Ladies and gentlemen Legacy is on fire! GP Madrid has beaten any previously attendance record and that’s something Spain is really proud of. Well, we (eternal players) should all be proud of! Every now and then, the attendance records gets beaten but that ain’t new. What’s new and surprising is that GP Madrid was played under the Legacy format. Obviously Wotc never expected GP Madrid to be such a success. Their constant work to improve the game, has forced them to implement Legacy for Magic Online. With that many players playing Legacy on Real Life™ it was an obvious movement to release Legacy for the online fans.

The announcement came published yesterday (9th of March) on their official website.

Legacy Comes to Magic Online

Wizards of the Coast
Tuesday, March 09, 2010

[...] We are pleased to announce the Legacy Format will debut on Magic Online as a new Core Format following the scheduled downtime on Wednesday, March 31. At that time, Legacy 2-player queues, 8-player queues, Daily Events, and Premier Events will all be scheduled.

Continue reading the official announcement Legacy comes to Magic Online.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of playing magic online (neither on MOL or MWS). I just can’t stop loving the feeling of a head’s up game, the feeling of having the cards in my hands, shuffling, looking at your opponent in a tournament or at friends in a casual game. I love the charm from old cards and the beauty of alterations, foil and foreign languages being played on a game.

(Click on the image to zoom in)

This other alteration (whose owner I don’t know), isn’t as spectacular as the first one but it’s definitely very cool looking and well executed. No matter how you connect the swamps, they always connect between them!

(Click on the image to zoom in)

Maybe I should get a swamp altered, or two, or three, or four! (on the floor!)

ANT decks are typically only running 1-2 copies of Ad Nauseam, along with a lot of fast mana, protection, tutors, and deck manipulation spells. They’re pretty straight forward, and ideally would like to kill the opponent somewhere between the second and fourth turn. Just set up by digging or tutoring for whatever you don’t have from these components, and then fire off a piece of protection (often in the form of Duress or Orim’s Chant) and then away you go with your fast mana spells and either Ad Nauseam or Infernal Tutor. Outside of a nearly full hand of cards and the ability to do an Infernal Tutor into Ill-Gotten Gains loop, much of the time ANT will seek to use its life as a resource to power up a game winning Ad Nauseam.

But what if you don’t have a lot of life? Legacy decks are faster and more disruptive than ever, and you can easily be at only 13 life or less on turn 2 when facing a Zoo player (Steppe Lynx you for 4, Chain Lightning and/or Lightning Bolt you for 3, fetchlands, etc.). In these cases, or the cases that you facing down a quick Tarmogoyf and your first spell or three were countered, you can’t necessarily leverage the power of Ad Nauseam to generate enough of a Storm count to kill your opponent with Tendrils of Agony. This is where the card Doomsday shines. It doesn’t require a lot of life to win the game.

Doomsday Demystified
A lot of people seem to be hesitant to include Doomsday or look at it as a viable alternative in Storm decks because they either don’t feel comfortable or knowledgeable enough to abuse it. Brandon Adams (known as emidlin online) and Michael Seubert (known as cheeseburger online) have co-authored a handy guide to using and creating Doomsday piles, and have done a fantastic job at providing a list of many options and even arithmetic formulas to teach you how to craft the perfect pile for whatever scenario you’re in during a game. Victor Martinez (known as gocho online) took this a step further and used those lists to make a convenient spreadsheet available to the public.

I won’t go into all of the details of each pile because there are so many variants and Brandon and Michael have already done a great job of explaining them, but being uncomfortable with Doomsday should not be an excuse for you in the future if you read these. Doomsday is an extremely powerful and important weapon that provides the Storm player with another path to victory that doesn’t depend on a lot of life as a resource, which is often very critical in Legacy if things don’t go according to plan early in the game.

Protection
The reason to play ANT variants over something like Goblin Charbelcher is that it has a more stable manabase and offers better forms of protection in the face of counterspells and other hate. Here is a brief rundown of the commonly seen protection spells and why you might use them:
Orim’s Chant – at a cost of 1 White mana you prevent your opponent from being able to play any spells for the turn, and in rarer situations can be used to prevent combat damage if kicked; has the added bonus of being great against opposing combo
Silence – similar to Orim’s Chant without the kicker ability, this shuts off opponent’s spells for the turn and can’t be Misdirected or Diverted
Abeyance – costs and additional mana beyond Chant or Silence, but also cantrips, and more importantly prevents the opponent from interacting at all by preventing activated abilities
Duress – strips away a potential counterspell or Counterbalance, or can give you precious information about the contents of opponent’s hand
Thoughtseize – can strip away problematic counterspells, permanents, and the added bonus of creatures, but at the cost of two life
Pact of Negation – a free counterspell, but has the liability of having a cost on the next upkeep that you most likely won’t be able pay; really only great when protecting a spell to go off
Xantid Swarm – at the investment of only a single Green mana, you can effectively Orim’s Chant your opponent every turn; the disadvantage of this is that it validates any common main deck removal, so it is best relegated to the sideboard unless you are in an extremely Blue-heavy metagame

In Tomoharu Saito’s build of ANT that he piloted to a Top 8 birth at GP Madrid 2010 he chose to use a combined 6 Duress and Thoughtseize effects as his disruption suite, in order to stay primarily Black and Blue (he had no White) and presumably to gain information about his opponent’s hand. The debates about which disruption cards you choose can go on forever, but Orim’s Chant provides an ultimate finality if resolved, and if you resolve one before attempting to combo off you should win 95% of your game or more. The same cannot be said for Duress, as the opponent with other non-Force of Will spells can still interact with you, which you want to ultimately avoid.

The other advantage of playing Orim’s Chant is its usefulness against other combo matches. While Duress is certainly nice at stripping away a key spell, it does nothing in the face of Brainstorm or Mystical Tutor, and by allowing your opponent to cast a few spells and then casting Orim’s Chant you have actually made them expend or waste Storm and mana resources, which is often better and will lead to more victories for the player packing Chant. For these reasons I strongly advocate Orim’s Chant as the top choice, and your additional disruption slots can be composed of whatever you think is best.

Tutoring and Deck Manipulation
Mystical Tutor – at a cost of only 1 Blue mana you can find any of your combo pieces, protection, or removal; this is the most efficient tutor available, but comes at the cost of card disadvantage
Infernal Tutor – the restrictions of Internal Tutor are removed when you sacrifice a Lion’s Eye Diamond or two in response, but this card is great as the game goes on at fueling a number of different ways to win (sometimes by chaining multiple Infernal Tutors if you have tons of mana)
Grim Tutor – gets you any card you want for 3 mana and 3 life this is somewhat attractive, but the price is probably too steep to pay in this deck
Burning Wish – if you are into a Red splash Burning Wish allows you to create even more Doomsday piles (including pass the turn piles where you needn’t win that turn), and also unlocks access to Empty the Warrens
Sensei’s Divining Top – you want this to be your first turn play every time if possible, as it allows for reusable searching and deck manipulation and is fantastic in conjunction with Doomsday and Mystical Tutor
Brainstorm – this is on color, cheap, and can both dig for cards you need and shuffle away cards you don’t need; in short, it’s insane in here
Ponder – this is probably the second best first turn play, as it allows you see up to four cards to find whatever you need (land, Dark Ritual, tutor, protection, etc.) and you can also shuffle away the cards if you don’t like them (reducing your potentially dead draws the next couple of turns)

Most ANT decks will run a number of the cards above, but with the ANT-Doomsday hybrid deck Sensei’s Divining Top is extremely good. It is a great first turn play that can filter your draws as the game goes on, dig for mana to ensure you hit your land drops, and works extremely well with Mystical Tutor and Doomsday.

The Mana Sources
Many decks (especially game 1) are serious underdogs to your storm deck no matter what shell you are using, so it makes sense to build to also be as strong as possible against those matches that are tougher. When playing this deck you really want have as many cards in hands as possible (to generate storm) and to be able to hit your land drops. To this end you want to reduce mulligans and to make your opening hands as consistent and keepable as possible, so in this regard having more lands rather than less will be better, as will having fewer cards like Chrome Mox in your opening hand. Playing a stable manabase and hitting your land drops will strengthen your matchups against decks with Wasteland and decks with counterspells, so having the strongest manabase possible while still being able to play your powerful spells should be your goal when building this deck. So let’s jump in to building the manabase.
Chrome Mox – some people will advocate playing more of these and/or Mox Diamonds, but you really only want to see this card when going off with Ad Nauseam and you don’t want it in your opening hand too often, so after a lot of testing I’d recommend two, as this will often be one of the first cards you sideboard out against control decks
Lotus Petal – a free spell that provides any color mana is pretty good, even though it is only a single shot use
Lion’s Eye Diamond – aside from the drawback of discarding your hand (not a big deal when going off), getting 3 mana of any color for free is a huge boon to however you are trying to combo out, and this is why LED is a staple of storm combo decks of all forms
Dark Ritual – another fantastic bargain by providing 3 black mana for the cost of 1, Dark Ritual is one of the best cards in the deck
Cabal Ritual – sometimes better (with Threshold), but usually slightly worse, Cabal Ritual is still pretty good but you only need so many mana sources, so 2-3 of these are generally all you need

I tend to fetch out basic lands whenever possible to play around Wasteland (and other non-basic hate), so even though we have four colors in this deck I recommend keeping the dual lands to a minimum and including as many basic lands as you have room for. Saito’s GP deck had only one basic land, but for a deck like this you always want stable mana. Some people will question the inclusion of many basic lands or of a maindeck Plains, but this again goes back to building your deck to playing against tougher matchups (such as Canadian Threshold). You really want basic lands to keep being able to reliably cast your important spells (such as Orim’s Chant), and there’s enough extra mana sources like Lotus Petal and Lion’s Eye Diamond that you don’t really have to worry much about having the correct mana when comboing out. There is also a good amount of colorless mana in many of your spells (Meditate, Sensei’s Divining Top, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Tutor, etc.), so keep in mind you can always use your Plains or whatever White mana source to help in casting those (or with activating Sensei’s Divining Top nearly every turn) if you aren’t using it for Orim’s Chant. You’re probably going to destroy other matchups that can’t disrupt your manabase and interact with you, so this doesn’t matter too much there.

With these options in mind, here’s what I would recommend right now.
ANT-Doomsday Hybrid 20101Q1.4, by Jaco 02-15-2010
Business (28)
4 Orim’s Chant
2 Silence
1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
4 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
4 Mystical Tutor
2 Infernal Tutor
1 Doomsday
1 Meditate
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ad Nauseam

Mana Sources (32)
2 Chrome Mox
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains

Sideboard (15)
1 Bayou
1 Doomsday
1 Sadistic Sacrament
3 Xantid Swarm
2 Krosan Grip
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rushing River
1 Slaughter Pact/Deathmark
3 Carpet of Flowers

The sideboard above consists of options for dealing with problematic permanents, more disruption against counterspells, and the ability to switch to the Doomsday kill as your primary kill. Xantid Swarm single-handedly invalidates a lot of hate, and I think it is great for the Green splash, which you’re already probably going to have to be able to play either Krosan Grip or Reverent Silence. Dark Confidant was also seen in both Saito and David Do Anh’s sideboards in their GP lists, and I think that has merit and is worth heavily considering if Sadistic Sacrament catches on as a sideboard card. You can tailor this to meet your needs, but here is a brief rundown of how I would attack many common matchups with the deck and sideboard above.

Playing and Sideboarding Against Merfolk
Merfolk’s only real hard counter is Force of Will, but you still have to take Daze and Cursecatcher into account when doing the math before trying to combo out. Sensei’s Top shines in this match to help you dig for more Chants and to hit your land drops. Keep in mind they may have Stifle in their deck, but if you manage to resolve a Xantid Swarm or Chant effect you can obviously ignore this. Another thing to keep in mind is that they may be boarding in Spell Pierce. Here’s how I’ve been sideboarding:
-2 Chrome Mox
-1 Ad Nauseam
-1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
-2 Lotus Petal
-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
-1 Mystical Tutor
+1 Bayou
+1 Doomsday
+3 Xantid Swarm
+3 Carpet of Flowers

Playing and Sideboarding Against Ad Nauseam Tendrils
There’s not too much thinking about this matchup, and you probably won’t encounter it very often. Orim’s Chant and Silence are key here in allowing you to combo out unimpeded, and also to prevent your opponent from going off. As mentioned above, it may be worth changing the sideboard around slightly to accommodate 3-4 Dark Confidants if Sadistic Sacrament or Extract starts seeing more play. Sideboarding currently looks like this:
-1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
+1 Sadistic Sacrament

Playing and Sideboarding Against Dream Halls
Like the ANT matchup, you want to use your Chant effects to stop them from comboing out and to allow you to. I tend to side in Xantid Swarm here, but that’s up to you and if you feel comfortable siding out any mana sources:
-2 Chrome Mox
-1 Silence
-1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
+3 Xantid Swarm
+1 Chain of Vapor

Playing and Sideboarding Against Naya Zoo
The Zoo player will seek to aggressively burn you out, and will most likely be bringing in some combination of hate cards in the form of Gaddock Teeg and/or Ethersworn Canonist, and maybe even Mindbreak Trap, so I tend to ditch the Ad Nauseam plan and leave in a few Chants for the protection from Mindbreak Trap and them holding a lot of burn for after your resolve Doomsday. You will have to manage your Mystical Tutors and dig spells appropriately. I tend to side like this:
-1 Ad Nauseam
-2 Silence
-1 Lotus Petal
+1 Doomsday
+1 Chain of Vapor
+1 Rushing River
+1 Slaughter Pact

Playing and Sideboarding Against Goblins
Most Goblins players can’t do a whole lot to interact with you, especially game 1. After sideboarding they may have Thoughtseize or Cabal Therapy, or possibly Pyrostatic Pillar. I like to board in better bounce and an additional mana source here to help fight against Wasteland and Rishadan Port:
-1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
-2 Silence
+1 Chain of Vapor
+1 Rushing River
+1 Bayou

Playing and Sideboarding Against CounterTop
When battling CounterTop the ultimate goal is to combo off without a Counterbalance in play, so to accomplish this I’ve been rotating back and forth between a main deck Wipe Away and Krosan Grip. Krosan Grip is the best at dealing with Counterbalance or the occasional main deck Chalice of the Void you’ll run into (from AggroLoam, for example), but Wipe Away can also hit a Reanimated Iona or some other problematic permanent, so that’s currently what I’m playing main. In the sideboard I have access to a couple more copies of Krosan Grip. An argument can be made for Reverent Silence in this slot because it costs nothing to play, but the problem is that the CounterTop player can still just Force of Will it, whereas they have almost no answer to Krosan Grip other than constantly floating a card with converted mana cost equal to 3 on top of their deck. In this matchup I also tend to ditch the Ad Nauseam plan, because you have are brining in cards that cost more mana which equals more life lost to Ad Nauseam, not to mention the fact that you’re probably going to be staring down a Tarmogoyf or something else nibbling at your life while you try to deal with Counterbalance. That’s debatable though, so here are a couple of different sideboard plans:
-2 Chrome Mox
-2 Lotus Petal
-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
-1 Mystical Tutor
-1 Ad Nauseam
+1 Doomsday
+1 Bayou
+2 Krosan Grip
+3 Xantid Swarm

Playing and Sideboarding Against Canadian/Tempo Threshold
The Ad Nauseam plan against Threshold is a struggle, as they often have a quick clock in the form of Tarmogoyf, along with Lightning Bolt, Fire/Ice, Nimble Mongoose, and sometimes things you’ll have to play around like Vendilion Clique (when Sensei’s Divining Top tricks are most important). After sideboarding they’ll often be bringing in something like Red Elemental Blast and/or Spell Pierce (more common now), but these can still be invalidated by Xantid Swarm. Because of this they may be forced to keep in their removal against you, and I would definitely force the issue because if they don’t have removal your Xantid Swarms are going to win you the game. You’ll have to battle through Stifle, Force, Spell Snare, and more so Xantid Swarm and Chant effects are the best path to victory. Another key resource here is Carpet of Flowers, which Wizards’ recently changed the Oracle text for during the January 2010 Update Bulletin. The new wording is as follows:
“At the beginning of each of your main phases, if you haven’t added mana to your mana pool with Carpet of Flowers this turn, you may add up to X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Islands target opponent controls.”

So this allows you to cast Carpet of Flowers during your first main phase and then get the mana during your second main phase the same turn. This is incredible, and it gives you multiple mana every single turn (albeit without upping your Storm) for a one time investment of a single Green mana. This can prove critical in playing around their mana denial plan, as will all of the basic lands we’ve conveniently included. With the battle raging for mana resources and the fight to resolve spells against Threshold I’ll often sideboard out temporary mana sources in favor of more protection and permanent mana sources like this:
-2 Chrome Mox
-1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
-2 Lotus Petal
-1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
-2 Cabal Ritual
+1 Doomsday
+1 Bayou
+3 Carpet of Flowers
+3 Xantid Swarm

Playing and Sideboarding Against Bant Aggro (ProBant)
This is an interesting matchup for you, because their deck can be all over the board. They may have Wasteland, Stifle, Daze, Force, or they may eschew the mana disruption plan altogether for stuff like Spell Snare. They can have a quick clock in the form of Tarmogoyf or Rhox War Monk, not to mention Progenitus if they find a Natural Order before you’re able to kill them. I can’t give you a solid sideboarding suggestion here, because a lot of it will come down to what you’ve seen from their deck. You’ll want Slaughter Pact/Deathmark for any potential hate creatures they may have (Meddling Mage, Ethersworn Canonist, Gaddock Teeg), or even to deal with a quick Rhox War Monk. You can look at the Threshold and CounterTop matchups for tips if you’re really clueless, but Xantid Swarm, Carpet of Flowers, and the Doomsday plan all have merit here depending on you’ve seen or suspect they might have, so play this one by your gut.

Playing and Sideboarding Against Dredge
I used to have random cards like Mindbreak Trap or Extirpate in my sideboard to Mystical Tutor for, but after testing against many different versions of Dredge I just found it unnecessary after a while. They will have Cabal Therapy and possibly Iona, Shield of Emeria as a Dread Return target main deck to interact with you, and that’s about it. After sideboarding they could have stuff like Mindbreak Trap, Force of Will, or Unmask, so I like to leave my Chant effects in just in case, which can also act as Time Walks against them and buy you more turns if necessary. Unless I see something really weird from their deck this is usually my plan:
-1 Plains
-1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
-1 something else you don’t care about (depending on what you’ve seen from them)
+1 Bayou
+1 Chain of Vapor
+1 Slaughter Pact (if they don’t have Iona this probably isn’t justified)

Playing and Sideboarding Against Lands.dec
This is a pretty good matchup in general, and outside of an absolute bomb draw by them you should defeat them game 1 without problem, as they can’t interact with you outside of Wasteland and Rishadan Port. If you’re playing the list above you have 4 basic lands main deck so this isn’t much of an issue. The Lands player will know they are a massive underdog to combo, and will likely have some combination of Mindbreak Trap and Chalice of the Void, and if they’re really desperate they could try to bring in Leyline of the Void too, but they probably don’t have enough slots to side out for that many additional cards. For this reason I’d advocate keeping in most Chant effects to hedge against Mindbreak Trap, and I also board in some bounce like this:
-1 Wipe Away/Krosan Grip
-2 Chrome Mox
+1 Bayou
+1 Chain of Vapor
+1 Hurkyl’s Recall

Rather than hoping to be able to tutor or draw for Ad Nauseam and the accompanying Angel’s Grace after sideboard against a lot of decks where life is an issue, you can simply use the mana and Storm instead to leverage the power of Doomsday. I highly recommend reading Brandon and Michael’s Doomsday primer in the link provided earlier. I feel that this hybrid strategy is currently the best way to pilot a Legacy Storm deck, given what we’ve been seeing from late 2009 into early 2010. You can expect to face Zoo and Merfolk and a myriad of other decks in each tournament you attend, so this approach allows you to have a consistent manabase and to be able to easily shift your plan of attack. Doomsday is an important and powerful piece of the Storm players’ repertoire that should not be overlooked, and works exceptionally well in the context of this deck.

I found the answer to that question in a matter of minutes! A guy around there was handling these fliers:

The card reads:

Freak Games I – 10th & 11th of April

Saturday: 600+€ Standard tournament. Entrance fee: 12€

Sunday: 1000+€ Legacy tournament. Entrance fee: 15€

Guest artist: Dan Frazier (all moxen). He’ll be attending on Saturday afternoon to draw and sign your decks. And we weill have exclusive products on sale!

Both events will take place in Freakland Games (shop)

C/Sevilla 12, Zaragoza (Spain)

Phone: +34 976373571 or +34 699193636

For more information, please send us a mail to: tgplace@aol.com or info@freaklandgames.com

This is just great news! I will finally get my Mox Ruby & Mox Jet signed, and i’ll have them all double signed! Hopefully I can get him to alter them as well. Will see!

In January 2010 the Team ICBM Vintage extraordinaire tournament organizer and Vintage arms dealer Ben Carp decided to take matters into his own hands. He announced that in March there would be an ICBM Retro Vintage Open tournament using the old Restricted List and card pool, with the following rules to mimic the metagame from early 2008:
1. Gush, Brainstorm, Flash, Merchant Scroll, and Ponder are unrestricted. Gifts Ungiven is still restricted. Shahrazad is legal and unrestricted.
2. Time Spiral, Personal Tutor, Dream Halls, Mox Diamond, and Chrome Mox are still restricted.
3. The “M10 rules update” is NOT in effect. This means:
3a. Combat damage stacks.
3b. Tokens are “owned” by whoever controlled the effect that created them.
3c. Mana burn exists.
3d. No more simultaneous mulligans
3f. Wishes fetch RFG’d cards as well as SB cards.
4. All errata updates after July 2008 are NOT in effect. This means:
4a. Illusionary Mask works the old way.
4b. Oath does not target.
4c. Time Vault/Voltaic Key does NOT work.
5. Cards printed after Shadowmoor are not allowed. This includes Eventide, Alara Block, M10, Zendikar, and Worldwake.

Many locals were very excited about this, as the Key-Vault era has grown stale to a lot of people, and they enjoyed the Gush era. Deckbuilding strategy and technology is constantly changing and adapting, so it would be very interesting to see how the deckbuilding of today matches up with the metagame from nearly two years ago. Would the GushBond engine (Gush + Merchant Scroll + Fastbond) dominate, or would new technology and ideas trump the decks of yesteryear?

The tournament was hosted today at Milwaukee Magic Cards and Games in Milwaukee, WI (USA). Turnout was unfortunately only 11 people (to play for MOX SAPPHIRE!!), but it was a star-studded field with many of the Midwest’s best Vintage players, and a number of recognizable names. There were many different deck types represented, as most of the players seemingly had their own idea of how to trump the metagame.

After four rounds of Swiss the following gentlemen and scholars were left standing with the best record to square off in the Top 4 for the rights to own a nice piece of Power 9:
1) Ben Carp, playing DEEZ Noughts
1) Mike Solymossy, playing Tropical Storm
3) Jeremy Seroogy, playing Reveillark Flash
4) James King, playing GushBond Tyrant Oath

In the semi-finals Jeremy Seroogy took down Mike Solymossy in three closely contested games, and in the other bracket James King narrowly edged Ben Carp in an epic three game set. Seroogy then went on to best James King in the finals in three games, making Jeremy Seroogy and Reveillark Flash the winner of the first ICBM Retro Vintage Open!

We’ve provided the complete decklists from all 11 competitors below, so check out the technology. As Stephen Q. Mendendian would say, “That’s Gush, Boys!”

DEEZ Noughts, by Ben Carp aka Broodstar3000
Business (36)
4 Force of Will
4 Thoughtseize
2 Spell Snare
4 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Dark Confidant
2 Dimir Cutpurse
2 Illusionary Mask
1 Engineered Explosives

Mana Sources (24)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
1 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trygon Predator
1 Sealof Primordium
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Control Magic
2 Mystic Remora

Trinket Nought, by Ryan DuBois
Business (37)
4 Force of Will
1 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
4 Stifle
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Trinket Mage
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Engineered Explosives

Mana Sources (23)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Academy Ruins
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
2 Trygon Predator
1 Sealof Primordium
2 Sower of Temptation
1 Control Magic
2 Mystic Remora

Confidant Remora, by Jason Jaco
Business (39)
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
3 Spell Snare
2 Mana Drain
1 Echoing Truth
1 Repeal
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Mystic Remora
1 Time Walk
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Dark Confidant
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Tinker
1 Sundering Titan

Mana Sources (21)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Swamp

Sideboard A (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Darkblast
3 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Ingot Chewer
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Gaea’s Blessing

Jones Mind Trap (aka Dredge), by Tom Jones
Business (47)
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Unmask
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Careful Study
1 Life From the Loam
3 Darkblast
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Bridge From Below
2 Dread Return
1 Angel of Despair
4 Serum Powder

Mana Sources (13)
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Oath of Druids
1 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Sundering Titan
4 Forbidden Orchard

Tropical Storm, by Jake Kempfer
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Doomsday
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Research and Development

Mana Sources (22)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Extirpate
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Thoughtseize
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Swamp

GushBond Tyrant Oath, by James King
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
3 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Time Walk
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4 Oath of Druids
2 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Brain Freeze
1 Flash of Insight

Mana Sources (22)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island

Sideboard (15)
1 Blazing Archon
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Extirpate
1 Pyroblast
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Trickbind
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tinker
1 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod’s Crypt

BrianDemars.dec (aka Confidant GAT), by Jimmy McCarthy
Business (39)
4 Force of Will
2 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
1 Echoing Truth
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4 Dark Confidant
3 Quirion Dryad
1 Tendrils of Agony

Mana Sources (21)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
2 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Extirpate
1 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Oxidize
3 Seal of Primordium
2 Smother
2 Uktabi Oragutan

Reveillark Flash, by Jeremy Seroogy
Business (40)
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
4 Pact of Negation
2 Duress
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Summoner’s Pact
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Flash
4 Protean Hulk
1 Reveillark
1 Body Double
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Body Snatcher

Mana Sources (20)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
2 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Tinker
1 Platinum Angel
3 Trickbind
2 Duress
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth

Tropical Storm, by Mike Solymossy
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
1 Pact of Negation
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Doomsday
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Research and Development

Mana Sources (22)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Extirpate
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Thoughtseize
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Swamp

Sliver Flash, by Shawn Brook Williams
Business (40)
4 Force of Will
4 Pact of Negation
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Summoner’s Pact
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Street Wraith
4 Flash
4 Protean Hulk
4 Virulent Sliver
1 Heart Sliver
1 Elvish Spirit Guide

Mana Sources (20)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Echoing Truth
1 Tropical Island
1 Time Walk

TinkerGush, by Derek Wochinski
Business (38)
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
3 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
2 Spell Snare
1 Echoing Truth
4 Gush
4 Brainstorm
3 Mystic Remora
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus

Mana Sources (22)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Island

Sideboard (15)
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Trickbind
3 Smother
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Spell Snare

These two are going straight to my Vintage deck!

I might be selling my second Tezzeret The Seeker foil japanese signed.

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.

Can’t stop laughing at Ruben’s T-shirt! He’s wearing it the other way around!

By the way, I’ll hopefully have the 3rd part of the report finished later today or tomorrow morning. So stay tuned!

Sideboard
3 Dispel
3 Firespout
2 Krosan Grip
2 Pithing Needle
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Rhox War Monk
1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard
1 Empyrial Archangel
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Krosan Grip
4 Mindbreak Trap
3 Relic of Progenitus

Sideboard
1 Animate Dead
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Misdirection
2 Perish
1 Show and Tell
3 Spell Pierce
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Wipe Away
1 Woodfall Primus

Sideboard
3 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
3 Krosan Grip
3 Pyroblast
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Volcanic Fallout

Sideboard
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Dark Confidant
1 Echoing Truth
1 Extirpate
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
3 Reverent Silence
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Thoughtseize

Sideboard
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Krosan Grip
3 Mindbreak Trap
2 Pyroblast
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Umezawa’s Jitte

Sideboard
1 Brain Freeze
1 Chain of Vapor
3 Dark Confidant
1 Duress
1 Extirpate
2 Pact of Negation
2 Reverent Silence
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Thoughtseize

Sideboard
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Krosan Grip
3 Mindbreak Trap
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
3 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Wasteland

I’m very, very, very proud to show you my ultimate acquisition (thanks to Angelo) at the Grand Prix Madrid 2010: A Yawgmoth’s Will altered by Ron Spencer & Terese Nielsen.

Terese Nielsen drew the C3PO and Ron Spencer did the remaining. C3PO is actually painted with Gold Leaf which the scanner can’t really get the shine of it.

This is my second alteration featuring both of them. The previous one was the one I got from eBay: Willfull Fiction.

Next step? Getting a playset of Force of Will altered by them!

It’s finally Saturday and the biggest GP of the history of MtG is just about to begin. Once there, we see huge queues to register again. Luckily for us we don’t need to queue anymore so we move inside and wait, and wait, and wait, and w…

When 2220 people show up in a tournament, lots of things can happen:

• The room of the event isn’t big enough.
• There’s not enough chairs.
• There’s not enough promotional Jittes.
• The DCI reporter can’t handle more than 1000 players per tournament.
• There’s not enough waiters at the cafeteria.
• There’s lots of people who registered that weren’t on the lists once started.
• There’s lots of people with byes that were missing those, so they had to complain.
• Moving 2220 people isn’t the same than moving 1000.
• Etc…

Some of the problems were solved quite fast, some other were almost impossible to fix. Anyways,  let me introduce you my deck before I move on with the rounds report.

As you might have read in the blog before, I had very clear that I was going to play ANT with a transformer sideboard, ala french style.

TP ANT v5.0 by Jordi Amat

Main deck: (60)

4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Brainstorm
4 Duress
4 Orim’s Chant
3 Mystical Tutor
3 Chrome Mox
3 Cabal Ritual
3 Infernal Tutor
2 Ad Nauseam
2 Tendrils of Agony
2 Ponder
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Wipe Away

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland

Sideboard: (15)

4 Tombstalker
4 Dark Confidant
3 Serenity
2 Angel’s Grace
1 Echoing Truth
1 Sadistic Sacrament

The maindeck choices are very standard. I’ve always believed that running 2 Tendrils of Agony main deck is necessary. It allows you to have a plan B against control decks and you can also use it to gain some time and life against aggro decks.

The sideboard is what might surprise you. The 4 Tombstalkers are there as a personal bet to beat a CounterTop based metagame. My predictions proved to be wrong, as it was lot more aggro than CB based, so in the end my Tombstalkers didn’t see much play.

Round 1 is about to begin but before, some speeches from the head judges staff featuring our new spanish level 4 judge Carlos Ho.

Carlos Ho before he actually gets the official Head Judge shirt.

I’m placed in the blue tournament and this is how it went:

Round 1: Pablo Capdevila (ESP) with Zoo/Burn

First game is kind of a short, as I manage to cast Ad Nauseam turn 2 being at 17 life. Nauseam brings stuff enough to end the game. Luckily, I lost the dice roll and I managed to see Taiga + Kird Ape followed by a Savannah, so I knew exactly how to side.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

The second game is a total different story. My hand has full of accelerators and a Tendrils of Agony. He has a strong hand with land + Wild Nacatl, followed by land + double Kird Ape. I can’t find any tutor to go off, and my following draws are Ill-Gotten Gains and Wipe Away.

I’m down to 11 lives and if I pass turn, he’ll attack for 7 and will probably cast a bolt or two. Can’t really pass turn, since either I die before being able to play my own turn, or either I die after casting Ill-Gotten Gains.

So, I start counting and all I can get is 9 storm. I count again, 9 storm again. I count again, 9 storm again. My opponent is getting nervous and I ask him a bit of patience since it’s either I win the game or I lose it after passing turn.

Finally I found out how to get 10 storm. I play my double Lion’s Eye Diamond, I play Lotus Petal + Dark Ritual. I also cast Chrome Mox but I imprint nothing. Then I cast Ill-Gotten Gains and in response break the 2 LEDS for UUUBBB. I bring back to my hand, Wipe Away + Dark Ritual + Tendrils of Agony. With UUU I cast Wipe Away on Chrome Mox, recast Chrome Mox imprinting nothing again, then Dark Ritual and Tendrils of Agony for a total of 10 storm.

2-0 | 3 points | Total: 2 wins – 0 losses – 0 ties

Round 2: Sergio Agudo (ESP) with Zoo/Burn

I lose the dice roll again, and he starts by fetching a Savannah to play Wild Nacatl. I follow with Duress and take a Chain Lighting as all the remaining were creatures and a Path to Exile.

When I’m at 6 life left, I’m forced to cast a 8 storm Tendrils (leaving him at 2) to gain some time and not die by passing the turn. I can’t find any tutor after that turn and his creatures end up killing me.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

The second game I first turn kill him with a Dark Ritual + Dark Ritual + Ad Nauseam. Nothing you’ve never seen before.

The final game he opens with fetchland and passes turn. I follow with land and pass turn to cast Orim’s Chant in his following upkeep. I’m just missing a Dark Ritual to be able to cast Ad Nauseam. He plays land and pass turn  (obv). I draw another Orim’s chant, so, i play land again and pass turn to cast the chant again. I’m just missing 1 mana now, since I have 2 lands, Dark Ritual and Ad Nauseam in my hand. One Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual or another land is just what it takes to go off! He answers my chant with Lighting Helix and passes turn again. I draw Wipe Away, so I’m forced to pass turn and get owned badly as he casts Gaddock Teeg AND Ethersworn Canonist.

My next draw? A Lotus Petal. I keep playing waiting for a miracle, but he’s creeps end up beating me down to 0.

1-2 | 3 points | Total: 3 wins – 2 losses – 0 ties

Round 3: Joao Souza (BRA) with Red Deck Wins

Probably the fastest round of the whole tournament, excepting those who didn’t play due to a match loss or something similar.

Game 1 I have a hand I do love to play: Lotus Petal +Lotus Petal + Brainstorm + Dark Ritual + Mystical Tutor + Ponder + Duress.

My play was: Lotus Petal + Brainstorm. Brainstorm draws what it needs to go off: Dark Ritual, Ad Nauseam and a fetchland! Can you ask for better cards? No. I follow with the other Lotus Petal + Duress, followed by Fetchland + double Dark Ritual + Ad Nauseam winning without much difficulties.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

Game 2, he plays mountain and pass turn. I first turn kill him again with double Lotus Petal, double Lion’s Eye Diamond and Infernal Tutor. Tutor fetches for Ill-Gotten Gains, replay the 2 LEDs and Tutor for Tendrils of Agony. Exactly 10 storm.

2-0 | 6 points | Total: 5 wins – 2 losses – 0 ties

Round 4: Sergio Santos (ESP) with White Weenie

I lose the dice roll, AGAIN and he opens with Plains + Mother of Runes. I look at my hand and think this game ain’t gonna last long. Well, I was wrong

I open with fetchland for Island + Ponder. I get the Nauseam I needed to go off next turn. So I pass. He plays another Plains and casts OMGETHERSWORN CANONIST!

Nerf rogue decks playing main deck canonists!

Don’t panic, I have Mystical Tutor and Wipe Away main deck, so he can’t protect the canonist with his Mother of runes.

A turn later, I cast Wipe Away on his eot and on my turn and at 14 lives I cast Lotus Petal + Dark Ritual + Dark Ritual + WAIT! -He says! He responds to my second Dark Ritual with a OMGMAINDECKSILENCE! It’s ok, I tap my 2 other lands and in response to his Silence I cast Ad Nauseam. You know what? He answers my Nauseam with OMGMAINDECKORIM’SCHANT!

I resolve Ad Nauseam and get few cards to fill my hand up to 7. You wanna know how I die in that game? Soltary Priest equipped with Umezawa’s Jitte! Pur3 pwn4g3!

• In: +4 Tombstalker +4 Dark Confidant + 1 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -2 Ad Nauseam -3 Infernal Tutor -4 Lion’s Eye Diamond -1 Ill-Gotten Gains

I can’t lose this round! I can’t! I keep repeating myself those words when I start drawing my hand: 2 fetchlands + Duress + Dark Confidant + Tombstalker + Ponder and Sensei’s Divining Top. After watching my hand I thought: He’s not gonna last long in this game! So I open with Polluted for Swamp and cast Duress to see what he’s up to. GUESS WHAT? He has 3 Path to Exile!

C’mon… I lost to a guy who plays Silence, Orim’s Chant, Canonists main deck featuring Soltary Priests. And game 2 he doesn’t side out his Path to Exile. That’s Magic!

0-2 | 6 points | Total: 5 wins – 4 losses – 0 ties

I didn’t start that well… so let’s have a break and enjoy some of the pictures from the people, the place and the event on Saturday.

The goodie bag of foil japanese for the day:

Let’s go back to the rounds!

Round 5: Daniel Campos (ESP) with Rock

I don’t have many notes from this round. All I can see from my notes is that I win game one out of a Nauseam when being at 20 lives.

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam  -2 Duress

I lose game 2 against Kitchen Finks and Eternal Witness. And game 3 I first turn kill him with double LED and Infernal Tutor.

2-1 | 9 points | Total: 7 wins – 5 losses – 0 ties

Round 6: José Gavaldà (ESP) with Enchantress

Yet another first turn kill on game 1! I promise you guys, I’ve never done that many 1st turn kills in a tournament before. Luckily, I lost the dice roll AGAIN and he played first turn Wild Growth

• In: +3 Serenity + 1 Echoing Truth
• Out: -1 Cabal Ritual -1 Infernal Tutor – 1 Lion’s Eye Diamond -1 Mystical Tutor

Game 2 doesn’t begin very well as he develops his game quite nice and fast. A turn 4 serenity on my side destroys 11 enchantments (including 2 Runed Halo). I kill him that same turn.

2-0 | 12 points | Total: 9 wins – 5 losses – 0 ties

Round 7: Ben Miller (CAN) with Burn

He starts with Mountain+ Mogg Fanatic and my hand, that had plenty of mana + 1 Ponder fails to get anything worth out of Ponder. He attacks and casts double Chain Lighting. I’m down to 13. My chances of winning through Ad Nauseam are getting slim. It’s either I draw it now or I’ll have to go via double LED + Infernal Tutor. Problem? I have no LED, nor the Infernal Tutor. I draw another Ponder. There’s chances! Ponder brings a Mystical Tutor which is good enough but I’ll have to pass turn. I never got my turn back

• In: +2 Angel’s Grace
• Out: -1 Ad Nauseam -1 Cabal Ritual

Game 2 I cast a first turn Duress, taking his Pyrostatic Pillar out. His hand isn’t very impressive as he has 4 lands. I can combo him with Ad Nauseam without many troubles.

My game 3 hand has Angel’s Grace + 2 Dark Ritual + Ad Nauseam. I have only one land, so I chose to cast Ponder first. I get the white producer I needed to draw the whole deck on game 2 and win the match.

2-1 | 15 points | Total: 11 wins – 6 losses – 0 ties

Round 8: Germánico Huecas (ESP) with Dream Halls

I just need 2 more wins to pass to day 2. I’m feeling confident  with my deck and my game play. I’ve lost 2 rounds to Gaddock and Canonists. I believe I can make it!

Game 1 I cast Duress and see what he’s up to: He has Show & Tell, Progenitus, Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Force of Will, Ponder and Thoughseize. I take his Force of Will and wait to see how greedy my opponent is. Exactly! He casts 1st turn Show and Tell for Progenitus. His only problem was that the 10/10 never got to attack me as I had turn 2 Ad Nauseam. If only he would have cast his thoughseize…

• In: +4 Dark Confidant + 1 Sadistic Sacrament +2 Angel’s Grace
• Out: -3 Infernal Tutor -4 Lion’s Eye Diamond

Game 2 I get pwned by his first turn Progenitus (AGAIN?) as my hand was slower than I wished.

• In: +3 Infernal Tutor +4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
• Out: -4 Dark Confidant -1 Sadistic Sacrament -2 Angel’s Grace

I return to my initial configuration as I’m starting now and need to combo out. My opponent mulligans to 5. So I open with Swamp and Duress, and he stops it with Force of Will, pitching Spell Pierce. OMG, he’s down 3 to 3 cards!

Well, he draws and guess what? Ancient Tomb + Lotus Petal + Show & Tell to place Progenitus on the board!!!!!!!!!!111111oeneneneneleven

Don’t panic, I still have a couple of turns to sculpt my hand and try to go off. I also have an Orim’s Chant that will gain me a turn. So, I draw, cast Ponder and pass turn. I can’t pay the kicker yet, so he draws and swings for 10. On my turn, I can’t do much, as I need the 2 lands to play the chant with kicker. So I pass turn, I cast the Chant and he draws & passes turn. I draw what I needed! My 2nd Lion’s Eye Diamond! So there we go to the final round! WELL WAIT! I cast 2 LED’s Infernal Tutor and in response I sac the LEDS and he FORCE OF WILLs my Infernal Tutor!!!!!!!! NERF YOUR LUCK BROTHER! Progenitus kills me, again.

1-2 | 15 points | Total: 12 wins – 8 losses – 0 ties and I drop.

All in all, my performance didn’t go quite as I expected. I would have loved to play against more tier 1 decks, but I found myself playing against few rogue decks that did some heavy damage to my final score. But that’s Magic folks!

Some of us (“the losers” xD) decided to move back to the hotel area with 2 goals in our minds:

1. We wanted to eat some dinner.
2. We wanted to watch F.C. Barcelona game.

Achieving the first one wasn’t hard. Worst was finding a place to watch the soccer game in Madrid. (In Barcelona is actually very hard to find a public place to watch Real Madrid games). We succeeded and just next to the hotel we had dinner in a bar while watching the 1st half of the game, and then we moved on to another one, where some other were waiting for us, to have some drinks.

And then the fun began!

To summ up the day:

• Entrance to GP Madrid – 18€
• A pork & cheese sandwich – 3€
• A Tanqueray + Sprite – 4.5€
• Singing the F.C. Barcelona anthem in a bar in Madrid with lots of supporters from Real Madrid  – PRICELESS!

To be continued…

You can now read the third part of the report:

The GP Madrid epic report! Part III

So what are considered some Legacy staples that are not on the Reserved List that could theoretically be printed in future sets with little or no repercussion? There are quite a few cards considered staples that have risen to relatively high prices very quickly, so ignoring cards that have already been reprinted let’s look at some cards that I believe could all be reprinted in upcoming sets and aren’t too powerful for the current Standard and Extended constructed environments.
Force of Will – aside from Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Blue is relatively weak in Standard and Extended, and including Force of Will in a normal set as either an uncommon or rare would drastically increase the supply and reduce the price from about $35 to $5-10
Wasteland – with apologies to Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge, there isn’t very good land destruction available to mages right now in Standard and Extended, and by reprinting this as an uncommon the price would drop from the current $18 price tag down to about $2-3 (where it used to be for years), and would also help keep the overpowered Thopter Depths deck in check in Extended
Tarmogoyf – this beast is currently in the $65-70 range and isn’t even legal in Standard currently (when it was it tipped the scales at about $30)! It’s certainly not too broken for any constructed format, and as it was unveiled in Future Sight, the reasoning behind reprinting it could be that Future Sight was merely a preview of what was to come (more Tarmogoyfs, yippee!)
Orim’s Chant – while often decent and sometimes above average, Chant was never broken in Standard and Extended, and reprinting this would drop the price from about $14 to $5
Argothian Enchantress – certainly a powerful card, nothing about Enchantress would break Standard or Extended, but the price would certainly drop considerably if this $12 staple was reprinted
Exploration – currently hovering around $15, this would be powerful in conjunction with Life From the Loam in Extended, and could potentially be awesome with some kind of Landfall cards (which would actually make for a very interesting deck, but I wonder why we haven’t seen any of these interactions in Legacy if they had serious merit). Neither of these interactions would probably wouldn’t be format defining, and reprinting this Legacy staple would drop it to around the $3-5 mark I’d predict
Chain Lightning – if Lightning Bolt, Incinerate, and Lightning Helix are fine in Standard and Extended, I think it would be safe to say that Chain Lightning would also be safe (hopefully once something else rotated out), and reprinting this as an uncommon would drop this $10 staple into the $2 neighborhood
Imperial Recruiter – along the lines of Ranger of Eos, this card would be very fair in Standard and Extended, and reprinting it as a rare would probably drop the price from its current $120 price tag to about $5-10
Imperial Seal – Vampiric Tutor was not a problem when it was legal in Standard and Extended for the longest time, and a sorcery speed one would fit very well in today’s constructed environments. Reprinting this would admittedly do nothing for Legacy as it is banned there, but it would drop the price from $200+ currently to around $15, and would be a huge boon for Vintage players
Entomb – the unbanning of this Legacy bomb and recent success have driven this staple to around $30 and counting. This would not be too strong for Standard and Extended, and reprinting this in a future set would probably drop the price back down to around the $3-5 mark it sat at for quite some time prior to it’s unbanning for Legacy
Ancient Tomb – this could provide a useful but not broken accelerant in Standard and Extended, and reprinting this as an uncommon would drop the price from $5 to $1-2 moving forward

Reprinting all of the aforementioned cards fits would drop prices of these cards considerably, and I don’t believe any of them would be too powerful for Standard or Extended. That being said, here are a handful of cards that probably are too powerful for those constructed formats, but could be reprinted in a different way to ensure they are never in Standard or Constructed.
Loyal Retainers – this would probably be too good in the same Standard or Extended format where Entomb is legal (along with Iona), so I would lean towards making this Portal 3 Kingdoms uncommon a Friday Night Magic foil, which would heartily increase the supply and dramatically reduce the price, while keeping it out of those constructed formats
Price of Progress – I get the sense that the game’s designers have been trending towards getting people to play multicolored and rainbow decks in constructed formats, and with all of the other burn spells available right now in Standard and Extended I think this would be too good, so giving it out as a Friday Night Magic card instead would create foil copies of it and satiate the market demand
Dark Depths – having 20/20 indestructables crawling around Extended seems to be ok, but this would most likely be too powerful for Standard, so reprinting this as a Friday Night Magic foil would create plenty of copies, while reducing the price of this from $23 to about $5-10 in short order
Grindstone – having the Painter’s Servant and Grindstone combo running around a format like Extended would be too powerful and consistent, so reprinting Grindstone as a Judge foil instead would increase the supply enough to probably drop Tempest copies from $18 down to about the $6-8 range

So, what about all of the other awesome cards that are in Legacy that have high price tags? Running through Stephen Mendendian’s nice article The Complete Legacy Checklist, here are the main cards with a significant price tag that the Reserved List would preclude Wizards’ from printing:
Underground Sea
Tropical Island
Tundra
Volcanic Island
Scrubland
Bayou
Savannah
Taiga
Badlands
Plateau
Tabernacle at the Pendrell Vale
City of Traitors
Gaea’s Cradle
Undiscovered Paradise
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Mox Diamond
Moat

That’s only about 17 relevant cards with a significant price tag for the format that fall on the Reserved List. There are handful of other smaller cards that are on the Reserved List (such as Humility, Cursed Scroll, Volrath’s Stronghold) that don’t see too much play and can generally be had for $5-10, but these are relatively affordable already so their isn’t much necessity in reprinting them. Many of cards above are Dual Lands that are integral to the format, but by most people’s best guesses and calculations there are around 340,000-360,000 copies of each Dual Land in existence, which I believe is more than enough to support a burgeoning Legacy population. That’s a full playset for nearly 90,000 players as it currently stands. Yes, I know that some people are holding on to more than a playset, just like some people are holding on to 150 Force of Wills. Magic was intended to be a collectible card game as we all know, and these things come with the territory.

The entrance cost has already been paid by a great number of players who wanted to jump into the Legacy format with the announcement of the two Legacy format Grand Prixs in 2010 and the continuing StarCityGames $5K Legacy series, and these are the primary reasons prices for certain cards have climbed so rapidly. Grand Prix Madrid 2010 just set the Magic tournament record with 2220 participants, and Grand Prix Columbus 2010 will probably clock in with around 1000-1400 participants. But after most players have already jumped in it appears many prices have leveled off. Cards like Tarmogoyf have already kind of hit that threshold and have begun cooling a little bit, but that doesn’t mean other cards won’t gradually rise or occasionally spike like they do for other constructed formats when some new deck tech is found. But is a $29 Savannah or $40 Tropical Island really a terrible thing, especially in the face of $45 mythic rares like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Baneslayer Angel that are commonly played in Standard? Is it a terrible thing to have a collectible card that you know will not be reprinted, and won’t rotate out of a format every two years and lose 85% of its street value (like most Standard cards)?

Every single card does not have to be affordable, nor has it been for about the last 10-12 years once more and more people started playing Magic. By slowly reprinting a large number of staples that are not on the Reserved List, Wizards’ can dramatically reduce prices for those staples while simultaneously lowering the barrier of entry to Eternal formats for a great many players. Doing this would allow for more player interest in older formats while avoiding a perversion of the original intent of the Official Reprint Policy.

Please let us know what you think in the comments section below. Thanks for reading!

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, http://www.team-pataners.com/?p=1764 2010’s Grand Prix Madrid has been an EPIC and LEGENDARY weekend. It isn’t easy to explain everything that happened this past days. There’s too many stories, too many great moments, too many friendly moments, too many people!!!!

My plain takes off at 11:40 from BCN’s new airport terminal. On the way to the airport I was listening the latest album from MIA to start getting in the mood. I unexpectedly meet many of my eternal mates there (including Ruben González, who managed to top8 at the GP as you will read in chapter 3). They were taking a plain a bit earlier tho, so I moved to my boarding gate and kept listening my music.

Once in Madrid, David Menor (a crazy taxi driver from Madrid and one of the best spanish dealers we have), came pick me up with his mercedes SLK. Dude, that was fast! He took me to his place and he packed his stuff before we went to a local “burger” (they call restaurants like that in Madrid) and had a 10€ menu: Raviolis with Pesto for starters followed by “Huevos fritos con chistorra y patatas” (go google translate it!).

That’s the kind of meal you do expect when you travel abroad. If you go to Italy, you want to eat good pizzas. If you go to germany, you want to eat good sausages. And if you go to Madrid you want to eat many things, including the “not-so-greasy-and-almost-cholesterol-free” eggs with chistorra and french fries. I forgot to take pics of it! Anyways…

After lunch we moved to my hotel, where I checked in and left my bag, and then we headed to the GP location. It wasn’t far.

Once there, we started greeting many well known friends, some other less-known came greet me, and we finally placed ourselves at the registration queue. It was around 17:30 when we arrived and it was crowded already. Four hours later, it was as crowded and the queue was the same or even longer. Before leaving, we were told that there was around 1600 pre-registered players, and that they got around 1500-1600 chairs only.

If lunch wasn’t enough energies to play properly during the GP, what comes next will actually make it. I can promise!

At 21:00 my friend Angel (aka Angelo) calls; he’s waiting for me downstairs at the hotel hall. I properly dressed for the occasion with a not-so-formal jacket + shirt + tie. Dressed enough for what was coming next.

We ask the taxi driver to take us to Hotel Hesperia, which he didn’t know… Once there, and while waiting for David, we moved to their lounge and asked the barman for a couple of cocktails. I went for a G’Vine + Sprite with natural grapes and Angelo tasted a London Gin with Tonic.

Minutes after, David shows up and asks for a Belvedere Vodka with raspberry juice that seemed quite tasty, actually.

David and Angel enjoying their drinks.

So, after the drinks we moved next door. Our destination was the 2 star Michelin graded restaurant Sant Celoni from Santi Santamaria. The place was nice, chic and really classy. Initially we were supposed to be four for dinner, but our friend Miguel (aka Juzam2) finally couldn’t make it.

We decided to go for the Menú Gran Gastronómico. I got real shocked with the outfit from the sommelier. He was walking around with a skirt-like thingie and with a HUGE GOLD necklace that was holding a big golden cloister. He looked more like Puff Daddy than a wine experte, I gotta say! Actually, we laughed when I suggested he looked like a mix between Gravesen (from R.Madrid) and John Malkovich.

What would you like to drink for starters? – He asked.

Catalan Cava - I answered.

There’s nothing better than drinking a good catalan cava. Well, there is: Drinking a good catalan cava in Madrid! Ok, drinking champagne beats both!

I took some pictures of the dinner, so I’ll just place here a slideshow for those of you who’d like to watch:

Food was excellent, seriously. We paid a lot for the whole meal (including the drinks and stuff), but it was definitely worth it. It’s a thing you should do once in a while, or present somebody you care or love with it.

We started around 22:00 and exited the restaurant around 1:00. It was probably one of the best eating experience I’ve had lately. 1000% recommended to any of you guys!

So, after the dinner we had the thought of going out and drink some cocktails at the new Sergi Arola’s lounge/bar. They supposedly have the best cocktails in Madrid… BUT! (there’s always a BUT), I had to be fresh and ready for the Grand Prix, so I decided to skip the fun and we headed back to the hotel.

If you ever drive with David, don’t expect to have a calmed ride! He decided that the best way to return was going through some creepy neighborhood that was filled with transsexuals, bitches and weirdos. Best moment was, when David decided to stop next to a guy/girl über tanned that looked like a boxing fighter just to piss us off and then a police car came  with the bells and lights on. Hahahaha, they scared the hell out of us!!!!! Anyways, in the end, we managed to scape from Moria land, and no creatures of the devil assaulted our car.

Minutes after I close the door from the hotel, Sergi and Toni knock the door. They were finally there, after a 5-6 hour road trip from Cabrera to Madrid. They went straight to bed because they were tired, and I still had some sleeve’ing up to do.

At 2:30 I finally go to bed.

To be continued…

You can now read the second and third parts of the report:

The GP Madrid epic report! Part II

The GP Madrid epic report! Part III

I’m back home from Madrid. WHAT A WEEKEND! We’ve had one of the greatest mtg parties of all times. Insane amount of people, including the new World Record of attendance in the history of mtg (2220 players); excellent organization, who solved quite well all the problems generated by having 2K+ players; tournaments ran very smooth all weekend; queues for Mark Poole were long but not endless, etc…

I got some really cool PIMP stuff to show you guys, lots of alterations (including another card altered by Terese Nielsen and Ron Spencer together!), some foil japanese and few other stuff.

I will write a more elaborated post tomorrow or the day after. I just wanted to let you know that I survived! Let me finish this post with a Michael Jackson classic!

The February tournament of the Third Catalan Legacy League (LCL3) was held in Ripollet (town near Barcelona) with a turnout of 92 players. As usual, Enric Luzán has released the videos of the Top8 games. So far there’s the quarterfinals and semifinals. The videos from the final will come up shortly. You’ll find the decks from the top8 after the videos.

Top 8 LCL3 Febrer – Enric Luzán vs. Rubén Pérez G1

Top 8 LCL3 Febrer – Enric Luzán vs. Rubén Pérez G2

Top 4 LCL3 Febrer – Daniel Rodríguez vs. Francisco Fernández G1

Top 4 LCL3 Febrer – Daniel Rodríguez vs. Francisco Fernández G2

Videos from the final will be posted as soon as they are released.

Top8:

• Daniel Rodríguez (Elfeir) (Dark Depths) – Adrià Bosch (Bant Treshold)
  
• Francisco Fernández (U Merfolks) – David Miñarro (MinasS) (Supreme Blue)
  
• David Gómez (Inexistente) (Survival RGB) – Adrián Cañadas (Renimator)
• Rubén Pérez (Robinho) (UB Faeires) – Enric Luzán (Enric) (SurviBant)

Top 4:

• Daniel Rodríguez (Elfeir) (Dark Depths) – Francisco Fernández (U Merfolks)
• Enric Luzán (Enric) (SurviBant) – David Gómez (Inexistente) (Survival RGB)

Final:

• Enric Luzán (Enric) (SurviBant) – Francisco Fernández (U Merfolks)

Decklists: (I just copy/pasted them, sorry if there’s cards in spanish)

ENRIC LUZAN 19PTS
4x noble hierarch
4x brainstorm
4x force of will
4x tarmogoyf
3x rhox war monk
2x qasali pridemage
4x survival of the fittest
1x squee,goblin nabob
3x ponder
4x daze
1x kitchen finks
1x eternal witness
1x loyal retainers
1x iona,shield of emeria
4x sword to plowshares
4x misty rainforest
3x windswepth health
1x flooded strand
3x tropical island
2x taiga
2x savannah
1x tundra
1x forest
1x island
1x plain

SB

3x natural order
1x progenitus
3x firespout
1x llawan,cephalid empress
1x etherswon canonist
2x gaddock teeg
2x enlightened tutor
1x wheel of sun and moon
1x loaming shaman

ADRIA BOSCH 18 PTS

4x mago dela manada qasali
4x tarmogoyf
4x mangosta agil
4x force of will
4x daze
4x brainstorm
4x ponder
4x reprimir
4x trampa de hechizos
2x spell pierce
4x espadas en guadaña
4x erial
4x tropical island
3x polluted delta
3x flooded strand
1x island
3x tundra

SB

3x tormod’s crypt
2x depredador trygon
2x rafaga de agua
2x abrazo krosano
2x aguja medular
3x kitchen finks
1x rhox war monk

FRANCISCO FERNANDEZ 17 PTS

13x isla
3x mutavault
4x erial
4x ofuscar
2x reliquia de progenitus
4x perito branquia plateada
4x frasco de eter
3x triton soberano
4x merrow reejerey
4x force of will
2x jitte de umezawa
4x atrapamaldiciones
3x parada
4x señor de la atlantida
2x trillador de la estela

SB

2x la tentacion del legado
2x threds of disloyalty
3x espinas de amatista
1x tormod’s crypt
1x jitte de umezawa
2x reliquia de progenitus
1x verdad reflejada
1x rafaga de agua
2x rafaga elemental azul

DAVID GOMEZ 17 PTS

4x verdant catacombs
2x taiga
2x bayou
1x badlands
6x forest
2x swamp
1x mountain
4x veteran explorer
2x birds of paradise
1x scryb ranger
1x stingscourger
2x tarmogoyf
1x sakura-tribe elder
1x squee,goblin nabob
1x eternal witness
1x big game hunter
3x kitchen finks
1x fleshbag marauder
1x viridian zealot
1x masticore
1x anger
1x spike weaver
2x bloodbraid elf
1x genesis
1x shriekmaw
2x greater gargadon
1x faerie macabre
1x chameleon colossus
4x survival of the fittest
4x aether vial
3x maelstrom pulse
1x sword of light and shadow

SB

1x magus of the moon
3x krosan grip
3x engineered plague
3x tormod’s crypt
1x iona,shield of emeria
1x doomed necromancer
2x reanimate
1x life/death

ADRIAN CAÑADAS 16 PTS

4x underground sea
4x polluted delta
4x verdant catacombs
2x swamp
2x island
2x bayou
4x force of will
4x daze
4x brainstorm
4x entomb
4x mystical tutor
4x exhume
3x reanimate
1x show and tell
3x dark ritual
1x wipe away
2x iona,shield of emeria
1x blazing archon
1x empyrial archangel
1x inkwell leviathan
1x sphynx of the steel wind
4x careful study

SB

2x echoing truth
3x perish
3x duress
3x infest
3x krosan grip
1x hellkite overlord

DAViD MIÑARRO 16 PTS

4x force of will
4x brainstorm
2x ponder
4x sensei’s divining top
4x counterbalance
4x swords to plowshares
3x firespout
4x rhox war monk
4x tarmogoyf
2x trygon predator
4x daze
1x path to exile
4x misty rainforest
2x island
1x forest
1x plain
3x tropical island
3x tundra
2x volcanic island
4x flooded strand

SB

2x tormod’s crypt
2x llawan,cephalid empress
1x treads of disloyalty
2x pithing needle
2x krosan grip
2x gaddock teeg
2x relic of progenitus
2x dueling grounds

DANIEL RODRIGUEZ 16 PTS

4x dark confidant
4x tarmogoyf
3x vampire hexmage
3x gatekeeper of malakir
4x hymn to tourach
4x thoughtseize
4x smallpox
3x living wish
3x sensei’s divining top
2x grim discovery
2x smother
3x dark depths
3x wasteland
4x verdant catacombs
2x bloodstained mire
4x bayou
4x urborg,tomb of yawgmot
3x swamp
1x forest

SB

1x tombstalker
1x vampire hexmage
1x gatekeeper of malakir
2x extirpate
2x perish
3x infest
4x krosan grip
1x ()

RUBEN PEREZ 16 PTS

1x riptide laboratory
3x mutavault
4x polluted delta
4 underground sea
3x wasteland
3x island
1x swamp
2x flooded strand
4x spellstutter sprite
3x vendilion clique
4x dark confidant
4x force of will
4x brainstorm
2x umezawa’s jitte
4x bitterblossom
4x daze
3x spell snare
3x smother
2x ghastly demise
2x sensei’s divining top

SB
3x spell pierce
3x engineered plague
3x hydroblast
4x thoughtseize
2x relc of progenitus