An old-school returning player's view of GP Chicago

This is my first posting to the Source. I know this is a little late, but took me awhile to figure out how to join the site and be able to start posting.

Anyway, a little background if you are interested: I played MtG for several years and then stopped back in 2000 or so. Basically, I got burned out because my local shop was totally overrun by Pokemon players every week, and I felt the internet had destroyed people's originality in deckbuilding (still true to an extent). Plus I am in the Army and move around frequently so it was hard to keep up.

But late last year I discovered the MWS program and it revived my interest in the game. I had to spend a lot of time learning the new rules, new card designs (pretty good, except I despise the new look for artifacts - they look too much like white cards), and learning the new decks to beat.

When I heard about GP Chicago, and that it was legacy format, I had to go. It just happens that I was on leave in my hometown, Saint Louis. Legacy is great for me, because then I can use a lot of my old cards. I spent a long time on the below deck and testing it both solo and online. I chose a reanimator type deck because 1) I know how to play it, 2) less people are expecting it in a format dominated by blue, 3) it's a lot of fun to play.

Anyway, here was my deck, BG Reanimator:

// Lands
4 [AQ] Mishra's Factory
10 [IN] Swamp
6 [LRW] Forest

// Creatures
1 [PLC] Akroma, Angel of Fury
4 [TO] Putrid Imp
1 [IN] Reya Dawnbringer
4 [FNM] Wild Mongrel
1 [ALA] Empyrial Archangel
1 [ALA] Hellkite Overlord
1 [GP] Angel of Despair
1 [RAV] Sisters of Stone Death
1 [SC] Wirewood Guardian
1 [CFX] Extractor Demon
1 [LE] Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 [SC] Twisted Abomination
1 [10E] Platinum Angel

// Spells
4 [5E] Animate Dead
4 [US] Exhume
3 [PS] Diabolic Intent
3 [OD] Buried Alive
2 [US] Victimize
1 [WL] Gaea's Blessing
1 [TSP] Krosan Grip

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 3 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 2 [7E] Engineered Plague
SB: 1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
SB: 1 [4E] Nevinyrral's Disk
SB: 1 [UL] Defense Grid
SB: 1 [UL] Defense of the Heart
SB: 1 [DS] Darksteel Colossus
SB: 1 [CHK] Cranial Extraction
SB: 1 [CHK] Boseiju, Who Shelters All
SB: 1 [8E] Defense Grid


The deck is BG instead of the more popular BU, because I wanted to have artifact/enchantment removal. It also let me use the excellent Wild Mongrel.

With the right draw, this deck is a real killing machine. But it's not nearly as consistent as I would like. After an awful lot of playtesting, I found that this deck regularly beats other reanimator decks, Dragon Stompy, and artifact affinity. It goes 50-50 with Goblin decks, Prog Order, and Zoo. It has a hard time against control decks, especially Dreadstill. But after I throw in my sideboard, the odds are much better. It can't do much against combo, unless I happen to draw a Chalice of the Void in my opening hand, or if I get a dream hand to start with.

This deck has a lot of synergy that may not seem so apparent at first glance. It also uses the "toolbox" approach - to pull out a particular creature for any problem. And if I get out Reva Dawnbringer + Empyrial Archangel or Platinum Angel on the table, I basically have a lock on the game.

You might wonder why I don't use the Reanimate spell. Well, I hate reanimate because the life loss just isn't always worth it, especially when for only one mana I can do the same without that penalty (e.g. Animate Dead, Exhume). And I can't pull a fat creature out of the graveyard on turn 1 anyway, because first I need to get him in the graveyard.

You also might notice no dual lands. I do have a couple Bayous, but with 5 landcycling creatures, I didn't feel that dual lands were necessary. Plus I was worried about facing a lot of non-basic land hate.

Anyway, first round was against a Painter Servant deck. With a Gaea's Blessing in my deck and Darksteel Colossus in my sideboard, this should have been easy. But here is where my inexperience over the current rules worked against me. I played Gaea's Blessing wrong, and my opponent didn't correct me (not surprising, since he might have lost otherwise). Next game I unluckily drew both the Blessing and Darksteel Colossus to my hand so they didn't help me when my library got milled.

Next two rounds were both against nearly identical mono-red burn decks. That was something I didn't expect and didn't prepare for. I lost every game, although they were all very close. The frustrating this is that I really needed Imp's Mischief here; a card that I had 4 of in my sideboard but took them out just the night before, after agonzing over it.

Next was Goblin Charbelcher. Loss, win, loss. First game I got screwed when I drew almost nothing but land. Next I won by wiping all his permanents away with Nev's Disk. The third game I lost on the very first turn, before I even got a chance to play a card (I think the rules shouldn't allow you to win until your opponent has had at least one turn!).

I won the next three games against Elf, white weenie, and discard decks. Finally I got my tool box running correctly at least a few times.

Overall, I did 3-6, much worse than I expected. For some reason I don't understand, my deck did a hell of a lot better against players online than it did in real life!!! Maybe I need much more practice playing with real-life opponents (not really possible where I live now). But considering I'm still learning the new rules, I guess it could have been much worse. The crazy thing is, I never saw the decks I expected the most: Blue-based control, especially with counterbalance. I also expected a lot of non-basic land hate, and lots of graveyard hate. I didn't see any of that either, which helps show what a crazy format Legacy is.

Anyway, I played in a few large tournaments about 10 years ago, and here is what I observed different from then and now:

1) All the people I played against were far more friendly than others I remember in the past. They also didn't try to rule-cheese or angle you for any slight infraction. They were there to have fun. I appreciated that.

2) So commercial now. I don't remember ever seeing so many card vendors and sponsors at a tournament. But if it helps generate more interest in the game, then I guess it's a good thing.

3) Decks are a lot faster nowadays. But is the game really fun when someone wins on turn 1 or 2? I would like to see some of these curtailed a bit (without having to go to the Extended format). I don't understand why cards like Black Vise are banned, while so many far more broken cards are around.

4) Still very few women players.

5) Still an awful lot of geeks and nerds, just like the old days. Yes, I love geeks and I am one too, but I hide it well. My wife seemed to forget that. She stopped in to visit and was openly laughing at the way some of these guys look. I know that sounds bad, but that's what happened. I told her to try to be polite.

Anyway, I had a great time - thanks to everyone I played against (but to those who beat me, I'm dying for a rematch...)

First of all, welcome to the Source!

Your post was an interesting read; one rarely gets to hear feedback from people with experiences like yours. I'm glad to learn you enjoyed yourself at the GP.

For discussion of your deck, I refer you to our Reanimator thread (it's in Page 3 of the Established Decks section, if you didn't find it already). It seems to me that you're already aware of some of the things that you could change, but the two most important ones are probably focusing your reanimation targets - most of the ones you ran are just inferior to Inkwell Leviathan or Empyrial Archangel - as well as adding the acknowledged blue draw/discard/tutoring spells. Note that you don't need to cut green to do that, although it will make your manabase either more expensive or unreliable (we have a Budget forum if you want to restrain the discussion to a subset of cheap cards).

Hope you keep having fun in the format. I have no idea where Saint Louis even is ;) so I don't know if you'll have the chance of playing more tournaments in the near future. If not, there are occasional MWS tournaments being hosted on sites such as magic-league.com, mtgsalvation.com, or sometimes this very one.

Yeah, definitely cool to hear from someone like you.

Regarding on-line players vs real life. Random on-line players tend to be less friendly and less skilled (or playing cheesy decks they would never take to a tournament).

Oh, and you always gotta have a plan for Burn.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nihil Credo

I refer you to our Reanimator thread (it's in Page 3 of the Established Decks section, if you didn't find it already). It seems to me that you're already aware of some of the things that you could change, but the two most important ones are probably focusing your reanimation targets - most of the ones you ran are just inferior to Inkwell Leviathan or Empyrial Archangel - as well as adding the acknowledged blue draw/discard/tutoring spells.

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Thanks - I did consult the reanimator threads, and in playtesting my deck consistently beat other reanimator decks. I know some of the creatures (Wirewood Guardian, Twisted Abomination, Extractor Demon) look inferior, but they also speed things up since they can either put themselves in the graveyard or take themselves out.

Adding blue might make it easier to get my combos out, but I am so tired of seeing blue in every deck, I'll figure out some other way to do it...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Volt

Yeah, definitely cool to hear from someone like you.

Regarding on-line players vs real life. Random on-line players tend to be less friendly and less skilled (or playing cheesy decks they would never take to a tournament).

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Thanks - the "less friendly" is definitely true. I couldn't believe how rude some people online are. At the tournament, I was pleasantly surprised that not everyone is like that.

You know, in real life, you could jump over the table and slap them in the face. True story =)

Also, if you want to test online, you should really contact some people you know to be good - people over Magic Workstation, for example, play poor builds poorly much of the time skewing testing results. With an opponent you know though, those risks are minimized and you can play a bunch of relatively relevant test matches.