Pauper is Awesome

Just Getting into this format and I built the empty/storm deck.

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Attacking for 80 on turn 3 is pretty sweet.

Outplayed.

Pfft, I was gonna win this one anyway.

Quick Update.

Heading back down to edison to PTQ this weekend.  No updates until Monday.  Wish me Luck  :)

SCG Open Edison & Legacy Dredge Talk

Just Got back from the SCG Open in Edison yesterday, Dropped at 3-2 in standard(Playing RUG, Bertoncini's list -1 oracle +1 pyroclasm main) and Finished 7-2 In the legacy(Playing Dredge w/ LED & sun titan), Missing top 16 on breakers(finished 19th overall).

The Dredge Deck we(me & Mark Hornung) Played was totally sweet, here's the list first and then I will talk about some of the card choices and interactions.

Creatures
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
3 Golgari Thug
4 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Putrid Imp
1 Sun Titan
4 Stinkweed Imp
1 Hapless Researcher
1 Woodfall Primus

Enchantments
4 Bridge from Below

Artifacts
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

Instants
1 Firestorm

Sorceries
4 Breakthrough
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Deep Analysis
3 Dread Return

Lands
3 Cephalid Coliseum
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine

Sideboard:
3 Pithing Needle
2 Firestorm
4 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Chain of Vapor
1 Serenity
1 Stormtide Levithian
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

So Obviously the first card that looks totally bizarre is the Sun Titan in the slot where most people just have Sphinx of Lost Truths.  Sun titan does pretty much everything sphinx does and more:
a) With a mana floating/untapped land it brings back cephalid coliseum to draw 3 discard 3.
b) With no Mana floating and a Deep Analysis in the yard it brings back Lion's Eye diamond to empty your hand and flashback Deep Analysys(leaving you U to dread return titan again, after therapying it away of course, and getting coliseum, if you are digging for FKZ to win instantly)
c) Recurs Serenity out of the board every turn to get rid of annoying crap like Moat, Solitary Confinement, Ensnaring Bridge, Elephant Grass, Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Thopter/Sword Combo, the entire Affinity deck, the entire MUD deck etc.
d) Recurs Hapless reasearcher to dredge more if you have no mana and no deep analysis in the yard.
e) Recurs Stinkweed Imp to Block and kill Emrakul if Necessary or any other annoying flyer (killed a fully leveled Coralhelm Commander at the tournament)
f) In a situation that comes up where you have 2 Bridges 2 dread returns and FKZ but are 1 zombie short of killing them(because they have blockers or whatever) Recurring Sun titan + any creature and then dread returning again for FKZ will net you 1 additional Zombie.  This doesn't seem like a huge deal but it came up for me in a game against a deck with deed which made the VERY relevant despite the fact that I had alot of zombies.  You can also do this if you have exactly enough Zombies to do lethal but want to therapy them first to play around a counterspell.

Anyway a non-led and very very vanilla Looking Dredge Deck top 8'd so I would perhaps be wary of playing the deck within the next couple weeks.  The whole thing with dredge is that as soon as people see it around, it ceases being good. Since nearly Everyone is on Nihil Spellbomb, Tormod's Crypt, Boujouka Bog, or Loaming Shaman these days, Leyline of Sanctity should be the Anti-Hate Card of choice for your sideboards.  For any Given non-combo deck I usually Sideboard 3 Needles and 4 Leylines + Alter my DR Package, I Generally Side out LED + Deep Analysis.  This Gives you good "coverage" in the dark although obviously its cold to Leyline.  If people are playing leyline in significant numbers you cant really fight it, you just have to play a different deck, you really need to pick your spots. I felt like I had a good read on sunday and it panned out (for the most part, my losses were to Cephalid Breakfast, which is probably just a bad match-up, and to a Team America Deck where I just ran Badly Game 1, and was "forced" to keep a good hand without anti-hate game 2 and he just had the Nihil Spellbomb to kill me) so we will see where the metagame heads, but it looks like the target should be on Various kinds of Junk/Midrange decks, NO Bant with no countertop, and "hand combo" decks like High Tide and decks trying to Emrakul people.

May Your Dredge 6 Be: Narco, Narco, Narco, Bridge, Bridge, Dread Return

-2nd_Lawl

Avoiding Punts!

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My opponent should have easily won this game, Instead he easily lost it because he didn't realize that Thraximundar(who is one of the strongest 7's) was legendary.  He lost both the legend and his renegade doppelganger(who himself is a top 10% 2 drop) because he got careless.

Part of the appeal of the Momir format is that it is going to put you in a lot of unfamiliar situations: complex boards with huge creatures, Strange interactions never before assembled in magic, and complex play decisions that require knowledge of your outs.  This means that you have to be EXTRA careful when navigating a complex play situations.  Probably the most common punt I see is simply missing an attack.  Remember that Momir is a (mostly) perfect information format (unless what land types in your opponent's hand matters, but they usually don't).  A good way to think about the format is that it is like playing a bunch of "Magic: The Puzzling" games.  Tight play wont matter so much in the blowouts, but a surprising amount of momir games are VERY close.  Sure, sometimes you get Llanowar Elves Into Hypnotic Specter on the play and your opponent never had a chance, or you get Phage on 7, but those games are comparable to regular magic games where you or an opponent get mana screwed or flooded badly or whatever.  Just like in real magic, tight play and thinking about your outs(use gatherer if you need to) is what is going to win you the close ones.


May all your 2's Be Azorious Guildmage,
-2nd_lawl

Dodgin'

 

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Went on to win this one, getting him to exactly 0.  

A Quick aside on manabases: I run 19 each Mountain and Swamp, 8 Each Island and forest and 6 Plains.  I feel like you REALLY want 4-5 Mountains on turn 8(for Scourge of Kher Ridges, Hellkite Overlord etc). But you also want access to BBB for Helldozer and Kalitas, Bloodcheif of Ghet.  You want Islands and forests for activated abilities but don't necessarily want to play them because of landwalkers(although playing forest is okay, because Vaevictus Asmati is the only elder dragon legend worth keeping around, since he ends the game so fast).  By the time i get to 8 I like having 4 Mountain 3 Swamp 1 Forest in play OR 5 Mountain 3 Swamp, 4 Mountains 4 Swamp is also accessible.  I see so many of my opponents playing Islands and I have no sympathy when they get blown out by Sundering Titan.

Arkroma is Just Ridiculous

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Was Playing in a 2-man que Yesterday, This guy got greedy and, on the play, Skipped 1 and then went straight to 7 without stopping, because he smelled blood when he hit sphinx summoner on 4 vs my no fliers. I made it to 8 and arkroma killed him from 22 in 2 hits.  There is actually a lesson to be learned here: Momir basic is about commitment. There actually IS a time where its going to be correct to go "all in" on 6's or 7's but that will happen alot more and be more successful if you PLAY YOUR 1-DROP, on the play!  This guy hedged on t1, and when he got the goods on 2-4, he wasn't able to capitalize because he wasn't aggressive enough early.  There is a reason why the default strategy stop at 8: 8's are amazing, and im not just talking about Platinum Emperion or Hoverguard Sweepers here, both Arkromas, Hellkite Overlord, Sphinx of the Steel Wind etc, these types of huge idiot flyers end the game or put it out of reach VERY quickly, especially against an opponent who isnt playing 8's of their own.

So Today's Momir Lesson: Commit, and if you aren't getting to your 8's there better be a damn good reason.