Sealed Deck League Awesomeness

Several weeks ago we started up a casual Magic sealed deck league - and by "we" I mean "me" and the several reluctant people I cajoled, needled, and bludgeoned into joining. We all used to play Magic back in the mid-90s, and off and on again since then. Most of the others had been clean for a while, but it was fairly easy to get them hooked again. And thus we returned again to the paper crack...

Limited formats (draft and sealed deck) are awesome because everyone has invested the same amount into their card pool - no one has a significant advantage based on how much they've spent or netdecking. Sealed deck league is when everyone starts off with the same size collection of cards (typically a tournament pack and 3 boosters, or 6 boosters, or a precon deck and 2 boosters), builds a deck out of it, and then adds a new pack to their collection every week. Depending on the league rules, trading may or may not be allowed. Likewise, prize structures vary. In our case, at the end of a night we just crack open all the new packs for the week and take the pack of our choice in rank order. The league usually ends after several weeks, although in our case it looks like we're going to just keep cruising indefinitely.

It's a fun format because it's fairly balanced, rewards skill, and is very challenging to evolve your deck in small but meaningful ways in response to the metagame.

In my case, I started off with the Grixis precon deck from Shards of Alara (all of the other players took a precon from a shard as well). I took it because I thought it was the worst deck of the bunch, but it also had lots of potential to grow. I think my assessment was right - I got pretty badly beat at first. But this is where the game gets fun - why did I get beat? How, exactly? What can I do about it?

If you look at the Grixis precon decklist, it's kind of a mish-mash that doesn't really jell. Some "Unearth" graveyard goodness, some disruption, some removal, some pingers, some nasty creatures, and some truly terrible cards. And slow... Molasses slow. Like, by the time I could do something useful I was already dead slow.

Everyone else had faster, more aggressive, more creature-heavy decks than me. And with my card pool there was no way I could outrace them. I had to come up with a way to win on my terms while denying them their's. So I came up with a game plan to try and manage the board with a ton of removal and pingers until the other player ran out of steam. Assuming I didn't run out of steam as well, flyers or Cruel Ultimatum should be able to win me the game from there. I took out half of my creatures, put in every last shred of removal I could, a Courier's Capsule, and a single, wonderful, Tidings that I got in a trade from the Esper player.

Wow.

When I pilot this deck, I feel like I'm on a sinking ship that's being boarded, desperately bailing out water and trying to shoot back at the same time, and yet somehow seizing victory. Albeit a battered, shaky sort of victory. It does well. Really well. But I invariably end up winning with only a handful of life left. It's crazy stressful but awesome.

As the weeks have passed and we've opened new packs and done some trading, my standing in the ranks always remains at or near the top. My latest changes have been to add in another Courier's Capsule and a Cancel (two, against certain decks). The Cancels have proven themselves against certain game-winning Indestructible creatures and Ultimatums. However, I was recently dethroned by the Esper player - since he was struggling I took a look at his card pool, made some dramatic changes to his deck, and suggested some key trades. Unfortunately, my advice was rather good and he is now handily kicking everyone else in the groin. Now the whole metagame rethink begins again...

I highly recommend this format. Sometimes the pack-per-week isn't quite enough and people get bored with their decks, and don't quite have the cards to pull off a major change. In that case, change it up with a draft (a very nice way to add a cohesive chunk of new cards to your pool) or by introducing a limited number of proxies. Also, as card collections get larger, you should increase the deck size gradually up from 40 to 60.

It's been loads of fun. And it's made for a great excuse to get together on Monday nights to drink beer, laugh, and hang out.

Minis: 6mm Carthaginians - Libyan Phalanx

As usual, I have way too many hobby projects going on. One that has dragged on for several years is my 6mm ancients. I've got an Early Imperial Roman army pretty much complete (1000 pts in Warmaster Ancients, 700 pts in Field of Glory terms), although about halfway through I changed the way I based them. The new method looks much better, so I need to go back and redo a bunch.

Anywho, they need someone to fight, don't they? Well, even though they missed each other by a couple hundred years, I think I've got enough Carthaginian figures around to scrounge together a fight. Today I start on the Libyan Phoenician Phalanx (figures are Heroics & Ros, MAC04).

Step 1: Research & Inspiration
Painting Carthaginians is tricky. People are unsure about their skin color, the color of their clothes, the shield designs, and the uniformity of appearance. Some quick skimming of my library and the internet reveals:

• The Warmaster Ancients rulebook has the Carthaginian infantry painted up as having very dark skin, red cloth, bronze helmets, and white, undecorated shields.
• Osprey Campaign Series 36: Cannae 216BC depicts an African infantryman as fair-skinned and with a bronze helm. His armor is captured Roman legionary chain and the shield can't be seen, unfortunately.
• P. Connely's Greece and Rome at War has all kinds of eye-candy in it, but no illustrations of Carthaginians.
• This blog has lots of good Carthaginian miniatures painted up. Very ornate shields, Greek-style, large variety. Lightly tanned skin colors.
• The Corvus Belli site has them in white linen armor and red cloth, and either white shield or solid bronze. Bronze helmets.
• This gentleman's site depicts the Libyan soldiers white lighter skin, white linen armor, bronze helms, and a uniform shield motif of an abstract palm tree.
• Baccus, a manufacturer of nice 6mm minis, has their African spearmen with bronze helms and shields with a wide variety of designs on them.
• Firezone Studios painted his 6mm African spearmen the same way.
• Another blogger also has his painted like so.
  

I am going to with the Warmaster Ancients painting scheme: a medium dark skin and stark white shields. Because the only solid historical reference I could find (in my admittedly cursory review) was in Plutarch's Timolean: "...and then ten thousand footmen bearing white shields, whom they guessed to be all Carthaginians, from the splendour of their arms, and the slowness and order of their march. " If it doesn't look good I can always go back and add designs.

Undercoat: black
Skin: GW Tanned Flesh
Armor: GW Skull White
Shield: trim GW Brazen Brass, center GW Skull White
Helm: GW Brazen Brass
Spear Shaft: GW Snakebite Leather
Spear Tip: GW Chainmail

I suspect these guys should have greaves but the sculpt doesn't really seem to accommodate that, so I'll skip it.

OK, ready? Here he go:

2:35 - 3:10pm: Prep (clean-up, gluing to painting sticks, and priming)
3:10 - 3:50pm: Drying time, second coat of primer (also painted up some Roman archers)
3:50 - 5:00pm: painted 250 legs. That's a 3.5 legs per minute. If it seems excessive to take 17 seconds on a single 2mm tall leg, I think it's because there's a lot of non-productive time. Snacking, fiddling with iTunes (the Radio Lab podcast from WNYC is awesome), etc. Still, I'd like to pick up the pace more.

That's it for now. I'll pick up the brush again in a bit.