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.

Magic: Pauper NetDeck Experiment

So it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. Not for a lack of gaming - still playing D&D once every three weeks or so, playing board games every two weeks, painting a couple minis, and the occasional video game. But what has changed is work - I picked up a second client and that's cut into my writing time.

But I got something for you today: Magic the Gathering. Every now and then I get the itch. Well, now is one of those times. I started playing casually with a couple friends and that got me excited enough to fire up the Magic Online account.

Lo and behold, Wizards has now formally embraced the Pauper format. This is awesome. Pauper format consists of only commons. No rares, no uncommons. It's a format that really rewards deck synergy and not bomb rares and $20 multilands. It's really fun, and very, very cheap. The "official" site for Pauper Magic is http://www.pdcmagic.com/.

So today's post kicks off a fun little project for me. I like to take a tournament winning decklist and make the closest approximation out of my generally much cheaper and inferior cards. But now that Pauper is legal, I'm going to take one of the tourney winners and see what I can do with it. I don't know if it'll work with Pauper, but we'll see. Without further ado - here's "It's Just A Flesh Wound", winner of a tourney on 12/18/08:

MAINDECK
Creatures
4 Gravedigger
4 Mulldrifter
4 Oona's Gatewarden
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Warren Pilferers

Spells
4 Agony Warp
4 Terror
2 Unmake

Lands
13 Swamp
5 Island
4 Esper Panorama
4 Terramorphic Expanse

SIDEBOARD
4 Peppersmoke
4 Recumbent Bliss
3 Mournwhelk
2 Oona's Grace
2 Plains

This thing went 6-0. It's a seemingly simple control deck using card advantage, creature kill, and graveyard recursion with comes-into-play effects to slowly beat down an opponent.

Unfortunately, I am missing most of these cards. Now, the nice thing about Pauper is I could run out and get all of them for probably a buck. But that's not what I'm aiming for. Ignoring the sideboard for now, here's what I got:

CREATURES
1 Cabal Surgeon
1 Faceless Butcher
4 Gravedigger
4 Highway Robber
1 Merchant of Secrets
1 Mesmeric Fiend
2 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Sage Owl
1 Whirlpool Rider

SPELLS
2 Agony Warp
4 Last Gasp
4 Rend Flesh

LANDS
1 Ancient Spring
4 Dimir Aqueduct
5 Island
1 Sulfer Vent
13 Swamp
2 Terramorphic Expanse

It's a much weaker deck, especially on the card drawing and recursion fronts. I try to make up for this with the Ninjitsu cards to get some creatures with comes-into-play effects back into my hand to reuse. Let's see how it does in the Casual room:

Game 1: 0 - 1
Close game though. Something of a mirror-match, the other player had a White-Blue deck with lots of comes-into-play effects and removal. However, he had the awesome card Momentary Blink to get multiple effects. I checked, I don't own it... :( I was simply outpaced in this game.

Game 2: 0 - 2
Red-black aggro. Lots of burn, fast creatures, and some discard. I got stuck with a bunch of 2 black casting cost cards and only one source of black mana. The few creatures I got out where instantly shocked away. Annihilated in 7 turns.

Game 3: 0 - 3
Green-white aggro. Cheap good creatures like Wild Nacatl, Akrasan Squire, and Knight of the Skyward Eye. I had land issues this game as well (again was wanted a second swamp), but put up a good fight with the Sage Owl/Mistblade Shinobi groove going. I had draws of Faceless Butcher, Gravedigger, 2x Sage Owls, 2x Mistblade Shinobi, Last Gasp, and Merchant of Secrets. But only got 2x Islands and 1 Swamp.

Game 4: 0 - 3 - 1
Mono blue. Nothing but draw, counterspells, and bounce. I'm sure there was a combo in there but I couldn't wait - I had brought the guy down to 12 life, but the game was soooo slow and annoying I quit. I'll call it a draw.

Game 5: 0 - 4 - 1
5-color madness deck. The game started in my favor as I beat him down to 7 while he tutored for tons of land and forced me to discard my hand. But eventually he got enough guys on the ground and enough discarded Fiery Tempers to overpower my weenies. Great card advantage clearly overpowered me, and the fact that low toughness guys can't win a long game.

Conclusions
Pauper seems to be a very competitive format. Unlike Casual Standard or Casual Extended, where there are lots of people playing decks with various degrees of efficiency and fun-ness, all the Pauper decks I encountered were well-honed machines. There's no room for tier 2 cards. This is both the appeal of Pauper and what makes it daunting.

Specifically, I think I encountered mana issues which would have been solved with Esper Panoramas and more Terramorphic Expanses. The Dimir Aqueducts were poor substitutes - often a hindrance, particularly when I played second.

I also had a tough time with all the 4-mana cards - I often felt like I had a cluttered grip. 10 4-drops is a lot. The last thing that killed me was card advantage - not having Mulldrifter or Phyrexian Rager hurt.