Dragon's Maze Prerelease Weekend

So I'm quite a bit late to this... Sorry for that. Been crazy busy with other stuff. I apologize.


So the FNM before the Midnight release was free. Figured why not. Decided to run Boros Humans instead of Selesnya Humans.... And failed...


Round 1: 1-2 vs Boros

Round 2: 2-0 vs Rakdos. Chick was new and didn't really know how to play.

Round 3: 1-2 vs Gruul

Round 4: 1-2 vs Esper Control

Whoops. The deck did horribly and I wasn't happy. Especially with the lose to Esper Control when my Selesnya deck tended to laugh at control. Came in 24th out of 28.


So on to the Prerelease. Got Simic to go along with my Selesnya. Yep. That's fail in the making...

Round 1: 2-0 vs Simic/Selesnya

Round 2: 1-2 vs GWB. Got killed by Emmara and Rogue's Passage. WTF

Round 3: 2-0 vs Simic/Azorius

Round 4: 1-2 vs RUG

Actually didn't do too bad. Was kinda surprised by the 2-2. Ended up 25th out of 43.


Also did the Prerelease at Ground Zero Omaha on Saturday night. Got Selesnya/Gruul that time, so was pretty happy.

Round 1: 2-1 vs everything but Blue

Round 2: 0-2 vs BUW. Died to Extort. So broken in Limited

Round 3: 2-0 vs BRU

Round 4: 0-2 vs Naya

Round 5: 2-1 vs Grixis

Got Selesnya to the end of the Maze almost single handedly. (There was another Selesnyan who won 1 and then left). Came in 10th out of 29. Not too bad.



I didn't go to the Launch because I'm underwhelmed with the set and didn't want to throw more money at the possibility of getting cool stuff.


Am currently running Boros Standard and am quite possibly going to change it... Thinking about going back to Gruul aggro with minor changes or potentially doing a Naya Blitz type deal... My Gruul deck never placed out of the Top 8 at events, and I miss winning like that....

This past weekend was FNM, but I'm not gonna bore you with that. Went 2-2 and came in 15th out of 26. Boooo.




THIS coming weekend (it's still Sunday) is spring States at HobbyTown in Lincoln! Starts at 9am, $25 entry. I will be there. Hopefully running something good.

The next weekend after is a Pro Tour Qualifier at HobbyTown in Lincoln. Starts at 9am, $25 entry. I will also be at this. I will be at every PTQ for Dublin that I can go to. I want to freaking go to freaking Dublin.

Then the weekend after that I will be taking this show on the road! I will be doing FNM in Chicago! Then that Saturday is the freaking World Magic Cup Qualifier for the Midwest!!!! *flail* (for those of you stuck in NE, there's a Standard GPT at HobbyTown in Lincoln on the 1st as well.) Then that Sunday is a PTQ at the same place as the WMCQ. Wootsauce. I'm so full of stoke.

Dragon's Maze Promos!!!!!!!!!!

This has been a thing for me since Return to Ravnica, so I'll just keep going with it...


Everyone who plays in the Prerelease will get:

Everyone who participates in the Implicit Maze part of the Prerelease will get:

The Launch promo is:

The Buy a Box promo is:

(Is that another Azorius Buy a Box Promo? I think it is)

Everyone who plays at the Game Day will get:

And Top 8 at the Game Day will get:

Emmara and Table Flipping

If you guys follow me on Twitter, you know most of this rant already. If you don't, I figured I would throw it on here...

WILL CONTAIN SOME VAGUE SPOILERS FOR THE SECRETIST (also, more Selesnya previews from DGM than you can shake a stick at!)

As should be obvious by now, I'm Selesnya. It's my chosen Guild to the point that I have the symbol as a tattoo. I've been a fan of Selesnya since back in the day and was full of stoke when we went back to Ravnica.

My playgroup and I have assumed from the beginning that they would do a Champion for each of the Guilds, just like they did last time. My hope was that we would see Fonn finally get a card. (My secret hope was that not only would we get more wolves, but Biracazir would get a card.) If you have no idea what I'm going on about: read the original Ravnica block books or go look it up.

When the whole thing with the Gateless came up, we started considering the Champions as people who might not 100% get along with their Guild. One of my original thoughts was Emmara. (Fonn was a close 2nd.) The idea of Emmara getting her own card was awesome. Then at PAX East, they confirmed that Emmara was getting a card and showed her art.

Awesomesauce, right? Now, pay close attention to the background, it's important.

Not too far in to spoiling cards from Dragon's Maze, they spoiled the tokens. One of them was this:

Is that the elemental in the background of Emmara's art? Certainly looks like it. They announced that what made the token would be announced the next day. I couldn't wait for them to finally announce Emmara.

Instead, we got this:

Ummmmm, that's not Emmara. WTF. Nice card, but not what we were hoping for.

Then they finally spoiled Emmara:

WTF. I can't figure out what I hate more, the 7 CMC or the fact that she just prevents damage... The 5/7 is kind of amusing considering she's just an Elf Shaman who apparently doesn't bring any friends.

A 7 CMC Elf Shaman who is worth playing looks like this:

Naturally, many of the online Selesnya community were mad. The only explanation coming from Wizards was that despite the fact that Emmara was a pile of crap on cardboard, she would be good in Commander.

Okay, I will give you the fact that in a deck with Rhys the Redeemed, she might be good. In a Mayael deck that is using some token generation (like Rampaging Baloths) she might be good especially since you can sneak her out with Mayael's ability. The problem is that the people who play Commander only need 1. They're not the people who are going out and buying product by the truckload. The people who play Commander are not the ones who are pushing the game forward.

So I continued to rage a bit. At one point I started quoting parts of the book:

"Call on the mighty elementals of nature. They still answer when we summon them." - Trostani to Emmara in The Secretist Part 1

How about: "The wild beings of the world are open to you, Emmara Tandris." - Trostani

Does that sound like the card we got? No, it doesn't. So of course, we were a little mad.

Then today, this gets posted: Why Emmara is Terribad

Apparently we were all right. Emmara was supposed to produce the token. But since Wizards continues to leg hump blue, the whole plot of Mythic Maze Runners got axed. At least they admitted that they screwed around with stuff. The thing that pisses me off though is that they did it to Selesnya. The single event deck is Selesnya. Is that supposed to make us happy?

I'm done with my ranting for now. Should probably have done the title "Emmara Flips a Table." At 5/7, I'm pretty sure she could flip any table she came across...

This weekend is just FNM. Next weekend is FNM and then the Prerelease to Dragon's Maze!!!!!!!! Midnight at Ground Zero Bellevue and 6PM at Ground Zero Omaha. I will 100% be at Ground Zero Omaha like always.

For more Magic shenanigans, more rants and live tweeting of every Magic tournament I go to, follow me on Twitter @glasswalker

TNM 4/11, FNM Ames 4/12, SCGMKE 4/13

Thursday Night Magic at GZO was Standard. Randomly decided to go.

Round 1: 2-0 vs mono Red

Round 2: 1-2 vs mono Red

Round 3: 2-1 vs Gruul

Round 4: 1-2 vs mono Red

Pretty sure I was one of the only people not playing Red. Going 2-2 didn't make me feel too confident about the rest of the weekend.



Did a few changes to my deck before heading out of town. Mostly added some removal to my sideboard. Wasn't going to be able to go to FNM locally and then drive the 7.5 hours to Milwaukee. So I decided I would hit an FNM on my way out of time. I decided to go to FNM at Mayhem Comics in Ames, IA. They run a free event and a paid event. Kinda nice. But also kinda hella crowded. 42 people between the 2 events is a lot of people. The people who work there were very nice. The other players, I dunno yet. The big thing that I wasn't used to is apparently people can just walk up to the table you're at and go "I'm playing here" and can make you move... We don't do that locally.

Round 1: Bye

Round 2: 2-1 vs BWR

Round 3: 2-1 vs Reanimator

Round 4: 0-2 vs Jund Aggro

Round 5: 2-1 vs Esper Control

Went 4-1 and came in 3rd. That was another thing that was different. Even if there isn't prizes for the whole Top 8, locally they still announce it. So I didn't get a promo and didn't know what I placed until it got posted to Planeswalker Points. Meh. Didn't expect to do so well, especially at an FNM out of town.


Got done with FNM and hit the road for Milwaukee. About an hour and a half out of Milwaukee, I lost the head lights, tail lights and dash lights on my car... Thankfully I'm a mechanic and had some tools and extra parts. Got it figured out and got going, but lost enough time that I wouldn't be able to get any sleep before the event. One of the best parts was hanging out with Oestrus. I haven't seen her since GenCon, so it was nice to be able to hang out in person.

Round 1: 0-2 vs Aristocrats

Round 2: 0-2 vs RWU Control

Round 3: 2-1 vs Naya Blitz. This guy tilted at the end and I freaked out. I attacked and then used Selesnya Charm on one of my creatures to give it +2/+2 and trample. He threw down his cards and then started picking stuff up and putting his cards away. He went ahead and filled out the results slip and handed it to me. Only then did he realize that what I had attacked for wasn't lethal. This whole time I was just staring at him going "okay..." Then he started freaking out more. I just picked up my stuff and essentially ran away.

Round 4: 1-2 vs Experiment Naya

Round 5: 2-1 vs Bant Control

Round 6: 1-2 vs mono Black

Round 7: 2-0 vs Naya Humans

Round 8: 1-2 vs Experiment Naya. This Round went to time. Yes, 2 Aggro decks went to time. ROFL.

Round 9: 2-0 vs Esper Control

Round 10: 0-2 vs Esper Control

So I essentially sucked and came in 100 something... I'll post it when I figure it out. But it's still experience I guess...







This weekend is FNM at GZB and nothing Saturday. Then next weekend is FNM at GZB and then the Prerelease for Dragon's Maze at GZO at 6PM on Saturday. I won't be going over an hour away for an event again until the WMCQ in June.


Miles driven so far for Magic events this season (Starting March 18th): 1420. Not going to count events that are in my town. Possibly not going to count events that are 1 hour or less away.

I met Magic:

Going on 20 years ago now... I know I got in to buying packs and casually playing during Beta/Unlimited/Revised. I don't remember exactly when I got started anymore.

 

When I first started it was mostly just collecting cards and playing at Ground Zero Omaha every once in a while. In 6th grade I started playing with a couple people in the cafeteria. It wasn't until high school that I met a large group of people who played outside of a store. We used to play on the stage at school. I remember our overly religious teacher telling us that we were playing something evil. He'd always start out with "let me give you a speech about the Devil..."

I don't remember when I started playing with my current playgroup. I know it was before I moved to Texas in 07. I took my cards with me to Texas, but didn't play too much down there. When I moved back to Nebraska, I started getting my playgroup more involved. The first event we did as a group was the Prerelease to M12. Then February of last year, we went to Grand Prix Lincoln as a spur of the moment type thing.

Getting as involved as I am in competitive Magic came in August of last year. I stood in front of a screen at GenCon and watched Team Croatia play in the World Magic Cup. At that moment, I decided that I was going to get as involved in competitive Magic as I could. That world stage was where I wanted to be. I started going to FNM as soon as I got back from GenCon. I've been to almost every FNM since then. Been to every Prerelease, Launch and Game Day since then. Started going to Pro Tour Qualifiers and Grand Prix Trials. Now I've ended up with enough points to go to the World Magic Cup Qualifier in June. 

And I'm rambling because I'm tired... Sorry guys.

Thursday is Magic at Ground Zero Omaha. Friday is FNM at Mayhem Comics in Ames, IA. Saturday (and maybe Sunday) is the Star City Open in Milwaukee. I'll blog again when I get back.

Play Magic Everywhere

My playgroup teaching another playgroup how to play Commander at the local Denny's. The fun part about this Denny's is that it's essentially neutral territory for all the different stores and many people go there to play. There's actually a whole other group behind us in this pic about to cube. And one of those guys came up to us and gave us a huge stack of extra cards. Fun times had by all.

FNM 4/5

So I'm essentially still pimping the same Selesnya humans deck. The only real change I've done is adding Ground Seal to my sideboard. I do want to add Thraben Heretic to my deck, and was meaning to do it before FNM and forgot. Sad day.

Round 1: 1-2 vs Selesnya life gain

Round 2: 2-1 vs Jund control

Round 3: 1-2 vs RWB control

Round 4: 2-1 vs a Reanimator deck of some kind

Once the guy from Round 4 noticed I was playing G/W, he became convinced that he was going to lose. Apparently since G/W has such a potential for Graveyard hate, they're the worst matchup for Reanimator. I didn't know that and don't fully believe that. Especially since Ground Seal is new this week. Just cause it's G/W doesn't mean it's going to pack Graveyard hate.

I've been contemplating adding Nevermore to the sideboard of my deck as well. But with that and Ground Seal, I'll be tempted to just add Rancor and Ethereal Armor and get all types of away from my original plan... I'd rather leave it just creatures and land right now. Especially with how much Thalia tends to screw people up.




Well, this coming up week I'll be doing Thursday Night Magic at Ground Zero Bellevue. Then I'll potentially be doing FNM at Mayhem Comics in Ames, Iowa. Then Saturday is the Star City Open in Milwaukee. I will let y'all know how everything went probably on Tuesday or Wednesday. I'm gonna be exhausted when I get home... If you can't wait for me to blog, follow me on Twitter @glasswalker. I live tweet most of my Magic events.