Congrats to all the madness crew… we did AWESOME yesterday. I think there were 5 or 6 people who went 4-0 in their flight by the time i left.

Any BOMB cards from yesterday?

CYTOSHAPE is DEFINATELY a bomb. Play of the day yesterday…

Kevin Delger is playing against a guy who has the absolute nuts. Kevin’s board is something like a seal of doom, a 1/1, an untargetable primordial sage, and a 3/5 dimir infiltrator. The guy drops avatar of discord with a cloak and passes the turn. Kevin topdecks cytoshape, attacks with his infiltrator (putting the guy at 57, cuz he already cloaked a sunhome enforcer) and passes. His opponent attacks with the flying 8/6, and Kevin Cytoshapes, turning the 8/6 flier into his little 1/1 green guy, then pops the seal of doom. The guy had no cards in hand, and Kevin went on to win.

Sky Hussar is unbelivably good.
Hit // Run is really powerful.
Lyszolda the Blood Witch is really good.
Rise // Fall is extremely good.
Voidslime is amazing.
Tidespout tyrant WITH windreaver is really good.
I know im forgetting a lot.

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8

the blue eidolon with windreaver is also very good in limited.

I like the concept of graft, I also like that you can cytoshape one of their creatures(with no counters on it) into one of your graft creatures and it will die as a 0/0.

I also used helium squirter in a graft mirror match to give his guys flying and shoot them with my trophy hunter
PULL!

I’m curious to see what will happen in standard.

Kevin

p.s. I don’t think Rakdos will own as much as everyone thinks.

“Wasn’t our plan just to get to 900 life and f***’em?”

Coldsnap Sealed: who cares
Coldsnap Draft: who cares

im in complete agreement with you, kevin… BR will not be very good in constructed. It’s WAY too risky to compete in topdeck mode. Graft seems to be the most constructed worthy mechanic. Its VERY crazy and a lot like modular.

The ONLY way, in my opinion for what its worth, that BR will be good is with card ADVANTAGE. Bob and arena make BR scary, with things like delirium skeins, fall, and the invitational card to rip the opponents hand while giving bloodthirst. Demonfire has to be the coolest artwork i’ve seen on a burn spell.

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8

Please, one card gives Hellbent all the fire it needs. Ignorant Bliss. Incase any of you missed it, this uncommon red instant costs 1R and removes your hand from the game until end of turn and then lets you draw a card when it comes back. Cheap, effective, surprise hellbent. And from what I saw, Hellbent does not seem to be too over priced on cards either. Feels to me to be costing about 2 colorless or 1 colored, depending on the card. And with several cards out there that become sick with hellbent in play, I think this will be a viable strategy. And can you imagine this is extended? Bliss on a Stick would just be nuts. 

Ill admit tho, that im still playing catchup when it comes to Magic strategy, so feel free to tell me why im wrong.

voidslime laughs at ignorant bliss. hellbent without it is horrible strategy. its like going “all-in” without being too sure of anything. of course, mindslicer changes ALL of that, cuz it causes your opponent to do the same.

Love,
Matt

Standard: Ideal 31-7-8

i think a few hellbent cards will make it into the mindslicer deck, other than that i think most will be played for their regular abilities, and the hellbent if it ever gets used will just be an added bonus, but im still all about dovescape…

Borrow money from pessimists - they don’t expect it back

I had some fun with squealing devil - board was - me with two flyers (3/3 and a 2/2) he had just played a Siege Worm.  I was at three life and looking at a beating next turn.  He was at ten life - but had no flyers. 

I top deck squealing devil, have enough mana to play him and pump one of my flyers by 5, swing for ten damage and win the game.

Another card that’s causes all kinds of issues for the other player is Toll of War - enchantment for three of any color and one red and causes....  Whenever an opponent taps a land for mana, tap all lands that player controls.  If a creature an opponent controls attacks, all creatures that opponent controls attack if able.  I just messes with people’s heads - a good player will play through it, but it sure makes them think of how to play around it.

On the green front - Thrive was “totally wicked” that card led to a number of wins in all kinds of ways.  With one green and X of any color to get....Put a +1/+1 counter on each of X target creatures.  Seems pretty broke with some of the cards like the manipulator out there.

Finally is our blue green freind - 7 mana for a 6/6 flying/trampling untargetable creature (who you could still cloak with a certain blue/green guild mage to turn into a 9/9 flying / trampling machine.)

All in all I thought it was a very fun day playing at the Dissension pre-release. The smaller flights make it so you didn’t have anywhere near the “wait time” previous pre-releases generated.  I know some of the better players didn’t like having the prize pool reduced - but the idea that the pre-release is there to attract all players, giving them a “free pack” is good PR and good for the game (need those other players coming back you know!) I went 3-1 in both my flights, and had a heck of alot of fun doing it.

Shrug, voidslime, like most any other counter, laughs at just about anything. Nothing new about that. Still, control decks, while popular, have never been OVERLY dominant. And the nice thing is that most hellbent cards (that I would play) dont actually SUCK if they arent hellbent. They may be a bit pricy at times, but if they go off, there is all hell to pay. And with bliss only costing two mana.. you run out of mana sometime in a control deck.

Don’t get me wrong, control is a great game strategy. And this is definitely a slightly risky proposition, but what im saying is that you dont HAVE to play Rakdos planning to “dump” your hand. You can actually play it to gain card advantage on your opponents. There are PLENTY of ways to gain card advantage in black. Being able to shift your hand “to the side” when you want to is just a bonus. Thats how I would play with hellbent. As a bonus for when it would really matter, and a nice effect if i happen to loose card advantage anyway. You dont HAVE to be playing in top deck mode to be playing rakdos you know.

EDIT: By the way, just because I disagree with you on this point, doesn’t mean I dont think you are a better player. You have routinely beat me in any game we have played up to this point. I can admit this. I can also admit that given time for me to get back in the swing of things, this will change, oh yes, this WILL change. 

Psyber - not saying the IBliss isn’t a great limited card, but against Voidslime (which should most definitely see play in constructed), the player would not counter the spell, but counter the trigger that brings your cards back and lets you draw that additional card.  So if the Voidslime player knows what he’s doing, it’ll be like you played One with Nothing instead of Ignorant Bliss.  Just slightly worse...lol. 

On the other hand - being the blue fan that I am, perhaps I’m just overly ecstatic that I got my playset of Voidslimes already from the Pre-release…

Next cards I want playsets of - Infernal Tutor and Research/Development…

Bad News: My pre-release(Saturday) totally sucked… No team events for those that started off in an individual flight, I got manascrewed out of TWO matches this time, and I was too late to enter in a 2nd flight(they ended all the events early, 1 event was even cancelled, and cut to 3 rounds of play instead of 4)...

Good News: I completed 2 extended decks(CAL/Heartbeat) and picked up full playsets of Infernal Tutor, Avatar of Discord, Hide // Seek, Demonfire, and FOIL Eternal Witnesses… YAY!

...On Saturday I opened total crap, and I drew in round 1 as usual. So we flipped a coin, and(Surprise!) I lost the flip, so I gave that match away. I won my next match, and lost match #3 to drawing 31 lands out of 40 cards in that match. Seriously, I don’t know how I do it…

Team events ended up being cancelled on Saturday, so Andres and I headed to Midnight(comics) and actually were able to do a RGD Draft(23 ppl, swiss cut to T4). And I tell you, that has to be the ABSOLUTE BEST limited format i’ve ever played in(I’m a draftin’ kind of guy).

So, on Sunday, they decided to continue Pre-Release Events, so I entered in another event. I opened the stone-cold NUTS this time… Including Master Warcraft, Char, Scion of the Wild, Govern the Guildless, AND Demonfire(first time i’ve ever played all of my RAV rares ).Here’s what I played:

5 Forest
4 Mountain
3 Swamp
2 Simic Growth Chamber
1 Island
1 Dimir Aqueduct

1 Frenzied Goblin
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Aquastrand Spider
1 Plaxmanta
1 Farseek
1 Moldervine Cloak
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Silkwing Scout
1 Shielding Plax
1 Char
1 Flaring Flame-kin
1 Scion of the Wild
1 Cackling Flames
1 Assault Zeppelid
1 Mausoleum Turnkey
1 Viashino Fangtail
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Master Warcraft
1 Ribbons of Night
1 Bramble Elemental
1 Govern the Guildless
1 Siege Wurm
1 Demonfire

In Round 1, My opponent doesn’t show up, so I get a free bye.

In Round 2, I play against Rakdos(straight RB splashing 1 plains for 1 Faith’s Fetters). He goes Turn 1 Frenzied Goblin, turn 2 Gobhobbler Rats, turn 3 Gobhobbler Rats + Taste for Mayhem on the Rat already in play, Turn 4 Fetters on my Zeppelid, swing in with Hellbent(he mulled to 6). Now tell me, how do you mulligan to 6 cards and draw your 1 plains, 1 swamp and 2 mountains, and have few enough cards in hand to go hellbent on turn 4 in LIMITED? Well, either way, I was at 3 life, which made my char in hand useless, and I didn’t have enough creatures in hand to stop the assault. Game 2 he starts out similarly, with Frenzied, Gobhobbler, Double Seal of Doom, AVATAR of Discord(WTF?), and Cackling Flames FTW… :( Doesn’t make you feel good when you open the nuts and get beat by the BETTER nuts.

Round 3, My opponent doesn’t show up AGAIN, and I get another free bye.

Round 4, I play against UGB, and I crush him in about 5 Minutes. I this match I first was able to get out a Moldervine Cloaked Flaring Flame-Kin(7/7 Trample, Firebreathing, anyone?), and then in Game 2 I had a Plaxed Flame-Kin, which my opponent used Drake Familiar and Repeal against my Plax trying to find removal for my flamekin. He finally found Simic Guildmage, but then I dropped a Bramble Elemental. So, he proceded to give me some saps, and I just stuck my moldervine cloak on the flame-kin once my opponent tapped out. Fun? Most certainly… I was happy with 3-1 and at least SOME packs, because usually karma screws me and would give me 2 byes and 2 losses… So, I guess I made out all right. But wait, I open the packs, and crack 7 Crap rares(IMO) in the form of Dread Slag, Elemental Resonance, Govern the Guildless(great in limited, but is there anything this takes that confiscate doesn’t? Don’t think so...), Evolution Vat, Muse Vessel, 2x Rakdos Riteknife(what’s with all the crappy artifacts I pull? gah...). Well, you “play the games because you love the game”...

Guess I’m never gonna go 4-0 at a PR… Meh, fun nonetheless… And I already have 3 new decklists thought up for regionals.

---

Current Decks:
UG Aggro
Mono-Green Turbo-Allosaurus!
Mono-Red BURN

RGD Draft: 25-7-2
RGD Sealed: ***Censored***

Hmm, didnt know voidslime could be used like that. That definitely does change things a bit. Just to make sure i understand how this works, the voidslime player would have to play voidslime during the end of turn phase once the triggered ability of Ignorant bliss was put on the stack, correct? It cant be countered till it is on the stack is my understanding of how counters work, and the ability wouldnt be on the stack till then. What happens if voidslime is used to counter triggered abilities of cards like aethermage’s touch? would the character stay in play? What if the triggered ability was a sacrifice, normally that cant be prevented, but since its not a cost, but a result of a triggered ability that could be stopped as well, right? This just looks like it would cause SOOO many problems, because its hard to determine costs. If you slime a usage of graft, the original creature doesnt loose the counter, right? Or is this a “cost” to use this triggered ability? So many questions......

Ok, so a creature comes into play, and the graft triggered ability goes to the stack, you can then use voidslime to nullify that ability and the counter never moves.

I also feel it necessary to point out the fact that it would be much more effective to just use voidslime to counter the creature in most cases. Doing so would leave only one creature with all the counters on it, rather than two creatures, one with all its counters on it.

Borrow money from pessimists - they don’t expect it back

and also, yes, any activated and or triggered ability can be countered, such as the sacrifice from goryo’s vengence, or the loss of life from kokusho being put into the graveyard, and yes, even the return all your creatures to play at the end of turn from ghostway. if it hits the stack, and doesn’t specify it cannot be countered (like obliterate) then voidslime can just say NO

Borrow money from pessimists - they don’t expect it back

I just was wondering, at the pre-release, i ran 3 main colors and splashed a fourth in both flights I played in. I have NEVER played four colors in a sealed event in my life, and going 4-0, and then 3-1 with a four color deck, i was just wondering if anyone else found themselves playing 4 colors last weekend.

Borrow money from pessimists - they don’t expect it back

I played four colors, though two were rather limited splashes.

Incidentally, the Rakdos are actually quite good if you play them correctly.  The trick isn’t just going hellbent yourself, it’s using things like Terry, Mindslicer, Delirium Skeins, and the Rakdos guildhall to make BOTH players go into topdeck mode.  Also, don’t forget that Rakdos gets a lot of proactive stuff like the seals and tons of creatures.  Certainly, going hellbent just for yourself is going to get you killed, but putting both players there gives you a pretty big advantage.

First flight I played 3 colors, second I tried 4 colors and did ok with them.  Only one of my matches did I have real mana issues (not getting the right colors).  I actually played a Red/Black deck with my four colors and beat it - he was the one with mana problems!  Oh, and that 5/3 flyer for three red or black and discard two cards?  Not worth it, while its a great beat machine, its too easy to kill and the lack of cards ends up costing you too much (I beat two of them in one flight)