I know it has been a while since the last set of cast but with cards flooding into the M11 Visual Spoiler page on the mothership Mike and I got together, with a special guest appearance from the hirsute Steve Sadin, to discuss Conundrum Sphinx and his spoiled friends from M11. It was a fun set of ‘casts to record as the three of us have not done anything together in quite some time and there were plenty of exciting cards to discuss. Topics of discussion included the tournament worthiness of Sphinx of Jwar Isle, which cards will win the most money for the rest of the year, and which cards seem like they are being overrated (Hint: It rhymes with with Rhyme Dispersal).

Make sure to check the Visual Spoiler page and the various weekly columns for the rest of this week and next as more cards are revealed every day. And of course, don’t forget to make your plans for the M11 Prerelease in a little over a week.

Sphinx or Sub-Sphinx? Part 4

I know it has been a while since the last set of cast but with cards flooding into the M11 Visual Spoiler page on the mothership Mike and I got together, with a special guest appearance from the hirsute Steve Sadin, to discuss Conundrum Sphinx and his spoiled friends from M11. It was a fun set of ‘casts to record as the three of us have not done anything together in quite some time and there were plenty of exciting cards to discuss. Topics of discussion included the tournament worthiness of Sphinx of Jwar Isle, which cards will win the most money for the rest of the year, and which cards seem like they are being overrated (Hint: It rhymes with with Rhyme Dispersal).

Make sure to check the Visual Spoiler page and the various weekly columns for the rest of this week and next as more cards are revealed every day. And of course, don’t forget to make your plans for the M11 Prerelease in a little over a week.

Sphinx or Sub-Sphinx? Part 3

I know it has been a while since the last set of cast but with cards flooding into the M11 Visual Spoiler page on the mothership Mike and I got together, with a special guest appearance from the hirsute Steve Sadin, to discuss Conundrum Sphinx and his spoiled friends from M11. It was a fun set of ‘casts to record as the three of us have not done anything together in quite some time and there were plenty of exciting cards to discuss. Topics of discussion included the tournament worthiness of Sphinx of Jwar Isle, which cards will win the most money for the rest of the year, and which cards seem like they are being overrated (Hint: It rhymes with with Rhyme Dispersal).

Make sure to check the Visual Spoiler page and the various weekly columns for the rest of this week and next as more cards are revealed every day. And of course, don’t forget to make your plans for the M11 Prerelease in a little over a week.

Sphinx or Sub-Sphinx? Part 2

I know it has been a while since the last set of cast but with cards flooding into the M11 Visual Spoiler page on the mothership Mike and I got together, with a special guest appearance from the hirsute Steve Sadin, to discuss Conundrum Sphinx and his spoiled friends from M11. It was a fun set of ‘casts to record as the three of us have not done anything together in quite some time and there were plenty of exciting cards to discuss. Topics of discussion included the tournament worthiness of Sphinx of Jwar Isle, which cards will win the most money for the rest of the year, and which cards seem like they are being overrated (Hint: It rhymes with with Rhyme Dispersal).

Make sure to check the Visual Spoiler page and the various weekly columns for the rest of this week and next as more cards are revealed every day. And of course, don’t forget to make your plans for the M11 Prerelease in a little over a week.

Sphinx or Sub-Sphinx? Part 1

So is anyone still complaining about blue? Okay, I have actually heard plenty of people complaining about blue but it has a different tenor than the complaints from little over a year back. It does not seem that long ago that blue mages were hitting the mana-lines looking for handouts to keep them going. “Why is Wizards making blue so bad?” they would ask. “When will R&D give us some good blue cards?”

Be careful what you ask for or you might find yourself staring across the table at four mana, flying, blue Ophidian that you know is bigger than a Lightning Bolt can deal with on its own. Get a load of Conundrum Sphinx, the exclusive Top8Magic.com M11 Preview Card.

At first glance it seems like one of those Liar’s Pendulum-type cards that have a lot of text, promise to maybe draw you a card once in a blue moon, and before long are relegated to the back pages of trade binders at FNMs everywhere.

But if you think about the cards that blue has available to play with — and that are currently being played extensively in Standard — it is not too hard to imagine a scenario where the Conundrum Sphinx is able to start flying over on turn four and drawing its controller — possibly even you — an extra card a turn.

I will certainly be testing this card in my Standard gauntlet as I prepare to compete in Nationals. Think about it for a second. Play a turn two Everflowing Chalice and land this bird on turn three. Assuming you get to untap with it in play you can use any number of cards to get maximum value out of it and even protect it.

Halimar Depths is a card that leaps to mind and will actually net you you two extra cards while dealing 8 damage over two turns since you arrange three cards so that you get one when the Sphinx attacks, one on your next draw step and then the third one when you attack again. Halimar Depths is so exciting with this card that I fully expect to playing a set of Deprives to accompany it — especially if this is a more aggresive blue deck that can play some early threats and protect them with bounce and counterspells.

There is also an entire suite of cards that will coexist in Standard until Scars of Mirrodin shakes things up that let you smooth out your draws and solve the riddle of the Conundrum Sphinx. Ponder, the newly minted Preordain, Augury Owl…

…Jace, the Mind Sculptor. I know that there are pretty much no card that you can mention that don’t get better with a little help from everyone’s favorite Planeswalker but he really shines in concert with the Sphinx and a little countermagic to make sure the whole plan comes together. Even if you only attack once with Jace in play you will have drawn a total of three cards. Which seems like a good thing to be doing.

Mike and will be posting an M11 Preview podcast after the weekend to discuss this card and all the other goodies that have been unleashed over the past 24 hours.

Round 3: Kesley Weeks

My deck fired on all cylinders this round with Knotvine Mystic powering out Meglonoth and basically ending the game in three swings. The card is absurdly unfair. I thought it seemed fine when it was previewed but it is just a total game changer. Your opponent can never reasonably attack you on the ground — and I even had Spearbreaker backup for him — and they are forced to play into your combat tricks with gang blocks.

Game two was fun as I had Topan Ascetic and one of my Rhox Chargers as well as a Bant Charm for his foily Cliffrunner Behemoth. I also got to parlay Druid of the Anima into a turn three Rhox Meditant. The fun part was using a mid combat Glean of Resistance. He decided to not block the 2/2 which was able to do the final 10 damage all by itself.

Glean of Resistance — and all the basic landcyclers — are some of my favorite cards in the set.

Glean was used over the course of the day as an ersatz Fireball with the Ascetic, to counter the tapping mode of Naya Charm, and to regularlly assure Knotvine Mystic mana on turn three. Sylvan Bounty is one of the only good answers to a Banefire, and Fiery Fall was such a good removal spell for me on the day that I was usually cycling the Glean in order to find the Mountain I needed for Fiery Fall.

Updates did not quite go as planned yesterday. I had hoped to post updates throughout the day and in between rounds of my flights. The first update went up pretty fast but after that it was pretty much non-stop Magic for the next 11 hours as I pitted my Sealed Deck against other competitors, giving away a Conflux booster if I lost a tournament match or gunslinging game.

My opening Sealed Deck aquitted me quite nicely giving up a minimum of packs losing only to Elspeth in the final round and a couple of draft decks that could easilly out-tempo a Sealed Deck.

I played a handful of Constructed matches, borrowing a red Burn deck from someone who’s name I have embarassingly misplaced. I lost one game to five color but it incinerated the rest of the challengers — including a timely rip of Demigod of Revenge to squeak out a win against an opponent at 10.

Anyway… I am going to catch up on my updates while flying home to catch the Superbowl. There is wireless Internet access on the flight which is both cool and bizarre. Cool because I can chat, email, and update via my iPhone (good thing I did not bring a laptop because, let’s face facts, I would just be running midair Modos) but bizarre because the plane I am on is not exactly a model of cutting edge aviation technology.

The armrests basically have plates with the no smoking symbol soldered over the ashtrays and thumbwheel controls for the audio programming. Basically it is like being on a bus that is capable of time travel.

Round 2: Joe Garcia

“Its Murphy’s Law of tournaments,” laughed Joe Garcia as we sat down to play. Joe and I had been talking between rounds and he relayed a win that included Wooly Thoctar, Banefire, and Titanic Ultimatum. “If you talk to someone about a deck you will play them a round later.”

In game one we traded blow back and forth with Wild Leotaus on each side. Court Archers game him an edge in the race and by the time I tried to slow things down he was able to finish me off with Banefire.

The second game underscored the abilty of Wall of Reverance to change a game. I was gaining between 5 and 7 life a turn buy neither Joe or I were getting much damage through. Joe had O-Ringed my Behemoth so the Meglonoth was mortal, which meant neither of us was really attacking. I was well over 50 life and waiting on Naya Charm which showed up at some point to lock up the game.

Game three saw a turn four Meglonoth followed up by Rhox Charger. The game notation consists of maybe four pen strokes.

2-0 on the day so far against Banefire.

Round 1: Andrew Hurwitz

There is not really much to say about this round. Andrew seemed like a really nice guy who did not get very good draws in either of our games. I had been on the fence about Knotvine Mystic coming into playing round one but quickly became a believer. Hitting your Shard colored three drops on turn three has gotten much easier with the addition of the Ziggaraut, Spire,and basic landcycling.

The Mystic came down and I had six mana to work with from turn four on in both games. Even without a six drop it was fine for playing a Rhox Charger and having two mana to cycle or play Sigil Blessing.

After the match Andrew good naturedly showed me the Banefire he never had a chance to play in either game.

I just finished building my first Shards-Conflux Sealed Deck pool and I am really confounded as to the viability of a number of the commons. Ruptured Spire is the one giving me the most fits — as it seems to be doing for many of the players here.

It basically eats a whole turn to come online since you have to play it tapped and pay 1 when you do. I have no problem playing Rampant Growth on turn two and even though this does not ramp you mana the Spire seems like a reasonable play both early and late. It’s those pesky turns three through five that are the bitch.

It looks like my deck is going to be solidly Naya with only the slightest hint of blue to accomodate Bant Charm and I am worried about the Spire disrupting my curve but I think I will have to see it in action before I pass judgement.

I also have Ancient Ziggurat to fix mana and it also seems like a it can create some clumsy situations. You can’t use that mana to cycle, activate a Panaroma, or anything else that is not a creature. I am very curious what other players experiences were with these two cards.

Another card that I have been wrestling with is the aptly named Lapse of Certainty. Basically an off-color, slightly more expensive Memory Lapse — and old favorite in Limited and Constructed. In the end I decided not to play them since my deck was quite mana hungry. Had I been Bant I would have definitely given them a try.