1600 - Or the Server Fries - Chapter 2
David Gonterman
2/1/2005
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As I'm writing this, I've become a proud owner of this PlayorDraw.com article, but it's too early to get any responses yet. I've traded links to this site from mine-I hope nobody minds me doing so-and am enjoying this good blustery wind in my sails. This provides plenty of motivation to make my second entry in this blog, about my efforts to get my MTGO rating above mediocrity levels, wouldn't you say?
I'd written the first draft of the previous chapter, on paper no less, the Sunday before last. I'd typed the second draft in not too long after that and, after a polishing run done over a printout, I was able to send this entry that Thursday. And I end up getting approved for this Monday. That's about one or two weeks between the paper stage to you seeing it on the site. That should be something for other prospective writers to consider. It's also a good idea to follow those guidelines to boot, exporting to RTF so you can use the occasional formating code that's needed (like italics). A love for the written word and the sight of Open Office on your screen doesn't hurt either.
I would have waited for responses for my next chapter-this is an interactive Blog after all, where you can send me suggestions-but two things showed up: One, magicthegathering.com agreed with me about GR Spiritcraft being a cheap yet strong deck for players on a budget-read: moi-can play and use, and when the planets are aligned just right, win a tournament or two.
This article, as well as some more casual playing, made me tweak my own deck. Granted, I sided out Blind with Anger, added the fourth Kodama because cards that important should have the maximum in the deck, and tossed in Wear Away because I'm seeing a lot of artifacts and enchantments in other MTGO decks. Here's my current Kami Block GR Spiritcraft deck as of the 25th of Janurary:
It's still far from perfect: For a deck that is categorized as a burn deck, it doesn't seem to have enough burn in it, especially against creatures. I'd especially like to see more creature kill, to improve my chances against high creature decks. I decided to wait until the Betrayers spoiler was out and look for prospective additions to the deck.
That happened last Friday over at magicthegathering.com . You can access their sortable spoiler directly or head over to sister site Gatherer for a better search engine. That's what I'm looking at as I look for cards that I feel fit best in this deck. I'll rate them for whatever I feel like is good enough for the maindeck, a possibility for the sideboard, or a card that gives me the voice in my mind going "Put the card down, and slowly walk away."
Possible Maindeck:
Roar of Jukai: What this should say is "All Creatures on your side gain 'Bushido 2' until end of turn," and if you play it right, you can even splice it and still win the game that same turn. It seems that the kakuriyo's getting jealous of Konda's hired help.
Unchecked Growth: No splice feature, sure, but we're talking about Kodama's Might on 'roids. I might put this in the main deck just so I can have something to sideboard with. One of the problems I have when sideboarding is deciding which cards to side out. Unless of course it's one of those trusty net decks that come with instructions, and since it's still early in Kami block constructed, there's none of those yet.
Sideboard Material:
Clash of Realities: This may be decent going up against a creature-heavy deck, but keep in mind that the other guy can do the same thing to you. If Clash of Realities gets into the sideboard, it should be prudent to have all four Rootrunners in the main board, since they're the only ones in this deck with Soulshift.
Torrent of Stone: This could be the card I'm looking for. Granted, it's got a casting cost of four, and the Splicing costs could be just as expensive, but it just might be the kind of spell that this deck is in need of!
"I can't taste my beer, and I'm drinking Diet Pepsi."
Baku Altar: Should I or shouldn't I put a token generator into this here deck? Hmmmmm…I dunno.
Cunning Bandit and Azamuki, Treachery Incarnate: Good news, it can target Legends. Bad news, it doesn't untap or gain haste. Ugly news, it needs to flip. I found another card to use for target practice with my guns. I like to pin pictures of known terrorists on them for motivation.
Genju of the Cedars and Genju of the Spires: Could either one of these cards, or both of them, be a replacement for some of the lesser powered kami in the above deck? Sorry, but not in GR Spiritcraft. These two spells are enchantments, and not Enchantment - Arcane.
Harbinger of Spring: It can't be killed by non-spirit critters. That could be useful for defense against certain decks I might encounter. This could even get into the main deck, if it had a toughness of three. This card does have Soulshift, but as a 2/1 for five mana it's way outside of the mana curve.
Loam Dweller: This might be of some help when you're land flooded. But that is less common than being land-hosed. Besides, while this may work well with Soilshaper in a green heavy deck, it won't fit in well in this type of deck. This deck is a burn or sligh type, which wins by whittling the victim down to zero as fast as possible.
Petalmane Baku: Unfortunately, once the other guy knows you need this card, it's going to be heading for the 'yard. This is a text book Vince McMahon screw-job. You can even hear him yell out "Ring the damn bell!" as you play this card.
Traproot Kami: This is another good card for defense, especially when you have a lot of forests out. And it's a spirit to boot, which allows them to get even bigger. As I said earlier, this deck is a burn type, and has no place for defense.
That's enough about the cards that almost made it. I've now got a set of cards from Betrayers that fit well in the GR Spiritcraft deck: Clash of Realities, Roar of the Jukai, Torrent of Stone, and Unchecked Growth. The next step is to look over my Champions-only deck and find which cards can be taken out of the deck and be replaced by the fresh blood. Most of the mainstays are left alone and not mentioned here, but here are the list of cards I'm talking out or moving around in the deck and why.
Hearth Kami: There's just not enough artifacts in Kami block to warrant the extra artifact hate. This isn't Standard, folks. I'm taking them out.
Pinecrest Ridge: As I was playing I just didn't find much use for this kind of split land. Keep in mind, you don't need to cast any spells in turn one, and in a good draw you'll find at least one Mountain and one Forest. I've decided to take out the Ridges and add two Mountains making the land count an even 22 (11 lands each for Mountain and Forest). 22 lands is the bare minimum for me to play with and feel comfortable with, as I mentioned in my previous chapter. (It's when it goes down to 20--or worse, under--that makes me fear what draws the dreaded Shuffler routine gives you.)
Rootrunner: As I mentioned earlier in this article, it'll be a good idea for me to put my Soulshift cards to the Main Deck.
Unearthly Blizzard: If a card isn't going to have "Splice into Arcane" in its text box it had better have an effect that is actually useful. Sending 3 to the dome? Well and good. Give a creature +4/+4 and Trample until the end of turn? Excellent! Keeping critters from blocking? You're fired! Don't look at me like that Donald.
Wear Away: In Kami block, there aren't many artifacts to worry about, although they do pop up, along with an occasional enchantment or two. I think it's safe to put these in the sideboard.
Yamabushi's Flame...er...Yamabushi's Storm...
Oh whatever, I just have them there to fill up slots in the Sideboard so I can save my deck file anyway. So what if I put in the wrong card!
Okay. I have the cards I need to put in, and the cards I need to take out. Time to fire up OpenOffice Calc. Spreadsheets are useful in many applications when you know how to use them. I imported the deck list into a spreadsheet, use the SUM function at the bottom of the list so I can keep track of the deck size and do my deck building from there. It's a good skill to use, especially when you can't get all the cards you need right away, because Betrayers isn't in MTGO yet.
Hearth Kami, Pinecrest Ridger, Unearthly Blizzard, and Yamabushi's toys are taken out. I add two Mountains, move the Rootrunners to the main deck and the Wear Aways to the sideboard. This leaves six open slots in the main deck and seven in the sideboard.
Three Clash of Realities and four Torrent of Stone take care of the board, but the maindeck is a bit more iffy. Right now I put in four times Roar of the Jukai and two times Unchecked Growth, preferring the Bushido 2 to a one-crit Overrun, but I still wonder if it'll stay this way. Is the land count right? Would I slide in Kodama's Reach to help the land spread? Was there something I missed?
Such are the questions I have at the end of this chapter, as I find myself waiting for more feedback and research over the progress of my deck and the metagame of Kamigawa Block Constructed. I managed to fill this article without the need to mention my Prismatic deck. Maybe I'll do that later ... unless my new computer comes to me and I'm able to make a special "How to run MTGO in Linux" article.
Until then, either way...
---To Be Continued.
- David "Daveykins FoxFire" Gonterman
http://foxfirestudios.us
daveykins@foxfirestudios.us
FoxStudiosDavid@MTGO (Avatar: 8.5 Tails)
2/1/2005
As I'm writing this, I've become a proud owner of this PlayorDraw.com article, but it's too early to get any responses yet. I've traded links to this site from mine-I hope nobody minds me doing so-and am enjoying this good blustery wind in my sails. This provides plenty of motivation to make my second entry in this blog, about my efforts to get my MTGO rating above mediocrity levels, wouldn't you say?
I'd written the first draft of the previous chapter, on paper no less, the Sunday before last. I'd typed the second draft in not too long after that and, after a polishing run done over a printout, I was able to send this entry that Thursday. And I end up getting approved for this Monday. That's about one or two weeks between the paper stage to you seeing it on the site. That should be something for other prospective writers to consider. It's also a good idea to follow those guidelines to boot, exporting to RTF so you can use the occasional formating code that's needed (like italics). A love for the written word and the sight of Open Office on your screen doesn't hurt either.
I would have waited for responses for my next chapter-this is an interactive Blog after all, where you can send me suggestions-but two things showed up: One, magicthegathering.com agreed with me about GR Spiritcraft being a cheap yet strong deck for players on a budget-read: moi-can play and use, and when the planets are aligned just right, win a tournament or two.
This article, as well as some more casual playing, made me tweak my own deck. Granted, I sided out Blind with Anger, added the fourth Kodama because cards that important should have the maximum in the deck, and tossed in Wear Away because I'm seeing a lot of artifacts and enchantments in other MTGO decks. Here's my current Kami Block GR Spiritcraft deck as of the 25th of Janurary:
|
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| Format: Type II: CHK | ||||
 |
||||
|
4 Hana Kami 4 Hearth Kami 4 Kami of the Hunt 4 Kodama of the South Tree 2 Rootrunner 4 Soilshaper 4 Glacial Ray 4 Kodama's Might 4 Lava Spike 2 Wear Away 11 Forest 9 Mountain 4 Pinecrest Ridge |
4 Blind with Anger 2 Rootrunner 3 Unearthly Blizzard 2 Wear Away 4 Yamabushi’s Storm |
|||
Total deck value: $21.72
|
||||
It's still far from perfect: For a deck that is categorized as a burn deck, it doesn't seem to have enough burn in it, especially against creatures. I'd especially like to see more creature kill, to improve my chances against high creature decks. I decided to wait until the Betrayers spoiler was out and look for prospective additions to the deck.
That happened last Friday over at magicthegathering.com . You can access their sortable spoiler directly or head over to sister site Gatherer for a better search engine. That's what I'm looking at as I look for cards that I feel fit best in this deck. I'll rate them for whatever I feel like is good enough for the maindeck, a possibility for the sideboard, or a card that gives me the voice in my mind going "Put the card down, and slowly walk away."
Possible Maindeck:
Roar of Jukai: What this should say is "All Creatures on your side gain 'Bushido 2' until end of turn," and if you play it right, you can even splice it and still win the game that same turn. It seems that the kakuriyo's getting jealous of Konda's hired help.
Unchecked Growth: No splice feature, sure, but we're talking about Kodama's Might on 'roids. I might put this in the main deck just so I can have something to sideboard with. One of the problems I have when sideboarding is deciding which cards to side out. Unless of course it's one of those trusty net decks that come with instructions, and since it's still early in Kami block constructed, there's none of those yet.
Sideboard Material:
Clash of Realities: This may be decent going up against a creature-heavy deck, but keep in mind that the other guy can do the same thing to you. If Clash of Realities gets into the sideboard, it should be prudent to have all four Rootrunners in the main board, since they're the only ones in this deck with Soulshift.
Torrent of Stone: This could be the card I'm looking for. Granted, it's got a casting cost of four, and the Splicing costs could be just as expensive, but it just might be the kind of spell that this deck is in need of!
"I can't taste my beer, and I'm drinking Diet Pepsi."
Baku Altar: Should I or shouldn't I put a token generator into this here deck? Hmmmmm…I dunno.
Cunning Bandit and Azamuki, Treachery Incarnate: Good news, it can target Legends. Bad news, it doesn't untap or gain haste. Ugly news, it needs to flip. I found another card to use for target practice with my guns. I like to pin pictures of known terrorists on them for motivation.
Genju of the Cedars and Genju of the Spires: Could either one of these cards, or both of them, be a replacement for some of the lesser powered kami in the above deck? Sorry, but not in GR Spiritcraft. These two spells are enchantments, and not Enchantment - Arcane.
Harbinger of Spring: It can't be killed by non-spirit critters. That could be useful for defense against certain decks I might encounter. This could even get into the main deck, if it had a toughness of three. This card does have Soulshift, but as a 2/1 for five mana it's way outside of the mana curve.
Loam Dweller: This might be of some help when you're land flooded. But that is less common than being land-hosed. Besides, while this may work well with Soilshaper in a green heavy deck, it won't fit in well in this type of deck. This deck is a burn or sligh type, which wins by whittling the victim down to zero as fast as possible.
Petalmane Baku: Unfortunately, once the other guy knows you need this card, it's going to be heading for the 'yard. This is a text book Vince McMahon screw-job. You can even hear him yell out "Ring the damn bell!" as you play this card.
Traproot Kami: This is another good card for defense, especially when you have a lot of forests out. And it's a spirit to boot, which allows them to get even bigger. As I said earlier, this deck is a burn type, and has no place for defense.
That's enough about the cards that almost made it. I've now got a set of cards from Betrayers that fit well in the GR Spiritcraft deck: Clash of Realities, Roar of the Jukai, Torrent of Stone, and Unchecked Growth. The next step is to look over my Champions-only deck and find which cards can be taken out of the deck and be replaced by the fresh blood. Most of the mainstays are left alone and not mentioned here, but here are the list of cards I'm talking out or moving around in the deck and why.
Hearth Kami: There's just not enough artifacts in Kami block to warrant the extra artifact hate. This isn't Standard, folks. I'm taking them out.
Pinecrest Ridge: As I was playing I just didn't find much use for this kind of split land. Keep in mind, you don't need to cast any spells in turn one, and in a good draw you'll find at least one Mountain and one Forest. I've decided to take out the Ridges and add two Mountains making the land count an even 22 (11 lands each for Mountain and Forest). 22 lands is the bare minimum for me to play with and feel comfortable with, as I mentioned in my previous chapter. (It's when it goes down to 20--or worse, under--that makes me fear what draws the dreaded Shuffler routine gives you.)
Rootrunner: As I mentioned earlier in this article, it'll be a good idea for me to put my Soulshift cards to the Main Deck.
Unearthly Blizzard: If a card isn't going to have "Splice into Arcane" in its text box it had better have an effect that is actually useful. Sending 3 to the dome? Well and good. Give a creature +4/+4 and Trample until the end of turn? Excellent! Keeping critters from blocking? You're fired! Don't look at me like that Donald.
Wear Away: In Kami block, there aren't many artifacts to worry about, although they do pop up, along with an occasional enchantment or two. I think it's safe to put these in the sideboard.
Yamabushi's Flame...er...Yamabushi's Storm...
Oh whatever, I just have them there to fill up slots in the Sideboard so I can save my deck file anyway. So what if I put in the wrong card!
Okay. I have the cards I need to put in, and the cards I need to take out. Time to fire up OpenOffice Calc. Spreadsheets are useful in many applications when you know how to use them. I imported the deck list into a spreadsheet, use the SUM function at the bottom of the list so I can keep track of the deck size and do my deck building from there. It's a good skill to use, especially when you can't get all the cards you need right away, because Betrayers isn't in MTGO yet.
Hearth Kami, Pinecrest Ridger, Unearthly Blizzard, and Yamabushi's toys are taken out. I add two Mountains, move the Rootrunners to the main deck and the Wear Aways to the sideboard. This leaves six open slots in the main deck and seven in the sideboard.
Three Clash of Realities and four Torrent of Stone take care of the board, but the maindeck is a bit more iffy. Right now I put in four times Roar of the Jukai and two times Unchecked Growth, preferring the Bushido 2 to a one-crit Overrun, but I still wonder if it'll stay this way. Is the land count right? Would I slide in Kodama's Reach to help the land spread? Was there something I missed?
Such are the questions I have at the end of this chapter, as I find myself waiting for more feedback and research over the progress of my deck and the metagame of Kamigawa Block Constructed. I managed to fill this article without the need to mention my Prismatic deck. Maybe I'll do that later ... unless my new computer comes to me and I'm able to make a special "How to run MTGO in Linux" article.
Until then, either way...
---To Be Continued.
- David "Daveykins FoxFire" Gonterman
http://foxfirestudios.us
daveykins@foxfirestudios.us
FoxStudiosDavid@MTGO (Avatar: 8.5 Tails)