==ISLANDHOME #11==
May 14th 2008 ---- $free
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
The Metagame: Standard decks that aren't Faeries!
Rules Corner: More rules, including a very tricky Shapeshifter question.
Contest Time: Submit feedback, win prizes!
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: Brothers Grim Draft @ 7 PM
Saturday: FNC Standard @ 1 PM
(This week's FNC event will be sanctioned by Dean Duprez so he can keep his TO membership. I'll be there either judging or playing!)
Note: Starting May 10th, FNC events will begin at 1 PM!
==RULES CORNER==
Q. How does Vexing Shusher work exactly?==IN THIS ISSUE...==
The Metagame: Standard decks that aren't Faeries!
Rules Corner: More rules, including a very tricky Shapeshifter question.
Contest Time: Submit feedback, win prizes!
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: Brothers Grim Draft @ 7 PM
Saturday: FNC Standard @ 1 PM
(This week's FNC event will be sanctioned by Dean Duprez so he can keep his TO membership. I'll be there either judging or playing!)
Note: Starting May 10th, FNC events will begin at 1 PM!
==THE METAGAME: STANDARD DECKS==
NJ Regionals is right around the corner, and it's time to start getting prepared for the no doubt diverse* metagame that'll be there. The obvious deck to beat is Faeries. The deck hasn't changed at all with the release of Shadowmoor. Even Sunken Ruins, which seemed like a perfect fit, isn't played much because of the small potential to get color-screwed. Just look at these results from StarCityGames.com's $2000 Open, where Faeries took five out of the eight top spots, or the $5000 Open where Faeries made up the top two. Here's some of the non-Faerie decks you might see at Regionals this time around.
WG Ramp: An increasingly popular choice, WG Ramp is tuned to beat anything but an aggro-control deck that packs counterspells like Faeries or Merfolk. Into the North, Coldsteel Heart, and/or sometimes Search for Tomorrow accelerate into big white/green spells such as Oversoul of Dusk, Akroma, Cloudthresher, and Akroma, and they of course pack Wrath of God and Austere Command as reset buttons. Even though it has multiple answers to Faeries - Cloudthresher, Crovax, Austere Command naming small creatures and enchantments, etc., it still has a tough matchup.
Goblins: Practically every deck packs some kind of mass removal these days, so Goblins plays to lose - creatures, that is. Goblins has multiple answers to a Wrath - Murderous Redcap comes back, Mogg War-Marshal replaces itself, Mudbutton Torchrunner is built to die, and Gargadon happily eats up anything else that would be lost. Goblins even plays Bitterblossom, not caring much about the life-loss even with two out, since it aims to win faster than Faeries. The deck beats Faeries and has a good matchup against most other aggro decks, but loses to anything with lots of life gain such as WG Ramp.
Fiery Justice: The Kavu Predator/Fiery Justice combo is seeing the most play it's seen since Time Spiral Block Constructed, with additions such as Kitchen Finks, Wooded Bastion, Fire-Lit Thicket, and Last Breath. It has enough life-gain to survive against most aggro decks, and seeing as how most removal spells played in Standard aim at killing small creatures (burn spells, Nameless Inversion, etc.), a huge Kavu Predator is a big threat.
RG Land Destruction: There hasn't been this much good LD in Standard since the days of Magnivore and Stone Rain, but is it enough propel a winning deck? Fulminator Mage is a solid beater and almost strictly better than Stone Rain in the format, Mwonvuli Acid Moss accelerates and denies a land, Avalanche Riders has always been powerful but hasn't found a fit in a while, and Magus of the Moon is great against decks that don't play many basic lands (such as Faeries). It's a very tempo-based deck however, and missing an LD spell for one early turn is as bad as not making your own land drop.
GB Elves: Before everyone realized how good Reveillark and Faeries were, GB Elves was the deck to beat in early Lorwyn-era Standard. Now that Faeries and ultra-fast aggro decks have knocked Reveillark out of popularity, people are starting to play Elves with good results again. The deck's the same as it always was, though probably with more Faerie-hate in the sideboard along with a few Kitchen Finks.
Reveillark: If not for Faeries, this would probably be the deck to beat in Standard. Aggro decks can't touch it as long as it can combo out, and it plays enough counterspells to deal with any control deck that's not too heavy on counterspells. However since it loses almost every game to Faeries, it's not a very popular deck anymore. Except in Japan for some reason.
Merfolk: Merfolk have better "lords" than Faeries, eight maindeck with Lord of Atlantis and Merrow Reejery. They also have access to Sage's Dousing, a cantripping Mana Leak with a Banneret in play. Some recent builds are even playing Mirrorweave to make all their Merfolk copies of Lord of Atlantis and swinging for massive amounts as each Lord pumps each other one.
Swan Assault: This is basically a combo deck that plays Seismic Assault, Swans of Bryn Argoll, and Dakmor Salvage. Shoot the Swans with a Dakmor Salvage, dredge it, draw, shoot your opponent, and so on. It's very vulnerable to enchantment hate, and Nameless Inversion kills the Swans, but it can still catch an unprepared deck off-guard.
Matt Brocking played an interesting deck at FNC last week, using a combo I hope to draft in every Shadowmoor draft: Elsewhere Flask and Howl of the Night Pack. He ramped up to seven mana, got an Elsewhere Flask into play, then played Evacuate at the end of his opponent's turn, unleashing the hounds (sorry) next turn with a massive Howl of the Night Pack. Even the Japanese are getting into the action, just look at this mono-green ramp deck from Japan's Five Dragons Cup tournament that plays three Howls as one of its win conditions.
* At least 50% faeries, and that's if you're lucky and the other 50% of players can't find Scion of Oonas in time for the event.
WG Ramp: An increasingly popular choice, WG Ramp is tuned to beat anything but an aggro-control deck that packs counterspells like Faeries or Merfolk. Into the North, Coldsteel Heart, and/or sometimes Search for Tomorrow accelerate into big white/green spells such as Oversoul of Dusk, Akroma, Cloudthresher, and Akroma, and they of course pack Wrath of God and Austere Command as reset buttons. Even though it has multiple answers to Faeries - Cloudthresher, Crovax, Austere Command naming small creatures and enchantments, etc., it still has a tough matchup.
Goblins: Practically every deck packs some kind of mass removal these days, so Goblins plays to lose - creatures, that is. Goblins has multiple answers to a Wrath - Murderous Redcap comes back, Mogg War-Marshal replaces itself, Mudbutton Torchrunner is built to die, and Gargadon happily eats up anything else that would be lost. Goblins even plays Bitterblossom, not caring much about the life-loss even with two out, since it aims to win faster than Faeries. The deck beats Faeries and has a good matchup against most other aggro decks, but loses to anything with lots of life gain such as WG Ramp.
Fiery Justice: The Kavu Predator/Fiery Justice combo is seeing the most play it's seen since Time Spiral Block Constructed, with additions such as Kitchen Finks, Wooded Bastion, Fire-Lit Thicket, and Last Breath. It has enough life-gain to survive against most aggro decks, and seeing as how most removal spells played in Standard aim at killing small creatures (burn spells, Nameless Inversion, etc.), a huge Kavu Predator is a big threat.
RG Land Destruction: There hasn't been this much good LD in Standard since the days of Magnivore and Stone Rain, but is it enough propel a winning deck? Fulminator Mage is a solid beater and almost strictly better than Stone Rain in the format, Mwonvuli Acid Moss accelerates and denies a land, Avalanche Riders has always been powerful but hasn't found a fit in a while, and Magus of the Moon is great against decks that don't play many basic lands (such as Faeries). It's a very tempo-based deck however, and missing an LD spell for one early turn is as bad as not making your own land drop.
GB Elves: Before everyone realized how good Reveillark and Faeries were, GB Elves was the deck to beat in early Lorwyn-era Standard. Now that Faeries and ultra-fast aggro decks have knocked Reveillark out of popularity, people are starting to play Elves with good results again. The deck's the same as it always was, though probably with more Faerie-hate in the sideboard along with a few Kitchen Finks.
Reveillark: If not for Faeries, this would probably be the deck to beat in Standard. Aggro decks can't touch it as long as it can combo out, and it plays enough counterspells to deal with any control deck that's not too heavy on counterspells. However since it loses almost every game to Faeries, it's not a very popular deck anymore. Except in Japan for some reason.
Merfolk: Merfolk have better "lords" than Faeries, eight maindeck with Lord of Atlantis and Merrow Reejery. They also have access to Sage's Dousing, a cantripping Mana Leak with a Banneret in play. Some recent builds are even playing Mirrorweave to make all their Merfolk copies of Lord of Atlantis and swinging for massive amounts as each Lord pumps each other one.
Swan Assault: This is basically a combo deck that plays Seismic Assault, Swans of Bryn Argoll, and Dakmor Salvage. Shoot the Swans with a Dakmor Salvage, dredge it, draw, shoot your opponent, and so on. It's very vulnerable to enchantment hate, and Nameless Inversion kills the Swans, but it can still catch an unprepared deck off-guard.
Matt Brocking played an interesting deck at FNC last week, using a combo I hope to draft in every Shadowmoor draft: Elsewhere Flask and Howl of the Night Pack. He ramped up to seven mana, got an Elsewhere Flask into play, then played Evacuate at the end of his opponent's turn, unleashing the hounds (sorry) next turn with a massive Howl of the Night Pack. Even the Japanese are getting into the action, just look at this mono-green ramp deck from Japan's Five Dragons Cup tournament that plays three Howls as one of its win conditions.
* At least 50% faeries, and that's if you're lucky and the other 50% of players can't find Scion of Oonas in time for the event.
A. The important thing to remember about Shusher, and all non-mana activated abilities actually, is that the ability doesn't have an effect until it resolves. Let's say you play a Tarmogoyf, and your opponent responds with a Cancel. You activate your Shusher targeting the Tarmogoyf, and in response, your opponent plays another Cancel targeting the Tarmogoyf. Assuming neither of you do anything after, the second Cancel would resolve and counter your Tarmogoyf, and the Shusher's ability, lower on the stack, wouldn't be able to stop it.
Q. My opponent plays Counterbore targeting my Tarmogoyf, and in response I make my Goyf uncounterable with my Vexing Shusher. Does Counterbore fizzle since all of its targets are illegal?
A. There's a big difference from not being able to target and not being able to affect a target. Counterbore can target an uncounterable spell just fine, and since is second effect is not conditional on countering the spell (It'd probably say something like "If that spell is countered this way...." if it was), you'd get to search out and RFG all other copies of Tarmogoyf you're able to. Counterbore can even target a Vexing Shusher on the stack!
Q. So I evoke a Cloudthresher and before it dies, tap Cauldron of Souls to give it persist. When it comes back with a -1/-1 counter on it, will it just die again?
A. With Cloudthresher's "sacrifice me if you paid my evoke cost" on the stack, you can activate Cauldron of Souls to give it persist. Cloudthresher will die, then come back into play as a new object with a -1/-1 counter on it. This Cloudthresher is "new" as far as the game knows, so it won't have been played for its evoke cost.
Q. If I attack with a Spawnwrithe and a Vesuvan Shapeshifter that's copying a Spawnwrithe, what's the token created by my Shapeshifter-Spawnwrithe look like?
A. Oh copy effects. I remember when Clone had tiny tiny rules text, but now that's all handled in the rules! Let's have a look:
"An object's "copiable values" are the values that are printed on the object, as modified by other copy effects, plus any values set for face-down spells or permanents and any values set by "comes into play as" abilities. Other effects (including type-changing effects) and counters are not copied."
Your Vesuvan Spawnwrithe token looks a lot like a regular Spawnwrithe token would. Its name is Spawnwrithe, it's green, it's a 2/2, its converted mana cost is 3, it has the ability that makes a copy of itself when it smacks a player, but it does have one important difference: Since the token is created as a copy of something that is modified by another copy effect, it copies that too. So the Spawnwrithe from Vesuva has the ability "At the beginning of your upkeep, you may turn this creature face-down." However, it doesn't have morph, so unless you can somehow benefit by having a face-down 2/2 with no name, converted mana cost, colors, or abilities, I wouldn't suggest it. Underneath it'll still be a Vesuvan Spawnwrithe with the upkeep trigger, but there aren't any non-cheaty ways to flip it back up in Standard.
Q. Will you sign my Tarmogoyf?
A. http://paradoxian.com/Islandhom
Have a rules question you want answered? Send it to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
==CONTEST TIME!==
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
==CONTEST TIME!==
You know, I'd love some more feedback on Islandhome. Namely, what people like about it, don't like about it, and most importantly, what they want to see in future editions of the newsletter! Also I heard you like getting free stuff. So with those two things in mind, I'd like to announce the first Islandhome contest! Entering is easy, all you need to do is email some feedback to Islandhome about what you'd like to see in future editions and you could win!
One random email-er who emails me something constructive by Friday before 5 PM will get $5 off their next tournament entry to either FNC or Brothers Grim, whichever they play in first, so long as I'm there to pay (i.e. the store's not involved, it's coming out of my pocket).
The Sweepstakes is open to all legal residents of the 50 United States and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are at least thirteen (13) years of age at the time of entry. Employees of Islandhome, its affiliates, subsidiaries, Madonia, franchisees, agents, retailers, advertising and promotion agencies, and fulfillment companies, and its immediate families (parents, children, siblings, spouse) and members of their same households (related or not) are not eligible to participate in the Sweepstakes.
One random email-er who emails me something constructive by Friday before 5 PM will get $5 off their next tournament entry to either FNC or Brothers Grim, whichever they play in first, so long as I'm there to pay (i.e. the store's not involved, it's coming out of my pocket).
The Sweepstakes is open to all legal residents of the 50 United States and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are at least thirteen (13) years of age at the time of entry. Employees of Islandhome, its affiliates, subsidiaries, Madonia, franchisees, agents, retailers, advertising and promotion agencies, and fulfillment companies, and its immediate families (parents, children, siblings, spouse) and members of their same households (related or not) are not eligible to participate in the Sweepstakes.
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
June 7th: NJ Regionals
Gray Matter is hosting the regionals for our area in the basement of St. Matthew the Apostle church in Edison, NJ. The format is Standard constructed, and I'll have more details as I hear about them. I'm sure I'll be judging it, so I'll find out ahead of time what's going to happen with Grim and FNC that weekend.
Gray Matter is hosting the regionals for our area in the basement of St. Matthew the Apostle church in Edison, NJ. The format is Standard constructed, and I'll have more details as I hear about them. I'm sure I'll be judging it, so I'll find out ahead of time what's going to happen with Grim and FNC that weekend.
June 7th - August 31st: PTQ Season for PT Berlin
The next PTQ season starts this summer, and it's going to be Lorwyn Block Constructed! Lorwyn block will consist of Lorwyn, Morningtide, and Shadowmoor. Eventide won't be available during the beginning of the PTQ season, but will be legal before it ends. To help prepare for it, I'm going to try to sanction some Block Constructed tournaments after Shadowmoor is released.
PTQs in our general area this season:
- 6/21 - Philadelphia, PA
- 6/28 - Edison, NJ
- 8/9 - Philadelphia, PA
- 8/16 - New York, NY
- 8/30 - Edison, NJ
- 8/30 - Hartford, CT
- 8/31 - Rochester, NY
==FIN==
See everyone Friday or Saturday!
-Brian Paskoff
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