Islandhome #44

==ISLANDHOME #44==

December 31st 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

News Bites
Death Cloud: Michael Evans goes 7-0 in a tournament!

Happy New Year! We return to our usual format after all this holiday stuff is over.

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

==NEWS BITES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

The PTQ season for PT Honolulu is starting soon, and the format is Extended. Although the schedule isn't out yet because the Wizards site won't be updated until Monday, there are some PTQs (though none of I know of in our area) this very weekend! In preparation of the Extended season, I'm thinking about sanctioning some Extended tournaments at Islandhome-sponsored locations in January... possibly January 24th or 31st at FNC, depending on the PTQ schedule. Preferably later, since that'll give people more time to build decks for the format. If you want to play Extended instead of Standard one of those days, let me know!

We had a lot of fun last week in a five-player free-for-all multiplayer EDH game, and I'm hoping to do it again this week on Saturday at FNC! If you want to play, bring a deck! If it gets off, I'll post a write-up on it in the next issue of Islandhome!

My latest Cranial Insertion article came out Monday, so go read!

One of Islandhome's readers, Johnny Thorner, emailed me wanting to let everyone know that KB Toys is going out of business, and liquidating everything they have in the stores. Right now they're offering 50-75% off everything in the store, including CCG stuff like Magic, Yu Gi Oh, and Pokemon cards. I went to the KB Toys by me to check it out, and the selection was very limited, but you might be able to pick up some cheap packs for a limited time!

==DEATH CLOUD==
Author: Michael Evans

When Paskoff asked me to write a column about Extended I asked myself, "Who would ever take my advice on Magic?"

Nevertheless, I'm going to share my experience with you on what I know about the current Extended format and my recent experience winning the Magic-League Extended trial with my current favorite deck in the format, the almighty Death Cloud Rock. Take what you want from it, hopefully it gives you some insight.

At Pro Tour Berlin six of the top eight decks were the pesky Elfball deck. Elfball is a very fast combo deck that uses mana producing Elves and Glimpse of Nature to generate a big creature-playing/card-drawing turn to draw their win condition, which is usually Grepeshot or Predator Dragon tutored into play with Chord of Calling. This results in a very fast win on a good draw with a turn two or three kill. The key with the Elf Ball deck is the synergy between Birchlore Rangers/Heritage Druid and Nettle Sentinel. With multiple Nettle Sentinels and a Birchlore Rangers in play you can generate all the mana you need to play any creature you draw with Glimpse of Nature. Combine that with utility cards like Summoner's Pact and Weird Harvest to ensure you get the creatures you need, and you have a very consistent combo deck. On top of all that the Elf Ball deck can easily go with the "Man Plan" to beat down with many 1/1's on the first few turns.

Despite Elf Ball's dominance at Berlin, extended is a very diverse format right now. At worlds we saw an emergence of many other different decks. Zoo, Swans combo, Tron variants, Tezzeret, Death Cloud, Mono Red Burn, and all-in red all had good showings at worlds.

Another deck that had a strong showing was Faeries. We all know Faerie's Standard dominance over the last year or so, but Extended Faeries is a very different deck that is also emerging as one of the top three decks in the Extended format. Extended Faeries is a very creature-light Mono-Blue control deck that uses Venser, Shaper Savant, and the two creatures that lend their creature type to the deck, Spellstutter Sprite and Vendilion Clique. Those creatures seem unassuming at first(When a mono Blue Control player's finishers are 1/1 and 2/2 you may feel pretty good about yourself), but armed with one of the three or even four Jitte's the deck runs maindeck, you can be losing pretty quickly. The Faerie deck aims to draw cards and counter your spells in the early game, and and beat down with a Faerie equipped with a Jitte in the mid to late game. Riptide Laboratory and Repeal give Faerie's a very good late game plan with the ability to bounce Spellstutter Sprite or Venser repeatedly to counter or bounce any of the things you draw in the topdeck war. Another key card in the deck is Vedalken Shackles. Shackles is a powerhouse in this deck and especially good in the mirror match, allowing you to take control of anything they actually resolved.

Now we come to my favorite deck, an offshoot of my all time favorite archetype, The Rock. The Rock archetype is a mainly Black/Green (sometimes with one or more splashes) mid-range deck that packs hand disruption, creature removal, and big green creatures, generally running the most efficient of each of those card types in the format. The Death Cloud version uses Garruk and Golgari Rot Farm to generate mana to cast Death Cloud, a card that you are then built to recover from while for your opponent it's often the end. It's very hard to lose after resolving a Death Cloud cast at the right time. Yesterday I won a Magic-League Extended trial with the following list:

Lands:
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Swamp
4 Forest
3 Golgari Rot Farm
3 Treetop Village
2 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Polluted Delta
1 Mutavault

Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Eternal Witness

Spells:
4 Thoughtseize
3 Putrefy
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Crime/Punishment
3 Death Cloud
3 Damnation
2 Smother
1 Slaughter Pact

Sideboard:
1 Smother
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Pithing Needle
4 Night of Souls' Betrayal
3 Cranial Extraction
3 Choke

After looking at the succesful Worlds lists and testing a bit I settled on this list. It doesn't run bad cards like Utopia Sprawl and opts for Finks over Ravenous Baloth, with your 4cc slot filled up already and the ability of Finks to come back after a Death Cloud or to eat up two removal spells.

One card in this version that differs from last season's Death Cloud is Crime/Punishment. With Pernicious Deed rotating out of Extended in october, this ended up being a very fine replacement. It wrecks the Elfball deck and works as a versatile removal spell that can be used as an almost-Vindicate for any Enchantment, Creature, or Artifact in play, or a mass removal spell.

The favorable matchups for this deck are Elfball and Faeries. Some people say Faeries is a bad matchup(mostly Faeries players), but I've never had any trouble in that matchup, especially after sideboard.

Like many Rock decks, the rest of the field is mainly 50/50. The other combo decks can be beaten by hand disruption and Cranial Extraction or Choke. Zoo can be beaten with the right hands and smart play, but it is one of the weaker matchups. All-In red is also very hand-dependant, but mostly the opponent's hand. I chose to run a fair number of basic lands to counteract Blood Moon effects. The only unfavorable matchup based on my experience is Mono-Red Burn, as you have so many dead cards even after sideboard, and Death Cloud is all but useless. It is still very winnable though, as you can race them with Tarmogoyfs and happen to draw multiple Kitchen Finks.

In round 1 my opponent didn't show up, so I essentially got a bye.

Round two saw me beating Elfball 2-0. Elfball is one of the truly strong matchups for this deck, the best matchup in the format for it. Maindeck you have enough hand disruption and mass removal to deal with their 1/1's while disrupting their combo, and after sideboard it becomes a wash with Night of Soul's Betrayal.

In round three I faced the first Faerie deck of the day, and won 2-1. Game one I lost to Jitte, a card that really scares me in this matchup. In game two I sideboarded as follows: -3 Damnation, -3 Crime/Punishment, -2 Smother, -1 Slaughter Pact, + 3 Night of Soul's Betrayal, +3 Choke, +3 Pithing Needle. Night of Soul's betrayal is also very good against Faeries, limiting their ability to attack you to the 2 Vensers and Mutavaults in their deck. Needle is pivotol for Vedalken Shackles and Jitte, the two most powerful cards against you.

In round four I faced yet another Faerie deck, and this time went 2-0 in a quick match that saw him getting bad hands in what I already find to be a good matchup for me.

In round five I faced off against a rogue Bant Aggro deck that actually gave me some trouble. It was very original and interesting, almost a Matt Brocking type of deck. Here was his list:

Lands:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
4 Breeding Pool
2 Temple Garden
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Forest
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Academy Ruins

Creatures:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Troll Ascetic
3 Rhox War Monk
2 Llwanor Elves
2 Iwamori of the Open Fist

Spells:
3 Stifle
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
2 Steelshaper's Gift
3 Bant Charm
4 Spell Snare
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte

Sideboard:
2 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Krosan Grip
3 Engineered Explosives
4 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Worship

In game one I survived at 1 life, and in game 2 it was slightly less challenging with Thoughtseize coming out and an extra Smother and Slaughter Pact coming in.

Round six there were 3 players remaining, and I happened to get the bye, so I was in the finals.

In the finals I played one of the tougher matchups for Death Cloud, Zoo. I survived game one and quickly went to the board. Out came 4 Thoughtseize and in came Smother, Slaughter pact, and 2 Pithing Needle for any Jitte's he may or may not have(which I later found out he did in fact have). He won game two on double Tribal Flames for 5 when I was at 10 life. Game two I quickly dropped double Tarmogoyfs with a hand of removal spells and finished him off with the 4/5's.

I would advise anyone looking for a consistent deck with even or favorable matchups in the field to play Death Cloud. It's a solid mid-range deck with an auto-win card as a backup and a lot of room for tweaking in main and sideboard for your metagame.

That's it for me, see you all at FNC where you can see me and Paskoff playing with action figures.

-Michael Evans

==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff

So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!

The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.

Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!

If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!

I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.

==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==

One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!

==UPCOMING EVENTS==

January 3rd - ?: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu

The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Extended!

PTQs in our area this season:

Schedule not up yet, check back later!

==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #43

==ISLANDHOME #43==

December 24th 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Mox Tournament Results: Nestor "Nestor" Ramirez takes his Faerie deck to claim a piece of power in Grim's first big constructed tournament!

Happy Holidays!

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

This week's tournaments will go on as scheduled, as I'm not going to be attending the PTQ in New Jersey after all.

==MOX TOURNAMENT RESULTS!==
Author: Brian Paskoff

Grim's Mox Emerald tournament was this past Sunday, and eighteen combatants braved the doom-and-gloom weather reports to compete for a valuable piece of power! The competition was fierce, and the metagame diverse. Fresh off its Worlds victory, Faeries was the most popular deck; four Fae lists showed up, although only one made top four. There were two copies of each Jund Ramp, Mono-Red, WR Reveillark, and surprisingly enough, Grixis Aggro. Aside from a lone Kithkin list and UW Reveillark, the other decks came in different varieties of homebrew: Planeswalkers, Bant Aggro, WB Reveillark, and BRG Tokens.

Nester "Nestor" Ramirez came away victorious, proudly displaying his Mox to the scores of spectators, confused Warhammer 40k players, and even the World of Warcraft players rose from their chairs to… well, they lent their silent respect while raiding, I suppose. Nestor faced a difficult challenge in the finals, as Ralph Navarra's Jund Ramp deck seemed specifically tuned to beat the little flying people, and Ralph had won the matchup 2-0 in the swiss previously. When Nestor tapped out for a Sower of Temptation in game one and Ralph's deck failed to cough up a Jund Charm, Cloudthresher, or even a Shriekmaw or Resounding Thunder, he knew the game was lost. In a following game, Nestor's board got swept by a Firespout, making the finalist slump in his chair… until he looked down and noticed his Faerie Conclave, a singleton and last-minute addition to the deck that dealt the final lethal two points of damage to Ralph.

Nestor "Nestor" Ramirez - Faeries
1st Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08

LANDS:

4 Mutavault
6 Island
4 Secluded Glen
4 Underground River
4 Sunken Ruins
3 Swamp
1 Faerie Conclave

SPELLS:
4 Mistbind Clique
4 Scion of Oona
4 Spellstutter Sprite
2 Agony Warp
4 Bitterblossom
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
2 Familiar's Ruse
2 Thoughtseize
3 Sower of Temptation
1 Terror

SIDEBOARD:
3 Jace Beleren
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Oona's Grace
2 Negate
3 Telling Time
2 Thoughtseize

Interestingly, Nestor played only two Thoughtseize maindeck, making up for them with two additional counterspells: two copies of Familiar's Ruse, which could bounce a token, or even better, a Spellstutter Sprite to hard-counter a spell. All of Nestor's draw spells were sideboarded, presumably to board them in one games he planned to go long, the maindeck instead focusing entirely on Faeries, removal, and counterspells apart from the two Thoughtseizes. The Stillmoon Cavaliers have been the sideboard card of choice for many Faerie and Kithkin builds to fend off each other (and themselves in the mirror), and they surely would have come in handy against four other players in the event.

Ralph Navarra - Jund Ramp
2nd Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08
LANDS:

4 Jund Charm
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Fertile Ground
4 Chameleon Colossus
2 Resounding Thunder
4 Cloudthresher
2 Broodmate Dragon
3 Sprouting Thrinax
2 Shriekmaw
2 Mindshatter
2 Primal Command
3 Rampant Growth

SPELLS:
1 Mosswort Bridge
1 Llanowar Wastes
3 Reflecting Pool
2 Treetop Village
1 Mountain
5 Forest
3 Twilight Mire
3 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
3 Fire-Lit Thicket

SIDEBOARD:

3 Guttural Response
3 Thoughtseize
2 Loxodon Warhammer
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Firespout
1 Shriekmaw

It's always nice to inspire people, even if it is by being a terrible deck-builder: "I owe this to you, Paskoff," Ralph told me as he sat down to watch the top four match between Nestor and Ralph's friend Michael Innace, "I never would have thought of this deck if I didn't see your terrible list." Ralph had seen the Jund Ramp list I had worked on with Michael Evans, and had obviously made improvements on the list. Playing a grand total of seven two-mana ramp spells ensured he'd never miss a chance to accelerate on turn two, and Fertile Ground has great synergy with Garruk Wildspeaker - both for casting the green 'walker and for after he's in play. The Mindshatters maindeck were mostly for the strangely-absent Toast deck, but punished many players who left themselves tapped out for the devastating sorcery. Unfortunately, while Ralph's deck's astounding seventeen anti-Faerie cards powered him through his first match against Nestor in the swiss, he lost to him in the finals.

Michael Innace - Kithkin
3rd Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08
LANDS:

4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Rustic Clachan
4 Rugged Prarie
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Mutavault
7 Plains

SPELLS:
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Figure of Destiny
3 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Wizened Cenn
4 Knight of Meadowgrain
4 Spectral Procession
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Cloudgoat Ranger
4 Ajani Vengeant

SIDEBOARD:

3 Wispmare
3 Wilt-Leaf Liege
2 Ajani Goldmane
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Mirrorweave
3 Reveillark
1 Oblivion Ring

Ralph Navarra joked about having to "twist Mike's arm" to get him to play Kithkin for the Mox tournament, and it seemed to have paid off all the way until the top four. Mike's list was unique for a Kithkin deck, with not a single Unmake or Oblivion Ring present in the maindeck… and only one Oblivion Ring in the sideboard. In fact, the only non-creature/creature-making spells in the maindeck were four copies of Ajani Vengeant: A multi-functional tool in the deck, and Ajani's Lightning Helix effect kept him alive against the many aggresive decks present.

Joseph Aprano - Mono-Red
4th Place - Mox Tournament @ Brothers Grim, 12/21/08
LANDS:

19 Mountain
3 Ghitu Encampment

SPELLS:

4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Fulminator Mage
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Stigma Lasher
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Incinerate
4 Magma Spray
4 Flame Javelin
2 Unwilling Recruit

SIDEBOARD:

3 Everlasting Torment
3 Moonglove Extract
4 Pyroclasm
2 Wild Ricochet
2 Hell's Thunder
1 Knollspine Invocation

Joe's Mono-Red deck packed four Fulminator Mages in the main. Traditionally these have been played sideboard against Toast decks, but they also have use against other decks: the often-mana-screwed Kithkin, hitting the many non-basic white-producing lands, including the troublesome Windbrisk Heights; Faeries, which relies on consistent land drops; and any deck which plays Mutavault. Joe defeated Jay Imperiale in the top eight, winning his best matchup, and then losing to Ralph Navarra in the semi-finals.

So there you have it, the top four decks of Grim's first big Islandhome-sponsored tournament! Congradulations to all of their players, Nestor Nestor for winning the Mox, and everyone who came out to play! Best of all, everyone walked away with something, as Brothers Grim gave prizes out to the entire tournament! Brothers Grim will be hosting another tournament like this in March for a different prize, so look for details on that as we approach spring!

==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff

So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!

The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.

Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!

If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!

I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.

==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==

One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!

==UPCOMING EVENTS==

October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto

The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!

PTQs in our area this season:

12/27 - Edison, NJ

==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #42

==ISLANDHOME #42==

December 17th 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Worlds 2008
PTQ Report
Rumor Season

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: MOX TOURNAMENT - Standard ($15 entry) @ 2 PM

This Sunday is the Mox Emerald tournament at Brothers Grim! At only $15 for the chance of winning one of the most powerful cards in Magic's history, you have nothing to lose! Other prizes will be given out as well, so bring your A-game!

==WORLDS 2008==
Author: Brian Paskoff

As another year wraps to a close, so does another Worlds, the biggest annual Magic tournament in... well, the world. Players from all over the world showed up to compete in a wide variety of formats to prove that they were the best player in the entire world (for a year at least), and after three grueling days, Finnish player Antti Malin was crowned World Champion, and the United States team of Sam Black, Paul Cheon, and Michael Jacob were champions of the Standard-Extended-and-Legacy team event.

Worlds seems to define the upcoming metagame each year, and judging by the top eight results, we're in for a slow Standard season. Five out of the top eight decks were Faeries, the other three being Kithkin, Toast, and Mono-Red splashing for Blightning. Though the entire tournament tested Standard, Extended, and drafting skills, the top eight of Worlds was played out with the participants' Standard decks. Antti Malin won with Faeries, defeating Jamie Parke's Toast deck 3-1 in the finals.

To be quite honest I'd really rather not talk about the disappointing playoffs; 5/8ths of the finalists playing Faeries is depressing. Jamie Park's Toast deck was interesting, playing Rhox War Monk in place of Kitchen Finks for a more consistent flow of life gain, and perhaps to negate the more and more common strategy of red decks sideboarding Magma Spray, and packing enough answers to Faeries that it should instill memories of the Affinity and Anti-Affinity days of Mirrodin.

One of the breakout decks of Worlds was WB Tokens. Though it didn't make it into the playoffs, it did contribute in Team USA's victory in the team event. With Cloudgoat Ranger, Spectral Procession, and Windbrisk Heights, the deck slightly resembles Kithkin. Except instead of relying on the boost of Wizened Cenn and Mirrorweaving Lieges, WB Tokens plays Thoughtseize, Tidehollow Sculler, and Marsh Flitter. Michael Jacob's Team USA deck even played four copies of Glorious Anthem, and even the obscure Head Games (I'll wait while you go search up what that does. Okay, back? Yeah, I forgot that was in Tenth Edition too.) in the sideboard. The deck is similar enough to Kithkin that it'll be interesting to see whether or not Standard has room for both of them. But as WB Tokens doesn't rely on a single creature type and is a new archetype, it has room for growth, whereas the Kithkin deck is more or less at a creative stopping point.

Extended was relatively free of the scourge of the Elves deck that was feared to carve a hole in the metagame. With only ten percent of the field playing the deck and none of them going undefeated, it feels like the deck is safe from its key cards winding up on the banned list. Aside from over 26% of the combatants playing Faeries in Extended, the format appears to be very healthy, and players should have a fun time in this upcoming Extended PTQ season.

I'd also like to congradulate Long Islander Jason Imperiale for getting 10th place at Worlds, a tremendous feat indeed... even if he was playing Faeries.

Next year's Worlds is in Rome, a little far for most of us to travel. But until then, we'll be feeling the tremors of Worlds 2008 shaking up the metagame for a long time!

==PTQ REPORT==
Author: Brian Paskoff

New York's Pro Tour Qualifier for Kyoto was bittersweet. It was a fun PTQ that ran smoothly and with an extremely high turnout (175 players total!), but it was also the last major event that will ever be held at Neutral Ground. For over thirteen years now, Neutral Ground has been the "mecca" of Magic, and is probably the most famous Magic store in the world; nearly everyone who has had any experience in tournament Magic has heard of the store. Even after the store moved from its original location about a year ago, stepping into Neutral Ground was like stepping into Magic legend, and many of the best Magic players in the world called the store their home during at least some point in their career. A special "thank you" to the staff of Neutral Ground for keeping the store running for over a decade and giving us all a great place to play. Hopefully someday Neutral Ground will come back in some form. Until then, New York City events will still happen... just at a different location.

As I said, 175 players showed up for the historic last Neutral Ground PTQ for a chance to win an invite to play in Pro Tour Kyoto. Limited events traditionally have higher turnouts than constructed ones, simply because the cost of building a limited deck is always the same (the entry fee for the tournament), whereas putting together a constructed deck costs a whole lot more.

Like all sealed formats, Shards is fairly bomb-reliant... though that doesn't mean bomb-dependant. True, those who opened bomby rares were better off, but play skill mattered just as much. Opening a few bombs never guarantees a top 8 spot, and I saw just as many Battlegrace Angels, Flameblast Dragons, and Hellkite Overlords at the lower tables than I saw at the top ones. The real key to victory in a limited event is knowing how to use those cards, and how to build your deck. It's easy to say you would've built a deck differently when looking at someone else's sealed pool, but constructing one yourself is a whole different story, especially while you need to get it right the first time.

Besides the rares, many commons contributed to game wins during the day. While watching matches, I started to realize that there were a few commons which were often responsible for winning games almost single-handedly. Resounding Silence is a powerful removal spell, and since many decks in the format are built around swinging with one or two powerful creatures at a time, Resounding Silence is a Fog effect combined with permanent removal. Guardians of Akrasa is a strong blocker, and although it can't deal with the many four-plus power guys in Shards, it does stall smaller creatures on the ground while pumping any solitary attackers you might have on offense. And finally, the number one common of the day seemed to be Vithian Stinger. The pinger was a problem for many players who couldn't deal with it; no one wants to waste their best removal spells on a 0/1, and so it was left alive to deal more damage on the whole than even a Bull Ceredon could do. It could ping an opponent at the end of their turn to whittle down their life total, make combat complicated by letting a 4/4 trade with a 5/5, and perform mean tricks with devouring it and then unearthing it. Even if it did get killed, it just turned into an emergency one damage sorcery spell.

As far as shards go, all the shards seemed to show up in relatively even numbers. Of course, it was hard to determine when half of the players were playing four colors. Naya was predictably the most popular, and Grixis the least, though all the other shards fell somewhere between, and it was hard to say that there was a dominant shard.

The next and last PTQ in our area is on December 27th in New Jersey, so if you haven't qualified for the Pro Tour yet, I hope to see you there!

==RUMOR SEASON==
Author: Brian Paskoff

With the prerelease for Conflux a little over a month away, it's time to start rumor season up! A few months ago, the complete Conflux card list was released with the names of every card in the set, the most exciting of which was Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. And now the art for the card has been spoiled, and while we don't know what the Elder Dragon does yet, he looks like quite a beast... and even moreso in this official wallpaper, which shows Nicol Bolas fighting the four other Shards of Alara planeswalkers.

According to a source on MTGSalvation.com's rumor mill, Conflux supposedly has a few tools in it that'll fix the standard metagame by giving us answers to Faeries.

Little else is known about Conflux at this point, but Magic developers Aaron Forsythe and Mark Rosewater talked about a couple of things regarding 11th Edition at Worlds. 11th will be black-bordered, and have mythic rares (possibly the original Lorwyn planeswalkers). They also gave some cryptic maybe-clues about the appearance of Ravnica shocklands in 11th Edition, though similar rumors were floating around before 10th Edition saw print. The lands have generic names and bring back memories of the original dual lands that started out in the game, so they seem like a logical choice.

More rumors should start trickling in during the next few weeks. Spoilers for Morningtide (last year's February set) started a little before Christmas, so we should see a similar trend this year.

==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff

So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!

The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.

Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!

If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!

I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.

==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==

One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!

==UPCOMING EVENTS==

October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto

The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!

December 21st - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!

PTQs in our area this season:

12/27 - Edison, NJ

==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #41

==ISLANDHOME #41==

December 10th 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Islandhome on the Web
PTQ Weekend

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Saturday: Shards of Alara Sealed PTQ @ Neutral Ground!
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

I'll be at the PTQ this weekend; see everyone there!

==TOURNAMENT REPORT==
Author: Brian Paskoff

Brothers Grim's FNM booster drafts are heating up! We had fourteen players at last week's draft, the largest turnout in quite some time. Michael Innace and Ralph Navarra split in the finals, just managing to edge out some tough competition. Lots of new players have been turning up to play in their first sanctioned Magic events there and fill out a shiny new DCI card, so if you haven't been down for a couple of Fridays, now's the perfect time to come down and meet new players!

FNC's finals were played out, as they very rarely are, and Jon Lorig beat David "The Wurm" Drebsky using a homebrew WB aggro deck that used the power of Nip Gwyllion, Edge of the Divinity, Nightsky Mimic, and Deathbringer Liege. It's quite hard to beat a turn two 4/4 lifelink, or a turn three 7/7 flier! I'll have more on this deck next week.

==ISLANDHOME ON THE WEB==
Author: Brian Paskoff

Hello and welcome to another fabulous edition of Islandhome! I have a special announcement this issue; for a long time now (41 weeks, wow! Not counting the old FNC newsletter), Islandhome has just been an email newsletter delivered fresh to you on Wednesday nights. It was great to receive a piping hot fresh-out-of-the-oven newsletter every week, but this also posed some problems. If I made a mistake in something, I'd have to send out an "errata" email, and since it was only once a week, I'd have to send update emails out. And there were countless problems with some of our readers not receiving emails for all sorts of reasons. For the past few weeks, I've been working in semi-secret to bring Islandhome to the web, and it's almost ready for release!

The Islandhome website will have all the regular information you're used to, but it'll be much easier for you to get that information - and there'll be more of it too! There'll be an event calendar, a searchable archive of articles, and ways to talk to other players from the area so you can organize drafts, playtest groups, etc. Next week I hope to have more updates for you

==PTQ WEEKEND==
Author: Brian Paskoff

New York's first (and last) PTQ of this limited season is this Saturday, and it's going to be a blast - almost two hundred players will compete for an invite to Pro Tour Kyoto. This is a sealed deck PTQ, and the last time many players will ever open a tournament pack. After this set, Wizards is discontinuing tournament packs, instead running sealed deck tournaments with three boosters of the last big set replacing that tournament pack. It's not a big change, to tell the truth; a tournament pack is basically three boosters in a box, just with one less common and one more uncommon, plus a bunch of basic land.

If this is your first big limited tournament outside of prereleases, releases, and FNM booster drafts, you'll notice a few changes between those smaller events and the way big sealed deck tournaments are run. When registration is over, the judges will seat everyone for what's called a "player meeting". The head judge will use this opportunity to make his announcements, including how many players are dueling, how many rounds you'll be playing, and instructions (more on those later). Meanwhile, the judges will hand out product to everyone - a tournament pack and two boosters, all Shards. When everyone's gotten their product, the head judge will give the word for everyone to open their packs. What's interesting about high-level sealed deck tournaments like PTQs is that the cards you open at this point won't be the ones you play with. Instead, you'll be writing the number of each card you got on a decklist, and giving both the cards and that list back to the judges. If you make any mistakes recording the contents of those packs, it's important to call a judge over right away so they can note it on the sheet so the player who gets your list isn't confused.

After about twenty minutes, judges will come around again to collect the cards and decklists and then pass them out at random to other players. Once you get a new set of cards, you'll open it up and make sure the list matches the cards you received. Then you'll have a half hour to build a minimum 40-card deck and mark down what you're playing on that same sheet. Another major difference between limited tournaments using decklists (like the PTQ) and ones without (like FNM drafts) is that once you've built your deck, you can't change it. You can sideboard cards in and out between games, but the first game of every match you play needs to be with the same exact list you marked down on your decklist. Building a sealed deck at a PTQ can be somewhat stressful because you know you'll need to play at least one game per round with that exact list, but that's just more incentive to build the best deck you can!

The top eight will be played out in a single-elimination booster draft, which is exciting to watch... and even more exciting to play in, so hone your limited skills for Saturday!

For more information, check out Gray Matter's website.

==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff

So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!

The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.

Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!

If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!

I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.

==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==

One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!

==UPCOMING EVENTS==

October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto

The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!

December 21st - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!

PTQs in our area this season:

12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ

==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #40

==ISLANDHOME #40==

December 3rd 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Banned & Restricted List Changes: Or lack there-of.
Hidden Away: Some Standard cards that don't see much play.

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

==BANNED & RESTRICTED LIST CHANGES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

It's December, which means it's that magical time of year... you know, when the new banned and restricted list changes come out, just like it does three other times a year. But it seems Wizards of the Coast isn't quite in a festive mood just yet, and hasn't left us any freshly wrapped presents underneath the banhammer tree. True, there's a bunch of changes to formats no one plays, like the Magic Online formats Pauper, Prismatic, and "100 Card Singleton/Commander" (a silly little format made to emulate our beloved Elder Dragon Highlander using MTGO-ready cards and rules that don't make Magic Online programmers cry in their sleep.), but none to any paper format.

This was to be expected with Standard. Even though some may find the format boring right now, especially with a little over two months until the release of the next Standard-legal set, it's a healthy format, with no particularly broken cards. There's powerhouses that fit in many decks like Cryptic Command, and cards that make players cringe when they play against them such as Bitterblossom, but nothing bannable. If Tarmogoyf wasn't banned, these cards surely don't warrant it.

Extended was the biggest surprise to many, but the fact that nothing from the Elves! would be banned until after Worlds was spoiled way before the announcement. Wizards is making its Christmas gift list late this year, and changing the schedule for B&R updates to accommodate problems that reveal themselves during Worlds. Well, I'm sure that's not the only reason. Beginning immediately, these updates will happen on the 20th of March, June, September, and December, give or take a day or two if the 20th is on a weekend or holiday. So on December 19th, Wizards will make its final decision on whether or not to do anything about the Elves! deck that may or may not dominate Extended events at Worlds, and hopefully save us from all-Elves-all-the-time at Extended PTQs starting in January.

Legacy and Vintage are fairly healthy, and Wizards already took care of banning Time Vault before the card was even broken. Many players expected Wizards to further fiddle with the blue draw spells in Vintage, and it doesn't feel like a B&R update unless Gush's unrestricted/restricted/banned status is toggled. Like Extended, one or both of the Eternal formats will probably get updates towards the end of the month.

There is one change to care about before the "real" update happens, and that's in Elder Dragon Highlander. Time Vault is now banned in EDH, which is to be expected. EDH uses a card pool similar to Legacy and Vintage, and it's a much slower format than either of them, so it's understandable that players had more of a chance to set up abusive combos involving the newly errated card. Banning Time Vault means EDH players will have to rely on the more difficult (and therefore more fun) to set up combos to frustrate their opponents.

We've got nineteen days until the next update, so it's not that long to wait.

==HIDDEN AWAY==
Author: Brian Paskoff

It's no secret that I have some strange aversion to constructed Magic that doesn't involve hundred card singleton decks, but every once in a while I get the urge to start thinking up decklists, and I break out the binders and see what I can come up with. There are 1,481 cards in Standard right now, and even with that low number, only a small number are actually used. There are plenty of good cards that sit in binders and boxes, collecting dust because they're deemed unworthy to appear in a Standard decklist. But if you enjoy thinking up rogue decks, let's take a look at some cards that, although good, don't see a lot of play right now... and the reasons behind their solitary life. I'm thinking about making this a regular column, so I'm only doing a few cards at a time.

Doran, the Siege Tower
Doran was really, really good for a long time. "Rock" decks had reared their heads in Standard over and over, especially before Shards of Alara tore Tarmogoyf out of the format. Even then, the Doran decks didn't lose much, as they still had Thoughtseize, Profane Command, Chameleon Colossus, and even Bitterblossom to replace Goyf in the two-drop slot. A (technically) 5/5 on turn two or three spelt trouble for a lot of decks.
Why it's not played: Doran appeared in a handful of States/Champs top 8 decklists, but very few. Doran is one of those cards that requires a whole deck to be built around it, and the Rock archetype is traditionally a mid-range aggro deck, which most players feel is too slow for the metagame.

Oversoul of Dusk
It has protection from the three colors with traditionally the most dangerous removal spells, and it's a 5/5 for 5. Faeries can't touch it at all, and without a hand full of Cryptic Commands set on tap, have been known to scoop if Oversoul can stick to the table long enough to attack. It still shows up in Kithkin builds... though very rarely.
Why it's not played: Blue, black, and red are dangerous, but now white's getting in on the removal action, and Oversoul of Dusk can easily be taken out by Oblivion Ring. If the threat of removal isn't enough, Oversoul requires a very specific manabase to thrive, and only a dedicated green and/or white deck with no Mutavaults can handle casting it reliably... and there aren't too many of those. Even Toast doesn't want it, as green and white aren't usually high on the manabase priority.

Pithing Needle
The Needle was a hot card back when Kamigawa block was Standard, shutting down everything from Sensei's Divining Top to Umezawa's Jitte. When it was announced that Pithing Needle was being reprinted in Tenth Edition, prices shot up, and everyone scoured stores and trade binders searching for the card. But shortly after it became Standard-legal again, Pithing Needle's price dropped back down, and the card went right back into those trade binders.
Why it's not played: Because you're crazy, all of you! Nah I'm just kidding, you're cool. But seriously, Pithing Needle makes a great sideboard card. With planeswalkers popping up in more and more decks, it's only a matter of time before the ultimate one-mana answer to them sees play again.

Stoic Angel
Lightning Angel was a really good card a few sets ago, and Stoic Angel is clearly modeled after it. But despite numerous attempts to make it fit, only a fringey Bant Aggro deck that only made the playoffs at some smaller States plays it. What's not good about keeping aggro decks tapped down? Stoic Angel was expected to be a breakout star of Shards of Alara, and for a while, everyone was clamoring to get their hands on a playset.
Why it's not played: Stoic Angel is good against Kithkin as long as you can keep O-Rings and Unmakes away, but it's simply not that threatening against Faeries (which will counter it or kill it easily enough) or Toast, which doesn't play enough creatures to care. And even though Stoic Angel limits the number of creatures that can untap, it doesn't take it away entirely, letting bigger threats like Chameleon Colossus and Cloudthresher through.

Troll Ascetic
It'll always be a highly-valued card, but the unkillable Troll Ascetic might as well be dead. It's a 3/2 for 3 that can survive nearly anything as long as you have the mana to regenerate it, and a Troll Ascetic with a Loxodon Warhammer on it will always inspire fear in any opponent's heart.
Why it's not played: Kitchen Finks. It's another 3/2 for 3, with a slightly more flexible mana cost and a comes-into-play effect that makes you not care if it dies. Combine that with Infest, a popular sideboard card that kills Troll Ascetic just as easily as Damnation did, and suddenly Troll Ascetic looks a lot more fragile.

==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff

So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!

The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.

Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.

==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!

If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!

I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.

==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==

One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!

==UPCOMING EVENTS==

October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto

The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!

December 21st - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!

PTQs in our area this season:

12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ

==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY

Islandhome #39

==ISLANDHOME #39==

November 26th 2008

==IN THIS ISSUE...==

Chaos Draft
Euro Lands Promotion: Buy a box at Brothers Grim, get some pretty lands!
Way of the Wurm: A guest article from David "The Wurm" Drebsky!
Guest Articles: Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles, so send 'em in!

==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==

Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
Sunday: Chaos Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 2 PM

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Also John Madonia would like to state that this Saturday at FNC is "Dress for Success" day, and the best dressed will get free entry into the tournament for some reason, so get out your suit and ties!

==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff

So the other day when I received my latest FNM promos for Brothers Grim in the mail, I got a little extra surprise with it. Though to be fair it was only a surprise because I forgot I had signed up for it. See, Wizards is doing this promotion exclusively for FNM-hosting locations where they send out packs Euro Lands to those stores. But unlike the other promotional cards Wizards sends out, you don't get these for playing - instead, you get them for buying a full box of any Magic set!

The Euro Lands are special lands with artwork representing different locations throughout Europe. They came in three different versions depending on their wrappers, but the ones I got are the blue pack, seen here. They feature scenes of the forests of Schwarzwald, Germany, the Danish Islands of Scandinavia, the mountains of Vesuvio, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the swamps of Ardennes Fagnes, Belgium. This is the first time that these lands are available to players in the US, and they're quite rare. Five come in a pack, one of each land.

Supplies are limited though, so if you were planning to buy a box of Shards for someone as a holiday gift, do it as soon as possible! this promotion will be running at Brothers Grim only for as long as we have packs to give out.

==CHAOS DRAFT==
Author: Brian Paskoff

Sundays at Brothers Grim are the perfect days to try new things; there's no big tournament going on anywhere really, so we usually try to do a Chaos Draft. In a normal draft, everyone gets the same amount of product, usually three packs of Shards since that's the newest set. But in a Chaos Draft, everyone gets something different. Sometimes we throw a bunch of packs into a bag and let people pick them out one by one, so that no two players have the same product - and usually, no two packs are even alike. Some people don't like the idea of drafting and getting cards they won't ever play with, which is why sometimes we do a Standard Chaos Draft where all the packs are from sets that are legal in the current Standard format.

Drafting the same thing over and over again gets kind of stale, which is why Chaos Drafts are so exciting. Even though sets in different blocks each have their own unique themes, every set since Mirage has been designed with limited play in mind, so each set is guaranteed to have the staple cards you need for your draft deck. Look at any set and you'll see a good mix of bomby creatures, removal spells, enchantment/artifact hate, etc. Sets in concurrent blocks tend to overlap more than ones released further apart, as Wizards takes care to make sure there's a lot of synergy in Standard. For instance, at the Chaos Draft this past weekend I found some great synergy between persist creatures and Bone Splinters - I could just weaken my creature instead of removing it from play altogether, while still getting rid of my opponent's creature. And of course there's lots of synergy between the Lorwyn and Shadowmoor mini-blocks, as all of the tribes from Lorwyn/Morningtide are represented in Shadowmoor/Eventide... and some of them even make an appearance in Shards of Alara! And don't forget Eventide's Mimics and Hatchlings, which go great with Shards of Alara's tri-colored cards. So what usually happens during a Chaos Draft is that you'll start to notice things about cards that you never thought of playing with together before.

Here's my Chaos Draft deck from this past Saturday, so you can see some of the synergies available between sets. We used only Standard-legal sets, and let everyone pick their own packs, with the catch that they couldn't pick the same set twice. I chose Shards-Morningtide-Eventide, and ended up with this:

CREATURES:

Blister Beetle (2x)
Bog-Strider Ash
Carrion Thrash
Harvest Gwyllion
Hatchet Bully
Lys Alana Bowmaster
Moonglove Changeling (2x)
Rendclaw Trow
Scuzzback Marauders
Smouldering Butcher
Vein Drinker
War-Spike Changeling
Winnower Patrol (3x)

SPELLS:

Bone Splinters
Eyeblight's Ending
Obelisk of Jund
Pack's Disdain
Jund Charm
Violet Pall

LANDS:

7 Forest
3 Mountain
8 Swamp

With ten ways to hit kinship with Winnower Patrol in play, I was guaranteed to... well, never ever hit ever. But that's just my horrible luck; I don't think I've ever hit on kinship cards, even when drafting straight-up Lorwyn/Morningtide. Even though Lorwyn's creature types don't extend into Shards of Alara with the exception of Elves and Goblins, all of Morningtide's classes are well represented on Alara. Carrion Thrash was my only Warrior, though to be honest most of the Shards packs were a little thin in good creatures this draft, at least by the time they got to me. I did manage to pick up a Bone Splinters, which as I said went well with my persisting dudes, and a Jund Charm, which goes well in decks that play black, red, and green, or can splash for Jund Charm.

If you want to come check out this format, stop by Brothers Grim on Sundays! The entry fee is $13, same as any other draft, unless we happen to be using some crazy old packs like Urza's Legacy or something, which happens very rarely.

==WAY OF THE WURM==
Author: David "The Wurm" Drebsky

The Kithkin Concept

Many of you across Long Island have faced off against me in Type 2 and stared down the deck I have come to refer to as "The Legendary Kithkins." Originally when I built this deck, it was a Kithkin soldier deck based on the concept of Cenn's Tactician, Field Marshall, Mirror Entity, Preeminent Captain, Mutavault, Ballyrush Banneret, etc. Obviously it has evolved a great deal since then, particularly since the advent of Mirrorweave. The deck as I now play it has had very few modifications since Block season, with the bulk of the changes being in the sideboard. To date, the deck has taken down such players as Jon Finkel, Zvi Moshowitz, Rob Seder, and John Madonia (formerly ranked #1 in New York).

Having seen more than a few of my peers take a stab at building the Kithkin deck, I would like to share my full decklist with sideboard, and explain how to properly sideboard against the most popular decks in the format, and go into why I reject certain sideboard choices. I do not claim to be the definitive voice of Kithkin advocates, but I believe I have played the deck long enough to justify the claim that I know what I'm talking about.

Below is the list of my current Kithkin build. This is a complete custom build. No other Kithkin deck looks exactly like it, and its success speaks for itself.

I. The Deck

Land:

14x Plains
3x Mutavault
4x Rustic Clachan
4x Windbrisk Heights

Creatures:

4x Figure of Destiny
4x Goldmeadow Stalwart
4x Knight of the Meadowgrain
4x Wizened Cenn
2x Mirror Entity
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege
4x Cloudgoat Ranger

Other Spells:

2x Surge of Thoughtweft
4x Spectral Procession
3x Unmake
2x Mirrorweave

Sideboard:

2x Ajani Goldmane (Kithkin, Merfolk, sometimes Quick N' Toast, or any deck that runs a lot of aggro weenie creatures)
4x Burrenton Forge-Tender (Red Deck Wins, Quick N' Toast)
3x Oblivion Ring (Faeries, Merfolk, Elves b/c of Chameleon Colossus and Garruk, R/G/B tokens, Reveillark, or any deck that runs big creatures or a lot of planeswalkers)
2x Stillmoon Cavalier (Kithkin, Faeries, Mono Black Control)
2x Wilt-Leaf Liege (Reveillark, Kelpie, sometimes Quick N' Toast if they run Esper Charm)
2x Reveillark (Red Deck Wins, Quick N' Toast, Reveillark or any deck that runs a lot of mass removal)

II. Controversial Tech

Most Kithkin decks consistently reject Surge of Thoughtweft and Mirror Entity... I consider these good tech and they have bailed me out of a lot of close calls.

Surge gives the deck card draw and an extra unexpected combat trick, both of which give the deck teeth. White almost never gets card draw and sometimes the card you draw off the Surge will win you the game (or at least fix your draw), and instant speed pump can be priceless in much the same way that Rustic Clachan and Windbrisk Heights help further that goal.

Mirror Entity is an extra win condition almost by himself. Side ME out against any deck that runs Sower of Temptation, though. Usually if they try and steal him, you will have 3 basic options...(1) pay 0 mana with his activated ability and "wrath" the field in response, killing everything on your side of the field and fizzling the steal trigger (obviously not good for you, but better than letting opponent get control of a creature that will win them the game), (2) let them steal Entity, then Unmake the Sower after resolution (assuming you are lucky enough to have Unmake in hand), (3) let them steal Entity because you will win anyway (generally only when opponent is on low life and/or you have superior board position and them having control of Entity is not a big deal). Entity is the weakest link in the deck, you won't use him often...but the point is, if he sticks, the opponent is upset. And nothing is better to pop out of Heights than this guy...not even Mirrorweave. Just ask Jim Chianese about that one.

Some decks are phasing out Mirrorweave and Wilt-Leaf Liege...I don't really get the point, each of these cards is extremely powerful and a major asset to the deck. Simply put, Mirrorweave allows you to win games you're supposed to lose and come back out of nowhere or completely disrupt the opponent's combat phase. The Liege is a beater and a pumper and with the advent of new discard tech like Blightning and especially Esper Charm, this guy is truly king. In short, I don't believe either of these cards should ever leave the deck in its present form.

Also, the Wilt-Leaf vs. Thistledown debate...I'll be brief here, but simply put, us Kithkin players have learned from Block season and beyond that Wilt-Leaf is unquestionably superior to Thistledown. A few reasons why...he resists Firespout and most burn spells...he's a better target for Mirrorweave...he resists discard and can be played for free as a "must" effect if opponent forces him out of your hand. He's not a Kithkin and he doesn't have flash. So what? He's a threat by himself...as a 4/4 for 4, he's a must deal with. Thistledown costs the same...and is a wimp.

III. Rejected Tech

Some cards simply don't need to be used even though they are sick on paper. I reject Ranger of Eos as feasible tech; it is an okay card, nothing special. The main reason is that the 4-drop spot is dominated by Mirrorweave and Wilt-Leaf Liege and you usually want to side in Ajani Goldmane against the decks that would require bringing in the Ranger (like Quick N' Toast). The card is simply unnecessary and it doesn't further the cause of token overwhelm which is the real heart of the deck.

I also don't like Oversoul of Dusk; the card is good, but expensive and not always relevant. Yes, it's game-breaking against Mono Red but that deck is our easiest match-up and we can win without spending 5 mana on a card that can't even block Demigod of Revenge. Yes, it's good against Faeries but they can still tap it down with Cryptic Command and we simply don't need this giant win-more beatstick. We win in numbers. If we wanted big guys, we'd be playing Thoughtweft Trio.

Thirdly, Wispmare...this card hits basically 2 things, Bitterblossom and other Oblivion Rings. We don't need this against Faeries, half the time they side Bitterblossom out against us game 2 and 3 (bad idea on their part, the card is ALWAYS good against us), and Oblivion Ring speaks for itself as strictly more wide-reaching tech. Other O-Rings we can O-Ring ourselves, or just ignore. We throw out so many things that a few O-Rings shouldn't be anything we're afraid of.

Lastly, Elspeth, Knight-Errant. I'm not going to bash this card, it's actually extremely good but I have found few situations where I would rather not just play Ajani Goldmane. The card is strictly better for this deck and believe me, the opponent is more scared of Ajani than they are of Elspeth. We don't need more tokens, we have enough dudes that fly, and the opponent should be dead long before we would make our non-planeswalker permanents indestructible.

IV. Using Mirrorweave

Just a short explanation here on using Mirrorweave (it's an intricate card, obviously, with a crazy amount of rulings, which I would suggest reading up on), as some people I've watched consistently try to target Wizened Cenn or a Liege and just get in for ridiculous amounts of damage. While this is a good strategy, Mirrorweave is actually the most versatile card in the deck and you must try to get the most out of it. It rarely should be a "dead card" and sometimes the best way to use it is defensively.

Let the opponent swing, make your blocks, and then Mirrorweave one of the weakest targets. With a Surge of Thoughtweft in hand, or if you've already put counters on your guys a la Ajani Goldmane, you'll generally wipe out the opponent's forces completely if it was an alpha strike.

Also, very important...with Figure of Destiny, you can select it as a target, then make pumps if you have mana open...in many cases, your opponent won't have red or white mana available if you time this correctly (hell, it's even easier if they can't produce those colors in the first place) and this will give you a big advantage in combat. Plus, any guys you pump while they are Figures will stay pumped-up Figures when the Mirrorweave wears off. Thanks, layering rules!

One final thing, the timing of Mirrorweave is important. You don't always just let the opponent declare blockers or declare attackers and then use it before damage. Sometimes you want to use it before either declaration occurs (either due to triggers, strategic purposes, or some other reason). The point, look at the field and always consider the implications of your choice.

V. Sideboard Choices

What do you do about the sideboard? What comes in? What goes out? Read and learn what I consider to be the optimal choices against the most popular decks in the current format.

You're facing Red Deck Wins:

+ 4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+ 2 Reveillark

- 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
- 1 Mirror Entity
- 1 Mirrorweave

You're facing Faeries:

+ 3 Oblivion Ring
+ 2 Stillmoon Cavalier

- 1 Mirrorweave
- 2 Mirror Entity
- 1 Spectral Procession
- 1 Cloudgoat Ranger

You're facing Kithkin:

+ 2 Ajani Goldmane
+ 1 Stillmoon Cavalier
+ 1 Oblivion Ring

- 1 Mirrorweave
- 1 Cloudgoat Ranger
- 1 Spectral Procession
- 1 Plains

You're facing Quick N' Toast:

This one is tough, as there are several variants on the five-color control concept. This one addresses the "classic" choice.

+ 4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+ 1 Ajani Goldmane
+ 2 Reveillark

- 4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
- 1 Mirrorweave
- 1 Mirror Entity
- 1 Cloudgoat Ranger

You're facing Doran or Elves:

+ 3 Oblivion Ring
+ 1 Ajani Goldmane

- 2 Unmake
- 1 Mirrorweave
- 1 Mirror Entity

You're facing Merfolk:

+ 2 Ajani Goldmane
+ 1 Oblivion Ring

- 2 Mirror Entity
- 1 Mirrorweave

You're facing Mono Black Control:

+ 2 Stillmoon Cavalier
+ 1 Reveillark
+ 1 Wilt-Liege Liege

- 2 Mirror Entity
- 1 Mirrorweave
- 1 Cloudgoat Ranger

You're facing Reveillark:

+ 2 Wilt-Leaf Liege
+ 2 Reveillark

- 2 Mirror Entity
- 1 Mirrorweave
- 1 Cloudgoat Ranger

VI. Closing Comments

The rest of my secrets you will have to figure out for yourself. I hope this Kithkin building/playing tutorial has been of help to some of you aspiring Kithkin players, or if you are on the other side of the field, to understand some of our thinking and get better in fighting against this extremely powerful aggro deck. There are literally a wealth of Kithkin builds, and many are splashing other colors. You may want to try looking at some of those. So far, splashing red or splashing black seem to be the best options. But I still stay true to mono white.

This isn't the perfect build for everyone. You have to play what you feel comfortable with. I like combat tricks and surprises (as anyone who has ever seen/heard me play Windbrisk Heights knows) over straight token overwhelming, and this build reflects that idea. That's all for now. See you all on the battlefield.

~ David "The Wurm" Drebsky

==GUEST ARTICLES==
Author: Brian Paskoff

After a short break, Islandhome is once again accepting guest articles from our readers!

If you've got an article you'd like to submit, send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com. Try to keep it a reasonable length - there's no word limit, but look at previous Islandhome articles for guidance - and avoid bad language and personal insults. Also try to maintain good grammar and spelling; doesn't have to be perfect, but you should see how long it takes me to spellcheck the Madonia Minute every week!

I can't promise every submission will make it into the next week's Islandhome, but I'll try to get as many in as I can, especially ones that are relevant to a previous/upcoming event.

==THE ISLANDHOME BLOG==

One of the things I wanted to do was have an archive of past issues online so I could refer people back to them as well as let new readers peruse old issues to see what all the fuss is about. So I've archived all the old issues on the blogosphere at islandhomemtg.blogspot.com. Go and relive all the past moments of glory!

==UPCOMING EVENTS==

October 4th - December 28th: PTQ Season for PT Kyoto

The next PTQ season kicks off October 4th, and the format is Shards of Alara sealed deck!

December 21st - Mox Tournament at Brothers Grim
This December, Islandhome, in association with Brothers Grim, will be holding a giant Standard tournament. The first place prize will be a Mox Emerald, with many other prizes as well. Side events such as booster drafts and EDH multiplayer games will be held that day too, so keep reading Islandhome for more details!

PTQs in our area this season:

12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ

==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==

Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgim.com

Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984

==FIN==

See everyone this weekend!

Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!

-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY