Angel. They will bring in more Oblivion Rings, but they are pretty easy to play around- Since your plan changes from cheating Emrakul into play to actually forking over 15 mana to cast him. The extra turn will invalidate their plan to O-Ring the massive Eldrazi.

Jund is a decent match. If they get a nut draw they can overwhelm you quickly, but Spreading Seas keeps this from happening a lot of the time. The new variant of Jund that utilizes Plated Geopede is a lot tougher to face, since they are more aggressive and they can set up their land drops to invalidate Spreading Seas long enough for them to win. Garruk is really important against Jund of any stripe, primarily as a way to throw up roadblocks that they have to crash their guys into.

Mind Control will win you games here if used correctly. Don’t be afraid to nab something very weak, like a Bloodbraid Elf or a Borderland Ranger. It’s always nice to grab a Broodmate, Siegegang Commander, or Sprouting Thrinax, but your primary concern is basically to slow them down. Siege gang Commander is brutal, but can be kept under wraps with Pithing Needle or Mind Control.

Naya is very similar to Jund, except you absolutely need Pithing needles to deal with Cunning Sparkmage/Basilisk Collar.

Vampires is fairly easy to deal with… like any other monocolored deck, it scoops to a resolved Polymorph-into-Iona. Garruk is important in this match, since beast tokens eats most vampires for lunch. Hexmage is troublesome, but I would rather cast a 4-mana 3/3 or a 4-mana Brainstorm that loses them a creature in the process. The less board presence they have, the better off you are. Mind Control is amazing in this match, since they often rely on the power of Vampire Nocturus to close out their games.

UWr Walkers is a tossup. Since they are light on permission, you put them in a position where they can waste their counters on your Polymorphs, or they can try and keep you from countering their walkers. They can’t realistically do both. Post Board you get a lot stronger- more counterspells and Pithing Needle shuts them down cold. Needle their walkers (except Jace), counter their Jace and protect yours. These games should be fairly easy.

The Mirrormatch is a tricky beast, and will often boil down to Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Whoever successfully resolves and defends Jace 2.0 will win the game. Loading up on permission makes this a lot easier, but you need to have patience, and know when to strike. I would even go so far as to use a Pithing needle or two in order to neuter their Jace if it resolves.

All that being said, if I were to go to a PTQ tomorrow, this is the list I would run:

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn x1
Iona, Shield of Emeria x1
Mind Control x2
Jace, the Mind Sculptor x4
Garruk, Wildspeaker x2
Polymorph x4
Awakening Zone x4
Deprive x3
Negate x3
Spreading Seas x4
Explore x4
Ponder x4

Khalni Garden x4
Halimar Depths x4
Misty Rainforest x4
Quicksand x2
Island x6
Forest x4

Sideboard:

Sphinx of the Steel Wind x1
Flashfreeze x3
Pithing Needle x2
Deprive x1
Into the Roil x3
Reality Spasm x3
Negate x1
Cancel x1

Thanks for reading, and keep on Polymorphin’

-Jesse Hartman

Hey again all you Johnny Spike’s out there, it’s Adam Stuck back again with another Metagame Update. I’ve scoured reports form dozens of websites all week just to bring you the latest greatest.

Metagame Report 5/14/10: In Time For Regionals & GP: DC

Well, Magic players, it looks as if the Pro Tour: Amsterdam qualifier season is showing all the metagame shake-ups that Rise of the Eldrazi brought to the table last week. Star City Games has posted a chart that keeps up with the PTQ season, which you can view right here: http://bit.ly/9VLkw

The main thing that has me really interested? U/W Control has topped 20% of the playing field so far, yet Jund is still second-highest at 18.02%, and Mythic Conscription is the WINNINGEST deck out of the top three played decks this PTQ season.

So what does this mean for those prepping up for tournaments this week? Well, I’d definitely be looking at that chart and basing your decisions off of it, especially if you’re in the Washington, D.C., area, as the Grand Prix is almost one week away (and I plan on riding Naya Allies to fun times, once I find some awesome tech to run). Other threats in this format include Red Deck Wins (still), Open the Vaults, Polymorph, and Planeswalkers.

I’m sure you don’t need me to reiterate what all each deck is doing differently to make a win out for them, except that I need to blab about the Santa Clara, CA, PTQ. Jund took that one, and John Pham made his creature base something that Chris Jobin made a point about in his article this week on Star City…

It’s much more aggressive.

Heck, the one thing I wasn’t expecting was for Plated Geopede to drop into a former Broodmate Dragon spot, but while I like the splitting 4/4, I must unfortunately agree with Chris: Broodmate is no big enough to work in this format, especially not with the amount of Wrath effects in U/W Control and Planeswalkers.

Jobin makes an argument about Vengevine hitting the Jund gig this week, and I think he’s spot-on with running the 4/3 hasty beater of Greenery for the former king of the Magic hill. Once again, the Elemental wreaks aggression, something Jund needs more of, and the deck is certainly able to clear house enough with Bloodbraid Elf into another creature to spawn Vengevine back from the grave to swing again.

Other than that, it seems as if U/W is slowly starting to mutate back into a Chapin-ish build, with the second-place build from Santa Clara running two copies each of Deprive, Negate, and Path to Exile in the main board. Do I think that’s enough countering for the deck? Well, unfortunately, while Deprive is definitely a strong Counterspell all in all, I feel that the lack of Halimar Depths to really combo with the counter weakens it just a tad bit.

Nonetheless, the deck still runs itself to 22.22% of the PTQ winners thus far, with many more tournaments to come, including GP: DC.

Again, Mythic Conscritpion is proving itself to be a power deck, easily ramping with Lotus Cobra into what the deck needs to win early, as well as getting a devastating Eldrazi Conscription out for free on either Baneslayer Angel or Rhox War Monk. Some builds are even fusing the old Mythic builds into the Conscription mini-combo for some REALLY painful effects; this, to me, seems like the most fun build to work with while also being very efficient.

So what kind of sideboard cards should you be looking at?

Pithing Needle

This thing shuts down Jace’s and Gideon’s and and and… Like everything else that can cause you really big problems. This card should absolutely be being playtested right now in your boards.

If you’re playing RDW then you pretty much have to be boarding this since you really have no other answers to planeswalkers except for burn. Instead play the needle and save the burn for your opponents face.

Vampire Hexmage

If you can play black I highly recommend this gal. She’s cheap, she’s first strike, and she PWNS any planeswalker immediately. Not to mention it’s pretty cool against anything that levels, like a Kargan Dragonlord. Plus some peeps are playing Luminarch Ascension and Bloodchief Ascension – Not popular threats at all but they can win random games if you’re unprepared for them.

Naturalize

Got some green mana? Annoyed by Spreading Sea’s? Then just destroy it for 2 mana and keep on rollin’. Oh BTW, this thing also kills O. Rings, Eldrazi Conscription, Random Keening Stones, Mana Accelerators, and other pesky rogue strategies.

Manabarbs

If you’re into red now’s a great as time as ever to be boarding in your Manabarbs with all the land getting tapped on tables across the country. Especially if you’re a red deck that tends to lose speed after about turns 4 or 5.

I think that’s it for this week. Leave your thoughts, comments, and other predictions down in the comments in case y’all think we’ve missed anything.

Keep on Spikin’!
Adam Stuck

Hopefully you all enjoyed last week’s trade reviews, in which I systematically tore Justin’s trades into tiny little pieces.

I’ll make a speculator of you, yet, Justin!

In all seriousness, I do hope you enjoyed last week’s analysis of a few specific trades. I know that it’s helpful to look at case studies and not just talk theory, and Justin and I hope to make this a regular occurrence.

This week, he’s asked me to step away from the finances of Magic and talk about my experience with players as a shopkeeper.

For those of you who don’t know, I own a little store called the Dragons Den in Lafayette, Indiana. We’re barely 2 miles from Purdue University’s main campus, and while there are other stores in the area that run Magic events, we are a bit different because that’s all we do.

It was my goal to become the locus of Magic in our area, and to give the players every tool they need to succeed in the game. As I’ve grown over the last few months, I’ve noticed some things about players both casual and competitive as I’ve watched them develop.

Most Magic players who read about MtG on the internet are doing so with the intent of improving their game on a competitive level. While plenty are just researching cards for their new casual decks, most are looking for a tangible edge in the area of serious tournament play.

Magic’s a funny game – it can be for the player whatever the player wishes it to be, and it’s so easy for it to change roles as quickly as a Jund deck can. For example, I was playing competitively before I opened the store. I never managed to crack a big-time top 8, but I was always close, and getting better each time.

I’m probably not the best person to take high-level deckbuilding advice from, but I’ve seen an awful lot of Magic in my life and can tell you what works and what does not. I also got a chance to run a few questions by the enviable Cedric Philips, who happily weighed in on a few topics.

How do you get better at Magic?

That’s a hell of a question, really. That’s really the end result, not a question. There are many more questions that need to be asked before we can even think about how to “get better”. First, where do you draw the line between “getting better” and the natural Johnny Rungood-ness that our dear old friend Variance can bring our way?

There’s no one answer to that question, but I think that anyone interested in improving themselves should keep earnest records of their tournament play. It’s not an exact science, but if you can analyze your data honestly enough, you can learn a lot about where you fail and succeed.

For example, let’s say that a PTQ season saw you go to as many drive-able PTQs as possible, play in a bunch of FNMs, and maybe you did a few Win-A-Boxes at the PTQ you scrubbed. Looking at your play history on the DCI website automates the record-keeping for you.

You can see precisely which matches were won and lost, so if you were diligent and wrote down your opponent’s name and archetype along with the match scores, you could “replay” the entire tournament from scratch. That gives you a ton of information about where you are failing.

Was it against specific decks? Against highly ranked players, because you wrote down their DCI number, right? Is it early in the day that you’re taking losses? Maybe you need to get up earlier for PTQs so you’re not frantic. How about late in the day? Maybe you’re not getting enough sleep.

You may think this sounds pedantic, but if you’re sabotaging yourself by losing sleep or psyching yourself out against big-name opponents, you’ve got an easy few percentage points to gain.

The hard part comes with the self-honesty. Let’s face it – we all want to believe that we’re some kind of Jon Finkel, who is innately brilliant and amplified his talent with hard work. It’s rare that you can pull off the pre-PTQ audible.

Unless some truly broken combo deck comes out a few days before, stick to your guns. I wanted to hear it from the source, so I asked Cedric about the worst mistake that intermediate level players commit in pursuit of a PTQ or beyond.

“The biggest mistake I see intermediate-level players make is how they consistently complain about how bad their opponent is/was and focus on all the incorrect things instead of focusing what he/she did wrong during the previous match. It’s easy to say how bad your opponent was during the last match, but if you aren’t questioning your own play, you’ll never get any better.”

And I couldn’t have said it any better. As a self-professed intermediate player, it means a lot to hear that from someone who’s seen the Top 8 of a Pro Tour. That’s pretty much the highest level of Magic on the planet (not counting late-night money drafting at Neutral Ground of course).

The counterpoint is to not become a self-flagellating pariah and spout off about how “awful” you are just to sound humble. Honest self-questioning is a key to getting better. The players in my store and in my area who pretend to be good, storm on about being “the best”, and proceed to x-3 drop a PTQ or a 5K always seem to get really, really unlucky.

Funny how that works out. You should really ask yourself how you lost every game you lose. It’s not about right or wrong, or protecting the ego. It’s about simple mathematical and strategic understanding of each play.

I played a game with a really brutally efficient Enchantress Beatdown deck in Standard just this evening, just on a whim, and I lost a game I ought to have won. I was pretty upset, but I calmed down and asked myself where I threw it away. It came down to a bad attack one turn where I traded damage.

I wasn’t in the position to trade damage and the extra turn would have more than made up for the 3 damage I landed. I’d never have been able to identify that if I’d just spouted off about how he always topdecks that mother-loving Siege-Gang Commander.

I’ve always been a big fan of honest playtesting. Having a good partner or two makes all the difference, but some of us aren’t “in” with the cool kid crowd. Not everyone can test with the pros, but you can still form a cohesive playtest group that will be successful as long as you are honest and truly concerned with improving your game, not playing “who’s Eldrazi is bigger?” Cedric’s tested with some great players so I wanted to hear his take.

“If a player wants to keep up, they need to network to be successful. If you are unable to network with other players, you need to learn how. A big part of doing well is keeping up with all of the relevant events that are taking place (5ks, MMS, GPs, PTs, etc) and never falling behind. We all have the internet so we all have access to the same information. If you are not informed on the metagame that is relevant to you, that is his/her own fault.”

I’d also like to add that when you can borrow decks from any number of people you know, you are able to save a LOT of money on cardboard. There are a ton of resources online. This site, my blog at Quiet Speculation, and beyond to sites like Mana Nation, Channel-Fireball and Star City Games.

If you’re not digesting every ounce of information you can and analyzing it and testing with it, someone out there is. And when they play you, they’re going to win. You can’t make winning about anything but winning. This game is too complex, and too ephemeral, to focus on anything but winning the current game at hand. Our esteemed Mr. Philips agrees.

“If you want to get better at Magic, you need to set realistic goals and be prepared to learn from people who are better than you. Players who are trying to break in the competitive scene nowadays think they are a lot better than they really are and are too focused on proving how good they are at Magic instead of just winning matches. If you just focus on winning matches, people will notice.”

There it is. You want to get noticed, kid? Win. Don’t do anything but win. Don’t trade, write, EDH, talk trash, brag or bullshit people. Sit down, shut up, and win games of Magic.

You know why people look up to Cedric? Because he wins more than most of us. There’s a rare instance of someone that gets a lot of respect that’s an awful player, but those players likely have some other quality that gets them respect. If you can’t turn off your ego, at least feed it the best way you can.

If you’re claiming you’re hot stuff and you can’t break the top 8 of a PTQ, then you’re a mediocre player and a liar. If you shove ego where the mana ain’t so white, you’ll still suck at Magic, but at least you won’t be a damn liar.

I’d even say that you should learn from people who are worse than you. I don’t mean to say that you should try to surround yourself with scrubs, but you will often play against people not as good as you. You can learn from them too. I have friends that only play casual magic.

I still try to play like I’m in a PTQ top 8 when we play, because I love to win. Tight play goes so much farther when your opponents are sub-par, too. I learn stuff when we play, because my mind is always open to getting better at Magic. Maybe one day I’ll actually see a PTQ top 8.

Overall, Cedric confirmed a lot of what I see around the shop on a daily basis. The majority of my players are really quite good, and honest about their skill levels. Even the newer ones, or a few of the “re-buys” as I’ve taken to calling them, are honest about their skill level.

A few are actually a bit too harsh, and it’s great to watch their confidence growing each week. Guess that’s why Purdue’s such a good school, eh? Seems pretty easy now that it’s all laid out there.

Be honest about your technical play, network and make friends in the community, and seek out better players and play games of Magic with them.

Do you agree or disagree, let me know by leaving a comment below…

Kelly Reid,
Blogger & Magic Card Financier
QuietSpeculation.com

This is an article by Adam Stuck who will now be writing a weekly summary of the Standard Metagame and his recommendations for that weeks FNM. These will be posted by Thursday night or Friday morning so make sure you check with us before heading out to FNM for your best chances at top 8′ing.

Metagame Summary for FNM 05/07/2010

It’s been a crazy week of interesting stuff happening since the release of Rise of the Eldrazi.

The Star City Games Open in Atlanta, Georgia found itself a breeding ground of interest as Lewis Laskin took Standard with his Superfriends deck, a U/W/r Planeswalker Control that unleashed the underestimated power of Gideon Jura alongside the other powerful planeswalkers in the Standard metagame (those being Ajani Vengeant; Elspeth, Knight-Errant; and Jace, the Mind Sculptor).

Mythic bore a new face, eschewing some of the Finest Hour Bant looks it had to it for a different strategy: plop down a Sovereigns of Lost Alara, swing with a lone Baneslayer Angel, and watch as it suddenly picks up an Eldrazi Conscription on top of its Exalted triggers, making it a 15+/15+ first-striking, trampling flyer with protection from demons and from dragons, lifelink, and annihilator 2 (that’s a frickin’ mouthful, folks).

And yet, three decks that have been around since the rotation into Current Standard still remain in the top 16 of most events: Red Deck Wins, U/W Tapout, and… Jund.

So perhaps the first question that needs to be addressed is this: How has Jund morphed this time to keep itself in the high rankings (heck, it still won a few other events around the country somehow!)?

Well, from the main batch of decklists I saw, it seems that the majority of Jund players decided to eschew the Bituminous Blasts once more for more threat density, increasing the numbers of Siege-Gang Commanders and Broodmate Dragons in the main deck.

It also seemed that Thought Hemorrhage made a resurgence in the sideboard to deal with planeswalkers and other pesky cards before they can even hit the board. Truthfully, I think that’s probably the best way to go.

I think I also recall one Top 8 list trying out Sarkhan the Mad, even out of the sideboard, but I don’t think the Bolas-compelled dragon-seeker is going to make the cut as much as some had hoped.

Obviously, Jund is still going to have fun wrecking aggro matchups such as RDW and White Weenie (if the Little White Men decide to show up again), but the control matchups are going to be a bit tougher nowadays.

The next contender I’ll look at is one that doesn’t get much hype nowadays, but it still lingers around in the Top 16s here and there. Red Deck Wins is still doing what it does best: Burning faces by turn 5 or running out of fuel to do much of anything else. However, the archetype got a nice boost in the form of Staggershock and a new win condition called Devastating Summons.

Seriously, if you’ve got nothing better to do with your lands, float your mana, pay a red for Summons, then drop a Goblin Bushwhacker with the kicker and watch as your opponent screams, “WTF?!”

Taylor Raflowitz’s 15th-place RDW build from Atlanta is the one that really strikes out to me, keeping up with the threat-heavy builds I’ve tended to notice from the archetype while also fitting in its new toys.

However, a different build piloted by David Yancey made Top 8, sporting other new toys from Rise such as Kargan Dragonlord and Forked Bolt while still providing fun with Devastating Summons and showering out more direct burn.

Control matchups should look interesting with either build, while Jund and other midrange decks should still be able to last out the burn before ultimately bashing down, though it’ll be a lot tougher to deal with some ginormous Elementals that are given haste and +1/+0 by a pesky little Bushwhacker…

U/W Tapout is still on the radar, and it doesn’t look like it picked much up from Rise of the Eldrazi, though I think See Beyond would definitely prove useful for filtering out an X-spell-heavy hand. Really, not much has changed within this archetype here, so expect more of the same old stuff that you’re used to, no matter which deck you’re playing.

Mythic, however, has definitely taken an interesting turnabout, as I described in the opening paragraph. Eldrazi Conscription actually gives Sovereigns of Lost Alara some use, causing a few of the usual staples in Mythic to be eschewed for the mini-combo to make a painful Baneslayer Angel even more so.

Other than that, the deck pretty much runs along the same Bant guidelines as its predecessor, so don’t get too excited unless you don’t have a Path to Exile or Oblivion Ring for the Conscripted Baneslayer.

Now, for some new meat. As you’ve all read, U/W/r Planeswalker Control has made a resurgence, and it’s done so with a howl. When I was still testing Spicy Valakut, I decided to try a mock run against it, my sleeved-up proxy deck against the copy build on Magic Workstation, three games.

Game one was all me, allowing me to burn out planeswalkers before they got a chance to have fun and eventually getting the win out of it.

Games two and three, however, were not so fortunate; Jace, the Mind Sculptor was an easy target, so I knew I had to get rid of him. In fact, if any PW came down flying solo, I had managed to quickly answer it… until my removal suite ran low in hand and Gideon Jura dropped down.

Seriously, give him one turn on the board to really stabilize the playing field, and he’ll just start bashing away at your life total. Follow this up with an Angelic Blessing from Elspeth, and you’re pretty much toast.

Now, from what I’ve seen, it seemed like Lewis Laskin took a page out of Mike Flores’s book and started off with a U/W Tapout shell, then replaced certain parts with the powerful planeswalkers in the format. Wall of Omens still turned out to be a great turn-two drop, Spreading Seas did do some work by messing up the opponent’s lands to stall until a PW hit the board, and as always, Celestial Colonnade brought some dual manland beats to the game, as well.

Without a doubt, this is a very powerful, albeit expensive, deck to play with as long as you know you’re in the control schtick and you have a slew of choices ahead of you.

Does that mean there’s no answer for this archetype, now that it’s made a successful splash into the Standard metagame? Nonsense! For starters, Goblin Ruinblaster and Tectonic Edge will still be prime answers to the manabase factor, especially against the PW Control, since they’re not running Fieldmist Borderposts and Everflowing Chalices to save them.

As for the PWs themselves, I’d have to say the answers for them may be to not play the Tapout game if you’re going U/W and somewhat backpedal to the Patrick Chapin precursor build, giving you Negate, Cancel, and Deprive to work with on keeping those dastardly magic-wielders off the board.

If they do manage to stick, however, Oblivion Ring will get rid of Jace, Elspeth, and Gideon, and Celestial Purge can still knock Ajani out of the park for good.

If you’re playing Jund, Maelstrom Pulse is still good for wiping out a planeswalker or two, as is Blightning and an out-of-the-sideboard Thought Hemorrhage. RDW, however, will have a VERY tough time dealing with this deck if they can’t seal the deal by turn four, in my opinion, as a Day of Judgment followed by a Gideon Jura is just asking for concession.

As for another possible archetype to break the mold, it seems like U/G Polymorph has also been getting some hype due to its ability to either bust out Iona, Shield of Emeria on turn 6 via the blue sorcery, or a powerful Legendary Eldrazi, usually Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.

I’m not sure if it’ll see much limelight in the big Standard picture, however, considering the powerful control decks we now have on the horizon as well as midrange still being some of the more powerful deck classes we can see at the moment (which is saying a lot for them, really).

It may have taken the win at one tournament this past week, but again, unless some more innovations can come out for this new combo deck, I’m not thinking it’ll break the mold of the Standard that I’m seeing thus far.

In other combo news, Gerry Thompson also decided to renovate Open the Vaults, but again, it doesn’t seem like it was a factor in Atlanta, as the tried-and-true decks still made Top 16.

So what am I looking at for this week at your local FNM? I’d say it still comes down to what’s being run in your local metagame, but I’d always bet on Jund and U/W Control, so keep some sideboard hate handy against those two at all times.

Thought Hemorrhage will be much more handy against U/W Tapout and any PW Control decks that wind up appearing for you Jund players. So definitely make room for at least two copies in your extra 15; other than that, I think your sideboard’s pretty air-tight for hating on Baneslayer Angel and such.

If anything, for those U/W players that are planning on facing PW Control in the future, I’d again look at reverting back to a more Chapin-ish build with counters to make sure you can keep those planeswalkers off the board and you can win the Jace War.

Siding in more Oblivion Rings wouldn’t hurt, and even though Ajani Vengeant’s their only red permanent, Celestial Purge will give you another out against a PW.

With all that said, you should be pretty well set; keep the Flashfreezes handy for RDW, Jund, and Boss Naya (if it continues to appear), and Negates for control mirrors and Polymorph matchups. Deprive should be your go-to counterspell if you go back to the Chapin build, especially since you can bounce back Halimar Depths with it and make the drawback of your new Counterspell even more of a benefit.

All I have left to ask is, guys, what are your thoughts on the Standard metagame? Hit up the comment block below and let us know. What are your insights, what tech do you think is the hottest, what did we miss or oversee?

There is a new deck in town that is turning all the Jund players smiles upside down! Say hello to U/W/R Planeswalker Control and say goodbye to about $500 if you want to play it. LOL

I’m more of a Red, Black, or Green mage myself and have never really played U/W other than when I was trying to break a mill deck. However, this is the first time in all my 15yrs that I have lusted over a deck.

To be embarrassingly honest, this deck makes me feel the same way I feel when I look at Meghan Fox or Jessica Biel.

I’m not even going to try to explain it myself since Lewis Laskin, the deck designer, does a much better job than I could ever do. Watch the short video below to see what’s in the deck and why.

Lewis Laskin Explains His U/W/R Planeswalker Control Deck

Two things come to mind when I see the decklist for U/W/R Planeswalker Control…

1. Wizards needs to print some stronger checks and balances against Planeswalkers
2. Planeswalkers are fucken awesome!

You got Jace controling their card draws, Elspeth laying down chumps, Ajani locking down threats, and Gideon is slicing and dicing the leftovers. That’s just their weaker abilities too, that’s not even talking about if any of those Planeswalkers goes KABOOM.

Here’s the decklist…

U/W/R Planeswalker Control

by Lewis Laskin

I do not think this is one of those decks that just metagamed really well and that’s why it won. I think this deck is a very serious contender and will be around for quite awhile. If you are a Jund player, your days are numbered.

The only unfavorable matchups for this deck are RDW, R/B Aggro, and Goblins due to their speed. Especially with the new Devastating Summons + Goblin Bushwacker combo that’s creating third turn kills.

Without a Flame Slash though, Wall of Omens stops that assault long enough for DOJ and then from there on out it’s a luck shot whether the red deck can finish off the control player.

Right now everything is speculation with this deck though as it’s only one won tournament. Let’s see how the next few weeks play out, but I won’t be surprised to see this start being a regular top 8 finisher. I’d also expect to see multiple different color variations of this style deck like W/B/R for example.

What are your thoughts about the role this deck will play in the coming months? Let us know in the comment section down below. Can we expect Regionals top 8 to be full of this deck and ones like it?

Let me know wutchu thinkin…

It’s my pleasure to announce that we have acquired a weekly column by the great MTG financier, Kelly Reid. Every week he will be writing about his insights on making a living off of Magic while not actually playing much Magic.

Expect to hear about how he turns MTG cards into stacks of cash and even MORE cards. Plus lookout for his tournament advice from the perspective of a store owner watching his players try to move up in the rankings and qualify for the Pro Tour. This will be a very exciting column and we are very lucky to have such a good writer writing it.

For his first article here at JohnnySpike.com I asked him to critique my own trading skills. Not in private but publicly so everyone else could learn how the master thinks.

And away we go…

In all my 15 years of playing Magic I have never once traded cards with the goal of trying to make profitable trades. It’s always been just to get cards I need for a deck. I’ve always just paid cash for the cards I need.

I want to improve myself though, so here is a log of my first nights “pro trading” attempt. I’m not sure how well I did. Which is why Kelly will be giving his “pro” analysis below. He earns a living off of Magic cards so I would hang on his every word.

Trade #1
-1 Mesa Enchantress
-2 Kor Spiritdancer
+1 Stoneforge Mystic

I felt like the Stoneforge would be better Trade bait and something I could easier use to trade up into something better. However, I’m worried that post shards rotation this enchantress deck could be a potential player.

Pro Analysis

I love this trade.  It’s clear that the other party is making an Enchantress-type deck, and while fun, these cards are really not going to command any sort of premium.  Mesa Enchantress is valued at approximately a nickel on the open market, and the Spiritdancer still has “new card smell”.  That’s the technical term for the extra value you get because a card is new, and not because it’s actually any good.  While Spiritdancer might have some value to casual players, Stoneforge Mystic is a proven commodity and will likely get a further bump in utility when Scars of Mirrodin comes out.  A- / The only thing keeping this from a perfect grade is the scale of the trade.  Still, this is a great example of value-trading for something you don’t necessarily need in the moment.

Trade #2
+2 Summoning Trap
+2 Abyssal Persecutor
-2 Vengevine
-2 Momentous Fall
-1 Realms Uncharted

This guy that I was trading is that guy in your store who has all the cards. The one with the big giant binder who seems like he’s only ever interested in your Baneslayer or Jace.

He’s a real cool dude but a monster trading foe and I’m not sure I came out of the trade with my shirt still on (metaphorically speaking).

Pro Analysis

I don’t like this much at all.  Abyssal Persecutor’s price has been in a freefall since release, since it’s not played in anything at all (yet).  Summoning Trap is under a lot of hype right now, but it’s still only a $3-4 card.  Your incoming value is around $25-30, however you gave up two copies of a $30 card in Vengevine, as well as $15+ in other rares.  The Summoning Trap deck is still just smoke and mirrors, at least until PT San Juan.  Vengevine and Momentous Fall might well see some play, so it would be a bold move to trade them away assuming they won’t.  F / The only way you break even on the trade is if Vengevine sees no play and Persecutor suddenly becomes a staple.  As it stands, I wouldn’t predicate a trade on those principles with someone else’s money.  If you lost only your shirt, be glad he didn’t take your trousers as well.

Trade #3
-1 foil Eldrazi Temple
+2 Bloodghast

This guy seemed to be one of those guys who only trades for what he needs. I liked a lot of stuff in his binder but he only wanted one card in mine. I have a pretty nice binder too so I was a little disappointed. I would like to learn a way to “open up” guys like this.

My thought here was that the Temple will decrease and post shards rotation the Bloodghast’s will rise???

Pro Analysis
This is a good example of a trade where value is not the only factor in play.  Dollar-wise the two sides are about even, but Bloodghasts are far more liquid than foil Eldrazi Temples are.  The temple is an unknown factor, whereas Bloodghasts are in high demand and easy to trade.  B+ / You probably could have gotten more for your foil, even if it was just a throw-in, and your value was about even.  Still you did what you set out to do and it was a fine trade!

Trade #4
-1 Foil Sphinx of Magosi
-1 Foil Platinum Angel
-4 Brain Freeze
+1 Foil Summoning Trap
+2 Awakening Zone

I hated hated hated losing my Brain Freeze’s because I’ve had them for years and love the card. However, I felt like the Foil Summoning Trap and Awakening Zone’s were really hot trade bait. The cards I lost were not that popular and the cards I gained are sizzling hot right now.

Pro Analysis
Brain Freeze is no longer in Extended, so it loses a lot of its value as a “good uncommon”.  The foil Sphinx of Magosi could be reacquired easily from a drafter for very little cost, so the only real card on the other side of the trade is the foil Angel, which can fetch a good sum to the right player.  Foil Summoning Trap is hot right now, and is probably approaching the value of the Platinum Angel (and will be easier to move).  The 1st Awakening Zone made the trade fair, and the second put it into Value Trade territory.  Add in the fact that a lot of people are talking about Awakening Zone right now, and this gets a firm A+. You can find Brain Freeze in 25c boxes if you look long enough, so leave your nostalgia at home when trading.

Trade #5
-3 Verdant Catacombs
-1 Time warp
-1 Foil Summoning Trap
+2 Summoning Trap
+1 Student of Warfare
+3 Basilisk Collar
+2 Wall of Omens
+2 Oust
+1 Renegade Doppelganger
+3 Awakening Zone

BIG TRADE! I feel like I came out way on top on this one, price wise maybe it was more even. However I got tremendous trade fodder out of this trade for what I gave up. I also had just bought a box of Zendikar (waiting in my car to be opened) so I knew I would crack some more fetch lands later.

Pro Analysis
I’m going to start with the negative this time.  Just because you have a lot of something doesn’t mean it’s worth less.  My store has at least 40 copies of Vampire Nighthawk, but that doesn’t make them worth less than $1.50 each!   Your logic is flawed on that part of the deal, but let’s look at the trade itself, because I think you absolutely crushed here.  The Catacombs are tough to get, but since you are not trading nostalgically, it is irrelevant.  Time Warp is not seeing a lot of play, and bounces between 6 and 10 dollars when it does.  The foil Trap you just got did some work here too.

Since this is a big trade, I’ll write extra:  Doubling down from a foil rare to two regulars is often a good play (except when the foil is randomly worth tons extra due to Legacy play).  The Catacombs match up well with the Student and the 3 Collars, plus the uncommons, which leaves us trading a Time Warp for 3 Awakening Zones and a Renegade Doppelganger, which is clearly phenomenal.  Be wary here, because you’re starting to get a lot of Awakening Zones.  Another A+.

Trade #6
-1 Garruk Wildspeaker
+1 Awakening Zone
+1 Renegade Doppelganger
+1 Jwari Shapeshifter
+1 Avenger of Zendikar

In my mind I lose one piece of trade bait and gained 3, value wise do they match up… No. I’m worried my thinking might be flawed and sure I got lots of other stuff but it’s lots of other cheap stuff instead of going the other way… UP!

Pro Analysis
I’m not too high on this trade.  You have a lot of Awakening Zones already, and Garruk trades more fluidly than any of those other cards.  Book value wise, you’re almost on par, but you lost out on this trade a bit.  Doppelganger, Shapeshifter and Avenger are not hard to get for less than you paid.  D.

Trade #7
-1 Momentous Fall
+1 Quest for the Nihil Stone
+1 Path to Exile

Same guy from my big trade above but he had missed the Momentous Fall apparently and offered me the Path for it. I debated it for quite a while and then he added on the Quest (which I wanted for my fun deck) and I broke.

I think I still came out ahead???

Pro Analysis
The Quest is a throwaway rare, and Path is roughly on-par with Momentous Fall.  Path trades well, as does Momentous Fall.  I don’t really think you did well, or poorly, but if your area values Path highly, or they are harder to find, then I like the trade.  B.

Trade #8
+3 Summoning Trap
-1 Foil (Prerelease) Emrakul
-2 Lavaclaw Reaches
-2 Devastating Summons

Can you tell I was after Summoning Traps? LoL

I had 6 Lavaclaw’s so I wasn’t worried about losing the 2 and Emrakul has been diving in value for days now. What hurt me a little were the Devastating Summons because I think there is a hot R/B Sligh deck waiting to be discovered that will run these.

Pro Analysis
You’re buying into Summoning Traps a little too late, and are still overpaying for them.  They’re not going to explode in value.  The price correction has already occured, from crap rare to mid-range $2-3 rare, and the prerelease Emrakul alone is going for well above $10.  They won’t trade well for at least another month.  Remember, they only get passed out once, unlike the Gateway promos and such.  Giving up the Lavaclaw Reaches was totally unnecessary, and the Devastating Summons are probably due to see a good amount of play.   Hate to say it, but this is precisely the kind of trade I’d want to be on the other side of.  F.

Tying it All Together

While I may have been harsh, a bit of tough love is needed when teaching people how to trade for value.  Most people only think in terms of trading for what they need, but they lack the foresight to either pick up undervalued cards on speculation or just trade for value so that they may more easily acquire the cards they do need.  There is almost no reason to trade at a loss, unless a lack of cards is precluding you from playing in a tournament.

The trades that earned an B or higher either gained value dollarwise or they gained value by giving more flexibility, as in the Bloodghast deal.  You should be able to identify why and how each trade is earning value, or you should simply not do the deal.  My favorite deals are those that gain value and flexibility.

Value trading is excellent even for those who are not too financially minded.  You just need to keep abreast of current prices and know what’s good to speculate on.  Summoning Trap is a good card to speculate on, because many players haven’t adjusted their internal price guide to reflect its new $3 price.  In the trades where Trap was acquired, it was acquired slightly higher than book value, which means that no value can be gained by it spiking in price.  This, in colloquial terms, is known as “doin’ it wrong”.

Overall, the trade that killed your day was the Vengevine trade.  Other than that, the Emrakul foil trade hurt, but nothing ended up that badly.  Each bad trade avoided is as good as a good trade made.  Sometimes, you just don’t always get the best end of the deal, but with savvy and a bit of advance planning you can be sure to always have your bearings when at the trading table!

See you back here next week…

Thank you Kelly for your valuable insights in this article. For more MTG card valuing and price predicting goodness check out Kelly’s Magic The Gathering Blog. Also check back here weekly for more great articles from Kelly Reid.

Also, be sure to let us know what your thoughts are about these trades. Do you think my trades sucked? Could you do better? What would you have done, or do you think it was a good trade session for it being my first time being serious about trading?

Keep on Spikin’
Justin Brooke

Since April 25th the submissions have poured in and we had over 120 people register for our contest to win a playset of Force of Will’s.

I’m blogging my reactions to reading the submissions live as I go through them…

First thought is some people must have thought this was a joke because all they did was the bare minimum. The medium range of points submitted seems to be about 2,500pts.

Most players did all the little stuff and wrote 2 or 3 articles. However, 3 dudes wrote 5 or more articles and it all came down to winning by just one article.

So now I’m sitting here reading a couple dozen articles to make sure they are high enough quality to be counted as legit submissions.

Reading….

Reading more…..

Still reading……….

Ok that confirms it, Alexander Ferdynus wins the playset of Force of Will’s by just one article submission. The second place winner was our own article writer Adam Stuck with 3,290pts and I thank everyone for their participation.

Unfortunately there is no second place and all 4 copies of the NM Force of Will’s will be sent to Alexander Ferdynus with his 3,700pts submitted and verified. Congratulations Alex!!!

I’ll be running another contest soon let me know in the comments what cards/prize you’d like to see me giveaway. Remember next time thought that JUST ONE MORE ARTICLE could have won the whole contest!!!

Thank you Mike Lanigan for this detailed post on his playtest results of Boss Naya vs. Jund. You can find Mike on the forums as username “Shadowrunner11.”

Anyone who knows me knows that I have been playing and advocating Naya since Naya was introduced in Shards of Alara. I think all of the cards in the deck are solid for standard play.

On 4-9-10 Antoine Ruel wrote an article discussing the matchup of Naya vs. Jund and his conclusion was that Jund was the clear favorite and also that Naya was unplayable in the current Standard.

Let me first say that I have the utmost respect for the Ruel brothers and Manuel Butcher who collaborate for their articles. However, I firmly believe that both of these statements he made in his article are 100% wrong.

My team has tested this match more than any other match by far and we have used a variety of different winning lists of Jund in our testing as well. Our testing results were extremely good and we were posting close to a 70 percent win percentage. The thing about testing is that it never goes quite the same way.

Your opponent will sometimes draw triple Bloodbraid Elf, like he did against me in the top 8 of the 5k in Richmond for example, and well, that is close to unbeatable by any deck. So, typically you will post a lower match win percentage in tournaments than you did in testing, it happens.

It is safe to say that if I am trying to prove a point then, I will need to use actual tournament numbers, so it will seem to be a smaller sample size because we are looking at matches instead of individual games.

In terms of number of games, the sample size will be about the same. Between myself and my teammate, Thomas Albin, we played a total of twelve matches against Jund in the Richmond and Indy 5k events. Of those twelve matches we won seven matches, giving us a total of 58% win against Jund.

I believe that is a little low because if we were losing to Jund it almost always went to game three. The one exception to that is my top 8 match in Richmond that I got pounded by triple Bloodbraid Elf game one and another just as sick draw game two.

Well then, what makes my numbers so much better than the ones that the Ruel duo determined were an average sample? It is simple, compare the two decks.

This is the list from the grand prix that was used in their testing.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=32018

Here is the list that I ran in Richmond.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=31497

So, what is the difference between the two deck lists? Well not much, and then again, a lot actually. The difference is that I ran main deck Cunning Sparkmage instead of playing it from the board.

Cunning Sparkmage + Basilisk Collar

Many people who have an opinion on Boss Naya will tell you that Cunning Sparkmage main deck against Jund is just bad, but I would argue otherwise obviously or I wouldn’t be running it in the main.

My team tested the Sparkmages extensively main deck against Jund and what we found was that Cunning Sparkmage was almost always strictly better than lightning bolt. Think about it, what does lightning bolt actually do against Jund? NOTHING!

Ok, to be fair, that’s not true.

If Jund is running Siege Gang Commander like they typically are doing these days, it is good for dealing with him and when Jund ran Master of the Wild Hunt there for a little bit, it was good to fight him as well. However, the lightning bolt doesn’t even kill any of their early threats, which is what Naya typically wants to do.

Sure it forces the Jund player to gamble or play cautiously if you are showing one red mana, but honestly I bluffed Lightning Bolt all day when I could. “It is really easy to know whether you can pump it (Putrid Leech) or not, as your opponent should never attack into it without a Lightning Bolt in backup, as most of his creatures are three-power.”

Whether or not you have a Lightning Bolt in hand or even in your deck, this concept is certainly true. If you are playing against a good Jund player they won’t pump though so your Lightning Bolt won’t be killing many Putrid Leeches.

Cunning Sparkmage, on the other hand, can kill anything in their deck once you find your Basilisk Collar to equip it with.

A lot of the time it would be correct to hold your Sparkmage until you find the Collar to go with it so that it will always be at least one destroy target creature.

If you play the Sparkmage and Collar together you can avoid things like being blown out by a Jund Charm to kill five creatures, that should never in ever happen. Although, it is good to take off counters from Garruk and to kill Thrinax and Siege Gang tokens.

Let’s take a look this matchup from the Naya perspective instead by analyzing the rest of what Antoine was writing about.

Tempo.

You want it.

It actually doesn’t matter which deck you are speaking of. Both Naya and Jund both want the tempo. Naya is designed to keep the tempo in their favor because of all the card advantage the deck has to offer.

This is actually my number one reason to be playing Naya. You always have cards in hand. There is so much card advantage from Antoine himself (Ranger of Eos), Stoneforge Mystic, and Bloodbraid Elf that it is fairly easy to stay on the aggressive as long as you have a moderate start.

Also, with my build, you usually get more than one removal spell out of your Cunning Sparkmage so that is some virtual card advantage that you certainly should be taking advantage of. Many Jund players, Antoine included, seek to try and steal the tempo from the Naya player by killing an early mana accelerant.

This plan usually works in favor of the Naya player because it forces the Jund player to take the control position. Naya wants Jund to take the control position because we are the aggressive deck and we want to stay that way.

Antoine spoke about when Jund is on the draw, he is correct here because Naya certainly does have the advantage in this instance because it usually allows us to keep the tempo a little bit easier. Jund’s recovery method in this scenario is to play their late game threats and hope that gets them there.

This is another reason that Cunning Sparkmage combined with Basilisk Collar is much better than Lightning Bolt. This combo allows the Naya player to deal with any threat that Jund is able to play to try and stabilize the board.

Also on the note of Jund being on the draw, Antoine had this to say, “your opponent can only sit and watch what you are doing, as he only as only one game plan: play three-power guys and attack.” This statement is quite misleading.

Maybe it is because he doesn’t like Naya and so it didn’t play well enough for him but there certainly intricacies to this deck that may or may not be apparent at first glance. One of which addresses this statement. I think many Naya player just do not take full advantage of the exalted triggers granted by Noble Hierarch.

If you are someone who cannot afford the now 80$ a playset, or just have not played with this card yet, you might not know either. Noble Hierarch is really amazing and the exalted trigger she grants maybe one reason why Naya is as good as it is. Say you throw one Hierarch into your pile of 3/3’s you have on the board.

Suddenly, you don’t have to worry about losing the tempo because you can favorable attack into your opponent even if you don’t have any equipment yet because now your 3/3 is a 4/4 or if you have two of them, a 5/5. This is quite an advantage and players need to utilize it.

If you have either of the two equipment, it makes this scenario even better because you can either use the exalted trigger with your equipped guy or just attack with your team because you have the equipment. Either way, Naya is not at a loss in most cases and usually it needs to be treated like a combo deck rather than an aggro deck.

You just need to find the right piece you are missing depending on what your hand looks like. You even have some tutors to help you assemble your pieces.

Finally let’s take a look at the sideboard plan against Jund, using my decklist as the example. As with any deck, you must sideboard per your opponent and how they are playing but this strategy is how I sided in Richmond for many of the games.

-2 Ajani Vengeant
-1 Elspeth
-1 Scute Mob

+2 Baneslayer Angel
+1 Behemoth Sledge
+1 Goblin Bushwhacker

Not a whole lot changes from the main deck to the board because I run the Sparkmage combo main deck. The planeswalkers are pretty terrible against Jund so they almost always come out.

Behemoth Sledge is one great way to dig yourself out of a hole if your opponent was able to hold the tempo, so you want the second one and if you had an extra Stoneforge Mystic I would bring that in as well. I really love the swap of Scute Mob for Bushwhacker because that card will swing the game in your favor.

Even if you have an empty board, if you play Ranger of Eos and grab and play Wild Nacatl (as a 3/3 of course) and Goblin Bushwhacker with kicker, you are attacking for a hasty ten damage. That’s with you having no other creature in play!

This sideboard strategy worked wonders for me. The only changes I would make would be to add some Dauntless Escorts to the sideboard because I like bringing them in against Jund as well.

Jund aims to be the control deck post sideboard so Naya needs to really be the aggressive deck. Tom Ross, who designed the Naya deck said that his game plan was to side in all the creatures he had in his board. His plan was, make sure you are the aggro deck. I have found this to be true for me as well.

In conclusion, I know that Naya is a great deck to be playing in Standard and in my opinion one of the best decks in the format. Jund is probably its worst match up and I have shown evidence that it is almost a sixty percent match win.

There is absolutely no reason not to be playing Cunning Sparkmage in your main deck in my opinion because it really is just that good.

If you have game play info about the Boss Naya/Jund matchup please let us know your experiences in the comments below…

Keep on Spikin’
Justin Brooke