Grand Prix San Diego / Worlds

[Thomas David Baker]

San Diego flights and hotel booked.  Flying in Friday afternoon, flying out Sunday evening.  At the Omni (the hotel with the group rate).

 

Not sure who apart from Dan Royde who frequents these boards will be there but I will be there with my friend Jess from up my way and my colleague Nathan who lives in SD.  Let's meet up if you are going to be there.  [phone].  Same number for Worlds the following week where I am local.  I can translate American.  Top tip: "say WAHRDURR for water and TOMAYDO for tomato".  And the ground floor is the first floor.  And drive on the right.  That last one might be more important than the tomato thing.

 

[Daniel Royde]

Have you already booked rooms? I don't know if even a single other person is going to go from the UK. I might be looking for someone to share a room with.

 

[Thomas David Baker]

I have a King bed in the Omni (the official hotel) ... it's $140 a night (group rate, if you mention Magic).

 

I suppose I could switch do a pair of double beds for the same price but I am a curmudgeonly old man who likes his own room!

 

[Dan Barrett]

This looks right up your alley (mine too), Tom:

 

A 50-card Modern highlander format that will be played casually at Worlds, called "Filth Casserole"

 

http://inkwelllooter.blogspot.com/2011/10/get-in-casserole.html

[Tomas Sukaitis]

Daniel, a Polish guy Lukasz Musial is going to San Diego, if you want to try room sharing with him.

[Daniel Royde]

I'm never room sharing with magic players who I don't already know well again- too many bad experiences.

 

[Peter Dun]

@DanR: amen to that.... I've shared three times with ppl I didn't know very well

Eduardo (before I knew him): backed out at last minute, forcing me to pay for twin room by myself

Australian Guy: cannot remember his name... used to be a model... at GP Madrid... the 20th birthday story :P

Kevin Grove: 6ft 6 Dutch player. We shared for yokohama... the room was.... TINY... it didn't end well (I felt a bit bad though, because this was me backing out... but there was LITERALLY (yes, I mean literally, not figuratively), no room for both of us (Japanese romes are very very small)

 

What are you considering playing?

I have a pretty solid Mentor of the Meek/Elves list for modern if you are interested... (I am testing gilt-leaf archdruid and momir vig as one ofs* [not both, either or] and I think it depends on style). The introduction of batterskull makes the deck a lot better than it used to be vs decks such as zoo.

 

Also remember that wild pair is a card.... and grand abolisher is a 2/2 (so in the same colour as one of the two enablers... grinning ignus/whitemane lion). i.e. Play whitemane lion. They kill it, get another one. They don't kill it, get abolisher. Go off at leisure.

 

You probably know more about t2 than me (noone plays constructed here...). However, I do like a lot of what Todd Anderson says about T2 in this article....:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/standard/22983_Constructed_Criti...

Garruk Relentless and Mayor of Avabruck are heavily underated atm for what they do (they are not amazing, but in the situations they are good, they are very good).

Obviously I prefer a build with dungrove elders and no slagstorm... but maybe that's DANGER OF COOL THINGS (TM). Also karn is nuts, green sun's zenith is best card in t2 etc.

What are the brits going to play at worlds... very curious... especially as I have no facebook ;)

 

 

 

*Momir vig + green creature + mentor/glimpse = draw your deck. Momir and mentor can both be tutored for with chord of calling. Gilt leaf archdruid is one of the very best cards you can vial/chord in vs a splinter twin deck. Joraga treespeaker/fauna shamans are huge boons to the deck.

[Louis Mackie]

What's the best kill in Wild Pair combo? Get a bunch of Mirran Crusaders and a FKZ? (FKZ + Abolisher  + 2 Crusaders is 18, so that's probably dead)

EDIT: Looking around, people are playing Primal Forcemage and Chancellor of the Forge.

 

Also what about a deck that casts Gifts for just Unburial Rites + Relevant Fattie (Archangel against Zoo, Iona against Storm etc). That seems good.

[Peter Dun]

Louis: depends on how you want to build the deck... the "best" kill imho is crypt champion/saffi/hissing iguanar, but that is vulnerable to many many things and gives you dead cards in your deck. it might be ok if you play fauna shaman + chord of calling though, especially as spellskite can also be tutored up.

 

you can also kill with deceiver exarch + kiki jiki if you can find a way to get wall of roots in play, but I've forgotten how you turn p/t 4-> p/t 5

 

in block the deck killed with primal forcemage + bogarden hellkites or primal forcemage + avalanche riders, but of which could work... but I'm not sure if that's the right way to go about it either

[Daniel Royde]

Pete,

Email me any lists you're prepared to- we're in the idea generation stage still.
Come on skype tonight (GMT)?

[Louis Mackie]

You could use a Veteran Armorer, he'd make Lion/Ignus 2/3 to grab Bell Ringer (on colour I suppose).

 

So, WP > Ignus > Abolisher, Ignus >  Kiji-Jiki, Ignus > Armorer, Kiki Clone > Village Bell-Ringer

 

Why do you need a Wall of Roots?

 

Assuming your opponent can't activate abilities or cast spells due to Abolisher, how can they screw up the Saffi combo? Needle/Leyline? No one plays Leyline that I know of, and you can tutor Acidic Slime and the like for Needle anyway. (I think Faerie Macabre will still work, not sure of the ruling though).

[Peter Dun]

Louis: you are guarenteed to be playing wall of roots, as its the best 2 drop for a deck like this:

- Gives you an extra mana in their eot when you are going off

- Mana Acceleration

- Blocks

- Can tutor lion (use mana ability ir to wild pair)

- Counts double for chord of calling

- My thought process was that if you have wall, you can go

             - Lion -> Kiki (return wall), Wall -> Exarch, but I guess with armourer you can do that too.

I wonder whether its worth playing armourer just for that interaction though... its a dead card a lot of the rest of the time. Playing chord in a deck with kiki + exarch is not a bad idea though.

 

wow, abolisher turns off activated abilities.... I did NOT realise that (although I should know from draft experience....). that turns off pridemage too....

 

@DanR:  a little complicated this weekend. French embassy in Beijing is having a party for the opening of new premises. What times are you free? You have me on skype and msn right?

 

 

EDIT: Pros and Cons of the two wild pair kill conditions.

Saffi/Iguanar/Crypt Champion: 2 dead cards, 1 solid card. Saffi will protect teeg or fauna shaman from removal and will come back later. You can also pod these into each other (ok, this is DEFINATELY too cute... but still... champion will even bring back a previously podded iguanar or saffi...)

Veteren Armourer/Kiki/x: 1 dead card (you will never have enough Red to cast kiki unless you go for the ignus kill (not a bad idea, as its cheaper, but then you have a lot of awkward issues with casting cards like abolisher... maybe forcing you to play dosan (MUCH WORSE) instead etc.), 1 bad card, 1 solid card. I actually prefer exarch, as it will untap a land for you, meaning you can go off with 5 mana (this is relevant if you are casting your wild pair off cards like pentad prism, lotus bloom or seething song).

 

To be honest, I don't know which is better... 1 md, 1 sb :P

[Charlie Grover]

Presumably you can turn p4 --> p5 by casting your lion and returning wall of roots and playing it? I used to play WP in block and the forcemage kill condition could get a bit awkward, i presume it is the same for armorer