#gp providence

[golgari-thot-farm]

MAGIC TUMBLR! I NEED YOUR HELP! I need to choose TWO of these SICK ASS foil Swamps to go in my Meren deck that I'm going to be playing at GP Providence. LEMME KNOOOOOOO!

[judgecast]

New Post has been published on JudgeCast

JudgeCast #183 - GP Providence

http://judgecast.com/archives/1165

The JudgeCast crew spent the weekend at GP Providence, and they’re here to tell the tale! BPrill was on sides, Brogan was on the main, and Jess was playing in his favorite format. Listen as we regale you with stories and talk about our various perspectives on the event.

[misteryada]

So...

In October, the week before Halloween, there’s going to be a GP in Providence, Rhode Island. The same Providence, Rhode Island, that a particular Howard Phillip Lovecraft is buried at with the tombstone inscribed “I AM PROVIDENCE.” That’s the week after my birthday. I am going.

[battlegroundgames]

This week in Magic: A GP Providence Primer

This week in Magic: A GP Providence Primer was originally published on Battleground Games & Hobbies

[justindz]

On GP Providence

First off, congrats to my teammate John Bonnet who took my spare Legacy Burn deck to Rhode Island, played it more or less cold, made day two, almost top 8'd and finally ended up in top 64 with a pro point and some cash. Sick, man. I'll try to get him to post a report here, if I can, along with other teammates who played. I'm sorry I couldn't go. I would have been rocking a deck very similar to PV's, although without the byes I would have had a much harder fight for day 2, I'm sure.

That said, I wanted to cover a few things with regards to this event as viewed from the outside. Let's get this party started.

BUG Landstill

PV made it to the quarterfinals with BUG Landstill in a field laden with UW Landstill + Stoneforge Mystic. I have been playing this deck recently and although I took some scrapes working out the mana base and sideboard on my own (see prior report), it seems to be performing well for me now. I wanted to note a few things that stood out to me regarding this archetype and the event:

I posted a sideboard on the source which contained Vendilion Clique and was told that was bad. PV ran the same 3 Vendilion Clique I'm running and apparently it was good. I win. Actually, in all honesty I think this is a great move. Clique is, in many situations, like a beater, discard and permission all in one package. On top of that, it's yet another way to break an opposing standstill EOT and respectable 4-turn clock with a Factory on the board. I think it's pretty solid and can also be used to force opponents into mis-boarding in game 3 in some cases. Plus, Clique performed so well for the NORUG and NoFOW Bant decks that it clearly is a stand out card at the moment.

LSV tweeted that although BUG is strong, he's not sure Standstill is what you want to be doing right now with all the Wasteland and man-land action everyone else is packing. While I'm not sure I agree (although I do play 5 man-lands in my version partially for this reason), I will voluntarily test a replacement draw card in the form of Ancestral Visions and post results. It has some delay, like Standstill, but it cannot be Spell Snare'd or Mentally Misstepped, so I think it has potential. I heard Drew Levin ran the card, but I'll still try it out. Just joking, Drew.

PV's removal suite seems pretty strong. He basically exorcised some of the Mental Misstep targets. In particular, I think Dismember was brilliant. I've since tested one copy in my build over a Ghastly Demise and it seems like a big win. However, I would caution against removing too many Innocent Blood. PV went down to one copy and there are still a lot of Emrakul, Progenitus and now Thrun-packing players out there. It's still a very efficient card. I think 2-3 copies is correct and I'm still running 3 for now.

Two Life from the Loam and one Life from the Loam both seem to be correct. I dislike drawing multiples, even with Brainstorm in the deck. I suspect this may be play style variance.

Stoneforge Mystic

Welcome to Legacy, albino sword-making chick. Batterskull is that good when cast in an un-counterable fashion on turn 2-3, apparently. The lists running Stoneforge Mystic with Standstill seemed pretty solid. I still like Pernicious Deed (and don't own Tundras), but I definitely think this is a solid option for a shell. It certainly solves many of the weaknesses with the prior GerryT Landstill shell--namely, the amount of time required to close out a game and the general softness to things like Thrun.

Alright, someone break this card in Vintage. Pauper is safe at least. I feel similar to this card as I do with Green Sun's Zenith and with the Reanimator deck--it's just going to get better and better as new targets are printed. I would own 4+ copies and hold them for the long haul.

NoFOW Bant

And, thus, we learn a new angle on Mental Misstep. The card is apparently good enough in aggro-control/tempo decks alongside Daze that it is now optional to play Force of Will. Time will tell if this is actually true or a fluke and one perpetuated by a large number of byes (did JRink have any?), but it's worth considering that the new formula may not be:

your old deck + mental misstep = your new deck

in all cases.

If Daze is enough of a correct tempo play and all of your business cards have equivalent value, maybe you free up your deck by not needing a critical mass of blue cards and you're happy to just keep trading one-for-one, rather than taking a two-card hit.

I like.

Well, that's it for this post. I will be doing a test run of audio posts sometime this week so stay tuned and let me know what you think!

[skewer-blog]

We'll be hearing an epic story soon

GP Providence Results

The world must seriously have something against Dan. My sincerest condolences goes out to him for how it turned out, but he played well and will be going home with some nice prizes. But man, he did better than LSV =)