Random Encounters Part 4

So it seems like Mike wants to make a habit of meeting in Grand Central Station for podcasts. Apparently it is easier than him coming downtown to the new Top8Magic.com digs — which he has still not even come to visit yet. Somehow one of the busiest commuter stations in the world is the least acoustically challenging space we can agree to meet at. This time it did lead to a couple of random encounters including local Level 3 judge Eric Smith and a quick drive-by with Mario Batali (we did not speak to Mario, just made note of him passing by) as well as some random people asking for directions and attempting to menace us into giving them money for their CD.

Random Encounters Part 3

So it seems like Mike wants to make a habit of meeting in Grand Central Station for podcasts. Apparently it is easier than him coming downtown to the new Top8Magic.com digs — which he has still not even come to visit yet. Somehow one of the busiest commuter stations in the world is the least acoustically challenging space we can agree to meet at. This time it did lead to a couple of random encounters including local Level 3 judge Eric Smith and a quick drive-by with Mario Batali (we did not speak to Mario, just made note of him passing by) as well as some random people asking for directions and attempting to menace us into giving them money for their CD.

Mike and I were talking on this set of ‘casts — or was it the previous set — about Necrotic Ooze in Standard. It seems pretty exciting to me with Molten-Tail Masticores, Gigantomancers, and other cool-but-too-expensive-to-ever-summon creatures like Kalitas. Anyway, here is a rough list — sans any sideboard — that I have been toying around with on MTGO this week.I have had a couple of turn four kills when my three members of my one-drop squad got by unblocked with an Ooze in play and Gigantomancer in the yard. This is a very rough list but it has been a lot of fun so far and seems like something to build on.

Ooze Line Is It Anyway?
Brian David-Marshall

2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Grim Discovery
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloodshot Trainee
1 Swamp
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Llanowar Elves
7 Forest
4 Gigantomancer
4 Molten-Tail Masticore
4 Vengevine
4 Necrotic Ooze
1 Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Island
4 Hedron Crab
4 Fauna Shaman
4 Darkslick Shores

Random Encounters Part 2

So it seems like Mike wants to make a habit of meeting in Grand Central Station for podcasts. Apparently it is easier than him coming downtown to the new Top8Magic.com digs — which he has still not even come to visit yet. Somehow one of the busiest commuter stations in the world is the least acoustically challenging space we can agree to meet at. This time it did lead to a couple of random encounters including local Level 3 judge Eric Smith and a quick drive-by with Mario Batali (we did not speak to Mario, just made note of him passing by) as well as some random people asking for directions and attempting to menace us into giving them money for their CD.

Over the course of this last couple of ‘casting sessions Mike has begun to brew up a TurboLand variant with Genesis Wave. He recently wrote about this list over on TCGPlayer.com.

The Genesis Wave Motion Gun
Mike Flores

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Joraga Treespeaker
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Oracle of Mul Daya
4 Overgrown Battlement
4 Primeval Titan
4 Explore
4 Genesis Wave
8 Forest
4 Halimar Depths
4 Island
4 Khalni Garden
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard:
4 Into the Roil
4 Negate
3 Obstinate Baloth
4 Pelakka Wurm

Random Encounters Part 1

So it seems like Mike wants to make a habit of meeting in Grand Central Station for podcasts. Apparently it is easier than him coming downtown to the new Top8Magic.com digs — which he has still not even come to visit yet. Somehow one of the busiest commuter stations in the world is the least acoustically challenging space we can agree to meet at. This time it did lead to a couple of random encounters including local Level 3 judge Eric Smith and a quick drive-by with Mario Batali (we did not speak to Mario, just made note of him passing by) as well as some random people asking for directions and attempting to menace us into giving them money for their CD.

This is the Kuldotha Afterbirth deck that we discuss early in this four part series.

Kuldotha Afterbirth
Chris Cannon — Winner
Georgia 2010 State Championships

4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Smoldering Spire
1 Teetering Peaks
11 Mountain
4 Goblin Guide
4 Goblin Bushwacker
4 Goblin Cheiftan
3 Mox Opal
4 Kuldotha Rebirth
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Infiltration Lens
3 Panic Spellbomb
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Memnite
3 Galvenize Blast
2 Spikeshot Elder
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Molten-Tail Masticore

Sideboard:
3 Mark of Mutiny
3 Arc Trail
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
3 Tunnel Ignus
3 Shatter

Quest for the Rail Yard Part 3

The last of a three part podcast from me (Brian David-Marshall) and Mike Flores. In Mike’s continued quest to find acoustically challenged sites to record podcasts he set up this session inside Grand Central Station rather than travel to the new but slightly less conveniently located Top8Magic.com offices. Over the course of the three podcasts we discussed Mike’s States performance, mused about a couple of new decks, and dropped the recorder on the floor.

Finally, here is the blue deck that Mike was advocated as we wound down the podcast:

Make it Snow

4 Frost Titan
2 Jace Beleren
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Trinket Mage
1 Brittle Effigy
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Everflowing Chalice
4 Into the Roil
4 Mana Leak
4 Preordain
2 Spell Pierce
2 Treasure Hunt
2 Volition Reins
Spells [22]
4 Halimar Depths
17 Island
4 Tectonic Edge
Sideboard:
3 All Is Dust
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Flashfreeze
1 Jace Beleren
2 Negate
4 Ratchet Bomb
2 Spell Pierce

Quest for the Rail Yard Part 2

The second of a three part podcast from me (Brian David-Marshall) and Mike Flores. In Mike’s continued quest to find acoustically challenged sites to record podcasts he set up this session inside Grand Central Station rather than travel to the new but slightly less conveniently located Top8Magic.com offices. Over the course of the three podcasts we discussed Mike’s States performance, mused about a couple of new decks, and dropped the recorder on the floor.

Here is one of the deck’s Mike ended up building after there were recorded:

Infect.dec

4 Corpse Cur
4 Hand of the Praetors
4 Ichor Rats
1 Liliana Vess
4 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
2 Sorin Markov
4 Contagion Clasp
2 Contagion Engine
4 Everflowing Chalice
2 Mind Sludge
1 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Sign in Blood
20 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge
Sideboard:
2 Consume the Meek
4 Consuming Vapors
4 Memoricide
2 Mind Sludge
3 Nihil Spellbomb

Quest for the Rail Yard Part 1

The first of a three part podcast from me (Brian David-Marshall) and Mike Flores. In Mike’s continued quest to find acoustically challenged sites to record podcasts he set up this session inside Grand Central Station rather than travel to the new but slightly less conveniently located Top8Magic.com offices. Over the course of the three podcasts we discussed Mike’s States performance, mused about a couple of new decks, and dropped the recorder on the floor.

Here is Mike’s deck from States two weekends ago:

Pyromancer Trap

4 Archive Trap
1 Call to Mind
4 Into the Roil
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mana Leak
4 Preordain
4 Pyromancer Ascension
2 Ravenous Trap
4 See Beyond
4 Trapmaker’s Snare
3 Treasure Hunt
4 Halimar Depths
7 Island
7 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
Sideboard:
4 Forked Bolt
4 Jace Beleren
4 Pyroclasm
3 Spell Pierce

Top8Magic Fans,

We are proud to announce that Deckade is now available on Amazon for the Kindle. Click on the link below to order your copy.

Michael J. Flores: Deckade at Amazon’s Kindle Store

We hope to have the iBook, Nook and Google Edition out in the next month.

Also, stay tuned for exciting news regarding My Files Part 1 and some new Top8Magic books!

Best

Matt and BDM

Charles “Tuna” Hwa is a long-time Magic player, one-time Editor-in-Chief of The Magic Dojo, and reoccurring character throughout the pages of Michael J. Flores’ Deckade. He has written the following tournament report about his experience at the Rise of Eldrazi Prerelease, his adventures as an ex-pat in China, and his rekindled fire to play Magic. It is an awesome, old-school, kick-ass of a tournament report. Enjoy!

Call me Umbrakul

For those who may worry, there is no white whale in this article- at least, not literally. And anyway, even if there was a white whale named “emteegee”, I’m hugging the lovable white cetacean (once again). This is the story of why I am back into Magic after ten years, a quick recounting of my Prerelease experience, and it ends with some RoE thoughts. Our story begins in August 2009, by way of February 2000.

***
“Nature’s first green is gold…”

There used to be this great place where tons of fun people would post articles and share ideas about this wonderful game called Magic. There were lots of decklists, a whole pile of humor, and the very beginnings of strategy for this addictive card game (channel plus fireball is really good). It featured Rob Hahn and other early Magic thinkers. This place was called Usenet, and life was good.

Soon thereafter, a man emerged from the electronic wilds carrying with him something he termed “a tournament report”. (This timeline may not be accurate, but it’s my story, etc.) Though containing both truth and anecdote, the book of Wakefield provided an interesting glimpse into competitive Magic. Jamie advocated 62 cards in his deck, 26 of which were lands. “Preposterous!” one (such as me) might have said at the time, wondering how to fit Palladia Mors and Nicol Bolas into a deck with so few cards. But so it came to pass that Jamie was right (and wrong), and life was great.

Then after a while, a man named Frank Kusumoto came along and said, “This World Wide Web thing seems like a better way to organize Magic thought than Usenet posts. Also, man alive I shouldn’t have eaten all that sushi yesterday with Rob while watching that Twin Peaks rerun.” (this might not be an exact quote) And thus the Magic Dojo came to be. And life was freaking grand.

By 1999, I was working with Mike Flores and Al Tran at the Magic Dojo. By February 2000, we found out that the Magic Dojo couldn’t really support 25 employees (who knew?). But life was still pretty good. Magic thought kept flourishing, and new players just played decks and strategies that they learned from other, newer websites. I had changed though, and I faded from Magic, becoming a “casual competitive” player (translation: I wanted to win, but primarily at Prereleases).

***
“These are the days when birds come back…”

In August of 2009, I moved back to Beijing, China. Looking for something to do my third weekend here, I checked the Wizards website for giggles, checking if there were any Limited events in Beijing (Great Wall? Check. Forbidden Palace? Seen it. Tiananmen Square? I made a dust Angel in Tiananmen at dawn the day after I graduated from high school). I found out that there was a PTQ nearby in a little card shop called “Ka Dou”; literally, “Card Fight”. Fighting some cards in a Limited PTQ? What’s not to love! I mean, sure I’d never seen Zendikar, and sure it was a PTQ and not a pre-release, but it’s China, not Japan. How hard could it be to Q?

It’s harder than you think. The cards are in Chinese, and I have the Chinese literacy of a second grader (since upgraded to perhaps sixth grade). My spoiler didn’t have card numbers. Good Game. The judge took pity on me after I had spent 40 minutes registering the deck I opened, and stood by to help me decipher cards during deckbuilding. Even with his help, it still took 35-plus minutes to register my red-white deck, and my deck was only red and white because I didn’t know what my blue, black and green cards did.

I started 2-0, finished 0-4, and loved (almost) every minute of it. I throw in almost because unwashed-gamer-smell made the jump over the Pacific, sadly, and proved to be a little overpowering at times. Anyhow, I lost via bad play, I lost via bad deck construction, and I lost because of a little bit of bad luck, but I rediscovered a love for shuffling cards and casting spells. I left “Card Fight” wanting to be competitive again, at least at a PTQ level; I mean, it’s fun casting spells… but it’s way more fun to cast spells AND win. So I played a lot of Magic Online, practicing Zendikar Limited and familiarizing myself with Zendikar pictures. I also studied a bunch of Chinese characters that were directly relevant to magic (quick lesson: 目标生物 is “target creature”; it’s pronounced roughly as MOO-byao-shung-WOO). After a slew of drafts and some studying, I felt that I was ready to win some games.

***
“Surely some revealation is at hand…”

And then I didn’t play any Magic from December to March. I didn’t plan for that to happen- sometimes, life just gets in the way of casting spells. This tends to happen more often as you get a little older. Between applying to schools, going to Chinese language classes, taking finals for those classes, as well as travelling in Asia to visit long neglected branches of the family tree, there just wasn’t a whole lot of time left. So when the RoE Prerelease happened last week, I didn’t really spend a lot of time preparing, figuring with only a couple of days to prepare, I might as well just go and lose again (though hopefully less badly than at the PTQ). I also had this brief conversation with Jon Becker on Facebook (blocked by Chinese censors, but VPN for the win):

Me: “Hey Becker, I think I’m going to play in the Prerelease.”
Becker: “Mise win the pre-release amirite? Chinese players etc. kekeke.” (this might not be an exact quote)
Me: “I can’t read Chinese cards yet.”
Becker: “Spoiler, etc.”

I Becker* almost every Limited deck- who am I to argue against Jon Becker?! (*Becker: to play a 41st card in Limited) So the morning of the tournament, I print out a spoiler, with card numbers this time, and mosey my way over to the basement of E-world. E-world is a giant 6 story Best Buy like store that has anything you could ever want to buy relating to computers, plus lots of stuff that you’d never want to accidentally waste your money on although you wish others would spend their money and get it for you, like green and blue lasers (they are pretty cool, if you are a giant geek like me, but cost too much money and are pretty useless except for being distracting). Read the rest of this entry »

After a handful of delays, Top8Magic.com is about to publish our second collection of Magic: The Gathering writing from the game’s most respected and prolific authors. This time out we will be publishing a collection by Pro Tour Hall of Famer Zvi Mowshowitz that begins with his earliest works and follows his nomadic writing career from website to website.

There is hardly a Magic site of note that Zvi has not written for in his career and he was among the very first to treat writing about Magic as a way to augment a Pro Player’s salary. This is common-place in the modern era but — as Zvi points out in the new material he wrote for the section on his Magic Dojo careeer — that was not always the case.

Zvi has written abundant new material for this volume including “director’s commentary” after many of his more famous and favorite selections. As Mike did with  Deckade, Zvi has also written new material to sum up each era of his career. I am happy to present Zvi’s thoughts on The Dojo Philosophy. We hope you enjoy it and if you are interested in purchasing this volume, which will ship late September/early October, you can do so by clicking on this link.

The Dojo Philosophy
by Zvi Mowshowitz

In the beginning, we didn’t write because we were paid. We wrote because we wanted to share our wisdom. We wrote to make our name, to claim our ideas as our own while sharing them. We wrote because we enjoyed writing. We wrote because we felt it was part of our obligation to the Magic community in general and the Dojo in particular. We took in the words of others, and followed Sensei’s motto: Study and grow strong. In exchange, when our time came, we would report back on our decks, our tournaments and our ideas. Read the rest of this entry »