The Brother's War MtG pre-release

 Eight years.  That is how long it has been since I played Magic the Gathering.

But now with Thorin going to school, I treated myself on a day out with the boys.

Well, some familiar faces at least.  And I went to Outpost here in Antwerp to play the pre-release event of the newest expansion.  Now, considering I have no intention of playing weekly or even monthly, but just occassionally poppin' in to get some mental boosting, I had a plan.

Take cards with as little text possible, and just go in all guns blazing, seeing where we'd end up in the four rounds.  And put the cards afterwards on my Cardmarket account in order to finance my Weiss Schwarz collections.  I don`t have time to study, or even decently follow, new card releases anyways.

To that end, I ended up with the following deck:

And this was the rest of my pool:

Now, as always you goet a promo card, which was the lady on the left for me, and we got another foil as well, this to celebrate the 30 years of Magic the Gathering.

But the event itself then...

In the first round, I lost 1-2 verses Black / Red even though grabbing the first set with 20-0.  The second set however I ended colour screwed, and in the third a big 4/4 trample haster which copied itself twice made short work of my meagre defence line.

The second round, I met my old nemesis, Bye, so that was an easy 2-0, which actually put me on the top 3 at that moment!

So I went in for the third game, facing a red / black combo again build around a Phyrexian Devourer.  In the first set I went swiflty over him, but a mana flood and the big beast crushed me in set 2.  So up into the thrid one, I kept a removal in hand should it reappear, which it duly did.  As I obliterated the beast at a cost of 7 life, I took the set and as such the game.

With the result that I actually ended second in this event!

Price support wise, that meant two more booster packs for me, whom I`ll be opening one of these weeks on YouTube I guess.  Now to go list those cards and rest on my laurels until I get another outing.

Hopefully sooner then in 8 years though...

Drafted Magic 2019 for a game

Well, it has been two years since I played Magic the Gathering (7 september 2016), but this wednesday I passed by Outpost and did a draft once again, the set being the Core set 2019.

You see, Noshi had a dinner with some collegues around the corner, so instead of just grabbing a drink by myself, it was an opportune moment to see some old mates again.

I sat down with 10 other players and zero ambitions to open our packs and start the game of give along, and as I didn't have any knowledge I decided on two things:

1. pick the rares, as they'll end up on Cardmarket anyways, having no ambition to start playing weekly again and build a deck.
2. build something simple without to many special combo's, as it had been a looooong time.

Opening my first pack, the rare was a green beast that has a passive ability, the Runic Armasaur, so no thinking required on that part as such.  From that first booster, I decided to pick every green card that came around, and see what the second colour would be should another rare come by.

My second booster had actually two rares, and both where white.  Apart from the foil Suncleanser, it also had a Mentor of the Meek, but I went for the first one.  I kept picking mostly greens though and the occassional white from now on, but then a Gigantosaurus passed by and I just grabbed it.  A big 10/10 monster with no issues and a rather okay mana cost if I could stay mono-colour is fine in my book.

Booster three contained actually another white rare, with Leena, and a Leonid Warleader had come by by then as well.  But I dropped the white plan, as I had barely any creatures coming by and kept going all green, ending up with this deck in the end.  The only dilemma I had for myself when I build it was to either include the second deaththouch or the Boars... in hindsigt, I just should have taken the boars in the place of the millstone who only showed up twice in my games.

And then we where off.  The first game was against Willem, and strangely enough I quickly snatched the first round.  But with the aid of his Transmog Wand; which just shut down my big beasts, his blue and black deck took my zoo down and a 1-2 loss was the result.  At least we fought valiantly, and the big saurus actually won me that first round.

I was then paired against Sammy, playing a green deck combined with blue, and he had pulled open a Tezzeret... hmmm, a Planeswalker in a draft always is iffy.  I managed to take round one again, but he succeeded in grabbing round two.  In the final round, it was getting close, but I had kept back my  prevent all combat damage for the final stage, causing his all out attack to stall and grab the win in my next attack.  That made for a 2-1 victory.

The final game was against Laurens and a black white deck.  I went quickly out of the floodgate and snatched the round one win again.  Round two took a lot longer as he had his Phylactery Lich down, and with his defender artifact attacking and flying, I needed to keep back both the gigantosaur to hold of the liche and the spider to block the flyer, doing only minor damage.  But then I pulled my rabbit Bite, did 10 damage on the defender causing the liche to dissappear as well, and went in for 17 damage in one strike, nailing a 2-0.

So that meant that my mono green deck went an unforseen 2-1 over the whole evening, and netting me 7 planeswalker points from the event to add to my "lifetime total".  The irony in a way was that the draft unplayable Gigantosaur with it's 5 green mana cost, actually won me every game I did win, due to the fact I was in monogreen with 16 forests.

But the most important thing was that I had a nice and fun evening, and ending 5th out of 11 players isn't bad for a very rusty casual returnee...

Eventide - Scott McGough and Cory J. Herndon

The great thing about Magic The Gathering used to be that they released paperback novels of all the expansions from the game, to add some fluff together.

Unfortunatly these days, those have become digital releases, and in my mind you can`t beat the scent of a book.

Eventide is part of the Lorwyn / Shadowmoor cycle, the world that changed from an everlasting daytime to an everlasting nighttime as a consequence of The Aurora.  This event wiped everyone`s memory and changed personalities around, apart from those of kithkin archer Brigid Baeli and a mysterious Elf named Maralen.

They gather their old friends together and try to convince them to help defeat The Destroyer, a fire elmental power that took possession of their old companion Ashling, a cinderkind pilgrim.  And all the while the Mother of the Fae, Oona, works her own agenda to stop this raging inferno...

It was agood book, with some really action packed scenes.  As I played that actual cycle, I could relate to some of the spells and creatures that appear in the book, but this knowledge isn`t needed at all.  You can read this as yet another fantasy novel in a certain setting and be all fine without even knowing of the game.

A nice bus-reading book.

The first Draft in two years...

Well, it happened.  I wetn out and played Magic the Gathering again for the first time in over two years, going to my regular spot, Outpost Gamecenters in Antwerp to do a Draft.

Now, a LOT has changed apparently with new mechanics, new block rotation cycles, new Mulligan rules... so this was going to be a study round, expecting a 0-3 as I knew about zilch of the cards in play at the moment.

So I went with a plan, namely to draft weenie beasties and just go for all out attack.  The rules there have also changed, in that you know "keep what you draft" compared to the pickings of the Rares afterwards.

My first booster gave me a Blue Mythic, nice, and I decided to keep it just because, well, it was a Mythic.  Not the greatest around though, but heck, if it`s mythic, it`s tradeable!

I was rather proud of myself that I "read" the draft, the guy on my left going red / white, the guy on my right going green / white... and cursed for it, because I quickly got this card:

I would have loved to have played that, and while I did get a few good black cards, in the end I only had a measly 3 whites.  Blue on the other hand came through by the droves, and I drafted a mono-blue deck in the end.

Which didn`t work at all, the curve being to high.  So after a 2-0 loss to Willem who fielded green white humans with some nasty flipping beasts.  I switched out a couple of blues, and exchanged 6 of my 17 islands for swamps, splashing in black.

The second game against Philip this actually worked, the little skulkers, flyers and the witch killing him slowly while my black zombie and the two gheist walls held off most he could throw with his lifelink white greens.  A 2 - 1 win in the end and I was onwards to actually play for thethird place in our pool and the booster of price support.

This was against Jim, another opponent I knew for years, and his red / green deck.  While the first game was very close, the second was a quick kill as he had his Dragon out, together with a werewolf that fires damage if he is blocked or blocking... game set match 2 - 0


In the end though, I came out 10th overall on 14 players, and obtained my first 4 Planeswalker Points in a VERY long time, just glad I wasn`t smashed left to right due to my "50 Shades of Rustedness", and the best of it was that I had fun while playing :-)

Loot wise, it wasn`t the greatest of drafts, as bar the blue mythic I only got a blue Rare, but I did pride myself that this time round I interpreted the "signals" correctly, never been my strongpoint before.

Now, this time round it will be a very casual career though, the Lego staying on the first place by far, but it`ll give me a "socialising" venue once in a while again...

There is no such thing as a crappy Magic card

Or at least, not in value... In this short opinion piece, I`m taking a look back at how I manage to play `for free` during the year, AND how I can fund my Legodiction with them.

Now, as most know, being a very season bound player for Magic the Gathering, I don`t tend to invest in the next big thing or keep heavy trade binders.

I usually play during the summer months, when the weather is more pleasant to be waiting on the bus at night, but also because other obligations are then far lower in time intensity.  This means I play most of my events usually in the Limited formats, being either Draft or Sealed.

This of course results in shoe boxes of common and uncommon cards of the not to playable kind, something that tends to happen at drafts, and a collection of what is labelled `crap rares`.  Surely, Planeswalkers and usually the rare lands tend to go for a few euros, but no love is handed out to that poor Tromokratis and his 20 cents value or such.

WRONG

For almost every card, somewhere out there is a collector that looks to complete all the sets, and who is constantly looking around for those cards.  Now, usually people rarely bother hauling them along on trades, and in webstores they tend to go in the 1 euro category, which is not that cheap, considering you can usually get a full playset of those cards on sites like Magic Card Market for half the price.

I personally tend to use the cards I draft and pick and win with the complementary booster on Friday Night Magic`s to be listed right away.  And since my mediocre skills, I rarely get to pick `money rares`.

But on the other hand, since I don`t follow the hypes in Constructed, and just tend to go `boom boom boom` with red, I don`t have any big expenses on new cards every few weeks neither.

This allows me to channel the values I do get to go to other sources, in my case, bricks.  Considering that the value of a playset of common or uncommon `bulk cards` is only a measly 2 eurocents, that doesn`t sound like the effort to sort and list out everything.  But for 2 cents, you also get one single Lego basic brick over on Brick Link.

So that means:

 equals

But this also means:

 equals

If of course you have the luck to pull open some `money rares` on the moment when they are hot and before the set settles in and prices start dropping, the equation goes up far more.  A new and good Planeswalker can easily get you 20 euros on the first weeks, a steady 10 during the set, only to sink after rotation unless it is a classic deckstaple for the eternal formats.

But those are NOT the cards that intrest me actually.  I usually use the TradeCardsOnline website to exchange a heap of cards for Lego Collectible Minifigures.  Because Magic is a hobby that tends to `exist` alongside someones other hobbies, being not that place intensive (if you keep it within reason).

I`m that kind of person that gladly takes over the whole collection of crap commons and such that people tend to throw away because `it is not worth it`.  Friends quitting Magic or just keeping the rares for trade, but not caring about those boxes full of common and uncommon junk?  I`ve always gladly accepted all those cards, and put in the hours and hours of sorting, making playsets, and updating my `have` and `want` lists.  Packing cards up and bringing them to the mail office?  With pleasure, because that means one of the days a parcel of bricks will be falling in my postbox.

Of course, if you`re looking to become a filthy rich card trader, these words weren`t ment for you, but if you`re looking to get a place to save those crap boxes from going on the old paper, contact me and you might as well just give them to me, you`ll get the satisfactory feeling that at some Lego convention, some child is watching some build of which some bricks are there thanks to it ;-)

So yes, if I make the tally this year, my cards have not only gotten me a nice amount of Planeswalker Points, my first two event victories and some nice times, which are rather priceless, but also did they allow me to technically buy the whole year for free on cards, AND gotten me the complete latest wave of The Hobbit sets from Lego.

Not bad for someone with a skill set that is just only above `holding the cards in the right direction`...

The Great Experiment: epic failure

Two weeks.  Actually less then two weeks.  That is how long it took me to hopelessly flunk the Great Experiment to see which would trade back it`s value first: Lego or Magic.

Why?  Because I`m weak of heart when it comes to the little plastic bricks.  The whole attempt to see if I could trade away the boxes I still had lying around for boxes more suitable for my MOC`s failed because in those boxes where actual pieces I could use for `some MoC sometime`.

I`ll give you an example of a few months ago.  When the Lego Ideas Female Scientist set came out, about each and every investor was yelling to grab them as much as you could, and save them for Q4.  Ideas have low production runs, and at 20 euros for a set, this was a sure shot to get at least the double value back for once the holiday season quarter hit.  It helped the set came out in the low period of july...

Less then a week later the set was already sold out at most locations, and it went on sites like BrickLink and eBay for at least 40, sometimes even hitting 60.  That is a factor 2 to 3 in about a week!

So I duly bought a set and heck, I thought I would be able to hold on to it for a few months.  Less then a week later:

I mean come on, how COOL is that T-rex skeleton and that printed astro chart...

Together with that set came also the Exo Suit, which enjoyed a similar prediction and fate, though at current a small extra run has been made, but that is soon to run out as well.  And we all know which build I featured on this blog last week...

It`s different with cards.  They cycle out and since I don`t play anything out of Limited or Standard, I have no problems at all with parting with them once they are of no more use.  Add in the fact I usually play Red Aggro, and about 80% of a set doesn`t hold any intrest for me the moment I crack open the booster box.

Needless to say, the cards where winning big time already in those two weeks...

So I deciced in all good fate to close the experiment down.  Sets like those 5 Legendary Crocidile Beast I got on the very cheap are already parted out in my colour boxes, and a build of one of them will be featured one of these days.  Like many builds I`m doing at the moment, as one by one the sealed boxes are being cracked open after all.

I just can`t resist to the sets standing on a shelf and doing nothing (though for things like the Star Wars sets, I do have no problem at all to trade the minifigs for usuable Collectible Minifigures or cool superheroes... bit not the droids though, their arms are excellent fence planks...).

So sorry Benji, I`m afraid I`m not going to be able to give you the investigated answer wether it is more intresting to part with old cards, or to raid toy stores for Lego sets... I have to crack open some more boxes and build some more things...

The Great Experiment: Lego vs Magic values

I blame Benji for this.  He asked me about Lego sets worth investing in, but truth to be told, I know jack sh*t about that.

But he got me thinking.  Until now, I always thought Magic: the Gathering, or card games and trading cards in open order, the more intresting option.  It provides a steady flow to trade around with over the internet to get my Minifigures complete and the occassional small set to be gotten from them.

But what would actually be the better investment?  In both cases, your probably ending up with for every `money rare`, you got a shelf full of common dump junk.  Agreed, the Lego can then be parted out and used in builds, but that is not the idea here, we`re talking `straight of the shelf` boxed sets.

So I`m going to take on that idea and do an experiment.  I still have heaps of boxed sets, I got tons of cards to still trade away, so I`m going to calculate around and go for the nominal worth of the collections for 1.000 euros each.

Now, the experiment will consist of:

Which one between Lego and Trading Cards will earn back in it`s value first?

The rules are:

* Only still boxed and sealed Lego sets - no parting, no minifigs only, just pure boxed sets.

* Only single cards - no unopened boosters of boxes, just single cards

Calculating the values of what I have lying around using the regular channels like Brickpicker for Lego and MagicCardMarket and Trade Cards Online for cards, I can say that my current existing collection is worth:

Lego - 896.17 euro in closed sets and polybags
Cards - 687.93 euro in single cards

From these, I already traded around a fair share for the smurf`s Harry Potter cards, my minifigures, more Lord of the Rings sets and the likes.  So even though I don`t actually see a single dime for these with all the exchanging, this doesn`t mean I can count it`s value and add to the total.

That means I still have `leverage` to add to both collections (you know, finding something on a market or such, or an end of collection buy etc...) of 103.83 euros for Lego sets and 312.07 euros for Magic cards maximum for the purpose of this experiment.

Never the less, for purpose of oversight I`m going to be putting a small line for those in the sidebar at the `goals` section, but put the values already at 1.000 as well as adding the value of the traded for sets and cards of the last months, and every month I will update it with a small review of affairs in this experiment.

And hopefully soon answer the question: what would be the better investment, Lego bricks or magic cards...

The Big 1000

Never would I have thought that, with my goldfishlike attention span, when I put down my first words on this blog on the 28th of february 2010 that it would endure to this point.

The 1000th post on my little corner of the internet!

Now, 4.5 years later, this blog has a nice up and about 150 followers, nears the 200.000 views mark, and occassionally pops up near the top of a page during a google search.

Thanks all!

What started out as a small asset to use club reports back then, as we where in a Pulp craze for a while and Andy suggested to also start blogging, has endured over all these years, though slowly but steadily the blog, and by extention my intrests and personality, went through a series of transitions.

The Beginning

At first, I talked about wargames.  This was MY hobby, I loved it and spend every free minute painting up miniatures.  However, at that time the regular gaming group started to fall apart as we all got older, priorities changed, and after the umpteenth failed gamesystem or campaign, having painted up obscure miniature number 17543 I threw in the towel.
I was tired of painting figures all night long, only to end with them trying to recouperate a small portion of their value, now even painted, through the second hand market as the game went out and the models had no use any longer.

During that time, I had also rekindled my Magic: the Gathering game, and what was intended as only a time filler at the club, turned out to playing competitively and this meant the actual killing stroke for the wargame hobby.

I tried twice over those years to get `back into it`, usually after a Crisis show, but it has all ended up with my two nephews `inheriting` all my figures and paints when they started showing intrest in the hobby.  The Next Generation so to say...

But to this day, my Salute and Crisis reports are amongst the most viewed posts of the blog still.

The Time Intensive One

A large event that occured during the lifetime so far of this blog, was the Playstation Challenge, an epic duel of many game hours between myself and Andy.  The setup was simple, which `team` (aka, household) could manage to score the most Playstation Network Points (aka Trophies) over the course of exactly one year or 365 days.

Because in the meantime, I had gotten together steadily with my on/off relation, and the kid.  Aka the GF and the Smurf.  So they where my team, while Andy had his wife and two sons to help wipe away all opposition.

The challenge was harder then might be expected, as I had volunteered to do all the paperwork.  This involved checking each and every day what the scores of the day before where and adding them to an oversight page that resided for the duration of that event on this blog.  Then around the end of every month, an inbetween scorecard would be posted.

This turned out to be much and much more work then I had expected, and was even tiresome at times, but I pulled through (and won...).

But during, and due to the Playstation Challenge, something happened

The end of the Dark Ages

I bought the Lego The Lord of the Rings game, and it came with a small polybag promo of Elrond.  I kept the figure instead of tossing it on eBay or the likes, just because I loved the movies and adore the books, and it got a display somewhere on a shelf next to my computer.  Strike 1.

A few months later, I was in the local toy store and saw the Arrival of Gandalf set.  Nothing fancy, costing 12 euros or so, and thought that was a nice model to put alongside Elrond, so I bought it, and kept looking at some more of the Lord of the Rings Lego.  And took along one of their free catalogues.  Strike 2.

Then the Smurf started shifting from PlayMobil to Lego, and by accident we found out of a Lego event 5 minutes from our door.  So we wen`t to have a look at what turned out to be BeLUG`s Brick Mania Antwerp event (and the final time in the smaller venue).  I saw all those gorgeous builds, and got hooked again, at first getting sets to build only.  I discovered Eurobricks and the Guilds of Historica, signed up and felt the want to start building again myself.  Strike three and out where the Dark Ages.

Now, I must confess, even though the Dark Ages lasted in my case exactly 20 years, but I never heard of that term back then.  Those are things you `learn` as you start looking further more into the hobby of Lego.

The Lego Era

And that brings the blog to it`s current form, focussing on Lego instead of on miniature soldiers as it`s mainliner.  But just as it was with wargaming, I`m doing this with a passion.  The added benefit is that you can build in the confines of your living room without having to have someone over to `play`, which is invaluable in a relationship.

Where I was dreaming about army lists a few years ago, now I`m scribbling down ideas for MoCs and instead of what army to buy now, it has become a want list of (classic) Lego sets.  Though it takes just as much display space for the build models, at least you can tear them down after a while and re-use the parts.

But Also

Apart from Lego, I do spend time of course reading and watching, and playing video games when I can.  But like with my MMOs, the Playstation suffers from busy agendas, just as magic will again go to the backburner for at least the coming 5 months due to other obligations and time management.  I will try to pick up a tournament or so left or right, but let`s just say I`m glad I already have enough points for the WMCQs of 2015 in the pocket.

Exploring New Horizons

Where will the future take this blog to?  I have no idea, because wouldn`t it be dead boring if we knew in front all that would happen?  What I can say though, is that my bricks are here to stay, I will keep reviewing books and movies as I manage to see them, my love for F1 remains and more of the geeky stuff...

Up to the next 1000!!!


Special Thanks Go To:

Andy, for introducing me to this platform.

The now defunct Far Side of the Galaxy: there where definilty some great times and campaigns, but we just had run our course at the end.

The TSA (Tin Soldiers of Antwerp) gaming club: for 17 years, you have been my home on the weekends.

The GF and The Smurf: for keeping up and sticking out with this goofball.

Mom and Dad, for safekeeping my Lego bricks in huge boxes in the garage for over 20 years.  Okay, you thought that would all go to the nephews or grandchildren, not return to it`s original owner, but heck, you can`t have it all exactly hehe.

And of course, all of you out there, that visit this page at times!

GP Utrecht report - a view from the trenches

And so my second GP of my Magic career has come to pass with the Utrecht 2015 Grand Prix, and on the contrary to London two years ago, this one was a whole weekend of card chucking.

Before we start a rather odd tale of very odd games, let`s recap my personal goals. I wanted to go 3 - 6, as my last one was a 2 win GP, and grab 150 Planeswalker Points in the process.

Now, the trip there was already an adventure, Utrecht, and especially the area around the venue, the Jaarbeurs, was a battlefield.  We have driven around the center nearly for an hour, passing our hotel, the NH Jaarbeurs, about 5 times and ended even on a bus road...  but we found it in the end and managed to park the car for 3 days in a garage.  Then it was off to the Burger King for a quick bite, and off to the venue for the first side events.

The first thing I enrolled in was a Chaos Draft.  And something I`ll never do again, at 25 euros, 8 player single elimination, the chances of getting value out of it is rather minimal, my actual best value cards where a Logic Knot and a Terminate, and cry me a river, I went out in round one.

The second side event I had registred for was the Foiled Again.  At 20 euros for a Sealed, you`re basically playing for free as boosters at retail cost me 4 euros a piece, and every participant received a free promo, this months FNM Bile Blight.  If you got 2 wins out of 4 you`d get two boosters and more promos, but at 0-2 I was spend and dropped even though I had a minimal chance for the prices.  I just wanted to eat, and the hotel restaurant had a very good restaurant.

After some testing that evening, I knew my deck was pretty safe against Mono-Black (yes, I have Torch Fiends in my sideboard, and they would prove their worth). The new hype Rabble Red is chanceless under normal draw conditions, I can 60/40 win game one, then switch in 3 Circle of Flames for 3 of my one drops and mulligan if needed to 3 down, as long as I have a single mountain, a Circle and another land, the game ends on turn 2.  The Hail the Hydra deck also for some reason has big issues winning against my concoction, as in 10 test games vs Glenn, I went 8-2.  No idea why though, it just works for some bizare reason.

So it was the big day, and it turned out to be `one of those days`.  I lost fair and square to some players who where just better then me, but I also lost two games in particular in very, VERY frustrating ways.

In one match, we where at 1-1 when he goes Supreme Verdict, then lays down an elvish mystic.  I am at 7, he at 1 at that moment.  I got 8 land on the table, so any creature or burn coming of the deck is a win, even a Fanatic for 1 is sufficient.  I got beaten to death in 7 turns by an attacking Mystic...  as I drew 7 lands, resulting in 15 out of 20 being on the table and losing the match.

Another frustrating game was when also at 1-1, he was at 4, I at 20.  I had already played all my 3 damage burns, and he was building an army with Nissa, while my small creatures couldn`t attack lest be blocked to death, so they where on damage control duty.  Either one of my Mizzium Mortars, Fanatic of Mogis or Stoke the Flames, all still in the deck, would nail it, and there where only 21 cards left in my library, so chances looked good.  So enter the draw steps for the following turns... Cackler, Mountain, Nyktos, death... AARGH.

And my 3rd win?  In the final round, number 9... my opponent didn`t show up...

Frustrating, very frustrating... but at least I have the Batterskull Promo and have my foil signed by the present artist, Filip Burburan, for my signatures map.

But after that, we went out for drinks and very, very good ribs in the Utrecht centre, and it all ebbed away, so after another very short and interrupted night, we went back in to play the Standard event and grab some points hopefully.

Going in 3-3 at the end, it was a good game that polished up my mood a lot, and while the designated driver was still doing a draft, I went in for a quick Standard pick up side event.  In this, you play with 8, single elimination.  Winning your first match gains you 2 boosters, ending second yields 4 and winning it gives you 6 boosters of M15.

My first match up was a Mono Black deck, so I went to the second round smoothly with 2-0.  There I faced off against a... mono black deck and a quick 2-0 later, I suddenly found myself playing a Jund deck for the win.  I won the first game with a bit of struggling and a top deck fanatic, but then in game two he got mana issues and I actually won the second event of my whole Magic career, within a month of the first.  Topping this off, it also yields a quick 30 Planeswalker Points.

So I got 6 boosters, that yielded a not great, but not to bad either bunch of cards:

So after three days of battling and trading, we returned back to Antwerp with a decent amount of Planeswalker Points, and my (only barely) eyed 3 wins.  Which should have been some more if I didn`t have one of those days, but in all honesty, day 2 was never an option.  I`m just glad I didn`t face Blue Devotion...

At the time of writing this, the PWP site hasn`t updated with the GP itself, only the side events, but from those I already hauled in 84 points. The GP normally should add 136 more to that tally, so scoring over 200 points also already secures my ticket for the WMCQ`s of 2015, so I`ll be back on that battlefield after having to pass them next week due to not qualifying (I haven`t played much in 2014, 3 or 4 events only) and not going to be able to attend the last chancers on saturday (I can`t get it sold to the GF to be out for another weekend again).

And now, I can start aiming my sights on the rotation of the cards, as I will probably be already dismantling my deck of Ravnica block cards and put in fillers of Theros for now until Khans hit... it was a fun deck, it did it`s job, and the Torch Fiend was definitly my last minute stroke of genius as no Bow nor Whip has annoyed me over the whole weekend... and no opponent saw that counter coming either... He is a stayer in the sideboard, as the new Perilous Vault is making it`s way into decks as well...

To Grand Prix Utrecht!

Awake for 2 hours now, after only sleeping 5... not the ideal resting span for one of the `biggies` in the Magic playing field but heck, in about an hour I`m off for a weekend of card chucking in the dutch city of Utrecht.

Apart from closing myself off from the internet for the coming 3 days (lol, that are going to be a lot of mails to read sunday evening), I`m going there with a few modest goals as this will be only my second GP ever after London.

The format being Standard and me hauling along the traditional Red deck, I`m going for a main event goal of 3 wins, which unless I come up against Mono-Blue after Mono-Blue should be doable I think.  But since I`m there all weekend and not expecting Day 2 unless I get very lucky, I will be playing some side events as well both today and on sundays (no matter the track record, I`m going for an all 9er on the Main one).

Looking at the schedule, I`ll be perhaps trying to have a go at one of today`s Last Chance Trials for bye`s and boosters.  But what intrests me more is the 18 o`clock Foiled Again event for boosters and promos.

On saturday we have the Main event itself, but on sunday I hope to catch the Super Sunday, a Sealed event where the winner can grab 108 boosters, and a plane ticket invitational in Seattle, OR the Standard Championship, it will all depend on those on the time we`ll be getting back from the venue.

Running in between those are all weekend 8 player events, in Standard, Modern, Legacy, Chain Draft, Conspiracy draft, Chaos draft and Historic draft Zendikar - Worldwake.  Maybe if I get an opening, I might put in some time with either the Zendikar or the Chaos events, but I cannot say for sure yet how it might all turn out, just that I`ll be chucking a LOT of cards.

The end goal is 150 Planeswalker Points to be grabbed this weekend.  The Main Event having a x8 multiplier while the Public Events are at x3, this *should* be doable if I can keep my turn around rate going at around 50%, and should sort out the WMCQ issue for next year in one go.

Talk to you all on sunday (though I think the full Utrecht shennanigans by moi will be for monday, after the PWP site updates...)

Building my GP Utrecht deck: Fanatic of Thraxes

Well, in little over a week I`m off to go and battle in the GP Utrecht in The Netherlands, and the format is Standard, at the time I`m writing this.  But it will be a few more days before this actually pops up on this blog, as I needed to put it through some tests with a FNM on friday and a x3 event on sunday, which are reported about further on.

Now being a red player since day 1, I decided to take an aggro deck with me, but unlike my usual `red weenies` concoctions, this time I build a deck with a twist.

Fanatic of Thraxes is what I call my deck because of two key creatures in it: the Fanatic of Mogus, and the Spawn of Thraxes.  Yes, I play the big red dragon, and on the contrary to about everyone else, not the Stormbreath variety.

Why?  Because he is Mizzium Mortar proof for one, and because of his secondary ability of burning damage equal to the amount of Mountains in play.

How it Works

Well, this deck is not really `red aggro` in that it attacks, attacks and keeps attacking, an issue I usually get is after leaving the doors in a hurry and smacking in a swift 10 to 12 damage before the opponent stabilizes and my weenies get blocked to high heaven.  No, the set up of this build is to indeed leave the door with Cacklers, Zealots and Phoenix`es, preferably boosted for some extra points, but then once the field starts to stabilize to hold back and cease the attacks.  Then I rely on the burn effects by both the Fanatics and the Spawns to throw a lot of damage to it`s head on red devotion and mountains.

Burn wise, I have the Stoke the Flames which will burn during this waiting time on his turn by tapping my beasties, and lightnings that will get fling to the head.  The Searing Bloods are there to be used asap, to keep the pressure on and disrupt their early game.

And the lonely Satyr Firedancer and Purphoros?  They are just in there to have an extra option, either by doing double burn effects or to have an indestructible blocker...

The Decklist

4x Rakdos Cackler
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Ash Zealot
3x Altac Bloodseeker
1x Satyr Firedancer
4x Chandra`s Phoenix
4x Fanatic of Mogus
1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
2x Spawn of Thraxes

2x Lightning Strike
1x Titan`s Strength
2x Madcap Skills
4x Stoke the Flames
4x Searing Blood

2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
18x Mountain

Sideboard

3x Circle of Flame
2x Mizzium Mortars
4x Skullcrack
2x Boros Reckoner
2x Eidolon of the Great Revel
2x Peak Eruption

The Circles and the Eidolon will be boarded in when I`m facing other weenie aggressors.  Mortars and the Reckoners are there for those Monsters and Heroics decks, while Peak Eruption is lingering in the board in case there are those splashin red for removal.  And Skullcrack?  Well, Jund of course...

The Goal

Of course I can dream of winning the thing, but realism is not going to let this happen.  Considering I`m there the whole weekend, not only will I be able to battle the whole x8 tournament for hopefully 3 or 4 wins and as such some juicy Planeswalker Points, but I`ll also be able to snatch up one or two side-events on the friday or sunday.

All in all, my goal for the GP itself is to come home with 150+ Planeswalker Points, which should solidify my participation at next years WMCQ`s, an event I am missing this year due to circumstances in real life and not being able that way to make a measly 300 points the past yearly.

The Ideal Wet Dream Play

Turn 1: Mountain - Rakdos Cackler
Turn 2: Mountain - Ash Zealot - hit for 4
Turn 3: Nyktos, Shrine to Nyx - Burning-Tree Emissary - Burning-Tree Emissary - activate Nykthos with the second BTE`s 2 mana for 7 red - Spawn of Thraxes with burn for 2, possibly attack for 4 depending board state
Turn 4: who cares, I have now 4 power 2 and 1 flying power 5 in play...

Testing the Deck

1. FNM Standard, 1st of August

Okay, that didn`t work out.  I`m actually a bit on a two-pronged mind set here, in that I believe the deck has actual potential and the concept is workable, but the first test revealed it needs more tweaking in stabilizing it`s mana base and curve.

For one, I am thinking of replacing the Titan`s Strength and Madcap Skills, and on the other hand exchanging perhaps even the Phoenixes for one drops.

The first game was against a white human deck, and I took home round one after a struggle.  The second one I lost, but in the third one, I kept a one lander with a Cackler and a Circle of Flame.  All I needed was to draw one more land and the game would be won, as each of the creatures he played would kill themselves in attack.  Needless to say, not a single land showed up...

Game 2 was against my worst possible match up, Mono-Blue Devotion.  Not much to say, as gods and elementals made a mess of my deck and a swift 0-2 followed.

Game 3 was a blue white control deck, and I was killed in the end by... 5/5 Mutavaults.  My only saviour would have been topdecking the Spawn of Thraxes, but of course that didn`t happen.

Game 4 was against 5 color slivers, and I won the first round with `traditional` red aggro, then went down in round 2 when the Hive Lord was out.  I did manage to take home the final round with the Fanatic of Mogus, salvaging some honour and going a disappointing 1-3 overal, but never the less with lessons learned.

I don`t have time with only one testing chance left this sunday, so I am going for the `safer` way to prepare the deck for GP Utrecht by taking out both Spawns, the Titan`s Strength and the Satyr Firedancer, replacing them with 4 Frenzied Goblins and go for a more traditional `out the gates` approach, but I did think of a few alternate plays to be tried in the future, one involving exchanging the side-board Peak Eruptions with two Heat Rays, to heavily burn my own Reckoners.

In the longer run, aka after the GP, I AM going to revisit this deck and expand and tinker with it further.  I`ll be already rotating out the cards that will fall off the month after, and will have this as the concept to build around, tuning and tinkering along the way, but for now the Spawns will have to wait two weeks before getting a fresh chance to shine.

But at least we`re 5 points closer to qualify for next years WMCQs...

2. Belgic Magic Standard Tournament x3 PWP Modifier

So the final chance to test came, and it was a serious tournament with a x3 Multiplier and in the end 75 attendees.  The first price was a trip + hotel to GP Strassbourg, but my personal goal was to give the deck some testing and get a feel for how it works and where I might make some last chance changes for next week.

I started of against an artifact deck, and managed both games to shoot out of the starting blocks and quickly finish the game, there was not a real issue during play, and having an opening hand in game 2 of 2 one drops, 3 emissaries and 2 mountains helps a lot as well. 

The second game is one of the what will turn out 3 games of sour taste in the mouth.  It was mono-black, and I swiftly lost round 1 after getting totally mana flooded, even after a mulligan to 6 before for having... 6 lands in hand and a single goblin.  Game two, I had him, as creatures swooped in... and then he topped a Drown in Sorrow, followed by Desecration Demon and Pack Rats... the end.

The third round was against White and Green with Pilgirms, auras etc, and I was seriously helped by mana issues in both rounds on my opponents part.  I won a swift 2-0 without losing a single life, only to have my ass overwhelmed afterwards in a test game.

Round 4 was another mono-black and more of the same.  I won game one, he won game 2, and then... he topped Drown in Sorrow after he was being overwhelmed even for all his removal...

Most hated card for me ever since Thragtusk...

Match 5 saw me against white weenies, and I won round 1.  He took home round two, and even though I had Circle sided in to counter his Brimaz tokens, both in game 2 AND 3 he took a Spear of Heliod from top... I really am going to follow courses on deck shuffling.

Match 6 put me back into the range for price support, as after taking it home against this planewalker deck by swiftly winning rounds 1 and 3 (he totally overpowered me in 2, though if I topped good for once and took a Fanatic, it would have been over for his gazillion beasts and walkers. Of course, i drew a mountain....).  The top 25 (aka, probably those 4-3 and better) would receive at least 3 booster packs...

But it was not to be, as I faced the Mutavault and Sheep deck from past FNM.  Though I could manage to take round 2 thanks to an Eidolon, I didn`t get decent creatures in game 3 and went under to Archangel, Sheeps and Vaults and a heap of triggers...

Still, 3-4 in the end, which is enough Planeswalker Points normally to get to level 30 and about 1/3th down the road for next years WMCQ`s.

The only thing I`m still thinking about?  Wether to keep the two peak Eruptions in my sideboard, or to change them for either two Burning Earths or two artifact burning demons... Oh well, I still have 5 days to think about that...

And then it is back to the thinking board, as I`ll be cycling out all my rotating cards already (I don`t know if I`ll get to play before the next block launches anyways), put in some placeholders until the block arrives, AND tinker around with the Spawn some more ;-)