==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
==DEATH CLOUD==
Author: Michael Evans
==EURO LANDS PROMOTION==
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.
==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!
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
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.
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
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!
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
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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