All Good Things

I attended the Magic for a Cure event in Kissimmee, Florida. The event was designed to raise money and awareness about cancer.

I was happy to attend the event and contribute what I could to it. My contributions were fairly minimal. I carried some boxes up a few stairs. I donated some foil cards including two foil Lingering Souls and one foil Lightening Greaves with the hope that the donations would in some way assist the ability of the organizers to hold a successful fundraising event.

The Cure

I ended up playing in the RTR release event to support the Magic for a Cure event. I chose Selesneya and shared some laughs with my guildmates during our brief guild meeting where we discussed guild meetings. For the Conclave! My build underperformed, but I am still happy with my choice. Selesneya has potential despite struggling a bit in sealed events.

Many of the players who attended were exhausted by earlier release events, but obviously felt it was important to attend an event to raise money and awareness about cancer.

At one point, I ended up forgetting my deck at a table between rounds, but recovered it shortly thereafter.

Despite losing every played match, I had some great conversations throughout the gathering.

During the silent auction, I managed to win a really great deck box. I thanked the designer who personally attended.

I enjoyed meeting everyone today and I can only hope that the event organizers were able to achieve their fundraising goals for the benefit of the American Cancer Society.

This seems like a good place to end this blog and I will see you around.

Have fun everyone.

Celebration Time!

It was time for Magic celebration!

I went over to Goodfellas Games to participate in my first ever Magic celebration.

Before the event, I spoke with a few employees from a nearby business while waiting for the store to open. One of them asked bluntly how much the cards could cost. I provided them with a few of the more expensive cards from various formats and the price ranges, like Bonfire- explaining that I play with budget cards. There was a fairly adverse reaction to some of the higher costing cards like Black Lotus. When someone says they would tell someone to “shove it up their a**”, I think it’s a sign of sticker shock. I still suggested both of them take a few minutes to attend the event, but obviously they were on the job.

Magic celebration runs with a free mini-master event. You can win packs by winning rounds. At Goodfellas Games, there were two available mini-master groups. The second group had to wait a considerable amount of time to start.

Having biked to the event, I arrived a bit early and was able to enter the first grouping. Other players had to wait a considerable amount of time before the second grouping filled up. When he arrived, the store owner allowed me to keep my bike in the store. Many of the LGS plazas in Orlando do not have dedicated bike racks. I find that strange as many of the younger players presumably would not have cars.

The owner’s children were with him and they often do much of the work in the store. The kids work hard at organizing the events and meeting many of the customer’s needs. The oldest one wants to be a writer and I hope he finds some time to squeeze in some writing as well. I can’t help but feel it is strange that kids are working so that grown-ups can play.

When the time came, I opened my pack. We were told we should not look at our cards to make it more fun. It was pretty fun not knowing exactly what would be drawn.

There is a lot of luck required in playing a mini-booster battle.
I had fun playing.

It is nice to see an emphasis placed on making Magic fun again.

There was some slight pressure of a pack to win, but overall, everyone seemed to enjoy the celebration.

Most of us laughed at the promotion of social networking achievements on our cards. I asked one of the regular opponents if I could have my picture taken “ripping open” a booster pack to accomplish an achievement. Here is the result:

This was the second attempt at taking the photo as I failed to even open the booster on the first try.

WOTC used the Magic celebration to promote its digital DOTP offering. Looming over the event, is still the fight for the gamer’s time, money, and attention between paper and digital offerings. It seems strange to ask an LGS to promote the digital offering. Maybe WOTC is using its digital offerings to promote paper Magic. I wouldn’t know.

In these fights, I’m firmly on the side of the player. I keep hoping WOTC will bundle unlock codes in its booster packs. I keep hoping card prices will lower.

Real space gaming opportunities always require a lot more dedication and work on the part of the participants. Just to get to the event, I rode a bike 12.86 miles (each way).

Real space gaming also costs more than its digital counterpart. The cost of real-space gaming is a barrier to entry for many players.

I’ve discussed the fact that getting supplies for the games cost more than the digital version. I enjoy my playmat, my trade albums, the life counter, and the dice (I would own anyway). I buy the cheap white deck boxes which really last. The first deck box I own is still functional after about sixteen or seventeen years. Still, all of these supplies add to the cost.

Sleeves get to be very expensive in quantity. I buy penny sleeves at fifty cents for one hundred. At that price, I still need to spend $30 on sleeves to protect my collection. If I upgrade to $1 for 100 sleeves, it costs me $60 in sleeves. If I upgraded to $3 for 80, it would cost me a completely unaffordable $225.

I sometimes wonder if everyone understands how critically important it is to have the cheap sleeves and the cheap gaming supplies necessary to support the people who play the game- especially in real space. I’m fairly constrained financially and am constantly comparison shopping. Strangely enough, I now know the prices of pretty much everything within a 13 mile radius.

These costs are part of the reason so many people have turned to the digital versions of the game- or simply chosen to spend their time and money on something else.

For me, I like the real space version of the game. I like meeting real people and having those “ah-ha” surprise moments when an Ambush Viper hits the field or when a Fog Bank delays the onslaught.

Trading in real-space is more social too. I made a trade at the celebration. One of the regulars is working on a new deck using Fog Bank. I like Fog Bank and own just four of them. Still, when I drew the Fog Bank, I offered to trade it after my mini-battles. I traded it for two five cent commons. It seems fair in light of local pricing. Locally, the low price for Fog Bank is ten cents (not in stock) and the cards I received are priced at five cents each in town. It just seems fair to offer a competitor a fair trade on a card they need rather than exploit them.

It’s been a long time between trades. My cards are rarely tradeable. Most of the cards I buy are the four of I need and I have not purchased a booster for a long time. Often what I can trade is not in demand.

While I enjoyed today’s events, I also keep trying to encourage people to try Captain’s matches. I explain that in my case, playing with a group of people in Nevada, I went from a relatively small collection (about 1,500 cards) to a sizeable collection (about 5,000 cards) within a year. We played various formats (basically anything goes casual), including Captain’s matches, and I think it worked well. Playing a budget style of magic has allowed me to continue to build decks and play despite many challenges and serious financial constraints.

I’ve been fairly bleak in my assessment of MTG under a business as usual model. I’m also not interested in entering paid tournaments based upon my experiences.

If things don’t change, it may be that the LGS, or at least real-space Magic, becomes just a memory, like the video game arcades I grew up with.

But today, at least, I had the chance to celebrate with other Magic players in an event that cost me nothing but time and energy.

Thanks to everyone I met and played with and against today. I had fun.

Nothing to Celebrate

I’ve been to three separate MTG/Game stores in Orlando and none of them has a Magic Celebration scheduled.

I spoke to Roger at Magic Inferno and he said he is definitely not holding a Magic celebration event. Magic Inferno intends to not renew their lease at the end of October and is no longer hosting FNM.

I stopped in at Cool Stuff Games and the staff also told me that they were not holding a Magic Celebration event this year.

Both Magic Inferno and Cool Stuff Games are listed on the Wizards store locator as participating stores, but when I stopped in, neither indicated they were planning on holding the event.

Finally, I stopped in at The Games Academy in Orlando. The store is still relatively new and I asked the staff and she indicated there were no plans to hold a Magic Celebration as far as she knew. It takes some time for stores to get properly affiliated with WOTC, so this did not surprise me. The store is not even listed on the Wizard’s store locator yet.

There are some other stores listed in the area, so maybe I will check around.

Goodfellas Games is promoting the event on their FB website. I’ve been playing my free FNM there.

I guess the lesson is that players need to confirm their store is actually having the event rather than just relying on the WOTC store and event locator. It’s also important to make sure the store is running the event as WOTC describes it.

I played some friendly matches at The Games Academy before heading home for the night.

Response to the State of Magic

The critical comments on the r/mtg subreddit have been hidden by downvotes. The only thing left are comments with positive scores, so I’m writing this post.

I was interested in reading Mark Rosewater’s state of Design 2012. Some of the more refreshing aspects of the article were its acknowledgement of problems confronting the Magic community. I think an open acknowledgement of weaknesses and challenges is critical to the viability of games. These days even Nintendo can post a loss.

Mark Rosewater claims one of the problems with Magic the Gathering is the barrier to entry facing new players. Magic the Gathering is a complex game that costs a lot to play.

The solution from Mark Rosewater’s perspective was Duels of the Planeswalker. To me, this solution falls short for several reasons. First, access to the underlying technology is a cost barrier in itself. Second, it ignores viable alternatives such as Captain’s matches which can provide people a dynamic way to learn to play Magic in a social real space setting. Third, there is no attempt at bundling the two products. In some games, we see real space products bundled with digital ones. It would help an LGS attract more business if boosters came with unlock codes for MTGO. Fourth, this solution ignores paper Magic and all of its social components.

A simpler solution would be one in which players can purchase paper products for a low price. As the costs for printing non-foil cards are fairly fixed, I do not see why a set of four cards for each release could not be sold for much less money. I feel that at 5 cents a card, most releases could sell for about $50. To me, in an era of $15 games like CS:GO, that is still an enormous profit.

The current system is cost-prohibitive to many players. Many of the cards- like Bonfire- are inaccessible to players. There is no need for a card like Bonfire to be selling at three times the cost of a complete game.

The current system is costly and labor intensive to the LGS. Every time a new card is released, that card requires the shop owner to update and inventory the card. Some shop owners feel that there is money to be made the old way- by selling expensive singles. I do not think the players are very interested in the old model of doing this kind of business. Often times, shops offer a pittance and resell the card much higher. Players have no interest in selling an Oblivion Ring to a shop for a nickel that will resell it to another player for $1. Players are aware that they stand to lose in the long run under this scenario.

Tools like Deckbox.org are standardizing trade values to try to facilitate fair trades between players. (Deckbox.org is a trading tool. I sometimes see players on Reddit trying to sell their collection for those prices. Those are not prices for selling, those are trade values people. There is a difference.)

The current system is time consuming for players. I’ve talked extensively about the amount of time it takes me to acquire my paper singles. Buying singles online or in realspace, it takes an enormous amount of time for me to go from store to store or site to site to try to acquire my collection. I spend hours sifting through bulk boxes or in transit from place to place. Most people are going to be too busy to do this.

The current process is illegitimate. The fact that the prices vary so extensively from one store to another only reinforces my opinion that there is no underlying basis for the card values. The prices are not based on supply and demand. They are based in part on the perceived win-utility of the card (e.g. pay to win).

An affordable one-box solution would allow players to save time and money. It would allow shop owners to save time, money, and labor as well. Instead of constantly inventoring product, the shop owners could dedicate staff to learning the rules (becoming accredited judges) and organizing and running events.

The learning curve can be overcome by introducing players to the games through formats like Captain’s matches. Captain’s matches can provide watch-and-learn opportunities and participatory Magic gaming. The matches can be run with even or odd players and are a great way to introduce new players to the game.

The next part of Mark Rosewater’s post involves a concept called resonance. The underlying concept is fine, but it requires you ignore the obvious fact that even with the Lord of the Rings trilogy at blockbuster movie status, WOTC won’t commit to reintroducing Dwarves.

Finally, Mark Rosewater talks about making Magic casual. The format restrictions are at some odds with that. I’ve played in casual anything goes environments. Those environments are extremely challenging but also affordable as card prices tend to drop as cards rotate out of being standard legal.

The never-ending system of planned obsolence (e.g. format rotations) takes its toll on the player’s budgets. Some cards become expensive when they rotate in while other cards crash in value.

Rotation required I spent hours reorganizing my collection to be rotation safe and incurred the additional expense of purchasing new boxes to house the new rotation safe cards in.

Shop owners at most LGS are aware of the cyclical nature of these demands. Most price high for early adopters and then drop prices to clear excess inventory. Low shop inventories make the quest to acquire collections more time consuming.

The theory behind rotations was to level the playing field between new players and established ones. Let’s be serious, a new player is still going to be at a disadvantage. Rotation eliminated about 1/3 of my standard legal collection, but that still gives me more options than most people starting fresh.

The condition for me, as an established player, does not change that much as I still have to deal with the pay-to-win nature of Magic the Gathering. Paying to win reduces the skill and legitimacy of Magic.

In a collection of almost 6,000 cards (1,500 standard legal cards), I have 5 standard legal dual lands. This places me at a serious competitive disadvantage.

It is for this reason, that my most recent gaming investment was in CS:GO. CS:GO will in all likelihood provide me with hundreds of hours of competitive and balanced game play for the cost of only $15. It’s basically a reboot, but it’s the first reboot in several years. It’s not modeled on planned obsolence but a result of incremental technology changes. It’s also an option. If I, as the owner of CS:S, do not want to buy CS:GO, I do not have to.

The format changes in Magic feel much more forced. Many playing opportunities at shops are standard.

At its worst, a rotation brings on additional expenses like replacing Terramorphic Expanse with Evolving Wilds. Even the flip card mechanic Mark Rosewater mentioned brings on the additional expense of buying another sleeve, a proxy check list card, and finding more space in my deck boxes. I was able to buy Gatstaf Shepherd for 3 cents, but had to buy the supporting proxy for 5 cents.

A lot of people criticize me for complaining about a five cent cost. I’ve said before, that five cents becomes hundreds of dollars once you consider the number of cards I purchase.

As for some of the casual formats Mark Rosewater mentioned, the pricing models and format changes make it unlikely I will adopt them. I like Planechase. Unfortunately, the pricing models and rotation policies in existence mean I do not have the money to dedicate to any more WOTC products. I’m simply spending my time and money acquiring the new cards I need to replace the old ones.

Rotations are also reducing the amount of cards I’m buying. I used to buy more than 4 of a card. Now, I basically only buy 4 and in rare cases 8 of any given card. I tend to buy at the lowest available price whenever possible. Supply problems and time constraint issues mean sometimes I pay a little more. Overall, my investments in Magic are trending down.

As a player, I’ve continued playing Magic on my terms. I invest in budget cards. I cap my single card purchases at a $1 maximum and focus on cards that cost less than 25 cents. By purchasing singles, I’ve been able to stay well below the average price of a booster.

Looming over all of this is CS:GO. Fifteen dollars. An optional upgrade after eight years. No pay to win issues.

My Magic Life Post-Rotation

I’ve been acquiring some more post-rotation inventory- a few cheap singles to fill in some gaps that are emerging. On Sunday, I picked up a few singles at Cool Stuff Games. On Monday, I finally made it over to Sci-Fi City and picked up a few singles from them as well. It was my first time in Sci-Fi city and the place has a ton of interesting merchandise. I enjoyed looking at collectible models, various games, and comic books. I was able to get a few, but not all of the singles I was looking for.

On Tuesday, I ended up back at Magic Inferno. There I picked up quite a few singles and spent some time going through the bulk box. I found a few cards which I had not been able to find on their website and snapped them up along with a new deckbox. I’m reorganizing my cards to separate the post-rotation safe cards for easier deck building.

On the way back from the shop, I was caught in a harsh rainstorm. I have a Chrome messenger bag, so nothing inside the bag will get wet. Unfortunately, I had a rain jacket in the bag and did not want to open it. I opted to try to take the bus. Unfamiliar with the process, I struggled in the rain to get my bike mounted on the bus bike rack. When I finally got on the bus, I was soaking and forgot to ask for a transfer. I rode the bus to the next stop and the rain picked up. I waited out the worst of the rain before making it to a Starbuck’s coffee to wait for the storm to pass by. After drinking a Chai, I finished the ride home.

I’ve decided I need to take a break from traveling to and from so many stores and get back to brewing. At least I’ll stay a bit more dry.

So, how will rotation impact me? According to my Deckbox.org inventory, I will currently lose about thirty-three percent of my available standard cards post-rotation.

Tonight, I will try to connect with the meetup group in Orlando again.

One hundred miles of Magic

From one Friday to the next, I spent most of my week in Orlando traveling to various shops to buy singles and attend events. The singles purchases are necessary to improve my chances of surviving rotation on a budget.

How far did I travel? Last Friday, I began with a bike ride to Magic Inferno to pick up some singles. The round trip is about 21 miles. On Saturday, I biked over to Cool Stuff Games to play in the Legacy tournament. The round trip is about 12 miles. On Sunday, I biked over to a newer store in the Orlando area called The Games Academy. The round trip was about 19 miles. Tuesday, I biked back to Magic Inferno to pick up more singles and scavenge through the bulk bin for another 21 miles. Wedsnesday night I drove back to Cool Stuff Games for the free weekly Orlando Magic Meetup. Thursday, I biked back to Magic Inferno to continue scavenging the bulk bin and purchase more singles which was another 21 miles. Friday, I biked back to The Games Academy to pick up two singles to fill in some gaps finishing up with another 19 miles.

All told, I biked 113 miles from Friday to Friday. This will not include the nightly events I am driving to. (I do not have night light gear on my bike at this time.) I am also currently planning on attending a free FNM tonight at yet another store. (I am drawn to free events, as my budget decks have not shown the level of competitiveness to suggest I should consider paying to play. There is no need for me to subsidize the playing habits of others.)

The process is enormously time consuming. It does not help that none of the stores seems willing to price match against local competitors with in stock selection. The process takes away from the time that is necessary to build decks. For players that drive, the process would be very expensive. People with busy lives also do not have the time for this.

The biggest upshot for me is that I am getting in shape. I am also learning the strengths and weaknesses of each store.

It certainly makes MTGO look more appealing, where comparison shopping is usually only a matter of clicks. Still, the buzz and draw of paper magic, where you actually meet and play against people is compelling to me.

As for simply ordering online, I’ve already discussed many of the problems with that as well.

Making rotation safe purchases also requires me to engage in additonal organizational activities. Again, in paper Magic, unlike MTGO, I already need more than four of a card in some cases to build multiple decks. Reorganizing my collection to separate the rotation safe cards from the others will take additional time away from deckbuilding and playing. It also requires I incur additional expenses like buying more deck boxes.

Will the rotation matter? I am not sure. The theory behind rotations is that it allows new players an avenue to enter the game. Nevertheless the basic macroeconomic forces remain the same, leaving me to conclude nothing much will really change. Some cards, like Searing Spear, are too similar to Incinerate to warrant a purchase at the price that merchants are demanding in my area. Hasbro/WOTC should just reprint Incinerate.

My own collection now has about 25% post-rotation safe selections in it. (I use selection rather than collection here, because my post rotation collection will be much less than 25% rotation safe). That is certainly a good foundation to build upon.

Speaking of building, I’d like to actually get some done this week. I am not sure what I can throw together for the FNM tonight, but hopefully, I’ll still have some time to get something ready.

MTG: My not so sedentary lifestyle

Now that I am living in Orlando, I have been traveling from one LGS to another. Sometimes I want to check out an MTG related event, but my most frequent reason for travelling from one LGS to another is to purchase cards. Pricing and availability of singles force me to travel quite a bit. Most of my cards purchases are budget singles.

I calculated the distance I have biked in the last 72 hours to various LGS and it turns out to be just over 52 miles. At least the biking is healthy and economical.

Vox Populi

Most of the time, I write about my ideas. In this post, I’d like to take some time to focus on what others are saying.

An article on Reddit suggested people support their LGS. Nothing wrong with that, but some Redditors had some sound criticisms of some of the stores they are dealing with.

Here’s how Redditors responded to the story.

Pricing matters to many Redditors.

surlaredditchaise wrote: “I would actually by singles from my store (the one I’m wildly guessing you’re referring to) if they were slightly better priced and their customer service was also a bit better. I absolutely agree I can’t justify just giving any store (local or not) 30-40% more, no matter how much I enjoy playing there. Especially if they end up being just an LGS and not so friendly.”

Here’s what Omnia0001 wrote: “Because most of the time kids (who don’t have the endless pockets of parents) are going to not buy product that is 20%+ marked up at a store. I’ve only purchased a box though a store once, because $40 difference is quite a big deal (inc tax).”

Skolor is writing this, “Honestly, I’m plenty happy to give my local shops money, but I don’t want to throw it away. If I can get something for 30-40% less online, its really hard to justify just giving that money to the shop. I play in a lot of local events, and I wouldn’t mind in the slightest for them to raise prices on those if it meant they could compete better on things like singles prices.”

LGS or not, your competition is just one click away.

reodd wrote, “What I’ve discovered? When stores are charging 30% higher prices for singles than I can get online (including shipping), there’s no way I am going to be purchasing singles from them.”

Big box competition is a reality.

Domtrooper said this, “My LGS is charging 30$ for a Planeschase 2 deck. I can go to walmart and get it for 19.99. He raises prices as he is in the market to supply cards. I want to buy it and get the Shardless Agents for my Legecy deck but I am not going to pay extra when he wants people to trade those cards in to make up the difference.”

Redditors suggest owners work at marketing the store.

Ckallas wrote, “Put in the grunt work of actually marketing instead of relying on word of mouth.” (While I feel word of mouth is important, I understand what Ckallas means when Ckallas says don’t rely on it.)

Redditors recommend listening to customers.

Theopolus had this to say about his LGS:

“The store owner is really nice, but he’s terrible at listening to feedback for his store, from players who legitimately want to spend money at his store. So in the end, I go to other stores, or I go to the web. Stores have to be able to adapt to new ways of doing business, new ideas, etc. They need to be able to build communities around the store, and they need to network and make sure they do what they can to be as successful as possible.”

There are alternatives to an ordinary FNM.

Ckallas wrote, “Hold tournaments that interest your customers.” Another Redditor, FFF12321, wrote about the importance of having a unique event saying, “Additionally, they put in effort to have fun products. For example, a lot of people have sold off their old collections when they left the game and, of course, there were really shitty rares. So the owner started a Cheap-O Draft every Thursday where every pack was super shitty rares. There was a buy-in, and you never got your money’s worth in cards, but it’s something that I’ve never seen at any other shop.”

Some final thoughts from Redditors about failure.

From Reddit, Ckallas notes, “Failure of a business is not always the fault of the business though. Maybe the area could not economically support another game store. Maybe the customers disliked the proprietor.”

It is certainly true that business can do everything right and fail- which is why it is more important not to do things wrong. Those are just a few of the things Redditors had to say on what they do not like in stores. Redditors are often willing to share what they like as well. Hopefully, someone is listening.

Missing the Magic

I did not make it to FNM last night. I am not sure I missed much. It is unlikely my decks would have been competitive and I was able to purchase a few budget singles at Magic Inferno today by not spending the money at the FNM. I opted to pick up a full set of Rings for very little money. Aside from Ring of Evos, most of the other Rings seem a bit vulnerable to Delver deck style Vapor Snag.

I also picked up quite a few other very interesting budget cards to build some new decks and to complete some other budget deck ideas. All in all, I spent around $6.

I played three friendly rounds (and lost 3 rounds), but still had a great conversation about possible reprints in RTR and mana curves. Later, I discovered one of my opponent’s cards in my collection. I pacified a Boneyard Wurm and apparently picked it up without noticing. I returned to the shop and left it with the owner who knows the player and will return it to him. I’ve been on the other end of that as well and I know it’s nice to get your cards back quickly and safely.

Speaking of Delver, I took a look at some of the new Drake/Delver decks using Talrand and tried to construct a few budget decks which might be able to defeat Delver. None of the decks always worked, but let’s talk about some common Delver attributes. Obviously, each Delver deck is different and poses different threats, but some commons elements remain.

Delver decks like to unsummon. They are very good at targeting your creatures. I feel having an extremely low mana curve is critical when playing against Delver. Delver likes to Vapor Snag/Unsummon your creatures. Delver likes to use Mana Leaks. Low cost cards allow you to recast creatures affordably or pay the Mana Leak cost. It would seem having a hexproof or shrouded creature would help a lot, but playing budget decks built with a lot of hexproof creatures did not seem to work out. Only Invisible Stalker had a low enough casting cost to really justify the approach.

Delver decks should be leary of bouncing creatures that trigger abilities. For example, creatures like Fiend Hunter, Skinrender, Acidic Slime, or Aether Adept simply require recasting and trigger horrible abilities. Essence Scatter or another counterspell will simply cancel the recasting. Mana Leak might subsequently counter the recasting so it is important to choose low mana creatures in anticipation of a Mana Leak.

Delver does not like artifacts/enchantments nearly as much. Although a Delver deck often has Mana Leak or Negate, low cost artifacts and enchantments can bypass the Mana Leaks. Artifacts or Enchantments like Chalice of Life/Death or Curse of the Pierced Heart might get by a Mana Leak, for example.

Many of Delver’s creatures are vulnerable to Rolling Temblor. Rolling Temblor can kill hexproof creatures like Invisible Stalker, Talrand, or Geist of Saint Traft or an unflipped Delver. Still, you need to use Temblor with care. It is helpful to have creatures that will survive the use of Temblor like a bloodthirsted Stormblood Besereker, a Dragon Hatchling, or an Heir of Stromkirk with one counter. For casting purposes, I would stick with a Dragon Hatchling over Heir of Stromkirk. Likewise Temblor can be cast again paying a high Flashback cost. Other creatures are vulnerable to common burn spells like Pillar of Flame, Incinerate/Searing Spear, or Shock. Obviously, red has a lot of removal that can effectively reduce Delver’s attacks.

Delver decks usually have some kind of equipment that makes a small threat a serious one. Runechanter’s Pike or other artifacts need to be confronted with counters like Smelt or Oblivion Ring.

Overall, my tests in trying to counter Delver style decks using budget decks have resulted in mixed experiences. Delver remains fairly competitive. Also, a deck designed to beat Delver is ill-suited for dealing with many other threats and is of limited utility in other circumstances.

Here is Anti-D, a budget red deck I’ve been proto-typing to try to understand Delver better. It is a tool for trying to figure out what makes Delver tick.

Instant (12)

4x Incinerate
4x Shock
4x Smelt

Sorcery (8)

4x Pillar of Flame
4x Rolling Temblor

Enchantment (2)

2x Curse of the Pierced Heart

Artifact (6)

3x Elixir of Immortality
3x Pristine Talisman

Creature (8)

4x Dragon Hatchling
4x Stormblood Berserker

Land (24)

24x Mountain

The deck does have a rather useless sideboard. I have not tried the side deck for anything and I won’t include the list here.

This is still very much a test deck and not very practical in any case. It might beat Delver sometimes, but it probably won’t be effective at anything else.

Let’s see if we can put something together that resembles a more balanced deck while incorporating some of the earlier ideas.

Red Faction 2

Creature (22)

2x Blisterstick Shaman
4x Dragon Hatchling
4x Goblin Tunneler
4x Manic Vandal
4x Razor Swine
4x Stormblood Berserker

Sorcery (6)

4x Pillar of Flame
2x Rolling Temblor

Artifact (4)

3x Elixir of Immortality
1x Pristine Talisman

Instant (4)

4x Shock

Land (24)

24x Mountain

Blisterstick Shaman can kill an unturned Delver or cause damage to a player to bloodthirst a Stormblood Beserker. It’s not something Delver decks are going to want to Vapor Snag. Manic Vandal can remove a piece of equipment each time it enters the battlefield, so again, this is not something that a Delver deck will necessarily want to Vapor Snag. The main deck has a pretty low mana curve. The most expensive card is Rolling Temblor. Given the strengths of our own creatures, a Rolling Temblor could be fatal to most of our own board, but we have 3 Elixirs of Immortalities to pull everything back. Still, it is a bad option and I’ve limited the Rolling Temblors to 2 in the main deck, though I can’t help but feel 3 might be better. Time will tell.

Goblin Tunneler makes almost every creature in the deck unblockable (except for a bloodthirsty Stormblood Beserker). The interaction between Goblin Tunneler and Razor Swine sets up a quick win. The interaction between Goblin Tunneler and Dragon Hatchling should also prove very good. You can make the Dragon Hatchling unblockable and then inflate.

One of the things that is missing are 4 removal spells- the incinerates. That could prove a problem. Incinerate or Searing Spear can also get passed the mental misstep. Blasphemous Act is usually not a good choice unless you are running Vulshock Refugee and some indestructibles.

Now let’s put together some possible side decks and go over each one.

Sideboard (15)

3x Incinerate
3x Act of Treason
2x Rolling Temblor
3x Traitorous Blood
2x Conjurer’s Closet
2x Demonmail Hauberk

The sideboard introduces a lot of high cost mana cards but creates a deck that goes in a very different direction. (Mental Misstep will probably make the side in a Delver deck anyway). In this deck you would make the following substitutes:

Substitute three Incinerate for two Blisterstick Shaman and one Dragon Hatchling. Substitute Conjurer’s Closet/Demonmail Hauberk for Stormblood Beserker. Substitute Act of Treason for Elixir of Immortality. Remove 1 Goblin Tunneler, 1 Razor Swine, 1 Manic Vandal and replace with Traitorous blood.

(You can side out the Razor Swines instead of the Stormblood Beserkers and side in the other Rolling Temblors instead of the Incinerates.)

This deck works a bit like my previous red deck without the heavy hitters. On the other hand, the deck does not have the same Mana ramp either. The idea would be to use Act of Treason/Traitorous Blood to steal the opponents creatures and keep them using Conjurer’s Closet.

Demonmails can sacrifice stolen creatures to equip. A common tactic is to use a Goblin Tunneler to make a Razor Swine unblockable. Use an Act of Treason/Traitorous Blood on the opponent’s creature, sacrifice it, and then equip the Demonmail to Razor Swine. You will swing for an unblockable 6 infect.

I explored using a Mindclaw Shaman instead of incinerate. A Mindclaw Shaman would allow me to tap into the opponent’s spell base. Mindclaw Shaman might also have some interesting interactions with Conjurer’s Closet. The card is still new to me, so the inclusion on the list was a bit experimental. It is a lot to add to the mana curve though. I think it might be better to substitute Incinerate or Searing Spear for the Mindclaw Shamans. This would give me much more removal options in the main deck if we needed it and reduce the strain on the mana curve.

I don’t know if it would work competitively, but this budget deck is certainly more rounded than the test deck and might be able to focus on something other than Delver. The only way to find out will be some extensive play testing. Undoubtedly, the deck will change with further play testing.

It is certainly never easy building a deck on a budget.

One final note, some of the cards will be cycling out of rotation soon so I’ll have to find alternatives for them. Certainly, Stormblood Beserker will be missed.

Is LGS MTGO’s BFF?

Dear LGS,

MTGO is now available online. The software has some advantages over pure paper: 1. Your cards are never damaged 2. There is always someone to play against- any time. 3. It is cheaper. You do not need to buy sleeves, a playmat, dice, tokens, or more than 4 of any card. While it is much less social and dynamic than real space, the online version provides a lot of cheap playing opportunities.

I hope in the future, WOTC (or Hasbro) will begin to market boosters that come with online unlock codes so players can go to a store and buy physical cards which can also be unlocked online, thus allowing players to build both physical and online collections with one purchase. Until then, MTGO is just one more form of competition for an LGS to deal with.

One of the reasons Time feels Borders failed as a bookstore was that it outsourced its online sales to Amazon. Another reason Time cited was their delayed entry into the e-book market.

In many respects, the failure of LGS to demand a dual purpose product that sells paper and digital cards has put them in uneven competition with MTGO.

From Wikipedia,“According to Wizards of the Coast, Magic Online is “somewhere between 30% to 50% of the total Magic business.” Of course, that was back in 2007. I don’t have the latest numbers.

While I still prefer paper gaming for social reasons, obviously MTGO is a compelling economic alternative for many players. High priced cards make it harder for me to support the people who make card sleeves, deckboxes, playmats, lifecounters, dice, and other gaming supplies. As a result of the pricing, I’m spending less on MTG.

Sincerely,

MM

P.S. In case you missed it.