Jund Control

Another WMCQ is almost here (in two days) and that is a reason to put together some type 2 deck. I played with Bant Control and Esper Control but I would not dare to show up with such a deck at another tournament. Esper has some really nice cards like Warped Physique and Aetherling but still I would fear playing against some crazy blitz decks. So I tried Jund. Sire of Insanity is a card that I immediately liked. Liliana of the Veil is a really nice card as well and that's why I wanted to try Jund. Many players came up with different Jund builds before me so it's nothing new for you I guess but for me it was exploring something new.

Some time ago I wrote some post about my Bant deck and I think that I compared it to Jund... I build a Jund deck at first and then switched to Bant because the Jund deck did not feel like control at all. It was a midrange deck that needed some luck and a style of play I don't like and was more dependant on creatures. But the deck that follows is different. It feels completely different. This is a deck that can be pure control or be aggressive.

Liliana of the Veil is awesome against UWR and Esper. T2 Liliana means a win usually. She can also deal with some nasty creatures like Geist of Saint Traft or just reanimated [anything]. Her discard ability is good against almost any deck. Running a play set is something I do not regret. That card is really strong and even against reanimator decks. I can't imagine a card that I would run main deck that would be as good as her. I know it sounds wierd but she wins games.

Mizzium Mortars is a card that I find much better than Bonfire of the Damned. I hated this card when everyone was playing Naya with 4 Bonfires. It was a race who would play his or her Bonfire first. I did not like that. When I was trying the Jund midrange deck Bonfire of the Damned wasn't showing when I wanted it and it did not really give me much control over what was going on. It either came when I needed it (wasnt happening often) or it was completely a dead card. It's a card I hate seeing on my opening hand. I could't kill a single creature with it which could be sufficient in most cases. Mizzium Mortars though gives us choice and thus control. It's a two mana Flame Slash or global removal. A bit of acceleration helps so I can play it early and deal with some annoying board. It cannot deal with 5/5 Trample Wurm but for that I still have Putrefy and Dreadbore (or Decay).

I decided to try out Dreadbore. Many decks run Garruk, Jace or Liliana and lately Sorin so I decided to try this. After some games though I'm thinking about playing 1 or 2 Abrupt Decays. Still it kills a creature and it deals with a 'walker as this deck lacks burn spells that can target a player.

Ground Seal main deck seems quite normal to me. But people seem to be surprised. Well there are many reanimator decks and are usually winning tournaments so this helps against this match up. It does not really take the space in the deck. It replaces itself even though it costs 2 mana. It is also good against decks running Snapcaster Mages.

Sire of Insanity is awesome agaist control decks but it can kill other decks as well. Against some match ups the card is completely useless as its usually about staying alive during early/mid game. In late game anything is good enough to kill the opponent. Sire can be played quite fast and is a big body. That's simply awesome and Jund top decks are usually good. Even though I managed to draw 10 lands straight in few games already^^. I still won though.

Pillar of Flame and Abrupt Decay against any fast aggro decks and GW tokens are a must (Bant Auras included). I would probably cut that Rakdos's Return from sideboard and added yet another removal or Olivia. She's awesome as well when used well.

And Olivia Voldaren she's really cool creature and the best creature against Aetherling.

Well I'm just glad that I finally found a Jund deck that I can actually play. It feels like playing control and not a deck that with random (even though strong) effects. So here's the list.

Jund Control
stsung
Type II

Main Deck:
2 Arbor Elf
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Liliana of the Veil
2 Olivia Voldaren
2 Sire of Insanity
3 Thragtusk

1 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Dreadbore
4 Farseek
2 Ground Seal
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Putrefy
2 Rakdos's Return

4 Blood Crypt
3 Dragonskull Summit
2 Forest
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Rootbound Crag
4 Stomping Ground
4 Woodland Cemetery

Sideboard:
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Acidic Slime
1 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Pillar of Flame
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Sever the Bloodline
3 Slaughter Games
1 Underworld Connections

Saving heavily played Jace, the Mind Sculptor

This Jace is heavily played so I decided to make him look better (at least from the front side). Both altered Jace TMS are for sale.

STsung's Alters on Facebook

I decided to create a page with my alters and custom playmats. This way the people interested in following page can do so and can order some stuff from me directly. Here's the link.

https://www.facebook.com/STsungAlters

Glen Elendra Archmage Alter

Highlander Series tournament no.8

Today the last tournament of the Highlander Series took place. I was second in the series till the last tournament when everything simply went wrong and I moved to fourth place from which I could hardly reach the top. I wasn't even sure if I would want to go to the last tournament. In the end I decided to go...

Few days before the tournament I realized that it is in just few days! I wasn't even at home nor did I have a deck ready. At the last tournament I played with Izzet Control which is a very good deck, but it wasn't my day. My very bad mood did not help things much. I also tried few games with a Combo-Control deck. It worked against the players I played but I did not find the deck competitive enough (it was though).

So the day before the tournament I put a deck together. It was once again the crazy Necrotic Ooze combo (+ Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion). I tried few games with it but lost every one of them. (Actually 3-0 against one deck and 0-3 against another one). After the 0-3 I decided to try a different deck...I decided to play good stuff once again but this time with blue.

After a very long talk with my flatmate I went to sleep early in the morning. At 8:45 I woke up for some reason and headed for the tournament.

Round 1
I wasn't entirely sure what I play against. At first I thought and hoped it would be some kind of GW aggro because against that I have a good match up but when Selesnya Signet showed up I was caught offguard. From this moment on I knew that I should be expecting anything and Sigarda was one of the cards I did not expect. Soon I was facing Advent of the Wurm token and some other creatures, Master of the Wild Hunt among them. There wasn't much I could do with it. In game three I tried as I could to gain tempo but I did not really manage it and it came down to a moment in which I should decide either I would be killed by Sigarda or Silverblade Paladin. I decided that getting rid of Paladin is easier but in the end it was vice versa because my next draw was Enlightened Tutor which could fetch Phyrexian Metamorph and thus get me rid of Sigarda. Timely Reinforcements and Snapcaster Mage were trying to keep me alive but in the end I was facing both paired Paladin with Eternal Witness and Sigarda. I lost 2 games (and obviously won one...) but at least I was forced to use my brain and think. This helped me quite a lot because I decided to win the remaining games. (it came true^^)

Round 2
In this round I played against Lukas. He usually plays a burn deck or mono green but today he decided to play mono blue artifact deck. This deck can be pretty annoying but without the right mana acceleration it cannot keep up with the competitive highlander meta (Bitterblossom backed up by a counterspell and Sword of Fire and Ice did the job). I won the first game quite quickly and in the second game my opponent was stuck at 3 lands. We played a third game in which I let him live for 3 more turns then was necessary and he managed to beat me. I have to admit that what he showed me was pretty impressive. Creeping Tar Pit is still the number 1 card against mono blue (along with Bitterblossom that won me the first game).

Round 3
I played against some Dark Bant deck. It was surely less aggressive than my build. I don't really remember what was going on in the games. In game two I took a mulligan several times because I couldn't manage to draw some lands. I still couldn't draw lands after my mullingans, in the meantime Putrid Leech was dealing me 4 damage each turn. I still had a chance to possibly win (if my opponent would not have more counterspells than me) but I did not draw a card that would help me. When my opponent played Restoration Angel I decided to play Remand and deal with it later. That was most probably a mistake because at that time I could still play Snuff Out and don't die from it (I was at like 7 life). A turn later I lost the game.

In game two I had relatively ideal hand (that means it had 4 lands, 2 creatures and a counterspell). It was my turn to be aggressive and it worked and Evasive Action worked wonders. I attacked as I could and countered what I could and won. In game three it wasn't clear who would win till the very end in which it was either me being faster or my opponent. In this game it was it was my turn to attack with Putrid Leech. It took my opponent down to 7 life but then he played Kitchen Finks and my poor Putrid Leech attacked twice and killed the Finks. I took 4 damage and had to counter Stifle in order to kill the annoying creature^_^. After this my opponent couldn't do much and lost the game few turns later.

Round 4
Next I faced a control deck. In game 1 I kept a hand with one land and it wasn't a good one either. I played my Treetop Village which was immediately hit by Wasteland. Five turns later I still had no lands and Baneslayer Angel showed up. I had Dismember to deal with it but no land to kill to play it. I played Creeping Tar Pit. Ajani Vengeant took care of that land. I drew another land - Island. I tried to play Dismember but it was Daze'd or something.

Game two was pretty quick. I started with a mana dork, followed by a 3 drop. I simply attacked and that sufficed (more or less). In game three it was quite tense but I kept my opponent under pressure from the beginning. He was facing two threats - from my creatures and from my manlands (fetched by Primeval Titan). He played Consecrated Sphinx, Jace TMS and Brainstorm but was unable to find a response to both of these. He managed to play Swords to Plowshares on my Tarmogoyf (I did not attack with Creeping Tar Pit to avoid the Sword or Path) and deal with the last creature. But still the unblockable manland was a problem. In the meantime I played Dark Confidant and hoped to draw some counterspells. I had Force of Will and Evasive Action so I felt quite safe even if my opponent would produce some answer. Wasteland would be a problem but still I was hardly dead. I won soon after that.

Round 5
Adam Koska and Zoo. Kird Ape was the first creature he played. Then he added Goblin Guide and attacked. I did not hit a land and was incapable of dealing with those creatures...it was a question of time till I would lose. In game 2 I slowed my opponent by playing Timely Reinforcements. He couldn't attack till he played River Boa that simply went past my soldiers, Baleful Strix and Shadowmage Infiltrator. I was attacking with Jon Finkel drawing an extra card each turn. Later I played Lingering Souls and flashbacked them. I did not expect Maelstrom Pulse but I still could easily win. I just totally messed the game up^_^. I also had Maelstrom Pulse and with that I could deal with lonely blocker taking my opponent down to 1 and I could deal the last damage by alpha striking if I would have played Arbor Elf. But instead I did not play anything... Few turns later in which I managed to mess what I could and played yet another Timely Reinforcements, I won.

The last game was pretty quick. I played Geist of Saint Traft on turn 3 and Dismember'ed Lotus Cobra standing in the way. I dealt 6 damage to me (I shocked myself with a land + 2 black Phyrexian) but it did not matter. In three turns my opponent was down to 0 as he couldn't deal with the spirit.

BUGw Midrange by STsung Creatures 1 Arbor Elf 1 Avacyn's Pilgrim 1 Aven Mindcensor 1 Baleful Strix 1 Birds of Paradise 1 Dark Confidant 1 Deathrite Shaman 1 Delver of Secrets 1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest 1 Elves of Deep Shadow 1 Eternal Witness 1 Fauna Shaman 1 Fyndhorn Elves 1 Gaddock Teeg 1 Geist of Saint Traft 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 1 Kitchen Finks 1 Knight of the Reliquary 1 Llanowar Elves 1 Lotus Cobra 1 Mother of Runes 1 Noble Hierarch 1 Phantasmal Image 1 Phyrexian Metamorph 1 Primeval Titan 1 Putrid Leech 1 Qasali Pridemage 1 Rhox War Monk 1 Scavenging Ooze 1 Shadowmage Infiltrator 1 Shriekmaw 1 Snapcaster Mage 1 Tarmogoyf 1 Thragtusk 1 Tidehollow Sculler 35 cards Other spells 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Ancestral Vision 1 Bitterblossom 1 Brainstorm 1 Counterspell 1 Daze 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Detention Sphere 1 Dismember 1 Eladamri's Call 1 Enlightened Tutor 1 Evasive Action 1 Force of Will 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Green Sun's Zenith 1 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Into the Roil 1 Lingering Souls 1 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Mana Leak 1 Memory Lapse 1 Mental Misstep 1 Miscalculation 1 Mox Diamond 1 Natural Order 1 Path to Exile 1 Remand 1 Snuff Out 1 Spell Snare 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Sylvan Library 1 Thoughtseize 1 Timely Reinforcements 1 Vindicate 35 cards Lands 1 Bayou 1 Breeding Pool 1 City of Brass 1 Creeping Tar Pit 1 Dryad Arbor 1 Flooded Strand 1 Forest 1 Hallowed Fountain 2 Island 1 Karakas 1 Marsh Flats 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Plains 1 Polluted Delta 1 Savannah 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Scrubland 1 Stirring Wildwood 1 Swamp 1 Treetop Village 1 Tropical Island 1 Tundra 1 Underground Sea 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Wasteland 1 Watery Grave 1 Windswept Heath 1 Wooded Foothills 30 cards

So it was time to redeem my credit. The total being 950CZK for which I could afford Thoughtseize. Along the way I got Urborg, Watery Grave (these were expensive at that time) and some other less expensive cards. Not bad at all and I thank the organizer(s) of the series and Najada for hosting the tournaments.

First playmat sold

Few days back I got a commission so I grabbed a blank playmat, my copic markers and started working on it. I was supposed to recreate my Planeswalker themed mat. This was relatively easily done. The biggest problem was that I needed to refill my copics. Sponsored partly by Jan Jestribek and my mother I managed to get it done.

This time I did not have such problems with bleeding and such. I already knew what to do and I gained some more skill to do a more precise work. Still at some point everything went awry and it simply did not do what I wanted it to do (I mean the color). I tried using my right hand at some point as well but I realized that the hand cannot handle the pressure on the tip at all so I just switched back to left and tried to survive the ache^_~.

It took me several days to finish this and the mat is going to see some new people so I decided to sign my work. Yeah...with the bleeding copics...yeah sure^_^. It did not turn out well, but certainly is unique and distinguishable.

And now? All I need to do is wait for my money to arrive so I can ship the item to its new owner! Hope he'll like it!

So if anyone of you is interested in a custom playmat and is willing to pay the money for the work and material just let me know. Thanks for reading anyway^_~

Cube Draft - Drafting control this time..

Yesterday one of our cube draft sessions took place at Najada. We were six and this time I was sitting next to players I don't usually sit which was a good news!

My first booster pack was nothing I would want to see. There were good black cards but would immediately send me into mono black. That wasn't my plan for the day so I picked Vampiric Tutor. My second pick was Consecrated Sphinx which was the best card there. After these two cards I was picking blue and black spells. But my deck was missing something...some really solid cards. Even my counterspells and removal spells were not good. In the second pack my first pick was Rout. If I wanted to survive long enough to play my big creatures I needed something like this. Majority of the cards I picked were white... among them Balance, Faith Fetters, Elesh Norn, Vindicate. The last four cards that circled were Wildfire, Ravenous Baboons, Pillage and Ghitu Encampment^^. I found that quite funny.

In the last pack I hoped for something like Wall of Omens but there was something even better - Spellskite and Wall of Reverance. Anyway my first pick was Necromancy, followed by Tinker that came handy. With all those cards my deck became playable^_^.

In the first round I played against America colored deck that was trying to beat me with some little creatures. I encountered several counterspells but that couldn't stop me as my whole hand was full of my big dudes. In game two Porcelain Legionnaire was played on turn one. That was not nice. On turn five I produced a blocker and on turn six I played Frost Titan hoping to stop that godamn creature from attacking. I was down to 5 life so I hoped I wouldn't die to some burn spells or something with haste.

In the second round I played against GW deck. It was slower but an aggro deck anyway. The first game was relatively quick victory for me but the second game took ages. I knew that my opponnent had two removal that could take down my Sphinx of Steel Wind and I did not have much response to that except for Vindicate (Oblivion Ring) and drawing the card once again (Condemn). My opponent played quite a lot of creatures and had Mirari's Wake, Survival of the Fittest and Awakening Zone in play. I had Wall of Reverance, Frost Titan and Psychatog. This was enough to keep my opponent from not attacking much. He was attacking but still I was gaining too much life. I did not want his creatures to die that would make a really big Scavenging Ooze that I couldn't really deal with.

After what seemed an eternity I finally played Sphinx of the Steel Wind. It was sent to (temporary) oblivion so we were drawing cards for yet another eternity. I was hoping to draw some flyer but none showed up (there was still Nefarox and Consecrated Sphinx in the deck somewhere). Anyway I finally drew Vindicate and destroyed the Oblivion Ring. The creature managed to deal some damage (opponent went down to 13) but was condemned. After this I was quite screwed but hoped that one of the reanimation spells would show up. My hand consisted of Faith Fetters (the only way how I could deal with Garruk that was creating beasts each turn), Buried Alive and Godless Shrine. I went from roughly 70 life down to 40 when I decided to play Balance to get rid of all the Awakening Zone tokens and all the creatures (actually this was for the second time I was in such a situation...). I also top decked Necromancy so I played Buried Alive on my Sphinx and reanimated. This time the Sphinx made it.

Next game was supposed to be against WR aggro deck. But we decided to split and rather get something to eat^^.

Copics waterproof?

Today I decided to do an experiment. What was at stake? Well my own custom playmat... I hoped it would survive though. And I'm quite silly because I forgot to document all this -_-. When such an idea comes to mind I should always document it...ok maybe next time.

Anyway I tried three different things with my playmat that is fully drawn with Copic Multiliners and Copic Markers. I already found out that the multiliner bleed if mixed with water when it is not dry but otherwise it seems to be pretty waterproof. Some player already spilt water on my playmat and it survived without any damage. So I decided to take it to the next level. I took the mat and dipped it in cold water. Then I took it out and let it dry. Nothing happened to it.

So after that I took it once again and put it in a water with bit of soap. I took it out and it was still ok.

So I tried a next step which I should have probably never tried out^_^. I tried (luke)warm water. At this point ... Chandra started to bleed A LOT. I took the mat out immediately but the color started to go in all directions so I put it back in the water and tried doing this several more times to get the color 'not all over the place'. C7 was the next color that started doing wierd things.

And this is how the mat looks after all the three experiments (soaked with water and the red and black color. Just thought I would share this experience^_^.

Super Dungeon Explore - Druid - Human Form

Super Dungeon Explore - Angry Bear

Random Photo of the Day no.3

Swords to Plowshares alter

Hm... I don't know...I have impression that I'm getting worse and worse in everything I do. Anyway this card was in a really bad state. Now it looks far better. But that does not help me feel better much.

Japanese Fluxcharger

I've seen many Japanese cards that have names just rewritten into katakana (old Japanese cards are like this). But since a really long time the cards get Japanese names. So when I saw this I was like 'What the hell?'. 変転充填魔 which should have this -> へんてんじゅうてんま written above the kanji actually has there Fluxcharger written in katakana. That's certainly wierd. I would understand if the card name would just show フラックスチャージャー or 変転充填魔 with the actual reading above it.... but like this? Is it an error or intention?

Kitchen Table Magic no.2 - Cube Sealed Deck - Eldrazi vs Reanimator

Second video from Kitchen Table Magic. This time we bring to you a game (3 games) of Magic Cube Sealed Deck. On the left Honza with his Eldrazi Ramp and on the right me with Reanimator. In the first game I won pretty easily and fast. In the second game I just couldn't deal with Kozilek and in the last game I tried surviving for as long as I could (I mulled to five which wasn't a good start...)