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Stream of Consciousness #2

A busy week in Magic started off with the Magic Online Community Cup. As if watching people play Magic on a computer wasn’t hard enough, we get to watch people playing Magic on a computer…on a computer.

I could even live with the coverage of the event if the commentators hadn’t been forced to whisper for every relevant minute. Some seriously lacking logistics to put them in the same room as the players, as the volume on Twitch is often horrible anyway.

The Community Cup used the Magic Online Wide Beta and was a perfect example of why people are terrified of the day it goes live and becomes mandatory. Crashes were numerous and on camera, which couldn’t have been the message they were hoping to send.

It wasn’t all bad though. I love the wacky draft formats they come up with each year, and the addition of Ironroot Chef this year was the best thing about the whole event. I need to figure out a way to make this happen each week locally.

One of the cards the competitors had to build around was [card]Strionic Resonator[/card]. Along with most people I had dismissed that card as a casual, fun piece but it did some powerful things in that Standard format. Might be worth trying if only for the Huntmaster shenanigans.

The Community won, proving once again that not having Jon Loucks on your team is the way to win.

The Star City Games Open Series stopped in Cincinnati this week, and I swear almost every time I looked at it on Saturday they were showing replays. Is the Standard format really so fast that even Patrick Chapin ran out of stuff to talk about?

Speaking of Chapin, he was alternately hilarious, entertaining and awful. His talks about lore and card evaluation and such were great, but at times on Sunday he seemed to be a little…out to lunch. I’m also not sure having him bury the Legacy format is a good way to sell it to players.

If you feel the urge to go back and watch replays from SCG Cincinnati, avoid round 6. That is unless you enjoy seeing people who just got off the couch long enough to show up and play a game of Magic. A gentleman by the name of Dennis Taylor chose to come to the event in a white undershirt, vest or whatever you want to call it, which in and of itself would be an unpleasant sight. That he combined it with a perpetual slouch and generally unkempt appearance made me wonder what some people consider appropriate dress for leaving the house, let alone appearing on camera. He is of course entitled to wear what he wants and look however he wants to look, as we are entitled to make statements about it. The word “slovenly” comes to mind.

I’m probably never going to type these words again, but there was a compelling Belcher match at the event on Sunday, involving some difficult decisions and intelligent play on both sides. And it lasted more than 5 turns total!

There is now a Fblthp plush that was made available only at PAX Prime this past weekend. It’s no SDCC Planeswalker set (still need me one of those) but it certainly struck a chord with many. What next, I wonder?

Speaking of PAX Prime swag, why can’t I get Cards Against Humanity in stores?

Tons of Theros previews have already been shown, and ManaDeprived will have theirs up next week. Devotion looks like a very interesting mechanic and has me checking the mana cost of a ton of fringe-playable cards to see if they just got better.

I played UWR Geist at FNM this week, basically a ton of removal and tempo cards with [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card], [card]Ral Zarek[/card] and [card]Chandra, Pyromaster[/card] to make sure he got in. I enjoyed the deck, going 3-0 before two misplays left me at 3-2.

While at FNM a dilemma hit me. We have had a massive influx of young, new players recently, and they are of course getting paired with the experienced players. Our community is very welcoming and helps the new players a lot, but I have noticed some of the kids seeming a little dejected. It occurs to me that it could be due to playing against decks like UB Control and Bant Hexproof. Not sure what the answer to that is, since you want your competitive players to feel welcome at FNM but you also don’t want to discourage new players.

For people who either don’t sleep on weekends or live in time zones east of Eastern time, we had live video coverage of GP Prague this weekend. I do love the M14 limited format, but how is it we can get video coverage of this and not Calgary or Toronto?

Nothing against the coverage of this event though, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how good Tim Willoughby was in the booth.

Both Martin Juza and Raphael Levy made top 8, proving once again that sealed deck is not just about luck. However when they both lost in the quarter finals, I for one stopped watching. It’s a shame because Magic needs to develop new names in order to replace the LSVs of the world who are winding down, but there hasn’t been enough done to make me interested in most of them.

Cube draft this week was the best run yet, with 10 people and some of the less fun cards removed. It’s still not perfect but we are having more fun with it. You can try it out for yourself here.

Who are the next wave of pros? According to Kai Budde on the next Horde of Notions, it includes Reid Duke, Owen Turtenwald and Shahar Shenhar. Hard to argue with that lineup.

Mark Rosewater revealed on Monday that Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx would have ten two-coloured minor Gods to complement the 5 in Theros. Could we see enemy-coloured man lands and/or Scars-style fast lands?

NBC News wrote an article on Magic for its twentieth anniversary. Aside from always putting the game’s name in quotes, the article feels like it was written by someone without a clue and with no desire to get one. He calls GP Vegas a convention, includes about six words of a quote from a WotC source and spends all his time talking around the game instead of about it.

This week’s decklist is my version of the BW Bogbrew deck that was going around for a while. Went 4-1 with it at FNM, including two wins over Jund. Assembled Voltron multiple times and even got the Shadowborn Demon-Bogbrew Witch-Skirsdag High Priest engine going at one point. Yes it IS an engine, dammit!

[deck title=BW Bogbrew by Chris Lansdell]
[Lands]
4 Godless Shrine
4 Isolated Chapel
4 Orzhov Guildgate
2 Vault of the Archangel
5 Plains
6 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Festering Newt
3 Doomed Traveler
3 Cartel Arisocrat
4 Blood Artist
3 Skirsdag High Priest
2 Xathrid Necromancer
2 Bogbrew Witch
2 Shadowborn Demon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Tragic Slip
3 Orzhov Charm
2 Bubbling Cauldron
3 Dark Prophecy
3 Lingering Souls
[/Spells]
[/deck]

Sideboard allowed me to go big with Sorin, Obzedat and Blood Baron. I also included utility with things like Fiend Hunter and Sin Collector. It’s fun as hell, by the way.

Thanks for following my Stream of Consciousness this week. If there are news items you think I should cover, feel free to tweet them at me or leave them in the comments.

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