Sunday, February 28, 2016

Pauper Gauntlet close to the end of round five

We are now at the end of round five. If a deck loses a single match now it is eliminated for good.

What is the Pauper Gauntlet?
All about the Pauper Gauntlet Season 03: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-pauper-gauntlet.html
All the deck lists: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-decks-of-pauper-gauntlet-s03.html



Round five
Round five is played in the Tournament Practice room.Here are all the results of round five so far
35 decks entered round five, including the three voteback decks.

BorosKitty Initiated defeats Mono Green Tron 2-0
Kuldotha Mardu dies to Delver 0-2  The deck still lives, apparently.
BUGs & Pigs defeats Affinity
Aristocrats defeats Zoo 2-1
The Green One defeats its ancestor Stompy 2-0

Blue Bichinho defeats 4-color Tron 2-0
Bant Sword and Shield defeats JeskaiKitty 2-1 (JeskaiKitty is currently the #1 deck on Goldfish)
Goblin Storm Combo defeats an Elves quitter
Pig Trinket defeats Burn
UG Madness defeats Delver again 2-1

Elves die to MBC 0-2
Rhystic Tron dies to the clock against Teachings
MUC loses to RUG Tron 0-2
Black Auramancer loses to Slivers 0-2

Results from earlier play in round five
Infect defeats Azorius Control 2-0
Illusory Tricks dies to Grixis Affinity 1-2
WW Soul Tokens defeats Suicide Black 2-1
White Heroes dies to a horrible misplay against Bant Blink 1-2
Cyborgs take down Dimir Control 2-0

Burn takes down Rakdos Burn 2-0
Goblins loses to MBC 1-2
MBC defeats MBC 2-0
Suicide Black dies to AzoriusKitty 0-2
Stompy defeats MBC 2-1

Simic Oracle gets overrun by Slivers 0-2 (one of the most common way to die in the Gauntlet)
Death Control defeats 1-land-spy 2-0
Pauper Nightmare wins vs Golgari Delver 2-0
Turbo Angler gets overrun by Elves 1-2
Slivers defeats Delver 2-1

Izzet Cooldotha defeats Simic Infect 2-1
RUG Tron does a number on Delver 2-0

31 matches played. 21-10 so far.

Decks that will play round five before Tuesday: Stompy Tokens, Spiteful Leeches, Love Train and one more.

What happens now?
Round five will end on March 1st and then round six begins. I estimate round six to be another two week round.

Top 10 decks still alive
BUGs & Pigs, Burn, Green One, Mono Red Heroic, Stompy (5)

The Eliminations so far
Round five eliminations so far Illusory Tricks, White Heroes, Goblins, Suicide Black, Turbo Angler, Simic Oracle, Kuldotha Mardu, Elves, Rhystic Tron, MUC, Black Auramancer
36th place (round four) Counter-Kitty,UB Trinket Control, Rakdos Vampires, Flying Ninjas, Turbo Zoo, Shroudfang Ninja. Delver, Green Ramp LD, Snow-Go, Turbo Exhume
45th place: Shared by the 26 decks eliminated in round threeAffinity, 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, 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.


Round 1 ended 56-22 (72% match win rate)
Round 2 ended 13-9 (59% win)
Round 3 ended 43-26 (62% win)
Round 4 ended 32-11 (74% win - best win rate so far in Pauper Gauntlet history!)


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An Introduction to Bots and Starting One of Your Own

Why Bots?


          Bots have become an irreplaceable part of the MTGO economy. They are the most common way for players to purchase cards, buy boosters to draft, and exchange winnings for more entry fees. No doubt you've experienced using them from the consumer side---today I'd like to offer some initial advice on setting up your own bot to use for speculation.

           If you're going to place your collection and speculative ventures in the hands of a bot, it's important to understand what role they play in the online economy. There are two main reasons bots are so omnipresent on MTGO.

           First, there is no fractional currency, or a way to divide up tix into "cents." In such a scenario, you are incentivized to make multiple trades with the same trading partner so that you can use leftover credit from prior trades. Bots fill this role well and are for the most part a safe place to store leftover credit.

          The second reason for bots stems from the poor availability and organization of information in the MTGO market. It is difficult to find the best buyers and sellers for any particular card, so going to a bot that's fully stocked with every card at reasonable prices saves valuable time.


The Botting Ecosystem


         There are hundreds of bots on MTGO, each with their own particular customer bases and strategies. They can be categorized roughly as follows:

1) MTGO Library Bots


     These bots all use the same botting software and are their prices are listed on MTGO WikiPrice. This gives the bots great visibility and a more detailed pricing algorithm using data from other bots listed on the wiki. Some examples of bots in this category that I use are mtgotickets, modo_mart, and Ninjabots.

2) Large Bot Chains


       A bot chain is a collection of bots that share the same credit system. Having multiple bots allows the owner to trade with many customers at once. This adds to reliability and the biggest bot chains like Goatbots and MTGOtraders are a very reliable way to buy and sell almost any card.
       The newer bot chains gain business with more competitive pricing while the old ones thrive off of loyal customer bases they've built up over a long period of time. Some other examples include Clanteam and Dojotrade bots. Many of these bots have websites where you can find all of their prices.

3) Small Standalone Bots or Niche Bots


       For smaller bots, there is less traffic and therefore less of a need for an entire bot chain. Many bots fall into this category, including niche bots that specialize in particular types of cards like foils, Pauper, packs, bulk, etc. 
       Some factors to think about when comparing different bots: customer following, number of bots in chain, whether they have a website, how they write their classifieds listings, what cards or sets are sold, depth of inventory, speed of trades, pricing algorithms, etc.


Starting Your Own Bot


       There are two main ways to make money (tix) via botting:

1) Profit off of the Spread (Dealer)


       With this strategy, you take whatever price the market dictates and sell the card for a bit more and buy it for a bit less. Your profit is the difference in the buying and selling price, or the spread.
       Under this strategy, you don't care which cards you are dealing with as long as you make a large quantity of trades and your cards stay even or increase in value. (You can also profit off of cards that are falling in value if you make enough trades relative to the speed of the fall in price.)
       If you act as a dealer on MTGO you will have to compete with other dealers as you would in any business. To thrive, you will have to offer something the others don't. It could be better pricing, reliability, marketing, customer satisfaction, or something else. For this reason, I don't recommend this strategy for beginners.
       Pricing becomes a tricky business when you're dealing with hundreds or thousands of cards at once. The most common techniques to address this are 1) to copy someone else's prices; 2) to slowly adjust your prices based on your recent sales/purchases; and 3) price based on current market data (wikiprice API).
       Of course, if you want to take the time to learn the ins and outs of running a dealer bot, it can be a very profitable enterprise. However speculation is what I recommend if you want to just get your feet wet.

2) Profit off of Speculation (Speculator)


       Speculation is simply buying a card you expect to be worth more in the future. You buy low and sell high. This strategy is rarely used by bots since the majority of them opt for a dealer strategy.
       There are a few advantages to speculating via a bot as opposed to manually. For example, you can sometimes sell higher and buy lower than you would be able to do manually. This happens because of the spread between buy and sell prices bots generally have, meaning that you often would rather be on the bot side of a trade than the human side.
       Another advantage is that you can buy or sell exactly at the point in time that the market hits some predetermined price. For example if you set your buy price of [card]Deathmist Raptor[/card] at 9 tix, you will end up buying copies roughly at the time that the market price falls to 9 tix. If you are doing trades manually, you run the risk of missing certain windows of opportunity.
       There is a downside to this method, however. If you leave your buy price fixed at 9 tix you may be overpaying if the card falls to, say, 8 tix. Speculating via bot is ultimately a tool you must learn to use according to its own strengths and weaknesses.
       There is also a hidden third way in which botting can make you money: it can save lots of time! Substituting manual trades with bot trades can save you hours of labor which can be just as valuable as money.

Step by Step Instructions


       Getting started with bots is easier than you might think. Below is a step-by-step explanation of how to set up a bot using the MTGO Library software. I've chosen this bot software because it's what I know and use personally. I'll lay out everything I would tell myself if I could go back in time to six months ago when I first started botting.
An aside about fees. There are two types of fee systems that you can choose between for the MTGO Library (and most other) bots. Either you pay a 2.5% fee on each transaction or you pay a fixed monthly or yearly fee. I think there may also be a period when you can try it out for free (the first month or so). There may also be a system where under a sufficiently low number of trades per month, you pay no fees.
       If you find a system that makes profitable speculation-based trades, it will be nearly impossible for the fees to overcome your profits. You can then make an informed choice between the two systems based on the total tix worth of trades you're making per month.

1) Go to the MTGOLibrary Site and Download


       You can find the download link at www.mtgolibrary.com. You may have to register an account first. When you have finished downloading, run the program "MTGO Library Bot."
       When the first screen comes up, click on the picture for the "MTGO Library Pro Bot."
lucaqsfirst


2) The Settings I Use


       Here is everything you need to know for starting out a speculation bot, starting from the first tab:
lucaqssecond
  • A1: The username of the MTGO account you will bot on
  • A2: Your MTGO password
  • A3: Your MLBot account password
  • B1: Max trade time. I like to use the lowest possible.
  • B2: Ditto for max inactivity time.
  • B3: I'm not entirely sure what the use of restarting is, but I set it at every two hours.
  • B4: If you are speculating in the way I lay it out, you won't need to download any prices because you will be setting them all yourself.
  • C: I like to make all cards tradable because I don't mind if someone buys 100 copies at once.
  • D: I think for many reasons it makes sense to be both a buyer and seller bot. Additionally I think it makes sense to give customers the choice in taking cards or tickets as payment for their own cards.
  • E1: Again, you won't need to download any prices.
  • E2: A free download of prices can give you a baseline of prices in case you forget to price something in your personal prices file.
  • E3: Make sure that this is checked. You want to be using the personal prices file.
  • E4: Unless you have a good reason, I would leave this unchecked. Sometimes foils are worth more than their nonfoil counterparts and vice-versa.
       The only other tab you will need to be familiar with is the "Messages" tab:
lucaqsthird
       In this tab you set everything related to the messages your bot sends to customers in-trade and your classifieds ad.
       Don't underestimate the importance of a well written classifieds ad. I have experienced many times that a customer will open a trade with my bot based solely on finding my classifieds ad. Make sure to prioritize listing cards that you are selling, maybe even omitting the price to get people to open a trade to find it out. Experiment and see what works.
  • A: Leave this checked as I'm pretty sure it reduces your percentage-based fee if you are under that fee system.
  • B: Input your classified message here for when your bot is not currently in a trade.
  • C: Input your classified message here for when your bot is currently in a trade. I leave the two the same.
  • D: This will automatically put "busy"/"open" in front of your classifieds message. I would leave it checked.

3) Personal Prices


       The last big step is to set all of your prices. You can do so by opening the file "PersonalPrices.txt" inside the "prices" folder in your "MTGO Library Bot" folder. The format for setting prices is as follows:
Set;Card;Regular Sell Price;Foil Sell Price;Regular Buy Price;Foil Buy Price;Regular Buy Quantity;Foil Buy Quantity
       For example in my PersonalPrices file I have the line:
ORI;Abbot of Keral Keep;5;5;3.3;3.3;100;0
       This means I will buy copies of [card]Abbot of Keral Keep[/card] at a price of 3.3 tix until my bot has 100 copies. I will also sell any copies of the card for 5 tix.
If you don't know the spelling for the set code (in this case ORI, for Magic Origins) you can go look for a card in the "CardsMTGO" file in the same folder.

4) Some Last Minute Checks


       Make sure you have some tix on the bot if you want it to show up on MTGO WikiPrice. You need as many tix as the most expensive card you are trying to sell. For example if the most expensive card you are selling is 9.5 tix, you want to make sure you leave at least 10 tix on the bot so that it will show up on wiki.

       In order to run your bot, go to the first tab ("General") and click the launch button at the bottom of the window.
       About 5-10 minutes after you launch your bot, search for your cards on mtgowikiprice to see if it's working. You can pause your bot with ctrl+p and you can turn it off with alt+x.
~
       I hope this article teaches you something new, or maybe even saves you some time and hassle if you were planning on starting your own bot. You can add me on facebook.com/luca.ashok if you want to chat about anything MTG- or finance-related.
Thanks!
- Luca

Conspiracy 2: Take the Crown

Wizards announced a second set of Conspiracy, also known as Take the Crown, which will be released on August, 26. Likewise Conspiracy no. 1 the set is designed for eight-player drafts followed by free-for-all games of three to five players each. Take the Crown features 221 cards. Probably it will be not available online.

Plot will be linked with the figure of Brago, King Eternal . The set will feature 221 cards released only in three languages: English, Japanese and simplified Chinese.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Will Wizards ever unban cards in Modern?

Hi Everyone!

Today I'm talking about the probability of Wizards unbanning some of the great cards in Modern like Jace and Stoneforge Mystic.

The answer is no.

Wizards decided on an arbitrary power level for Modern and anything that's the best deck gets banned.

They'd have to reinvent the format completely. Call it Modern but have different criteria in making ban decisions.

Wizards isn't going to admit they screwed up with their crappy policy regarding bannings in Modern.

They will just abandon the format and create a new one with new policies that are more effective in creating a healthy format in the long term.

Maybe they should come up with a format just called Eternal...

Monday, February 22, 2016

What should be banned? Eldrazi Temple or Eye of Ugin?

Hi Everyone!
I hope you read my earlier articles on the merits of banning both Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin. The real question is what's actually going to happen.

Without taking an exhaustive look into the history of Modern we look and see what's been banned.

Birthing Pod
Pod was banned in Modern a while ago now. Was it as dominant as Eldrazi? Nope.
















Splinter Twin
Twin was banned before Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch. Was it as dominant as even Pod? Nope.
















So we've established that Wizards will ban cards that consistently see success in large tournaments.

Yeah, Yeah, so what's getting banned in Modern? Temple or Eye.

I believe the answer to be both.

Look at the Treasure Cruise ban. Dig Through Time was preemptively banned because people said "it will just take Cruises place. Maybe it would have but they made the case that there's not a lot of difference between one and two mana in Modern.

The eldrazi deck wins due to fast mana. Without fast mana it's not as good, in fact, probably not playable in Modern.

Let's wait and see.

Sunday, February 21, 2016

Eldrazi Temple Should be Banned!

Eldrazi TempleHi Everyone!

The real problem in the Eldrazi menace in Modern is Eldrazi Temple. Eye of Ugin is Legendary (weakening the card). Eldrazi Temple is a "more is better" card. More Temples, more mana. The big problem is that Temple allows the Eldrazi deck to essentially bypass the colorless mana requirement on Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher in addition to being a painless Ancient Tomb.

Eye Of Ugin should be Banned!

Eye of UginHi Everyone!
Today I'm going to discuss the merits of banning Eye in Modern.

It's an explosive Mana producer in Modern in the still new Eldrazi deck.

It "taps" for two mana. That's really good, but it's for a limited number of spells. Colorless Eldrazi spells. Ok.

That's good and everything, but the problem is this, On turns 2-4 the Eldrazi deck can cast two three mana spells for two mana. Making Eye essentially produce four mana.

one land tapping for four mana as early as turn four is just too good for Modern.

The Pauper Gauntlet round five

We are now in the middle of round five. If a deck loses a single match now it is eliminated for good.

What is the Pauper Gauntlet?
All about the Pauper Gauntlet Season 03: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-pauper-gauntlet.html
All the deck lists: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-decks-of-pauper-gauntlet-s03.html


Round five
Round five is played in the Tournament Practice room.Here are all the results of round five so far
35 decks entered round five, including the three voteback decks.

Infect defeats Azorius Control 2-0
Illusory Tricks dies to Grixis Affinity 1-2
WW Soul Tokens defeats Suicide Black 2-1
White Heroes dies to a horrible misplay against Bant Blink 1-2
Cyborgs take down Dimir Control 2-0

Burn takes down Rakdos Burn 2-0
Goblins loses to MBC 1-2
MBC defeats MBC 2-0
Suicide Black dies to AzoriusKitty 0-2
Stompy defeats MBC 2-1

Simic Oracle gets overrun by Slivers 0-2 (one of the most common way to die in the Gauntlet)
Death Control defeats 1-land-spy 2-0
Pauper Nightmare wins vs Golgari Delver 2-0
Turbo Angler gets overrun by Elves 1-2
Slivers defeats Delver 2-1

Izzet Cooldotha defeats Simic Infect 2-1
RUG Tron does a number on Delver 2-0

17 matches played. 11-6 so far.

Decks that will play round five this coming week: BUGs & Pigs, Pig Trinket, Black Auramancer, Blue Bichinho, MUC, Elve, Stompy Tokens, Rhystic Tron, BorosKitty Initiated, Aristocrats, Goblin Storm Combo, Spiteful Leeches, Love Train, UG Madness, Bant Sword and Shield, Kuldotha Mardu,

What happens now?
Round five will end on March 1st and then round six begins. I estimate round six to be another two week round.

Top 10 decks still alive
BUGs & Pigs, Burn, Green One, Mono Red Heroic, Stompy (5)

The Eliminations before this round
Round five eliminations so far Illusory Tricks, White Heroes, Goblins, Suicide Black, Turbo Angler, Simic Oracle,
36th place (round four) Counter-Kitty,UB Trinket Control, Rakdos Vampires, Flying Ninjas, Turbo Zoo, Shroudfang Ninja. Delver, Green Ramp LD, Snow-Go, Turbo Exhume
45th place: Shared by the 26 decks eliminated in round threeAffinity, 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, 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.


Round 1 ended 56-22 (72% match win rate)
Round 2 ended 13-9 (59% win)
Round 3 ended 43-26 (62% win)
Round 4 ended 32-11 (74% win - best win rate so far in Pauper Gauntlet history!)


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Eternal Masters

A few weeks ago, the Reddit started buzzing about a rumored new set called Eternal Masters. It started when someone 'predicted' Splinter Twin and Amulet of Vigor being banned. He was not accurate about Amulet of Vigor, but ban of Summer Bloom killed this deck, at least it is not tier1 anymore. Then, the same person mentioned about Eternal Masters. The rumour came true and this set indeed will see the light of day. And what is interesting, he heard also which cards will appear in Eternal Masters: fetchlands from Zendikar, Rishadan Port, Stoneforge Mystic, Infernal Tutor, Sneak Attack and/or Show and Tell, Mother of Runes, Lotus Petal, Cabal Ritual and Wishes from Judgement. I thought you should know about it too.

In my opinion, we might trust this person. You may have some luck and quess what would be banned, in spite of it was extremely difficult in case of latest bannings. However, predicting bans and Eternal Masters in the same time is like a winning on lottery. Concluding, it was not about luck, but being informed before. The sad part of this story is that there is no equal access to information for everyone. Allegedly, StarCityGames have not been buying Legacy staples for a while. Hm let's quess why..

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Eternal Masters Speculation

Wizards had to reprint something in 2016 and they apparently want Modern Masters to be a bi-annual product. Thus, this announcement:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/announcing-eternal-masters-2016-02-15

In short:
* Old cards
* Very few Modern legal cards, focus on older cards
* No reserved list cards
* Eternal Masters will be available both in paper and online (i.e. not like Vintage Masters)
* Release date is June 10 2016
* The set is as big as Modern Masters 2015
* Packs will be $6.99 online and $9.99 in paper.


Confirmed cards are Force of Will and Wasteland.



This will help enable paper Pauper, which is a good thing. It is also very likely that there will be a new format (probably called Eternal) which will be Legacy without the reserved list. That will likely be a severe blow to Legacy. Some people say this will increase the value of the reserved list cards, but I think it will reduce the value of those cards. If people play Eternal instead of Legacy why would they need reserved list cards?

If there is no Eternal format the target audience is probably Commander players and Cube owners.

Here are some cards that could likely be reprinted in Eternal Masters

Ancient Tomb
Berserk
Blue & Red Elemental Blast
Cabal Therapy
Chain Lightning
Containment Priest
Counterbalance
Cursed Scroll
Dack Fayden
Daze
Elvish Spirit Guide
Fireblast
Food Chain
Flusterstorm
Gobin Recruiter
Grim Tutor
Gush
Hymn to Tourach
Ichorid
Imperial Recruiter
Imperial Seal
Karakas
Land Tax
Lin-Sivvi, Defiant Rebel
Lotus Petal
Mana Crypt
Mana Drain
Maze of Ith
Misdirection
Mishra's Factory
Moggcatcher
Mother of Runes
Oath of Druids
Phyrexian Altar
Scroll Rack
Show and Tell
Sinkhole
Sneak Attack
Sol Ring
Sneak Attack
Standstill
Strip Mine
Submerge
Sword to Plowshares
Sylvan Library
Rishadan Port
Tangle Wire
Toxic Deluge
True-Name Nemesis
Unmask
Vampiric Tutor
Windfall


As for the Modern legal reprints, who knows? Maybe very expensive and widely played Modern cards like these:

Blood Moon
Chalice of the Void
Damnation
Dismember
Goblin Guide
Inkmoth Nexus
Lord of Atlantis
Pendelhaven
Path to Exile
Serum Visions

I doubt we will see anything printed in Innistrad or later as they will be saving those cards for Modern Masters 2017. I also believe they are saving the enemy fetchlands for later.

Of course all cards on the Modern banned list are available to reprint.

They will also need 10 draftabe archetypes. As soon as we know them we can adjust the likelihood of certain reprints.








Do you think there is another card that is likely to be reprinted? Please comment below

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Legacy Challenge and Leagues

A new, monthly bigger event Legacy Challenge ahead. It starts on March 12 and likewise Power Nine Challenge the prizes are tempting. Everyone in the Top 8 will get one of each of the ten dual lands and:

1st place: 250 Play Points, Rishadan Port, Infernal Tutor, Food Chain, Dark Depths, Batterskull1, Unmask, Cunning Wish, Chrome Mox, Duel Decks Anthology, Daze
2nd place: 250 Play Points, Wasteland, Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Submerge, Maze of Ith, True-Name Nemesis, Containment Priest, Intuition
3rd place: 250 Play Points, Premium Deck Series: Graveborn, Cabal Therapy, Grim Monolith, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Entreat the Angels, Orim's Chant, Lion's Eye Diamond, Counterbalance, Mox Diamond, Stoneforge Mystic, Stifle, Shardless Agent
4th-8th: 250 Play Points

Additionally Legacy Leagues start on February 17. The prices of Legacy format staples started to gain on value and this state will last for at least few weeks.

BUGs & Pigs, Pig Trinket and Spiteful Leeches return to the Pauper Gauntlet

The Voteback is over! Thank you for voting.

The result of the Voteback
Pig Trinket 16 votes
BUGs & Pigs 9 votes
Spiteful Leeches 9 votes
Encroaching Blight 7 votes
Shroudfang Ninja 5 votes
Snow-Go 5 votes
UB Trinket Control 4 votes
Gary Busey LD 4 votes
Turbo Exhume 4 votes

Spiteful Leeches, BUGs & Pigs and Pig Trinket returns in round five!


What is the Pauper Gauntlet?
All about the Pauper Gauntlet Season 03: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-pauper-gauntlet.html
All the deck lists: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-decks-of-pauper-gauntlet-s03.html


What will happen after the voteback?
78 decks entered the Gauntlet. 35 decks remain. Round five is single elimination in the Tournament Practice Room. Round five starts now!

How can you follow the Pauper Gauntlet?
The twitter account @MagicGathStrat tweets whenever a video is uploaded 

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MTGO Library Bot 10.79

We released ML Bot 10.79.  The update contains some minor bug fixes. In particular we removed the "Theme Deck" / "Draft Pack" / "Intro Pack" / "Tournament Pack" (and similar) booster items from the Trading board messages. In a nuthshell, when you specify #BOO# in the trading messages, the bot will not replace the keyword with a Theme Deck or with a Draft Pack (or a Intro Pack or a Tournament Pack).


Wednesday, February 10, 2016

This season of the Pauper Gauntlet is a smashing success

Just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the viewers and readers that care about the Pauper Gauntlet S03. The response has been enormous compared to earlier seasons. It seems that it has almost doubled in size since season two. Thank you so much!

The voteback is still ongoing, ending tomorrow. Vote here: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2016/02/the-pauper-gauntlet-s03-voteback.html

What is the Pauper Gauntlet?
All about the Pauper Gauntlet Season 03: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-pauper-gauntlet.htmlAll the deck lists: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-decks-of-pauper-gauntlet-s03.html
What will happen after the voteback?

78 decks entered the Gauntlet. 32+3 decks remain. Round five is single elimination in the Tournament Practice Room. Expect the bloodbath to continue. My estimate is that another 10ish decks will fall in round five. 

Round five looks like a two-week round and that will probably be the case for round six as well. Then we will move into weekly rounds for the duration of the Gauntlet. 

Hint: There are still a lot decks that are still alive that have not been picked in the competition. Check out the deck article above.

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

What's to come of our new Eldrazi overlords?

Splinter TwinHi Everyone!
Splinter twin was banned for what a lot of people say is a "bad reason". People say Wizards wanted to "shake up" the format for the Pro Tour. At first I thought this was a reasonable ban because blue decks just get better with this combo. If a deck plays blue and red, your deck is better 100% of the time by playing this combo.

After the Pro Tour results...I kinda think it was about clearing a path for the new cards to dominate and ultimately buy more cards.

It's believable that the format needs a good once annual shaking, but let's remember this and see if next year we end up with the top deck being the "new deck" that couldn't exist without cards from the newest set.

Monday, February 8, 2016

Red Blue vs Colorless Eldrazi

Eldrazi MimicHi Everyone!
We all know there were two flavors of Eldrazi in the top 8 of Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch. There was a (I'm calling it at least) Black and a Red/Blue Version.

The Black version piloted by LSV did have more removal than the RU version. It also relied on only colorless (in mana cost) Eldrazi to win the game.

The RU version only had Dismember as removal and opted for Ruination Guide to act as an Eldrazi lord and Drowner of Hope to make sure lethal damage gets through.

They both run a core of Endless One, and Eldrazi Mimic and the like but it seems that the RU version triumphs in the "mirror" but the capability of the pure colorless version is greater when it does it's thing against non-eldrazi decks. That may not be true. The RU version looks less broken, but based on the PT results, it looks more broken than the other version.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Did WOTC plan for Eldrazi to be good this pro tour?

Hi Everyone!

If you're like me, you watched every match of the Pro Tour and skipped all the non-game play sections of the video. I did watch everything on Friday. I was at my office and had it playing. I got things done between games and matches.

The thing I noticed first was that LSV was the feature match and he was playing Eldrazi. Now, here's something that's suspicious. He wasn't the only one playing Eldrazi. It was a semi-popular deck and had a respectable percentage of the field.

Six of the top 8 slots went to similar Eldrazi decks. Yeah, six of eight. Call me a skeptic but I think it's really suspicious that Wizards says they aren't doing a Modern Pro Tour and players throw a fit so they give us a Modern Pro Tour. Then, the ban the one consistent turn four combo deck that can go from nothing but 3 lands on turn 3 and win on turn 4 (Banning Twin was a step in the right direction for Modern, IMHO).

But come on, you're telling me that they "accidentally" made the cards from the new set so powerful that they dominate in Modern? Not just win, dominate. It's too suspicious. Even LSV said on stream that Pro Tours are to show off new cards and Standard was the best way for that. But this one time, they happen to have a Modern Pro Tour and the cards in the one small set (and some from the previous set) happen to make a crazy dominant deck?

Let's just say, I see what they did there.

Draft Chaff wins the Pro Tour?

Hi Everyone!
So, I hope you all have been watching the Pro Tour as closely as I have. I watched the winning deck destroy a field of Affinity (2 out of 8 decks) and Eldrazi decks.

Now, this Pro Tour was Modern and makes an eldrazi deck being all over the top 8 one of those curious things. I suppose this pro-tour is the "breakout" tournament for Eldrazi. I'm sure it will get hate in coming months but for now it stands on top of the world.

Here's the decklist.

Creature (33)
4 Drowner of Hope
4 Eldrazi Mimic
3 Eldrazi Obligator
4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
4 Endless One
4 Reality Smasher
2 Ruination Guide
4 Thought-Knot Seer
4 Vile Aggregate
Instant (3)
3 Dismember
Land (24)
3 Cavern of Souls
4 Eldrazi Temple
4 Eye of Ugin
1 Gemstone Caverns
2 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Shivan Reef
2 Steam Vents
60 Cards
Sideboard (15)
1 Spellskite
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Gut Shot
3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Ratchet Bomb
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Stubborn Denial
1 Tomb of the Spirit Dragon

MTGO Library Bot 10.76 and 10.77

Today we released ML Bot 10.76 and 10.77, two updates fixing some minor issues with OGW. In particular we fixed a problem with the pricing of "Wastes". The bot was unable to set the price of the second copy via PersonalPrices.txt  - only the first Wastes was priced.

Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch: Modern

When I'm writing this article the Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch is coming to an end. Six Eldrazi decks and two Affinity decks made top8. Frankly, I didn't find it exciting to watch the coverage. A different variants of Eldrazi Deck dominated the event and this state is not appriciated by players or WotC. Hence, the ban of Eldrazi Temple and/or Eye of Ugin is more than certain. However, it will not be the emergency ban happening soon, but it will come on schedule prior to the Shadows over Innistrad prerelease. Why do I think this way? It is all about money. Eldrazi Deck is going to be dominating Modern in next three months. To stay competetive a great part of players must obtain Eldrazis from Oath of the Gatewatch and it leads us to more opened boosters and WotC likes it very much when people open a lot of booster packs.

Maybe the metagame will adapt to deal with Eldrazi Deck and this event was one time exception. I would love to believe in it, but I have serious doubts about it. Well, how could we stop Eldrazi deck? It is extramely difficult, because cards that slows Eldrazi down cost 3 or more. I'm speaking of Blood Moon, Ensnaring Bridge, Ghostly Prison and other. The card that hurts the most Eldrazi is Blood Moon. However, you must start a game and have Similan Spirit Guide to effectively stop Eldrazi deck for a while. Otherwise, you put yourself at risk of turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer. Turn one Eldrazi Mimic and serious attacks since turn two makes it even more difficult to keep up with the pace. If we are unable to stop it we need to be faster and it is a room for a combo decks, that are not relying on one converted mana cost spells (Chalice of the Void widely used in Eldrazi, even mainboard). A Splinter Twin card was 0.1 tix worth before the event, it spiked to 0.8 tix now. Some people are speculating about possible unban. But, where is the room for other decks that were viable before Oath of the Gatewatch?

The Pauper Gauntlet S03 Voteback

The fourth round of the Pauper Gauntlet is over. Some decks did not make it. Its time for you to decide which decks deserve to come back.

The rules of the Voteback
You each get three votes - vote for the decks you want to come back
You must vote in the comments to this article
You only get threes vote so no multi-accounting or anything like that. Three votes per person.
You must vote before noon PST on Thursday the 11th of February

The three (3) decks that get the most votes will reenter the Gauntlet in round 5, just as if they had not been eliminated (even if they lost in round 2),

The returning decks will be published in my article on Sunday Feb 14th after which round 5 of the Pauper Gauntlet will start.





The decks that can be voted back 
Round four eliminations (33rd place): Flying Ninjas, Turbo Zoo, BUGs & Pigs, Rakdos Vampires, Delver,  Green Ramp LD, Counter_Kitty, UB Trinket Control,  Snow-Go, Turbo Exhume and Shroudfang Ninja.
44th place: Shared by the 26 decks eliminated in round threeAffinity, 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.

Its time to hear the plea of the decks that want to come back! And of other people arguing why you should vote a deck back!

Affinity: You know I am the best deck now. Vote me back.
BUGS & Pigs: NewHJ says:  (I'm the champion): It's actually a top 10 deck of the last season, has a lot of potential. The last match against Burn was just a slip. In the game 2, with the sideboard in, Dan discarded a Curse of the Pierced Heart (probably the most problematic burn card against the deck) from the opponent hand and he drew 2 other. Also, blue mana didn't show up. I think the deck can respond well against many others in the format and it was just a terrible day for it.
Galactic President says: Hi guys!
I'm the brewer of Bugs and Pigs and here's my argument for you to vote it back in!
I absolutely love the deck because of three reasons:
1. I think it is fun to play because there are a reasonable amount of decision to be made, especially mid to late game and the deck can provide good plays against every deck (see point 3).
2. It is fun to watch, obviously for me because it is my baby, but also for quite a lot of other players, as some comments on the videos and forum posts suggested. Do you agree as well?
3. It is a good deck that has game against any deck in the meta. Why did it lose to burn? Well, because of statistics (moooore brindle boars!!!), you can't always win. One round earlier the deck showed it is very well capable of beating burn, because it did 2-0.
If you agree with me and want to see more of this crafty brew, give it some love! Oh and while you're at it, vote Spiteful Leeches back too, that deck is sweeeet! ;-)
Cheers, GP
Exhume Control: Vote me back.
Familiars: Do not vote me back.
Rebel Grind: The rebellion never ends. Please vote me back.
Pestilence Control: As the runner-up from the Pauper Rogue Cup, I deserve another chance. Vote me back!
Red Land Destruction: Watch the world burn with me! 
Rakdos Vampires: Everyone loves a vampire! BELLA! Vote for me!
Icy Hot Hottie: I was the people's choice in 2013 and I want you to vote me back again! Pretty please? What? I am not even in this Gauntlet? What the.... ?
Mono Black Land Destruction: An anomyous person that I assume is Negator, the brewer, says: Bring back Mono Black Land Destruction!!!
This may not be a better argument than misplays, but I LOVE this deck! I feel like the meta is switching to grindy control decks with really greedy mana bases, and this deck takes the best of MBC and adds the ability to punish greedy manabases and big boys like Tron! 
I also know that Dan had a lot of fun playing it, probably as much fun as I have playing it. Obzen made a great deck and I think it deserves another shot at showing mono-black's viability!
Pig Trinket: There were several reasons posted to bring this deck back.

Delver: You know I am still #1. Vote me back.
Encroaching Blight: Nr4747 says: 
My vote goes to Encroaching Blight. The deck is really fun to pilot and watch (I built it myself after watching Dan play it), it has an awesome Necropotence-like feel to it and a lot of people stated in the comments of the Encroaching Blight videos of the Gauntlet that they liked/loved it. Oh, and the deck is capable to snatch wins out of nowhere aswell as playing a grindy game ! So vote for one of the the audience's favorite decks, according to the YT comments, you will not regret it ! PS: Dan had a lot of fun playing the deck aswell !
NewHJ says: : It's a very unusual Pauper deck: a creature-less control. I'm a fan of both this and Death Control. Dan forgot a land drop that was crucial. If he has dropped it, this deck probably would have won the match. Green Grifters: I know you guys always vote for me. Do so again please. Green Ramp LD: You know that mono green is the key to get rid of those lands. Vote me back. Glass Cannon Red: I feel I have at least five more turn 2 kills in me. The Pauper Gauntlet: I am named like this whole thing. You gotta have me back! Vote now!
1-Land-Spy: You know there is nothing funnier than seeing Dan trying to figure me out!
Counter-Kitty: Power_T says: Hm, I guess I am supposed to make a case for Counter-Kitty here, I am the brewer after all... but I don't want to. The HORRIBLE update on January 27 screwed with all of us, making us pay mana for our spells manually. It screwed this deck even more; the Sunscape Familiar + Capsize combo is not working properly; If you have 4 familiars out Capsize with buyback should cost UU, but instead it costs 3UU (the familars are unable to affect the buyback cost). So the deck does not work. Kinda. That combo is only part of the deck. If Counter-Kitty was voted back I would have to make a new sb plan, taking into account the bug. So if you don't want to create work for me, don't vote for it. Or you can vote for it anyway, just for spite or something. Or maybe because you want to see if it can still win even though it is not working properly.
Flying Ninjas: Michael Gray says: (I’m the brewer of this deck). Flying Ninjas lost to Teachings in a close match. I’ve beaten Teachings with this deck. In fact, I’ve beaten a lot of decks with this deck – aggro, MBC, kitty-style midrange decks… Mind you Power_T crushed me the other day with Bugs & Pigs. I brewed this just for fun but it has 4 Chainer’s Edicts, some counters, some protection and a pile of ninjas. It’s a fairly strong deck that I think could go a few more rounds at least. Guys, help me out here – we need more ninjas in pauper magic. They’re fun but not annoying-fun like Cloud of Faeries was. They promote interaction – it’s not ETB so your opponent can bolt the ninja before the effect, but then you can re-ninja the bolted ninja with another ninja if you have one. And they can bolt that one. So much interaction. 
UB Justice Control: 
Tortured Madness, Tortured Toolbox, Abzan Grindhouse: Vote us back if you want some more TE action! 
RG Land CrusherWoRMaSTeR64 says: 
RG Land Crusher should be voted back simply because it is so much fun crushing lands and I know Dan enjoys it as well. It got a pretty bad matchup in round 3 and I think people did not get to see its full potential yet. I worked hard on it and it is a completely original brew! Many land destruction decks have fallen so you need to bring back this one for the love of crushing peoples lands! RG Landfall: Fast aggro! You know that is what you want!
Croca Jund: Jund in every format! You know Crocanura is Goyf! Let me prove it once again!
DelverFiend: Does being a tier 1 deck count for anything?
Eggs: You know you want a sweet combo deck in the Gauntlet! Vote me back!
Evil Allies: We are the allies! We are marching off to war! We can't do that unless we are voted back!
Gary Busey LD: Power_T, the brewer, speaks for the deck: Vote back Gary Busey LD! It is the only deck supported by a drunk Hollywood Celebrity! If you don't do it he will force you into a foodfight like he did with some guys in this interview at 2:50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVgE_T7Ffss
Or maybe he will show up at your doorstep with a machete and say the magic words "if you don't trust me you are gonna get hit" like he did at 4:29 in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75w_DjeSgTg
Seriously though, Gary Busey LD might not be the best deck in the format, but it is ok, and I think it is a deck that fits Dan's playstyle and that should count for something. If it gets voted back I promise you to share some inside information I have on the interviews mentioned above.

Pig Trinket
Mike says: I'm going to argue for Pig Trinket! It's a wildly fun deck to watch and it's clear that you enjoy playing with it. Your videos with the deck are also incredibly insightful given your familiarity with it and generally lead to better content. That and I love the deck to bits and can't get enough of it.
Eduardo Parma says: 
Pig trinket! The most interesting control deck in the format! It is super powerfull, but unfortunatly it consumes much time in gameplay. The rewarding feel of eliminating the threats and increasing your life total with lifestsaffs conpensates it all though.
Power_T replies: Thank you for supporting Pig Trinket! I agree that it is great fun to watch and play! I also think that it is the best deck in pauper, with pretty much no bad matchups, except for maybe some obscure rogue decks and burn, where it is like 50-50. This is assuming that you play the deck correctly and quickly though.If it is voted back I promise to watch all videos of it carefully and make as many insightful comments as possible about it. And by "insightful comments" I mean pointing out every little mistake Dan does with the deck..
Shroudfang Ninja: Michael Gray says:  (I’m the champion of this deck). I can’t believe this deck lost. Dan wtf? There was not even audio to hear Dan explain what was happening. Such an unsatisfying loss. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. And I know the sponsors of this tournament do not want fans left with bitter unhappiness. This deck is actually the deck I had in mind when I brewed Simic Oracle (which limps on even though it’s not as good as Shroudfang Ninja). I’m intrigued by Wormfang Drake and I love ninjas (see above). Plus this deck has Blastoderm. If we vote it back Dan promises to sing the Blastoderm song. 
Spiteful Leeches: Bava speaks in its favor: I am here to argue for the return of Spiteful Leeches. This deck is by far one of the most unique lists in the Gauntlet AND it was doing quite well. There is a full article up for the list including a sideboard plan, so that should also weigh in its favor. 
http://magicgatheringstrat.com/2015/11/spiteful-leeches-a-combo-list-for-pauper-gauntlet-s3/
Perhaps most importantly, in the match that Dan list with this list, he HAD THE MATCH WON but made a number of serious misplays at the end. 
The deck should have a winning record, and it should definitely be brought back from the dead for another chance at redemption.

Michael Gray adds: I’m not brewer or champion, just a fan. This is a very innovative deck that lost because of unforced errors (ie. Dan making mistakes). I definitely think this deserves another shot. Blowing up Crypt Rats and keeping it in play feels like it should be powerful.
UB Trinket Control: There is nothing that MagicGatheringStrat needs more than another Trinket video. You all know this.
Cheaty Morph: Cheat me back into the Gauntlet!
Living End: I can be a Pauper deck too if you just give me a chance. 
Bant Fog: Your vote deals no damage this week. I draw three cards.
BUG Profilerators: Counters everywhere! Pleasure for everyone!
Land-o-derm: Midrange value grind. That is what we all need!
Sultai Delve: Delve! Delve away! 
Dragon Delve: NewHJ says:  (I'm the brewer): It's one of the first versions of the archetype and we made an 11/11 Fear, Flying, Haste, Trample, Vigilance, Firebreathing Gurmag Angler in the second round. Too bad I didn't equip the deck well against the two decks it matched up: Angler Delver and RUG Tron. If it engages in some other matchups it can really surprise the oponnent with giantic threats.
Snow-Go: Everyone knows I am the best deck in the format - if played right! Vote me back!


What is the Pauper Gauntlet?
All about the Pauper Gauntlet Season 03: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-pauper-gauntlet.html
All the deck lists: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/11/the-decks-of-pauper-gauntlet-s03.html


What will happen after the voteback?
78 decks entered the Gauntlet. 32+3 decks remain. Round 5 is single elimination in the Tournament Practice Room. Expect the bloodbath to continue. My estimate is that another 10ish decks will fall in round 5.

How can you follow the Pauper Gauntlet?
The twitter account @MagicGathStrat tweets whenever a video is uploaded 

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

My new RG Tron sideboard plan

As you may know, my deck of choice in Modern is RG Tron. In fact, I like the deck so much that I wrote a 36-part series on the deck on this blog. For a full list of the chapters of The Modern Bible: http://mtgolibrary.blogspot.se/2015/02/the-modern-bible-of-rg-tron-part-1.html

The Modern Bible also contains a lot of specific matchup info, for example against Scapeshift.




My new RG Tron deck list after the bannings
Last week I talked about my updates to the deck, resulting in this deck list after the banning of Summer Bloom and Splinter Twin.

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

The Pro Tour is this weekend and I am sure it will prove that I got some of this wrong. Having said that, here is my updated sideboard plan.

My new sideboard plan for RG Tron
8-Rack:   -3 Pyroclasm, , -1 Spellskite, -2 Relic ,+4 Claim, +1 Thragtusk, +1 Ancient Grudge  (Not sure about spellskite/relic)
Abzan: +3 Claim, +1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Thragtusk, -3 Pyroclasm, -2 Relic, -1 Spellskite   
Ad Nauseam: +4 Nature's Claim, +1 Ancient Grudge,  -3 Pyroclasm, -1 Spellskite, -1 Ugin    (Theory: Mulligan to Nature's Claim)
SET STOP IN UPKEEP TO DEAL WITH LOTUS BLOSSOM!!! (With Oblivion Stone)  (Spellskite is worthless because he can draw his deck) What does Relic do in this matchup?
Affinity: +4 Claim, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Coil, +2 Spellskite, +1 Ancient Grudge, +1 Mass Removal, -2 Relic, -1 Ulamog, -4 Karn Liberated, -1 Ugin, -1 Eye of Ugin, -1 Emrakul    (Ulamog and Eye of Ugin sure could be useful against slow Inkmoth death) (Is Spellskite useful enough?) (Is Thragtusk strong enough?)
Amulet Bloom:   +4 Nature's claim. +1 Ancient Grudge +2 Spellskite
                 - 3 Pyroclasm, -2 Relic, -1 Ugin, -1 ??  (Hopefully this beast is dead)
BW Tokens: +2 Claim, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Mass Removal
            -2 Relic, -1 Karn/Spellskite, -1 something    (It hardly matters what you do, they are SO dead)           
Bogles: +4 Nature's Claim, +2 Spellskite, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Mass Removal 
-2 Relic, -2 Scrying, -1 Karn Liberated, -1 Ulamog, -1 Emrakul, -1 Chromatic Sphere
Burn:  +4 Nature's Claims, +1 Wurmcoil, +1 Pyroclasm, +2 Spellskite, +1 Thragtusk, +1 Mass Removal, +1 Feed the Clan, -2 Karn, -4 Stone, -2 Relic, - 1 Ulamog, -1 Emrakul, -1 Ugin  (wow, 11 cards)
Coco: +3 Claim, + 1 Pyroclasm, +1 Mass Removal, -1 Spellskite, -1 Wurmcoil, - 2 Relic, -1 ??? 
Delver:   +2 Claims, +1 Wurmcoil, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Thragtusk, +1 Mass Removal,  -2 Relic, -1 Emrakul, -1 Spellskite, -2 Karn/Eye of Ugin/Ulamog (slow things)                
Dredge/Bridge/GY: +2 Relic, -1 Spellskite, -1 Sylvan Scrying 
Faeries: +1 Boil, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Mass Removal, -2 Relic of Progenitus, -1 Emrakul
Green Ramp: +1 Emrakul, +1 Wurmcoil, +1 Pyroclasm, -2 Spellskite, -2 Relic of Progenitus
Grixis Control: : +1 Boil, +2 Relic, -3 Pyroclasm
Hatebears: +2 Nature's Claim, +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Wurmcoil, +1 Mass Removal  (+2 Nature's Claim), -1 Eye of Ugin, -1 Eldrazi (you will not have mana), -2 Relic, -1 Spellskite (-1 Ugin, -1 Eldrazi)    
Infect:   +4 Nature's Claim, +2 Spellskite, +1 Pyroclasm,  +1 Mass Removal, -2 Eldrazi, -1 Eye of Ugin, -2 Relic, -1 Karn, -2 Sylvan Scrying (no time)
          (Keep Wurmcoil over Eye of Ugin)
Living End:     +2 Relic, +1 Wurmcoil, +1 Thragtusk, -3 Pyroclasm, -1 Spellskite
Jeskai Control; +4 Claim, +1 Boil, +1 Thragtusk, +1 Wurmcoil, -3 Pyroclasm, -4 Oblivion Stone   (4 claims because he has to burn us out, less if he has less bolts) 
Jund   +2 Claim,  +1 Thragtusk (I will try Thragtusk over Wurmcoil #4), - 1 Spellskite, -2 Relic   (Put in Wurmcoil if no Claim targets)
Merfolk:    +4 Nature's Claim, +1 Pyrolasm, +1 Mass Removal-2 Relic, -1 Emrakul, -1 Eye of Ugin, -1 Karn, - 1 Ugin (We want 4 Claim because of Spreading Seas + vial)
             (Wurmcoil #4 is probably not needed, Ulamog stays in)
Scapeshift:    +2 Spellskite, +1 Boil, +1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Thragtusk, +1 Feed the Clan, +1 Relic (maybe Nature's Claim), -3 Pyroclasm, -4 Oblivion Stone   (Keep Ugin in)                
  REMEMBER THE trick against Scapeshift with Ghost Quarter  (See below)  
  This is now a matchup where we just need to get rid of pointless cards and have less to bring in now that we have cut Slaughter Games. Having a 2nd Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger would be useful here.
Soul Sisters: +1 Pyroclasm, +1 Mass Removal
              -2 Relic  (This matchup is almost an auto-win)
Storm:   -1 Spellskite, -4 Oblivion Stone, -1 Ugin, -1 Emrakul,   (I am really not sure here)
         +4 Nature's Claim, +2 Relic, +1 Pyroclasm (for Electromancer)  (we will miss Slaughter Games here)
Tron, Blue: -3 Pyroclasm, -1 Spellskite, -1 Ugin, (Spellskite is DEATH against Mindslaver) +1 Boil, +2 Relic, +2 Claim  Never forget to TAKE OUT SPELLSKITE!
Tron, RG:  -3 Pyroclasm, -1 Ugin, - 1 Relic, +2 Spellskite (to redirect Karn), +2 Claim, +1 Ancient Grudge 
Zoo: +3 Claims, +1 Wurmcoil, +1 Thragtusk, +2 Spellskite, +1 Mass Removal, +1 Pyroclasm, -2 Relics, -4 Karn, -1 Scrying, -1 Emrakul, -1 Eye of Ugin,     

         (What about Pyroclasm? What about Eye of Ugin? Keep Ugin and Ulamog in)   



I am very happy to discuss these changes. Please add your thoughts in the comments below.