If you like to gamble, start playing with this deck:

Crypt Combo AKA “Crabs”

4 Crypt of Agadeem
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 U/x Fetch Land
2 B/x Fetch Land
5 Island
2 Swamp

4 Hedron Crab
2 Kederekt Leviathan
2 Fatestitcher
4 Extractor Demon
4 Rotting Rats
4 Architects of Will
4 Viscera Dragger
4 Monstrous Carabid
3 Corpse Connoisseur

4 Grim Discovery
4 Traumatize

Sideboard:
4 Duress
4 Blister Beetle
4 Disfigure
3 Pithing Needle

I haven’t played the sideboard listed here, but its what the people who are placing in MODO events are playing so it must be good!

If you don’t know how this deck works, its pretty simple: mill yourself with Crab and/or Traumatize, mise a Crypt somewhere in the first 4 turns, then make a bunch of mana with at least one crypt activation and Unearth FTW. If your opponent has infinite life, then you just mill them out via Extractor Demon triggers.

Of course it is not always that simple, because rarely is your hand the right combination of Crypt/Crab/Traumatize/Grim Disco. The nut draws with this deck easily win turn 4, but the sub-nut draws have you mulliganning to 5 and hoping to get there on Cycling.

Because of the inconsistencies (I have played somewhere in the range of 100 games with this deck, that’s how badly I wanted it to be good) the matchup against any deck that can goldfish a turn 4 win is pretty bad. Red Deck Wins is virtually impossible (although i have not tried the Disfigures). Against Boros you can get there off a heavy Rotting Rats draw and chump blocking until you can systemagically set up your graveyard. Jund is a favorable matchup, especially if they do not have main deck Jund Charms, and double especially if they don’t have Goblin Ruinblaster main. Mono-Green is also favorable since they do not get nearly as fast a start as any of the decks mentioned previously. Against both Jund and Green, Unearthing (or even hard casting!) a Leviathan turn 4 or 5 will give you more than enough time to complete your kill.

You can’t really beat any deck that has Goblin Ruinblaster, Ajani Vengeant, Acidic Slime, or any of the blue enchantments that turn your land into something other than Crypt of Agadeem.

Against control decks (if you manage to spot one online, which is very rare) you are practically a lock game 1 because they can’t interact with you at all while you goldfish your win. Post board you can just side in your duress/negate and take your time. Set up your graveyard and you can even make them discard their whole hand via rats if you want before you attempt to go off.

In essence, this deck is a total crap shoot against the format. If I were to run it at states tomorrow, I would predict a 5-3 finish, probably good enough for like, 6 packs. I do think this is a deck to keep an eye on, however, should the format slow down at all. If any kind of control deck emerges from Worlds (happening this week for anyone who didn’t know), or if for whatever reason the red decks fall from popularity, then it is possible that Crypt Combo could be very well positioned for states. I am certainly going to keep it in mind, but in the meantime, there are quite a few other decks that have caught my eye, which I will write about as I get the chance to play with them.

As a side note: I have finally returned to Magic, and intend to start posting here again regularly! I have been pretty busy with a lot of other stuff the past few months and had to put the game on the back burner. In addition to having time to play, I have installed Windows on my Mac, and can now play MODO, which is absolutely insane. If you feel like playing some games, chat me up in game (my name is sloppystack, just like Twitter! PS: Follow me (and top8games, fivewithflores, and mattwang97) on Twitter!).

~WillPoP

Loyal Podcast listeners are probably aware that the infamous/reclusive Matt Wang (mattwang97 on Twitter) “won” GP-Boston in 2007. I put “won” in quotes because it is unclear (and the topic of much debate) how much of that win should be attributed to Wang, since it was a 2-Headed Giant tournament and his partner was none other than multiple PT Top8 finisher and Pro Tour Los Angeles winner Steve O’Mahoney-Schwartz (3 PT T8s/1 PT win, 10 GP T8s/4 GP wins, 237 lifetime Pro Points). Wang and OMS beat Top8Magic friend Gerard Fabiano and his partner Eric Zeigler in the finals to bring home the trophy to the Top8 offices.

Despite the pedigree of his partner, a win is a win and in the NYC area that means cake. Winning Regionals, a PTQ, an LCQ, a GP or a PT are all grounds for a cake party (Billy’s or otherwise). However, Wang has yet to make good on the promise of cake despite taking part in multiple cake celebrations that have transpired since his win. The solution to this problem is obviously peer pressure.

All Top8 fans who have Twitter, please use the hashtag #WangOwesCake whenever you Tweet about the following: Cake, GPs, PTQs, LCQs, Winning, Top8Magic or Matt Wang. BDM (Top8Games on Twitter) already started the trend over the weekend and we hope everyone will pick it up.

Rumors that Duels of the Planeswalkers, the XBLA Magic: the Gathering game, was going to be released early blipped momentarily on the Twitter radar yesterday, but were quickly dismissed. When was the last time a game was finished ahead of time?

Wizards released this press release today, announcing that Duels of the Planeswalkers will be released on June 17th, with organized play events planned for as early as June 20th.

Early buyers/downloaders will be rewarded with a code that can be redeemed for a foil, promo Garruk Wildspeaker.

Gameplay footage has been around for a while, and the game looks fantastic. As a pseudo Xbox 360 owner (roomate owns one, ding!) I am excited to try the game out when it releases.

Who else is planning on getting MODO: Xbox edition? Have you been anticipating this release? Let us know what you think about Duels of the Planeswalkers in the comments.

~WillPoP

Going into Regionals, I was pretty sure that my deck choice (obviously Jund Ramp) was solid. After hours of play and discussion with Mikey J, I was convinced that Jund was the deck to play for the tournament.

I woke up Saturday morning to what looked like rain outside. I hit the streets around 7:30, caught the bus across town, and took the 1 train down to Penn Station to meet up with a bunch of other NY magic players that were also planning on taking the 8:14 train to Edison. I found a seat in the middle of the train and popped on the headphones (LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver) for the hour long ride.

The venue is about a mile walk from the train station in Edison. I joined up with “Siege-Gang Ferrando,” Devon, GCB, Alex B and Regionals first-timer Seong An. Seong easily identified us as Magic players and joined us for the hike through commercial New Jersey.

We arrived at the venue (basement of a church) in the middle of a funeral procession and quietly worked our way to the side entrance. I am 6 cards short going in, still missing 1 Karrthus, 1 Cloudthresher and 4 Rampant Growth. I find fivewithflores and he informs me that the dealers are sold out of Karrthus. Luis “Not Vargas” Neiman hooks me up with the Rampant Growths. Lucky for me, Seong had a Karrthus and Cloudthresher that I could mise. I register and write down my decklist and pretty soon the round starts.

Round 1, Mike with 5c Control

Game 1 we both mulligan to 6. I win the die roll and make Civic Wayfinder, then Kitchen Finks, and they take him from 20 to 0 after being joined by a Treetop Village a few turns later. Mike misses a few land drops and I’m not sure he even played a spell at all.

I figured him for 5c control because of all his vivid lands and side in the Anathemancer/Karrthus/Primal Command package.

Game 2 I mulligan and we trade hits back and forth with with early finks. Eventually Mike turtles up behind a Wall of Reverence and a Plumeveil. He counters my relevant threats while gaining life each turn. Eventually he finds a Broodmate Dragon and finishes me off.

Game 3 we both keep 7 and I have a strong hand which includes none other than my borrowed Karrthus. I begin chipping away early with a Anathemancer, bolting him for 4 and getting him down to 12 before he gets a Wall of Reverence going. On my turn 6 I have a Broodmate and Primal Command, but opt for the Command to try to fish up another Anathemancer. He counters it, untaps, and slams down a Broodmate on his 6th turn. I pray for 7th land but draw Rampant Growth instead and have to settle for playing my own Broodmate. Mike plays Cruel Ultimatum, and I show him the Karrthus I am forced to discard in my hand. At this point MJF has found his way to my table, sees the board, and declares me the winner. Of course I rip a Makeshift Mannequin to bring back Karrthus, steal his dragons, and attack him for 23. He blocks the 7/7 with his wall and stays alive at 6 life. Mike untaps and Wraths the board but two turns later I find my 7th land and Unearth Anathemancer for 9.

1-0
2-1

Round 2, Justin with Red Deck

I win the die roll again and get to go first. Justin has a slow hand with no action until a turn 3 Ram Gang. I take hits and accelerate, then play three consecutive Broodmate Dragons.

Game 2 Justin keeps a hand that I can only assume has multiple Demigods. His turn 3 play is a Everlasting Torment, which prevents me from gaining life off a Kitchen Finks… but doesn’t prevent the Finks from beating him down. Justin never finds his 5th land, and I follow up my Finks with a Dragon and finish it.

2-0
4-1

Round 3, Noah with GW Tokens

Game 1 our hero is again on the play but mulligans a hand 3 Forest, 3 Cloudthresher, and Gift of the Gargantuan. I mulligan into three consecutive no-land hands and obviously get rolled when I keep on 3. I am pretty confident in that mulligan, as Gift is not an ideal turn 3 play, and that hand had no hope against an aggressive deck.

Game 2 I keep a 7 card “speculative” hand with a Fallout, Mannequin, Civic, and Gift. The Fallout is dead as his draw consisted of Dauntless Escort and Liege. My first Gift shows me 4 lands, while my second Gift shows me 4 creatures, none of which are the Shriekmaw I would need to turn the game around. I finally draw a Shriekmaw when I am on 1 and Noah has three or four men on board. In retrospect that may have been a borderline keep, but I had the right lands to Fallout if he had had a bear-into-procession draw I was hoping to see.

2-1
4-3

Round 4, David with Bant

Game 1 is the only game I won against David, and it was the game I deserved to lose. I made multiple mistakes in this game, the worst of which was not using Banefire on his Bant Bird and playing Shriekmaw on his Rhox War Monk instead of Rafiq. By not killing Rafiq I ended up having to chump block most of the game while working him down to 7 with the Shriekmaw. The turn that I would have to chump with the Maw I drew a lethal Banefire to steal the win.

Game 2 I drew all my Banefires and none of my Shriekmaws. I kept trading 1 for 1 with his guys, hoping to draw some action for the Mannequins in my hand. I run out of answers and never get a threat, and finally succumb to an exalted BoP.

Game 3 was really close, and I am sure I made a mistake somewhere because I felt like I should have won it. Instead, my final life total shows David ending the game with 70+ life. David got out a Behemoth Sledge and kept threatening to crush me with giant, doublestriking lifelinkers. I cleared the board multiple times with Shriekmaws and Caldera Helion, but David always had another Rafiq or Rhox War Monk to pick up the Sledge. We go to turns and David continues to play threats while I stop drawing answers.

I am pretty sure that I sideboarded wrong for this match. I left in Volcanic Fallout, which is dead against the cards that matter. I boarded like I would against GW, bringing out Dragons and some gifts for Helions, Maw, and Terror; not realizing that Dragon is my best threat here since he has no way he can block a flying creature other than Birds. Instead I should have taken out Fallouts and a Gifts for the Primals, which could have been used to remove his equipment or search up removal.

2-2
5-5

Thoroughly dissapointed, and tilting pretty badly after losing a matchup that I think is pretty favorable, I vent to Mike and he convinces me to stay in to try and get some packs and practice with the deck.

Round 5, Adam with Naya 5-power

Game 1 I lose my first die roll of the day and Adam comes out slow with a turn 3 5/4. I play a Civic, take a hit from the Beast, and follow up next turn with a Finks. I take another hit and Adam plays Spellbreaker Behemoth. Luckily I have a Shriekmaw + Mannequin, which is followed up by a dragon. I swing him down to 5 and finish him with Banefire.

Game 2 plays out pretty much the same way, except now I have more Shriekmaws and a couple Primal Commands to go get them. I don’t remember the specifics of this game other than that I slowed him down early by evoking a Shriekmaw on his Bloomtender. I ended the game at 22 so it must have been pretty one-sided.

3-2
7-5

Round 6, Eric with BW tokens.

I win my 5th die roll of the day and keep a hand that is gas against anything but BW tokens: Civic Wayfinder, Shriekmaw, Fallout, Mannequin, 3 Lands. However, Eric has the triple Sculler + Glorious Anthem draw. My plays this game were Civic Wayfinder and Makeshift Mannequin targeting Civic Wayfinder.

Game 2 is much closer. I burn 2 Banefire early to kill an Elspeth and Ajani, and have a Fallout to keep him off his triple Winbrisk Heights. Eric has a Bitterblossom and we are each getting in damage when we can. I make a big mistake towards the end of the game: I have a Civic and two 4/4 fliers on the board, while Eric has a medium sized token army. I play a Helion here to wipe his board, and foolishly choose to Devour my 2/2. I had a Mannequin in hand, which could have been used 2 turns later to wrath him again. Instead I make an irrelevant 4/4 and lose the game a few turns later when Eric is able to pop all his Heights (Cloudgoat, Ajani, and something else) and slowly supersizes his team. I lose this game with Eric on 4.

3-3
7-7

Seong watches me take a third loss and tells me he is dropping and heading back. I decide to drop here so I can return his cards, and we end up traveling back to the city together.

Despite practicing with the deck, I made too many mistakes and put myself out of contention. I still think the deck is great and I am planning on playing it in any upcoming PTQs. Mike finished 6-2, you can see his tournament report on his blog, and it looks like a couple players made top 8 with the deck as well. I encourage anyone who is undecided on a PTQ deck to consider Jund ramp as it is favored against a lot of decks in the field, and seems to be 50/50 against its worst matchups.

How did your Regionals go? What did you end up playing? I know (from Twitter) that a couple people did pretty well. Let us know how your tournament went in the comments.

~WillPoP

Obligatory but humiliating PTQ summary: As posted, I ended up playing Bant in both the NJ and Brooklyn PTQs a couple weeks ago. I went undefeated against non-zoo decks, but went entirely defeated zoo, resulting in double X-2-drop finishes. /end summary

Alara Reborn releases this weekend, and I don’t think I have to tell anyone who has been following the unofficial spoilers out there that this is shaping up to be an exciting set. Looking forward to Regionals and the T2 PTQ season, I thought it might be fun to speculate a bit about how some of these new cards could be used to update the GW “Little Kid” deck that I was fond of during the last block constructed season.

Here are some of the new cards that could be played in this deck:

Bant Sureblade (Unconfirmed)
(G/U)(W)
Creature - Human Knight?
As long as you control another multicolored permanent, Bant Sureblade gets +1/+1 and first strike.
2/1

Behemoth Sledge (Confirmed!)
1(G)(W)
Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has lifelink and trample.
Equip 3

Knotvine Paladin (Unconfirmed)
(G)(W)
Creature - Human Knight
Whenever Knotvine Paladin attacks, it gets +1/+1 for each untapped creature you control.
2/2

Mycoid Shepherd (Confirmed!)
1(G)(G)(W)
Creature - Fungus
Whenever Mycoid Shepherd or another creature you control with power 5 or greater is put into the graveyard from play, you may gain 5 life.
5/4

Qasali Pridemage (Confirmed!)
(G)(W)
Creature - Cat Wizard
Exalted
1, Sacrifice Qasali Pridemage: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
2/2

Dauntless Escort (Unconfirmed)
1(G)(W)
Creature - Rhox Soldier
Sacrifice Dauntless Escort: Creatures you control are indestructible this turn.
3/3

Naya Hushblade (Unconfirmed)
(R/W)(G)
Creature - ??
As long as you control another multicolored permanent, Naya Hushblase gets +1/+1 and has shroud.
2/1

Knight of New Alara (Confirmed!)
2(G)(W)
Creature - Human Knight
Each other multicolored creature you control gets +1/+1 for each of its colors.
2/2

I think a couple of these cards can be eliminated right away. Wilt-Leaf Liege seems a lot better than Knight of New Alara. They give equivalent bonuses in the frame of the deck, while the Liege is a 4/4 that will live through a Volcanic Fallout or Infest.

Mycoid Shepherd and Knotvine Paladin both feel a little below the power level curve. Mycoid might be a sideboard card, but that seems unlikely. Knotvine Paladin is just not a good enough bear, and is competing with for the all-of-a-sudden crowded 2-drop slot.

With the T2 card pool, we have the option of including turn 1 accelerators like Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, or Llanowar Elves. There could be a build of the deck that relies more on 3 and 4-drops instead of 2-drops. However, I love Treetop Village and Mosswart Bridge, and would rather try a build with CIP tapped lands that curves out with 2 and 3-drops. Maybe something like:

3 Mosswart Bridge
3 Treetop Village
3 Brushland
4 Wooded Bastion
6 Plains
5 Forest

4 Path to Exile
3 Garruk Wildspeaker

4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Bant Sureblade
4 Steward of Valeron
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Dauntless Escort
3 Wilt-leaf Cavaliers
4 Wil-lead Liege
3 Cloudthresher

The most notable cut here is Gaddock Teeg. With testing he may work his way back in, but with Path to Exile and Terminate (confirmed!) in the format, it seems like he would much less effective against 5c Control. Sure, he can still stop a Wrath and Cryptic Command, but Dauntless Escort can give the deck some insurance against sweepers. Cryptic will still be a beating, but I would rather play some better 2-drops and Garruks than hope that the control player doesn’t have a 1 or 2cc solution to Teeg.

Also missing is the Shield of the Oversoul. The plethora of excellent spot removal make me think that the shield is a little too risky. How often will I be dropping the Shield into a 2-for-1, courtesy of Terror, Path, Agony Warp, or Terminate? Until some testing is done it is hard to say, but I anticipate these cards will see a lot of play for Regionals, and I want to nullify their effect as much as possible.

Depending on how the format shakes out, I would definitely love to find myself rocking a Treetop Village at Regionals. Right now virtually everything seems viable, or at least “good in theory,” so I would not be surprised if I ended up playing mountains or islands instead.

What cards are getting you excited for Regionals? What do you anticipate being popular now that we have seen so many cards from the new set? If you have been hard at work home-brewing or theorizing, post in the comments!

~WillPoP

PS: Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!
WillPoP = sloppystack
BDM = top8games
Mike = fivewithflores
Matt Wang = mattwang97
Top8Magic Updates = top8magic

A response to Will Price of Progress’s tongue-in-cheeck Tweet RE: Sages of the Anima.

Recently seen on Twitter:

Translation:

<Will Price> BDM, what are the odds that michaelj will build a deck with Congregation at Dawn and Sages of the Anima?

I have found Twitter to be both fun and awesome for communicating. Like if I hadn’t happened upon Will’s post I might not even have looked at Sages of the Anima.

For myself I know this is true, but Will, Matt, and Brian would all have to answer for themselves… A lot of the time I don’t have the time to answer every Facebook email, personal email, and so on (even blog comments) that friends, readers, and so on send my way… But on Twitter? I find myself engaging much more with people’s questions just due to the nature of the format. If you want to follow any of the Top8Magic team on Twitter, here are our handles…

• FiveWithFlores / Michael Flores
• Top8Games / Brian David-Marshall
• sloppystack / Will Price
• MattWang97 / the elusive Matt Wang
• Top8Magic / Top8Magic Blog Updates and Other Surprises! [Added by Matt Wang]

Anyway… Back to Sages of the Anima…

So why does he think I am going to make a deck with Sages of the Anima and Congregation at Dawn?

The combo is kind of obvious; when you have Sages of the Anima in play, you can potentially “Ancestral Recall” if there are three creature cards on top of your library. Lo and behold - Congregation at Dawn can put three such creature cards on top of your deck.

Unfortunately I don’t think it very likely that I will play those two cards together in a Constructed deck any time soon. Here are the top five reasons why:

1. What happens when I draw them in the wrong order?
   That is, what happens if I have an open to resolve the reasonably but not exceptionally sized Sages of the Anima, but haven’t drawn the other side of my combo yet? That’s right; I’m never going to draw the Congregation.
2. I like drawing lands.
   With Sages in play, I’m not going to be drawing many, ever again. Heck, with Congregation at Dawn, I’m going to be setting myself up to not draw any! How am I supposed to afford these fives with no lands?
3. It actually goes against everything else I have been moving towards given my personal realizations in the last few months.
   See…
   • The Grinch That Stole Mike’s Rating,
   • Previous Level Green, and…
   • The Physical Reality of Magical Spells
4. What would I really be getting out of it?
   Ultimately… not a whole lot. This is a two-card combo where one of the cards is an expensive but not overpowered rare adn the other half is a pretty good “helper” card that has had some successful builds under its belt… But in Extended, where this combo would probably live, I’d like to hope I have something better figured out.
5. Like I’m really going to bogart some idea that Will published on Twitter.
   You know… like I’m really going to bogart some terrible idea that Will published on Twitter, first.

For a broader look at the same new card, check out my non-Will Price of Progress / Congregation at Dawn exploration of Sages of the Anima at Five with Flores.

LOVE
MIKE

Fans,

If you did or did not know, we are not on Twitter. Sign up and follow our adventures:

http://twitter.com/fivewithflores - Mike Flores

http://twitter.com/top8games - BDM and our secret project

http://twitter.com/top8magic - Updates on us and our magical adventures

http://twitter.com/mattwang97 - My crazy adventures.

Hope to see you all following us.

Best,

Matt

I am in the middle of a lot of media this weekend at PT: Kyoto. In addition to the normal video coverage and blogging for Top8Magic, I will be making my first stab at Twittering via the official coverage Twitter feed and you can follow along at MagicProTour.

I am excited to get things underway. We spent the day yesterday poring over decklists and talking to players and it sounds like the field for Standard is going to be largely Red-White Lark, Faeries, 5-Color, Blightning, and various Heights decks. Of course the decks we will be looking to Deck Tech will have unique takes on established archetypes or will be something unexpected like the Green-White Planeswalker deck from the SCG 5K last weekend which can Garruck out Martial Coup and ultimate those tokens a turn later for the win.

Also spent the morning yesterday taking in the local sights which prompted a new game from me and Nate Price that involves taking pictures of other members of the coverage team taking pictures. We had a four picture parlay at one point that is unlikely to be topped now that everyone is on guard.