==ISLANDHOME #35==
October 29th 2008
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
FNC Grand Opening
Cranial Insertion
States '08 Metagame Breakdown
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: Spooooooky Halloween FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: FNC Grand Opening Sealed Deck ($30 entry) at FNC @ 1 PM
Sunday: Booster Draft at Brothers Grim @ 2 PM
==FNC GRAND OPENING==
Author: Brian Paskoff
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
FNC Grand Opening
Cranial Insertion
States '08 Metagame Breakdown
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: Spooooooky Halloween FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($13 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: FNC Grand Opening Sealed Deck ($30 entry) at FNC @ 1 PM
Sunday: Booster Draft at Brothers Grim @ 2 PM
==FNC GRAND OPENING==
Author: Brian Paskoff
FNC is dead! Long live FNC! Sorry.
FNC is reopening its doors at a new location: 19 Udall Road, West Islip. We're going to have a lot more space to play in now, so no one will need to play on counters, and the "bigger boned" players won't need to squeeze in to find places to play. To celebrate the new digs, we're having a FNC Grand Opening Sealed Deck Tournament this weekend! Entry fee is $30, and of course there will be fabulous prizes and stuff to go with it, like a full box of Shards of Alara and a bunch of foils (including Figure of Destiny and Ajani Vengeant promos!) so come and check out the new location!
Next Tuesday is the election, and next Saturday is States. Even if you're not old enough to vote, you can still do your patriotic duty by playing in the 2008 State Championships! It's Standard, a format most if not all of you are familiar with... but States will have some tougher competition than your local tournaments - not because people at FNC, Grim, etc. aren't competitive players, but because there's a wider range of players, decks, and a more competitive atmosphere. I've got some tips to make things go smoother for you. Not just play tips, but tournament tips in general from someone like myself who gets to see the grand-plan of things players don't get to see.
Be very, very careful about foils. Foils have a tendency to warp for any number of reasons: humidity, left out of a sleeve too long, left in a sleeve too long, because you looked at them funny, etc. You can play with foils of course, but I'd advise against it if you have only certain cards foiled. For example, if all your basic lands are foil and no other cards are, this is a problem. If you only have your Cryptic Commands foil, it's a problem too. A good way to test your foils is to shuffle your deck and look at it from all angles. Cut your deck a few times and see if you can cut to your foils; even "most of the time" is bad. This will be an issue with promo Figure of Destinies. Players are frantically searching for non-foil Figures to use in their Standard decks just for this reason.
States will use decklists, and it's been a while since I've talked about those. We judges use decklists at tournaments to make sure everyone's playing a legal deck. Sixty or more cards and a fifteen or zero card sideboard, all of those cards Standard-legal. When you're filling out your decklist, make sure you count the final list at least twice; have a friend verify it if you want. If you make a mistake and leave a card out, it's a game loss - and since we're checking lists during round one, you'll get that game loss at the start of round two. Not good, no matter how you did in round one. Be careful of confusing names on your lists too. There's some leeway on ambiguous card names, but if we can't make a reasonable guess, it's going to make us hunt you down for it. Back in Time Spiral days there were a lot of these problems, like the two Akromas, but there aren't many in current Standard. Still, when in doubt, write the full name of the card! Decklists aren't that scary though, under 5% of decklists come up with a problem.
Now for talking about the actual metagame and not just the meta-metagame! Decklists from tournaments all over are coming in, and it's becoming apparent that the metagame is diverse. The decks that seem to be making top 8s are: 5C Control, Faeries, Kithkin, Mono-Red, 5C Merfolk, Reveillark, Doran, and Elves. That's more or less in tier order, with the most popular and better-performing decks at the start there and the lower tiers towards the end, though not necessarily totally in that order.
5-Color control, i.e. the deck formerly known as "Quick n' Toast" or just "Toast" is by and large the most popular deck right now. Prices of Reflecting Pools and Cryptic Commands are sky-high right now, and will probably stay that way until after States. The deck doesn't need much of an introduction at this point. It sets up in the early game, stabilizes with mass and spot removal, and turns the tide with Cruel Ultimatum and a horde off efficient creatures like Mulldrifter and Kitchen Finks. Expect to play against this a lot at States, where there's a lot of players who can afford the expensive deck. Its main weakness is that it takes a few turns to set up, and because it wins most games by taking a beating and then recovering, it'll stay down if you can beat it in the early-game.
Faeries has replaced Rune Snag and Ancestral Visions with Broken Ambitions and Thoughtseize, and now uses Agony Warp in place of Nameless Inversion. Besides that, it's mostly the same deck as it used to be, sometimes sporting a Loxodon Warhammer, a trick that hasn't been tried since the early days of Faeries. (On a judge-ly note, watch out for players trying to equip their Faeries with a Scion of Oona in play!) Some even use Jace to get better card draw in a pseudo-Phyrexian Arena style. It's still heavily reliant on a turn two Bitterblossom, and still gets overran by a good Kithkin or RDW hand.
Kithkin has made a couple of adjustments to the 5C-dominated metagame. There's less reliance on Mirrorweave and more on global effects like Glorious Anthem, which can combine with Wizened Cenn or another Anthem to put most of the creatures in the deck out of Firespout range, a very important card for the deck to avoid. It still doesn't stop Wrath, but there's not much to be done about that except Reveillark or the old tactic of not over-extending.
Mono-Red or RDW (Red Deck Wins) is the oldest archetype in the game, and doesn't disappoint. Flame Javelin, Incinerate, Lash Out, Figure of Destiny, Boggart Ram-Gang, Demigod of Revenge (let the trigger resolve!) and every other red spell you'd expect is in the deck. Magus of the Moon would make the deck obscenely powerful in the current Reflecting Pool format, but unfortunately without that the deck needs a fast start to beat the overwhelming control decks.
5-Color Merfolk is a relatively new deck, and even though it's not tier 1, it's a strong deck. Even though it's a Merfolk deck in name, while not every creature in it is a Merfolk, every creature is a Wizard. Stonybrook Banneret makes Sage's Dousing a better Mana Leak, makes Nameless Inversion cheaper, and enables a turn three Chameleon Colossus, which is probably the best Merfolk ever printed. Of course, the obligatory playsets of Reflecting Pool and Cryptic Commands makes it one of the more expensive decks in the format, and it has similar trouble against Kithkin and RDW as Faeries does.
Reveillark is a hard deck to play in this format, because relying on five-mana creatures in decks that aren't already putting pressure on the board is hard to do. There's no Momentary Blink or possibility of an infinite combo anymore, so it's partially a reanimator deck now, using creatures such as Tidehollow Sculler, Sower of Temptation, Mulldrifter, and Glen-Elendra Archmage, getting them back via Reveillark or Makeshift Mannequin.
Then there's Doran and Elves, which are basically sprung from the same archetype, Rock. Both decks rely on quick beats backed up by hand disruption like Thoughtseize and/or Tidehollow Sculler in Doran's case. Both decks can put a big threat out on turn two: Either Doran or Wren's Run Vanquisher, and can recover in the late-game with Profane Command. These two decks probably changed the least after the last rotation.
And of course you could always go rogue. States is the tournament many players come to test out their custom creations, such as the Sanity Grinding deck Matt Brocking played last week using all the five-mana blue Avatars from Shadowmoor/Eventide and other blue-heavy spells to make sure he usually hit for over thirty cards with Sanity Grinding.
In closing, if you want to see what you'll be up against next Saturday, take a look at the top 8 decklists from Neutral Ground's anniversary tournament. The decks there are probably going to be the same ones you'll see from most of the players there, almost card for card.
FNC is reopening its doors at a new location: 19 Udall Road, West Islip. We're going to have a lot more space to play in now, so no one will need to play on counters, and the "bigger boned" players won't need to squeeze in to find places to play. To celebrate the new digs, we're having a FNC Grand Opening Sealed Deck Tournament this weekend! Entry fee is $30, and of course there will be fabulous prizes and stuff to go with it, like a full box of Shards of Alara and a bunch of foils (including Figure of Destiny and Ajani Vengeant promos!) so come and check out the new location!
==CRANIAL INSERTION==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
Big announcement! Monday, November 3rd will be my first article for MTGSalvation.com's Cranial Insertion, their weekly rules article. I'll be one of the official writers for it, which means I'll have a new article up there about every three weeks. I'm honored to have gotten selected among all the other candidates who applied, because Cranial Insertion was one of the things that helped me immensely on my way to becoming a judge. Before I took the judge test, I read CI every week, and back-articles as far back as I could. I even contacted Eli Shiffrin, one of the writers and editors of CI, who's become one of my best friends and judge mentors. And now I get to be part of that team! If you're looking to become a judge, or just polish up your rules knowledge, there's few resources out there as good as Cranial Insertion.
Don't worry though, I'll still be bringing you Islandhome every Wednesday as usual! In addition to the questions I get in the CI Mailbag, I'll also be answering the questions YOU send me in my articles, so send them in!
I'd like to thank both Dr. Tom and Urchin, writers of CI who are stepping down for various personal reasons, for writing over the years.
Don't worry though, I'll still be bringing you Islandhome every Wednesday as usual! In addition to the questions I get in the CI Mailbag, I'll also be answering the questions YOU send me in my articles, so send them in!
I'd like to thank both Dr. Tom and Urchin, writers of CI who are stepping down for various personal reasons, for writing over the years.
==STATES '08 METAGAME BREAKDOWN==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
Next Tuesday is the election, and next Saturday is States. Even if you're not old enough to vote, you can still do your patriotic duty by playing in the 2008 State Championships! It's Standard, a format most if not all of you are familiar with... but States will have some tougher competition than your local tournaments - not because people at FNC, Grim, etc. aren't competitive players, but because there's a wider range of players, decks, and a more competitive atmosphere. I've got some tips to make things go smoother for you. Not just play tips, but tournament tips in general from someone like myself who gets to see the grand-plan of things players don't get to see.
Be very, very careful about foils. Foils have a tendency to warp for any number of reasons: humidity, left out of a sleeve too long, left in a sleeve too long, because you looked at them funny, etc. You can play with foils of course, but I'd advise against it if you have only certain cards foiled. For example, if all your basic lands are foil and no other cards are, this is a problem. If you only have your Cryptic Commands foil, it's a problem too. A good way to test your foils is to shuffle your deck and look at it from all angles. Cut your deck a few times and see if you can cut to your foils; even "most of the time" is bad. This will be an issue with promo Figure of Destinies. Players are frantically searching for non-foil Figures to use in their Standard decks just for this reason.
States will use decklists, and it's been a while since I've talked about those. We judges use decklists at tournaments to make sure everyone's playing a legal deck. Sixty or more cards and a fifteen or zero card sideboard, all of those cards Standard-legal. When you're filling out your decklist, make sure you count the final list at least twice; have a friend verify it if you want. If you make a mistake and leave a card out, it's a game loss - and since we're checking lists during round one, you'll get that game loss at the start of round two. Not good, no matter how you did in round one. Be careful of confusing names on your lists too. There's some leeway on ambiguous card names, but if we can't make a reasonable guess, it's going to make us hunt you down for it. Back in Time Spiral days there were a lot of these problems, like the two Akromas, but there aren't many in current Standard. Still, when in doubt, write the full name of the card! Decklists aren't that scary though, under 5% of decklists come up with a problem.
Now for talking about the actual metagame and not just the meta-metagame! Decklists from tournaments all over are coming in, and it's becoming apparent that the metagame is diverse. The decks that seem to be making top 8s are: 5C Control, Faeries, Kithkin, Mono-Red, 5C Merfolk, Reveillark, Doran, and Elves. That's more or less in tier order, with the most popular and better-performing decks at the start there and the lower tiers towards the end, though not necessarily totally in that order.
5-Color control, i.e. the deck formerly known as "Quick n' Toast" or just "Toast" is by and large the most popular deck right now. Prices of Reflecting Pools and Cryptic Commands are sky-high right now, and will probably stay that way until after States. The deck doesn't need much of an introduction at this point. It sets up in the early game, stabilizes with mass and spot removal, and turns the tide with Cruel Ultimatum and a horde off efficient creatures like Mulldrifter and Kitchen Finks. Expect to play against this a lot at States, where there's a lot of players who can afford the expensive deck. Its main weakness is that it takes a few turns to set up, and because it wins most games by taking a beating and then recovering, it'll stay down if you can beat it in the early-game.
Faeries has replaced Rune Snag and Ancestral Visions with Broken Ambitions and Thoughtseize, and now uses Agony Warp in place of Nameless Inversion. Besides that, it's mostly the same deck as it used to be, sometimes sporting a Loxodon Warhammer, a trick that hasn't been tried since the early days of Faeries. (On a judge-ly note, watch out for players trying to equip their Faeries with a Scion of Oona in play!) Some even use Jace to get better card draw in a pseudo-Phyrexian Arena style. It's still heavily reliant on a turn two Bitterblossom, and still gets overran by a good Kithkin or RDW hand.
Kithkin has made a couple of adjustments to the 5C-dominated metagame. There's less reliance on Mirrorweave and more on global effects like Glorious Anthem, which can combine with Wizened Cenn or another Anthem to put most of the creatures in the deck out of Firespout range, a very important card for the deck to avoid. It still doesn't stop Wrath, but there's not much to be done about that except Reveillark or the old tactic of not over-extending.
Mono-Red or RDW (Red Deck Wins) is the oldest archetype in the game, and doesn't disappoint. Flame Javelin, Incinerate, Lash Out, Figure of Destiny, Boggart Ram-Gang, Demigod of Revenge (let the trigger resolve!) and every other red spell you'd expect is in the deck. Magus of the Moon would make the deck obscenely powerful in the current Reflecting Pool format, but unfortunately without that the deck needs a fast start to beat the overwhelming control decks.
5-Color Merfolk is a relatively new deck, and even though it's not tier 1, it's a strong deck. Even though it's a Merfolk deck in name, while not every creature in it is a Merfolk, every creature is a Wizard. Stonybrook Banneret makes Sage's Dousing a better Mana Leak, makes Nameless Inversion cheaper, and enables a turn three Chameleon Colossus, which is probably the best Merfolk ever printed. Of course, the obligatory playsets of Reflecting Pool and Cryptic Commands makes it one of the more expensive decks in the format, and it has similar trouble against Kithkin and RDW as Faeries does.
Reveillark is a hard deck to play in this format, because relying on five-mana creatures in decks that aren't already putting pressure on the board is hard to do. There's no Momentary Blink or possibility of an infinite combo anymore, so it's partially a reanimator deck now, using creatures such as Tidehollow Sculler, Sower of Temptation, Mulldrifter, and Glen-Elendra Archmage, getting them back via Reveillark or Makeshift Mannequin.
Then there's Doran and Elves, which are basically sprung from the same archetype, Rock. Both decks rely on quick beats backed up by hand disruption like Thoughtseize and/or Tidehollow Sculler in Doran's case. Both decks can put a big threat out on turn two: Either Doran or Wren's Run Vanquisher, and can recover in the late-game with Profane Command. These two decks probably changed the least after the last rotation.
And of course you could always go rogue. States is the tournament many players come to test out their custom creations, such as the Sanity Grinding deck Matt Brocking played last week using all the five-mana blue Avatars from Shadowmoor/Eventide and other blue-heavy spells to make sure he usually hit for over thirty cards with Sanity Grinding.
In closing, if you want to see what you'll be up against next Saturday, take a look at the top 8 decklists from Neutral Ground's anniversary tournament. The decks there are probably going to be the same ones you'll see from most of the players there, almost card for card.
==RULES CORNER==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Author: Brian Paskoff
Q. At our FNM, the draft lands are kindly provided by the store, but some of them are in bad shape from being used so much and being so old. Can I still use them, or do I have to buy sleeves?
A. If your lands are marked, you're going to have to either find lands that aren't marked, or use sleeves. It's nice to share lands, but any card that gets shuffled and played with a lot will be noticeably more worn than the fresh new cards from the packs you just opened. You get a few new fresh lands in the packs in Shards of Alara, but on average you'll only get three - not enough to build a 40-card deck with. Single packs of fifty sleeves are cheap, and will last you many drafts if you're good to them.
Q. My friend was looking at my trade binder the other day for Figure of Destinies, but he didn't want my promo ones because he said he wouldn't be able to use them at States. Is he right?
A. Well, sort of. If all the copies of Figure of Destiny in his deck were foil and nothing else was, that'd be a problem. Foils tend to warp and bend differently than non-foil cards, no matter how careful you are or what kind of sleeves they're in. If you can shuffle a deck and cut to the Figures even "most of the time", that's Marked Cards - Pattern, an automatic Game Loss. It always comes down to the head judge's discretion if he or she determines your cards are marked, but chances are if you suspect they are, then they are. BUT, avoiding foils altogether is a drastic measure! You can avoid Marked Cards penalties by making sure you have a decent distribution of foil and non-foil cards so that when you shuffle, you don't always cut to a foil, and keeping your cards in sleeves when you're not using them - they won't warp noticeably unless they're left out too long. To calm your worries even more, practically everyone has foil promo Figures at tournaments, and 99.5% of them aren't in danger of getting a Game Loss.
A. If your lands are marked, you're going to have to either find lands that aren't marked, or use sleeves. It's nice to share lands, but any card that gets shuffled and played with a lot will be noticeably more worn than the fresh new cards from the packs you just opened. You get a few new fresh lands in the packs in Shards of Alara, but on average you'll only get three - not enough to build a 40-card deck with. Single packs of fifty sleeves are cheap, and will last you many drafts if you're good to them.
Q. My friend was looking at my trade binder the other day for Figure of Destinies, but he didn't want my promo ones because he said he wouldn't be able to use them at States. Is he right?
A. Well, sort of. If all the copies of Figure of Destiny in his deck were foil and nothing else was, that'd be a problem. Foils tend to warp and bend differently than non-foil cards, no matter how careful you are or what kind of sleeves they're in. If you can shuffle a deck and cut to the Figures even "most of the time", that's Marked Cards - Pattern, an automatic Game Loss. It always comes down to the head judge's discretion if he or she determines your cards are marked, but chances are if you suspect they are, then they are. BUT, avoiding foils altogether is a drastic measure! You can avoid Marked Cards penalties by making sure you have a decent distribution of foil and non-foil cards so that when you shuffle, you don't always cut to a foil, and keeping your cards in sleeves when you're not using them - they won't warp noticeably unless they're left out too long. To calm your worries even more, practically everyone has foil promo Figures at tournaments, and 99.5% of them aren't in danger of getting a Game Loss.
==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!
November 8th - State Champs
States makes a return on November 8th, with a massive Standard tournament in each state! New York's will be at Neutral Ground, as usual. Everyone who enters gets a free foil Dauntless Dourbark, and each player who makes top 8 gets Shards product, a playmat, and the winner gets a plaque and free entry to Gray Matter constructed events for an entire year!
December - 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!
November 8th - State Champs
States makes a return on November 8th, with a massive Standard tournament in each state! New York's will be at Neutral Ground, as usual. Everyone who enters gets a free foil Dauntless Dourbark, and each player who makes top 8 gets Shards product, a playmat, and the winner gets a plaque and free entry to Gray Matter constructed events for an entire year!
December - 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:
11/22 - Philadelphia, PA
12/13 - New York, NY
12/27 - Edison, NJ
11/22 - Philadelphia, PA
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
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!
Got forwarded Islandhome and want to sign up? Send an email to IslandhomeMTG@gmail.com!
-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY
L1 NY
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