PRE-RELEASE DAY!

 Friday, september 28. 11:59 pm. In one minute the guild gates that takes us to different locations in the city of light, intrigue, and conspiracy will be opened... So many years after the guild pact and now Niv m'izzet is consulting with one of the most powerful planeswalkers of all time... What are his plans? Are the other guilds aware of this? What is actually going on in RAVNICA?????? Its up to us to unveil this mystery...

First thing to do, is find out where to start. Prematurely, i booked a visit to the Izzet guild quarters on Saturday morning, disguised as a visiting professor from another realm trying to find a missing ingredient for a potion. All the rumors in the weeks before my arrival lead me to start my investigation at Niv m'izzet's lab... but now Im not so sure anymore... It seems that the real power behind this events might come from the everlasting courts of AZORIOUS... So much hidden power behind the the sky patrols of the keepers of the law... But how to enter that house during the day? With all the guards? Its impossible... Wait a second... Will I be able to sacrifice a night of sleep trying to get to know RAVNICA through its on defenses? Thats it! Ill start my incursion in the home of the law keepers...


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If you didnt get my intro text (or the title)! Today is pre-release day! Everybody is so excited about RTR, and this will be our first experience with the next PTQ format. Of course the Guild Packs are in the mix, so we can't say that this is exactly how sealed will be, and most people wont be prepared as everybody is just getting to know the cards and etc, but it will be a good intro!
Im playing for sure in 3 events this weekend:

- Friday-Saturday at Midnight: At Magic Bazar (their website can be found here) (around 70 players)
- Saturday at 09:30 am organized by Le Repaire du Dragon (facebook event information) (between 100 and 150 players)

- Sunday at 16:30 at Magic Corporation ( their website)


Im going to try to find a 4th one to do, but not sure if time (or places) will allow me.

I chose Izzet for the pre-release on saturday, but Im inclined to believe that Azorious is the best choice. The way I think the format will play, is that your multicolored commons and uncommons are the ones who are defining the pool you should play. Azorious has by far the best ones, with  solid flyers and Azorious Charm. As I told you guys before, most of the removal blue have are tempo removal, and adding white, your opponent may not have the chance to stop your flyers.

 

I will post a report of every one of the Pre-Releases, and give you other impressions as I play more... Its going to be a awesome weekend!

REMOVAL - GOLD

The card the promises to change/define the eternal formats (and probably standard), does not seem that powerful in limited... You are probably going to play it if you have in your pool, but I dont think its a first pick in draft. Most of the powerful things of the format are expensive, and abrupt decay wont take care of them.

Auger Spree is a awesome removal spell, specially for being common, and probably worth splashing. Its going to kill a reasonable sized creature, or diminish it enough to be eaten in combat! Be careful with the +4 as well, it can kill you out of nowhere...

To some, the best of the charms, to others, the worse of them... For me, Azorious Charm is one of the most powerful for limited, since life gain can swing a race in your favor, and the excommunication effect can totally blow out an attack, getting also rid of auras or saving a bomb from removal...

I think detention Sphere will be an Oblivion Ring and nothing else, except if you are playing against a populate deck, but we are yet to see how that strategy is going to develop... Its still a solid removal spell, and you should play it even without the Pulse effect in mind... But its a rare, so I wouldn't be that worried about it.

Add dramatic rescue to the mix and you will see that there are a bunch of tempo oriented spells to make a U/W aggressive strategy possible... I still have to check if the creatures are there to make it work...

Its rare, and its one of the best ones! It kills everything they can play, and also takes care of Jace and Vraska... Black and Red have already some awesome commons, and they got the ultimate removal spell...

If you are playing against an IZZET mage, be sure: They have Izzet Charm. Play around it all the time, the card is just too good. Shock + Spell Pierce + Faithless Looting in the same card? OMG!!









I guess that's all of them! I'm so excited about this pre-release, its going to be an awesome weekend! And don't worry, you wont be "Bonefired" out of the tournament this time...

RTR REMOVAL - RED-GREEN

Sorry for the delay guys... So we continue with RED. And what a good start! Annihilating fire, despite being double red and costing one mana more than Incinerate and Searing Spear, is probably going to be one of the best commons in the set. Removing the creature is not that relevant for limited (except against Golgari creatures), but it will be important in the new standard (INFESTED by zombies, but thats another post).

Ok, so this is not M13 limited where an effect like this could destroy your opponents Krenko's Tokens, or all his exalted creatures... And if Twin was still a deck in modern, it could be a good sideboard card.

There was a time that you could not play a 3 toughness creature because of lightning bolt. Than, anything less then a titan would die to dismember. Than we had the Jace/Vapor Snag test. Well... in the new standard, if your opponent plays red, this is probably replacing/playing alongside Bonefire... oh wait, Im suppose to talk about limited! All right... this is just, BONKERS. Period.

Another very good removal, specially if the format really leans towards slower strategies. Keep in mind though that the 2 best ones are a RARE and an unco.










GREEN - As the color pie demands, green does not get real removal (Pray upon was probably the best one in the last few years), but we do get one plummet effect:

Nothing to comment, i dont think the life gain will be that relevant...

RTR REMOVAL - BLACK

Black normally has the best removals, so, lets see what is there for us:

Sorcery speed Murder that costs 6, and they discard a card? By the time you cast this spell they probably are holding a land in hand... But its still a removal. Again, depends on how the format is going to shape up.

With no undying this is a 2 for 1 that costs 4, even if its instant speed and he looses 2 life... Playable, but probably worst than Assassin's strike.

Love this! Really good against Unleashed creatures, it has a lot of potential! Its no crippling bite, but everything seems to cost a little bit more on this set.

Thats our ULTIMATE doom blade! No its not... See, there are a bunch of multicolored creatures on the format (probably the best ones), but its still a decent removal spell. Just pray not die with this in hand when the play Niv-mizzet....








Thats it for black, Ill try to do RED and GREEN this afternoon, following with multicolor.

See you!

Thiago Rodrigues

RTR REMOVALS - BLUE

Dont think we can actually call the blue ones removal, BUT, lets take a look:

I cant imagine playing this for its normal cost, but if I do, I have probably already lost. The only situation that comes to mind, is if he left only one blocker left and Im his dead on board next turn... but wait, if he left too creatures, I can still pay overload and tap them both. So, SLEEP it is.

 One mana more, draw a card, and sorcery speed... Probably a filler? Sometimes a timewalk? No idea.

Now we are talking! Into the Roil with no card drawing, but with a upheaval effect in the late game... sign me in! This card is really powerful, and im ALWAYS going to play it. Or splash it.

Good old "doesnt untap blablabla... BORING.

Thats it for blue... Ill be right BLACK!

RTR REMOVALS - WHITE

The first thing I do when preparing for a Pre-Release (and in this case, the next PTQ season), is to evaluate the removal spells of the set. Not just evaluate, but list them and memorize. If you are a competitive player, you normaly dont have that desire to discover the cards as you open then, just to be crushed by your opponents that have done their homework. So... lets get into it:

WHITE:

I know its a creature, its mythique, and it costs 8 mana, but STILL, this is the most powerful removal spell in the set and you probably wont be able to play around it anyway, but its important to remember and UNDERSTAND what card does. It seem pretty obvious to me that people are still going to use their removal on this expecting to get their creatures back to the battlefield, and be disappointed that they have all gone back to their hands. If I have this angel, Im going to try my best to play white.

We all know arrest from Scars of Mirrodin, and pacifism effects are important to limited. But this card seems really important on this set, considering we have a lot of creatures with activated habilities, and powerful ones. It might be worth splashing in some decks.

I love the flavor of this card! Specially because is a Selesnya card, and with all the token generators, it doesn't seem very hard to chump block and then ambush their creature. Isn't awesome, as sometimes you are going to 2x1 to get them, but its a solid removal spell.

Another unconditional removal in common, but the effectiveness of this depends of how fast the format will be. The upside can be very powerful if you have a powerful token in play, and being an instant can change the curse of a game in one turn.

Im going to separate the posts, so Blue is coming up next.

Thiago Rodrigues

Modern and a failed GP Trial...

Hi again
So last Saturday I got the chance to play a GP Trial at Uchronie Games, a small but very nice shop in the Parisian area. We were 33 players, a reasonable number for a Modern tournament (They were 46 at the last GP Trial, a week before this one). Before we get to my results, I would like to go back a few months back...

The first Modern GP in Europe took place in Torino, Italy, in march. I did quite some testing, and the expected decks at the time were Twin, Jund, Affinity, Melira Combo, Delver (U/W/R, RUG), Storm, Loam, and the RG TRON, recently broken by Charles Gindy on a MTGO PTQ. You see, I love playing with the graveyard, and the Loam deck was a decent choice, specially because most people didn't know how to play against it. When we got there, we saw that almost 80% of the GP Trials were won by RG TRON. The deck was everywhere. Every single copy of Sowing Salt (Exile target nonbasic land. Search its controller's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that land and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.) was sold out, meaning people were really afraid of the deck. I finished day one at 6x3, loosing against TRON, Affinity (damn Relic of Progenitus), and finaly Melira pod.

The GP was won by Antonino da Rosa with Delver,  and you can find the coverage here 

I decided to mention the GP Turin to give you a overall look at the modern metagame. Even with the printing of Avacyn Restored and M13, we only really got Restoration Angel that made an impact in the format, giving birth to the Pod-Kiki-Angel deck. The next 2 modern GPs were in Japan (where the POD deck dominated despite the WB tokens taking the title) and in the US (Robot wins), with no big changes to the format.

Then, we have the players Championship. 16 of the best players in the world battling through 3 days of modern, cube and m13 draft. The only real surprise was the deck builder master Yasooka presenting the world his last creation: Eternal command. (Dech-Tech ).

So, what can we learn from all of this? Modern is a very wide format, with no broken (at least for now) decks, and most people play what they are familiar with. Jund is probably a little bit ahead the other ones, considering its raw power, but its not unbeatable. But if you are thinking about going to GP LYON, be prepared  to face JUND. With only half of Return to Ravnica spoiled, we cant say much about the format
after October, and considering that Pro-Tour Seattle it Is MODERN, Im myself going to wait for the results before making my final choice for the GP.

Wait a second, what about the GP Trial? Well... I haven't play modern since GP Turin, so I called a friend and asked him if he had a deck available... So he asked me if I would like to play Eternal Command... The deck seemed fun, and I watched Yasooka crush everyone (except Alexander Hayne and Watanabe in the finals) with it. So lets give it a try!!
I started with a win against Affinity, with turn 1 Vial both games, and just crushed his mulling to 6 game one. Game 2 I had 2 eternal witness, vial and ancient grudge, draw a spell snare turn 1, and that was fast.

The rest of the rounds... not even worthy mentioning. Lost  against RUG Delver, and RG TRON after my perfect draws in the first round. Got stuck with 2 lands in play both games, with my Cryptic Commands staring at me. =(  It was over after 1x2... The deck is extremely hard to play, and probably needs more lands, or more spells like serum visions. I wouldn't recommend it except if you are Japanese and a hall of famer...

You can find the link to thet top 8 here, won by watchdamatch (probably the only French magic website) modern specialist Arnaud H! He played Esper Teachings, a solid control deck that haven't being putting good results recently...
http://www.watchdamatch.com/coverage/report-trial-gp-lyon-uchronies-games/

That was a little bit long, but hope you guys have enjoy it!

Small introduction and 2012 Schedule

Dont fool yourself. Im not the real snapcaster mage. Or even Tiago Chan. I just love the card and decided to use its name... Coincidence or not, my name is Thiago, so... why not?

I dont have any tales to tell you about how I won a Pro-Tour, or how I made top 8 of a GP... Im just an average Magic Player as many others out there. I started playing in M11, after a 15 years break (not really a break considering that I was only 13 and played for 6 months). I got the opportunity to meet some awesome guys that played magic in Paris a few months after my arrival in France, and here I am, completely addicted! I have a BUNCH of top 16 finishes in PTQ's and WCMQ's, and a couple of GP's day 2. I read, watch and breath Magic for the most part of time, so I think I know a few things about the game now... The majority of the French community knows me and respect me, but being a brazilian in the middle of French players might have helped my reputation.

Im writing this blog to share with you not my endeavours, but my expectations for the future and my preparation for the next tournaments. Here is the schedule that I have for the next few months:

September:

- Saturday 15 - GP LYON TRIAL - MODERN

- Saturday 28/Sunday 29 - RTR Prereleases

October:

- Saturday 14 - PTQ GATECRASH AnGers, France


November:

GP LYON - First weekend

- Saturday 10, PTQ GATECRASH Nancy, France

GP BOCHUM - Third weekend

- Sunday 25, PTQ GATECRASH Paris, France


December:

GP LISBON - First weekend

Not to mention the MTGO PTQs, Ill try to give you un update on that as well.