Introducing Kitchen Table Magic no.1 - Karn vs Mimeoplasm

There are many Magic players around the world and many of them do not participate in sanctioned events but rather play casualy at home. That's known as Kitchen Table Magic.

In the flat we both share we have only one table and that is located in our kitchen. When we played our first game I made some remark that.... we play kitchen table magic. Even though we played competitive Legacy at that moment we were trying to come up with some casual highlander decks so we could join one group of casual players. It did not turn out that well in the end as our decks were still too powerful but it forced us to think in a completely different way. So here under this label you will find videos of some games we played in our kitchen.

Anyway an idea of taking videos of our games came up simultaneously and spontaneously from both of us during a game of EDH. Many games we played were fun. Sometimes ridiculous sometimes pretty frustrating. There were many games that ended up on turn 3 or 4 because one player either locked the other or played something like Consecrated Sphinx on turn 3. We wanted to share some of those games with you and that is why we took few videos. Unfortunately the games we played when being filmed weren't that much fun and the first 4 videos were of a bad quality (you could hardly make the cards out)

So in this very first post under the 'Kitchen Table Magic' label we bring you a 'Karn mega lock'. That is a very fast game that ended up very badly for one player (me).

Dragon's Maze Prerelease

At midnight we decided to participate in Dragon's Maze Prerelease in Najada, Prague, Czech Republic. We arrived at 11:45 but we did not start playing till at least 1 am.

There were 64 players and the majority chose Orzhov as their guild. This guild also won the Dragon's Maze (not surprising). I also chose Orzhov but my pool consisted of good Izzet cards and Azorius ones. That is the reason why I decided to play these colors but without mana fixation it was quite difficult to play with it. My guildgates were Golgari, Golgari, Orzhov, Simic, Boros and Boros. My secret guild was Golgari.

Anyway no matter what in the first round I played against a player who played Loxodon Smiter turn 3. Later I was facing Ral Zalek and when I managed to play something it was killed by CLan Defiance. What could I do with that? Simply nothing. In the next round I mulled to 5 and to 4 and was unable to do anything. I played against another player who had Obzedat, Pontiff, Vizkopa and Selesnya Guildmages, Trostani's Summoner etc...how am I supposed to compete with that? With my removal that can hardly kill x/4 creature. Anyway what was usually killing me were cards from Return to Ravnica or Gatecrash. It was never a card from Dragon's Maze and most decks were full of the older cards and my all Dragon Maze deck was incapable of dealing with that.

So tomorrow we'll see what my pool will look like. So far I have 10 guild tokens, lot of crapy cards and Deathrite Shaman. For me this prerelease was a pretty bad experience and from what I heard I'm not the only one feeling that way. I'll give it one more chance but still I think I will be angry once again when someone plays Spark Trooper and Pit Fight against me...

SolForge - Collectible Card Game

Quite some time ago GaryGames announced that they were working on a new game named SolForge. At that time I had no idea what this game could become and the only thing I could do is give them some money so they could eventually start developing it. I send them some money. The kickstarter project was in the end successful.

SolForge is a digital collectible card game created by GaryGames team (Stone Blade Entertainment now) and Richard Garfield (most known as the creator of Magic: The Gathering).

The goal of the game is similar to other card games - to reduce opponent's life total to 0 (starting life total is 100 in this case). SolForge is a card game so you start with a deck with certain amount of cards. These cards have different types. There are creatures and spells so far. But a new type will be available soon. Creatures enter play in a line in front of you that has 5 slots. Spells after being played have an immediate one time effect.

Each turn a player has 5 cards available to him or her and can play 2 of them. There is no cost associated to playing cards unless the text on the card says so. You also have to Battle at some point on your turn (that means that it can be the first thing you do or you can wait until you play a card or both cards). At the end of each turn you discard the cards you did not play that turn and draw a new hand of five cards.

Leveling up
The unique mechanic in SolForge is leveling up. This is a mechanic that would be difficult to do in paper but is easy to do in a digital game. Each player starts with a deck that contains only level 1 cards. Whenever you play a card the card levels up (actually it levels up at the end of turn and if the card was played - and left the field - it levels up and is removed from your deck and replaced with higher level version). At certain point in the game you level up. At this point you reshuffle your deck and you can draw Level 2 or 3 cards respectively. This also means that it can happen that you won't draw a certain card from your deck.

Battle means that creatures in lanes (columns) combat. If a creature faces another creature it deals damage to that creature's Health value using its Attack value. The damage taken stays on the creature unless you heal it with some effects or abilities (like Regenerate). If a creature is not opposed it deals damage to the opponent (the attack value being subtracted from the player's life total). Creatures enter the lane on defensive (thus cannot attack, similar to summoning sickness in Magic). At the start of the next turn they can attack (and are thus on the offensive). When Battle button is pressed creatures on the offensive initiate combat. Creatures on defensive defend (deal damage) themselves when they are attacked.

Since this is a collectible card game in which deckbuilding plays a big role we have cards divided into four factions. Each deck can contain up to two faction cards. The factions are: Alloyin - researchers who seek advancement beyond all else, Tempys - barbarians and shamans that revere and harness the elements, Uterran - subterranean people who harness magic of nature, Nekrium - undead necromants from the frozen wastes. Alloyin cards are often defensive and are capable to level cards in other ways. Tempys has cards that can attack immediately, are heavily attack oriented, can deal direct damage etc. Uterran can create tokens, pump creatures, have some big creatures. Nekrium offers spot and global removal, has access to cards that come back from the 'dead' etc.

After playing the game I have to say that it is not as simple as it may seem. I wasn't sure how much impact the level up mechanic would have on the game but after actually playing the game I see that there is much more going on in combat and the way you decide when it happens. Leveling up is powerful but you can do easily without it but then you are probably not going to play Alloyin. It is very important to keep a good board state. Card advantage wins the game (as usual). The game can be pretty quick as battle (taking damage) happens on both your and opponent's turn (100 is not THAT much).

There are also special abilities in the game and this can lead to a very complex game in the upcoming years. I look forward to it as this will make it much more fun.

The game should be released in Summer 2013. I believe that this game will really be good and one of my favorite games as well.

Game of Thrones - Board Game

Game of Thrones is a strategy board game created by Christian T. Petersen and released by FFG in 2003. The game is based on fantasy series named A song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. This game has several expansions and a second edition which was released in 2011.

A player takes on the role of one of the Seven Kingdoms Houses - Lannister, Baratheon, Tyrell, Martell, Stark, Greyjoy - and tries to vie for the Iron Throne. You as a player command your armies and try to take control of a certain number of cities or strongholds (7) to win the game or you try to have the most seized cities and strongholds after 10 turns.

The set up and going through the rules for the first time takes quite a lot of time so you should be prepared for that. Otherwise it takes about 10 minutes to set everything up. The game board is seperated into regions which represent cities, strongholds and what not. Regions can have icons printed on them - a support barrel and/or power icon. Each player starts with a units in a certain region(s) and 3 of the players wilh have special tokens - Iron Throne, Valyrian Steel Blade and Messenger Raven.

The game is divided into 10 turns and one turn has 3 phases - Westeros phase, Planning Phase and let's say Execution Phase. Westeros phase is skipped in the first turn.

Westeros Phase
In Westeros phase cards from 3 Westerosi decks are showed to all players and are resolved. There are several things that can happen. Players can be allowed to muster forces, bid for positions on the influence tracks or reevaluate supplies. There are also cards that restrict players in placing orders. Some cards have a Wildling symbol on the card (which increases Wilding power) and some cards simply say that Wildlings attack.

Planning Phase
In the planning phase players choose and place order tokens to each region where he or she controls a unit or controls the region. There are 5 types of orders and the number of the tokens is limited(3*5). There are March orders that allow movement of units and can initiate a battle if the region is already occupied. Defend orders add a bonus to the defending units/army. Support orders allow players to help other units in neighbouring regions. Raid orders allow players to get rid of opponents' Support and Consolidate Power orders from neighbouring regions. Consolidate Power orders allow players to collect power tokens that are used in bidding on positions on the influence tracks and fighting wildlings. Some orders (1 of each) are marked with a star. A player can play a certain number of starred orders. This number is determined by the standing on the King's Court Influence track. A player who has a Messenger Raven token can replace his existing order with another one (unused one) after all the order tokens are revealed.

Execution phase
After all order tokens are revealed players execute the orders. The player being number one on the Iron Throne influence track starts followed by the second, third etc. First the Raid order tokens are executed. Then marching orders are executed. If such an order initiates a battle the battle is resolved. In a battle poewr of the units is compared. Each player can ask for help from any player who has a Support order in the neighbouring regions. Finally players choose a card from their hand to have an effect on the battle. House cards have various effects and some are unique. The player with highest total wins the battle and the losing units/army has to retreat otherwise is destroyed. A tie is decided by higher standing on the Fiefdoms influence track. Once per turn, the player having Valyrian Steel Blade can use it to add +1 to their side of the battle (no matter if attacking or defending). Lastly players claim powers according to the number of Consolidate Power order tokens and Crown icons in the corresponding regions.

The game ends when one player seizes 7 cities or strongholds or after 10 turns. The player with most cities or strongholds wins the game.

7 Wonders - Card Drafting Game

7 Wonders is a card drafting game which was first published in 2010. I've heard about this game quite a lot and seen it in a lot of places but whenever I wanted to try it out I couldn't find people to play it with. I usually asked some people at conventions were board games were played but the concept was too alien for most. When in a local game store I usually heard TCG players saying that the game is good and quite simple and does not take long to play. So with a group of Magic players we finally got to play it.

Few days ago I finally found out what the game is about. You take on the role of one great city of the Ancient World and you develop it in a certain way. The city is represented by (double-faced) board on which there is a resource you get by default and special abilities you can use during the game.

The game is divided into three ages. In each age a player receives seven cards from a corresponding Age deck. He or she then picks a card from those seven cards and passes the rest to the player on the left (for age 1 and 3, to the right for the second age). Picked cards are revealed simultaneously. Some cards have immediate effect (like gain X gold for [certain condition]), some cards can be used every turn (like resources) and some cards give you a victory points value at the end of the game. When the effects are resolved players pick another card. The age ends when all players have 6 cards in play. The seventh card is discarded. After this a military power is compared with military power of the neighboring cities. For each win a player gains victory points according to the current age. A player who loses gets -1 point for each loss no matter the age.

There are several actions a player can do. The most common one is playing the picked card (get resources, build a trading place, erect a architectural wonder etc). Playing a card costs something and for that a player needs resources. There are cards that do not cost anything, there are cards that cost gold pieces (you start the game with three) and there are cards that cost you resources (each city has one resource by default other resources have to be collected). Certain cards can be played for free if you have a certain card in play already. A player can also use a special ability that is depicted on the board. In that case he or she has to put a drafted card underneath the ability slot. If you ran out of gold (anytime you want) you can discard your pick and get 3 gold pieces.

At the end of the third age victory points are counted and the player with most points wins the game.

The game can be played relatively fast and is set up quickly as well. If you like card drafting and you are looking for something not so complicated you'll probably enjoy this game.

Loxodon Smiter Alter

Grand Prix Strasbourg - Sunday

After the Grand Prix main event I wanted to play more legacy and thus I wanted to participate in the Legacy Championship. I got up early once again as I couldn't sleep. When I got really bored in my room I went downstairs to eat my breakfast. Some Czech players were there already so we talked about the day before and ate our breakfasts.

We arrived to the site few minutes before the end of registration for the Championships. I registered and waited for the first round to begin. There were about 230 players or so.

In the first round I played against mirror. I knew this after I played my first discard spell and got a peek at his hand. Unfortunately I played Inquisition of Kozilek and not Thoughtseize so I was incapable of discarding Batterskull. In the upcoming turns I still did not get Cabal Therapy or Thoughtseize so I could get rid of that Batterskull. It landed in play few turns later and I did not have any response to that. So I tried to survive. Lingering Souls were helping me in that. Finally Stoneforge Mystic showed up, I tutored Batterskull and put it into play later. I was at 6 life at that time. I equipped my only creature with the skull (Mystic) and started attacking as well. This allowed me to survive long enough till I managed to get rid of all the opposing souls. The last one was hit by Liliana's second ability and the opponent conceded the game. We did not have much time for the remaining games. The second game was quick though and it was not in my favor. We asked some judges when the round ends. We got few answers like 1 minute, 2 minutes or 3 minutes. So we signed the result slip and waited for round 2. By having a draw in the first round there was a pretty high chance that I would play against yet another stone blade.

In the second round my opponent mulled to five. I played Cabal Therapy on Force of Will as that's probably the most played card (considering all types of deck). I hit it. The remaining cards were Counterspell, Karakas, Island and Plains. I decided that this deck is most probably a miracle deck. I played Bitterblossom and hoped that it would suffice. It did. In the second game I sided in Pithing Needle, Enlightened Tutor and what not but it was not even necessary as I managed to discard all his counterspells, play Stoneforge Mystic, fetch Batterskull and kill with it.

In round 3 I ended up really badly. I played Inquisition of Kozilek as my first spell and peeked at a hand full of Bloodbraid Elves. I hoped to draw a Cabal Therapy but it did not show. On turn 4 the first Bloodbraid Elf ended up on the table and cascaded into Baleful Strix. The next one brought Scavenging Ooze and the last elf brought Brainstorm. I did not have any removal and my only chance was to block the creatures and kill them in combat. But my 1/2s were not capable of stopping the elves. In the second game my first discard hit Umezawa's Jitte. But still I was under quite some pressure from Shardless Agents and creatures they brought in play. I had Jitte in my hand and drew Batterskull. This card could have saved me but my opponent top decked Tower of the Magistrate and played it. My only chance of survival was thus doomed to fail and I conceded.

Round 4 - Stone blade. Not entirely sure what was happening in these games except that I played Dark Confidant after Dark Confidant and it was always hit by Swords to Plowshares. I was discarding equipments and Vendilion Cliques and I was getting rid of other cards by playing Dark Confidants^^.

Round 5 was really interesting. I looked at my opponent's hand and I had no idea what he was playing - Ethersworn Canonist, Pernicious Deed, Enlightened Tutor, Phyrexsian Tower, Verdant Catacombs, Forest, Scavenging Ooze and Eternal Witness. Later in the game Veteran Explorer ended up on the table that's when I realized what I play against (or at least I had an idea). A turn later Grave Titan showed up. I played Swords to Plowshares on it but still the little zombies beat me. In the second game I tried as hard as I could and tried to avoid Pernicious Deed. My equipments got hit by Harmonic Sliver and my sideboard cards did not show up. I really needed Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage. Anyway everything looked quite ok when I managed to play Lingering Souls, flashback them and attack with them (and Jitte) but turn before my opponent's death he drew Pernicious Deed and swept the board. He played Sun Titan and Recurring Nightmare then. I did not drew graveyard hate and died few turns later.

My opponents hand in round 6 consisted of 6 lands and Life from the Loam. Unfortunately all the discard cards force to discard so the Loam ended up in graveyard. I won this game but I did not really know what I was facing. I did not see any creatures so I was siding out Swords to Plowshares. In game two my opponent sided in many cards. Not entirely sure what they were but the card that certainly killed me was Tarmogoyf. I got overrun by three of them and Jace TMS was yet another problem I couldn't deal with. Game 3 I reevaluated my sideboard but my opponent did the same and the game did not end up good for me. I could fight Jace TMS and discard some annoying Cliques but what killed me this time was Life from the Loam + Wasteland. I did not get the chance to remove Life from the Loam nor the land.

Round 7 was the best match I played^_^. I played against yet another Esper Stone Blade. In the first game I simply got rid of my opponent's Stoneforge Mystic and then played Lingering Souls and yet another Lingering Souls. These managed to win. In the second game it did not look good for me. I managed to play Pithing Needle forbidding Jace TMS but that did not stop my opponent dealing damage to me. When I finally managed to look at my opponent's hand it looked like this: Stoneforge Mystic, Jace TMS, 2x Supreme Verdict, Darkblast, Perish, Snapcaster Mage. That was even worse for me than I thought. My souls and Stoneforge Mystic would simply die to Supreme Verdict. It would take some time till I would draw more creatures and then it would get swept once again. Anyway I played the SFM and fetched Batterskull. My opponent then played Thoughtseize. I was ready to discard the equipment but my opponent decided to discard Liliana of the Veil while having four spirits in play. After that he managed to mess it up once again by playing Jace, the Mind Sculptor and thus losing one whole turn. His friend standing next to him seemed that he wants to kill him after such play but he didn't say anything. I pointed at my Pithing Needle and my opponent realized what he did. He passed me the turn. I drew Umezawa's Jitte and put it in play, equipped it and attacked. My opponent was down to 2 life. He had Stoneforge Mystic in play, 4 spirits and Jace TMS. He played Brainstorm and found Disenchant and Swords to Plowshares. Anyway he drew something and let me play. I expected him to play Snapcaster Mage and flashback Swords to Plowshares and then simply kill me. But to the surprise and entertainment of all present he did not do it. My draw was Wasteland, so I decided to destroy a blue source. I thought that he had Underground Sea untapped, but when targeting the land I realized that it was actually Scrubland. Anyway he tapped it for mana and played Disenchant on my already charged Umezawa's Jitte. After this my opponent's friend started yelling at him because this was already too much for him^_^. Me and Honza we started laughing so badly that I couldn't even talk for a while. I pumped my Mystic, killed the opposing Mystic and swinged for the win. My poor opponent was listening to his friend who just couldn't understand how he managed to mess the game so much. Judge came to us wondering what the hell happened so we filled in the result sheet and gave it to him.

Round 8 was not so much fun. But I've met a really cool guy. He came late and was given a game loss. But I knew that this would not stop him from winning the round. Japanese and German combined that can't be a bad player^_^. I looked at his hand and found 2 cards I did not like at all. Terminus and Moat. There was Repeal, Jace and some lands as well but those cards did not really concern me. Entreat the Angels was what would kill me and I knew I couldn't do a thing against that. I knew that this match up is rather unwinnable for me but I tried anyway. I played what creatures I could and attacked but after a third Terminus there was nothing I could play or attack with. Soon I was facing several 4/4 angel tokens. In game two I sided in all I could against this deck but I did not have Engineered Explosives in my hand. My opponent played the Entreat pretty soon where x was 3 and that was all he needed. I got rid of one angel and extracted the Entreat. But no decay, no sword, no liliana nor explosives for me. After the game ended we discussed my deck a bit. I had some free time before the next round for the first time during the tournament.

When I arrived to my table I was already too tired to take the game seriously. I did not even mulligan when I was supposed to. I played against Maverick. My top decks though were good and I won even though I certainly did not deserve that. In game 2 I had to mulligan to five. I managed to get two lands but one of them was Wasteland. This land was destroyed and I was left with one Swamp. I couldn't do much. In game 3 my hand was quite ok. But my opponent wrecked my plan with Pithing Needle on turn 1. The card I couldn't use was Liliana of the Veil and that was a problem. I needed to get rid of the needle so I could destroy Knight of the Reliquary. But my opponent was one turn ahead of me and played one more creature. So I decided to play Abrupt Decay on Knight of the Reliquary and hoped to draw something that would help. Unfortunately my following draws were only lands.

After the tournament I wanted to play more legacy and I decided that this deck is what I like. I should have played more Scrublands than Bayous but it did not kill me during the tournaments anyway. Having more duals though was ok except for the game against Life from the Loam + Wasteland. Also I was lacking more Pithing Needles.

We left the site about 9 or even later. We arrived to Prague round 3am and then we went to some Nonstop Bar. The first bar was closed. The second one as well...the third though was open. So we ordered some drinks and had some fun. This time finally I had the chance to play against Kumano. We played EDH till 6 am and then we left and parted our ways.

I'm really glad that I went to Grand Prix Strasbourg even though it cost me a lot of money that I would need now. It is something I really needed to get some energy and will to continue surviving in this madness of a world. This GP felt small and it was pretty expensive. Other GPs I went to where far better. For the money you paid you got something extra, could play in many different events and there was always something to do. Here it was rather meh, but as I spent the day playing Legacy anyway it was fine.

BWg Stoneblade
stsung
Legacy

Main Deck:
4 Dark Confidant
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Stoneforge Mystic

4 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
2 Bitterblossom
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thoughtseize
2 Umezawa's Jitte

3 Bayou
1 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Savannah
2 Scrubland
3 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

Sideboard:
1 Disenchant
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Humility
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Perish
1 Pithing Needle
1 Rest in Peace
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Sword of Feast and Famine

Abrupt Decay Alter

Grand Prix Strasbourg - Friday

I wanted to participate in Legacy GP for quite a while but it was never close enough for me. So finally this time I got the chance to go to Strasbourg to play Legacy.

We were leaving Prague at 9am. I went there with Pavel Matousek and Jirka Rehak. We arrived at the site at 5 pm more or less. I could decide whether I want to play in a GPT or Legacy Warm Up tournament. I decided to give the Trial a chance.

I wrote down my decklist (BWg Stoneblade) and waited for a really long time till our Trial was announced. It took another ten minutes before we could start. The very first game I played was against BUG control. The player did not speak English so it was a bit difficult to communicate and I wasn't even sure if I should call judge to solve our Tarmogoyf problem. But no matter how the situation would be solved I would win by just attacking with my Batterskull. It seems that BUG Control is a good matchup. Waiting for the second round was even worse. We waited an eternity and then we were told that there are technical problems and that we need to wait even longer. When the judge came once again he told us that we would get new pairings and once again we had to wait. The third round was starting when the previous Trials were already in their fifth round. After I lost to a creature with creature type - Ally - I could go anywhere I liked. As the rounds took ages though I couldn't participate in the Legacy Warm Up and I was late even for another GPT. At 8 pm I wanted to participate in the Magic Game Show. After a nice walk with Jirka we came back to the site and headed for the Chandra banner where the Magic Game Show took place.

This GP's Magic Game Show wasn't that fun as the previous ones I participated in. Richard Hagon looked in a pretty bad shape. Not sure if that was a jet lag problem or anything else.

There were 6 rounds. Round 1 was about Charms. There are many charms in the Magic: The Gathering history. They all start with a certain letter of alphabet. There are 8 letters that are not used as the first letter of a charm name. We got 7 out 8 right and we won some KMC sleeves.

Round 2 was about Mythics. There are 14 Mythic Rares that have cmc 9 or more. So we started writing some down. I couldn't remember how Omniscience is named and we did not that Darksteel Colossus was reprinted in some core set. We managed to list 7 out of those 14 Mythics. That wasn't enough to win the round.

Round 3 was meh. Well there are always questions like this but it wasn't fun. We were told the names of the WMCQ winners and we were supposed to write down the countries they would represent at WMC. In this round we also got half of it.

Round 4 was even worse. The question was good but we had no idea what those cards were. We were supposed to name 7 0/0 cards from Standard. We came up with Evil Twin and Clone but we couldn't come up with all those creatures that work with counters or Cryptborn Horror. But we weren't the last^_^

In the fifth round we were asked to write down decklist (rather the cards fromt he deck) of Shardless BUG that won the last StarCity Games Open. We got 18 out 20 cards right but it wasn't enough to win the round.

In the sixth round Hagon showed us his own drawings of certain cards. Writing down the names was quite difficult for us. We managed to get some of the obvious ones right but the rest was mystery to us. (all the cards were from Gatecrash)

After the Magic Game Show we played some Legacy with Jirka and after that we went back to our hotel. We got lost on the way so I parted them and went back and retraced the same route we took to the site. I was pretty angry and felt pretty sick but I promised a game of EDH to Kumano so I knocked on their door.

We played a multiplayer game that turned pretty badly as we were overrun by elves. I played another game with Honza Jestribek as we were eliminated first. We went to sleep after that.

By some miracle I actually managed to fall asleep but I woke up early in the morning. I was going through my deck and wondering if I shouldn't be playing more dual lands and change my sideboard. I did that in the end. Michal and Jirka lent me their cards and my deck was complete.

Playmat no.2 - Stoneblade

I ran out of several colors so I wasn't able to make it really look the way I would like (the background) and I won't be able to afford the colors any time soon. So it will stay like this till I earn some money and won't need to spend them on rent and food.

After a day and 2 nights the playmat is more or less finished. ufff...

Playmat no. 2 - Stoneblade WIP

Yesterday after I came back from WMCQ in which I managed to lose what I could (Naya Blitz is just impossible and when I finally started playing against something normal I was too thirsty and hungry that I couldn't simply play) I decided to try coloring my Stoneforge Mystic draft. After doing that we (me and my flatmate) agreed that it does not look that bad so I decided to draw that on a blank playmat. I was primarily afraid that Batterskull would end up badly.

So past midnight I took a pencil and started drawing the whole thing on the playmat. I got cramps in my hand and I once again realized that it's not going to be easy. But after some time I managed to get more or less what I wanted on the mat. This was the easier part.

At 5 am I finished the swords and jitte and started working on Batterskull. But that is going to take some time...

EDIT: Part of Batterskull...it's taking ages...

Boros Reckoner

GP Strasbourg - getting ready

In two weeks time we are going to France to participate in Grand Prix Strasbourg. The format is Legacy and thus I tried to come up with a deck I'd like to play. I started with GW Maverick, GWr Maverick, Esper Stoneblade, Junk Rock and BUG Tempo but in the end a BW deck came out of it (with Abrupt Decay and Deathrite Shaman).

After preregistering and sending 45USD to the organizers I really need a deck that I like to play.

I like my deck so far but I'm not sure if it should stay the way it is. At before last GPT I terribly died (it was the only match I lost) because I couldn't deal with Grove of the Burnwillows and Academy Ruins can be pretty annoying as well. So I was wondering if I actually should play Wasteland. I decided not to play too many dual lands and thus have better match up against anything tempo and other disruption decks. This worked wonders but still there are some lands I need to get rid of and Vindicate does not sound that good either. Anyway I almost made it to Top 8 (due to my missplays I just did not make it but it wasn't the deck's fault).

During the short period during which I play with the deck I made few changes. I added one more Umezawa's Jitte because many people are simply playing more than one and there are Decays everywhere. I cut Oblivion Rings and added 3rd and 4th Deathrite Shaman. But after last two tournaments I decided to go back to 3. The Shaman was actually one of the cards I usually sided out. Instead of that I added one more Lingering Souls and it 's quite ok.

My sideboard more or less consists of 15 random cards and I will most probably change the discard cards. I should play Thoughtseize as I need to deal with Jace TMS and Batterskull for example and play less Cabal Therapies as I will be playing against people I've never seen in my life and I won't know what they play thus. So 4 Thoughtseizes (I don't have those...so we'll see if I can get them) and 2 Therapies should be the right number. I was also wondering if I should run Pernicious Deed or Engineered Explosives. There are times in which I would really appreciate a card like this and match ups as well.

Anyway if you have any ideas that could help me or some feedback just comment underneath this post. I'll appreciate it. The decklist follows.

BWg Stoneblade
stsung
Legacy

Main Deck:
4 Dark Confidant
3 Deathrite Shaman
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Stoneforge Mystic

4 Abrupt Decay
1 Batterskull
2 Bitterblossom
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Umezawa's Jitte

2 Bayou
3 Forest
4 Marsh Flats
2 Plains
2 Scrubland
5 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Perish
2 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Zealous Persecution