4 Card Blind

1. Asthereal (TO): Cry of Contrition, Fume Spitter, Chronomaton, Swamp
2. FTW: Cavern of Souls, Simian Spirit Guide, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Chronomaton
3. H: Chronomaton, Duress, Divest, Swamp
4. Wrath of Pie: Blackcleave Cliffs, Evil Presence, Chronomaton, Stromkirk Noble
5. Tylert: Blinkmoth Nexus, quicksand, Steel Overseer, Phyrexian Revoker

1. Asthereal: Cry and spitter discard/kill my dudes. blinkmoth can't race chronomaton. 0-6 --> 0
2. FTW: Revoker on Chronomaton and i win with my dudes. 6-0 --> 6
3. H: You can divest revoker, but i will win with 2 growing dudes. 6-0 --> 12
4. Wrath: if you play evil presence on quicksand, I have 3 threats vs your two. If you play it on nexus, quicksand will help me win the growing dudes mirror. 6-0 --> 18
5. Me.

Total 18 with dudes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asthereal

Oh I didn't even mention that attacking thing.
I played a lot with Quicksand way back when it was standard legal.
It's such a known card for me I never even took into account I should mention that aspect.

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If there was no "attacking" Clause, it would kill chrono because you can't let me play Overseer and start growing it.

T1 = blinkmoth. You cast chrono
T2 = Overseer. grow chrono
T3 = grow overseer i kill chrono with quicksand, i win.

The attacking clause is that important :)

Standings for round 5

Rank. Player: Score - SP:
1. Asthereal (TO): 20 - 5,0
2. Tylert: 18 - 4,5
3. Wrath of Pie: 9 - 2,3
4. H: 5 - 1,3
5. FTW: 4 - 1,0

Which means Tylert claims second place for himself now. Well done!
Other than that, nothing really changes.

These three get added to the banned list: Chronomaton (finally), Cry of Contrition and Fume Spitter

I'll cough up a deck for round 6 as soon as I find time.
Hopefully I'll be able to launch round 6 tomorrow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asthereal

Standings for round 5

Rank. Player: Score - SP:
1. Asthereal (TO): 20 - 5,0
2. Tylert: 18 - 4,5
3. Wrath of Pie: 9 - 2,3
4. H: 5 - 1,3
5. FTW: 4 - 1,0

Which means Tylert claims second place for himself now. Well done!
Other than that, nothing really changes.

These three get added to the banned list: Chronomaton (finally), Cry of Contrition and Fume Spitter

I'll cough up a deck for round 6 as soon as I find time.
Hopefully I'll be able to launch round 6 tomorrow.

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You forgot about basic Swamp being banned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wrath of Pie

You forgot about basic Swamp being banned.

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it's clearly stated that basic lands can't be banned!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tylert

it's clearly stated that basic lands can't be banned!

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Why not? We banned basic lands the last time. Swamp is OP. It casts cards like Thoughtseize and Divest.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FTW

Why not? We banned basic lands the last time. Swamp is OP. It casts cards like Thoughtseize and Divest.

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Don't forget Evil Presence, which makes any land a Swamp.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FTW

Why not? We banned basic lands the last time. Swamp is OP. It casts cards like Thoughtseize and Divest.

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Last time we played a bannathon, where the whole point is to ban tons of cards.
Back then, a few people argued that basic lands should be excluded from bannings, but I felt it would add to the fun if basics "ran out".

But the point this time isn't to ban many cards. The point is to just keep the meta fresh enough to stay interesting.
Also, since we're only playing Modern, we don't have that many proper alternatives for basics.
So at the start I decided to exclude them from bannings.

Actually, I played with the idea to never ban lands that just make one mana and don't have additional abilities.
But that was complicated and open to discussion, so I just went for "keep all basics". Nice and simple.

EDIT: Funny how only now this comes up. In round one, Mountain could have gotten banned. I didn't ban it, and nobody noticed. :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asthereal

Back then, a few people argued that basic lands should be excluded from bannings, but I felt it would add to the fun if basics "ran out".

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I was one of the ones arguing for that, but you made a convincing argument that banning basics wouldn't hurt the format and would lead to more diverse and creative card choices. After 12 rounds of bannathon, I think you were proven right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asthereal

EDIT: Funny how only now this comes up. In round one, Mountain could have gotten banned. I didn't ban it, and nobody noticed. :cool:

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Mountain is a bad card. Island and Swamp are broken, WOTC made a design miscalculation. These cards should be errata'd.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FTW

Mountain is a bad card. Island and Swamp are broken, WOTC made a design miscalculation. These cards should be errata'd.

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Without Wasteland and friends in the meta, I'd argue that Swamp isn't significantly better than Blackcleave Cliffs or something similar. Often it's a lot worse.
There's four fastlands and a Snow-Covered Swamp that can be played, plus a few niche options like Urborg.

For the Bannathon, to me it made a lot of sense to ban basics as well.
In one round we could lose three, or more, of our standard options for a certain colour land.
That would force people to be creative, which was the point of the Bannathon.
In the end, I managed to get Thalakos Lowlands banned. #lifegoals
(Though I'm more proud of Sea Drake getting the axe in round one.)

For our current season of Modern I don't think it will actually help at all to ban basics.
We ban one per round tops, so we'll probably never get to the end of our options.
Also, like I said, I feel like the banning of the one winning deck is just to keep the meta moving a bit.
My plan was to play a mostly stable format with the banning of the winning deck just to see how that works and whether it's fun.

I think it has been, so far.

PS. One reason I forgot to mention: I also decided against banning basics because it's easier to create a deck if you can always play basics.
I didn't want to create too large a threshold for deck building, especially after two "easy" seasons with very small card pools per round.

Moving to a card pool that's over half of the entire MtG catalogue has proven daunting to some players, and we've lost quite a few players.

But anyway, we don't have to argue. I'm just posting my reasons for why.
We can always change this for next season, if you guys like it better when we ban basics.

What's much more important......

ROUND 6 of SEASON 5: MODERN MADNESS has started.

I have PM'ed myself my deck for round 6, so you can start sending me your decks.

DEADLINE: Wednesday the 19th of February, at 11:00AM Central European Time.
(That's my time zone. Pacific Time it'll probably be something like Tuesday night a bit past midnight, so keep that in mind.)

PLEASE NOTE:
The way you send your deck to me matters. Please send it in the way described below, so it doesn't cost me an hour of editing before I can post all the decks.
Please send your deck as follows: Swamp, Mountain, Blightspeaker, Combust (so with card tags around each card, and not above eachother), with your Username and 4CB S05R06 in the topic.
Many of you already do this. Thanks a lot, this really saves me a lot of time and hassle of copying and pasting text and tags!
Don't forget to keep an eye on the banned list. It will grow every round. You'll find the banned list in the second post of the thread, or in our Google Spreadsheet.
I have reorganized the banned list in our spreadsheet to be alphabetical now, but it's okay if one of you wants to change it back.
Or to something else entirely. It's two clicks to turn it into a different order. Just try not to delete any of it. :wink:

After the deadline has passed, I will post all decks on the forum here, and you can start puzzling out your scores.
If you have any questions, please read the first two posts of this thread first. If you can't find the answer there, drop a message here. We'll answer a.s.a.p.

Also, if you've been lurking on this thread and looking to join, you can step in anytime, any round. That's no problem at all. Just send me your deck before the deadline, and I'll add you to the competition. :smile:

Happy deck designing everybody! :cool:

A little under 48 hours to go until the deadline, and we're at 3 entries. Don't miss out! :wink:

Deadline has passed, and I'm missing one regular.
I can give you a few more hours, but don't wait too long!

Deadline has long passed, and I'll forget to post decks at all if I don't cough 'em up now, so...

DECKS FOR ROUND 6 OF SEASON 5: MODERN MADNESS

1. Asthereal (TO): Copperline Gorge, Hexdrinker, Seal of Fire, Nature's Claim
2. FTW: Lotus Bloom, Electrodominance, Restore Balance, Keldon Halberdier
3. Moosedog: Blast zone, Lumbering falls, Calciform pools, Treetop village
4. Wrath of Pie: Blackcleave Cliffs, Evil Presence, Stromkirk Noble, Cruel Sadist
5. H: Temple Garden, Noble Hierarch, Student of Warfare, Path to Exile

Please post your scores and cross-check with the opponents.
I'll update the Google Spreadsheet for the season, so you can enter your scores there as well: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Also, welcome Moosedog. Your deck looks really cool, hope you do well!

Asthereal's scores for round 6:

1. Asthereal (TO): Copperline Gorge, Hexdrinker, Seal of Fire, Nature's Claim
That's me, expecting people to play tons of dangerous enchantments and artifacts. I was wrong. So be it.
2. FTW: Lotus Bloom, Electrodominance, Restore Balance, Keldon Halberdier
Seal of Fire is the only good removal against your deck. Lucky me. Can't win though. 2-2
3. Moosedog: Blast zone, Lumbering falls, Calciform pools, Treetop village
Neither support spell does anything, Blast Zone kills my Hex monster and your lands trample all over my crippled corpse. 0-6
4. Wrath of Pie: Blackcleave Cliffs, Evil Presence, Stromkirk Noble, Cruel Sadist
Thankfuly, the level-up costs generic mana. On the play, according to my calculations, I'm just fast enough to win. On the draw I'm not even close. 3-3
5. H: Temple Garden, Noble Hierarch, Student of Warfare, Path to Exile
You have one removal spell for my one guy. I have one removal spell for your two guys. Somehow that seems not to work out in my favour. 0-6

Total: 5 points. Yup, that's a pretty dismal round.

4. Wrath of Pie: Blackcleave Cliffs, Evil Presence, Stromkirk Noble, Cruel Sadist

1. Asthereal (TO): Copperline Gorge, Hexdrinker, Seal of Fire, Nature's Claim WL
2. FTW: Lotus Bloom, Electrodominance, Restore Balance, Keldon Halberdier LL
3. Moosedog: Blast zone, Lumbering falls, Calciform pools, Treetop village WW
5. H: Temple Garden, Noble Hierarch, Student of Warfare, Path to Exile LL - Double Stromkirk would probably have been better here.

vs. Moosedog FTW figured it out.

3w = 9 points

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wrath of Pie

4. Wrath of Pie: Blackcleave Cliffs, Evil Presence, Stromkirk Noble, Cruel Sadist

3. Moosedog: Blast zone, Lumbering falls, Calciform pools, Treetop village DD?

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I think there's more in this one for you.

W: Land, Noble
M: Village (tapped)
W: Attack, M=19, Noble=2/2
M: Falls (also tapped)
W: Attack, M=17, Noble=3/3
M: Pools
W: Attack with a 3/3 Noble
Now, if Moosedog doesn't block, Noble becomes 4/4 and the bomb land has to be wasted on it, making room for Sadist to explode.
If (s)he does block, (s)he loses the Treetop Village, which (s)he needs to activate the other manland.
Also, if Treetop is gone, you can Presence the Pools, and suddenly the bomb land can't be activated anymore, and again Sadist will again run away with it.

So I think you win this on the play. On the draw, Treetop Village looks to be on time and it might be a draw.

Then again, I think you might lose both against H.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Wrath of Pie

4. Wrath of Pie: Blackcleave Cliffs, Evil Presence, Stromkirk Noble, Cruel Sadist

5. H: Temple Garden, Noble Hierarch, Student of Warfare, Path to Exile DD - Cruel Sadist costing life should keep me from being able to win.

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EDIT: Scratch what I said here earlier. I again forgot that the Stromkirk bugger can't be blocked by hunams, which is a factor. A big one.
Still, since the calculation below shows that H is too fast even when on the draw, he can adopt the same strat on the play:
T1 Temple>Hierarch. Then use Path on Noble, and proceed to cast and level up Student asap. That's enough.

W: Noble
H: Garden, H=18, cast Hierarch (anything else runs into Presence and end of story)
W: Attack, H=17, Noble=2/2, cast Presence on Garden. (You could cast Sadist first, but it'll give H two white mana next turn, which allows him to cast Student and Path in one turn, which gains him a turn.)
The situation is now that Student won't grow fast enough to be able to stop Noble from growing out of control.
But if H has to use Path on the Noble, Sadist will enter the equasion. So let's see how that turns out.
H: Path on Noble
W: Cast Sadist
H: Cast Student
W: (wait)
H: Student L1, attack for 2 (exalted), W=18 (can't block and trade, or Hierarch wins it). EOT Sadist 2/2, W=17
W: (wait)
H: Student L2 (3/3 fs), attack for 4 (exalted), W=13. EOT Sadist 3/3, W=12
W: (wait)
H: Student L3 (3/3 fs), attack for 4 (exalted), W=9. EOT Sadist 4/4, W=8
W: (wait)
H: Student L4 (still 3/3 fs). Can't attack now. EOT, Sadist 5/5, W=7
W: Attacking is a bad idea, as H is faster, so again wait.
H: Student L5 (still 3/3 fs). EOT, Sadist 6/6, W=6
W: (wait)
H: Student L6 (still 3/3 fs). EOT, Sadist 7/7, W=5
W: (wait)
H: Student L4 (4/4 double strike). Attack with a 5/5 double striker. A 7/7 Sadist blocks and trades.
W: (can't do anything anymore)
H: Attack with an exalted 1/2 Hierarch until you die.

Sorry, thanks for the analysis. I'm kind of pressed for time here, but I don't think I can beat FTW or Moosedog, since each only give me three turns and I am pretty sure I need 5 to win.

I guess there is a possible way I could maybe force a draw vs. Moosedog, by only playing one threat at a time, but I don't think I can force anything, since eventually a block with a Hexproof land would happen. That probably depends on if the Lumbering Falls can race the Hierarchy itself. I feel like it can, but I am not sure on the math there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by H

Sorry, thanks for the analysis. I'm kind of pressed for time here, but I don't think I can beat FTW or Moosedog, since each only give me three turns and I am pretty sure I need 5 to win.

I guess there is a possible way I could maybe force a draw vs. Moosedog, by only playing one threat at a time, but I don't think I can force anything, since eventually a block with a Hexproof land would happen. That probably depends on if the Lumbering Falls can race the Hierarchy itself. I feel like it can, but I am not sure on the math there.

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Note that Moosedog needs green mana to activate a man land, and his/her tick-up land doesn't make it.
So if you Path one of the manlands, MD won't be able to activate the second man-land anymore.

So I'm guessing you might even win. Game plan:

Land, cast Hierarch. Then the turns after keep your land untapped for Path.
Now attack with Hierarch until MD activates a manland.
Before damage is dealt, you use the mana from your land to Path the manland.
Now you still have Hierarch, Student is still in your hand, and MD lost a manland and with it the ability to win.
All that's left for MD is the bomb land, which MD will use on your Hierarch, or the exalted bugger will kill him/her.
After all that has happened, you just cast Student and win with it.

Unless I'm missing a thing. Which isn't all that uncommon. :wink:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Asthereal

Note that Moosedog needs green mana to activate a man land, and his/her tick-up land doesn't make it.
So if you Path one of the manlands, MD won't be able to activate the second man-land anymore.

So I'm guessing you might even win. Game plan:

Land, cast Hierarch. Then the turns after keep your land untapped for Path.
Now attack with Hierarch until MD activates a manland.
Before damage is dealt, you use the mana from your land to Path the manland.
Now you still have Hierarch, Student is still in your hand, and MD lost a manland and with it the ability to win.
All that's left for MD is the bomb land, which MD will use on your Hierarch, or the exalted bugger will kill him/her.
After all that has happened, you just cast Student and win with it.

Unless I'm missing a thing. Which isn't all that uncommon. :wink:

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Well, that would work if the land activated was the Treetop, but if it is the Lumbering Falls, I can't Path that, it has Hexproof. It does take more time, but Hierarch is a 20-turn clock.

Another option might be to play Student and up it to have First Strike. Then there is no good block, so Blast Zone is the only option. Now the question would remain can the Lumbering Falls race the Hierarch from there.

This is actually a rather complex scenario, maybe even worse than Bitterblossom math, haha.