Simply put, a Phantom Event is a limited format tournament in which the cards players use for the event are temporary and provided by Magic Online exclusively for the duration of the event. The temporary cards will not be added to the players' collections after the event.
Starting with 17 February, the price structure of Phantom Sealed Swiss will be a little bit more generous. Phantom Sealed Swiss:
Entry options: 6 Event Tickets or 60 Play Points
Payout: 3 wins: 90 Play Points, 2 wins: 60 Play Points, 1 win: 20 Play Points
Four-booster Sealed are gone. Firstly, the format was confusing and some players submitted 40-card decks even though the deck-building scene information said only 30 cards were necessary. Secondly, the four-booster Sealed were six times less popular than Phantom Sealed Swiss and it took some time to gather enough players to fire the event.
We are now in the middle of round four. The decks are now fighting for their lives but there is still hope of a voteback if you get eliminated. The voteback happens after this round ends on February 7th, 2016.
The banning of Cloud of Faeries
Two decks are in trouble because of the banning of Cloud of Fairies: Delver and Blue Bichinho. The brewers have now modified their decks and both decks are still in the Pauper Gauntlet S03. Round four
Round fouris played in the Tournament Practice room and if a deck loses it is elmiinated from the Pauper Gauntlet (unless voted in the voteback). Here are all the results of round four so far
43 decks bravely walked into round four, ready to fight to the death.
UG Madness defeats Delver 2-0
Infect defeats AzKitty 2-0
Rakdos Vampires loses to Cavern Control 1-2
Counter-Kitty dies to Dimir Teachings 1-2
Stompy Tokens vs Angler Delver 2-1
Death Control vs Snow Zoo Quitter 2-0
BUGS & Pigs vs Burn 0-2
UB Trinket Control vs MBC 0-2
Kuldotha Mardu vs Grixis Valuetown 2-1
Bant Sword and Shield vs AzKitty 2-1
Aristocrats vs Dimir Control 2-0
MUC vs Bant Fog 2-0
Stompy vs RUG Tron 2-0
9-4 gives a total score of 18-7 for round four so far. Round four ends this upcoming week.
Below are the results from R04 matches from last week:
Izzet Cooldotha defeats Orzhov Extort 2-1 RUG Tron makes short work of Elrond, Legolas and Friends (Elves) 2-0 Shroudfang Ninja is defeated by Orzhov Metalcraft 1-2 WW Soul Tokens defeats Hexproof 2-1 Goblin Storm Combo goes off against Grixis Counterburn 2-1
White Heroes defeats Dimir Control 2-0 Burn fights a GW Tokens Essence Warden deck and still wins 2-1 Flying Ninjas dies to Dimir Control 1-2 Turbo Zoo falls to AzoriusKitty 1-2 BorosKitty Initiated defeats Burn 2-0
Simic Oracle races Burn 2-1 somehow. Rancor is a good card. Black Auramancer wins against Burn as well, 2-0
What happens now?
Round four will end on Sunday Feb 7 and then we will have the voteback. 36 decks are still alive and three more will return via the voteback.
The preliminary format for the Voteback is that every viewer gets three votes and three decks are brought back into the Gauntlet. A deck that is voted back can be from any round - i.e. even the decks that lost during double elimination can come back after the Voteback.
The Eliminations before this round Round four eliminations so far: Counter-Kitty, BUGS & Pigs, UB Trinket Control, Rakdos Vampires, Flying Ninjas, Turbo Zoo and Shroudfang Ninja. 44th place: Shared by the 26 decks eliminated in round three: Affinity, Exhume Control, Familiars, Rebel Grind, Pestilence Control, Encroaching Blight, Green Grifters, The Pauper Gauntlet, Project X, Tortured Toolbox, RG Land Crusher, RG Landfall, DelverFiend, Eggs, Spiteful Leeches, Gary Busey LD, Selesnya Flash, Abzan Grindhouse, Bant Fog, Crocajund, BUG Proliferators, Evil Allies, Land-o-derm, Pig Trinket, Sultai Delve, 5-color Green 70th place: Shared by nine decks that died during double Elimination, (round one and two): Red Land Destruction, Mono Black Land Destruction, Glass Cannon Red, Tortured Madness, Cheaty Morph, Living End, 1-land Spy, UB Justice Control and Dragon Delve.
We released yesterday ML Bot 10.73, supporting the new set Oath of the Gatewatch (OGW). You can download the updated pricelist from the Online Control Panel or use the pricelist available for free during the update process, or the one in the 10.73 installer.
Lite bots should update as well because the pricelist is necessary to handle the new set.
Please note that the prerelease events will start in few hours, so the prices you find online now are default prices and can be wrong. You may want to adjust them or not handle OGW during the first few hours.
The reasons to change the RG Tron deck list As of January 27th, Splinter Twin and Summer Bloom are banned in Modern. That changes everything. It is a major boost for RG Tron. Two major combo decks are gone. RG Tron does not like combo. RG Tron happy now! RG Tron smash! Oh... excuse me. Back to writing. Something else has changed as well - Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger has proved to be extremely good at taking down another combo enemy of ours - Scapeshift. This means that we can move out of the Slaughter Games package and get some free slots in the sideboard. For reference this is my latest RG Tron build that I was using before the bannings: 1 Tendo Ice Bridge 1 Eye of Ugin 1 Forest 1 Ghost Quarter 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Powerplant 4 Urza's Tower 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger 3 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Spellskite 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 4 Oblivion Stone 4 Karn Liberated 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 4 Chromatic Sphere 4 Chromatic Star 4 Expedition Map 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Ancient Stirrings 2 Relic of Progenitus 3 Pyroclasm Sideboard 4 Nature's Claim 3 Slaughter Games 1 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Relic of Progenitus 2 Spellskite 1 Boil 1 Pyroclasm 1 Rending Volley 1 Thragtusk The changes Removing the Slaughter Games package means that we no longer need to play Tendo Ice Bridge in the main deck. Thus we get a free land slot. This land slot should be used for Ghost Quarter or a Forest. As the 2nd Ghost Quarter is much less useful than the first (as has been proved by one of the geniuses on the mtgsalvation forums) and Newlamog is pathable I feel that the Forest is more useful. +1 Forest, -1 Tendo Ice Bridge (MD) I see no reason to make any other main deck change. I have seen builds with multiple Newlamogs but I feel very reluctant to add more bombs to the deck and I am not cutting Emrakul anytime soon. The single Ugin could possibly be replaced by a Newlamog if you feel like doing that. I think there is sufficient reason to keep two Spellskites in the SB. They are still very efficient in a lot of matchups even if Twin is gone. I do not think Rending Volley deserves a spot in the SB now. It does work against Celestial Colonnade and Merfolk but we still win easily against Control decks and Merfolk does not show up enough to merit a slot IMHO. -3 Slaughter Games, -1 Rending Volley (SB) My two biggest problem matchups right now are Burn (still trying out Thragtusk) and Affinity. I would like to add something against them. I was thinking of a second Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger might in the sideboard against Scapeshift but Scapeshift does not seem big enough right now in the online metagame. That might change if the Twin players decide to go for Scapeshift instead. I am going to add one card for Burn and one for Affinity. My choice will be Feed the Clan (or a second Thragtusk) and Ancient Grudge. I will also put in another mass removal spell (probably the new one from Oath). My last candidate for the sideboard is the 4th Relic or the 2nd Boil. For now, the Relic seems like the safe choice. +1 Ancient Grudge, +1 Feed the Clan, +1 mass removal, +1 Relic The new deck list post Jan 27 2016 1 Eye of Ugin 1 Forest 1 Ghost Quarter 4 Grove of the Burnwillows 4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Powerplant 4 Urza's Tower 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger 3 Wurmcoil Engine 1 Spellskite 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 4 Oblivion Stone 4 Karn Liberated 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon 4 Chromatic Sphere 4 Chromatic Star 4 Expedition Map 4 Sylvan Scrying 4 Ancient Stirrings 2 Relic of Progenitus 3 Pyroclasm Sideboard 4 Nature's Claim
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Feed the Clan
1 mass removal spell
1 Wurmcoil Engine 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Spellskite 1 Boil 1 Pyroclasm 1 Thragtusk Now I will start to work on updating the sideboard plan. I am very happy to discuss these changes and I am sure the Pro Tour will prove that I got some of this wrong. Please add your thoughts in the comments below.
I'm exicted about a card in Oath of the Gatewatch. Thought-Knot Seer. It's a tidehollow sculler with a 4/4 body for 4 mana. That's pretty sweet.
The real reason I'm writing today is that after the banning of Twin, all the Modern decks became these insane aggro decks. They were designed to kill as quickly as possible and could often kill on turn 3 or turn 4 through a Karn Liberated. I was having a heck of a time with Tron so I stopped playing it for a while.
Then I saw Thought-Knot Seer. It could be that critical piece of disruption against the very aggressive decks, it could take the Atarka's Command or the Boros Charm that's going to finish me off.
The only think I'm concerned about is that 4 mana is a lot without tron so I wonder if Tron decks are going to shift to have mana rocks to give some ramp to play Thought-Knot. I think the Seer may not be enough on it's own, but with many of the other powerful cards in Oath of the Gatewatch, I think tron could reign supreme, until Urza's Tower gets banned.
We have just released ML Bot 10.72. Recently we released 10.71 and 10.71.
These versions contains a number of small and big improvements, among them:
the trading messages are now simplified and allow a smoother checkout process. The order of the messages is slighly different if you have the auto-buyer on or off
fixed a visualization bug with "Spike Protection". Previous version displayed cards as "spike protected" even if they were not (false positive)
the autotransfer timer (the "waiting time" between two consecutive autotransfers) has been slightly increased: from 45 seconds to 60 seconds.
fixed a problem happening on some Win 10 computers blocking the bot at the final confirm window
Installer of version 10.70 was broken. If you want to install ML Bot using the installer, please download the installer 10.72 from the Online Control Panel.
Round four has started! The decks are now fighting for their lives but there is still hope of a voteback if you get eliminated. The voteback happens after this round ends on February 7th, 2016.
The banning of Cloud of Faeries
Two decks are in trouble because of the banning of Cloud of Fairies: Delver and Blue Bichinho. The brewers have now modified their decks and both decks are still in the Pauper Gauntlet S03. Round four
Round fouris played in the Tournament Practice room and if a deck loses it is elmiinated from the Pauper Gauntlet (unless voted in the voteback). Here are all the results of round four so far
43 decks bravely walked into round four, ready to fight to the death.
Izzet Cooldotha defeats Orzhov Extort 2-1 RUG Tron makes short work of Elrond, Legolas and Friends (Elves) 2-0 Shroudfang Ninja is defeated by Orzhov Metalcraft 1-2 WW Soul Tokens defeats Hexproof 2-1 Goblin Storm Combo goes off against Grixis Counterburn 2-1
White Heroes defeats Dimir Control 2-0 Burn fights a GW Tokens Essence Warden deck and still wins 2-1 Flying Ninjas dies to Dimir Control 1-2 Turbo Zoo falls to AzoriusKitty 1-2 BorosKitty Initiated defeats Burn 2-0
Simic Oracle races Burn 2-1 somehow. Rancor is a good card. Black Auramancer wins against Burn as well, 2-0
9-3 so far. That is decent. Round four continues next week!
What happens now?
Round four will end on Sunday Feb 7 and then we will have the voteback.
The preliminary format for the Voteback is that every viewer gets three votes and three decks are brought back into the Gauntlet. A deck that is voted back can be from any round - i.e. even the decks that lost during double elimination can come back after the Voteback.
The Eliminations before this round Round four eliminations so far: Flying Ninjas, Turbo Zoo and Shroudfang Ninja. 44th place: Shared by the 26 decks eliminated in round three: Affinity, Exhume Control, Familiars, Rebel Grind, Pestilence Control, Encroaching Blight, Green Grifters, The Pauper Gauntlet, Project X, Tortured Toolbox, RG Land Crusher, RG Landfall, DelverFiend, Eggs, Spiteful Leeches, Gary Busey LD, Selesnya Flash, Abzan Grindhouse, Bant Fog, Crocajund, BUG Proliferators, Evil Allies, Land-o-derm, Pig Trinket, Sultai Delve, 5-color Green 70th place: Shared by nine decks that died during double Elimination, (round one and two): Red Land Destruction, Mono Black Land Destruction, Glass Cannon Red, Tortured Madness, Cheaty Morph, Living End, 1-land Spy, UB Justice Control and Dragon Delve.
I wanted to take a minute today to write about how Modern is unique to the non-rotating formats. There are many decks that have very powerful linear strategies and relatively weak interaction.
Many strategies (think storm) can win on turn 3 much of the time (yeah, more of Storm will get banned eventually) and there's not a lot of interaction that can stop a run for a win that early.
Seriously, what do we have to stop a storm player from going off on turn 3 with Pyromancer Ascension out? There are cards but not a ton and you have to have already played them, there's not a good way to interact.
The best interactive spell in the format is probably Remand and it's not Counterspell or Force of Will. Modern would be a much better format if a lot of the good interactive spells from back in the earlier days of Magic were reprinted.
I read in an article recently that talked about the history of bannings in Modern. I read an article that said Wizards states that every ban is in the interest of format diversity and that many cards like Wild Nacatl and Bitterblossom come back after a few years. Their conclusion is that because the format doesn't rotate Wizards needs to use the ban list to shake up the format.
I have to say I disagree with this sentiment. The purpose of the ban list was never to "shake up" formats. It is to protect the format from degenerative cards that hurt the format. Let's look at one ban that I read about being a "shake up" ban, Wild Nacatl. It was banned because the only viable aggro deck was Zoo (stated by Wizards). I don't know if this was the best ban (it was unbanned after all) because it was to hurt a specific deck. I don't agree with this kind of ban.
Twin is a ban that happened because if a deck had red and blue cards it was instantly better by adding twin. The combo didn't take a lot of cards to execute and didn't require a deck be built around it. It was like having Time Vault and Voltaic Key, it was an easy two card instant win, so no matter what your deck did it was a good option.
Pod was banned for the same reason as Twin. If you're playing (creatures in Pods case) your deck gets instantly better by playing with Pod. I argued when Pod was banned that Twin was a better ban because of the way Pod at least required a deck be built in a manner to be able to utilize Pod. Twin just needs two combo pieces and that's it.
Anyway. It seems that Twin and Pod were banned for the same reason. Looking at earlier bans I think the policy was more along the lines of "this deck is too good". Hopefully we see cards like Deathrite Shaman, Bloodbraid Elf, Ancestral Visions, and maybe even Jace off the banned list someday if Wizards has changed their reason for bans in Modern.
Surprises are not welcomed during a draft. You should be able to predict what your opponent may be holding in his hand in order to minimalize the risk of misplay. To this end, I've prepared a list of cards that do unexpected combat tricks - instants and creatures with flash. White: Dazzling Reflection, Immolating Glare, Make a Stand, Mighty Leap, Searing Light. Blue: Abstruse Interference, Dimensional Infiltrator, Gift of Tusks, Sweep Away, Unity of Purpose. Black: Unnatural Endurance, Grasp of Darkness, Tar Snare. Red: Kozilek's Return, Reality Hemorrhage, Brute Strength, Fall of the Titans, Tears of Valakut. Green: Vile Redeemer, Vines of Recluse, Natural State, Elemental Uprising, Lead by Example. Multi: Void Grafter. Colorless: Spatial Contortion, Warping Wail.
The Pauper Gauntlet S03 Voteback starts on February 7th here on mtgolibrary.blogspot.com.
The voteback is a chance for decks that have been eliminated from the Pauper Gauntlet to return to action in round five. You will each get three votes and three decks will be voted back. Any deck that is eliminated is eligible for voteback, even the decks that were eliminated in round two.
More about that on February 7th.
Previous seasons I have just made a short argument for each deck so you could see why you should vote it back. One year I tried to be funny. This year I want you guys to argue for the decks. First and foremost I want the brewer to defend his deck, next the champion, then the public and last myself.
So, notice the important order.
1. Brewer
2. Champion
3. You the reader
4. Me
So, if there is a deck that you want to return to the Pauper Gauntlet that was eliminated in round two, three or four (no decks were eliminated in round one), post your reasons for bringing it back below and I will include them in the February 7th article.
Good arguments include, but are not limited to:
Dan made a serious play mistake
I love this deck
This deck got a horrible matchup
This deck had terrible luck with mulligans
Unsure if your beloved deck is still in? Well, then you are probably not passionate enough to make a case for a defeated deck... but I will still tell you.
In this video, Sam summarizes which decks are in and which are out
I'm going to present you the list of cards, starting from the best pick during the draft and ending on the least desirable card. For instance, if you don't have any card from "2nd pick" card pool you look for cards in "3rd pick". Cards not mentioned below shouldn't appear in your deck. Notwithstanding, cards like vanilla creature 2/2 for 2 mana are as well essential in your deck in order to be able to stop early threats of your opponent.
1st pick: white: Linvala, the Preserver. blue: - black: Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. red: Chandra, Flamecaller; Tyrant of Valakut. green: - colorless: - multi: -
2nd pick: white: Munda's Vanguard. blue: Crash of Tentacles; Sphinx of the Final Word. black: Sifter of Skulls. red: Kozilek's Return; Fall of the Titans.
green: World Breaker; Gladehart Cavalry; Seed Guardian.
colorless: -
multi: Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim; Baloth Null; Mina and Denn, Wildborn.
We are approaching the end of round three of the Pauper Gauntlet. Play has moved to the Tournament Practice room and decks are now eliminated immediatly if they lose.
The banning of Cloud of Faeries
Two decks are in trouble because of the banning of Cloud of Fairies: Delver and Blue Bichinho. The brewers have been asked to modify their decks or disqualify them and I await their answers. Round three
Round three is played in the Tournament Practice room and if a deck loses it is elmiinated from the Pauper Gauntlet (unless voted back after round 4). Here are all the results of round three so far
67 decks went into round three.
Green Grifters got eliminated by MBC 0-2 Illusory tricks did better and defeats MBC 2-0 White Heroes defeats Gobilns 2-1 Rebels are infected by Simic Infect and dies 1-2 - another Top 10 deck from last season eliminated Slivers defeats Burn 2-1
Blue Bichinho defeats Mono Black Land Destruction 2-1 Abzan Grindhouse falls to the Elves 1-2 Project X is defeated by MarduKitty 1-2 Elves defeats Elves in another Pauper Gauntlet mirror 2-0 Cyborgs runs into a quitter and wins. Those quitters - so easy to defeat!
Counter-Kitty outkitties OrzhovKitty 2-1 Evil Allies had no solution to Hexproof and loses 0-2 Land-o-derm runs into RUG Tron and dies 0-2 Tortured Toolbox loses against Infect 1-2 despite a massive sideboard against the deck Spiteful Leeches are horribly mismanaged and loses to Hexproof 1-2
Rhystic Tron defeats RG Aggro 2-0 Turbo Exhume runs over JeskaiKitty 2-0 Shroudfang Ninja manages to defeat Delver, still with Cloud of Faeries in it 2-0 Love Train loves RUG Tron to death 2-1 Bant Fog loses to Burn 0-2
BorosKitty Initiated wins against Grixis Teachings 2-1 Familiars run into another broken Cloud of Faeries combo deck and dies poetically 1-2 and then we did not have to face the problems of what to do with this deck after the banning Goblin Storm defeats Goblins 2-1 BUG Profilerators dies to Grixis Delver 0-2 Bant Sword and Shield impresses everyone and defeats Green Tron 2-0
Rakdos Vampires defeats Dimir Angler 2-1 Flying Ninjas defeats Nightsky Mimic 2-1 Sultai Delve gets overrun by Slivers 0-2 That is probably the most common way to get eliminated if you consider all three seasons of the Pauper Gauntlet Snow-Go defeats Dimir Teachings DelverFiend dies to its archnemesis MBC 0-2
These were the earlier matches played in round 3 before this week:
Blue Bichinho beats Mono Black Land Destruction 2-1 Simic Oracle takes down tier 1 deck MBC 2-1 CrocaJund loses to Simic Devoid 1-2 Turbo Angler wins against AzoriusKitty 2-1 Delver obliterates Rakdos Nightmare 2-0 (The best deck in Pauper has not done well in the Pauper Gauntlet - maybe this is the year for Delver?)
RG Land Crusher gets overrun by Suicide Black 0-2 Suicide Black defeats RUG Tron 2-1 Stompy Tokens defeats Angler Delver 2-0 Pestilence Control stood no chance against Izzet Tron 0-2 Izzet Cooldotha takes on a TE deck that quit
Selesnya Flash is defeated by Delver 0-2 MUC faces a quitter The Pauper Gauntlet is eliminated from the Pauper Gauntlet by MBC 1-2 Pauper Nightmare takes on Delver and wins 2-0 Gary Busey is arrested and imprisoned by WatchRites 1-2
TurboZoo defeats Goblins 2-0 RUG Tron defeats Angler Delver 2-0 Green Ramp LD takes down Ninjutsu Reality Acid (!) 2-1 Infect gets a two turn kill (see above) and wins 2-1 Mono Red Heroic crushes Jund Dredge 2-0 Green One takes on Simic Explore and wins 2-0
Goblins run over Rakdos Reanimator 2-0 Exhume Control got outresourced by Pig Trinket piloted by a Gauntlet fan 0-2 5-color Green is murdered by Angler Delver 0-2 Death Control wins against Eye Candy Control 2-0 BUGS & Pigs plays double lifestaff against RDW and wins 2-0
Affinity lost to Dimir Teachings 1-2 and is eliminated. Burn defeats AzoriusKitty 2-0 Encroaching Blight is defeated by White Metalcraft 1-2 Black Auramancer, the Pauper Rogue Cup champion, defeats MBC 2-1 Kuldotha Mardu defeats RUG Tron 2-1. MBC defeats BorosKitty 2-1
What happens now?
Round 3 will end on Jan 19 (it was a long round due to the holidays). Round 4 will be shorter and will end on Sunday Feb 7 and then we will have the voteback. The preliminary format for the Voteback is that every viewer gets three votes and three decks are brought back into the Gauntlet. A deck that is voted back can be from any round - i.e. even the decks that lost during double elimination can come back after the Voteback.
I just heard today that Summer Bloom and Splinter Twin are banned in Modern. Bloom was unfun to play against and turn 2 kills should never happen in Modern. Most of the message boards I read showed people accepting of the Bloom ban but complain a lot about the Splinter Twin ban.
I'm going to explain why everyone who thinks this is a mistake is absolutely 100% wrong.
Aside: First I want to say to all those complaining about how Twin is the defining deck of Modern and twin IS modern, etc; That IS THE PROBLEM!!!! No single card should be the definition of a format. If there's a card that must be played to be competitive, that format is imbalanced and should be allowed to have decks that don't need one specific card to be competitive. A format with a defining card or deck is not a sign of a healthy format, it is a sign of an unhealthy format.
Now on to the real reason Twin was banned.
Let's take a trip down memory lane to why Pod was banned.Pod made ALL decks with creatures better. This means that 60 cards (assuming it's a creature deck) without Pod is worse 100% of the time than the same creature deck with Pod.
Twin is the same thing but for decks with red and blue. Jeskai Control gets beter 100% of the time by running Twin. Wizards even said that Temur used to be a tempo deck, now it's a tempo deck with Twin. When a card makes a deck better 100% of the time, it shouldn't be in the format unless you want a format where you must play the card that makes decks better to be competitive.
If you're having a hard time seeing what I'm explaining, or you just disagree, think of this. What decks would play Black Lotus if it were legal in Modern? All of them, no exception. It's good all the time for every deck. If it existed in Modern every deck would need it to have the same power level as other similar or otherwise identical decks. It's an extreme example but when decks with red and blue are always better with Twin, it's time to go.
One last note. It's my personal preference, but my biggest criticism of Modern was that to be competitive a combo kill is required (Melira/Kiki Pod, Twin) made the format into two distinct camps, combo decks, and decks that don't have a reasonable chance of winning.
Hi Everyone!
I play a lot of Magic Online. This week I noticed everyone seemed to play a deck that I liked so I whipped it up and played several games. It was a mono black Eldrazi deck. It used Eye of Ugin to reduce costs and Urborg to make Eye tap for another mana totaling 3.It also uses Eldrazi Temples to ramp mana.
Anyway, the more I played with the deck I realized that the next set has at least 3 cards I will certainly run in some quantity in this deck and another 2 as cards I want to try to see if they are good.
From the looks of it, it may be the "new tron" deck. Tron is a tough matchup because turn 3 Karn Liberated is always hard to beat but if it's possible to break up tron without the opponent having a huge board advantage, it's completely winnable.
It's just a neat deck that seems to be everywhere now. I had a video set I intended to post but the file became damaged and can't be used so I'll have to record and post another set this weekend.
I'm really excited because the deck is already competitive and could be great after Oath of the Gatewatch is released.
I have done very well. I went 4-1 in the first half, barely missing the top 8 and I am playing my top 8 match for the second half (after 4-1 again) on Friday. If I win I might run into my friend Brennon for the semifinal. That will be epic.
The principle idea is to get out a Prowess creature, tempo-control the board and just win as the Prowess creature gets gigantic. Land creatures is the backup win plan. Whirlwind Adept is the king in the deck but I am not sure when I sideboard in the fourth one. It should probably be 2+1 and not 2+2.
I have seen versions that are faster but I can't let go of Whirlwind Adept. He is just so brutal. I am still playing around with the correct number of Temur Battle Rages, Anticipates and Titan's Strength.
There seems to be some interesting cards in Oath of the Gatewatch for this deck. I think it will become even stronger! More about that later.
Round three
Round three is played in the Tournament Practice room and if a deck loses it is elmiinated from the Pauper Gauntlet (unless voted back after round 4). Here are all the results of round three so far (including results from last week)
We were 12-4 in round 3 when this week began. 67 decks went into round three.
These are the matches that have been played this week.
Blue Bichinho beats Mono Black Land Destruction 2-1 Simic Oracle takes down tier 1 deck MBC 2-1 CrocaJund loses to Simic Devoid 1-2 Turbo Angler wins against AzoriusKitty 2-1 Delver obliterates Rakdos Nightmare 2-0 (The best deck in Pauper has not done well in the Pauper Gauntlet - maybe this is the year for Delver?)
RG Land Crusher gets overrun by Suicide Black 0-2 Suicide Black defeats RUG Tron 2-1 Stompy Tokens defeats Angler Delver 2-0 Pestilence Control stood no chance against Izzet Tron 0-2 Izzet Cooldotha takes on a TE deck that quit
Selesnya Flash is defeated by Delver 0-2 MUC faces a quitter The Pauper Gauntlet is eliminated from the Pauper Gauntlet by MBC 1-2 Pauper Nightmare takes on Delver and wins 2-0 Gary Busey is arrested and imprisoned by WatchRites 1-2
TurboZoo defeats Goblins 2-0
16 matches played with a 10-6 record. 22-10 total for round 3. 35 decks still has to play their round 3 match. 57 decks are still active in the Pauper Gauntlet S03.
These were the earlier matchs played in round 3 before this week:
RUG Tron defeats Angler Delver 2-0 Green Ramp LD takes down Ninjutsu Reality Acid (!) 2-1 Infect gets a two turn kill (see above) and wins 2-1 Mono Red Heroic crushes Jund Dredge 2-0 Green One takes on Simic Explore and wins 2-0
Goblins run over Rakdos Reanimator 2-0 Exhume Control got outresourced by Pig Trinket piloted by a Gauntlet fan 0-2 5-color Green is murdered by Angler Delver 0-2 Death Control wins against Eye Candy Control 2-0 BUGS & Pigs plays double lifestaff against RDW and wins 2-0
Affinity lost to Dimir Teachings 1-2 and is eliminated. Burn defeats AzoriusKitty 2-0 Encroaching Blight is defeated by White Metalcraft 1-2 Black Auramancer, the Pauper Rogue Cup champion, defeats MBC 2-1 Kuldotha Mardu defeats RUG Tron 2-1. MBC defeats BorosKitty 2-1
What happens now?
Round 3 will end on Jan 19 (it was a long round due to the holidays). Round 4 will be shorter and will end on Sunday Feb 7 and then we will have the voteback. The preliminary format for the Voteback is that every viewer gets three votes and three decks are brought back into the Gauntlet. A deck that is voted back can be from any round - i.e. even the decks that lost during double elimination can come back after the Voteback.
Oath of the Gatewach set is on the way, hence it is high time to introduce new mechanics:
Surge - you may cast this spell for its surge cost if you or a teammate has cast another spell this turn. The first spell may be countered or be still on stack, but you are anyway entitled to use surge ability. It usually brings mana savings, but some cards have additional effects too.
Support N - put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to N target creatures. If a creature has an ability support, you cannot target the creature itself. You cannot target one creature twice.
Cohort - an activated ability of Ally creature requiring tapping it and another Ally you control in order to do something.
I just wanted to let everyone know that this year Wizards is doing a flashback draft for virtually every draft format starting from 8th edition on (only scheduled to 10th edition in May as of now but will continue all year).
This week is Mirrodin, Mirrodin, Mirrodin.
I am all excited because this set was my first step into playing competitive Magic.
I'm excited to replay all the old draft decks I made from way back and I recommend everyone check it out.
Not to mention there's a chance to pick up some money cards in pretty much every set.
Hi Everyone,
There's been a significant amount of speculation that Stoneforge Mystic may get unbanned in Modern. People speculate and discuss what is good and what is too good in Modern.
Everyone knows Legacy is a dying format due to the reserve list. Many staples can't be reprinted and it makes it hard to revitalize a format when they can't even print cards for the format. There are progressively less tournaments and coverage. It's all about Standard and Modern.
There have been numerous discussions about "non reserve list legacy" but that's too impractical to actually have a format like that. You know what is practical? Having a format from a certain time period forward with minimal bannings. Wizards can reprint the type of cards that made the Legacy format great that aren't on the reserved list.
What if Stoneforge unbanning despite it being crazy good is just a step to making Modern into no reserve list Legacy?
Hi Everyone,
With the discussion of unbanning Stoneforge Mystic all over the place...Even i wrote about it....it got me thinking. Is Stoneforge better than Splinter Twin?
It's a very strong strategy starting as early as turn two and starts attacking with a 4/4 vigilance lifelinker on turn 4. What's Twin up to on turn 4? Winning the game that's what.
I'm sure Stoneforge would be a powerhouse but I don't think it would have an impact against Twin.
I've always been critical of Twin, I think it's the most unfun deck to play because sometimes they topdeck an auto-win, that's not what Magic should be. I also don't know a single banning that hurt Twin or at least was mentioned because it made twin too good. All the Modern cantrips made Storm (barely playable now) too good and WOTC had to do something about it.
What would happen to the format without twin? I think a lot of decks would not have to have solid answers to the turn 3 exarch and turn 4 twin, this could allow for diversity in sideboards.
I dislike twin as a deck, not that it's not good, it just isn't fun to worry about an instant win card...it just isn't fun. Just my opinion, I think it would be fine to ban and shake up the format.
This is the dreaded 1-land-spy combo deck from Pauper. The idea is to mill your entire deck into the graveyard by playing your single land, then playing a Balustrade Spy to mill yourself while generating a ton of mana, get your Haunting Misery back from the graveyard with an Anarchist and kill your opponent by casting the Misery. You can also put Haunting Misery back on top of your deck with Conjurer's Bauble.
1x Anarchist
4x Balustrade Spy
4x Cabal Ritual
3x Conjurer's Bauble
4x Dark Ritual
4x Destroy the Evidence
4x Elves of Deep Shadow
1x Forest
4x Gitaxian Probe
1x Haunting Misery
4x Land Grant
4x Lotus Petal
2x Morgue Theft
4x Simian Spirit Guide
4x Songs of the Damned
4x Street Wraith
4x Tinder Wall
4x Wild Cantor
Sideboard
2x Basking Rootwalla
1x Crypt Rats
4x Duress
1x Flaring Pain
4x Fog
3x Ingot Chewer
1-ofs: Anarchist, Forest, Haunting Misery.
These are all part of the combo and you know that you will have your entire deck available to you when you combo out. Thus you only need single copies of these cards.
2-of:Morgue Theft
I am not sure why this is a 2-of. It seems that it could be a 1-of.
3-of: Conjurer's Bauble. This puts Haunting Misery at the bottom of your empty library which means it is the next card you draw. This is your usual way of winning which means that you need to find this card and play it (not put it in your graveyard). However, multiples in your starting hand do you no good. Thus a 3-of.
4-ofs: Everything else
You just want as many copies of possible of all these cards to get enough fuel for your combo and cycle through your deck as quickly as possible. Thus: 4-ofs.
Generally, having four of a card is the natural state of a card worth playing. You need a reason to go down from there.
Recently, some rumours were spread about unbanning Stoneforge Mystic in Modern. I quess this topic is exhausted now, but I will put in my pennysworth about other safe unbans in Modern. How about:
Ancestral Vision - lately Dan explained what 4-ofs is. You want definately to have this card in your opening hand. If you consider playing Ancestral Vision you are forced to use a playset or none. It enables you to draw 3 cards on turn four, but on the flip side you do not want to draw Ancestral Vision in late game, usually it will be a useless card then. We do not have a true control deck in Modern, so unbanning it may be incentive for new archetypes.
Sword of the Meek - a combo with Thopter Foundry, which enables you to gain 1 life and 1/1 creature for 1 mana. Is this two-card combo too powerful, wheras Splinter Twin is around? I'm afraid not. It is just too slow. Additionally, there are too many maindeck answers to stop it, such as Abrupt Decay or Kolaghan's Command.
Dread Return - in a format where there is no Bazaar of Baghdad, Breakthrough or even Grand Coliseum a Dredge deck will not become a tier1 and Dread Return would not fit to any other deck. We have reanimating spells in Modern right now, for instance Unburial Rites and we may cheat Elesh Norn into play if we want to. In my opinion, Living End deck is just more efficient equivalent strategy.
On ther other hand, I will not ban anything. The metagame is diversified and none deck is dominating or totally unfair. What are your thought about (un)bans in Modern?
Round three
Round three is played in the Tournament Practice room and if a deck loses it is elmiinated from the Pauper Gauntlet (unless voted back after round 4). Here are all the results of round three so far (including results from last week)
67 decks entered round three.
RUG Tron defeats Angler Delver 2-0 Green Ramp LD takes down Ninjutsu Reality Acid (!) 2-1 Infect gets a two turn kill (see above) and wins 2-1 Mono Red Heroic crushes Jund Dredge 2-0 Green One takes on Simic Explore and wins 2-0
Goblins run over Rakdos Reanimator 2-0 Exhume Control got outresourced by Pig Trinket piloted by a Gauntlet fan 0-2 5-color Green is murdered by Angler Delver 0-2 Death Control wins against Eye Candy Control 2-0 BUGS & Pigs plays double lifestaff against RDW and wins 2-0
Affinity lost to Dimir Teachings 1-2 and is eliminated. Burn defeats AzoriusKitty 2-0 Encroaching Blight is defeated by White Metalcraft 1-2 Black Auramancer, the Pauper Rogue Cup champion, defeats MBC 2-1 Kuldotha Mardu defeats RUG Tron 2-1. MBC defeats BorosKitty 2-1
12-4 so far, which is decent.
63 decks remain in the third season of the Pauper Gauntlet (+3 from the voteback)!
What happens now?
Round 3 will end on Jan 19 (it was a long round due to the holidays). Round 4 will be shorter and will end on Sunday Feb 7 and then we will have the voteback. The preliminary format for the Voteback is that every viewer gets three votes and three decks are brought back into the Gauntlet. A deck that is voted back can be from any round - i.e. even the decks that lost during double elimination can come back after the Voteback.
![Thought-Knot Seer [OGW]](http://cdn1.mtggoldfish.com/images/gf/Thought-Knot%2BSeer%2B%255BOGW%255D.jpg)
