[Trick]

Lee and I sit down with the top two decks from the Chiba Japan GPT and match off. What did you think? Do you agree or disagree with plays that were made?

Trick played: White Weenie by Shintaro Ishimaru - 1st place

Creatures
4 Cenn's Tactician
4 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 Kinsbaile Borderguard
4 Knight Of Meadowgrain
4 Wizened Cenn

Enchantments
3 Griffin Guide
3 Oblivion Ring

Legendary Creatures
1 Tivadar Of Thorn

Sorceries
4 Sunlance

Basic Lands
13 Plains

Lands
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Mutavault
4 Rustic Clachan

Sideboard:
4 Soltari Priest
2 Stonecloaker
1 Wispmare
2 Coordinated Barrage
4 Mana Tithe
1 Tivadar Of Thorn
1 Militia's Pride

Lee played: Project X 2.0 by Takao Higashi - 2nd place

Artifacts
1 Mind Stone
4 Prismatic Lens

Creatures
3 Body Double
3 Bonded Fetch
4 Mirror Entity
4 Mulldrifter
4 Reveillark
4 Riftwing Cloudskate

Instants
3 Condemn
3 Momentary Blink

Sorceries
4 Wrath Of God

Basic Lands
5 Island
4 Plains

Lands
4 Adarkar Wastes
2 Calciform Pools
3 Faerie Conclave
1 Urza's Factory
4 Wanderwine Hub

Sideboard:
2 Draining Whelk
2 Sower Of Temptation
1 Stonecloaker
3 Teferi's Moat
4 Flashfreeze
1 Mystical Teachings
2 Teferi, Mage Of Zhalfir

-- Trick

[Alicabob]

Watching this episode made me sad because every single play you made was the exact play I would have made except I probably would have lost a few turns before you did.  Other then that it was an excellent show.

[uskomaton]

Good show, I wanna see more of this kind of stuff, hope you plan to do more
of them and maybe this time Trick won't be mana screwed and you actually
have to think a bit more ;)

Overall this didn't really teach me much about either Project X or Kithkin due
to neither deck really doing what they are meant to do, but in a way it's good
because it showed that at least Project X can win even without "going off".

I say Mono-black rogue vs. G/R(/b) Mana Ramp next time and Lee playing the
rogues, cos I wanna see how it would perform as I'm debating between these
2 for my main Standard deck.

[Trick]

We'll see what we can do. This was a test episode for playing while using only one camera for video. Ideally we would have two or even three and could then keep our hands hidden to further play.

We will be doing more of these in the future, I've been laying out the coming months of episodes (though the plan erodes very quickly - lol) and I've got a few of these planned out.

Glad to see it's being greeted warmly.

-- Trick

[imachampion]

Good show, I wanna see more of this kind of stuff, hope you plan to do more
of them and maybe this time Trick won't be mana screwed and you actually
have to think a bit more ;)

Trick wasn't mana screwed. In an aggressive deck like his...getting that much mana is actually an oddity. Personally I didn't like his opening hand which made his game rather slow. Here is how I would have played his hand though.

Turn 1: Goldmeadow Stalwart
Turn 2: Wizened Cenn
Turn 3: Mutavault

Then I would have tapped them sideways until Lee answered my threats. By doing this Trick would have saved his much needed gas and wouldn't have "wasted" his Reinforce Lands. With the above 3 cards you have 8 damage potential on the board. Why would you ever commit anything more to the board than that? Your Reinforce Lands should either be used for finishing damage or combat tricks. I would have held them until absolutely needed.

Overall, not a bad game Trick...you just play a little different than I would have. Great show...and Lee...you get style points for choosing to let Trick die with permanents on the board by not comboing out when you had the chance.

[Trick]

It's all good. I've said it since the game began, I'm not a good player. I just come into the game with vast amounts of knowledge which is my only qualification for hosting the show ;)

-- Trick

[theory]

Wasn't a big fan of Trick's opening hand.  Not sure if you guys were allowing mulligans for demo purposes but I would have mulled on that one.  Definitely a great show, though.  Playing hands up is a great way to break down gameplay choices and understand card selection as well.  I would have liked a review of each deck and their functions, though.  Kithkin I had a vague understanding but Project X is kinda new to me (unless it's just a fancy name for something else) so it would have been nice to know what to expect each deck to do.  Overall, I really hope to see more of these in the future!

Something that came to mind while watching you guys play...

..Not sure if this is in the pipe for the future but I remember a regular article that they used to print in either Duelist or InQuest called "You Can't Win" and it basically broke down a scenario from a PT or Worlds tournament where a player faces a loss and what his best moves would be considering the info he had (opponent deck, cards in hand, permanents in play, etc) aside from conceding as the chances for a win were slim but did exist.  The article was great but I really feel like it would be faster paced and would allow for more exploration of ideas in video format (this is where you guys come into play).  I think the best way to understand the game and your deck is to analyze it from a losing perspective, meaning you know you're in a bad position but what are the best plays for that particular instance assuming you do have options.  Anyway yeah, just another show idea.

Good episode guys!

[imachampion]

@Theory,
Project X as they called the deck is more commonly known as Reveillark Combo or Reveillark Control. It is actually one of the best control decks in the format...it just happens to have an insane combo attached to it. Here is how the combo plays out.

Relevant Cards:
Reveillark - In hand
Body Double - In graveyard / in hand (1 must be in your graveyard)
body Double - In graveyard / in hand (1 must be in your hand)
Mirror Entity - In play or in hand
Riftwing Cloudskate - In graveyard

Lets assume that the Reveillark is in your hand, Mirror Entity is in play, Body Double and Riftwing Cloudskate are in your graveyard. You cast Reveillark. You then activate Mirror Entity with X=0 as many times as the amount of permanents your opponent has. If your opponent has 10 permanents on the board...you activate Mirror Entity 10 times. You do all this before passing priority so the stack will look like this:

Top of Stack
1. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
2. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
3. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
4. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
5. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
6. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
7. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
8. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
9. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
10. Mirror Entity's Activated ability X=0
Bottom of Stack

Now each ability comes out 1 at a time. The first ability resolves making all of your creatures 0/0 thus killing all of your creatures to SBE(State Based Effects). Now the trigger for your Reveillark goes on the stack and resolves. You bring back Body Double targeting your Reveillark and Riftwing Cloudskate. The CIP trigger from Riftwing Cloudskate goes on the stack. You bounce one of your opponents permanents. I always choose the most threatening permanents first, then the lands, then the rest.

Now the second trigger from Mirror Entity resolves killing all your creatures to SBE. Now you just wash rinse and repeat this step for each trigger from Mirror Entity.

The ending result from this is your opponent having zero permanents in play and you with a Body Double copying Reveillark and a Riftwing Cloudskate in play. Thats 6 damage each turn which should amount to a quick game win.

This "Combo" can be set up several different ways...and it doesn't always have to end with your opponent at zero permanents. Many times you will bring back a Mulldrifter if the combo isn't completely set up.

The reason that this deck is so successful is because it doesn't rely on this "Combo" to win. As you saw Lee do in the show...it plays very much like a classic UW Control deck.

Does that explain things for you? Kithkin is just balls to the wall aggro...I doubt this needs any explaination.

[BigFiber]

Well explains Champ!

Good show guys. I'm not sure if it was on purpose but Trick missed quite a few things. You missed a land drop during the match that was not mentioned but that could have been because you guys were talking about other things. All in all, that's not important for what you guys were doing.

As far as the Kithkin deck goes...I think you mully that hand and hope for more playables. But maybe that's just me.

More shows like this. Throw in some Limited matches too! I'm such a Pimp for Limited!! That Project X is nasty...owned me at FNM 2 weeks ago...

[leesteht]

Thanks so much for the FEEDBACK! Actually, Trick and I tried to NOT mulligan and for purposes of trying to maintain a state of reality we did NOT open with "best case" scenarios.

I opted to NOT combo because it was actually pretty easy And, for those of you who felt like a mulligan was something that should have been done, that is actually something that separates the men from the boys. It's a very subjective decision that has varied results. Which is why we did not exercise that option.

We do enjoy posting "real life" items, but that process is VERY long and demanding. However, we will certainly have more!

Thanks,

Lee

[theory]

For Project X explanation - Aha, makes sense. Been hearing about this a lot but never referred to as Project X.
For Kithkin explanation - I figured as much.

Thanks!

[Trick]

BigFiber - I made a few misplays on purpose, the rest were all because I'm not that good at the game ;) I'll never tell which were which.

[gleemax]

Actually Trick I'm glad you made some mistakes (on purpose or not) because it helps newer players learn better.  I've been teaching my wife and trying to explain how a little mistake can lose you the game is hard.  Whether you meant to or not, you guys have a kind of Goofis and Gladis thing going on. 

The game losing mistake I saw was using your second reinforce land on the mutavault when you clearly saw the cloudskate coming via suspend.  If you would have saved it, you could have used to to make your 3/3 mutavault into a surprise 4/4 when you blocked the 4/4 Mirror Enitity later on.  You probably still would of lost, but it would of given you more turns.

Anyway, becuase of this exchanged I was able to use your podcast to illistrate a couple of important points to my wife about surveying the board before making plays, timing, and how little mistakes can lose you the game.

You certainly need to make more shows like this.

[leesteht]

I intend to continue my podcast domination of Trick :P

[theory]

Actually Trick I'm glad you made some mistakes (on purpose or not) because it helps newer players learn better.  I've been teaching my wife and trying to explain how a little mistake can lose you the game is hard.  Whether you meant to or not, you guys have a kind of Goofis and Gladis thing going on. 

The game losing mistake I saw was using your second reinforce land on the mutavault when you clearly saw the cloudskate coming via suspend.  If you would have saved it, you could have used to to make your 3/3 mutavault into a surprise 4/4 when you blocked the 4/4 Mirror Enitity later on.  You probably still would of lost, but it would of given you more turns.

Anyway, becuase of this exchanged I was able to use your podcast to illistrate a couple of important points to my wife about surveying the board before making plays, timing, and how little mistakes can lose you the game.

You certainly need to make more shows like this.

You mean Goofus and Gallant? Quite possibly my favorite Highlights feature ever.