This week in ‘Magic: The Gathering’ – Vintage Masters, Boxborough TCG Player 5K, and State Championships

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

This has been a pretty busy week for “Magic: The Gathering.” Today, Wizards of the Coast announced that they were filing a lawsuit against Cryptozoic Entertainment and Hex Entertainment. Wizards is claiming that the game “HEX: Shards of Fate” is a “clone” of “Magic.” The lawsuit goes on to include claims about “copyright, patent and trade dress infringement.”

In case you haven’t check it out, “HEX” looks a lot like “Duels of the Planeswalkers.” Even the mechanics of the game are really similar. If you asked me, “HEX” looks to be a lot of trouble.

Vintage Masters previews

In other news, the previews for Vintage Masters have started on DailyMTG.com. This is really looking like a fun set for Magic Online. I’ll get into the big stuff, but for those of you who enjoy pauper, Circular Logic and Arrogant Wurm are going to be common in Vintage Masters. This means that they’ll be allowed for use in the Pauper Format. It also means that Madness will be a deck that you’ll be able to play now. I’m definitely going to build this. Want an idea of what it’ll look like? Then check this out:

Lands:

2 Terramorphic Expanse

11 Forest

9 Mountain

Creatures:

4 Basking Rootwalla

4 Arrogant Wurm

4 Wild Mongrel

4 Gathan Raiders

4 Granger Guildmage

4 Scab-Clan Mauler

2 Werebear

Spells:

4 Fiery Temper

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Firebolt

2 Lightning Axe

This was a deck list that was suggested by Gavin Verhey on DailyMTG. It’s definitely a good start. While it doesn’t play one of my favorite counterspells, this looks to be a very aggressive deck. Arrogant Wurm is a very scary creature. It’s much scarier when you can get him out earlier than his five mana casting cost. As fun as this deck looks, I’m still going to try to find a way to play U/G Madness.

Obviously, the main attraction of the Vintage Masters will be the release of the Power 9. In case you didn’t read the announcement, a new rarity was created just for the Power 9. This new rarity is called “Special.” Ironically, there is nothing special about the name and is rather lack luster.

According to DailyMTG, a piece of power can be opened at a ratio of one out of every 53 packs. They’ll also be twice as rare as a Mythic rare. I asked a really popular Magic finance guru what his thoughts were on the price of these cards online, and he had this to say,

https://twitter.com/MarcelMTG/status/465722453671411712

What’s even cooler is that Force of Will is going to be a rare in the set. I believe Mana Drain will also be in Vintage Masters. This is going to be a really popular set on Magic Online. The best part is that because this is a digital product, we don’t have to think about limited print runs. Granted, they won’t be available forever online, but players won’t have to worry about Wizards running out of cards to sell because they didn’t print enough.

Boxborough TCG Player 5K

The TCG Player 5K was held in Boxborough, Mass. last weekend. I went despite some early morning health issues. However, they subsided by the time I got to the event. I went with a couple of friends and some a few familiar faces from the Abington store.

A big shout goes out to Jesse who I also met at the event. Jesse plays Commander at the Abington store and used to be a more competitive player. Did I mention he told me he read’s my stuff!? (yeah, that’s me bragging) He was in Boxborough to get back in the thick of things. Similar to me. I’ve been trying to get back into the competitive groove, and I think this was a good start.

Granted, my record was horrible at the end of the day, but I felt like I got a lot out of it. If you want, you can read my full report here.

Starcitygames.com State Championships

This weekend will be the Starcitygames.com State Championships. I’m currently thinking about what I want to play. At the Boxborough 5K I played B/G Devotion. It was similar to the list that had won the Starcitygames.com Open Series in Cincinnati, OH a few weekends ago.

Will any you be in attendance this weekend? Still thinking about a deck? Well here’s the deck I suggested to play at the end of my Boxborough TCG Player 5K tournament report:

Main board:

4 Desecration Demon

4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

4 Brain Maggot

4 Lifebane Zombie

4 Underworld Connection

4 Thoughtseize

4 Hero’s Downfall

4 Devour Flesh

2 Bile Blight

1 Ultimate Price

4 Mutavault

4 Temple of Malady

4 Overgrown Tomb

13 Swamp

Side board:

4 Duress

2 Dark Betrayal

2 Doomblade

2 Erebos, God of the Undead

2 Abrupt Decay

1 Ultimate Price

2 Golgari Charm

So you may notice a few things out of place with this deck. First of all, I am terrible Pack Rat player. However, after taking it out, I quickly felt very comfortable with the deck. Sometimes they say play the deck you’re most comfortable with, and this is it. I also took out the green splash in the main board. It was moved to the side board. Also, I settled the debate over Nightveil Specter being in the main board. I decided to remove it all together and replace them with the Lifebane Zombies from the side board.

I felt that having the Zombies in the side board was limiting my side board options and, thus, didn’t give me many removal spells. I moved the Zombies to the main to open up my horizons.

So you may notice a few things out of place with this deck. First of all, I am terrible Pack Rat player. However, after taking it out, I quickly felt very comfortable with the deck. Sometimes they say play the deck you’re most comfortable with, and this is it. I also took out the green splash in the main board. It was moved to the side board. Also, I settled the debate over Nightveil Specter being in the main board. I decided to remove it all together and replace them with the Lifebane Zombies from the side board.

I felt that having the Zombies in the side board was limiting my side board options and, thus, didn’t give me many removal spells. I moved the Zombies to the main to open up my horizons. If you’re unsure about this deck, don’t forget that you still have FNM to test the deck out. So give it a shot this Friday.

Ps. There is still plenty of time in May to help me get to my goal of $300 in my Extra-Life Fundraiser. So if you’d like to donate today, then click on the banner below. The link should take you to my donation page. If I hit my goal, I’ll be giving away a copy of “Takenoko”! Thanks for donating!

About the author

Simeon is an avid gamer who loves to play board games and video games. He graduated college with a degree in Political Science, and now serves the public by writing about games. You can check that out here. Don’t forget to “like” him on Facebook as well. It’ll update you on all of his newest content. Best of all, you can follow Simeon on Twitter (@SimeonCortezano) for some real time hilarity. Thanks for reading!

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Tags: Friday Night Magic, Magic the Gathering, MTG, Simeon Cortezano, Wizards of the Coast
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