Standard Corner #5: Delving into the Tourney Table

So, who would have thought? Delver of Secrets is a tournament worthy card. I wish I were joking. When I first saw this card, I thought it was a cute card for Innistrad sealed, but nothing more. Now that we look back on his Top 8s, what is the potential of this guy?

He gives the control decks an aggressive win condition, that they never had before. It also works very well when most of the spells in your deck are instants or sorceries. Remember that blue card, Snapcaster Mage that heavily relies on instants and sorceries? They have extremely good synergy between them when you're considering the amount of instants and sorceries you'll be playing in your deck. More on Snapcaster later. After transforming, Delver becomes a decently sized 3/2 body with evasion that offers Vendilion Clique like numbers in combat and a single copy puts your opponent on a 7 turn clock, similar to Creeping Tar Pit and Shrine of Burning Rage. Not bad. Delver is more powerful than most of the other transform cards, because he can't transform back. Having the 3/2 flier that can stay at that size on turn 2-4 with very little mana investment is very powerful. If he optimally transforms on turn 2, he can punch in for 3 very easily and starts performing with numbers closer to Wild Nacatl in Modern. Yikes. Considering the red deck in standard, or what's left of it, isn't running removal besides Brimstone Volley and maybe Galvanic Blast, the trade for a 1 mana threat for a 1+ mana removal spell provides you very strong tempo and forces your opponent to 'commit to the kill,' if you will. The same can be said for Beast Within in Kessig Ramp and Doom Blade or Dismember in control strategies. He also escapes the 1 damage spells that have been seeing play recently to kill Inkmoth Nexus and Birds of Paradise, including Geistflame, Gut Shot and Virulent Wound.

Where else can you see Delver? Surprisingly, Delver saw his debut in the Legacy and saw 4 copies RUG Tempo, alongside Snapcaster Mage and Tarmogoyf, grabbing a first and second place finish at the Star City Games Legacy Open in Las Vegas this past weekend. Delver is seeing play alongside these heavy hitters? If you didn't follow, Delver also saw a 2nd place finish in the U/R aggro deck at the Star City Games Standard Open in the same weekend! Delver is a serious contender and can't be ignored when innovating new decks for Standard, Legacy, and potentially Modern.

Who else is a big figure in the tournament tables? Hello to Snapcaster Mage. I purposely avoiding talking about this guy, because all the upside and hype about this guy is pretty obvious. This guy jumps right in with the set of amazing 2 drop creatures, like Lotus Cobra, Stoneforge Mystic, Fauna Shaman, and Dark Confidant that produce amazing tempo, card advantage, or simply unfairness. The ability to recur spells is strong and to do it at instant speed is absurd. This card is awesome in Standard, Legacy, EDH/Commander, and more than likely will be amazing in Modern (are there any Modern tournaments coming up?). I won't delve into too much detail, but this guy is awesome.

Another one of those cards to look after is Beast Within. i've mentioned this card a few times, but now he truly shines. Since green has had cards with mana cost as low as Birds of Paradise and Viridian Emissary and cards as high a converted mana cost as Primeval Titan or Garruk, Primal Hunter. Beast Within is not only a catch all, but fits in that sweet spot on the mana curve that can be played as quickly as turn 2 and has huge relevance in the late game. With Dungrove Elder and Green Sun's Zenith also filling up the 3-4 mana cost spells, it gives the green decks a smooth curve to operate optimally at all points in the game. Against a diverse field of U/B, Kessig Ramp and other 'weaker' decks of Tempered Steel, Birthing Pod, Mono Red, and random RUG decks, Beast Within offers a huge advantage and helps against most strategies and would rarely get sideboarded out. It's a strong card that will shine throughout this Standard season for the next year.

In other magic news, Sean Wang posted 'The Time to Act' article by Patrick Chapin concerning the 'weakened' support of the Worlds championship in 2012 and how this impacts professional magic players and their ability to sustain themselves on the Pro Tour/Grand Prix grind. Although I'm not directly affected, these changes have a few negative implications. If Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro do not implement changes to increase invitationals to give professional magic players the opportunity to obtain money, this will definitely hurt the skill level and the amount of content from sites presenting professional coverage, including Star City Games and Channelfireball, among many others. We all know that price of a particular card is dependent on demand and rarity. The pros help determine what cards are good and drive demand with Top 8 finishes at high level tournaments sporting those cards, almost like a sponsor. If there's no chance of opening awesome, playable, popular, and, not to mention, valuable, cards what incentive is there to buy a booster pack? Casual Magic and the Pro Tour will still exist for those who are die hard fans of the 'dream' of competing and winning one of those events, but what happens to the big names in the community who can't support themselves? I feel whoever is behind these changes are abandoning pro players and I feel as a community, many writers have had a huge voice against this movement and should continue to stand. Occupy Hasbro! I hope changes are on their way to help preserve the community and maintain the quality of high level magic. Until next time, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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Post #19: Brambling Around

I'm not entirely sure what to talk about today, since I don't really have an itinerary or anything pressing to discuss, so I thought I'd just ramble about stuff that's been happening to me.

I just got back in Orlando from a trip to Gainesville to visit my girlfriend. I just want to thank everyone in Gainesville for their hospitality and hope to see you guys again soon. In trading news, Gainesville was a Wasteland for trades and I was a bit disappointed with the casual environment. It seems to have fallen off the Clifftop Retreat since I left.

 I did have an interesting ordeal, where someone had two relics in the name of Scrubland and Savannah for trade. He was a nice guy and was looking for U/B cards for his Standard control deck. I put up a Liliana of the Veil, Snapcaster Mage, Consecrated Sphinx, gameday promo Black Sun's Zenith, and about $20 in random cards (including the $9 in my pocket) for the pair, which I thought was fair. Unfortunately, he didn't agree and started retracting from the trade as the 45min dragged on. After a lot of waiting and agonizing, the trade didn't go through. Win some, lose some. 

In other news, Brendan posted the standings for the Kansas City Star City Games Standard Open Series on the Casual Net Facebook Group. Both U/W decks in the finals? Other than that, the top 8 was pretty varied. It's nice to see that Wolf Run Green isn't running the entire show. I really wish the price of Scars of Mirrodin lands would drop to a more reasonable price. I'm reluctant to buy any because they will be almost near useless once they rotate, considering eternal formats have better lands and EDH/Commander has better options. I am excited to see where this mono Black infect deck goes. It's cool to see Whispering Specter and Lashwrithe go all the way. 

So, what about that Graveborn? I'm really excited to see all these reanimator goodies. Entomb, Animate Dead, and probably Reanimate itself, is pretty awesome. More importantly, I'm really excited for Crosis, the Purger. If you guys don't know, I'm really obsessed with the 10 dragons (5 from Invasion and 5 from Planar Chaos). My mentor, Roger who taught me how to play the game, had insanely powerful casual decks designed around the older 5 dragons, so it's difficult not to respect and admire their power. As they already paid homage to the Planar Chaos dragons in the 2011 summer Commander product, the older 5 have been slightly neglected all these years. Fortunately, Rith, the Awakener had a make over in the From the Vault: Dragons set and Treva, the Renewer saw a sweet promo for the 2009 Pro Tour season. I'm extremely anxious to see how bad ass Crosis looks. Be on the lookout November 18th!

The one thing I did have some focus on today was to talk about Sword of Feast and Famine; one last time. 

I'm going to make a bold (and possibly foolish) statement: Sword of Feast and Famine is the strongest equipment ever printed. Yes, even more than Sword of Fire and Ice and even the infamous Umezawa's Jitte. This pro G/B sword can do things than none of the other swords can; provide tempo advantage. The ability to untap your lands is very reminiscent of Time Walk and can easily feel like taking an extra turn with every swing. This sword allows you to run spells on the board significantly quicker than your opponent because you're able to use your mana twice every turn upon sword impact. The mana doubling advantage is obvious when you see the power of Mirari's Wake, Mana Reflection, and Mana Flare in casual games and in EDH/Commander. Sword gives you that ability and then some. The sword's second ability also gives you card advantage. When your opponent loses a card after every hit, you're almost guaranteed to have more cards in your grip than your opponent, giving you a higher probability of having a threat or an answer to their threat. I don't think it feels good to be hit by a Hypnotic Specter with a Bear Umbra on it. As explained by Javier, the limiting factors to playing spells are the number of cards in your hand and the amount of mana you have to play those spells. Sword of Feast and Famine affects both by limiting the amount of cards your opponent has and giving you more resources to cast more spells. 

Having more cards than your opponent is paramount in multiplayer formats and is extremely powerful in competitive formats. Just take a look at U/W Blade, Wolf Run Green, U/B Control in standard, arguably the best decks in the format right now; all packing this Sword. Look at Legacy, U/W Stoneblade running a copy or two of Sword of Feast and Famine in the maindeck over both Sword of Fire and Ice and Umezawa's Jitte. This sword is the real deal and it's not surprising why this sword is fetching a $35+ pricetag. 

I hope this was entertaining and somewhat informative, I'll hopefully have a more in depth post next week. I just finished building my Intet, the Dreamer EDH deck and I'm really excited to test it and get back to you guys with the details. Until next time, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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