Modern Masters 2015 - the set that the we were waiting for? [First Look!]

Alright! My tradition continues! I'm back with another [First Look!] Article and this time it's for the most anticipated set in 2015! Modern Masters 2015. Since this is a reprint set, I'll set this list for the top 10 best reprint. The things I consider for the candidates for the list includes current supply/demand, price tag, artwork and usability of the card. The list are not in any order and it is just a collective list of what I feel is the best and most deserved reprints for Modern Masters.

Here we go!

Number 10: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

First up! The poster-boy for the preview of Modern Masters 2015! Personally, I think having the Eldrazis reprinted is a really good thing; having seen play in both competitive constructed and as well as in casual formats. No changes to the art, so... No comments on that though on that point, I'm actually happy with this art over the promo-art. At least this one looks more terrifying and awesome at the same time! The promo art looks... like a plate of spaghetti overflowing.  Nevertheless, It's one of those mythics that you will won't be overly happy, but satisfied with the pull considering the money spent.

Number 9: Fulminator Mage

Thanks to Modern format that this card suddenly see a spike and remained at a high price since then. It's a rather interesting from the perspective that it's a sideboard card that is so heavily demanded due to the formats greedy mana bases. Now, having it reprinted, it should settle down to a more realistic price eventually. But, don't get your expectations up in having it to remain that low. It won't.

Number 8: Leyline of Sanctity

Speaking of Sideboard cards... You remember my previous article talking about how this card fits in many decks' sideboard? Well, it should dip to about $15 a piece eventually and depending on how the response of the meta and how it shifts (it shouldn't shift too much...) this card may eventually dip back down or remain in the high $10s to $20s. I have a playset + 1 foil copy prior the reprint but I'm holding on to mine regardless. It's hard to find prior the reprint and even after the reprint, I'm not saving much by selling now and rebuying later. Still, it's a good decision that they decided to reprint this.

Number 7: Lightning Bolt

Given the choice now, please go stock up this bad boy. It's very unlikely that we will see this in the last core set and it will be awhile before we see this reprinted again. I don't think MTG Origins will show this, but if it does show up, well, nothing to lose. Having its rarity status upgraded to Uncommon, It's gonna be a chase uncommon for many people. Oh, having a foil in every pack? Well, it's gonna be one of the bonus foils that we are actually happy to see that is not a mythic. I don't know about you, but if I pull a foil copy of this, I'm actually quite excited over it.

Number 6: Mox Opal

Well, this Mox is being reprinted and this basically makes an already "cheap" deck in modern becoming cheaper... Hey, at least it retains its wonderful art and mythic rarity status! I wanted to do more of the speculation articles prior to the full spoiler release, but I didn't have the time to throw in another article. Mox Opal was one of my targets that will see a reprint due to the artifact "theme" being teased with Etched Champion being teased. (Etched Champion's new art is awesome!)

Well, I'll disregard it anyway. It's a fine card to be pulled from pack actually. But, unless you plan to play affinity, you'll probably take it and trade it off for other things instead? I would.

Number 5: Noble Hierarch

May I direct your attention to this article here, and this article here! Period. I've talked about this over and over. I rest my case here. :D

Number 4: Remand

Having seen this spoiled made me really want to go out there and start laughing at people who told me it's near impossible that this will be reprinted (I'm just kidding.. I won't do that. But, I'm right still!). As I did mention in an earlier article, that Modern Masters 2015 can be considered as a supplementary product, at a premium price. It won't hurt the market as badly as people would think having this reprinted.

Number 3: Spellskite

A staple for any sideboard! Glad to see this reprinted! Also, I did mention this will see a reprint didn't I?

Number 2: Remand

No brainer... This is a MUST...

Number 1: Vendilion Clique

Stunning artwork, great card to play in modern. It's extremely strong in certain control/tempo decks and hence, deserves a spot. To me, this was one card whose altered/new art that looks nicer. 

Honestly the way I look at it, the hype initially deserves it to be one of the most anticipated sets in 2015. But, the way it looks, it could bottom out as one of the most disappointing if the pull rate for the chase mythics and rares are rather low. I understand that there is a need to balance out the set in a draft manner, but having some stuff in there really killed the otherwise premium set. I'm not saying that the set will be bad due to the what was spoiled nearing the end; I'm just saying that if the pull of those chase rares and mythics is eventually low, it's not going to help lower the market entry to the format and it could end up being disappointing.

I initially planned to get a box myself. But, upon looking at the EV (Estimated Value) of this set, an extremely well-written article by MTGGoldfish which nailed a lot of my thoughts, I'm quite turned off by data. Nevertheless, I'm still going ahead to acquire certain staples. What do you think? Is it still worth buying Modern Masters 2015?

Edit: 31 May 2015: 
I bought 2 packs to try out, and I got busted....

Format is still open - A reflection of Mardu (part 1)

I was watching GP Paris last week and this particular GP brings back a lot of sweet memories and time traveled me all the way back to September 2014. 

September 2014:

My current teammate and good friend from secondary school asked me to consider whether to come back to Standard. I was playing EDH all thanks to him as well. I was in the midst of my honeymoon and he was sharing how he won the Khan of Takir's Gamesday. I was also looking at the Spoilers and 1 card really caught my eyes, yes no longer my wife, it was a card:

Nope, if you think it was the ability that caught my attention, you are wrong! It was the art. Look at the lightning and look at the flavor text, how cool that was: "Do not fear the lightning. Fear the one it obeys." After the art and the text, then the ability hits me, sacrifice a creature with the greatest power. I am like, how could Magic create such cards? I had to admit, the last time I touched Magic was Urza Saga to 7th Ed period, and during those period, gold card with specific targeted ability such as this was pretty rare. I may be wrong or ignorance but this card really blow me away.

So this friend of mine wanted to build me a deck so that when I returned, I would already have a ready deck to play with. I told him, a deck with no blue and green (because my EDH was mono-green), see the link from the card above? Alas, with r/w/b, that give rises to Mardu. From then, it was a path of no return.

Our first version as follows:

Bearing in mind that he was doing all the testing while I am still in Europe enjoying life with my wife. He would report his wins and loses for the day that he tested the deck. No matter how he play, he feels that there is still something missing. He voiced out the lack of aggro plays and the deck being clunky and with that comment, here comes Version 2:

Early 1 drops with Swiftspear and Thoughtseize followed up with Skullhunter for maximum hand disruption. After 10 over testing, and with the honeymoon coming to an end, he told me he had enough of testing, and he left the rest to me.

Early weeks of October 2014:
After I returned (yes, it was a 5 weeks honeymoon), I felt that the top curve gets removed easily and I wanted creatures that are more resilience as Butcher of the Horde gets removed or destroyed easily. Hence, I decided to take out the swiftspears and welcomed Wingmate Roc (Mardu clan creature for the win!) with open arms. I figured I can almost trigger raid with Hordeling Outburst and Wingmate Roc can be sacrificed for Butcher if she ever get targeted. The token she created is of utmost importance to the gameplan, and here goes version 3:

I was winning FNMs with the above decklist, however, the removal feels lacking and Mardu Charm(s) feels inadequate at times, especially when the Meta during those time were Sidisi/Abzan whips.

During the end of third week of October 2014, guess what:

Brad Nelson brought Mardu to GP LA and scored a 6th place with it. I examined the deck list and realised what I am missing out. Aggro main + cheap removals (chained to the rock) + synergistic maneuvers (outburst + sorins, outburst for Butcher's fodder to gain haste, prowess trigger with Seekers, etc.) were of solid gameplan that brought Brad to his top 8.

November to January 2015 (right before Fate Reforged):

With the above, I build my deck around his list and produced some good results. I was satisfied with the list, and a lot of guys was still playing Whips, Heroic and Mono-red. The list which lasted me up til Fate Reforged's season was as follows:

It was a matter of personal preference towards Stoke the Flames, and to me, it was of so much value together with Hordeling outburst!

January 2015 - Fate Reforged's release til Mar 15:
 Well with Fate Reforged's release, it was pretty unfortunate that Mardu get the least upgrade. Partially due to the fact that the ability 'Dash' was a little counter-intuitive towards a tempo-based deck like what I used to have. As far as I would like, I always prefer to maintain board presence rather having it back to my hand. With the limited upgrade to the above list, I guess it was still ok, just that I felt like, almost all the other decks got a huge upgrade. And for me, only 2 cards made entry into my list:

The modes on Valorous Stance are also pretty relevant. Imagine giving Rabblemaster indestructible in the late game to ensure 6 solid damage going through the next turn. As this card is so good, almost all decks that has White (hint hint: Abzan and Jeskai) also has this card. Stance also synergise with Seeker of the way, and heck even making Butcher indestructible feels overwhelming!

 Yes, finally Red gets to have a card that gives it some card advantage!  Outpost Seige puts Mardu into similar league with decks that run Courser of Kruphix. Though seldom used, but there were times where I have 3 goblin tokens in play with opponent at a low life count, I chose Dragons mode to close out the game.

As stated above, with Valorous Stance running around, my 5cmc creature have to be tweaked to be more aggressive and evasive towards white spells. Guess what:

I have removed the Chained to the rocks as Valorous Stance seen as a better removal, imagine when playing against Abzan post sideboard, a Mardu player with chained to the rocks played against a Seige Rhino, just to see the Chained get Erase(d) and trigger Seige Rhino's ETB (enter into battlefield) effect again. So much tempo lost!

All in all, the main theme of the deck was still maintained. The upgrades were awesome and I never feel disappointed with deck. There were 8 4-drops and decisions have to be made with which to drop, the following were my thought-process:

1. Am I on the play or on the draw? If I am on the draw with tempo achieved and opponent is of an aggressive deck, I will play either Sorin or Butcher. If opponent is playing a Control deck, I would most likely play an Outpost Seige.
2. What is my turn 3 drop? If I have casted an Hordeling outburst, I would be inclined to follow up with Sorin or Outpost Seige (as outburst tokens can chump-block if necessary). If I played a Rabblemaster, it is likely I will follow up with a Butcher or Outpost Seige.
3. What is the board state? If opponent did not develop board state, I would play an outpost seige. If there is, depending on the creature size, I may either play Sorin for a token or Butcher.

Of course the above thought process were not exhaustive and conclusive, most of the times, they have to be read together and not in isolation. I mean, this is the fun part of Mardu, so many types of play under different circumstances.

With Dragon of Tarkir, most of the Archetypes have been developed, and fortunately, somewhere, somehow, Mardu is still the deck that is embraced by some of the pro-players out there. For that, I will dedicate the next post on Mardu Dragons. Stay tuned!

Perspective in sideboarding

Think it has been awhile since I have done articles like this. It's not that I don't like doing these articles; it is because I do not have the time to do a comprehensive research on the topics like these and then give a sound argument... Okay what the heck; I'm doing one now, so let's jump in!

I was having this conversation with my friend, Arnold regarding his deck. The conversation was quite a long one, so I'll drive to the main points in the conversation.

Me: "For Abzan decks, what would be the weakest match-ups?"

Arnold: "Most likely to be Burn decks"

Me: "So what do you side in against them? Leylines?"

Arnold: "Yea"

Me: "What if I told you that using Kor Firewalker is a better choice in your deck?"
Arnold: "O.o"

Justification given was based on an earlier theory I discussed in this article. But, if you are lazy and just want to read on, here is a summary of the article; although we have 3 general archetypes of the decks we play in various formats, we are not exactly defining the deck well enough based on just calling it an aggro, combo or control deck. There are more to just knowing the deck in the archetypes; how the deck perform and react is really based on the mechanics and strategies the deck exploits to win. We know that the 15 slots in Sideboard can easily make or break your deck. As important as how your deck functions its win conditions, equal emphasis has been placed into sideboarding strategies and as well.

Okay, so we established that sideboard is important. No, I'm not going into the actual strategies. There are tons of articles out there, just do a google search. The focus point I want to talk about the perspectives of the sideboard cards chosen; why this card over the other?

Take for instance, given the example above, why I would rather play Kor Firewalker over Leyline of Sanctity in an Abzan deck against Burn? How do we define Abzan decks in general? Midrange? Aggro? Proactive? See, we cannot just simply define a deck into an archetype and say done. We have to go into specifics, like whether the deck is reactive or proactive. Which turns are optimal for the deck?

Leaving as that, We take a look at Abzan:

• Midrange
  Abzan works best in Midrange turns; at around turns 4-5 will be their optimal.
• Aggro
  The deck is still an aggressive deck; churning out threats and creatures to pressure and beat.
• Proactive
  Abzan decks don't wait. They set the clock on the opponents and goes all out to pressure the board.
• Offensive Shell
  As mentioned, they don't wait. Their spells and creatures are there to disrupt and reduce the resources their opponents have to interact.
• Synergy
  Their best game-plan would be turn-1 Inquisition of Kozilek or Thoughtseize, which likely then followed by a turn-2 Tarmogoyf and T-3 Liliana of the Veil. Their curve-ender usually would be turn-4 Siege Rhino or Tasigur, the Golden Fang. They do not possess much draw power, but makes up for making the opponents to have lesser resources than themselves, effectively giving them the needed advantage in both numbers and power.

How do I describe Leyline of Sanctity?

• Best at Opening Hand; Dead card at draw or in multiples
• Shuts downs "target player" spells and abilities
• Doesn't interact or offer any form of board advantage

How do I describe Kor Firewalker?

• Easily killed by other non-red removals
• Chumps any RDW creatures all day
• Negates their damage by reducing them by 1 point (lifegain)

Based on the above, which do you think it's actually better for Abzan decks solely based on against burn match-ups?

For my preference, Kor Firewalker in an Abzan deck is a better tech against Burn decks, especially in multiple copies. For one, having multiple copies of Kor Firewalker has a cumulative effect in helping you against the deck, whereas multiple copies of Leyline of Sanctity is pretty much redundant. Let me elaborate on the point, having multiple copies of Kor Firewalker can mean that you have an additional body to attack or block. Having multiples of Leyline, on the other hand, does nothing as the effect doesn't stack.
Secondly, you remember how I mentioned that numbers and power is a needed advantage? Let's talk about it for a minute; as mentioned in my first point, having an additional body to attack and block makes a lot of difference in aggressive match-ups. Every point counts. Having advantage in numbers is a little more abstract, but bear with me. Having the first copy of Leyline of Sanctity in your opening hand does wonders, yes. But, the second one is starting to be a bit disappointing; it could be a Tarmogoyf or Liliana of the Veil. It could be a removal that you needed on turn-2 or 3. Worse still, it could have been a land that you need. (Yea, okay... this applies to Kor Firewalker as well, but if you are keeping and losing a 1-land hand, or 0-land, you deserve it.) So basically, in the numbers game, you look into having more options. For most cases, having more card options is always a better.

So now the question in place is that, if Leyline is argued to be weaker than Kor Firewalker, then why on earth is the former a $30 card, whereas the latter is just a $0.50 uncommon? Dismissing the economics of Supply/Demand and rarity difference, I have to stress that the above is merely accounting for a single match-up. In this case, Kor Firewalker is great against Burn match-ups, but what about other match-ups? Leyline of Sanctity effectively shuts down a lot of combo decks that "targets player". Hence, it has more flexibility over the latter and takes the slot in the sideboard in most decks regardless of what I mentioned above.

A perspective in sideboarding that is often touched upon, but not actually mentioned is that the point of sideboarding is not actually to "hate" the deck to make your opponents miserable. (Okay, if you are a sadist and think that this what you actually want to do just to torture people, go ahead... I approve!) The point why people think of the "hate" cards as "hate" is because it's easier to give reference on what the point a sideboard does for you. In actual fact, the better point to bring across about the purpose of sideboarding is to even out the odds of the game. Let's face it; Magic has still a percentage of probability, variance and luck factors which will affect the game.

So with that percentage of luck and probability, we tend to jam as much copies of the hate card as possible just to draw them out. But I'll impose a question; if the second copy drawn is redundant, will the plan backfire? Taking the example of Leyline of Sanctity (gosh... I think people thinks I hate this card. I don't.),  the first copy drawn in opening hand is incredibly powerful. The subsequent copy is close to redundant. Yet, we still have people jamming 4 copies of those in the sideboard to increase the draw rate. It is common knowledge that there are a variety of strong general-purpose sideboard cards which we can use. But, if you notice that most sideboards split their "hates" against match-ups in a variety of 1-3 or probably 4 different cards. On singleton odds, the chances of drawing individual cards is something like 1/60 chance, but we must consider the range of cards as a full set. Simply put, (I'm sure several articles and people have pointed out) the cards sided in should synergise into doing the same thing for you, regardless the card drawn.

So why not just have 4 pieces of the same? Firstly if the card is great in multiples, why not? The example I gave is just happen to have redundancy in the subsequent draws of the same card. In for that, it would be wise to split the hate cards into multiple types of cards so that you have more options. Plus, having split the multiple types, these can go on to work double or triple of its value to hate other match-ups. Secondly, sideboarding strategies is a mind game of its own. Do you "hate" out the deck specifically? Do you "hate" their "hate" cards against you? Get the picture? Having a single playset of cards enables you to draw out that specific hate, but what about the opponent? Surely in post-sideboarding he may have a back-up plan or a strategy to work around it. In the end, it does matter what you choose and the multiples of it when looking at the general picture.

No matter how skilled we are in piloting our decks, we still need to also consider the fact that we still will have favourable and non-favorable match-ups. What I think that hating the deck alone is not a justified means of playing the card. In retrospect, going for cards that even out the odds of your deck beating the match-ups should be the perspective in mind when choosing sideboard cards. Consider this; having a good game 1 match-up would mean lesser sideboarding as compared to against another match-up which you have a hard time to fight against. No point wasting slot in your precious 15 to make your already favourable match-ups a sure-win. I rather just place 1 or 2 slots for those match-ups and focus more sideboard cards against decks which would be unfavourable against.

Lastly, you have to consider that the work of the sideboard really depends on the shell of the deck. What cards to use and play in your 15 have to synergise with your mainboard plans. No point playing something which simply "hates" your match-up, but yet does little to improve the favour of your game plan. It is possible! For instance, I use rest in peace against reanimator decks, but myself requires heavy grave usage. Sure I may be able to work around it, but it may result in hurting me or cause me a huge set-back if my opponent may have a way to work around it.

The topic on sideboarding is extremely well discussed and I believe some of the points I brought up may have already been discussed to an extend. However, I do think that the perspective of the card(s) chosen differs from individual players. Ultimately, I still do think that the common baseline for this is that we want to win the game and it is through sideboarding that we have access to utility/options to "hate" the match-ups just to even out the odds in favour in winning the game. 

Deck Preference : Jeskai Ascendancy Combo

I spent last Saturday at a local game shop for my last PPTQ of the season. My season has been a relatively short experience. I only started last October and was fleetingly unsure as to what I was landing myself in. My first six months of competitive play was fruitful. I haven’t won anything yet – the best I did was second place at a GPT with my Jeskai Ascendancy Combo deck.

I have a habit of brewing three different decks (Combo, Control and Aggro) and the frequency of game exposure is dependable on how I ranked my favorites. And since it was the last Standard PPTQ of my season I decided to play Esper Control instead of my usual favorite.

It was horrific.

Not because I dropped out of the competition with a 1-2 record, but because each match lasted an average 20 to 25 minutes. I won my last game in the nick of time, just after the judge called for the last five turns, and that was only two matches played. (I won 2-0 that particular round). What if that game was tied at 1-1? It would have been a draw game after 50 minutes of mind-grinding.

My friend who was also in the competition, told me that’s what I deserved for playing a control-based deck. Sometimes it’s either you have no time to win, or you find yourself losing after playing for an hour. ”You should have played your combo deck. What was previously a win away from Top-8 became a win away from the bottom,” he said.

My friend was right. It just wasn’t my style to drag play, and hence my decision to end my PPTQ early. It was a six-round swiss format and I didn’t want to grind for another 3 hours playing control.

Yes. I was seriously bored playing my own deck and that is not a good sign. It was a bad decision to play something I’m so out of touch with.

I practically took a stranger to a tournament and blew my own chances.

There are times when you go on a date and realized things are not quite right and you just felt that you are wasting your partner’s time as well as your own. You might want to leave right away and not waste anybody else’s time. I didn’t do my research well enough and realized I would be much happier playing my preferred deck even if I had to lose eventually.

Deck preferences. 

It took me nearly two months of deck testing before I finally brewed my own variant of the combo. It wasn’t an easy deck to play against all the odds. People have solutions all over, and the only way I figured out to play this deck as efficiently as possible, was to replicate what card draws was to Storm decks in Modern, with the inclusion of some excellent top-decking luck.

This was Pro player Lee Shi Tian’s version which made its way to Top 4 of the Manila GP 2015:

How this deck gets to win is simple. With a Jeskai Ascendancy and a mana dork in play, a Retraction Helix would enable your mana dork to bounce either the Astral Cornucopia or Briber’s Purse back to your hand. You recast the X=0 spell again to untap your mana source which triggers the Ascendancy and you get an infinite loop to either buff up your creatures to swing for lethal or find yourself an Altar of the Brood for infinite mill.

My luck dries up whenever it comes to Commune with the Gods because I tend to mill my Retraction Helices into the graveyard, along with Altar of the Brood and Briber’s Purses. 

And so I decided to make some changes:

Since I’ve been getting played out by the bloody Communes on a regular basis, Taigam’s Scheming becomes an inevitable choice for me. It is not card advantage at first instance, but it manipulates your next five draw steps and does the filtering anyway.  The slots for Briber’s Purse and Altar of the Brood has been increased for consistency. There is now three times more of a chance that I would get these cards into my opening hand. 

I replaced Tormenting Voices, a single Voyaging Satyr and Rattleclaw Mystic with Defiant Strikes and Anticipates. The one-casting cost Defiant Strike has been crucial in my build-up.  There was this scenario where this card was particularly impressive.

It was turn three. My opponent had just tapped himself out for a Courser of Kruphix and this was a golden window for me. I had three lands tapped out for Ascendancy with an untapped Sylvan Caryatid in play. I had a pair of Defiant Strikes, one Dragon Mantle and two lands in hand.

I proceeded to trigger the Ascendancy with a string of Defiant Strikes and Dragon Mantles, generating six to seven loops and a Dig Through Time to get all my combo pieces for a third turn win. That is at least 18 cards off the top of my library in a single turn. That play would hardly be possible if I had two Tormenting Voices. Perhaps I got lucky that game, but winning a game is also about setting yourself up when you are reliant on luck to get the right draws.

The variant also features a transformative sideboard that enables the combo to convert into a control deck. The underplayed Ojutai’s Command is able to hold off Dragonlords during midgame, null Stoke the Flames and also reanimate your Caryatids at end of turn after a boardwipe by your opponent. Reprisals are cheap removal spells to get the bigger threats out of the way, while Seismic Rupture and Anger of Gods deal with the weenies.

Narset Transcendent is a surprise inclusion during sideboard testing. When the game is running in Control mode, Narset’s first ability helps the extra draws into combo pieces. And if there is an 8/8 dragonlord staring down at you, you could also cast your one and only Retraction Helix to bounce the attack and activate the second ability of Narset to rebound the Helix for the next turn and hopefully combo off with a free trigger on Ascendancy. The final ability of Narset is almost the best protection in the format for the combo.

The Jeskai Ascendancy Combo is not broken yet, but it’s the only deck at the moment that doesn’t bore me to death.