Magical Cards
Did I mention before that one never stops being a card junkie?
Next Friday Ill be playing in the Dutch National Magic the Gathering Championships. For the 12th time. I have been qualified for every one since 1994, playing in every one except 2005 and 2006 because I was in Tuscany , Italy both years and Tuscany is >>>>>>>>>>>>> everything else.. Oh if I ever could affort a house there...... <3
This year 2007 was the first year I was not qualified on rating anymore, because I hardly ever played the game anymore.. So I had to qualify in a qualifier tournament first. The nationals is an invitation only tournament. The Top 100 players of the nation get an invite. Then 6 qualifier tournaments are held in which the top 8 ranked players of each tournament qualify. So I had to attent those. 6 weeks ago I went to the city of Eindhoven. 86 people played. I came 12th. not good enough. Next was Groningen. I came 10th out of 45. 2 weeks later it was in my home town, Enschede. playing at home just does give you that little extra. Nobody can explain it. it has no logic. At Cards there is no crowd to cheer the home team on. Nothing really matters. It must be psychological. It's just 50 sweaty guys in a room slinging cards (and a few gals, always 1, 2 ,3 maybe 5 girls) Compare it with bridge or poker... Anyway.. I came 1st out of 52 people. Qualified again!
So this week I am playing online every free minute. to practice. Magic is a game of preparation. There are so many different strategies. you have to be smart. and you have to be prepared. The rewards can be great. A pro player can earn enough money to make a living on playing cards. $50,000 a year. or more.. I am not that good. Not even close. But on a good day I can compete with those folks. and I have made it to the Pro Tour a few times. The experience only is a reward enough, even if you don;t win anything. It has given me the opportunity to visit everything from New York to San Diego, from Barcalona to Stockholm.. Prague and Budapest.. even Moskou, Russia.. oh and not to forget Yokohama.... If I were 10 years younger I would go for it big time, trying to become a 'gravy trainer' ( the gravy train is when you become quailified for every Pro Tour automatically because of your previous results) I know I could do it. but that is more for 20 year old people. in those amazing years between being a child and being a responsible adult... A live of traveling, hanging out with friends from all over the world. playing cards... alas that is beyond me now. But I'll do everything I can to score next week at the nationals.. Price this time is $1500 + a ticket to New York where this years world championchips will be held. Last time I've been there is 10 years ago... it would be so cool to repeat that..
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Wow, that is really awesome! And congrats! I would love to see your deck, so much has changed since the last time I played! Oh, and if you DO make it to New York, lemme know, maybe I can make a trip up to route for ya, I would love to go to that tourney!
If I do qualify for New York (looks to heaven and prays) I'll make sure I'll let you know! a world championships would take 5 days, but I'll make sure to get 2 weeks time to travel around, never been to the east coast for a long period, before it was airplane.. hotel, card cards cards. hotel more cards airplane back home....
Well, I will be within about 5 minutes ride to catch the metro into the heart of Washington DC, and I'd be more than happy to take off a day of work to show you around the area, assuming I'm not on business travel! Let me know!
My deck was as listed below. It has been desgined by the englishman Dan Paskins. He is a strong follower of the School of Goblins. also known as RED DECKS WINS. Basically you always play as many little goblins and burn spells as you can. It worlds because it's lightning fast. and there is NO WRONG THREAT, there is only a wrong answer. These aggresive red decks are simple. Every card does damage. So it doesn't matter what cards you draw.. you .. .. just .. burn... the opponent... out.... Across this is the more advanced. 'Control Deck' strategy. Those decks will always WIN, given enough time. Their cards are slow. superior.... controlling.. the reason they don't rule supreme is the one above. there is no wrong threat... but there are many wrong answers.. If the control deck doesn't draw the right answer to my red aggresive cards in time, the control player can scoop it up because they will be dead. This ina nutshell is the reason why this game keeps being so good year after year.. the balnce between combo deck, aggro deck and control deck always shifts around, from year to year, month to month even week to week. and you have to be on top of your game to keep up and be succesfull.
So here's the deck. If you want to knwo more you'll have to visit a website that has card spoiler lists.. because most of the names will mean little because the cards change every season. But you might recognize a few old ones like "Incinerate" or "Mogg Fanatic"
http://sales.starcitygames.com/spoiler/spoiler.php for card spoliers
Goblins for the win!
RDW 2007
Suggested by Dan Paskins on 2007-08-12 as a potential deck for Standard
As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/14559.html
Print this deck!
Maindeck:
Creatures
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Keldon Marauders
3 Martyr Of Ashes
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Tarmogoyf
Enchantments
4 Seal Of Fire
Instants
4 Char
4 Incinerate
Sorceries
4 Rift Bolt
Basic Lands
9 Mountain
Lands
4 Karplusan Forest
4 Stomping Ground
2 Treetop Village
Legendary Lands
2 Pendelhaven
Sideboard:
4 Magus Of The Moon
1 Martyr Of Ashes
3 Ancient Grudge
4 Cryoclasm
3 Threaten
Out of that entire deck, the only two I recognize are Incinerate and Mountain. Wow, time has gone by quick. I still recall the good ol' 2 play win. I wonder if they ever did anything about that.
well. there are many different formats now.
you have Vintage.. That;s Every card ever printed is ok. that means decks can win one turn 1. (or even BEFORE turn 1, crazy as it sounds, it's technical possible to win in your OPPONENTS first turn, so before you
even self got to take a turn)
however because every deck is loaded with power they can also prevent eachother winning in turn 1 so normally the game lasts a few turns.. :)
these tournaments are rare and require several 1000 $ worth of cards to be competative. Not played much, but nice to watch. I used to own those cards... Cry.........
the second one is called Legacy. this means Every card printed is allowed except those on the Banned list ( a list of the 50 most broken cards, most of them making the 1st turn kills possible) this format gives some very nice variety of decks. Still not very popular because few people own the old cards.
next is Extended. this format rotates every 3 years. Basically it allowes use of all cards from between 0 and 5 years old. A nice solid format that gives a good range of decks and nothing too broken.
and the standard format is called.. 'Standard'
this means only cards bewteen 0-2 years old are allowed. This means every player had equall access to the card.. since they will be in print and you can buy them.. this smaller range of cards also means nothing too heavy can come out. the decks are more balanced.
The publisher of the game Wizard of the Coast made Standard for financial reasons of course. 2 years worths of cards.. means that EVERY year 1 year is being rotated out of the format to be replaced by this years new cards... so people HAVE to buy new cards all the time to keep up.... And it's working because the game is going into its 14th year now, still going strong.
And the game is good. it really is.
It is. I'm half tempted to pick it up again, but how do you play World of Warcraft, Magic and have the whole family thing going as well? :cries:
Make MTG a "family night" activity. :)
Well I play not so much WoW... (I did last year, but nowadays I am very casual.. it took me 3 months to get from lvl 60 to lvl 68 on my casual gnome )
I have no family of my own.. (a few girlfriends for short periods, never lasting more than a few weeks or months..) somehow I don't seem interested enough in the human being inside a woman. Some like me, even love me, but so far it hasn't resulted in a steady relation. I know it's me that causes this... I am too much a happy-go-lucky guy.. most females want something better than that. (and they are right)
And the magic.. as I said I am not really playing that anymore as well.. 5 years a go it was my life, I played. I bought I sold. I made a living out of it.. Not anymore. I barely touched a card from 2004 to 2007. But this year I couldn't bear not being qualified (I am the only person in Holland being qualified for every championchip ever held since the start of the game) So I picked it up. and like cycling, you don't loose it.. I cannot say I am any good right now.. , but good enough to win some qualifier on experience.
I still have loads of free time. I also play Tennis, Snooker, I like to go outdoors, do some photography, work only 30 hours / week (being single means that's more than enough money to go around)
It sounds like you need to find yourselfa Gamer girl :grin:
Yes, please clone yourself and move the clone over to Holland
Only if you make her some wooden shoes! *runs away from thread*
Pffftt! I have a pair of clogs already :)
I have the same problem =(
I was recently cleaning up my room and came accross my card boxes. Soo many good memories. I stopped playing when I went to university, because I usually played after high school at a local card store and I didn't have time for that anymore. This was also right after I had first played in the Dutch Nationals (qualifing with a T8 in Eindhoven with my trusted MUC, back when Vedalken Shackles was T2-legal ^^) so I kinda stopped at my peak. I would love to pick it up again, but there is so little time and so much other fun stuff to do (a.k.a. WoW) that takes a lot of time.
wohoo more dutch magic players! Since I know about every magic player in this country I must have met you Mangara.. The world is a small place :)
Ever heard of Djinn's Pure Magic? They have a store in Weert, Limburg and they had one in Den Bosch I think, but they sold it. I used to play there all the time and I have playtested with a lot of the regulars there. You will probably know Rudie Kunnen, who also is a regular there. I doubt you know every dutch magic player, though, because there are lots of em that don't do things like PTQs and Nationals and are happy to play just FNM and other local tourneys ;-)
I've been reading mtg.com a bit and I'm thinking about getting back to magic again. Playing so much WoW over the summer has made me lose some of my interest in the game and I think playing magic would be a nice break from WoW.
By the way, for everyone who is even remotely interested in TCG design, The Great Designer Search is a great, albeit lengthy read. I scored 25 out of 35 on the multiple choice test without any reference material at all and I think I could have done even better had I taken the time to look up certain cards and info. I dare the magic players among you to beat me ^^
Why is Tarmogoyf's card frame so weird? Surely they didn't redesign the borders again...
It looks like a very solid deck. Of course, not knowing the metagame, I have no idea how it would match up against the other popular choices, but quick small threats can always win. They punish any slowish draw on the other side of the table, which can win you many a game if the environment favours control-type decks. I wonder how the Greater Gargadon's play, because they don't seem to fit in with the general rush strategy, or are they simply finishers?
Greater Gargadon is the key. You just sacrifice goblins to make him come into play. For example. A goblin War marshal = 3 goblins for 1 card. That's 3 counters from your Gargadon. The Gargadon is good because you can just sacrifice all your lands and permanents at any moment. he is 9 damage, so the opponent can be dead at any time. you are at 15 life? End of turn incinerate you. (-3) untap. incinerate you.. (-3) Sacrifice all my permanents to Gargadon, attack for 9 (-9) dead. Of course tou only do this when you KNOW the opponent cannot react, for example when he is tapped out. In other words. The opponent can never tap out or he is dead...
But more important. the gargadon is there to COUNTER cards from the opponent. Many control decks play with Life gain cards (they have to because the little red men burn them to death so quick.
For example: Faith Feathers. Enchant Creature. Enchanted creature cannot attack or block, or use any ability. when Faith Feathers comes into play you gain 4 life.
Cards like these are very bad for the goblins. not only do we loose 1 man, but the opponent gets 4 life back. To battle that you just sacrifice the man to the Gargadon. that way the Target is gone, so the Faith Feathers will be countered and the Gain 4 life will also be countered (and you Gargadon looses a suspent counter)
Tarmogoyf is in this strange layout because its a card from the FUTURE. this years theme is Time Travel. the first set Time spiral featured many cards from the past 14 years. the second set Planar Chaos has shifted cards. Cards from the past reprinted in a different color. for example Serra Angel is white, in Planar Chaos there is a blue 'Serra angel' (with different name)
the last set is Future Sight. and it has cards 'from the future' that's why they have a different layout...
Ah, nice flavour and it gave them a good excuse to reprint popular older cards.
About the deck; is there any specific reason for playing Rift Bolt over Shock? My gut says that instant > sorcery, because you want to make the enemy afraif of the end of their turn, causing them to lose tempo in their own. I don't know if the loss of 1 damage is worth it, but you definitely gain surprise value. You could also use it to kill off your own goblins when targeted by a Faith's Fetters, for instance.
I have played several T2 red decks (true sligh with some fast creatures, Blistering Firecat and burn to finish the job and later Mike Flores's Big Red with Sensei's Divining Top and Arcslogger) and Shock was a staple in both decks, because it's a great burn spell; instant and cheap, yet powerful enough to do the job.
Looking through the deck again, I think the reason is Tarmogoyf, right? With the cards you have, he could easily be 4/5 on turn 4 or 5, which is a bargain at 2 mana.
So, how did you do?