[Trick]

Part 1 of our series, what do you guys think? Did you enjoy the deck building? How was the format? Did you like the deck comparisons towards the end? Inquiring minds want to know!

-- Trick

Trick's Deck

7 Mountains
8 Plains
2 Swamps

1 Ashenmoore Liege
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Battlegate Mimic
1 Beckon Apparition
1 Bloodied Ghost
1 Cinder Pyromancer
1 Curse of Chains
1 Emberstrike Duo
1 Harvest Gwyllion
1 Hotheaded Giant
1 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Intimidator Initiate
1 Nightsky Mimic
1 Pili-Pala
1 Puncture Blast
1 Safehold Sentry
1 Scar
1 Scourge of the Nobilis
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Somnomancer
1 Spirit of the Hearth
1 Spitemare
1 Thoughtweft Gambit

Trick's Cardpool

2 Aerie Ouphes (1 foil)
1 Ashenmoore Liege
1 Banishing Knack
1 Barrenton Cragtreads
1 Battlegate Mimic
1 Beckon Apparition
1 Blazethorn Scarecrow
1 Blistering Dieflyn
1 Bloodied Ghost
1 Boggart Arsonists
1 Boggart Ram-Gang
1 Briarthorn Cohort
1 Cache Raiders
1 Chaotic Backlash
1 Cinder Pyromancer
1 Consign to Dream
1 Corrosive Mentor
1 Cultbrand Cinder
1 Curse of Chains
1 Devoted Druid
1 Dream Salvage
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Emberstrike Duo
1 Enchanted Evening
1 Endure
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Favor of the Overbeing
1 Giantbaiting
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Gloomwidow's Feast
1 Grazing Kelpie
1 Harvest Gwyllion
1 Hoof Skulkin
1 Hotheaded Giant
1 Inquisitor's Snare
1 Intimidator Initiate
1 Kithkin Zealot
1 Leechridden Swamp
1 Memory Sluice
1 Mercy Killing
1 Merrow Bonegnawer
1 Nettle Sentinel
1 Nightsky Mimic
1 Noggle Bridgebreaker
1 Oona's Grace
1 Pili-Pala
1 Presence of Gond
1 Puncture Blast
1 Raking Canopy
1 Rattleblaze Scarecrow
1 Razorfin Abolisher
1 River Kelpie
2 Riverfall Mimic
1 Safehold Sentry
1 Scar
1 Scarecrone
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Scourge of the Nobilis
1 Scuzzback Marauders
1 Sinking Feeling
1 Slippery Bogle
1 Somnomancer
1 Spirit of the Hearth
1 Spitemare
1 Strip Bare
1 Tattermunge Witch
1 Thoughtweft Gambit
1 Torrent of Souls
1 Tower Above
1 Traitor's Roar
1 Wanderbrine Rootcutters
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers (1 foil)
1 Woeleecher

Lee's Deck

8 Plains
5 Forests
2 Islands
1 Mystic Gate

1 Aethertow
1 Ballynock Trapper
1 Consign to Dream
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Fire at Will
1 Gloomwidow
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Harvest Gwyllion
1 Manamorphose
1 Merrow Levitator
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
2 Monstrify
1 Patrol Signaler
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Safehold Duo
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Somnomancer
1 Spitemare
1 Tower Above
1 Turn to Mist
1 Voracious Hatchling
1 Witherscale Wurm

Lee's Cardpool

1 Aethertow
1 Aphotic Wisps
1 Ballynock Trapper
2 Beckon Apparition
1 Blight Sickle
1 Bloodshed Fever
1 Cerulean Wisps
1 Chainbreaker
2 Clout of the Dominus
1 Consign to Dream
1 Crabapple Cohort
1 Drowner Initiate
1 Duergar Cave-Guard
1 Elsewhere Flask
1 Fable of Wolf and Owl
1 Fate Transfer
1 Favor of the Overbeing
1 Fire at Will
1 Flow of Ideas
1 Gleeful Sabotage
1 Gloomwidow
1 Godhead of Awe
1 Harvest Gwyllion
1 Hoof Skulkin
1 Horde of Boggarts
2 Inside Out
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Kithkin Shielddare
1 Manamorphose
1 Merrow Bonegnawer
1 Merrow Levitator
1 Mindwrack Liege
1 Mistmeadow Skulk
2 Monstrify
1 Mudbrawler Cohort
1 Mystic Gate
1 Nettle Sentinel
1 Oona's Gatewarden
1 Patrol Signaler
1 Poison the Well
1 Puncture Blast
1 Puresight Merrow
1 Raking Canopy
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Riverfall Mimic
1 Runes of the Deus
1 Rustrazor Butcher
1 Safehold Duo
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Scourge of the Nobilis
1 Shell Skulkin
1 Sickle Ripper
1 Silkbind Faerie
1 Smoldering Butcher
1 Somnomancer
1 Sootstoke Kindler
1 Soul Reap
1 Spell Syphon
1 Spitemare
1 Syphon Life
1 Tattermunge Duo
1 Thoughtweft Gambit
1 Torpor Dust
1 Torrent of Souls
1 Tower Above
1 Turn to Mist
1 Umbral Mantle
1 Unnerving Assault
1 Voracious Hatchling
1 Witherscale Wurm
1 Zealous Guardian (1 foil)

[Boothy]

First overall, why did you both separate the cards by set? Arranging them all just in a spectrum would seem to be fine to me, but if there is a reason I would love to know. Also, we couldn't see your cards while you were taking about them after you put your deck together Lee, that was a little confusing.

Trick, I don't really think you have the cards in the deck to support the mimics, especially battlegate with only two other spells to activate it. Nightsky is arguable, though neither the Gwillion or the Ghost are good enough to warrant inclusion without it. Personally regarding your Witch vs. Endure decision, I would have added the Ram-Gang. The swamps seem unnecessary to me as well, another mountain and plain would have worked fine.

Looking through your pool, I probably would have made a R/G deck as you have some sick cards in there like Giantbaiting, The RG and GW HHH cards, intimidator initiate among others to make for a very fast, aggressive deck. Of course I can't pass any judgment until I see how the deck performs.

Lee, some cards I would have included would have been the Fate Transfer for extra pain off the hatchling. Scarcale Ritual works rather well with that card as well. Funnily enough, Fable of Wolf and Owl would actually be quite good in your deck IMO, with 18/24 of your spells activating it. A token or two for every spell? Not a horrible card, especially in Limited.

That's all I've got for now.

[BigFiber]

Good show guys...cept for Lee's Food Network remarks...leave the food related word smithery to the experts...awk.  

Lee: Only 16 lands and you're running 2 retrace spells? Seems risky and it's not like you don't have some pretty demanding mana requiring spells to cast.

Trick: I also think that Ram-Gang should be in the deck and a really aggresive RG deck could have been made.

Very much looking forward to next week to see what deck comes out on top. If I was a betting man, I'd say that Tricks deck looks slightly smoother but Lee has some serious bombs but might get the screw!

It's like Rocky v. Apollo Creed!

[BassmanARW]

16 lands with 2 retrace spells is rough indeed. It isn't like your curve is super low.

[leesteht]

yes, but understand that although retrace spells are decent I'd much rather draw enough lands to play my "regular" spells. I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking retrace is that important to my deck. which is why I wouldn't recommend 22 spells and 18 lands.

[contra-coup]

At Trick: -Noggle Bridgebreaker is so playable.

-Tattermunge witch with only pila-pala and a forest to set it up is blatantly suboptimal.  Rendering it a vanilla 2/1 and with the mimics sitting around with only 1 and 2 other related hybrids to trigger them yields a lot of vanilla 2/1's.  Witch for Endure (for your deck) is the right call.  Emberstrike duo with only the liege to double trigger it is beyond unplayable - I mean, it sucked to begin with, first strike 1/1 will only be viable against opposing mimics, etc and it blocks nothing (all your x/b spells appear to be sorcery speed).

-Also, you literally said (in reference to Boggart Ram-Gang): "Works great when I'm playing R/G, but when I'm just playing red, it's again, very hard to cast just 3 red."  I guess you meant in your deck, in which case, yeah not good in 3 color deck.  In mono red it's a constructed-worthy-auto-include.

-You were worried about Endure being too high on the curve at 5 but you didn't seem to think twice about the inclusion of Scuzzback Marauders or the 6 casting white flier. 

-I don't see how black mana will help you cast the liege any better than mountains would.

-Main deck Beckon Apparition?     Someone is showing signs of having been abused by raven's crime and flame jab.

-Too many 2/1s

-Your white and red were obviously awesome.  Awesome enough (guessing don't know entire pool) to probably go mono with both those colors (probably the white because of the removal).

Lee:
-Funny.

-Mindwrack liege appears to have 6 other buddies to help him out.  Guess they were unplayables.  A Riverfall mimic and some noggles would see me playing happily playing Izzet.

-The green is not worth making Godhead harder to cast.  Godhead would have got the job done in a straight w/b build.

[nathones]

Great Ep guys.  I love the sealed/limited eps you guys run.  It's a great niche.

[BigFiber]

Ok, where's the new one?

[Trick]

Sorry for the delay, it'll be up on Sept. 8th!

[BassmanARW]

Sorry for the delay, it'll be up on Sept. 8th!

This makes me a sad panda.

[nathones]

So you guys used a Shadowmoor Tourney Pack and 2 Eventide Boosters? 

Quick Question:  If you already have the lands would it be a better idea just to buy 3 Shadowmoor Boosters instead of a Tourney Deck?

[Trick]

It would be from the perspective of what you get in the packs, but the tournament format is a tourney pack and boosters.

[nathones]

I'm talking about if I have a mini sealed tourney ala kitchen table magic style.  I already have plenty of lands.  I was just curious what the difference between boosters and a tourney pack (minus the lands) would be.....and people's perceptions.

[imachampion]

I'm talking about if I have a mini sealed tourney ala kitchen table magic style.  I already have plenty of lands.  I was just curious what the difference between boosters and a tourney pack (minus the lands) would be.....and people's perceptions.

The biggest difference between 1 tournament pack and 3 boosters is that there will be very few duplicates. For example...If I open a tournament pack the only way that you will get duplicates (barring oddities) is if one of the cards is a foil. If you get 3 boosters...it isn't that uncommon to get multiple duplicates. I have played at an FNM Sealed event where they ran out of Tournament packs. I jumped on the chance for 3 packs instead. It was during Ravnica Block. I opened 3 Lightning Helix. Had I taken the tournament pack...the best I could have hoped for was 2...but that would only have happened had one been a foil. Does that make sense?

[nathones]

The biggest difference between 1 tournament pack and 3 boosters is that there will be very few duplicates. For example...If I open a tournament pack the only way that you will get duplicates (barring oddities) is if one of the cards is a foil. If you get 3 boosters...it isn't that uncommon to get multiple duplicates. I have played at an FNM Sealed event where they ran out of Tournament packs. I jumped on the chance for 3 packs instead. It was during Ravnica Block. I opened 3 Lightning Helix. Had I taken the tournament pack...the best I could have hoped for was 2...but that would only have happened had one been a foil. Does that make sense?

Gotcha.  So I assume you won FNM      Thanks for the explanation.