Friday, July 19, 2013

GP Louisville.. wut?

This is old news, but there will be a Grand Prix in Louisville this year.  I have a surgery scheduled in September, but my recovery time should be a good opportunity (no pun intended) to prepare.  Haven't played much Magic over the past several months, so it will take some time to get what little game I had back.  I love the Standard format right now...  it's very healthy.  Though Junk Reanimator is "the" deck right now, "other" decks are a larger portion of the meta than any other single deck.  Standard is really unpredictable at the moment.

Unfortunately, Theros will be out when GP Louisville comes around.  I could be waaay off, but I smell aggro deck central.  A young format with a pretty limited card pool.  I'm really tempted by Jund, R/B, or B/G Aggro.  Brutally efficient, powerful creatures, cheap removal, and good disruption.  One major caveat: it's freakin' expensive (aside for R/B aggro... and I'd feel more comfortable creating a more controlling list in those colors).  In addition, Ol' Thraggy (Thragtusk) will rotate out when Theros comes in.  Not to mention Snapcaster Mage and another really good 2-mana utility creature.  Sadly, some of the most important components of my favorite decks (Unexpected Results, Epic Experiment, and Immortal Servitude are the big three... and I doubt I'd take any of them to a GP, even with all the M13/RTR cards still in the meta) will rotate out.  Theros will likely leave a big impact on the meta, so this is mostly verbal flatulence.

I really like Quicken.  Rakados's Return at instant speed? yar.  Other unfair things? yar.  Draw a card? yar.  Overhyping a crap rare? yar.  I'll shut up now.

But first.  GP Louisville should be fun.  A GP in my area!  Looking forward to it!

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Bob the Hand Builder

With Dark Confidant being one of the best 2-drop non-'goyf plays in any format, it is small wonder that he is priced around the $60 mark.  Certainly not on par with Necropotence in terms of power level, but still very good.  Suicide black loves this creature...  Some of the old legacy lists containing this creature are pretty much Necro Lite, running Hymn to Tourach, Hypnotic Specter, Nantuko Shade, Tombstalker, Umezawa's Jitte, Thoughtseize, Tarmogoyf, Sinkhole, Dark Ritual, and Wasteland.  An old Legacy's Allure article has a composite list to take a look at.

Recently in Modern and other formats, Dark Confidant has found a home in a nasty little brew called loam aggro (or aggro loam.. whatever it is...).  The deck uses card advantage extremely efficiently.  Here's a Legacy list for comparison.  Aside from the sweet lands you get to play in Legacy, things stay pretty much the same when it's ported over to Modern.  Between Life from the Loam, Dark Confidant, and Countryside Crusher, you have an endless supply of cards to pitch to Seismic Assault and Liliana's discard ability.   The deck is fairly resilient to graveyard hate and other methods of dealing with the deck's routes to victory.  Probably one of my favorite additions to the modern deck are the sweet Retrace spells the deck runs.  Raven's Crime and Flame Jab provide a great outlet for excess lands without the need to have a Seismic Assault online.  In this deck, Life from the Loam is pretty much a 2-mana sorcery speed Ancestral Recall because of the many options the deck has for using the lands you pull from it.

Bronson Magnan took the deck to a first place finish at Grand Prix Lincoln earlier this year.  It is a potent deck that shuts down aggro strategies, has lots of disruption for control and combo decks, and has a very fast clock.  I strongly suggest taking it for a spin if you get the chance.

If this present state of affairs is any indication, Dark Confidant is, and will continue to be a format-defining staple.