==ISLANDHOME #50==
February 11th 2009
==IN THIS ISSUE...==
Valentine's Day Massacre (on prices): Brothers Grim lowers their prices!
Confluxing Standard: Reviewing some of the hottest new cards from Conflux.
Wow, issue number 50!
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($11 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: <3>Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
==VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE (on prices)==
Author: Brian Paskoff
==CONFLUXING STANDARD==
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...==
Valentine's Day Massacre (on prices): Brothers Grim lowers their prices!
Confluxing Standard: Reviewing some of the hottest new cards from Conflux.
Wow, issue number 50!
==THIS WEEK'S SCHEDULE==
Friday: FNM Booster Draft at Brothers Grim ($11 entry) @ 7 PM
Saturday: <3>Standard Constructed at FNC ($5 entry) @ 1 PM
==VALENTINE'S DAY MASSACRE (on prices)==
Author: Brian Paskoff
Brothers Grim is slashing their prices on draft sets of Shards of Alara and Conflux! Draft sets (three packs) are $9, while entry fees for FNM have been lowered from $13 to $11! That's the lowest I've seen for any sanctioned booster draft (most places in the US charge upwards of $15), so it's a great time to come down to Grim and draft with us on Friday nights!
Speaking of FNM, the promo for this month is Myr Enforcer. Come win one this Friday, they make great Valentine's Day gifts for that special girl or guy in your life!
Speaking of FNM, the promo for this month is Myr Enforcer. Come win one this Friday, they make great Valentine's Day gifts for that special girl or guy in your life!
==CONFLUXING STANDARD==
Author: Brian Paskoff
With the whole schedule of set design at Wizards of the Coast, it takes a good long while for answers to the most popular decks to show up. Faeries has been dominating Standard since Morningtide, and it took four whole sets for the "answer cards" to show up. Wizards can't just print one answer and hope it sticks, because if it doesn't work it'll be three or four more sets before they can try again, and Faeries will be out of Standard at that point.
The first one up is Volcanic Fallout. As the spoiler evolved, this card changed from a sorcery to an instant and was immediately deemed a Fae-killer. Jund Charm was used in Ramp decks alongside Cloudthresher to combat both Kithkin decks and Faeries. While Volcanic Fallout is good, it just adds to the number of minor board sweepers in standard: Jund Charm, Firespout, Infest, and even Pyroclasm are all heavily played, and it's hard to say where Volcanic Fallout fits in. Obviously, if your metagame is dominated by Fae, Volcanic Fallout is a great sideboard card. Each of the minor board sweepers in Standard has their own strengths and weaknesses:
The popularity of a new card will have everyone trying it out, and make life hard for Faerie players for weeks to come. Just don't get so sucked in by the shiny fresh-pack smell of Volcanic Fallout that you ignore your metagame!
Next, there's Scattershot Archer. 1/2s for G are rare, and the Archer was probably made to avoid getting picked off by a sideboarded-in Peppersmoke. Of course the real power of Scattershot Archer is its ability. With one tap, every Bitterblossom Token, Spellstutter Sprite, and Spirit token falls out of the sky. The Archer comes down on turn one, long before Faeries is ready with a Remove Soul. And if they tap out to Agony Warp it the turn after you play it, it's just another way Scattershot Archer saved you from a turn two Bitterblossom. However, being that it's only good against one tier one deck and one tier two deck (WB Tokens), I don't see it seeing serious play.
The last Fae-killer is the big one, Banefire. Being that I re-started playing Magic after a many-year hiatus around the tail-end of Ravnica block, I have many fond memories of Demonfire beating out the control decks of the time. While Demonfire was good, it required you to have no cards in hand to be truly devastating. And, it was used by one of the most dominate control decks of the time, Urzatron, which could ramp up its mana way faster than decks with lands that didn't tap for 3.
Banefire isn't so much of an anti-Faerie card as it is an anti-Cryptic Command card. When the best counterspell in years can't touch it, it's clearly an anti-control card. In fact, there are only three cards in the format that can deal with Banefire, and they're all red! Wild Ricochet, Shunt, and Swerve, to be precise. It's difficult to say for sure right now, but if Banefire becomes a problem, then one of these spells (most likely Swerve) will start to see some serious sideboard play.
Let's step away from the anti-control cards for a bit and get to the rest of the set. Every set's got those chase uncommons, and Conflux has a few goodies that will have you looking past the rares when you rip open a pack.
I'd feel like I'm neglecting something if I didn't talk about Path to Exile first, which is another one of those $3-4 uncommons (hello, Kitchen Finks). At one mana, Path is an amazing card, especially against decks that run zero or few basics, like Toast in Standard, Affinity in Extended, and... well, almost everything in Legacy and Vintage. There's really no discussion about the card's merits needed: you pay one white mana to make them trade their best creatures for a basic land, and that's that. One word of warning however: it'll take some players quite some time to get used to the idea that accelerating your opponent early on isn't a great idea. Already I've had players tell me that in their playtesting online, opponents have Path to Exiled their early drops on turn one or two. Without Tarmogoyf in Standard, there's really no reason you should ever want to do that.
Aggressive red-based decks get three attractive uncommons: Hellspark Elemental and Shambling Remains. Mono-red decks, what little there are left, have changed from mono-red to Rb, splashing black for things like Blightning, Thoughtseize out of the board, and sometimes Bitterblossom. Those decks will have little qualms about replacing Ashenmoor Gouger with Shambling Remains... although the possibility of a pumped-up Knight of Meadowgrain blocking it might. And that's basically the problem with Hellspark Elemental as well: It's a 3/1, and all sorts of bad things happen to 3/1's. The third card is the often-overlooked Goblin Outlander. Mono-red decks have had trouble with Kithkin ever since Blood Knight left Standard. Goblin Outlander doesn't have first strike, but against mono-white decks, it hardly matters.
Back onto more uncommons, Celestial Purge has to be one of the best sideboard cards in recent memory. It was just back in Shadowmoor that we got a spell that destroyed a black or red creature in combat, and now Wizards is printing cards that remove ANY black or red permanent from the game for the same two mana. It's just downright mean against Bitterblossom, Ajani Vengeant, Demigod of Revenge, and even Nicol Bolas.
And speaking of Nicol Bolas, it's a bit sad to see it being forced into decks where it doesn't fit. Obviously, it appears to be on the surface the perfect card for Five Color Control, but is it? Sure it feels great to take all those counters off Nicol Bolas and destroy your opponent's will to live, but compare it to Bolas's own Cruel Ultimatum: Cruel costs one less, "resolves" the same turn you play it, and can't be attacked, Oblivion Ringed, or burnt away. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is vulnerable to everything Cruel Ultimatum is... plus more. Of course, Cruel Ultimatum can't pick off or steal permanents, but since Nicol Bolas's first ability often is just an eight mana Stone Rain and his second isn't amazing against most creature-based decks in the format that rely on a lot of little creatures rather than big ones (and it delays his ultimate ability by many turns)... anyway, my point is that Nicol Bolas costs eight.
Five-color decks do get a bomb in Maelstrom Angel though; if it hits, playing a free Cruel Ultimatum is like... well, like taking nine counters off a Nicol Bolas. Playing ANYTHING for free in 5C is a good deal, from the lowliest Mulldrifter to a beefy Broodmate Dragon.
As for other rares, we finally have this block's Wrath of God: Martial Coup. Martial Coup, however, costs seven mana to be useful, while Wrath costs four mana. Among the cheap three-or-less mana board sweepers I mentioned above, the four mana Wrath of God is considered almost too expensive. Back in my day, we paid four or MORE mana to destroy all creatures... no, BURY all creatures! And we liked it! (Sorry, I just had a birthday and was reminded how old I was getting.) But anyway, if there was a block PTQ season, Martial Coup would see more play than a Pasgoyf, but since the only big block tournament is a Pro Tour, it will sadly only see play in niche decks.
There's a lot of buzz over Noble Heirarch, the new Birds of Paradise. It's nice to see a "Birds" that doesn't die to a Cloudthresher coming into play, but only time will tell if there's room for a one-mana mana-producing creature in Standard: Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elf didn't really see play before.
I love Thornling. Don't get me wrong, big splashy green creatures are a favorite of mine (I named myself after the best one, don't forget), but Thornling came in at just the wrong time. With Oblivion Ring, Unmake, and now Path to Exile all heavily played, indestructibility just isn't a big deal. It could see play, but it's not as earth-shattering as it could be without so much RFGing in the format.
Well that about wraps it up for this week's Conflux Standard review. I wish I had space to review the entire set, but I don't want to load up your computer with megabytes or whatever. Stay tuned for more reviews in later articles!
The first one up is Volcanic Fallout. As the spoiler evolved, this card changed from a sorcery to an instant and was immediately deemed a Fae-killer. Jund Charm was used in Ramp decks alongside Cloudthresher to combat both Kithkin decks and Faeries. While Volcanic Fallout is good, it just adds to the number of minor board sweepers in standard: Jund Charm, Firespout, Infest, and even Pyroclasm are all heavily played, and it's hard to say where Volcanic Fallout fits in. Obviously, if your metagame is dominated by Fae, Volcanic Fallout is a great sideboard card. Each of the minor board sweepers in Standard has their own strengths and weaknesses:
- Jund Charm is versatile, hurts reanimator decks, and can keep Kitchen Finks around for another go at persisting... but can't kill Stillmoon Cavalier, X/3s, or Burrenton Forge-Tenders.
- Firespout deals one extra damage so it can kill a Cloudgoat Ranger or doubly-pumped up Kithkin, but is sorcery speed and can be stopped with a Forge-Tender.
- Infest kills anything, including the problem creatures black and red can't usually deal with... but is sorcery speed.
- Pyroclasm can wipe out the turn one Figure of Destiny, turn two Wizened Cenn play before it becomes a problem, but it's sorcery speed and only deals two damage.
- Volcanic Fallout kills Fae and acts as a final Sudden Shock against control decks that have stabilized at low life because it's uncounterable... but not unpreventable.
The popularity of a new card will have everyone trying it out, and make life hard for Faerie players for weeks to come. Just don't get so sucked in by the shiny fresh-pack smell of Volcanic Fallout that you ignore your metagame!
Next, there's Scattershot Archer. 1/2s for G are rare, and the Archer was probably made to avoid getting picked off by a sideboarded-in Peppersmoke. Of course the real power of Scattershot Archer is its ability. With one tap, every Bitterblossom Token, Spellstutter Sprite, and Spirit token falls out of the sky. The Archer comes down on turn one, long before Faeries is ready with a Remove Soul. And if they tap out to Agony Warp it the turn after you play it, it's just another way Scattershot Archer saved you from a turn two Bitterblossom. However, being that it's only good against one tier one deck and one tier two deck (WB Tokens), I don't see it seeing serious play.
The last Fae-killer is the big one, Banefire. Being that I re-started playing Magic after a many-year hiatus around the tail-end of Ravnica block, I have many fond memories of Demonfire beating out the control decks of the time. While Demonfire was good, it required you to have no cards in hand to be truly devastating. And, it was used by one of the most dominate control decks of the time, Urzatron, which could ramp up its mana way faster than decks with lands that didn't tap for 3.
Banefire isn't so much of an anti-Faerie card as it is an anti-Cryptic Command card. When the best counterspell in years can't touch it, it's clearly an anti-control card. In fact, there are only three cards in the format that can deal with Banefire, and they're all red! Wild Ricochet, Shunt, and Swerve, to be precise. It's difficult to say for sure right now, but if Banefire becomes a problem, then one of these spells (most likely Swerve) will start to see some serious sideboard play.
Let's step away from the anti-control cards for a bit and get to the rest of the set. Every set's got those chase uncommons, and Conflux has a few goodies that will have you looking past the rares when you rip open a pack.
I'd feel like I'm neglecting something if I didn't talk about Path to Exile first, which is another one of those $3-4 uncommons (hello, Kitchen Finks). At one mana, Path is an amazing card, especially against decks that run zero or few basics, like Toast in Standard, Affinity in Extended, and... well, almost everything in Legacy and Vintage. There's really no discussion about the card's merits needed: you pay one white mana to make them trade their best creatures for a basic land, and that's that. One word of warning however: it'll take some players quite some time to get used to the idea that accelerating your opponent early on isn't a great idea. Already I've had players tell me that in their playtesting online, opponents have Path to Exiled their early drops on turn one or two. Without Tarmogoyf in Standard, there's really no reason you should ever want to do that.
Aggressive red-based decks get three attractive uncommons: Hellspark Elemental and Shambling Remains. Mono-red decks, what little there are left, have changed from mono-red to Rb, splashing black for things like Blightning, Thoughtseize out of the board, and sometimes Bitterblossom. Those decks will have little qualms about replacing Ashenmoor Gouger with Shambling Remains... although the possibility of a pumped-up Knight of Meadowgrain blocking it might. And that's basically the problem with Hellspark Elemental as well: It's a 3/1, and all sorts of bad things happen to 3/1's. The third card is the often-overlooked Goblin Outlander. Mono-red decks have had trouble with Kithkin ever since Blood Knight left Standard. Goblin Outlander doesn't have first strike, but against mono-white decks, it hardly matters.
Back onto more uncommons, Celestial Purge has to be one of the best sideboard cards in recent memory. It was just back in Shadowmoor that we got a spell that destroyed a black or red creature in combat, and now Wizards is printing cards that remove ANY black or red permanent from the game for the same two mana. It's just downright mean against Bitterblossom, Ajani Vengeant, Demigod of Revenge, and even Nicol Bolas.
And speaking of Nicol Bolas, it's a bit sad to see it being forced into decks where it doesn't fit. Obviously, it appears to be on the surface the perfect card for Five Color Control, but is it? Sure it feels great to take all those counters off Nicol Bolas and destroy your opponent's will to live, but compare it to Bolas's own Cruel Ultimatum: Cruel costs one less, "resolves" the same turn you play it, and can't be attacked, Oblivion Ringed, or burnt away. Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker is vulnerable to everything Cruel Ultimatum is... plus more. Of course, Cruel Ultimatum can't pick off or steal permanents, but since Nicol Bolas's first ability often is just an eight mana Stone Rain and his second isn't amazing against most creature-based decks in the format that rely on a lot of little creatures rather than big ones (and it delays his ultimate ability by many turns)... anyway, my point is that Nicol Bolas costs eight.
Five-color decks do get a bomb in Maelstrom Angel though; if it hits, playing a free Cruel Ultimatum is like... well, like taking nine counters off a Nicol Bolas. Playing ANYTHING for free in 5C is a good deal, from the lowliest Mulldrifter to a beefy Broodmate Dragon.
As for other rares, we finally have this block's Wrath of God: Martial Coup. Martial Coup, however, costs seven mana to be useful, while Wrath costs four mana. Among the cheap three-or-less mana board sweepers I mentioned above, the four mana Wrath of God is considered almost too expensive. Back in my day, we paid four or MORE mana to destroy all creatures... no, BURY all creatures! And we liked it! (Sorry, I just had a birthday and was reminded how old I was getting.) But anyway, if there was a block PTQ season, Martial Coup would see more play than a Pasgoyf, but since the only big block tournament is a Pro Tour, it will sadly only see play in niche decks.
There's a lot of buzz over Noble Heirarch, the new Birds of Paradise. It's nice to see a "Birds" that doesn't die to a Cloudthresher coming into play, but only time will tell if there's room for a one-mana mana-producing creature in Standard: Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elf didn't really see play before.
I love Thornling. Don't get me wrong, big splashy green creatures are a favorite of mine (I named myself after the best one, don't forget), but Thornling came in at just the wrong time. With Oblivion Ring, Unmake, and now Path to Exile all heavily played, indestructibility just isn't a big deal. It could see play, but it's not as earth-shattering as it could be without so much RFGing in the format.
Well that about wraps it up for this week's Conflux Standard review. I wish I had space to review the entire set, but I don't want to load up your computer with megabytes or whatever. Stay tuned for more reviews in later articles!
==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!
January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu
==UPCOMING EVENTS==
January 3rd - April 19th: PTQ Season for PT Honolulu
The next PTQ season kicks off January 3rd, and the format is Extended!
Magic events will once again be held at I-Con, which is at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus this year. I'll have news about what tournaments are going to be run as we get closer to April, but just like last time there'll be cheap drafts and constructed events all weekend long!
PTQs in our area this season:
February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA
April 4th - Iselin, NJ
No details for New York PTQs are available yet.
April 3rd - April 5th: I-Con 28February 21st - Edison, NJ
March 14th - Philadelphia, PA
April 4th - Iselin, NJ
No details for New York PTQs are available yet.
Magic events will once again be held at I-Con, which is at Suffolk Community College's Brentwood campus this year. I'll have news about what tournaments are going to be run as we get closer to April, but just like last time there'll be cheap drafts and constructed events all weekend long!
==STORE LOCATIONS & CONTACT INFO==
Brothers Grim
1244 Middle Country Rd.
Selden, NY 11784
Phone: 631-698-2805
Website: www.brgrim.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.brgrim.com
Friendly Neighborhood Comics
19 Udall Rd.
West Islip, NY 11795
Phone: 631-470-7984
==FIN==
See everyone this weekend!
-Brian Paskoff
L1 NY
L1 NY
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