Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

With the rapid growth of Magic Online, Wizards of the Coast has been bringing more players into the digital world of card slinging by creating new formats and releasing all of the old sets online. Earlier this year Wizards of the Coast recently announced the creating of the Legacy Online format, which is a bit surprising. That in and of itself is not surprising, but not all of the older Legacy playable cards are yet in the Magic Online card pool so it is surprising that they would launch it before this. But with the release of the rest of Urza’s block and the Masters Edition IV (slated for release December 13 2010), most of the remaining cards will be released ‘into the wild’ if the speculation proves correct that Masters Edition IV will include the hits from Mercadian Masques block (Mercadian Masques/Nemesis/Prophecy). Wizards go eventually release the entire Mercadian block, but the consensus in the past seems to be that Mercadian was the worst block and would be a very poor seller online (hence the theory of just including releveant cards in Masters Edition IV).

The Magic Online Legacy community has slowly been gaining steam, with Daily Events running regularly and succesfully firing with 16-30+ people. The Premier Events have been hit or miss, but there seems to be plenty of data coming in from the developing Online Legacy metagame in Daily Events. In our new weekly column here we’ll take a look at what is the exact make up of the Online Legacy metagame by analyzing every deck played and how they finished.

For those unfamiliar with Daily Events, they are usually run once or twice a day, with a minimum of 16 people to start and a max of 128, and are always exactly 4 rounds. They are 6 tickets to enter and pay out 11 booster packs (roughly 44 ticket value) to players finishing 4-0, and 6 booster packs (roughly 24 ticket value) to players finishing 3-1. Premier Events require a minimum of 33 players (and a max of 256) and cost 10 tickets to enter, and are similar to most tournaments with Swiss rounds based on the number of competitors, with a cut to a single elimination Top 8 playoff. The prizes are 36 booster packs for first place, 27 for second, 18 for third and fourth, and 9 for fifth through eighth. All prize winning players in both types of tournaments are also rewarded with Qualifying Points based on their finish, and these points accumulate and can be used for other prizes in the description found here.

All scheduled online events can be found courtesy of the Magic Online Events Calendar.

With our first week (04-25-2010 through 05-01-2010) of Online Legacy analysis, we have 7 Daily Events worth of data to pull from. The events will be listed by number and date, and then broken out by archetype, players, average points per archetype and sub-archetype (there is a maximum of 12 points per tournament, as there are 4 rounds in each Daily Event), and money finishes (money finish defined as 4-0 or 3-1 finish, which is the cutoff for payouts in Daily Events).

Daily Event 1154851 04-25-2010 (32 players):
Ad Nauseam – 3 players; average 4.00 points by player
(2 with 3 Ad Nauseam + Pact of Negation version; average 6.00 points per player)
(1 with Saito 2 Ad Nauseam + Lion’s Eye version; average 0.00 points per player)
Reanimator – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Painter Grindstone – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Bant NOPro (no CounterTop) – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Bant Tempo/New Horizons – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Bant NOPro CounterTop – 3 players; average 2.00 points per player
CounterTop UGRW – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Canadian Threshold – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Merfolk U – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Enchantress – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Astral Slide BGW Junk – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
BGU Smallpox – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Death and Taxes – 3 players; average 7.00 pionts per player; 2 money finishes
Dredge (LED-less) – 3 players; average 6.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Goblins – 5 players; average 5.40 points per player; 2 money finishes
(2 with Goblins R; average 10.5 points per player; 2 money finishes)
(2 with Goblins RB; average 3.00 points per player)
(1 with Goblins RG; average 0.00 points per player)
Naya Zoo – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Sligh/Mono Red Burn – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Red Green aggro – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Affinity – 2 players; average 6.00 points per player; 1 money finish

Daily Event 1154853 04-26-2010 (29 players):
Ad Nauseam (3 Ad Nauseam + Pact of Negation version) – 1 player; average 3.00 points by player
Charbelcher – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Next Level Storm – 1 player; 0.00 points per player
Reanimator – 2 players; average 3.00 points per player
Stoneforge Bant (no CounterTop) – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Bant NOPro CounterTop – 1 players; average 3.00 points per player
CounterTop UGBW – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Englightened CounterTop UGW – 1 player; 0.00 points per player
Englightened CounterTop UGRW – 1 player; 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
4C Landstill – 1 player; 6.00 points per player
Nearly Mono Blue – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Stax WG – 1 player; 0.00 points per player
Astral Slide BGW Junk – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
BGW Junk – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Mono Black Aggro Control – 1 players; 6.00 points per player
Dredge (LED-less) – 1 players; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Dredge (Bloodghasted) – 1 players; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Death and Taxes – 3 players; average 6.00 pionts per player; 1 money finish
AggroLoam RGB – 1 player; average 12.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Goblins – 3 players; average 5.40 points per player; 1 money finish
(2 with Goblins RB; average 3.00 points per player)
(1 with Goblins RG; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish)
Naya Zoo – 2 players; average 6.00 points per player
Affinity – 2 players; average 1.50 points per player

Daily Event 1154855 04-27-2010 (25 players):
Ad Nauseam (3 Ad Nauseam + Pact of Negation version) – 1 player; average 6.00 points by player
Next Level Storm – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Reanimator – 2 players; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Canadian Threshold – 1 players; average 3.00 points per player
Bant NOPro (no CounterTop) – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Bant NOPro CounterTop – 1 players; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
CounterTop UGBW – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Englightened CounterTop UGW – 1 player; 6.00 points per player
Englightened CounterTop UGRW – 1 player; 0.00 points per player
Enchantress – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Astral Slide BGW Junk – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
BGW RecSur – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
BG Junk – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Dredge (LED-less) – 2 players; average 4.50 points per player; 1 money finish
Dredge (Bloodghasted) – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
AggroLoam RGB – 1 player; average 12.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Death and Taxes – 2 players; average 4.50 points per player; 1 money finish
Naya Zoo – 1 players; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Goblins – 4 players; average 5.40 points per player; 1 money finish
(1 with Goblins R; 1 player; average 3.00 points per player)
(2 with Goblins RB; average 4.50 points per player; 1 money finish)
(1 with Goblins RBG; average 6.00 points per player)

Daily Event 1175104 04-28-2010 (16 players):
Ad Nauseam (Saito 2 Ad Nauseam + Lion’s Eye version) – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Imperial Aluren – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Reanimator – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Bant NOPro (no CounterTop) – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Bant NOPro CounterTop – 1 players; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
CounterTop UGBW – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
CounterTop UGRW – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Englightened CounterTop UGW – 1 player; 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
4C Landstill – 2 players; average 6.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Astral Slide BGW Junk – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
BW Junk – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Mono Green NOPro – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Death and Taxes – 1 player; average 12.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Goblins – 2 players; average 5.40 points per player; 1 money finish
(1 with Goblins RB; average 0.00 points per player)
(1 with Goblins RBG; average 3.00 points per player)

Daily Event 1175105 04-29-2010 (16 players):
Ad Nauseam (Saito 2 Ad Nauseam + Lion’s Eye version) – 2 players; average 7.50 points per player; 1 money finish
Reanimator – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Englightened CounterTop UGW – 1 player; 6.00 points per player
4C Landstill – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Mono Black Smallpox – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
AggroLoam RGB – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
AggroLoam RGBW – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Death and Taxes – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Dredge (LED-less) – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Goblins – 3 players; average 5.00 points per player; 1 money finish
(3 with Goblins R; 3 players; average 5.00 points per player; 1 money finish)
Sligh/Mono Red Burn – 3 players; average 3.00 points per player

Daily Event 1175106 04-29-2010 (27 players):
Ad Nauseam (Saito 2 Ad Nauseam + Lion’s Eye version) – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Next Level Storm – 1 player; 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Charbelcher – 1 player; 6.00 points per player
Reanimator – 2 players; average 4.50 points per player; 1 money finish
Painter Grindstone – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Canadian Threshold – 1 players; average 3.00 points per player
CounterTop UGBW – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
CounterTop UGW – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Englightened CounterTop UGW – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Englightened CounterTop UGRW – 1 player; 0.00 points per player
4C Landstill – 2 players; average 7.50 points per player; 1 money finish
Enchantress – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
BG Junk – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
BG Smallpox – 2 players; average 3.00 points per player
BGWU Survival – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Death and Taxes – 2 players; average 7.50 points per player; 1 money finish
Dredge (LED-less) – 3 players; average 3.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Elves – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Goblins – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
(1 with Goblins RBG; average 3.00 points per player)
Sligh/Mono Red Burn – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Naya Zoo – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish

Daily Event 1175107 04-30-2010 (24 players):
Ad Nauseam (Saito 2 Ad Nauseam + Lion’s Eye version) – 2 players; average 6.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Charbelcher – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Hypergenesis Show and Tell – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Reanimator – 2 players; average 0.00 points per player
Canadian Threshold – 2 players; average 6.00 points per player; 1 money finish
CounterTop UGBW – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
CounterTop UGW – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish
CounterTop UGRW – 1 player; 6.00 points per player
Englightened CounterTop UGW – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Enchantress – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Astral Slide BGW Junk – 1 player; average 12.00 points per player; 1 money finish
Death and Taxes – 3 players; average 8.00 pionts per player; 2 money finishes
Dredge (LED-less) – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Goblins – 4 players; average 5.25 points per player; 1 money finish
(2 with Goblins R; average 6.00 points per player)
(1 with Goblins RB; average 6.00 points per player)
(1 with Goblins RBG; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish)
Naya Zoo – 2 players; average 4.5 points per player

NOTE: missing data for Daily Event 1175108 05-01-2010 (17 players) and Daily Event 1175109 05-01-2010 (27 players)

So, that’s a pretty nice data set to pull from, even though we’re missing complete results for 2 of the Daily Events. The data from the 7 events that we do have data for breaks down like this, when adding them all up.

7 events, 169 players total, with an average of 24.14 players per event
Ad Nauseam – 11 players; average 5.46 points by player; 3 money finishes (.27 times per playing the deck)
(4 with 3 Ad Nauseam + Pact of Negation version; average 5.25 points per player)
(7 with Saito 2 Ad Nauseam + Lion’s Eye version; average 5.57 points per player; 3 money finishes [.43 times per playing the deck])
Next Level Storm – 3 players; average 4.00 points per player; 1 money finish (.33 times per playing the deck)
Charbelcher – 3 players; average 5.00 points per player
Painter Grindstone – 2 players; average 4.50 points per player
Hypergenesis Show and Tell – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Imperial Aluren – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Reanimator – 11 players; average 4.91 points per player; 3 money finishes (.27 times per playing the deck)
Merfolk U – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish (1.00 times per playing the deck)
Canadian Threshold – 5 players; average 5.25 points per player; 1 money finish (.20 times per playing the deck)
Bant Tempo/New Horizons – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Stoneforge Bant (no CounterTop) – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Bant NOPro (no CounterTop) – 3 players; average 5.00 points per player
Bant NOPro CounterTop – 6 players; average 3.00 points per player; 1 money finish (.33 times per playing the deck)
CounterTop UGW – 2 players; average 9.00 points per player; 2 money finishes (1.00 times per playing the deck)
CounterTop UGBW – 5 players; average 6.00 points per player; 2 money finishes (.40 times per playing the deck)
CounterTop UGRW – 3 players; average 4.00 points per player
Englightened CounterTop UGW – 6 players; 4.50 points per player; 1 money finish (.17 times per playing the deck)
Englightened CounterTop UGRW – 3 players; 3.00 points per player; 1 money finish (.33 times per playing the deck)
4C Landstill – 6 players; average 7.00 points per player; 3 money finishes (.5 times per playing the deck)
Nearly Mono Blue – 1 player; 3.00 points per player
Enchantress – 4 players; average 6.00 points per player; 2 money finishes (.5 times per playing the deck)
Stax WG – 1 player; 0.00 points per player
BGWU Survival – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish (1.00 times per playing the deck)
BGW RecSur – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Astral Slide BGW Junk – 5 players; average 6.60 points per player; 3 money finishes (.60 times per playing the deck)
BGW Junk – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish (1.00 times per playing the deck)
BW Junk – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish (1.00 times per plalying the deck)
BG Junk – 2 players; 1.50 points per player
BG Smallpox – 2 players; average 3.00 points per player
BGU Smallpox – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Mono Black Smallpox – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
Mono Black Aggro Control – 1 players; 6.00 points per player
Mono Green NOPro – 1 player; average 6.00 points per player
AggroLoam RGB – 3 players; average 11.00 points per player; 3 money finishes (1.00 times per playing the deck)
AggroLoam RGBW – 1 player; average 3.00 points per player
Death and Taxes – 15 players; average 6.60 pionts per player; 8 money finishes (.53 times per playing the deck)
Dredge (LED-less) – 11 players; average 4.91 points per player; 5 money finishes (.45 times per playing the deck)
Dredge (Bloodghasted) – 2 players; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish (.50 times per playing the deck)
Elves – 1 player; average 9.00 points per player; 1 money finish (1.00 times per playing the deck)
Goblins – 22 players; average 4.91 points per player; 6 money finishes (.27 times per playing the deck)
(8 with Goblins R; average 6.38 points per player; 3 money finishes [.38 times per playing the deck])
(8 with Goblins RB; average 3.38 points per player; 1 money finish [.13 times per playing the deck])
(2 with Goblins RG; average 4.50 points per player; 1 money finish [.5 times per playing the deck])
(4 with Goblins RBG; average 5.25 points per player; 1 money finish [.25 times per playing the deck])
Sligh/Mono Red Burn – 5 players; average 3.60 points per player
Red Green aggro – 1 player; average 0.00 points per player
Naya Zoo – 7 players; average 6.00 points per player; 2 money finishes (.29 times per playing the deck)
Affinity – 4 players; average 3.75 points per player; 1 money finish (.25 times per playing the deck)

So with this look at what’s actually been played the past week, you can start to get a good idea of what is actually being played (not just placing), to get a better idea of what you might square off against in the Online Legacy Daily Events. Goblins variants, Reanimator, Death and Taxes, Dredge, ANT, and CounterTop and Bant variants are the most frequent players, although not necessarily the best finishing ones.

Goblins, Zoo, and Dredge appear to have pushed Merfolk almost entirely out of the metagame this week, but don’t be surprised to see Merfolk back again soon if CounterTop and Combo strategies can overpower the aggro decks. Cards like Firespout and Engineered Plague seem very well positioned right now, so we should start seeing more and more of these in the coming weeks as players attempt to combat the throng of cheap creatures in the environment.

The boogeymen in the room named Dredge, Reanimator, and Ad Nauseam averaged 4.91, 4.91, and 5.46 points each (respectively, out of a possible 12.0 points in a 4 round tournament). Those are pretty average results, especially analyzing them next to ‘fair’ decks like Death and Taxes (6.60 point average) and Naya Zoo (6.00 point average). Is Attacking Miserable, as author Max McCall argued in a recent debate stirring article? Or is it just part of a more consistent approach that might be the way to frequent success in Legacy? I guess true statistics will tell after some period of time, as conjecture will do little good when compared to actual empirical data.

We hope to make this a weekly column every Monday as the MTGO Eternal metagame evolves, so be sure to check out the TP website frequently for other Eternal content. Please let us know in the comments section below what you found useful and what you’d like to see more of next time. See you again soon!

There are only few who are gifted with the ability to do everything right at first try. If you are one of those gifted players then this article might not cheer you up. To the rest, this article is meant to convince ourselves of the importance of losing to become better players.

If you’re afraid to fail, you can’t be sure to succeed. Those who aren’t afraid of losing will probably win more games. Why?

To answer that question, I’d like you to start by watching this video from Steve Jobs‘ speech at 2005 Stanford Commencement. (If you don’t know Steve Jobs, then you better go google him before clicking play).

Hope you managed to watch the whole speech. I know it isn’t really MtG related, but it’ll work great to help me explain the concepts of this article.

Let’s start by analyzing this quote:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forwards. You can only connect them looking backwards.” – Steve Jobs

How can we relate “the dots” to our game? I like to think those dots as mistakes I’ve done during my

games. It’s really important to analyze our mistakes from past games, even if we won them. It’s almost compulsory to take notes during games if we want to be able to reconstruct them afterward. Once we’ve created our own map of the game, then we can say whether or  not those decisions we took were right or wrong. When losing, some games will give us that “Epic Fail” sensation after some bad game decisions, some other might seem like a “bad beat” or like our opponent was extremely lucky. Don’t blame the luck! I consider myself a lucky boy because I make enough mistakes to be constantly learning from them.

So, only by understanding our own mistakes or fails from the past, we will be able to understand who we are now as a MtG players. We might lose many finals before we actually get to win something (no matter at what level you play). Once we finally get to win and become something, then we’ll appreciate our path from the past. A path full with fails and losses.

For instance, let’s say you are an average player who plays regularly with your friends and go every Saturday to you local store to play their Legacy tournament. If the feeling you have after the playtest with your friends is that you always lose, try understand the nature of those losses. Why are they winning? Are you making the wrong choices? Is it because they have better decks? Or is it because you believe they are better players?

If the first rule to become a winner is to understand that you can lose, the second rule would be to think and act like a winner. I covered that second concept in my previous article “The Importance of Playing Competitive“.

Start by taking notes of all your games, hands, openings, etc… and review them after the day. If possible, run a blog where to write reports and share the games with other people. They’ll probably give you some advices too. If you are too lazy for a blog, try a forum for example.

What are the difference between these sentences?

The more you play, the more you fail.

If you are a more optimistic guy, you could also read the previous sentence as:

The more you play, the more you win.

If we said that losing = learning (Only if you care about your mistakes from the past), then we could also say:

The more you play, the more you learn.

And from this point, we could also say:

The more you lose, the more you learn.

The more you learn, the more you win.

I see absolutely no difference between the previously mentioned statements. All of them have the goal of making you understand why losing is positive and How it can help you become a better player. Don’t get too upset if you lose too much, try find the positive side to it and keep trying. One day you’ll be on top of the hill and will look backwards. Then, it will all make sense. That day, you’ll connect the dots!

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs

We are proud to announce that Ken Meyer Jr. and Team Pataners have reached a deal to work together! Our intention is to promote the art from this amazing artist, and specially his alterations. At TP we’ve always promoted alterations from mtg artists, such as Terese Nielsen, Ron Spencer, Amy Weber and now Ken Meyer Jr. (KMJ). Ken is trying to get closer to his fans by promoting his alterations, so, what better place than the TP site?

Ken Meyer Jr. is well known by his MtG art. He’s painted mythic cards like Kird Ape, Erhnam Djinn, Dark Ritual or Mystic Remora among many other! You should check the complete list of cards painted by him at his Gatherer. He also owns a website where he posts his artwork, that goes from mtg to sport illustrations or comics. Have a look at his official website:

http://www.kenmeyerjr.com

But let’s focus now on his alterations. If you check his website, there’s a page where you’ll be able to see many of the alterations he’s done in the past. I love his style! It’s really fresh and with lots of colors.

(Click on the image to visit the Alteration Page from KMJ)

He loves painting characters from movies and comics. So, how about commissioning a playset of Dark Ritual or Kid Apes with your favorite movie characters? If you’d like to contact him, you can click on any of the banners we’ve placed at our site, his Facebook, or you can send him a mail to:

kenmeyerjr@comcast.net

His commissioned alterations cost something between $30 to $50 per card (depending on what you’d like), but you’ll be able to make a better deal if you commission a playset of cards! And make sure to refer to us when contacting him, he’ll be happy to know that our banners are working good for him.

These are some of my favorite ones I’ve seen so far:

Visit the full Star Wars Series

Visit the full Musicians/Celebrities Series

Visit the full 300 Series

If you decide to commission a playset of cards from KMJ, once you got them on your hands, please send us a mail with some pictures or scans because we’d love to publish them here, at Team Pataners.

This is the story on How I met Dan Frazier, yesterday in Zaragoza (Where? Yes, Zaragoza). If you aren’t familiar with Dan Frazier, let me tell you that he’s the artist that drew the first Moxen. Well, he’s actually drawn lot more cards, including the 12% of the initial Alpha collection. You can check the full list of his artwork for WotC here and his website here.

So, everything started back in this year’s GP Madrid when we saw Jose “El Cubano” giving some fliers away. In those fliers it said something about a couple of tournaments and, surprisingly, that Dan Frazier was the guest artist at the event.

Arnau, Roger, Edu and I started to organize the trip to Zaragoza, and early in the morning our pimp ride started!

This was some of our stuff to be signed before we actually met Dan:

(Sorry for the bad quality of the picture)

It was really needed an Alpha/Beta P9 in order to get to travel with Arnau’s Mercedes

Anyways, once we arrived at Freakland Games in Zaragoza we discovered that Albert & Pedro and Paco and his girlfriend were faster than us, so we weren’t actually the first ones at the queue But that wasn’t the issue, as we had plenty of time to talk with Dan as there wasn’t that many people there in the end.

When Dan realized of Roger’s presence at the queue, his wife Cathy gave Roger a folder and when he opened it we were all impressed to find out that Dan Frazier had drawn a portrait of Roger wearing the harlequin hat from Jester’s Cap. Meet the IMPRESSIVE Roger’s Cap!

I can’t wait to see a full-res scan of the drawing!

This is my personal goodie bag for the day:

Let’s havea a closer look at everything

Hand drawn and dedicated playmat:

A closer look to the drawing:

The Lost and not so Lost Mox Diamond:

The 5 Moxen funky altered:

A closer look to each of the Moxen:

A few more pictures of the day:

Me and Dan Frazier

Me, Dan and his wife Cathy

Filippo, Jose and me

Dan signing some white border swamps… not pimp!

Dan and the Revised swamp attack!

While in Freakland we played some Vintage games, enjoyed the awesome environment and had fun, lots of fun!

Around 18:45 we decided to go back to Barcelona because we still had something very important to do: Watch the FC Barcelona vs Real Madrid game of the millenium! If you are a soccer fan, then I’m sure you know that the spanish soccer league is incredibly crazy right now. I just have a picture to illustrate how the game went:

I’ll remember this day my whole life, for being the day I met Dan Frazier, having an excellent day with my friends, and Barça winning 0-2 against Real Madrid. Hope you guys liked the report.

Thanks for reading!

Chapter 3: The rise of the golems.

So it’s finally Sunday, our last day in Madrid, and we are heading again to the GP with brand new objectives. I still need to visit Mark Poole to get some stuff signed & altered, and I’m planning on conquering the Vintage side event that starts at 9 am.

So, before we move with the Vintage tournament, let’s get in the mood:

IF you are a STAXX (my ass) player please click play on the following youtube video. If you aren’t, move on to the next one!

So if you ain’t listening the previous video, then you deserve some real good shit! How about one of the coolest Justice videos?

The deck I’m playing at the tournament is a mix between the list JACO passed me the night before and the cards I brought to Madrid. There’s a thing I loved about his list: 3 main deck “fuck-your-golem” Ingot Chewer. He also had a couple of the new Jace there, but I wasn’t gonna pay the 240€ (120€/each) that the Asian_foil_cards were asking for. So in the end, this is what I played:

TP Golem my ass! by Jordi Amat

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Spell Pierce
2 Duress
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Repeal
1 Lighting Bolt
1 Fire/Ice
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Tinker
1 Sundering Titan
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Yawmoght’s Will
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard:
3 Ravenous Trap
1 Extirpate
1 Darkblast
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Duress
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Claws of Gix
2 Hurkyl’s Recall

I’m not 100% satisfied with the decklist tho. I’ll scan my new version of the deck and post it tomorrow or the day past. So, let’s move on with the rounds!

Round 1: Roger Subirana with UW Fish

Meh! First round and I get paired with a well known player from the LCV. I know him a bit and I know he’s playing UW fish usually.

I start controlling the first game thanks to my Lighting Bolt, that killed his Ninja of the deep hours. Later on, my Gorilla Shaman manages to eat a Null Rod and my Sower of Temptation controls another Ninja. Despite all the advantage I manage to obtain, i get totally mana flooded and I can’t get to stop his Jötun Grunt. He finds a Swords to Plowshares that exiles my Sower and returns his Ninja, and it’s GG.

Game 2 I open with Polluted and pass turn. He goes for Tundra + Sage of Epytir, and I get it REB’ed. It’s super important to stop 1st turn Sage if you don’t want him to go 2nd turn Ninja. I had Mana Drain up for turn 2 but he finds Wasteland for my Volcanic. Then I’m there with 1 Island, 2 Off Color Moxen and Sensei’s Divining Top. He plays Kataki, the war’s edge and his first Meddling Mage, naming Tinker. I find Sower of Temptation with my Top, and play it protected. With it, I control his Meddling Mage, but again, he has Swords to Plowshares. He’s beating my ass hard and I can’t find any answers on time.

0-2 | 0 points | 0 wins 2 losses

Round 2: Guillem Ragull with Drain Tendrils (?)

Meh! (again). Second round and I get paired with my ex-team mate Guillem. Guillem is right now one of the strongest players from the LCV. He’s playtesting a lot more than me and he knows the business quite well.

I have a strong control hand with Spell Pierce, Duress, Mana Drain, Ingot Chewer, 2 lands and Fact or Fiction. He opens the game with Tolarian Academy + Mox Emerald. I think for a while to see what my 1st movement should be. I decide that the best opening would be Fetchland for Underground Sea + Duress. He plays only 1 Brainstorm to avoid my play. But there he goes, he plays Brainstorm in response and hides Mana Drain + Gifts Ungiven (correct me if I’m wrong). I take Vampiric Tutor from his hand. Next turn he plays land and passes.

Obviously my Duress opening was the wrong choice. I should have played Ingot Chewer to his mox. Then on turn 2, he would have had 1 land, and his play would have been Vampiric, which would have got with Spell Pierce. Anyways, let’s keep moving.

I Try to play Ingot Chewer to his Mox and he casts Mana Drain I play Spell Pierce but he plays Force of Will. He draws his Gifts Unviven and with 5 mana he finds enough business spells to leave me out of the game.

Game 2 I mulligan to 6 and he mulligans to 5. There’s some Duress played by each of us. In the end, I manage to play an eot Fact or Fiction followed by a Tezzeret with protection.

Game 3 is kind of raw He mulligans to 5 again, plays Underground and pass turn. I begin with Land + Mox Sapphire + Sensei’s Divining Top with Spell Pierce in hand. He plays Island and pass turn. I find another Mox with Sensei’s Divining Top and on my turn I play another land + another Mox and cast Tinker, he tries to Mana Drain, but I Spell Pierce it. Sundering Titan hits the board and he scoops.

2-1 | 3 points | 2 wins 3 losses

Round 3: Bagus Bender with Bomberman

Bagus isn’t exactly what I’d call a “fast” player. He took his time on every single play of this round. To that let’s add the fact that he plays with Sensei’s Divining Top and we got the right formula to tie the round.

Game 1 I’m in control of the game, even though he’s got a Trinket Mage that is beating me down badly. I manage to kill his Trinket Mage when I’m down to 4 with my Lighting Bolt. He’s got Sensei’s Divining Top and Black Lotus in play. It shouldn’t take him long before he finds Auriok Salvagers. On my last chance to win the game, I cast Fact or Fiction that brings me Mystical and Vampiric Tutor. Both tutors works for me, as I’m killing him via Yawgmoth’s will the next turn. Well, there wasn’t any “next turn” for me as he finds the Auriok and goes off.

Game 2 is getting long and complicated. He’s played 2 Pithing Needle naming Time Vault and Voltaic Key (name Tezzeret next time… plzkkthx!). He’s beating me again with a Trinket Mage. When I’m down to 4 (again) they call “Time’s up” so I have to work some Magic! I dunno how I did it exactly but I remember being able to play Tezzeret, untap 2 artifacts and play Time Walk after a Yawgmoth’s Will. Then I attacked and GG.

1-1 | 4 points | 3 wins 4 losses

Round 4: Magin Calvo with Welder Staxx.

I can’t believe how I lost game 1. I opened with Island and pass turn. He went Workshop + Sphere of Resistance which I got with Spell Pierce. I play fetchland and pass turn with Mana Drain, Spell Pierce and Brainstorm. He plays a 2nd Workshop and starts with another Sphere of Resistance. I cast another Spell Pierce to which he attempts to pay the 2 extra with his other Workshop. I tell him that’s not possible. Anyways, he does nothing else, so I cast Brainstorm but I find no third land A third land would have been lovely as I got 1 Ingot Chewer in hand and the Mana Drain! On his third turn the fest starts to go on. Smokestack + Tangle Wire. I got the Smokestack with the Mana Drain. I can’t kill the Tangle with my Chewer coz I know there’s no land coming due to Brainstorm. So I have to get tapped and pass turn. He topdecks Strip Mine and I scoop

Game 2 I first turn kill him with Tolarian, Sol Ring, 2 Moxen, Voltaic Key and Tezzeret!

Game 3 is what I call “HELL”. He opens with Mountain + Goblin Welder. Then another Goblin Welder, and then ANOTHER Goblin Welder. I get to counter 1 Sphere of Resistance with Spell Pierce and manage to counter 2 more artifacts he plays. So, all he can do is beat me with his 3 welders… LAME! When he finally manages to resolve his artifacts, I start to get trapped due to his Tangle Wire and Smokestack. I cast Ingot Chewer targeting his Smokestack and he doesn’t put Sphere of resistance in response with Goblin Welder. Chewer resolves I pass turn and then he tries to rectify the play. I say “Dude, no”. Then on his upkeep he forgets to remove a counter from Tangle Wire and to tap anything. He draws a card and plays Mox Emerald. Then I call the judge because everything that happened in few secs there. I was hoping the judge would call that as a game loss due to him having extra information from the draw, being able to change what he tapped out of Tangle Wire. It was probably my only chance of winning there but the judge just went back few steps and he actually changed what he tapped with Tangle Wire. I call the judge again telling him that that wasn’t what he initially tapped after I told him that he missed his upkeep phase. The judge was again very permissive and he just got a warning. Anyways, I found Tinker out of nowhere and plays it for Sphinx of the Steel Wind. They call “Time’s up” and we ain’t given extra time for what happened before, so my Sphinx if missing a turn to just finish the game. LAME!

1-1 | 5 points | 4 wins 5 losses

Round 5: Michael Twoun with Aggro MUD.

On game 1 I have 2 Ingot Chewer in hand and 2 fetchlands. Open with first turn fetchland + Mox and he goes with Workshop + Mox + Golem. No problem! I go fetchland again, then crack for Volcanic and cast Chewer to his Golem. He’s so surprised of my main deck Chewer that he asks the judge if I’m really playing those maindeck. The judge actually performs a deckcheck on me and he finds out I’m right. He gives Michael a warning (only?) we keep going. No extra time given neither, even after being deckcheck! I manage to resolve my other Ingot Chewer kill a Karn, Silver Golem and my Chewer kills him.

Before starting game 2, I know I need to slow down a bit because there’s not a lot of time left. But, I can’t compete at all when he opens with first turn Golem again! I Force of Will his Golem, then I play Island, Mox Emerald and Sensei’s Divining Top. He plays a second Golem, I look with Top and there’s nothing worth in there. I play my second land with Mana Drain and Gifts Ungiven in hand. He plays nothing else in the game and swings me 4 times with the Golem for the Win. The last time he attacked we were already on the extra turns

1-1 | 6 points | 5 wins 6 losses

After round 5 I lost my interest on keep playing due to judges and my deck being unable to finish games fast.

I took some pictures of the vintage tournament. Here there’s the slideshow:

After the Vintage tournament there was still lot to do! I needed to get some cards re-signed and altered and I had to close the deal with Angelo for the Yawgmoth’s Will. We sit down with Menor and Angelo in a table and meanwhile I start a “Play Vintage with ante” event. I get only one victim whose promo Umezawa’s Jitte ended up in my binder Some pics of the games with ante:

So, I finally close the deal with Angelo. And get my brand new Yawgmoth’s Will altered by Ron Spencer and Terese Nielsen.

Now some pimp we had around with Angelo

This “Will” will have a new owner pretty soon, right Miguel?

This Gorilla was once mine, but was included in the trade for the Yawgmoth’s Will.

I also have one of those Islands, but mine is double signed

My Islands! I got the altered one from Antonio, and then I got them re-signed ^^

Best Island EVER! Property of Comeback.

Now that I mention Francesco, aka Comeback, when he showed me his Ancestral Recall altered by Mark Poole, I felt the need to rush back to see Mr. Mark Poole and get my cards altered the same way! I didn’t have much time left as we were soon heading back home. 20€ were needed to convince a friendly guy in the queue to accept my Library + Ancestral. I also gave him 50€ extra (just in case) to give to Mr. Poole to get my alterations done. This is the result!

In the end the 50€ weren’t needed as he made it with markers instead of paint (as he originally did with Francesco’s Ancestral). I have to admit, it’s the best alteration idea I’ve seen on any Ancestral or Library of Alexandria. There’s LOTS of Ancestrals altered after GP Madrid, but like this, there’s only 2: Francesco’s and mine.

So, it’s about time to finish this EPIC report of this EPIC weekend in Madrid. I’m not gonna end it with the typical PROS and CONS because I’m so freaking satisfied with everything that I’ve done. Of course I could have done better in the tournaments, but in the end, Magic is just a game folks!

Part I of the GP Madrid Epic Report can be found here.
Part II of the GP Madrid Epic Report can be found here.

Over the past couple of months there has been much consternation and discussion in online forums and articles discussing the rise of prices in older Magic cards. There has also been much discussion lately of the Reserved List on the Official Reprint Policy.

In Stephen Menendian’s recent article Visiting Wizards, Reprints, and the Reserved List he posits that “You could print a million new Underground Seas in M11, and Alpha and Beta Underground Seas would probably not budge in their value or collectability. In fact, they might become more valuable!” Frankly, more asinine words and a conclusion based on many unaccounted for factors have rarely been written. The basic laws of economics tell us that if demand is relatively even and supply increases, price will naturally go down. Time and time again, history has shown us that when cards are reprinted (and supply is increased) they lose value.

When the original Chronicles set was released Magic players and collectors alike were taken aback and shocked. A “collectible card game” was reissuing some of the game’s most sought after and expensive cards, setting an alarming precedent. Cards like the Elder Dragons (Chromium, Nicol Bolas, Palladia-Mors, etc.) from Legends dropped from $30-40 to $5-10 within weeks. Legends printings of these cards can currently be had for $1-5 each, and Chronicles and Timeshifted copies can be had for $.25 to $1. Carrion Ants (from Legends) was a $30 card (based largely on collectibility and not the amount of them being played) dropped to $2 in a matter of weeks. Today a Legends copy of Carrion Ants is about $1 and the Chronicles reprint versions are about $.25 each. Erhnam Djinn was once considered the little brother of Juzam Djinn, as was once worth about $35-40 for an Arabian Knights copy. After it was reprinted in Chronicles the value dropped considerably, with today’s prices ringing in at $5-10 for an Arabian Knights original, and a Chronicles reprint clocking in at a mere $.25.

Psionic Blast was originally printed in Alpha/Beta/Unlimited and for a long time was a very sought after item, typically priced at $30-40 for Alpha/Beta copies and $18-25 for Unlimited copies. After it was reprinted in Time Spiral’s Timeshifted subset those same original copies are now selling for $15-25 for Alpha/Beta and about $4-5 for Unlimited, while Timeshifted copies can readily be had for $1 each.

Pithing Needle, which Stephen himself has reviewed in prior articles and is intimately familiar with, used to be a $15 card (this price, and all others I’ll talk about here are what I’ll refer to as the “street value,” or how much they can regularly be had for on eBay/MOTL/etc.). Pithing Needle was originally printed in Saviors of Kamigawa, and demand has always been steady but not overwhelming. I would argue that demand is about the same today as when it was originally printed and is played a moderate amount in many constructed formats. When it was reprinted in Tenth Edition the value dropped to around $9, and it has once again been reprinted in Magic 2010 (M10) and the value has dropped to an astonishing $3 or less. Demand has stayed roughly the same, yet the supply has dramatically increased, leading to a dramatic reduction in price.

For quite some time Meddling Mage remained valued at $10-14, even when it’s popularity and playability waned in Standard and Extended. It was rotating out of Extended finally as part of the Invasion-Prophecy-Apocalypse block and started to slightly fall in price to around $9, but it was then reprinted in Alara Reborn. So what happened to the price? Well, naturally since the supply doubled and the demand remained about the same the prices came crashing down. Meddling Mage from Invasion can now readily be had for about $5-6 and Alara Reborn copies go for about $4.

I could continue to cite example after example of where reprints have crippled the value of original printings, but I think if you’ve ever picked up (and understood) an economic textbook or spent time seriously buying and selling Magic cards, you probably get the picture. To suggest that reprints of cards like Dual Lands and Power 9 wouldn’t cripple the value of the original printings is either an uneducated, disingenuous, or intellectually dishonest point of view.

Another issue that Stephen ignores in his quoting of prices for Alpha/Beta/Unlimited/Revised/10th Edition/M10 for cards like Shivan Dragon and Birds of Paradise is the fact that there is a major drop off from Alpha/Beta to everything else, including Unlimited. As my teammate Jason Pare pointed out to me, you can’t have a serious discussion about reprinting cards like the Power 9 without looking at the fact that roughly 82% of the Power 9 that are in existence are not Alpha/Beta, but Unlimited. You know, the same Unlimited that Stephen shows in his chart amongst all of other printings that represents a small percentage of the total pool in his Shivan Dragon and Birds of Paradise examples. If Power 9 were reprinted the value of these would drop like a rock, decimating the value of 82% of the Power 9 overnight. The set collectors will still want their Alpha/Beta Power 9, but most other people would gravitate towards a cheaper and also black-bordered foil version for a fraction of the price. This migration would also signal a reduction in the price of Alpha/Beta copies for this very reason, albeit not as devastating as the huge loss Unlimited owners would see.

Part of the reason the Power 9 has increased to dramatic prices is because aside from the fact that they are some of the most powerful and rarest cards, they have never been reprinted and are currently never slated to be reprinted according to Wizards’ own published Reserved List Policy. They have essentially become Vintage Gold because the consumer has placed faith in the manufacturer that a set number of these exist (solidifying their rarity and collectibility), and because of this they can be viewed as a valid investment vehicle. Without this assurance from the manufacturer they would not be worth nearly as much.

The function of the Reserved List is to assuage fears of players and collectors that their collectible card game will actually maintain some semblance of collectibility. Wizards’ formally acknowledged the giant mistake they had made by printing Chronicles and created the Reserve List as a response to grant the consumer some basic protections. It represents a contract with the customer meaning “we (the manufacturer) will not violate your consumer confidence in us.” This contract with consumers was necessary following the backlash and departure of players following the release of Chronicles. By altering policy and breaking the Reserve List and changing course, Wizards of the Coast would have lied to their customers for the past ten years and effectively reduced any incentive to consider Magic cards any sort of investment or an actual collectible card game, as it has always been marketed as. To this end the Reserve List is accomplishing exactly what it was created to do.

In the past few years Wizards’ has exploited a loophole in the Official Reprint Policy that states that “All policies described in this document apply only to non-premium, tournament-legal Magic cards. Wizards of the Coast has and may continue to print special versions of cards not meant for regular game play, such as oversized cards.” They have designated foil cards as premium cards to fit the bill and to create a loophole to essentially allow them to reprint whatever they want (see: Phrexian Negator, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Intuition, Survival of the Fittest, Karn, Silver Golem, Yawgmoth’s Will, etc.). But looking at the wording of the revised Reprint Policy it says “All policies described in this document apply only to non-premium, tournament-legal Magic cards. Wizards of the Coast has and may continue to print special versions of cards not meant for regular game play, such as oversized cards.” Does this sound to you like their original intent with that exception was to print foil cards used for tournament play and as a mechanism to reprint hard to find cards to increase market supply? I don’t think so. The original intent appears to simply allow them to reprint things like the oversized cards they used to print, or box-toppers, or promotional items, or things of that nature that would not be used for tournaments and by actual players. But by designating foils as premium they have created a loophole with which they can twist the Official Reprint Policy and effectively negate the entire thing.

By using a loophole to reprint cards on the Reserved List and simply designate them as ‘premium,’ Wizards’ is shaking customer confidence, and the outcry by many players can be heard on whatever message board you fancy. But the biggest outcry is the unspoken one, by players who believe that Wizards’ will do the right thing and respect the Reserved List, which is their contract to the consumer. This outcry will not truly be heard until the point when we see the Reserved List being violated in a notable way. Creating something like From the Vault: [Underground Sea and a bunch of other Restricted List goodies], and then following it up with a bunch of other similar boxed foil sets would create a terrible precedent and would achieve the same thing as just reprinting cards in a modern edition. The same could be said for creating all foil (i.e. premium) booster packs full of Reserved List cards. This would decimate the consumer confidence that the Magic brand has achieved, and I believe would lead to the departure of a significant number of players. Many people drawn to games are smart, and they can probably tell when something is going the way of the Dodo bird, or is in the process of jumping the shark.

So if cards like Dual Lands and others are rapidly rising with the increase interest in Legacy, what can be done to offset this and make Legacy more palatable to the wallet? Check out our next article in this series,

I don’t know if you guys noticed that we are running a Team Pataners Store (you can find it at the upper menu tabs). Right now we can only offer few designs, and we hope to be adding more really soon.

If there’s a T-Shirt I would wear while playing at GP Madrid would definitely be this “REAL MEN PLAY COMBO” one.

You can buy it at the price of $15.99 (11.65€). Visit our store, click, choose size and you are good to go!