In Between Pies 3 – All Change? Or “Ready all Oxidizes!!”
The last time I graced your screens (well my ramblings did), I said farewell to the Onslaught Block and looked back on the banned and restricted list which had just hit us. This week it’s time to look back on the Champions Pre-releases and look forward to the new environment with my favourite cards from the new set.
The Pre-Releases
I attended two pre-releases on Pre-Release weekend. The first was in Bradford on the Saturday along with partners in crime, Ribbo and Craig Earlham. My initial thoughts on the set were that green boasted a suitably large amount of mana stabilisation and large monsters and would be a good base colour with either Blue or Black as a good backup. I was fortunate enough to open two bomb rares along with some decent backup and here’s the deck I ended up playing, a Green/Blue deck splashing for Nezumi Graverobber, a move I’m not sure I’d do again.
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1 x Hana Kami |
2 x Hisoka’s Defiance |
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2 x Sakura Tribe Elder |
2 x Petals of Insight |
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1 x Humble Budoka |
1 x Kodama’s Reach |
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1 x Nezumi Graverobber |
1 x Kodma’s Might |
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1 x Soratami Cloudchaser |
1 x No-Dachi |
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1 x Soratami Rainshaper |
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1 x Kashi-Tribe Reaver |
2 x Swamp |
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2 x Burr Grafter |
6 x Island |
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1 x Feral Deceiver |
8 x Forest |
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1 x Soratami Mirror-Guard |
1 x Minamo, School at Water’s Edge |
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1 x Kodama of the South Tree (BOMB) |
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1 x Teller of Tales |
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1 x Keiga, The Tide Star (BOMB) |
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1 x Vine Kami |
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This deck does have a great deal of “Rampant Growth” going for it and indeed I did cast Keiga on turn 4 twice during the day. This amount of mana fixing is what also led me to making the decision to splash for the Graverobber. As I’m sure you’ve all noticed, this deck has NO removal at all, unless you count the 2 Counterspells, which means that I had to rely an awful lot on my Burr Grafters and fliers to get the job done. This deck finished on 4-2 for the day and I finished in 11th, losing to an unforgivable play error when playing Craig Jones (not the best person to make a dim-witted error against) in round 4 and again in round 6 to Ray Fawcett when his Red/White deck overpowered me and my 1 toughness fliers.
The day did teach me a few things about the new format. Equipment has to be treated very differently in this format. That No-Dachi I have in the deck would probably not have been very high on people’s “good” list in Mirrodin with the amount of artifact-kill in that environment but in CHK limited it’s a very severe kicking and can cause battles to swing very favourable in your direction. However, despite the fact that Artifacts are now back in the back seat in this environment it is still wise to pack at least one “Naturalize” style effect, for the major thorn in my side throughout the weekend….the Shrines.
These enchantments, sitting in the uncommon slots, are some of the more powerful effects in the block. The only one I’d really hesitate about putting straight in my deck is the Black one, Honden of Night’s Reach. All the Shrines have a single colour in their casting cost, making them eminently splashable, and if you are lucky enough to get 2 shrines of differing colours into play you are going to be pretty hard pressed to lose unless your opponent does something about them quickly. Graham was victorious on the Saturday (Go Ribbo) and despite his deck not exactly being bomb-tastic he did have the Shrine you see in the picture and he was, shall we say, fairly complementary about it. I haven’t opened one yet in 2 Sealed decks but I’ve been on the receiving end to know that Wear Away is perfectly main-deckable.
Moving on to the Sunday I was in Altrincham, while Ribbo and Craig decided to head to Warrington to help out in a tournament there. I arrived just in time to get into the first flight and this is what I ended up with
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1 x Orochi Sustainer |
1 x Commune with Nature |
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1 x Sakura-Tribe Elder |
1 x Kodama’s Reach |
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1 x Ashen-Skin Zubera |
2 x Kodama’s Might |
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1 x Nezumi Cutthroat |
1 x Serpent Skin |
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1 x Nezumi Graverobber |
1 x Befoul |
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1 x Humble Budoka |
1 x Swallowing Plague |
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1 x Budoka Gardener |
1 x Midnight Covenant |
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1 x Nezumi Ronin |
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1 x Thief of Hope |
8 x Forest |
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1 x Kami of the Waning Moon |
8 x Swamp |
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1 x Orochi Eggwatcher |
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1 x Cursed Ronin |
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1 x Sachi, Daughter of Seshiro |
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1 x He Who Hungers |
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1 x Venerable Kumo |
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1 x Jungan, The Rising Star (Lucky) |
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Holy flips-ville!! 3 flip guys. And a Dragon. And 7 two-drops. This deck also had an interesting board which I used in the final round against a bomb laden high CC deck which involves getting rid of the less powerful 2 drops along with a couple of other cards and boarding in an extra Zubera (They combo well enough with He Who Hungers) more swamps and 2 copies of Distress. That board worked rather well for me in the final round when I was up against Konden, the Green Myojin and other assorted 6-8cc nonsense. After holding off Konden in the first game with a Serpent Skinned guy while beating with a Midnight Covenanted Kami, my opponent cast about 3 spells in game 2 and lost the rest to discard. Bombs aren’t always the way *grins*. I finished 4-1 on the Sunday, losing only to the Red Shrine decimating my crew along with various other niceties, and finished in 3rd out of the 32 in my pod.
And so, to the verdict on the Pre-release weekend. The Bradford tournament was fantastically run by Ben and Nick (although Ben must really learn that non-Force of Will opening hands are no good against Brian Connelly and his 2-land Charbelcher nonsense) and the Altrincham tournament, while cramped, 70 Magic players in a fairly small room is not a recipe for a very good environment usually, which was evidenced by several of the players going downstairs into the pub at lunch and between rounds rather than hang about in the room, was very well organised (if a tad on the pricey side..£16) and overall very enjoyable.
The set as a limited one seems fairly strong with a lot of good tricks to be exploited but there are still a few cards which are significantly more powerful than the norm and if you open them in a PTQ will most likely mean , with a little extra play help from thy own self, a T8 trip. Having said that virtually all sets have that problem and most of the cards, save the Shrines, are in the rare slot so overall looking good.
And Now to the 1st of November
Yes, the introduction of Champions into the Affint…I mean standard format. Looking at the set there are a few nice touches in helping to deal with Affinity such as Hearth Kami for red and the rare artficact hoser Imi Statue.
There are some no brainer decisions such as adding Sakura-Tribe Elder to any deck which currently runs Rampant Growth as he is obviously superior in virtually every way, and there are also some cards which will get you thinking.
So here I intend to give you some of the cards I’ve picked out for being the most recognisable cards from the new set and what I think their impact will be.
First we’ll start off with a card I’ve already mentioned – Imi Statue
I have no doubt that when the County Championships roll around in the UK this little toy will be seeing a lot of play in sideboards, but it is that good?
Personally I think it’s pretty good but it will need help. Affinity now runs with many non artifact permanents, Atogs, Hoverguards, Nexi, Glimmervoid just to name a few and Cranial Plating does just as well on these guys as it does on other guys. If a green version of Affinity comes out revolving around one of the potential sleeper cards in this set, Glimpse of Nature, then you can bet that it will be bringing in Oxidizes of its own from the board so be prepared for this card not to live up to its reputation
Moving on now we come to the two cards I mentioned last week- Gifts Ungiven and Time Stop.
To be honest I had high hopes initially for this pair but to be honest I think that Time Stop is most likely going to be a sideboard card against decks packing Boseiju, who we’ll cover in a bit, and Obliterate and not much else as for 4UU it doesn’t do much more against affinity than buy you a turn to draw a Wrath. As for Gifts Ungiven I can only see it going in one type of deck and that’s decks with Eternal Witness in. In any other deck you are going to end up with 2 cards you didn’t really want and 2 cards you really did want in the bin. Whether this will be seen as Fact or Fiction Xtra for Tog in Extended, assuming viability, waits to be seen but I can’t see much going wrong when you cast this with a Tog on the table especially if you go for stuff like Deep Analysis etc. Although I am sad to say it Gifts Ungiven probably wins the “Most Overrated Card” award for this set.
It’s kiddie time….The Dragons
This is
going to surprise a few people and make my old team partner Ish very happy. I
think at least 3 of them are playable. These three obviously being Yosei,
Keiga and Kokusho (White, Blue and Black for those not in the know).
Unfortunately for Yosei he is up against Pristine Angel to compete for the
beatdown part of the inevitable UW Control decks that will spring up post-CHK.
However before everyone write his off let me mention something, even with an
Angel out you are sometimes forced to Emergency Wrath. Much better things
happen when you wrath away Yosei compared to what happens when the Angel
dies…there isn’t gonna be a nasty comeback, at least not immediately. Just a
thought, I’m sure the Angel will still be number 1 but lest the Dragon not be
forgotten. Keiga is an obvious choice for Mono-U or Blue based decks as a
beater and Kokusho seems to have a place as a kill in T&N along with some
other black deck which may crop up.
I mentioned the next set of guys in my first article and described them “as something T&N will be drooling over”…..WRONG!!! AGAIN!!! Oh well. Mise well see if they’re playable at all – The Myojins
THIS one is the only one that’s even slightly playable. The rest are overcosted rubbish that will be you very seriously killed if you play them in a tournament. The only reason the White one is even slightly playable is due to the fact he’s an instant speed Wrath which leaves a guy behind, a fairly chunky guy in fact. The general White based control deck will have just 1 of these as a cleaner-upper unless it’s Mono-White Tron-Based Control at which point you may see more but without the main elements which made that deck playable in the past, Eternal Dragon and Decree of Justice, not to mention the Angel, this still doesn’t look good for the gods.
Well there must be SOMETHING good in this set. Well maybe in the form of an old favourite – Kumano, Master Yamabushi
Well
here he is. Shivan Hellkite has been shrunk, given the same casting cost as Arc
Slogger and a very interesting little ability meaning any graveyard triggers
will not be happy to see him. Now here’s the big question, is he good enough
to replace Arc-Slogger? That is a very tough question. For now I can’t see a
reason not to run them both in A big red deck, maybe 4 and 1 or something but
let us not forget the whole reason Slogger is so good. Arc- Slogger is 4 times
as mana efficient as our Legendary friend here but that is its limit, 4 times.
If you untap with Kumano in play then you are going to cause a great deal of
damage, the only problem is that untap bit. Slogger doesn’t need the time to
unload and in this environment where efficiency wins over long term gain the
Slogger is going to win I am afraid.
This looks depressing doesn’t it? I’ve already mentioned Boseiju but really the only use this little land will have is against counter heavy control decks and since 80% of the field or more won’t be that type of deck it seems a bit of a waste to have what would be an awful land otherwise in the deck. 1 is fine in Tooth and Nail since it can be Scryed or Reap and Sowed for but otherwise its only place may be in a couple of boards.
But there is light in the final 2 cards I’m going to mention, which are may favourite cards from the set.
Yup. For all those Lobotomy fans out there, you can start drooling. Oh and as for YOU Tooth and Nail I’d start seriously contemplating how I would counteract this thing. Great vs both control and combo and can even give aggro a hard time if you’ve managed to gain a measure of control. (you really don’t want that 2nd Shrapnel Blast to ruin all your hard work do you?) It pains me to admit it after my declarations last week but I think that this is probably the chase rare of the set. It almost completely destroys one of the most powerful archetypes in the environment and Lobotomy was always good against Control so why shouldn’t this, which is stunningly better, also be? Cranial seems to be a good word to be putting on cards at the moment huh?
But it is not my favourite card of the whole set. Maybe it is the best, the most chased and most expensive £-wise card from the set but I am afraid that it lacks just one thing for me and that’s that something a little more interesting. That is something that my last card delivers in spades. Ladies (yeah right) and Gentlemen I give you my favourite card from Champions of Kamigawa…Horobi, Death’s Wail.
Some of you will most probably think I’ve gone a tad mad but hear me out. Let’s face one thing. 2BB for a 4/4 flyer is undercosted in anyone’s books. Add to that the fact that his ability gives Affinity complete and utter fits. No more Equipping, Modular becomes self destructive, and YES they have to target something if there is a legal target in play whether they want to use the Modular or not as anyone who’s played MODO will know but some players were a bit reluctant to accept at Altrincham. This guy represents what I’ve been trying to say about cards I like. Just dump this guy into a standard Black deck and he’ll be ok but could backfire….however, what if you tune the deck to best use him and how about the board….Relic barrier seems REALLY good now, hell maybe even the shards, I’m not sure yet. Yes he sucks against red but Black decks have long sucked against red, MBC couldn’t beat goblins, Suicide Black generally cried when it saw Sligh, especially if it had dropped a Negator, it is just a fact of Magic, deal with it. Aggro-Death Cloud has been the way Black decks have been heading recently and I think that Horobi could fit into a similar deck beautifully, but there may be more out there for him, we’ll have to wait and see
And Finally…
In this week of Ribbo putting up his Poker progress, and good progress it is, up on his site here I thought it best to commemorate this week with a card dedicated to his bankroll. Hope he approves or I could lose my web space.
Thanks for reading. See you all at the up-coming PTQ’s
Andrew Clayton
Boomer2k4 on IRC
Boomer_C on Magic Online
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