Dragon decks revisited

Yesterday, I wanted to build a new dragon deck. It should have been something like Dueling Military (not Kensai but Magistrate). After going through all the new strategies I decided to post-pone this and update my current decks (that haven't seen War of Honor nor Forgotten Legacy nor the soon to be legal Second City).

I'll try to figure out what to do with my Magistrates, their actions gain or let other player lose honor. Their force is relatively high, but not that good for a military deck. So I'll see what can be done with it.

So first I updated my LSC deck. Now I need to play with it more. But I have to say that Duel of the Haiku is really awesome card. It can be played on opponent's turn, it dishonors and it even makes you gain honor! Then we have here Forging Destiny that has a FV of 4, nice magistrate/duelist/courtier with PH4 and 5 Chi and the card even has an ability that is not bad!

Last Step Castle Honor

Last Step Castle
1x Border Keep
1xBamboo Harvesters

Dynasty: 40
1x Traveling Peddler
3x Gold Mine
2x My Father's Shrine
2x Acrobat Troupe
1x Public Records
1x Kitsune Den
1x Counting House
3x Magistrate's Stipend

1x Hanayashiki
1x The Second City
1x Naoharu's Gift
1x Well-defended border
1x Ebisu's Honesty

3x Kitsuki Nubane (ho, I love this card)
1x Kitsuki Taiko XP
2x Kitsuki Bokuko
1x Kitsuki Hanbei
1x Togashi Satsu
2x Kitsuki Yodo
3x Mirumoto Haru
3x Mirumoto Bokusui
1x Mirumoto Hojatsu
1x Mirumoto Ichizo
1x Otomo Seimi
1x Daigotsu Oki

Fate: 40
3x Hamstrung
3x Steel on Steel
3x Impromptu Duel
3x Imperial Adjudication
3x Duel of Haiku (open duel, dishonor and 1 honor gain? awesome)
3x Outer Walls
3x Forging Destiny (hoho FV4?)
3x Shadow's Talon
2x Entrenched Position
1x Relentless Conviction
3x Wall of Honor
1x A Game of Dice
2x Peaceful Discourse
2x Snow-swept Summit
3x Claw and Shell
2x Patrolling the Roads

The second deck I tried meddling with is PoV Monk Enlightenment. I changed the Fate deck. I wanted to try String of Victories, Shadow's Talon and more duels than last time. I added Awed Witness and 1x Steel on Steel. I still have to see how it work. I had problems with card draw in this build but still I go through fate deck pretty fast. I'll probably have to change the decklist to suit me more.

PoV Monk Enlightenment

Pillars of Virtue
1x Border Keep
1xBamboo Harvesters

Dynasty: 40
1x Traveling Peddler
3x Gold Mine
3x Temple of Harmony
3x Colonial Harbor
3x Tranquil Garden
1x The Seekers' Temple
1x Counting House

1x Wisdom Gained
1x War of Dark Fire
1x A Tranquil Mind
1x Togashi Satsu
1x Togashi Osawa EXP
1x Togashi's Guidance
1x Togashi Shiori EXP
3x Togashi Kanmu
1x Togashi Kazuki EXP
1x Tamori Wotan EXP
3x Togashi Kyoshi
3x Mirumoto Haru
1x Togashi Nakahara
3x Togashi Gato
3x Tamori Wotan

Fate: 40
2x String of Victories
3x Changing Paths
3x Deception Revealed
2x Buoyed by the Kami
3x Steel on Steel
3x Cowed by Wisdom
3x Balance in Water
2x Entrenched Position
2x Awed Witness
3x Shadow's Talon
3x Cold Hands, Stone Heart
3x Master the Body
3x Dove Tattoo
1x Ring of Fire
1x Ring of the Void
1x Ring of Water
1x Ring of Earth
1x Ring of Air

Innistrad type 2

Yesterday, I've been trying to come up with a new deck. I wasn't really successful with it but I learned some things. Here follows something like a summary of my yesterdays attempts. Note that I wasn't really into building any deck but rather something that stays in Grixis colors.

There are few cards I wanted to try in testing (testing is a too strong word...playing on MWS is one, playing against the same control decks is the second).

Snapcaster Mage
Liliana of the Veil
Forbidden Alchemy
Think Twice vs Ponder
Invisible Stalker

My first deck was a Invisible Stalker-Blade with Snapcaster Mage. (The decklist can be Caw Blade with few Snapcaster Mages and Geist of Saint Traft or whatever). I learned my first lesson here - Invisible Stalker is not enough. It's not Squadron Hawk that can actually win the game (without the Sword). Having just Invisible Stalker on the table is nothing that will save you nor win you the game. You need more creatures to defend this creature against Liliana's Edict (and sacrificing Inkmoth Nexus is not the way to go)and the Sword is more likely to be hit by Acidic Slime anyway. Thus I needed to increase the number of Swords in the deck and also the number of creatures (Snapcaster Mage) which wasn't something I liked. Could be Hero-Blade with the Stalker, but well I would still rather equip Inkmoth Nexus with it.

After this I decided to completely abandon this idea and wanted to try something different. Something like this came to my mind.

UR experiment^^

3x inferno titan
2x chandra, the firebrand
4x azure mage/grim lavamancer
3x ponder
2x slagstorm
2x shock
4x Mana Leak
2x dismember
4x chandra's phoenix
1x devil's play
4x incinerate
4x snapcaster mage

This deck tried to survive the early game, dealing some damage on the way with the blue creatures (*wide smile*) and Chandra's Phoenix. In the end it should kill with Inferno Titan or Chandra. It was fun to play but I abandoned this. Here I found out that Snapcaster Mage actually falls rather in the aggressive part of the deck. The deck shifted into something more like this:

UR Aggro

4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Stormkirk Noble
4x Azure Mage -> Phantasmal Bear
4x Stormblood Berserker -> 2x Lord of the Unreal/2x Phantasmal Image
2x Hero of Oxid Ridge
2x Brimstone Volley
4x Incinerate
3x Shock
4x Mana Leak
2x Ponder
2 lands/Phantasmal Image

I tried figuring out what the best card to replace Azure Mage was and the ideal card for that is Phantasmal Bear^_^. The illusions theme is actually something that could work wonders. Phantasmal Image included in this deck can copy opponent's big creatures, can get rid of annoying Thran or can copy your Hero that is good against Timely Reinforcements. The fact that the illusions die easily can be used to your advantage - Brimstone Volley is there to deal five damage. But well yeah, it would need a card like Lord of the Unreal, but is it worth it? How many of them would be good so your Phantasmal Image wouldn't die so easily?

UB Draw Go

4x despise
4x mana leak
4x think twice
3x snapcaster mage
3x doom blade
1x grave titan/1x Black Sun's Zenith
2x consecrated sphinx
3x solemn simulacrum/2x Dissipate and 1x Black Sun's Zenith
1x batterskull
1x karn liberated
4x liliana of the veil
2x forbidden alchemy

So back to something more usual. I wanted to see what Liliana can do and I have to say that Liliana costing 3 mana is really crazy. It does change a lot and needs to get a bit used to it. She just gets there and either kills one of your creatures you tried to get through, or is there so you can't use her as an edict (when dealing with some reanimated creature) or discards a card when it really is bad for you. That's also a reason why I would actually play Forbidden Alchemy and Think Twice. Playing ponder in my more red decks worked better (ok it was primarily - look for burn and feed lavamncer) but having the possibility to play these cards from graveyard (and thus just discard them) proved to be good. Anyway these cards work pretty well, remember the times where you wait with your counterspell and your opponent does nothing? Now it's time to draw a card!

I added batterskull to the deck to deal with aggro decks. Another one would be in sideboard. It's cheaper than Wurmcoil Engine and you can blink it. I got used to this card when playing Modern Superfriends and I don't think it's a bad idea.

Anyway at first I played Solemn Simulacrum, but the card does not really do what I need in this build. I had 2x Grave Titan and 2x Consecrated Sphinx, but I needed more card draw and counterspells. So I guess I'll keep Solemn Simulacrums for my Grixis deck

I'm not entirely sure what spot removal to use either - Doom Blade or Go For the Throat? That's probably also a reason why I stick to despise. But this card hits only walkers and creatures. Reanimation on the rise it might not be wise to discard creatures and usually I can deal with those. Nowadays I wish there would be Duress available, but in more black deck Distress could become viable. But who knows.

The following deck is something I would not recommend to anyone^_~. There are many cards that could form a base for a deck or a deck could be build around it. In Grixis colors it could be Heartless Summomning or Burning Vengeance.

Grixis Titans

4x Ponder
4x Incinerate
3x Shock
4x Mana Leak
3x Dissipate
2x Slagstorm
2x Doom Blade
4x Despise
1x Batterskull
3x Solemn Simulacrum
2x Grave Titan
1x Inferno Titan
2x Consecrated Sphinx

Well, so what to play? Either UB Draw-Go or UBw with some Unburial rites package or....this

Burn

3x Chandra's Phoenix
4x Brimstone Volley
3x Shock
3x Incinerate
4x Stormkirk Noble
4x Furnace Scamp
2x Hero of Oxid Ridge
4x Shrine of Burning Rage
2x Tezzeret's Gambit
4x Stormblood Berserker
3x Grim Lavamancer
2x Arc Trail
3x Gut Shot

I'm not really sure if Tezzeret's Gambit is a good thing. I would want to play Spikeshot Elders as well as I encountered a problem of not having enough 1 drops and this one does quite a lot in late game. Brimstone Volley showed to be even better in this deck then in the UR one.

Planeswalker Buttons

It's been a while that I've done these. (the images are from WotC m12 halfdecks)

Cheating (some general rant)

At a certain Pro Tour one player was disqualified because of cheating. Actually he wanted to do an illegal action and his opponent told him that it does not work that way (played mirror). His reply was 'I know' and thus he got a DQ as this clearly shows that he wanted to use this to his advantage. This is cheating. At high level this really is something that I would DQ for but what about casual play? What do you do or would do?

I encountered many people who tried to cheat when playing against me. I usually ignore that and just let it go. Some of those who were really persistent and doing it all the time I started telling them that this is cheating and they should stop doing that. They should keep the game state as it should be and follow the rules. I played against players who were playing additional land, drawing additional card, not tapping properly, looking at extra cards etc. There are people who tried to mislead me or do an illegal action so they would trick me. All this intentionally. Are such people eligible for tournament play? Most of these people aren't actually good players and by cheating they try to be better than others. I understand this even though they should learn to play the game well so they wouldn't need to cheat.
Really sometimes these players don't even know what deck they are playing and what cards are those they need. There were few people who asked me how they should stack their deck so they win all the time. When first player asked me this question I was speechless. I just couldn't say a word. When this happened for nth time I finally found my voice and told the person to do at least a little homework about a deck they net decked.

We also had a funny situation with few people. But I will note just one. There are many players that stack their deck in a certain way. Some just take land and add two spells, land, two spells etc. I had a game against one boy doing this. I knew that he was doing that and did not really care. After losing to me and stacking the cards yet once again he wanted to play against someone else. I told the player what the boy does with the deck. The player came to him, took his deck and divided it in three piles and then handing over a deck consisted of a land part and non-land cards. The boy had to mulligan several times, till he actually gave up and sad that this is unfair and we have no right doing so. We told him how it should be but still he did not listen. For next few days we had the chance to see him, he was still doing that. Shouldn't one lesson be enough? Some people are stubborn and not just little boys, I know that older player do this as well and many do this unnoticed and intentionally. But why? Just to boost their ego?

Anyway I haven't really had a problem with cheating during a Magic: The Gathering tournament and if there was it usually wasn't intentional. I had many people call a judge on me because they thought I don't have the right number of cards in my deck or that I did not have a valid deck and asked for a deck check. Most of these people got a warning right after my deck was checked and those are the times when I know that Magic has rules to follow and each player (and others) have their responsibilities. There are times I ignored mine as telling a judge that certain person plays an illegal card. But that's probably I was to shy and not really confident either to ask. Nowadays I know that I would call a judge right away.

This is something I always feared, at least when I was younger and I wanted to go to GP Prague (Onslaught). I never played a sealed deck before and I was afraid that there would be many things I would mess up and I would gather some penalties^_^. But now I know that all issues are addressed and solved and Judges are fair.

Also I would like to make a little digression. On certain forums people are asking if game store have problem with people who are either drunk or drugged. From my own experience there aren't usually problems with such people even though I don't like to play against someone who does not really seem to be himself.

Now back to cheating but in a different game.

I played Legend of the Five Rings for a while actively. I went to one of the big tournaments that are held at different locations in the world. At this tournament -Kotei- I noticed few things and one of those things was - players were cheating (in this game people call the most balanced, challenging and that the community is friendly).

In the first round I had a player who missed a trigger on each of his turn. Then in his Action phase he would remember and use the ability even though it says 'may' and the ability triggers only at the beginning of the turn. I told him that he should be taking care of that trigger if he wants to use it. I told him this several times and called a judge twice. The first Judge just told him to be more careful and the second one gave him a warning. But at that goddamn moment for me the trigger was a question of winning the game or not. I should have won the game. I felt betrayed. The match up was already the worst I could encounter.

When playing against another player I realized that he tries to do many chaotic things and then say what ability he uses. He was using certain abilities twice and sometimes he also was coming back to triggers that were long gone. I wasn't sure if this was intentional until another game where I saw him play against someone else. There I found out that this WAS intentional. I was telling the player what abilities he used and what he cannot do, but yeah I have to say that this distracted me and it was pretty tough for me to follow the actual game.

I also played against a player who was in top 8 and to my surprise he tried to 'outcheat' me as well. I was like WTH? I just couldn't believe it. People were trying to cheat on regular basis. Why? At those tournaments I played I noticed that many players don't really follow what the other player does (how he pays for the cards mostly or what were the abilities used or cards drawn). That's also a reason I did not want to play at tournaments because I was messing quite some things and I wanted the situations to be solved correctly (ie. when paying a gold cost of a card incorrectly, but the card is in play already or when an illegal action takes place and how to solve that) Also many people don't count opponent's honor which I also find weird. There are games in which I actually forget to gain honor even there is no other option and this for example is ignored and just taken as is...In Magic this wouldn't happen.

I was frustrated because of this many times. The rules might be complex, but there should be someone who would judge and say what the players should do or something where one could find out how to deal with such situations.

Is cheating more common in this game because it is more complex? Or because the inconsistency in the rules and absence of 'how to deal with situation x'? I don't know but this was a really frightening experience and I'm glad that such things don't happen at Magic tournaments (at least not often...).

EDIT: One more thing. Many players are rude and call people idiots and worse words. There are players that have no respect for other players be it their opponents, other participants of the tournament, judges, TOs or team mates. These people should be taught how to behave. This happens relatively often and is not just. But this usually gets overlooked and no one ever bothers to deal with this.

That's about it...just something I had to type as it stayed inside me for quite some time already.

Outcast.cz

Starting yesterday my online shop is working so people can order some stuff and get it. It probably does not work at 100% as it should and it's not 100% as I would like it to be but for the time being it seems to work somehow. I still need to check if PayPal works. I as a seller I can't pay for the goods using my account so... I need to ask someone else to do it.

And Innistrad cards are also included in the database as of....today.

Innistrad (Visual) Spoiler

The administration and few other scripts will help me with accounting so another problem is solved.

I had to post this...It took a long time and it still needs a lot of work, but now it more or less works and I can continue working on it and customers are free to order anything.

The shop runs at

Outcast.cz

and has Standard Magic: The Gathering Singles, L5R Celestial Arc Singles, MtG products and accessories...that's about it for the time being. More products are yet to come.