Monthly Archives: September 2015

All the Dragons?

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Good bye Standard, Welcome to the world new Standard.

For those that are not MtG peeps, let me sum up standard in a nut shell for you. Standard is is a rotating constructed format made up of the last few MtG sets of Magic cards released. It is important to Magic players because it is the most popular MtG format as well as the format of choice for most of the Magic tournaments that happen.

Most of you know i am not a build copier, i tend to build my own lists or if i do take someone else’s lists i tend to adjust for my personal tastes, be that in Magic or DDo. I might be growing up, as in the last little while now i have both followed someone else’s DDo build as well as more or less copied someone’s deck list.

This bad boy below is what i played at this last week’s FNM. The last FNM for the old Standard. It was a lot of fun and other then card availability i wouldn’t change a thing in the main deck and other then adding a bit more creature kill the sideboard, the deck was great. I only lost to my son’s blue artifact deck that he played for most of the old standard season. Attacking 5/5 flyers on turn 2 is tough for anyone.

Capture

But that is the past, time to start looking at the now.

This morning i saw the following MtG deck list posted on one of my local area MtG groups.

4 Mantis Rider
3 Thunderbreak Regent
1 Icefall Regent
3 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
1 Dragonlord Silumgar
1 Silumgar, the Drifting Death

3 Anticipate
3 Draconic Roar
4 Silumgar’s Scorn
3 Crackling Doom
2 Brutal Expulsion
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
1 Dragonlord’s Prerogative
1 Treasure Cruise

1 Sunken Hollow
2 Haven of the Spirit Dragon
2 Island
2 Mountain
2 Plains
2 Smoldering Marsh
3 Flooded Strand
3 Prairie Stream
4 Mystic Monastery
4 Polluted Delta

I feel that this deck is a good example of what we might see this first week of the new standard, at a local level in any case. With what we call fetch-lands and fetch-able dual lands, mana bases are about to get all shook up! Que the Elvis music. People dipping their toes in the water to take advantage of this powerful option to cast the most powerful spells in the format but falling short as to when they want to cast those spells or not building on the synergies to the fullest.

For example in this dragon list above why wouldn’t you adjust the mana base to support the green dragons also?  Dragonlord Dromoka and Atarka are truly monstrous ladies to have in your deck.  Harbinger of the Hunt also can do a lot of work where why would we have so many cards with a double blue casting cost in the early game? With this mana base you have to jump a lot of hoops to have double blue mana when you need it. Let alone double white and double red for planewalkers that are good some of the best in stardard but not the most synergistic. Where Sarkhan Unbroken, is insane here.  Draw a card make a mana of any color a few times and then get all your dragons and swing for the win. Yeah think i would be 5 color dragons if i was going to play this style of deck. But it is not good this week.

What do i think will be good this week? Fast agro, like black/white warriors. The boy is working on a green/white mid-range beat down deck with the option to gain huge amounts of life to win via Felidar Sovereign if attacking with 5/7 dragonlords is not good enough, i think he is on to something assuming he can live to cast his 6 drops..

My point (if i have one) is everyone wants to be cute the first few weeks. If you want to attack this be fast and reliable. Winning on turn 4 or 5 with 2/1s and removal for early blockers will win more games this week then cute 4 or 5 color dragon decks that will get there on turn 8-9. Have fun, play what you like but most people have more fun if they are winning then they do when they were 2 turns away from winning when they die.

Just food for thought.

<3s

FeyBuckler?!? I don’t even know Her!

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Assuming that most of you follow me on Twitter, twitter.com/samiusgurobo if you don’t. Or we are friends on Facebook or have at least dropped by and check out the DDo podcast i do at DDoCocktailhour.com lately,  you should know that i have been following another person’s build for this last life on Samius. Geoff Banana Hanana’s FeyBuckler. I have tweeted him updates as i have been playing. Thinks i have learned along the way and tweats i think work best for the build as i see the game. My jaded jaded version of the game.

He has even written a follow up or two on the build, which you can read here. And i think he wants to know, is the build good? I will try to answer that at the end. But i want to touch on my changes vs his according to a couple of screen shots.

Geoff’s build @ 20

Mine also @ 20

Some easy things to notice changes, i have about 12 more PRR and about 7 more Double Strike. It is not shown but i would bet i have a little more Melee power also, but either of us chose to hover over that break down. Some things that might not jump out at you is he has a few more HPs and i have a lot higher AC (which is meaning less anyway). I assume do to destiny and twist of fate choices.  Also i have “geared up” for level 20-22 something i am not sure Geoff has a ton of level 20 gear ready to go. Oh and one last thing he has a lot more Sonic power then i do/did. I will talk about that is a moment also.

I think Geoff is in Crusader based on his posts, a great choice for this build. I am in Fate singer, a much less good choice but i need to fill my arcane sphere this go around so that is why i am singing vs being in a “good destiny.” But even so i feel unstoppable in most quests. The only time i have died at near level quests were 1, against the ballista’s in Storm the Beaches, i was shot from behind which started a bit of a chain reaction for a moment but was able to pull out of thanks to a rez cake and the strength of the build and teamwork of my leveling partner ie the wife. 2, I pulled the lever in Von3 almost lived died at like -40 or something, btw like a lot of players i am a EE player first time through…. So there is some challenge in what we are doing, it is not like we are just running by on EH.  And we are doing well. Like very well. I think that most of that is on the strength of the Warlock class.

Having said that, watching the wife, Grim and the rest of the guild play their Warlocks had i played one straight, i would have TRed right away. I did the spam damage spells thing for long enough with the Magic Missile wizard, Sorc, Ranged builds even the no DC having divine casters and i am done with that play-style for a while.  But this build is different. A change i need and have been trying to have for awhile. My last live was a Fvs/Pally. It was a lot of fun also and i could do things solo on EE also but it was a lot of work all the time. Check this attack that, do i need a heal? Make sure this buff is running, etc. It was just a lot of work for not as much payoff.

This build does all the things i want my melee to do. AOE damage just by being around, some healing, most important skills covered and solid damage. Not great melee damage but good enough. Add in the Aura ticks and the damage is more then fine. I am even looking forward to having perfect weapon fighting thanks to Reign and other bard powers.

Gearing this version of  Samius is hard. Most of the gear that is best for this build is not stuff i have just laying around. I made a Epic Red dragon suit of armor just to have something light to wear that is not robes. I have been using my green steel weapons since level 12. And had Tobril not talked about the Blade of the High Priestess, i would still be using them.

I did swap to the Blade of the High Priestess, for general mobs. Mostly thanks to Potency +72 boosting my sonic power to the levels Geoff is talking about in his posts. A proper Drow Light Mace of the Weapon Master might be more damage over all but i like what this is doing for now. And i have a Celestia when ever the wife is ready to level up as well as 2 raider’s chests in the event i decide i want a Balizarde. I haven’t decided yet.

Overall, the build in epics so far is really solid. I don’t mean that as anything but the highest of complements. I have played everything from glass cannons to max dps i could muster ranged builds that can solo most EE quests to the support healer that feels that leveling is easy. Wack a mole with Hps is easy in epics, if they die just rez them and move on.

Not to say there aren’t short comings in the build. It would be great to have rogue skills. But to get them you would have to lose the fighter levels which are amazing. You wouldn’t think that they are great but they are. The saves need work, but i am me so i will fail saves no matter what. And you could use a few more 100 hps fairly early into epic elites if you really want to tank bosses. But that is not a huge deal breaker for me.

If you asked me for a grade of 1-10, i would say this is a 9ish. And here is the kicker. I was looking for something to rock a few epic lives with, i need a few more here and there to finish my epic completionist. And i had planed to do so with that FvS/Pally build. But i needed the heroic completionist feat (+2 to all stats was huge for the build) and i lost it when Warlock came out making that build a lot tougher to play. I found Geoff’s build looking for a warlock that would itch the scratch that was bothering me and instead found something that i think will make the divine epic lives easy to complete.

My plan is to level to 28, look at how the world looks then and epic tr and rock back up in Unyielding Sentinel or Divine Crusader. I suspect that the Sentinel will be a touch stronger to play in but maybe not.

It is a fun build and i would much suggest checking it out if you can. Oh and thanks Geoff for posting this build. I think you are on to something great here and as i play it more and learn the ins and outs of the build i will refine things and keep sharing them with everyone, even if you move back to rangggger.

<3s

Temur Molten Vortex

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Sunday night while i was buying catnip to make a spirit catman my bestie in Dungeons and A-holes, i also was having a Facebook conversation with Travis. For those that don’t know Travis he is a Magic player that tends to think on the edges of what most people thing of as good deck design. Also he is a huge troll, that is just his thing. If he can get you to think about something by poking you with his words he will do so at almost all costs. Ie, Troll. One last thing about Travis, he will be my podcast partner for a new show coming soon. Locking down a recording time is our main hangup but i hope to have that ironed out real soon.

Anyway, Travis and i were bouncing around a deck list he has been rocking for a few weeks now and doing fairly well with at his local store. This is what he sent me over a couple of messages.

4 molten vortex

4 magmatic insight
3 anger of the gods
4 monastery siege
2 days undoing
3 treasure cruise
1 volcanic vision

1 alhammarret’s archive

2 keranos god of storms

36 lands

In another window i jump over to Tapout.com and fill this mess in and try a few practice hands. If he is winning like he says he is based off out out my practice hands went he is sacrificing kittens to a forgotten god in a cave somewhere.

So between roleplaying moments of amazing stuff, i hit him back with a few cards.

Alchemist’s Vials
Pyromancer’s Goggles
Radiant Flames – with a message to add a third color
Sarkhan Unbroken

After a moment the following comes in, make a list set it up how you think it would be best and i will take a look in depth.

These are my thoughts for a list.

4 Molten Vortex

4 Magmatic insight
2 Atarka’s Command
4 Tormenting Voice
4 Radiant Flames
3 Treasure Cruise
2 Ravaging Blaze
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
3 Sarkhan Unbroken

4 Alchemist’s Vials
2 Pyromancer’s Goggles

34 not lands meaning 26 lands, i think that 26 should be more then enough. but if not i can see adding in a few more by cutting the commands but i like idea of using them to jump to 4 lands as well as sneaking in some damage.

So why temur? Well Radiant Flames really needs 3 colors of mana on hand to do max damage to wipe the board and Sarkhan Unbroken is a non creature way to draw cards while fixing mana and or make big flyers to get in damage or block as needed. Ie he is the stall this deck wants. Jace allows us to rebuy our much needed spells since we want such a large land count. And well green sideboard cards are sweet right now.

The real question is can we go Mardu? Yes, yes we can the mana is about the same as Temur. With the loss of our planeswalkers, cruise and Atarka’s Command we gain, a slew of wraths, two of the best removal spells post rotation Murderous Cut and Crackling Doom as well as two cards i feel will really shake up standard post rotation Deflecting Palm and Mardu Charm. Getting in for a few points as your opponent ramps to a big fattie then palm them back with their own man or Cdoom it down is a thing i fully expect in the coming months.

It is a good time to be into Magic. It is a good time to buy boxes if you don’t play and sit on them. This next set of cards will be like printing money unlike any set we have seen before and i hope we wont see again for a long while.

Okay, i need to get to bed soon and i want to finish the MTG Potpourri cast, don’t think i am going to make it but i want to try.

Comments are welcome

<3s

One of the Worse Times of the Year.

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Standard format uses the two most recently-released blocks, as well as the current core set. When a new block is launched, the oldest block rotates out of the list. – MtG Mothershipsite

I hate standard rotation time, I feel it is one of worse times of the new for brewers. Well at least for me.  As the last few weeks of Standard start to wind down and the next cool cards start to come to light all i see are the babies that i haven’t had time to finish or play. I don’t play as much constructed magic as i could. Sure i play FNM’s (but i tend to draft at those) and whatever other tournaments we have at my local shop but i don’t travel to play. Not really. And since i don’t play Magic online other then the odd draft, i am often left with dozens of minor regrets at the end of the Magic year on decks not played.

I will miss you babies that never were

Sure there is the excitement of whats to come, but i don’t have those cards. The don’t sit in my binders calling out to me. They are just cards on a screen. Like books on a shelf when you have no time to read them. Great possibilities, possible flops but until they are in my hands they are just dreams yet to come.

Think that is part of the reason Modern is such a popular format. People just want to keep rocking their favorite cards. And i understand that feeling even if modern is just too big of a format for me most of the time. But in a few weeks this feeling will be long past and my focus will be on all the new and exciting possibilities happening all a round us. But for now i long to hang on to what is here.

Thinking of you Theros block.
<3s

Back from the Dead

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I know it has been a while since i wrote a post last and i am sorry. I have just been so busy with work and other issues around here mostly dying. I don’t really know what hit me, but I am about 11 days past when i noticed the first symptoms and i am still only at 50% or so after a week of full on bed rest. I still get wore out just sitting at the computer. It was a beating. It was the worst i have been sick in a loooooog time.

But enough of that lets look at some good things.

Opened a Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy pack 3 in a store vs store event as i was crashing the other week. Wasn’t blue, drafted it anyway. Between it and the cards i hated (Store vs Store drafts are team draft like so hate drafting is important), i ending up needing to dip into blue for raw power. There was a black/white list but i had to fight for playables and had no real way to finish things. The blue added not only Jace but a handful of fliers taking my deck from no plan to air attack. Here is a pic of the final deck, sick as it is.

2015-09-08 15.36.00

Ended up undefeated. Turns out if you can flip Jace into his planeswalker form, any spell worth the flashback effect is amazing. You can’t tell from the image but that top card in the 4 slot is a Kytheon’s Irregulars. Also a nutty bomb if you didn’t know.

I kinda feel bad for the guy on my left, my first pack was  Kytheon’s Irregulars, Sentinel of the Eternal Watch, Swift Reckoning, Topan Freeblade in white with not that great other stuff. He took the Sentinel and then just got cut super hard. The pack back i was open for black cards and hate so he more or less got one pack in a main color and then got wrecked in the draft.

Other then that life in the magic department has been simple. Like most brewers i am in a holding pattern until the next set comes out. I am working with a guy on getting a Magic themed podcast up and running. Think it will be mostly hosted here so no other url to watch. And Tobril and i should be able to tape sometime this week with him moving the next few weekends the meat of our Tiny House podcast should finally be underway. Then Lessah and i hope to tape this week also which should be good. Oh and i need to record something for the 400th DDOcast. Not sure what that will be but i am guessing i will dust of the old music and try to bring up some sweet Sound Concepts. Guess it is good that Magic is in a slump this week.

Think that is it for tonight. I will be brewing all week for FNM this Friday. Should be a quite one as most of our more competitive players are heading to the GP in OkCity this weekend. That should just leave things to us more casuals….

<3s