Weekend Report

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I hope all had a great weekend and if you were able to get out to the Regionals event on Saturday, hoping you did well there too (or at the very least, did not epic fail spectacularly). As this was the holiday weekend here in Canada (Americans have one next week), I unfortunately had plans which did not include my attendance at the regional event in Toronto. I hear that there was a big legacy event in Oshawa (at the World's Collide store) for a Mox Emerald which apparently went very well.


Anywho - here is a quick summary of what happened in Toronto . . .

1st - Brandon Davis (22 points) - Woodstock Jund Ramp
2nd - Derek Lansche (20 points) - Finest Hour
3rd - Michael Culligan (19 points) - unknown
4th - Benson Lee (19 points) - UW Lark
5th - Scott Rochon (19 points) - BW tokens
6th - Jay Jiang (19 points) - UW Lark
7th - Jamie Naylor (19 points) - unknown
8th - Juan Jose Ayala (19 points) - RB
9th - Clinton Chan (19 points) - Boat Brew
10th - Nathan Jones (19 points) - unknown
11th - Chris Lake (19 points) - unknown
12th - Ari Barmapov (19 points) - Boat Brew
Honourable Mention
13th - Nate Cutler (18 points)

Unfortunately, this list contains some 4 decks which were not reported resulting in a 'unknown' type. One of the above unknowns are reported to be a Faerie build and the other a GW tokens deck - if you were there, send me an eMail to copysix (at) gmail (dot) com.

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Right - What did I do with my weekend other than spring cleaning / gardening ? Well - since I did have 3days, why not build 3 casual decks? These builds were based purely on what was on hand in my binder (I tried to get close to deck sets of each card) are are certainly not meant to hit anything than a kitchen table or perhaps a Friday Night Magic. Essentially, these were built for 'fun' and take a test drive with some of my newer Alara Reborn cards. Decks were played against either an artifact or elf build for at least two matches to provide some feeling as to whether I should consider them for futher development.

Deck One : Green-White Whatever

Really no theme here than to see if I could get Knight of the Reliquary to work . . . which it did to my surprise. This deck also was built to provide some competition against an Esper Artifact deck and included Nacatl Savage and Fracturing Gust.

I found that I actually was able to play Qasali Ambusher on more than one occasion for free which left me somewhat satisfied. I was happy with the way Knight of the Reliquary played (it did get rather huge) and to a lesser degree Knotvine Paladin. My opponent hated me for playing my artifact board-wiping Fracturing Gust. Overall it was fun but nothing really to write home about . . . I may decide latter to use the Knights in another build.

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Deck Two : Crashing Snakes

This essentially was a Blue-Green build featuring Shorecrasher Mimic. This deck performed rather well and is slotted for futher development. I was able to get Nulltread Gargantuan out on turn two in at least two games (using Noble Hierach for the mana acceleration and returning the Slippery Boggle).

I am sitting on the fence with regards to the snake element in this deck. Snakeform is a great combat trick and will do well in many casual decks. I am a bit unsure of Winged Coatl and Lorescale Coatl - they seem like they may perform OK but just did not wow me. Most of my wins were due to either Shorecrasher Mimic or a pumped up Jhessian Infiltrator.

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Deck Three : Naya Stompy Life Thingy

This casual deck was perhaps the most fun at the kitchen table. During one game, I was able to cascade a Woolly Thoctar off a Bloodbraid Elf and then throw the Scourge of the Nobilis aura on it . . . imagine a 8/6 lifelink monster with Wall of Reverence in play. Unfortunately, even though I had a deck set of Cradle of Vitality in the deck, I did not see it once . . . oh the humanity of it.

Anywhoos - kudos to Stun Sniper which I now have a very healthy respect for. I love the synergy with the Wall of Reverence / Scourge of Noblis / Captured Sunlight with Cradle of Vitality - I just don't know if this could evolve into a decent deck.

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Please post a comment if you have any good ideas with regards to these decks - but please REMEMBER - sure I'd love to have a Figure of Destiny BUT really now - unless you mail it off to me, chances are I don't have the disposable income for this improvement.